Today in History (03 April 2008)

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Events

• 1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.
• 1077 - Creation of the first Parliament of Friuli.
• 1559 - The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
• 1834 - The generals in the Greek War of Independence stand trial for treason.
• 1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
• 1882 - American Old West outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
• 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
• 1895 - The libel trial instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
• 1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
• 1922 - Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• 1929 - RMS Queen Mary is ordered from John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering by Cunard Line.
• 1933 - Unsuccessful boycott of Jewish stores in Nazi Germany.
• 1936 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh II, the baby son of world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.
• 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
• 1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
• 1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
• 1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins, known as the Jeju massacre.
• 1948 - First run of the Texas Chief passenger train.
• 1953 - TV Guide debuts.
• 1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
• 1956 - The western part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado (known as the Hudsonville-Standale Tornado).
• 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
• 1971 - Japanese tokusatsu television series Kamen Rider premieres, marking the beginning of the long-running Kamen Rider franchise.
• 1973 - The first portable cell phone call is placed in New York City.
• 1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
• 1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
• 1982 - Great Britain dispatched a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina.
• 1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
• 1996 - A United States Air Force airplane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on board.
• 1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
• 2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
• 2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
• 2007 - An official new world record for conventional-train speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) is set by a French TGV on the LGV Est high speed line east of Paris.

Births

1976 - Will Mellor, English actor
1978 - Tommy Haas, German tennis player
1978 - Matthew Goode, English actor
1978 - John Smit, South African rugby player
1981 - Heath Ramsay, Australian Olympic swimmer
1981 - Aaron Bertram, American musician, Suburban Legends
1981 - Matthew Nash, Australian soccer player
1982 - Fler, German rapper
1982 - Iain Fyfe, Australian soccer player
1982 - Kasumi Nakane, Japanese gravure idol
1982 - Cobie Smulders, Canadian actress
1983 - Errol Barnett, English reporter
1984 - Jonathan Blondel, Belgian footballer
1984 - Maxi López, Argentine footballer
1985 - Leona Lewis, English singer
1986 - Amanda Bynes, American actress
1986 - Sergio Sánchez, Spanish footballer
1987 - Sal Zizzo, American soccer player
1987 - Julie Sokolow, American musician
1988 - Peter Hartley, English footballer
1988 - Tim Krul, Dutch footballer
1993 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer

Deaths
1990 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer (b. 1924)
1991 - Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901)
1991 - Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
1993 - Pinky Lee, American comic and children's television host (b. 1907)
1994 - Frank Wells, American entertainment businessman (b. 1932)
1995 - Alfred J. Billes, Canadian businessman (Canadian Tire) (b. 1902)
1996 - Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of Commerce (b. 1941)
1996 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (b. 1927)
1998 - Mary Cartwright, English mathematician (b. 1900)
1999 - Lionel Bart, English composer (Oliver!) (b. 1930)
2000 - Terence McKenna, American writer and philosopher (b. 1946)
2002 - Fad Gadget, English singer and musician (b. 1956)
2003 - Michael Kelly, American journalist (b. 1957)
2005 - Tony Croatto, Italian-born singer (b. 1940)
2007 - Marion Eames, Welsh novelist (b. 1921)
2007 - Eddie Robinson, American football coach (b. 1919)
2007 - Nina Wang, Asia's Richest Woman (b. 1937)