TUESDAY INHISTORY

Today is Tuesday, April 4, the 94th day of 2017. There are 271 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.

On this date:

In 1818, Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.

In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Kentucky newspaper editor Albert G. Hodges, wrote: “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.”

In 1887, Susanna Madora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community: Argonia, Kansas.

In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted 82-6 in favor of declaring war against Germany (the House followed suit two days later by a vote of 373-50).

In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C.

In 1975, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. (It was destroyed in the disaster of Jan. 1986.)

Ten years ago: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the surprise release of 15 captive British sailors and marines.

Five years ago: A federal judge sentenced five former New Orleans police officers to prison for the deadly Danziger Bridge shootings in the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina.

Oneyear ago: The Supreme Court, in Evenwel v. Abbott, unanimously endorsed election maps that bolstered the growing political influence of America’s Latinos, ruling that states could count everyone, not just eligible voters, in drawing voting districts.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Christine Lahti is 67. Actor Hugo Weaving is 57. Talk show host/comic Graham Norton is 54. Actor David Cross is 53. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 52. Magician David Blaine is 44. Singer Kelly Price is 44.

Thought for Today: “Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” — Og Mandino, American author (1923-1996).