TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, April 18, the 108th day of 2017. There are 257 days left in the year. Today’s Highlights in History: On April 18, 1942, during World War II, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The first World War II edition of The Stars and Stripes was published as a weekly newspaper. On this date:

In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass.

In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.

In 1925, the first Woman’s World’s Fair, an eight-day event, opened in Chicago.

In 1945, during World War II, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa.

In 1966, “The Sound of Music” won the Oscar for best picture of 1965 at the 38th Academy Awards.

In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.

In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.

Ten years ago: The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, saying it did not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Five years ago: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized for gruesome photographs published in the Los Angeles Times that purported to show U.S. soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of dead insurgents in Afghanistan two years earlier.

One year ago: The U.S. agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Clive Revill is 87. Actor James Drury is 83. Actor Robert Hooks is 80. Actress Hayley Mills is 71. Actor James Woods is 70. Actor Rick Moranis is 64. Actress Melody Thomas Scott is 61. Actor Eric Roberts is 61. Actress Jane Leeves is 56. Ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham is 55. Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 54. Bluegrass singer-musician Terry Eldredge is 54. Actor Kevin Rankin is 41. Actress Chloe Bennet is 25. Actor Moises Arias is 23.

Thought for Today: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”— Albert Einstein, German-American physicist (born 1879, died this date in 1955).