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 Today's highlight in history:
On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. (Lincoln died the following morning.)
On this date:
In 1775, the first American society for the abolition of slavery was formed in Philadelphia.
In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.
In 1890, the First International Conference of American States met in Washington, where delegates agreed to form the International Union of American Republics, a forerunner of the Organization of American States.
In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store, called The Golden Rule, in Kemmerer, Wyo.
In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began sinking.
In 1931, King Alfonso XIII of Spain went into exile, and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed.
In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first published.
In 1968, the gay-themed play "The Boys in the Band," by Matt Crowley, opened in New York.
In 1981, the first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1986, Americans got first word of a U.S. air raid on Libya. (Because of the time difference, it was the early morning of April 15 when the attack occurred.)
Ten years ago: Despite international pleas for leniency, the state of Virginia executed Angel Francisco Breard, a Paraguayan convicted of murder. President Clinton moderated a town meeting on race with an all-star panel of sports figures. The Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service; author Philip Roth received the Pulitzer fiction award, his first, for "American Pastoral."
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 Five years ago: Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit fell with unexpectedly light resistance, the last Iraqi city to succumb to overpowering U.S.-led ground and air forces. U.S. commandos in Baghdad captured Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985. (Abbas died in March 2004 while in U.S. custody.) Four Islamic militants were convicted in a deadly bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan. Assailants armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at John McDonogh High School in New Orleans, killing one youth and wounding three others.
One year ago: Riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally in Moscow against Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. A car bomb exploded near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Karbala, Iraq, killing 47 people. Don Ho, who'd entertained tourists to Waikiki for decades, died in Honolulu, Hawaii, at age 76.
Today's birthdays: Actor Bradford Dillman is 78. Actor Jay Robinson is 78. Country singer Loretta Lynn is 73. Actress Julie Christie is 68. Former baseball player Pete Rose is 67. Rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 63. Actor John Shea is 59. Actor Brad Garrett is 48. Actor Robert Carlyle is 47. Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 46. Baseball player Greg Maddux is 42. Rock musician Barrett Martin is 41. Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 40. Actor Adrien Brody is 35. Classical singer David Miller is 35. Rapper DaBrat is 34. Actor Antwon Tanner is 33. Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar is 31. Actor-producer Rob McElhenney is 31. Actress Vivien Cardone is 15. Actress Abigail Breslin is 12.
Thought for today: "If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
-- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
[Associated Press]
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