Wednesday, April 15, 1998
Today's events
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Income tax returns must be postmarked by midnight.
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On the horizon
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On Thursday, April 16, space shuttle Columbia is scheduled to launch on a nearly 17-day Neurolab mission.
On Friday, April 17, former police officer Walter Budzyn is to be sentenced for
an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the November 1992 beating death of motorist Malice Green.
On Saturday, April 18, the National Football League draft begins.
On Sunday, April 19, the Third Big Stinkin' International Improv and Sketch
Comedy Festival opens in Austin, Texas.
On Monday, April 20, the U.S. Senate returns from spring recess.
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On this day
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In 1450, the French under Comte de Clermont attacked 4,000 new
English troops under Sir Thomas Kyriel at the Battle of Formigny
in the last phase of the 100 Years' War. The French victory
ended English domination of northern France.
In 1469, Nanak, Indian spiritual teacher who founded Sikhism,
was born near Lahore, India.
In 1755, Dr. Samuel Johnson, English poet, journalist and
lexicographer, published his dictionary.
In 1764, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour,
French courtier and mistress of King Louis XV, died.
In 1797, British naval personnel mutinied at Spithead, in the
English Channel.
In 1834, in the United States, President Andrew Jackson signed
the first presidential protest. He protested against a Senate
resolution drawn up against him.
In 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:21 a.m.
after being shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes
Booth the previous night.
In 1865, Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the
United States following the death of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1888, Matthew Arnold, British poet and inspector of
schools, died.
In 1891, the Katanga Co. was formed in Brussels to exploit
copper deposits in the Katanga area of central Africa.
In 1912, the White Star passenger liner Titanic sank on her
maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg off Newfoundland; 1,523
of the 2,200 passengers and crew lost their lives in the
supposedly unsinkable vessel.
In 1920, Richard von Weizsaecker, German politician and
statesman, was born; he served as president of West Germany from
1984-94.
In 1923, at the Rialto Theatre in New York, Lee De Forest
screened a selection of musical shorts demonstrating his
sound-on-film process, the first sound films to be demonstrated
before a paying audience.
In 1938, Gen. Francisco Franco's forces captured Vinaroz in
the Spanish Civil War.
In 1942, the George Cross, Britain's highest accolade for
civilian gallantry, was conferred on Malta by King George VI for
bravery in withstanding Italian and German attacks.
In 1945, British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in Germany.
In 1949, Wallace Beery, U.S. film actor and Oscar winner for
his part in the film "The Champ," died.
In 1963, 70,000 marchers arrived in London from Aldermarston
in a huge demonstration against nuclear weapons.
In 1966, Ugandan Prime Minister Milton Obote was declared
president under a new constitution.
In 1968, two unmanned Soviet satellites, Cosmos 212 and 213,
found each other and docked automatically while in Earth's
orbit.
In 1971, the British and Chinese governments agreed to the
reopening of a telephone link between London and Shanghai which
had been closed for 22 years.
In 1974, the 15-year rule of President Hamani Diori in Niger
came to end when he was deposed in a coup.
In 1980, French philosopher, novelist and poet Jean-Paul
Sartre died. He was awarded, but declined to accept, the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1964.
In 1986, U.S. warplanes bombed targets in Tripoli and
Benghazi. Some 40 people were killed, including a girl adopted by
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The United States said the raids were in
response to an explosion at a Berlin discotheque in which two
Americans were killed.
In 1989, at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield,
northern England, 96 people died when a gate was opened to let
in supporters onto an already crowded terrace.
In 1990, Greta Garbo, enigmatic Swedish-born film star, died.
In 1991, European Community foreign ministers agreed to lift
most remaining sanctions against South Africa.
In 1992, governments across the world applied U.N. sanctions
against Libya because of its alleged involvement in the
destruction of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988 and the
bombing of a French plane over Niger in 1989.
In 1994, ministers from the world's trading nations signed the
GATT pact (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the biggest
market-opening treaty in history.
In 1996, South Africa's "truth commission," looking into
abuses during the apartheid era, began its public hearings.
In 1996, Japan and the United States announced the closure of six more
U.S. military facilities on the southern Japanese island of
Okinawa, reducing the amount of land occupied by American forces
there by a fifth.
In 1997, during the hajj, a huge fire at a temporary camp in
Saudi Arabia, at the plain of Mena, near the Islamic holy city
of Mecca, killed 343 Muslim pilgrims.
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Newslink
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You've heard the saying: "Practice random acts of kindness." Well, here are step-by-step instructions. Check out the Generosity Game.
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Notable
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Today is Recollection of the Deceased Day in Georgia.
Olympic gold medalist Evelyn Ashford is 41.
Producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason ("Designing Women") is 51.
Actress Claudia Cardinale ("The Pink Panther") is 60.
Singer and guitarist Roy Clark ("Hee Haw") is 65.
Newspaper columnist Heloise Cruse Evans ("Hints from Heloise") is 47.
Actress Amy Wright ("Breaking Away") is 48.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1998, J.P. Morgan
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