DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Thursday, April 22, the 112th day of 2021. There are 253 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1864: Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.
1889: The Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.
1898: With the United States and Spain on the verge of war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. Congress authorized creation of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the “Rough Riders.”
1915: The first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare took place as German forces unleashed chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died.
1937: Thousands of college students in New York City staged a “peace strike” opposing American entry into another possible world conflict.
1954: The publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-mccarthy hearings began.
1970: Millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.”
1994: Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.
2000: In a dramatic pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
2004: Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who’d traded in a multi-million-dollar NFL contract to serve in Afghanistan, was killed by friendly fire; he was 27.
2005: Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington, D.C. to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui is serving a life prison sentence.)
2015: A federal judge in Philadelphia approved a settlement agreement expected to cost the NFL $1 billion over 65 years to resolve thousands of concussion lawsuits. A federal appeals court in San Francisco overturned home run leader Barry Bonds’ obstruction of justice conviction, ruling 10-1 that his meandering answer before a grand jury in 2003 was not material to the government’s investigation into illegal steroids distribution.
Actor Estelle Harris (“Seinfeld”) is 93. Actor Jack Nicholson is 84. Singer Mel Carter is 82. Country singer Cleve Francis is 76. Director John Waters is 75. Singer Peter Frampton is 71. Singer
Paul Carrack (Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics) is 70. Actor Joseph Bottoms is 67. Actor Ryan Stiles (“The Drew Carey Show”) is 62. Comedian
Byron Allen (“Real People”) is 60. Actor Chris Makepeace is 57. Guitarist Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise is 55. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“The Good Wife,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 55. Actor
Sheryl Lee (“Twin Peaks”) is 54. TV personality Sherri Shepherd (“The View”) is 54. Country singer Heath Wright of Ricochet is 54. Country singer Kellie Coffey is 50.