Today in history

On April 20, 1898, the United States moved closer to war with Spain as President William McKinley signed a congressional resolution passed the day before recognizing Cuban independence and authorizing U.S. military intervention to achieve that goal.

In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria.

In 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners; about 20 (accounts vary) strikers, women and children died.

In 1972, Apollo 16’s lunar module, carrying astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon.

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wooley v. Maynard, ruled 6-3 that car owners could refuse to display state mottoes on license plates, such as New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die.”

In 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

In 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blow-out that began spewing an estimated

200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. (The well was finally capped nearly three months later.)

Ten years ago: Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history, capturing the Indy Japan 300.

One year ago: Arkansas overcame a flurry of court challenges that derailed three other executions, putting to death an inmate for the first time in nearly a dozen years. A 15-year-old Tennessee girl was rescued near a cabin in a remote part of northern California, more than a month after her

50-year-old teacher allegedly kidnapped her and set off a nationwide manhunt. Cuba Gooding Sr., who sang the 1972 hit “Everybody Plays the Fool,” died in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles; he was 72.