DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Saturday, April 17, the 107th day of 2021. There are 258 days left in the year.
On this date:
1492: A contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the first Sino-japanese War.
1905: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Lochner v. New York, struck down, 5-4, a New York State law limiting the number of hours that bakers could be made to work. (This ruling was effectively overturned in 1937 by the high court’s West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish decision.)
1969: A jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy.
1970: Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.
1972: The Boston Marathon allowed women to compete for the first time; Nina Kuscsik was the first officially recognized women’s champion, with a time of 3:10:26.
1973: Federal Express (later Fedex) began operations as 14 planes carrying 186 packages took off from Memphis International Airport, bound for 25 U.S. cities.
1975: Cambodia’s five-year war ended as the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, which instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives until the regime was overthrown in 1979.
1986: At London’s Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in the bag of Anne-marie Murphy, a pregnant Irishwoman about to board an El Al jetliner to Israel; she’d been tricked into carrying the bomb by her Jordanian fiance, Nezar Hindawi. The bodies of kidnapped American Peter Kilburn and Britons Philip Padfield and Leigh Douglas were found near Beirut; they had been slain in apparent retaliation for the U.S. raid on Libya.
1991: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, ending the day at 3,004.46, up 17.58.
1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers were acquitted. Turkish President Turgut Ozal died at age 66.
Actor David Bradley (“Game of Thrones”) is 79. Musician Jan Hammer is 73. Actor Olivia Hussey is 70. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 64. Actor Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings”) is 62. Actor
Joel Murray (“Dharma and Greg”) is 59. Singer
Maynard James Keenan of Tool and of Puscifer is 57. Actor Lela Rochon is 57. Actor Henry Ian Cusick (“Scandal,” “Lost”) is 54. Actor Kimberly Elise is 54. Singer Liz Phair is 54. Rapper-actor Redman is 51. Actor Jennifer Garner is 49. Singer Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls is 47. Actor
Lindsay Korman (“Passions”) is 43. Actor Tate Ellington (“Quantico”) is 42. Actor Charlie Hofheimer (“24: Legacy”) is 40. Actor Rooney Mara (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) is 36.