http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Apr 8, 1974: Aaron sets new home run record
On this day in 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's legendary record of 714 homers. A crowd of 53,775 people, the largest in the history of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, was with Aaron that night to cheer when he hit a 4th inning pitch off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Al Downing. However, as Aaron was an African American who had received death threats and racist hate mail during his pursuit of one of baseball's most distinguished records, the achievement was bittersweet.
Henry Louis Aaron Jr., born in Mobile, Alabama, on February 5, 1934, made his Major League debut in 1954 with the Milwaukee Braves, just eight years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and became the first African American to play in the majors. Aaron, known as hard working and quiet, was the last Negro league player to also compete in the Major Leagues. In 1957, with characteristically little fanfare, Aaron, who primarily played right field, was named the National League's Most Valuable Player as the Milwaukee Braves won the pennant. A few weeks later, his three home runs in the World Series helped his team triumph over the heavily favored New York Yankees. Although "Hammerin' Hank" specialized in home runs, he was also an extremely dependable batter, and by the end of his career he held baseball's career record for most runs batted in: 2,297.
Aaron's playing career spanned three teams and 23 years. He was with the Milwaukee Braves from 1954 to 1965, the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 1974 and the Milwaukee Brewers from 1975 to 1976. He hung up his cleats in 1976 with 755 career home runs and went on to become one of baseball's first African-American executives, with the Atlanta Braves, and a leading spokesperson for minority hiring. Hank Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.
Apr 8, 563 B.C.: Buddhists celebrate birth of Gautama Buddha
On this day, Buddhists celebrate the commemoration of the birth of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, thought to have lived in India from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C. Actually, the Buddhist tradition that celebrates his birthday on April 8 originally placed his birth in the 11th century B.C., and it was not until the modern era that scholars determined that he was more likely born in the sixth century B.C., and possibly in May rather than April.
According to the Tripitaka, which is recognized by scholars as the earliest existing record of the Buddha's life and discourses, Gautama Buddha was born as Prince Siddhartha, the son of the king of the Sakya people. The kingdom of the Sakyas was situated on the borders of present-day Nepal and India. Siddhartha's family was of the Gautama clan. His mother, Queen Mahamaya, gave birth to him in the park of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. A pillar placed there in commemoration of the event by an Indian emperor in the third century B.C. still stands.
At his birth, it was predicted that the prince would either become a great world monarch or a Buddha--a supremely enlightened teacher. The Brahmans told his father, King Suddhodana, that Siddhartha would become a ruler if he were kept isolated from the outside world. The king took pains to shelter his son from misery and anything else that might influence him toward the religious life. Siddhartha was brought up in great luxury, and he married and fathered a son. At age 29, he decided to see more of the world and began excursions off the palace grounds in his chariot. In successive trips, he saw an old man, a sick man, and a corpse, and since he had been protected from the miseries of aging, sickness, and death, his charioteer had to explain what they were. Finally, Siddhartha saw a monk, and, impressed with the man's peaceful demeanor, he decided to go into the world to discover how the man could be so serene in the midst of such suffering.
Siddhartha secretly left the palace and became a wandering ascetic. He traveled south, where the centers of learning were, and studied meditation under the teachers Alara Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra. He soon mastered their systems, reaching high states of mystical realization, but was unsatisfied and went out again in search of nirvana, the highest level of enlightenment. For nearly six years, he undertook fasting and other austerities, but these techniques proved ineffectual and he abandoned them. After regaining his strength, he seated himself under a pipal tree at what is now Bodh Gaya in west-central India and promised not to rise until he had attained the supreme enlightenment. After fighting off Mara, an evil spirit who tempted him with worldly comforts and desires, Siddhartha reached enlightenment, becoming a Buddha at the age of 35.
The Gautama Buddha then traveled to the deer park near Benares, India, where he gave his first sermon and outlined the basic doctrines of Buddhism. According to Buddhism, there are "four noble truths": (1) existence is suffering; (2) this suffering is caused by human craving; (3) there is a cessation of the suffering, which is nirvana; and (4) nirvana can be achieved, in this or future lives, though the "eightfold path" of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. For the rest of his life, the Buddha taught and gathered disciples to his sangha, or community of monks. He died at age 80, telling his monks to continue working for their spiritual liberation by following his teachings. Buddhism eventually spread from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and, in the 20th century, to the West. Today, there are an estimated 350 million people in 100 nations who adhere to Buddhist beliefs and practices.
