TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 16, the 106th day of 2017. There are 259 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1947, the cargo ship Grandcamp, carrying a load of ammonium nitrate, blew up in the harbor in Texas City, Texas; a nearby ship, the High Flyer, which was carrying ammonium nitrate and sulfur, caught fire as a result and exploded the following day; the blasts and fires killed nearly 600 people.
In 1789, President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for his inauguration in New York.
In 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.
In 1940, Major League Baseball’s first (and, to date, only) opening day no-hitter took place as Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians pitched a no-no against the Chicago White Sox, 1-0, at Comiskey Park.
In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoed and sank the MV Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers; it’s estimated that up to 7,000 people died.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon with astronauts John W. Young, Charles M. Duke Jr. and Ken Mattingly on board.
In 1986, dispelling rumors he was dead, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared on television to condemn the U.S. raid on his country and to say that Libyans were “ready to die” defending their nation.
In 2014, 304 people, mostly students, died when a South Korean ferry, the Sewol, sank while en route from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju; 172 people survived.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and actor Peter Mark Richman are 90. Singer Bobby Vinton is 82. Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II is 77. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem AbdulJabbar is 70. NFL coach Bill Belichick is 65. Actress Ellen Barkin is 63. Actor Michel Gill (TV: “House of Cards”; “Mr. Robot”) is 57. Rock musician Jason Scheff (Chicago) is 55. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 54. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence and actor Jon Cryer are 52. Rock musician Dan Rieser is 51. Actor Peter Billingsley is 46. Actor Lukas Haas and actress-singer Kelli O’Hara are 41. Figure skater Mirai Nagasu is 24. Actress Sadie Sink is 15.