This day in history

[April 07, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, April 7, the 97th day of 2009. There are 268 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On April 7, 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

On this date:

In 1199, King Richard I of England (also known as The Lion-Heart) died in the Limousin region of France at age 41 after being mortally wounded by an arrow.

In 1859, Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," was born in New Britain, Conn.

In 1927, an audience in New York watched as the image as well as voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which was annexed less than a week later.

In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway.

In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be secretary-general.

In 1959, a referendum in Oklahoma repealed the state's ban on alcoholic beverages.

In 1969, the Supreme Court, in Stanley v. Georgia, unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced he was deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon.

In 1983, space shuttle astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson took the first U.S. space walk in almost a decade as they worked in the open cargo bay of Challenger for nearly four hours.

Ten years ago: NATO stepped up its airstrikes in Yugoslavia after rejecting President Slobodan Milosevic's cease-fire declaration. Yugoslav authorities, meanwhile, closed the main exit route where a quarter-million ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo.

Five years ago: Mounir el Motassadeq, the only Sept. 11 suspect ever convicted, was freed after a Hamburg, Germany, court ruled that the evidence was too weak to hold him pending a retrial.

One year ago: Anti-China protesters disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Paris, at times forcing Chinese organizers to put out the flame and take the torch onto a bus to secure it. Kansas won the NCAA championship, defeating Memphis 75-68. Coach Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Adrian Dantley and broadcaster Dick Vitale were among those selected to Basketball's Hall of Fame.

Today's birthdays: Actor R.G. Armstrong is 92. Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 89. Actor James Garner is 81. Country singer Cal Smith is 77. Actor Wayne Rogers is 76. Media commentator Hodding Carter III is 74. Country singer Bobby Bare is 74. Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 72. California Attorney General Jerry Brown is 71. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 70. TV personality David Frost is 70. Singer Patricia Bennett (The Chiffons) is 62. Singer John Oates is 60. Singer Janis Ian is 58. Country musician John Dittrich is 58. Actor Jackie Chan is 55. Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 55. Actor Russell Crowe is 45. Rhythm-and-blues singer Mark Kibble (Take 6) is 45. Actor Bill Bellamy is 44. Rock musician Dave "Yorkie" Palmer (Space) is 44. Former football player-turned-analyst Tiki Barber is 34. Actress Heather Burns is 34. Actor Conner Rayburn is 10.

Thought for today: "No date on the calendar is as important as tomorrow." -- Roy W. Howard, American newspaper publisher (1883-1964)

[Associated Press]

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