Apr 8, 1994: Kurt Cobain is found dead
On April 8, 1994, rock star Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home outside Seattle, Washington, with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to the head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees. Cobain's suicide brought an end to a life marked by far more suffering than is generally associated with rock superstardom. But rock superstardom never did sit well with Kurt Cobain, a committed social outsider who was reluctantly dubbed the spokesman of his generation. "Success to him seemed like, I think, a brick wall," said friend Greg Sage, a musical hero of Cobain's from the local punk rock scene of the 1980s. "There was nowhere else to go but down."
Kurt Cobain rose to fame as the leader and chief songwriter of the Seattle-based band Nirvana, the group primarily responsible for turning a thriving regional music scene in the Pacific Northwest into a worldwide pop-cultural phenomenon often labeled "grunge." As enormously popular as Nirvana became in the wake of their era-defining single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991), it's easy to forget just how far outside the mainstream the band really was, and just how ill-suited to pop celebrity the misanthropic, heroin-addicted Kurt Cobain was. In his suicide note, Cobain wrote: "I have it good, very good, and I'm grateful, but since the age of seven, I've become hateful towards all humans in general....Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the past years. I'm too much of an erratic, moody baby! I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away."
Cobain's suicide note was found stabbed to a pile of potting soil with a ballpoint pen, nearby his body in the greenhouse on his Lake Washington property. It was probably written on or about April 5, 1994—the estimated date on which Cobain actually shot himself and one day after Cobain's rock-star wife, Courtney Love, filed a Missing Person Report stating that Cobain was possibly suicidal and in possession of a gun. It was not the Seattle police, however, but a workman inspecting lighting on Cobain's property who first discovered Cobain's body on this day in 1994.
Apr 8, 2005: Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty
Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to a series of bombings, including the fatal bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, in order to avoid the death penalty. He later cited his anti-abortion and anti-homosexual views as motivation for the bombings. Eric Robert Rudolph was born September 19, 1966, in Merritt Island, Florida. He served a brief stint in the U.S. Army and later supported himself by working as a carpenter. On July 27, 1996, a 40-pound pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, killing one woman and injuring over 100 people. A security guard named Richard Jewell was initially considered the prime suspect in the case. Then, on January 16, 1997, two bombs went off at an Atlanta-area medical clinic that performed abortions, injuring seven people. In February of that same year, a bomb detonated at a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta, injuring four people. On January 29, 1998, a bomb exploded at a Birmingham, Alabama, women’s health clinic, killing a security guard and critically injuring a nurse.
Rudolph became a suspect in the Birmingham bombing after witnesses reported spotting his pickup truck near the clinic before the bomb went off. Authorities then launched a massive manhunt in North Carolina, where he was spotted stocking up on supplies. In February 1998, Rudolph was officially charged as a suspect in the Birmingham bombing. In March 1998, Rudolph’s brother Daniel cut off his hand to protest what he saw as the mistreatment of Eric by the F.B.I and the media. In May of that same year, Eric Rudolph was named to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and a $1 million reward was offered for his capture. In July, a North Carolina health food store owner reported that Rudolph had taken six months’ of food and supplies from him, leaving $500 in exchange.
In October 1998, Rudolph was officially charged in the three Atlanta bombings. He continued to elude authorities, who believed he was hiding in the Appalachian wilderness and possibly getting assistance from supporters in the region. Then, on May 31, 2003, after over five years as a fugitive, Rudolph was arrested by a rookie police officer who found him digging through a grocery store Dumpster in Murphy, North Carolina. On April 8, 2005, just weeks before his trial was scheduled to begin, the Department of Justice announced that Rudolph would plead guilty to the charges against him in all four bombings. He was later sentenced to four life terms without parole and in August 2005 was sent to the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
Apr 8, 1981: Omar Bradley dies
General Omar Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group who ensured Allied victory over Germany, dies on this day in 1981.
Born on February 12, 1893, Bradley was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Dwight Eisenhower was a classmate). During the opening days of World War II, he commanded the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was later placed at the head of the II Corps for the North African campaign, proving instrumental in the fall of Tunisia and the surrender of over 250,000 Axis soldiers.
He led forces in the invasion and capture of Sicily and joined his troops in the Normandy invasion, which culminated in the symbolic liberation of Paris by Bradley's troops. He was promoted to commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group, the largest force ever placed under an American group commander, and led successful operations in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Czechoslovakia.
After the war, Bradley was chosen as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ultimately promoted to the position of General of the Army in 1950. In 1951, he published his reminiscences of the war in A Soldier's Story. He retired in 1953.
