TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1993

The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; about 80 people, including two dozen children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed.

1775

The American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

1912

A special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opened hearings in New York into the Titanic disaster.

1933

The United States went off the gold standard.

1943

During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.

1951

Gen. Douglas Macarthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Harry S. Truman, bade farewell in an address to Congress in which he quoted a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

1977

The Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright, ruled 5-4 that even severe spanking of schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

1995

A truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

2013

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, was taken into custody after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed; his older brother and alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed earlier in a furious attempt to escape police.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Tim Curry is 74. Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 58. Recording executive Suge Knight is 55. Actress Ashley Judd is 52. Actress Jennifer Esposito is 48. Actress Jennifer Taylor is 48. Actor James Franco is 42. Actress Kate Hudson is 41. Actor Hayden Christensen is 39. Actor Zack Conroy is 35. Actor Courtland Mead is 33. Tennis player Maria Sharapova is 33. NHL forward Patrik Laine is 32.