Today In History
Today is Friday, April 16, the 106th day of 2021. There are 259 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 2007: In one of America’s worst school attacks, a college senior killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech before taking his own life.
ON THIS DATE
› 1789: President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, Virginia, for his inauguration in New York.
› 1862: During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia.
› 1912: American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.
› 1962: New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel excommunicated three local Roman Catholics for fighting racial integration of parochial schools. Bob Dylan debuted his song “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Gerde’s Folk City in New York.
› 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which the civil rights activist responded to a group of local clergymen who had criticized him for leading street protests; King defended his tactics, writing, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
› 1977: Alex Haley, author of the best-seller “Roots,” visited the Gambian village of Juffure, where, he believed, his ancestor Kunte Kinte was captured as a slave in 1767.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI is 94. Singer Bobby Vinton is 86. Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II is 81. Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 74. Former Massachusetts first lady Ann Romney is 72. NFL coach Bill Belichick is 69. Rock singer and former politician Peter Garrett is 68. Actor Ellen Barkin is 67. Actor Michel Gill is 61. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is 59. Rock musician Jason Scheff (Chicago) is 59. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 58. Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum) is 57. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 56. Actor Jon Cryer is 56. Actor Peter Billingsley is 50. Actor Lukas Haas is 45. Actor-singer Kelli O’Hara is 45. Actor Claire Foy (TV: “The Crown”) is 37. Figure skater Mirai Nagasu is 28. Actor Sadie Sink is 19.