Today In History
Today is Monday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2017. There are 272 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 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.
ON THIS DATE
› 1776: George Washington received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard College.
› 1860: The legendary Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. (The delivery system lasted only 18 months before giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.)
› 1869: Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16, premiered in Copenhagen.
› 1882: Outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.
› 1936: Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
› 1946: Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander held responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed by firing squad outside Manila.
› 1948: President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan, designed to help European Allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.
› 1965: The United States launched the SNAP-10A nuclear power system into Earth’s orbit; it was the first nuclear reactor sent into space.
› 1968: The day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.
› 1979: Democrat Jane M. Byrne was elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Wallace D. Johnson.
› 1982: Maryland college student Stephanie Roper, whose car became disabled, was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed by two men. (The case inspired creation of the Stephanie Roper Committee and Foundation to lobby for victims’ rights.)
› 1996: An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard. Former Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes, the first black elected mayor of a major U.S. city, died at age 68.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actress-singer Doris Day is 95. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 87. Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall is
83. Actor William Gaunt is 80. Songwriter Jeff Barry is 79. Actor Eric Braeden is 76. Actress Marsha Mason is 75. Singer Wayne Newton is
75. Singer Tony Orlando is 73. Comedy writer Pat Proft is 70. Folk-rock singer Richard Thompson is 68. Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 67. Blues singer-guitarist John Mooney is 62. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 61. Actor Alec Baldwin is 59. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 58. Rock singer John Thomas Griffith (Cowboy Mouth) is 57. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 56. Rock musician James MacDonough is 47. Olympic gold medal ski racer Picabo Street is 46. Actress Jennie Garth is 45. Actor Jamie Bamber is 44. Actor Adam Scott is 44. Christian rock musician Drew Shirley (Switchfoot) is 43. Comedian Aries Spears is 42. Actor Matthew Goode is 39. Actress Cobie Smulders is 35. Rock-pop singer Leona Lewis is 32. Actress Amanda Bynes is 31. Actress-comedian Rachel Bloom is 30. Actress Hayley Kiyoko is 26.