Today is Tuesday, April 18th, the 108th day of the year 2023. There are 257 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning the colonists that British regular troops were approaching.
On this date:
In 1865, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Major General William T. Sherman near Durham Station, North Carolina.
In 1906, San Francisco was hit by a devastating earthquake followed by raging fires; Estimates of the final death toll range from 3,000 to 6,000.
In 1923, the first game was played at the original Yankee Stadium in New York; the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-1.
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser took power when he became Prime Minister of Egypt.
Physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1955 at the age of 76.
In 1966, Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first black coach.
In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, which provided for full control of the waterway to be handed over to Panama on the last day of 1999.
In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed by a suicide bomber at the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
In 2002, police arrested actor Robert Blake in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, almost a year earlier (Blake was acquitted in his criminal trial but found liable in a civil trial).
In 2015, a ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya; only about 30 people were saved.
In 2016, “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop biopic about America’s first Treasury Secretary, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In 2019, the final report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was released; It outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that members of the Trump campaign had conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.
Ten years ago: The FBI released surveillance camera footage of two Boston Marathon bombing suspects and asked the public for help in identifying them, hours after President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic cathedral . Randy Newman, Heart, Rush, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Albert King and producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Five years ago: The Cuban government elected 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed President Raul Castro, a move that for the first time brought someone from outside the Castro family to the highest office of president Landes would bring time in nearly six decades; 86-year-old Castro would remain head of the Communist Party. Amid a power outage that affected much of the rest of Puerto Rico, generators helped turn on lights at a San Juan stadium for the second of two games between the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins. Bruno Sammartino, who was once one of the longest reigning champions in professional wrestling, has died at the age of 82.
A year ago: Russia launched a long-feared major offensive to seize control of eastern Ukraine, the country’s predominantly Russian-speaking industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists had fought Ukrainian forces for eight years. A federal judge in Florida has invalidated the national mask mandate for airlines and other public transportation as it oversteps the authority of US public health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Alex Jones’ Infowars filed for bankruptcy after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation lawsuits over his claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
Birthdays Today: Actor Clive Revill is 93. Actor Robert Hooks is 86. Actor Hayley Mills is 77. Actor James Woods is 76. Actor-director Dorothy Lyman is 76. Actor Cindy Pickett is 76. Actor Rick Moranis is 70. Actor Melody Thomas Scott is 67. Actor Eric Roberts is 67. Actor John James is 67. Rock musician Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 65. Author and journalist Susan Faludi is 64. Actress Jane Leeves is 62. The ventriloquist and Comedian Jeff Dunham is 61 Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 60. Actor Eric McCormack is 60. Actor Maria Bello is 56. Actor Mary Birdsong is 55. Actor David Hewlett is 55. Rock musician Greg Eklund (The Oolahs) is 53. Actor Lisa Locicero is 53 Actress Tamara Braun is 52 TV chef Ludovic Lefebvre is 52 Actor Fredro Starr is 52 Actor David Tennant is 52 Rock musician Mark Tremonti is 49 R&B singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) is 49. Actress Melissa Joan Hart is 47. Actor Sean Maguire is 47. Actor Kevin Rankin is 47. Actor Bryce Johnson is 46. Reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian (kar-DASH’-ee-uhn) is 44. Detroit Tigers first baseman and DH Miguel Cabrera is 40. Actor America Ferrera is 39. Actor Tom Hughes is 38. Actor Ellen Woglom (TV: “Marvel’s Inhumans”) is 36. Actress Vanessa Kirby is 35. Actress Alia Shawkat is 34. Actress Britt Robertson is 33. Actress Chloe Bennet is 31. Rock singer Nathan Sykes (The Wanted) is 30. Actor Moises Arias is 29.
