TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY APR 20, 2022

2010

An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blow-out that began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

1812

The fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.

1861

Col. Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army.

1912

Boston’s Fenway Park hosted its first professional baseball game while Navin Field opened in Detroit.

1916

The Chicago Cubs played their first game at Wrigley Field; the Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 7-6.

1971

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.

1972

Apollo 16’s lunar module, carrying astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon.

1986

Following an absence of six decades, Russian-born pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in the Soviet Union to a packed audience at the Grand Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

1999

The Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

2003

U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital.

2008

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final Mass in the United States before a full house in Yankee Stadium, blessing his enormous U.S. flock and telling Americans to use their freedoms wisely.

2016

Five former New Orleans police officers pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the deadly shootings on a bridge in the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

2020

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said reports of accidental poisonings from cleaners and disinfectants were up about 20percent in the first three months of the year; researchers believed it was related to the coronavirus epidemic.