TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, April 4, the 94th day of 2017. There are 271 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
On this date
1949 — Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. 1958 — Johnny Stompanato, an enforcer for crime boss Mickey Cohen and the boyfriend of actress Lana Turner, was stabbed to death by Turner’s teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane, who said Stompanato had attacked her mother. 1983 — The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. (It was destroyed in the disaster of Jan. 1986.) 2013 — An explosion at Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen in Euharlee rocked buildings miles away but resulted in only four minor injuries. (OSHA fined Georgia Power $119,000 the following September for the explosion.)
One year ago
The Supreme Court, in Evenwel v. Abbott, unanimously endorsed election maps that bolstered the growing political influence of America’s Latinos, ruling that states could count everyone, not just eligible voters, in drawing voting districts.
Today’s Birthdays
Bandleader Hugh Masekela is 78. Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 66. Actress Mary-Margaret Humes is 63. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 61. Actor Hugo Weaving is 57. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 55. Talk show host/comic Graham Norton is 54. Country musician Josh McSwain (Parmalee) is 42. Actor James Roday is 41. Actress Amanda Righetti is 34. Pop singer Austin Mahone is 21. Armuchee High School student Megan Edwards, daughter of Brandi Edwards and David Edwards, is 17.