Today in history
Today is Tuesday, April 19, the 110th day of 2016. There are 256 days left in the year.
Highlight in history
On April 19, 1966, Bobbi Gibb, 23, became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon at a time when only men were allowed to participate. (Gibb jumped into the middle of the pack after the sound of the starting pistol and finished in 3:21:40.)
On this date
In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
In 1865, a funeral was held at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated five days earlier; his coffin was then taken to the U.S. Capitol for a private memorial service in the Rotunda.
In 1912, a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opened hearings in New York into the Titanic disaster.
In 1935, the Universal Pictures horror film “Bride of Frankenstein,” starring Boris Karloff with Elsa Lanchester in the title role, had its world premiere in San Francisco.
In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.
In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Harry S. Truman, bade farewell in an address to Congress in which he quoted a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”
In 1960, South Korean students began an uprising that toppled the government of President Syngman Rhee a week later. The South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) was founded in Namibia.
In 1975, India launched its first satellite atop a Soviet rocket.
In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa in the Caribbean. (The Navy initially suspected that a dead crew member had deliberately sparked the blast, but later said there was no proof of that.)
In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)
In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.
Ten years ago: White House political mastermind Karl Rove surrendered his role as chief policy coordinator and press secretary Scott McClellan resigned in an escalation of a Bush administration shake-up. The U.S. government released a previously secret list of the names and nationalities of 558 people held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Five years ago: Cuba’s Communist Party picked 79-yearold Raul Castro to replace his ailing brother Fidel as first secretary during a key Party Congress; the 84-yearold Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance, to thunderous applause from the delegates. Syria did away with 50 years of emergency rule, but emboldened and defiant crowds accused President Bashar Assad of simply trying to buy time while clinging to power. Norwegian runner Grete Waitz, 57, who’d won nine New York marathons and the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, died in Oslo.