This day in history

Today is Wednesday, April 17, the 108th day of 2024. There are 258 days left in the year.

▶ Birthdays: Actor David Bradley is 82. Composer-keyboardist Jan Hammer is 76. Actor Olivia Hussey is 73. Actor Clarke Peters is 72. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 67. Actor Sean Bean is 65. Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is 63. Rock singer Maynard James Keenan (Tool) is 60. Actor Lela Rochon is 60. Actor Henry Ian Cusick is 57. Singer Liz Phair is 57. Director/producer Adam McKay is 56. Actor Jennifer Garner is 52. Singer Victoria Beckham is 50. Actor Nicholas D’Agosto is 44. Actor Rooney Mara is 39. Actor Jacqueline MacInnes Wood is 37.

▶ In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (Luther was later declared an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.)

▶ In 1851, the lighthouse at Minot’s Ledge collapsed in a storm off Cohasset and Scituate, killing both its keepers. Made of eight iron pilings surrounding a central column, it had been one of the first US lighthouses built in the ocean. Its replacement was made of interlocking granite blocks, upon an iron foundation built into the ledge.

▶ In 1961, some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion by the third day.

▶ In 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair.

▶ In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

▶ In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise, and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.

▶ In 1972, the Boston Marathon allowed women to compete for the first time; Nina Kuscsik was the first officially recognized women’s champion, with a time of 3:10:26.

▶ In 1973, Federal Express (later FedEx) began operations as 14 planes carrying 186 packages took off from Memphis International Airport, bound for 25 US cities.

▶ In 1975, Cambodia’s five-year war ended as the capital, Phnom Penh, fell to the Khmer Rouge, which instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives until the regime was overthrown in 1979.

▶ In 1986, at London’s Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in the bag of Anne-Marie Murphy, a pregnant Irishwoman about to board an El Al jetliner to Israel; she’d been tricked into carrying the bomb by her Jordanian fiance, Nezar Hindawi.

▶ In 1991, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, ending the day at 3,004.46, up 17.58.

▶ In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers were acquitted.

▶ In 2018, Barbara Bush, who was both a first lady and the mother of a president, died in Houston at the age of 92.