This day in history
Today is Wednesday, April 10, the 101st day of 2024. There are 265 days left in the year. Birthdays: Actor Steven Seagal is 72. Folk-pop singer Terre Roche (the Roches) is 71. Actor Peter MacNicol is 70. Actor Olivia Brown is 67. Singer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is 66. Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 65. Rock singer Katrina Leskanich is 64. Olympic gold medal speedskater Cathy Turner is 62. Rock musician Tim “Herb” Alexander is 59. R&B singer Kenny Lattimore is 57. Former Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh is 57. Actor-comedian Orlando Jones is 56. Rapper Q-Tip (a.k.a. Kamaal) is 54. Actor David Harbour is 49. Pop musician Andrew Dost (fun.) is 41. Singer Mandy Moore is 40. Actor Barkhad Abdi is 39. Actor Shay Mitchell is 37. Actor Haley Joel Osment is 36. Actor Daisy Ridley is 32. Singer-actor Sofia Carson is 31.
▶ In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.
▶ In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, bound for New York on its ill-fated maiden voyage.
▶ In 1932, German President Paul Von Hindenburg was reelected in a runoff, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.
▶ In 1947, Team President Branch Rickey called Jackie Robinson up to the Brooklyn Dodgers from their minor league affiliate the Montreal Royals. (Less than a week later, Robinson would become the first Black player in Major League Baseball when he took the field for the Dodgers.)
▶ In 1963, the fast-attack nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deepdiving tests east of Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
▶ In 1971, a table tennis team from the United States arrived in China at the invitation of the communist government for a goodwill visit that came to be known as “ping-pong diplomacy.”
▶ In 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union joined some 70 nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.
▶ In 1974, Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel.
▶ In 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.
▶ In 2005, Tiger Woods won his fourth Masters with a spectacular finish of birdies and bogeys. ºIn 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, 60, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military, and church officials. ºIn 2012, Rick Santorum quit the presidential race, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to claim the Republican nomination.
▶ In 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch took his place as the newest addition on the bench of the Supreme Court, restoring a narrow conservative majority.
▶ In 2018, during five hours of questioning from a US Senate panel, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away accusations that he had failed to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the US election, though he conceded that Facebook needed to work harder to make sure the tools it creates are used in “good and healthy” ways.
ºIn 2019, scientists released the first image ever made of a black hole, revealing a fiery, doughnut-shaped object in a galaxy 53 million light-years from earth.
ºIn 2021, speaking to Republican donors at his new home inside his Mar-a-Lago resort, former President Donald Trump slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as a “stonecold loser” and mocked McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who had been Trump’s transportation secretary.
ºLast year, a Louisville bank employee shot and killed five coworkers, including a close friend of the governor, and wounded eight others in a livestreamed workplace shooting at a bank branch; the shooter, 25year-old Connor Sturgeon, was fatally shot by police.