^{Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated, April 4, 1968}

Today in History

• Francis Drake receives a knighthood for circumnavigating the world (1581)
• The first modern circus is staged in London by Philip Astley (1768)
• Napoléon Bonaparte abdicates for the first time (1814)
• The US Congress adopts a flag with 13 red and white stripes and a star for each of the 20 states (1818)
• The first home telephone is installed (1877)
• The airship USS Akron is wrecked off the coast of New Jersey due to severe weather (1933)
• NATO is established (1949)
• The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 (1964)
• Apollo 6 is launched (1968)
• The first temporary artificial heart is implanted (1969)
• New York’s World Trade Center is officially dedicated (1973)
• Microsoft is founded (1975)
• Space Shuttle Challenger makes its first space voyage (1983)
• Netscape is founded (1994)

Birthdays

• William Strachey, author, source for The Tempest (1572)
• Edward Hicks, Quaker folk painter (1780)
• Bettina von Arnim, author (1785)
• Thaddeus Stevens, anti-slavery Congressman (1792)
• Dorothea Dix, mental health advocate (1802)
• Linus Yale, Jr., lock inventor (1821)
• Tad Lincoln, presidential son (1853)
• 山本 五十六 (Isoroku Yamamoto), Japanese admiral (1884)
• Tris Speaker, baseball player and manager (1888)
• Arthur Murray, dance instructor (1895)
• Stanley G. Weinbaum, science fiction writer (1902)
• Bea Benaderet, actress and voice artist (1906)
• John Cameron Swayze, journalist and watch salesman (1906)
• Frances Langford, actress and singer (1913)
• Muddy Waters, singer-songwriter and guitarist (1913)
• Richard Coogan, actor (1914)
• Mickey Owen, baseball player (1916)
• David White, actor (1916)
• Elizabeth Wilson, actress (1921)
• Elmer Bernstein, composer and conductor (1922)
• Gil Hodges, baseball player and manager (1924)
• Gene Reynolds, actor, director, producer, screenwriter (1925)
• Joe Orlando, comic book author and illustrator (1927)
• Maya Angelou, poet (1928)
• Estelle Harris, actress (1928)
• Monty Norman, composed the “James Bond” theme (1928)
• Bobby Ray Inman, US Navy admiral (1931)
• Clive Davis, record producer (1932)
• Richard Lugar, politician (1932)
• Anthony Perkins, actor (1932)
• A. Bartlett Giamatti, baseball commissioner (1938)
• JoAnne Carter, golfer (1939)
• Hugh Masekela, singer-songwriter (1939)
• Kitty Kelley, celebrity journalist (1942)
• Craig T. Nelson, actor (1944)
• Luke Halpin, actor (1947)
• Dan Simmons, author (1948)
• Christine Lahti, actress (1950)
• David E. Kelley, screenwriter and producer (1956)
• Kelso, racehorse (1957)
• Robert Downey, Jr., actor (1965)
• Nancy McKeon, actress (1966)
• Jill Scott, singer-songwriter (1972)
• David Blaine, magician (1973)
• James Roday, actor and director (1976)
• Heath Ledger, actor (1979)
• Grumpy Cat, internet meme (2012)

Deaths

• John Napier, inventor of logarithms (1617)
• Oliver Goldsmith, author (1774)
• William Henry Harrison, 9th US President (1841)
• Peter Cooper, founder of Cooper Union (1883)
• Isaac K. Funk, Wagnalls partner (1912)
• Karl Benz, automobile engineer (1929)
• André Michelin, tire manufacturer (1931)
• Wilhelm Ostwald, Nobel Prize winning chemist (1932)
• Elizabeth Bacon Custer, general’s spouse and author (1933)
• Johnny Stompanato, stabbed to death by the daughter of Lana Turner (1958)
• Al Lewis, songwriter (1967)
• Martin Luther King, Jr., minister and activist (assassinated, 1968)
• Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., minister and politician (1972)
• ذوالفقار علی بھٹو (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), Pakistani statesman (1979)
• Edgar Buchanan, actor (1979)
• Gloria Swanson, actress (1983)
• C. L. Moore, author (1987)
• Graham Ingels, comic book illustrator (1991)
• Alfred Mosher Butts, game designer, inventor of Scrabble (1993)
• Priscilla Lane, actress (1995)
• Early Wynn, baseball player (1999)
• Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, cartoonist (2001)
• Roger Ebert, critic (2013)
• Carmine Infantino, comic book artist (2013)

Holidays and Celebrations

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April 4 is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years). There are 271 days remaining until the end of the year.