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This Week in History for April 18-24

By The Associated Press - | Apr 17, 2021

Former Heavyweight champion George Foreman eats a hamburger holding a tray loaded with hamburgers, fries and ice cream sundaes, in Houston, TX, USA, Monday April 22, 1991. A Baltimore, Maryland radio station and a local McDonalds arranged to have 50 hamburgers, several orders of French fries, four ice cream sundaes and a diet coke delivered to Foreman's home in Houston. (AP Photo/David Scarbrough)

Today is Sunday, April 18, the 108th day of 2021. There are 257 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein wears a big smile and “Vote Democratic” hat after learning the Democrats would hold their 1984 national convention here next summer in San Francisco, April 21, 1983. The party’s site selection committee voted 23-2 on a second ballot at its Washington meeting on Thursday in favor of San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

On this date

In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British Regular troops were approaching.

In 1831, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was officially opened.

In 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.

In 1910, suffragists showed up at the U.S. Capitol with half a million signatures demanding that women be given the right to vote.

FILE -- In an April 20, 1999 file photo unidentified young women head to a library near Columbine High School where students and faculty members were evacuated after two gunmen went on a shooting rampage in the school in the southwest Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/Kevin Higley/file)

In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.

In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 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, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.

In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 1993 file photo, singer Michael Jackson and American Music Awards executive producer Dick Clark go over the script during rehearsals for The American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Clark, the television host who helped bring rock `n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," died Wednesday, April 18, 2012 of a heart attack. He was 82. (AP Photo/file)

In 1995, quarterback Joe Montana retired from professional football. The Houston Post closed after more than a century.

In 2015, a ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean off Libya; only about 30 people were rescued.

In 2019, the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was made public; it outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. (Mueller offered no conclusion on the question of whether the president obstructed justice.)

Ten years ago: Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government’s fiscal health from “stable” to “negative,” and warned of serious consequences if lawmakers failed to reach a deal to control the massive federal deficit. Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon in 2:03:02, the fastest anyone had ever run the 26.2 mile distance; fellow Kenyan Caroline Kilel won the women’s race in 2:22:36.

Five years ago: The U.S. agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year. “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop stage biography of America’s first treasury secretary, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

One year ago: In an effort to show that the country was on course to gradually reopening from coronavirus shutdowns, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduating class, telling cadets that they “inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy in our time.” The daily toll of coronavirus deaths in New York state hit its lowest point in more than two weeks. Police in Hong Kong arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and a media tycoon on charges of joining unlawful protests in 2019.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Clive Revill is 91. Actor Robert Hooks is 84. Actor Hayley Mills is 75. Actor James Woods is 74. Actor-director Dorothy Lyman is 74. Actor Cindy Pickett is 74. Country musician Jim Scholten (Sawyer Brown) is 69. Actor Rick Moranis is 68. Actor Melody Thomas Scott is 65. Actor Eric Roberts is 65. Actor John James is 65. Rock musician Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 63. Author-journalist Susan Faludi is 62. Actor Jane Leeves is 60. Ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham is 59. Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 58. Actor Eric McCormack is 58. Actor Maria Bello is 54. Actor Mary Birdsong is 53. Actor David Hewlett is 53. Rock musician Greg Eklund (The Oolahs) is 51. Actor Lisa Locicero is 51. Actor Tamara Braun is 50. TV chef Ludovic Lefebvre is 50. Actor Fredro Starr is 50. Actor David Tennant is 50. Rock musician Mark Tremonti is 47. R&B singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) is 47. Actor Melissa Joan Hart is 45. Actor Sean Maguire is 45. Actor Kevin Rankin is 45. Actor Bryce Johnson is 44. Reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian (kar-DASH’-ee-uhn) is 42. Detroit Tigers first baseman and DH Miguel Cabrera is 38. Actor America Ferrera is 37. Actor Tom Hughes is 36. Actor Ellen Woglom (TV: “Marvel’s Inhumans”) is 34. Actor Vanessa Kirby is 33. Actor Alia Shawkat is 32. Actor Britt Robertson is 31. Actor Chloe Bennet is 29. Rock singer Nathan Sykes (The Wanted) is 28. Actor Moises Arias is 27.

April 19

On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh, who prosecutors said had planned the attack as revenge for the Waco siege of two years earlier, was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

April 20

On April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

In 1812, the fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.

April 21

On April 21, 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.

In 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.

In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut, at age 74.

April 22

On April 22, 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui (zak-uh-REE’-uhs moo-SOW’-ee) pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington, D.C. to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui is serving a life prison sentence.)

In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.

April 23

On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)

In 1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife, Martha, moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.

April 24

On April 24, 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California, and Westford, Massachusetts.

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