TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is April 22, 2021.

Today’s highlight in history

On April 22, 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans.

On this date

In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.

In 1898, Congress authorized creation of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the “Rough Riders.”

In 1915, the first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare took place as German forces unleashed chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died.

In 1952, an atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 Superfortress.

In 1970, millions of Americans observed the first “Earth Day.”

In 1994, former President Richard M. Nixon died at age 81.

In 2000, in a dramatic predawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father.

In 2004, Army Ranger Pat

Tillman, who’d traded in a multi-million-dollar NFL contract to serve in Afghanistan, was killed by friendly fire; he was 27. In 2015, a federal judge in Philadelphia approved a settlement agreement expected to cost the NFL $1 billion over 65 years to resolve thousands of concussion lawsuits.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Estelle Harris is 93. Actor Jack Nicholson is 84. Singer Mel Carter is 82. Singer Peter Frampton is 71. Actor Joseph Bottoms is 67. Actor Ryan Stiles is 62. Baseball manager Terry Francona is 62. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is 55. Actor-talk show host Sherri Shepherd is 54. Actor Amber Heard is 35. Rapper-singer Machine Gun Kelly is 31.