TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, April 8, the 99th day of 2024. There are 267 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. On this date:
In 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and his expedition began exploring the Florida coastline.
In 1864, the United States Senate passed, 38-6, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. (The House of Representatives passed it in January 1865; the amendment was ratified and adopted in December 1865.)
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a freeze on wages and prices to combat inflation.
In 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the American steel industry to avert a nationwide strike.
In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France, at age 91.
In 1990, Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance had gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18.
In 2012, Bubba Watson saved par from the pine straw and won the Masters on the second hole of a playoff over Louis Oosthuizen.
In 2013, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 87, died in London, while actress and former Disney “Mouseketeer” Annette Funicello, 70, died in Bakersfield, California.
In 2020, a 76-day lockdown was lifted in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global pandemic began.
In 2023, Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps, died at age 103. Today’s Birthdays: Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh is 87. “Mouseketeer” Darlene Gillespie is 83. Singer Peggy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 83. Movie director John Madden is 75. Rock musician Mel Schacher (Grand Funk Railroad) is 73. Actor John Schneider is 64. “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch is 63. Singer Julian Lennon is 61. Actor Robin Wright is 58. Actor Patricia Arquette is 56. Rock musician Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five) is 53. Actor Emma Caulfield is 51.