This day in history
Today is Tuesday, April 2, the 93rd day of 2024. There are 273 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Penelope Keith is 84. Actor Linda Hunt is 79. Singer Emmylou Harris is 77. Actor Sam Anderson is 77. Social critic and author Camille Paglia is 77. Actor Pamela Reed is 75. Rock drummer Dave Robinson of The Cars is 75. Actor Christopher Meloni is 63. Actor Clark Gregg is 62. Actor Pedro Pascal is 49. Actor Michael Fassbender is 47.
▶ In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized the establishment of the US Mint.
▶ In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond because of advancing Union forces.
▶ In 1912, the just-completed RMS Titanic left Belfast to begin its sea trials eight days before the start of its ill-fated first voyage.
▶ In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” (Congress declared war four days later.)
▶ In 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)
▶ In 1986, four American passengers, including an 8month-old girl, her mother, and her grandmother, were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens; the remaining 110 passengers survived.
▶ In 1992, mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering; he was later sentenced to life, and died in prison.
▶ In 1995, after a work stoppage lasting nearly eight months, baseball owners accepted the players’ union offer to play without a contract.
▶ In 2002, Israel seized control of Bethlehem; Palestinian gunmen forced their way into the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, where they began a 39-day standoff.
▶ In 2013, North Korea said it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material in what outsiders saw as its latest attempt to extract US concessions by raising fears of war.
▶ In 2020, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed the 1 million mark, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.