Today in History
Today is Tuesday, April 10, the 100th day of 2018. There are 265 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 10, 1968, “In the Heat of the Night” won best picture of 1967 at the 40th Academy Awards; one of its stars, Rod Steiger, was named best actor while Katharine Hepburn was honored as best actress for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
On this date:
In 1790, President George Washington signed the first United States Patent Act.
In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.
In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.
In 1925, the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “The Great Gatsby” was first published by Scribner’s of New York.
In 1932, German President Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.
In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.
In 1953, the 3-D horror movie “House of Wax,” produced by Warner Bros. and starring Vincent Price, premiered in New York.
In 1971, a table tennis team from the United States arrived in China at the invitation of the communist government for a goodwill visit that came to be known as “ping-pong diplomacy.”
In 1978, Arkady Shevchenko, a high-ranking Soviet citizen employed by the United Nations, sought political asylum in the United States.
In 1981, imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was declared the winner of a by-election to the British Parliament.
In 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.
In 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, 60, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military and church officials.
Ten years ago: The U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially renamed Squaw Peak in Phoenix Piestewa Peak, in honor of Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, who was killed in Iraq in 2003 and posthumously promoted from the rank of Private First Class.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama proposed a $3.8 trillion budget that would raise taxes on smokers and wealthy Americans and trim Social Security benefits for millions. The financially beleaguered U.S. Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery. Robert Edwards, 87, a Nobel Prize winner from Britain whose pioneering in vitro fertilization research led to the first test tube baby, died near Cambridge, England.
One year ago: Justice Neil Gorsuch took his place as the newest addition on the bench of the Supreme Court, restoring a narrow conservative majority. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) resigned rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide. The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for uncovering how police abused eviction rules to oust hundreds of people, mostly poor minorities, from their homes; Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Underground Railroad” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Max von Sydow is 89. Actress Liz Sheridan is 89. Football Hall of Famer John Madden is 82. Reggae artist Bunny Wailer is 71. Actor Steven Seagal is 66. Folk-pop singer Terre Roche (The Roches) is 65. Actor Peter MacNicol is 64. Actress Olivia Brown is 61. Rock musician Steven Gustafson (10,000 Maniacs) is 61. Singer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is 60. Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 59. Rock singer Katrina Leskanich is 58. Actor Jeb Adams is 57. Olympic gold medal speedskater Cathy Turner is 56. Rock musician Tim “Herb” Alexander is 53. Actor-comedian Orlando Jones is 50. Rock musician Mike Mushok (Staind) is 49. Singer Kenny Lattimore is 48. Rapper Q-Tip (AKA Kamaal) is 48. Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is 44. Actor David Harbour is 43. Blues singer Shemekia Copeland is 39. Actress Laura Bell Bundy is 37. Actor Harry Hadden-Paton is 37. Actress Chyler Leigh is 36. Pop musician Andrew Dost (fun.) is 35. Actor Ryan Merriman is 35. Singer Mandy Moore is 34. Actor Barkhad Abdi is 33. Actress Shay Mitchell is 31. Actor Haley Joel Osment is 30. Actress Molly Bernard (TV: “Younger”) is 30. Country singer Maren Morris is 28. Actor Alex Pettyfer is 28. Actress-singer AJ (AKA Amanda) Michalka (mish-AL’-kah) is 27. Actress Daisy Ridley is 26. Singer-actress Sofia Carson is 25. Actress Audrey Whitby is 22. Actress Ruby Jerins is 20.
Thought for Today: “What is more unwise than to mistake uncertainty for certainty, falsehood for truth?” — Cicero, Roman orator, statesman and philosopher (106-43 B.C.)