TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, April 22, the 112th day of 2018. There are 253 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 22, 1898, with the United States and Spain on the verge of war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. Congress authorized creation of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the “Rough Riders.”

On this date:

■ In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.

■ In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.

■ In 1952, an atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 Superfortress.

■ In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.

■ In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson opened the New York World’s Fair.

■ In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.”

■ In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern announced the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler; however, the diaries turned out to be a hoax.

■ In 1993, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C., to honor victims of Nazi extermination.

■ In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.

■ In 2000, in a dramatic predawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near W Washington.

Thought for Today:

“Life is one long process of getting tired.”—Samuel Butler, British author (1835-1902).