April 20
1769
Ottawa Indian chief Pontiac murdered.
1841
The first detective story, Edgar Allen Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue was published.
1902
Marie and Pierre Curie isolated radium.
1912
The Boston Red Sox played their first game at Fenway Park. They beat the N.Y. Highlanders (who in 1913 would become known as the Yankees) 7-6.
1971
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice of busing for racial desegregation.
1999
14 students (including killers) and 1 teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in the nation’s deadliest school shooting.
2008
Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar race.
2010
An explosion on a BP oil drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana kills 11 people and injures 17. Experts estimate that 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.
Birthdays
Adolf Hitler
Pronunciation: [ä´dôlf hit´lur]
1889–1945, founder and leader of National Socialism (Nazis), and German dictator; born in Braunau in Upper Austria.
Daniel Chester French
sculptor (1850)
Joan Miró
artist (1893)
Lionel Hampton
vibraphonist and bandleader, (1908)
Tito Puente
musician, jazz percussionist (1923)
Jessica Lange
actress (1949)