TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, APRIL 3, the 93rd day of 2022. There are 272 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1973, the first handheld portable telephone was demonstrated for reporters on a New York City street corner as Motorola executive Martin Cooper called Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
In 1865, Union forces occupied the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.
In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces began their final assault on Bataan against American and Filipino troops who surrendered six days later; the capitulation was followed by the notorious Bataan Death March.
In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Smith v. Allwright, struck down a Democratic Party of Texas rule that allowed only white voters to participate in Democratic primaries.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what turned out to be his final speech, telling a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, that “I’ve been to the mountaintop” and “seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!” (About 20 hours later, King was felled by an assassin’s bullet at the Lorraine Motel.)
In 1974, deadly tornadoes began hitting wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities resulted from what became known as the Super Outbreak.
In 1996, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested at his remote Montana cabin.
In 2014, David Letterman announced during a taping of the “Late Show” on CBS that he would retire as host in 2015. (Stephen Colbert was named his replacement a week later.)
In 2020, President Donald Trump announced new federal guidelines recommending that Americans wear face coverings when in public to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, but Trump immediately said he had no intention of following that advice himself; he said he could not envision himself covering his face while sitting in the Oval Office greeting world leaders.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall is 88. Actor William Gaunt is 85. Songwriter Jeff Barry is 84. Actor Eric Braeden is 81.Actor Marsha Mason and singer Wayne Newton are
80. Singer Tony Orlando is 78. Comedy writer Pat Proft is 75. Folk-rock singer Richard Thompson is 73. Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is
72. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 71. Blues singer-guitarist John Mooney is 67. Actor Alec Baldwin is 64. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 63. Rock singer John Thomas Griffith (Cowboy Mouth) is 62. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 61. Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 60. Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 54. Rock musician James MacDonough is 52. Olympic gold medal ski racer Picabo Street is 51. Actor Jennie Garth is 50. Actors Jamie Bamber and Adam Scott are 49. Christian rock musician Drew Shirley (Switchfoot) is 48. Comedian Aries Spears is 47. Actor Matthew Goode is 44. Actor Cobie Smulders is 40. Rock-pop singer Leona Lewis is 37. Actor Amanda Bynes is 36.