Today in history: April 4
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, and more events that happened on this day in history.
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1841: William Henry Harrison
In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.
1917: Declaration of War
In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted 82-6 in favor of declaring war against Germany (the House followed suit two days later by a vote of 373-50).
1933: USS Akron
In 1933, the Navy airship USS Akron crashed in severe weather off the New Jersey coast with the loss of 73 lives.
1945: World War II
In 1945, during World War II, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp Ohrdruf in Germany. Hungary was liberated as Soviet forces cleared out remaining German troops.
1949: The North Atlantic Treaty
In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; his slaying was followed by a wave of rioting (Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Chicago were among cities particularly hard hit.) Suspected gunman James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming he’d been the victim of a setup.
1975: Saigon
In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after takeoff from Saigon.
1975: Microsoft
In 1975, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1983: Space Shuttle Challenger
In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. (It was destroyed in the disaster of January 1986.)
1991: Air Crash
In 1991, Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and six other people, including two children, were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz’s plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pennsylvania.
2011: Barack Obama
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama’s campaign announced in a web video that he would run for re-election in 2012.
2011: The Obama Administration
Ten years ago: Yielding to political opposition, the Obama administration gave up on trying avowed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in civilian federal courts and said it would prosecute them instead before military commissions.
2011: Connecticut Huskies
Ten years ago: The Connecticut Huskies beat the Butler Bulldogs 53-41 for the NCAA men’s basketball title.
2015: Walter Scott
In 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, Walter Scott, a 50-year-old Black motorist, was shot to death while running away from a traffic stop; Officer Michael Thomas Slager, seen in a cellphone video opening fire at Scott, was charged with murder. (The charge, which lingered after a first state trial ended in a mistrial, was dropped as part of a deal under which Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
2016: The Supreme Court
Five years ago: The Supreme Court, in Evenwel v. Abbott, unanimously endorsed election maps that bolstered the growing political influence of America’s Latinos, ruling that states could count everyone, not just eligible voters, in drawing voting districts.
2016: Helicopter Crash
Five years ago: A tourist helicopter crashed and burned in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee, killing all five people aboard.
2016: Kris Jenkins
Five years ago: Kris Jenkins hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Villanova to the national title with a 77-74 victory over North Carolina in one of the wildest finishes in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
2020: Donald Trump
One year ago: President Donald Trump warned that the country could be heading into its “toughest” weeks yet as the coronavirus death toll mounted, but he also expressed growing impatience with social distancing guidelines; he said of the virus-related shutdowns, “The cure cannot be worse than the problem.”
2020: Cruise Ship
One year ago: A cruise ship with coronavirus victims on board, including two who died, docked in Miami; the Coral Princess, with nearly 1,900 passengers and crew, had been in limbo for days awaiting permission to dock as passengers self-isolated in their staterooms.
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