Today In History...

In 1790 Robert Gray is the first American to sail around the world. His trip began in September 1787.
In 1790 The U.S. Patent system is established.
In 1849 The Safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt of New York City.
In 1866 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is established.
In 1872 The first Arbor day is celebrated in Nebraska. It is later changed to the last Friday in April.
In 1912 The luxury liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage. (On April 14, the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. About 1,500 people died.)
In 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is published.
In 1932 German president Paul Von Hindenburg is re-elected with Adolph Hitler coming in second.
In 1945 During World War II, U.S. troops liberate the Buchenwald death camp in Germany.
In 1953 The first 3-D movie, "House Of Wax" starring Vincent Price, is released in New York.
In 1959 Japan's Crown Prince Akihito marries commoner Michiko Shoda.
In 1963 The new nuclear submarine Thresher comes apart in the Northern Atlantic during a test dive killing all 129 aboard.
In 1972 An earthquake kills more than 5000 in Iran.
In 1972 The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.
In 1974 Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir announces her resignation and is replaced by Yitzhak Rabin.
In 1978 Arkady Shevchenko, a high-ranking Soviet citizen employed by the United Nations, seeks asylum in the United States.
In 1979 Soyuz 33 is launched.
In 1979 A tornado kills 60 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
In 1981 The long-awaited maiden launch of the space shuttle Columbia is scrubbed because of a computer malfunction.
In 1981 Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands wins election to the British Parliament.
In 1984 Baby Zoe, the first baby produced from a frozen embryo is delivered in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1985 U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and three other congressmen meet in Moscow with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1986 The U.S. government banned imports of Italian wine lacking certification they were not laced with methanol, following some 20 reported deaths blamed on tainted bottles.
In 1986 The U.S. conducts nuclear tests in the Nevada desert despite growing protests among peace groups and strong Soviet support for a test ban.
In 1986 President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev deliver speeches on nuclear arms.
In 1989 Vienna authorities announce that four nurses confessed to murdering 49 elderly patients in 6 years of "mercy killings."
In 1990 Following an appeal from Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, 3 European hostages are released in Lebanon.
In 1991 Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island") dies at age 90.
In 1991 A day after Mikhail Gorbachev appeals for a moratorium on all strikes, demonstrations and rallies, 200,000 workers in Byelorussia stage a work stoppage in the capital Minsk.
In 1992 Comedian Sam Kinison, 38, is killed when a pickup hits his car on a California highway.
In 1992 Two people are killed and 47 wounded in a car bomb explosion in London's financial district.
In 1992 Financier Charles Keating Jr. is sentenced in Los Angeles to 9 years in prison for swindling investors when his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed. The convictions were later overturned.
In 1993 South African activist Chris Hani, head of the Communist Party and a leading official of the African National Congress, is shot to death.
In 1994 U.S. F-16 fighters bomb a Bosnian Serb tank and command post in Gorazade, NATO's first attack on ground positions in its 45-year history.
In 1994 Charles Kuralt hosts his last episode of "Sunday Morning" on CBS-TV.
In 1995 Kansas Senator Bob Dole launches his third White House bid.
In 1996 President Clinton vetoes bill that would outlaw rarely used technique to end pregnancies in their late stages.
In 1997 A federal judge strikes down the Line-Item Veto Act, a law that let the president strike specific items from bills passed by Congress. (The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional in 1998.)
In 1997 Former POW and fighter pilot Pete Peterson is confirmed by the Senate as the first postwar U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.
In 1998 Negotiators reach a peace accord on governing British-ruled Northern Ireland.
In 1999 The Miami Heat humiliate the Chicago Bulls, 82-49, holding the Bulls to the lowest point total since the introduction of the shot clock.
In 2000 Actor Larry Linville ("M*A*S*H") dies in New York at age 60.
In 2001 Republican Jane Swift takes office as the first female governor of Massachusetts.
In 2001 The Netherlands legalizes assisted suicide for terminal patients.
In 2004 The White House declassifies and releases a document sent to President Bush before the September 11 attacks which cited recent intelligence of a possible al-Qaida plot to strike inside the U.S.

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