TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, April 5, the 95th day of 2022. There are 270 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
On April 5, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction in New York on charges of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.
1614 — Indian Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas married Englishman John Rolfe, a widower, in the Virginia Colony.
1621 — The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts on a monthlong return trip to England.
1764 — Britain’s Parliament passed The American Revenue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act.
1887 — In Tuscumbia, Alabama, teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a breakthrough as her six-year-old deaf-blind pupil, Helen Keller, learned the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the Manual Alphabet.
1976 — Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 70.
1991 — Former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, his daughter Marian and 21 other people were killed in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Ga.
2010 — An explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine near Charleston, W.Va., killed 29 workers. In a televised rescue, 115 Chinese coal miners were freed after spending eight days trapped in a flooded mine, surviving an accident that had killed 38.
2016 — UConn won an unprecedented fourth straight women’s national championship, capping another perfect season by routing Syracuse 82-51.
2019 — Inspecting a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border in California, President Donald Trump declared that “our country is full,” and that illegal crossings must be stopped.
Ten years ago — President Barack Obama signed bipartisan jobs legislation intended to help small businesses and make it easier for startups to raise capital. Barney McKenna, 72, the last original member of the Irish folk band The Dubliners, died in Dublin.
Five years ago — President Donald
Trump declared that a deadly chemical attack in Syria the day before had crossed “many, many lines” and abruptly changed his views of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but he refused to say what the US might do in response. A senior US defense official said a North Korean missile test ended in failure when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean in a fiery crash. YouTube TV, Google’s new streaming package of about 40 television channels, made its debut.
One year ago — The Minneapolis police chief testified that former officer Derek Chauvin had violated departmental policy in pressing his knee against George Floyd’s neck and keeping Floyd down after he had stopped breathing; the testimony came on the sixth day of Chauvin’s murder trial. (Chauvin would be convicted of murder and manslaughter.) Baylor defeated Gonzaga 86-70 in the championship game of the NCAA basketball tournament in Indianapolis, ending Gonzaga’s hopes for an undefeated season.