TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, April 21, the 111th day of 2022. There are 254 days left in the year. On this date in:
1649: The Maryland Toleration Act, providing for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.
1836: An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence. 1910: Author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut, at age 74. 1926: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was born in Mayfair, London; she was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and the Queen Mother.
1930: Fire broke out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 332 inmates.
1975: With Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after nearly 10 years in office and fled the country.
1976: Clinical trials of the swine flu vaccine began in Washington, D.C.
1980: Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon; however, she was later exposed as a fraud. (Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the actual winner of the women’s race.)
1998: Astronomers announced in Washington that they had discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away, the clearest evidence to date of worlds forming beyond our solar system. 2016: Prince, one of the most inventive and influential musicians of modern times, was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis; he was 57.