TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, April 4, the 94th day of 2022. There are 271 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; his slaying was followed by a wave of rioting (Washington, Baltimore and Chicago were among cities particularly hard hit). James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming he had been the victim of a setup.
1841 — President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first US chief executive to die in office.
1917 — The US Senate voted 82-6 in favor of declaring war against Germany (the House followed suit two days later by a vote of 37350).
1945 — During World War II, US forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp Ohrdruf in Germany. Hungary was liberated as Soviet forces cleared out remaining German troops.
1949 — Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington.
1973 — The twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center were officially dedicated. (The towers were destroyed in the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.)
1974 — Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth’s home-run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.
1975 — More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a US Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after takeoff from Saigon. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, N.M.
1983 — The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. (It was destroyed in the disaster of January 1986.)
2011 — Yielding to political opposition, the Obama administration gave up on trying avowed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in civilian federal courts and said it would prosecute them instead before military commissions.
2015 — In North Charleston, S.C., Walter
Scott, a 50-year-old Black motorist, was shot to death while running away from a traffic stop; Officer Michael Thomas Slager, seen in a cellphone video opening fire at Scott, was charged with murder. (The charge, which lingered after a first state trial ended in a mistrial, was dropped as part of a deal under which Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
Ten years ago — A federal judge sentenced five former New Orleans police officers to prison for the deadly Danziger Bridge shootings in the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina. (The verdicts in the case were later set aside by the judge, who cited prosecutorial misconduct; the officers pleaded guilty in 2016 to reduced charges.)
One year ago — On a second Easter Sunday marked by pandemic restrictions, Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with the faithful far apart in pews, and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Recording executive Clive Davis is 90. Author Kitty Kelley is 80. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 78. Actor Walter Charles is 77. Actor Christine Lahti is 72. Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 71. Actor Mary-Margaret Humes is 68. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 66. Actor Constance Shulman is 64. Actor Phil Morris is 63. Actor Lorraine Toussaint is 62. Actor Hugo Weaving is 62. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 60. Talk show host/comic Graham Norton is 59. Actor David Cross is 58. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 57. Actor Nancy McKeon is 56. Actor Barry Pepper is 52. Country singer Clay Davidson is 51. Rock singer Josh Todd (Buckcherry) is 51. Singer Jill Scott is 50. Pop musician Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans) is 50. Magician David Blaine is 49. Singer Kelly Price is 49. R&B singer Andre Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 48. Country musician Josh McSwain (Parmalee) is 47. Actor James Roday is 46. Actor Natasha Lyonne is 43. Actor Eric Andre is 39. Actor Amanda Righetti is 39. Actor-singer Jamie Lynn Spears is 31. Actor Daniela Bobadilla is 29. Pop singer Austin Mahone is 26. Actor Aliyah Royale is 22.