TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, April 21.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On April 21, 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.
ON THIS DATE
In 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act, providing for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.
In 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
In 1816, Charlotte Bronte, author of“jane Eyre,”was born in Thornton, England.
In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut, at age 74.
In 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, 25, the German ace known as the “Red Baron” who was believed to have downed 80 enemy aircraft during World War I, was himself shot down and killed while in action over France.
In 1926, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was born in Mayfair, London; she was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and the Queen Mother.
In 1930, fire broke out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 332 inmates.
In 1975, with Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after nearly 10 years in office and fled the country.
In 1976, clinical trials of the swine flu vaccine began in Washington, D.C.
In 1977, the musical play “Annie,” based on the “Little Orphan Annie”comic strip, opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,377 performances.
In 1980, Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon; however, she was later exposed as a fraud. (Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the actual winner of the women’s race.)
In 2015, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama announced the Justice Department was assembling a team to“root out any cases of fraud or manipulation” in oil markets that might be contributing to $4 a gallon-plus gasoline prices.
Five years ago: Prince, one of the most inventive and influential musicians of modern times, was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis; he was 57.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch, drew crowds of wellwishers and floods of tributes on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
One year ago: The coroner’s office in California’s Santa Clara County received autopsy results showing that a woman who died there on Feb. 6 and a man who died on Feb. 17 had the coronavirus. (It wasn’t until Feb. 29 that the first known U.S. death from the virus was reported in Kirkland, Washington; officials later attributed two Feb. 26 deaths to the virus.) Researchers reported that a malaria drug that had been widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the coronavirus showed no benefit in large study of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals.