TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 18, the 108th day of 2015. There are 257 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1945, during World War II, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa.
In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were coming.
In 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station, N.C.
In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.
In 1934, the first laundromat was opened by John F. Cantrell in Fort Worth; the “Washateria,” as it was called, rented four electric washing machines to the public on an hourly basis.
In 1942, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The first World War II edition of The Stars and Stripes was published as a weekly newspaper.
In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, N.J., at age 76.
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 by a suicide bomber.
In 1995, quarterback Joe Montana retired from professional football. The Houston Post closed
after more than a century.
In 2014, an avalanche swept down a climbing route on Mount Everest, killing 16 Sherpa guides in the deadliest disaster on the world’s highest peak.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Barbara Hale is 94. Actor James Drury is 81. Actor Robert Hooks is 78. Actress Hayley Mills is 69. Actor James Woods, actress-director Dorothy Lyman, actress Cindy Pickett and country musician Walt Richmond (The Tractors) are all 68. Country musician Jim Scholten (Sawyer Brown) is 63. Actor Rick Moranis is 62. Actress Melody Thomas Scott, and actors Eric Roberts and John James are 59. Actress Jane Leeves is 54. Ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham is 53. Talk show host Conan O’Brien, bluegrass singer-musician Terry Eldredge and actor Eric McCormack are 52. Actress Maria Bello is 48. Actress Mary Birdsong and actor David Hewlett are 47. Rock musician Greg Eklund (The Oolahs) is 45. TV chef Ludovic Lefebvre and actor David Tennant are 44. Country musician Marvin Evatt, rock musician Mark Tremonti and rhythm-andblues singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) are 41. Actor Bryce Johnson is 38. Actress America Ferrera is 31. Actress Alia Shawkat is 26. Actress Britt Robertson is 25. Actress Chloe Bennet is 23. Rock singer Nathan Sykes (The Wanted) is 22. Actor Moises Arias is 21.