Today in history
On April 19, 1967, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon (at that time, a men-only event) under an official number by registering without mentioning her gender; by her own estimate, she finished in 4 hours and 20 minutes. (Bobbi Gibb, running unofficially for the second time, finished in 3:27:17.)
In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.
In 1935, the Universal Pictures horror film “Bride of Frankenstein,” starring Boris Karloff with Elsa Lanchester in the title role, had its world premiere in San Francisco.
In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.
In 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.”
In 1966, Bobbi Gibb, 23, became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon at a time when only men were allowed to participate. (Gibb jumped into the middle of the pack after the sound of the starting pistol and finished in 3:21:40.)
In 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; dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)
Ten years ago: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a bleak assessment of Iraq, saying the war was “lost,” triggering an angry backlash by Republicans.
Five years ago: Republicans rammed an election-year, $46 billion tax cut for most of America’s employers through the House, ignoring a veto threat from President Barack Obama. Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band, died in New York City at age 71.
One year ago: Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton swept to resounding victories in New York’s primary.
“There is a Law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing or the upright gait; but if he does not learn it he must perish.” — Alfred Adler, Austrian psychoanalyst (1870-1937).