TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, April 18, the 108th day of 2021. There are 257 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000. On this date:
• In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British Regular troops were approaching.
• In 1831, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was officially opened.
• In 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.
• In 1910, suffragists showed up at the U.S. Capitol with half a million signatures demanding that women be given the right to vote.
• In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.
• In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 76.
• In 1966, Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first Black coach.
• In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.
• In 1983, 63 people, including
17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
• In 1995, quarterback Joe Montana retired from professional football. The Houston Post closed after more than a century.
• In 2015, a ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean off Libya; only about 30 people were rescued.
• In 2019, the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s
Russia investigation was made public; it outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. (Mueller offered no conclusion on the question of whether the president obstructed justice.)
Ten years ago: Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government’s fiscal health from “stable” to “negative,” and warned of serious consequences if lawmakers failed to reach a deal to control the massive federal deficit. Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon in 2:03:02, the fastest anyone had ever run the 26.2 mile distance; fellow Kenyan Caroline Kilel won the women’s race in 2:22:36.
Five years ago: The U.S. agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year. “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop stage biography of America’s first treasury secretary, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
One year ago: In an effort to show that the country was on course to gradually reopening from coronavirus shutdowns, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduating class, telling cadets that they “inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy in our time.” The daily toll of coronavirus deaths in New York state hit its lowest point in more than two weeks. Police in Hong Kong arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and a media tycoon on charges of joining unlawful protests in 2019.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Clive Revill is 91. Actor Robert Hooks is 84. Actor Hayley Mills is 75. Actor James Woods is 74. Actor-director Dorothy Lyman is 74. Actor Cindy Pickett is 74. Country musician Jim Scholten (Sawyer Brown) is 69. Actor Rick Moranis is 68. Actor Melody Thomas Scott is 65. Actor Eric Roberts is 65. Actor John James is 65. Rock musician Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 63. Author-journalist Susan Faludi is 62. Actor Jane Leeves is 60. Ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham is 59. Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 58. Actor Eric McCormack is 58. Actor Maria Bello is 54. Actor Mary Birdsong is 53. Actor David Hewlett is 53. Rock musician Greg Eklund (The Oolahs) is 51. Actor Lisa Locicero is 51. Actor Tamara Braun is 50. TV chef Ludovic Lefebvre is 50. Actor Fredro Starr is 50. Actor David Tennant is 50. Rock musician Mark Tremonti is 47. R&B singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) is 47.