Today in History
Today is Thursday, April 5, the 95th day of 2018. There are 270 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 5, 1764, Britain’s Parliament passed The American Revenue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act, which was repealed in 1766.
On this date:
In 1614, Indian Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas married Englishman John Rolfe, a widower, in the Virginia Colony.
In 1792, President George Washington cast his first veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.
In 1887, Anne Sullivan achieved a breakthrough as her 6-year-old deaf-blind pupil, Helen Keller, learned the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the Manual Alphabet. British historian Lord Acton wrote in a letter, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In 1915, Jess Willard knocked out Jack Johnson in the 26th round of their fight in Havana, Cuba, to claim boxing’s world heavyweight title.
In 1925, a tornado estimated at F-3 intensity struck northern Miami-Dade County, Florida, killing five people.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Civilian Conservation Corps and an anti-hoarding order that effectively prohibited private ownership of gold.
In 1955, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned his office for health reasons. Democrat Richard J. Daley was first elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Robert E. Merriam.
In 1964, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., at age 84.
In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 70.
In 1986, two American servicemen and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, an incident which prompted a U.S. air raid on Libya more than a week later.
In 1988, a 15-day hijacking ordeal began as gunmen forced a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet to land in Iran.
In 1991, former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, his daughter Marian and 21 other people were killed in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Georgia.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin opened farewell talks at Putin’s heavily wooded retreat on the Black Sea. Actor Charlton Heston, big-screen hero and later leader of the National Rifle Association, died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 84.
Five years ago: Kansas legislators gave final passage to a sweeping anti-abortion measure declaring that life began “at fertilization.” (Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, signed the measure two weeks later.) A federal judge in New York ordered the Food and Drug Administration to lift age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraception, ending a requirement that buyers show proof they were 17 or older if they wanted to buy it without a prescription. (After months of back-and-forth legal battles, the Obama administration agreed to lift the age limits.)
One year ago: President Donald Trump declared that a deadly chemical attack in Syria the day before had crossed “many, many lines” and abruptly changed his views of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But he refused to say what the U.S. might do in response. A senior U.S. defense official said a North Korean missile test ended in failure when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean in a fiery crash. YouTube TV, Google’s new streaming package of about 40 television channels, made its debut.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie producer Roger Corman is 92. Former U.S. Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell is 81. Country singer Tommy Cash is 78. Actor Michael Moriarty is 77. Pop singer Allan Clarke (The Hollies) is 76. Writer-director Peter Greenaway is 76. Actor Max Gail is 75. Actress Jane Asher is 72. Singer Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA) is 68. Actor Mitch Pileggi is 66. Singer-songwriter Peter Case is 64. Rock musician Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) is 52. Singer Paula Cole is 50. Actress Krista Allen is 47. Actress Victoria Hamilton is 47. Country singer Pat Green is 46. Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams is 45. Rapper/producer Juicy J is 43. Actor Sterling K. Brown is 42. Country singer-musician Mike Eli (The Eli Young Band) is 37. Actress Hayley Atwell is 36. Actress Lily James is 29.
Thought for Today: “A man is only as good as what he loves.” — Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American author (1915-2005).