Today in history
Today is Saturday, April 22, the 112th day of 2017. There are 253 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On April 22, 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.
On this date
In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims. In 1930, the United States, Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding. In 1937, thousands of college students in New York City staged a “peace strike” opposing American entry into another possible world conflict. In 1946, Harlan F. Stone, chief justice of the United States, died in Washington, D.C., at age 73. 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 1987, Joe Hunt, leader of a social and investment group called the “Billionaire Boys Club,” was convicted by a jury in Santa Monica, California, of murdering Ron Levin, a con man whose body was never found. (Hunt was sentenced to life in prison.) 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 1997, in Lima, Peru, government commandos stormed the Japanese ambassador’s residence where Tupac Amaru (TOO’pahk ah-MAH’-roo) rebels were holding 72 hostages, ending a 126-day crisis; two commandos, one hostage and all 14 rebels were killed in the dramatic rescue.
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 Washington.
Ten years ago: In the first round of the French presidential election, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy (sahrkoh-ZEE’) and Socialist rival Segolene Royal (seh-gohLEHN’ roy-AL’) received enough votes to advance to a runoff, which Sarkozy won.
Five years ago: George Zimmerman was quietly released from a Florida jail on $150,000 bail to await his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman was acquitted.) The U.S. and Afghanistan reached a deal on a strategic partnership agreement ensuring that Americans would provide military and financial support to the Afghan people for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw. In the first round of the French presidential election, Socialist Francois Hollande (frahn-SWAH’ oh-LAWND’) narrowly edged conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy (sahr-koh-ZEE’), sending the candidates to a May 6 runoff, which Hollande won.
One year ago: Leaders from 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change at the United Nations as the landmark deal took a key step toward entering into force years ahead of schedule. President Barack Obama, visiting London, made a forceful plea for Britons to heed Prime Minister David Cameron’s call to stay in the European Union and dismissed critics who accused the U.S. president of meddling in British affairs. Eight members of the same family were shot to death at four locations in rural southern Ohio in a stillunsolved case. A man in Appling, Georgia, shot five people to death before killing himself.