April 04
1818
Congress adopted a U.S. flag with one star for each state.
1841
President William Henry Harrison died from pneumonia, one month after his inauguration.
1905
Earthquake in Kangra, India, killed more than 20,000.
1945
The Ohrdruf death camp was liberated from Nazi occupation.
1949
The treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed.
1968
Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.
1973
The ribbon was cut to open the World Trade Center in New York City.
1979
Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed by the military.
1981
Henry Cisneros became the mayor of San Antonio, Texas: the first Hispanic mayor of a major U.S. city.
1983
Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
Birthdays
Maya Angelou
Pronunciation: [mä´yä an´julOO]
1928—, American writer and performer, born in St. Louis, Mo.
Edward Hicks
painter and preacher (1780)
Dorothea Dix
social reformer (1802)
William H. Jackson
painter artist and pioneer photographer (1843)
Maurice de Vlaminck
painter (1876)
Robert Sherwood
dramatist (1896)
Muddy Waters
musician (1915)
Heath Ledger
actor (1979)