Karl Malden portrayed him in the 1970 film Patton.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
217 - Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded)
by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
1093 - The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by
Walkelin.
1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated.
1149 - Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy
II of Tusculum.
1195 - Alexius III Angelus drives out brother Isaak II as
Byzantine emperor
1271 - In Syria, sultan Baybars conquers the Krak of
Chevaliers.
1341 - Francesco Petrarca crowned in Rome
1378 - Bartolomeo Prignano elected as Pope Urban VI
1455 - Alfonso de Borgia elected as Pope Callistus III
1500 - Battle at Novara: King Louis XII beats duke Ludovico
Sforza
1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain
1730 - 1st Jewish congregation in US forms synagogue,
"Shearith Israel, NYC"
1759 - British troops chase French out of Masulipatam India
1766 - 1st fire escape patented, wicker basket on a pulley
& chain
1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom falls to Burmese invaders.
1781 - Premiere of Mozart's violin sonata K379
1783 - Catharina II of Russia annexes the Krim
1789 - House of Representives 1st meeting
1801 - Soldiers riot in Bucharest, kill 128 Jews
Duke of Milan Ludovico SforzaDuke of Milan Ludovico Sforza
1802 - French Protestant church becomes state-supported & -controlled
1808 - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore was promoted
to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island
of Melos.
1832 - Charles Darwin begins trip through Rio de Janeiro
1838 - Steamship "Great Western" maiden voyage
(Bristol England to NYC)
1848 - 1st battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats
Austrians
1848 - Battle at Xaquixaguana, Peru: Pedro de la Gasca beats
Gonzalo Pizarro
1861 - US mint at Dahlonega, Georgia seized by confederacy
1862 - John D Lynde patents aerosol dispenser
1864 - Battle of Mansfield, La Federals routed by Gen
Richard Taylor
1866 - Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary.
1869 - American Museum of Natural History opens (NYC)
1876 - Amiliare Ponchielli's opera "La Gioconda,"
premieres in Milan
1879 - Khedive Ismael of Egypt fires French/British
ministers
1879 - Milk was sold in glass bottles for 1st time
British Prime Minister William GladstoneBritish Prime
Minister William Gladstone 1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first
Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.
1893 - The Critic reports that ice cream soda is our
national drink
1898 - Battle of Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush
6,000 Sudanese
1904 - Gr Brit & France sign Cordial Entente concerning
colonial matter
1904 - British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first
chapter of the Book of the Law.
1908 - Lord Asquith succeeds Henry Campbell-Bannerman as
British premier
1912 - Steamers collide in Nile, drowning 200
1913 - 17th amendment, requiring direct election of
senators, ratified
1913 - Opening of China's 1st parliament takes place in
Peking (now Beijing)
1914 - US & Colombia sign a treaty concerning Panama
Canal Zone
1916 - Norway approves active & passive female suffrage
1916 - In Corona, California, racecar driver Bob Burman
crashes, killing three and badly injuring five spectators.
1920 - LONGA soccer team forms in Tilburg
1929 - Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central
Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court
arrest.
1931 - "White Horse Inn" opens in London
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1931 -
Dmitri Sjostakovitch' ballet "The Arrow," premieres
1933 - Manchester Guardian warns of unknown nazi terror
1935 - 2nd Golf Masters Championship: Gene Sarazen wins,
shooting a 282
1935 - Bartoks 5th String quartet premieres in Wash DC
1935 - Works Progress Administration approved by Congress
1939 - ACV soccer team forms in Axes
1939 - King Zog I of Albania, flees
1940 - Germany battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier
Glorious
1941 - Joe Louis TKOs Tony Musto in 9 for heavyweight boxing
title
1942 - A Schoenberg & Tudor's ballet "Pillar of
Fire," premieres in NYC
1943 - Hakuun Yasutani Roshi, founder of Sanbo Kyodan,
receives dharma
1943 - Stanley Cup: Detroit Red Wings sweep Boston Bruins in
4 games
1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to
check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs
unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases to common
carriers and public utilities.
1945 - Nazi occupiers executed, Nazi general Christiansen
flees Netherlands
1946 - League of Nations assembles for last time
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1947 - Largest recorded sunspot (7,000) observed
1948 - Soen Nakagawa & Nyogen Senzaki (Zen teachers)
meet in SF
1950 - "Miss Liberty" closes at Imperial Theater
NYC after 308 performances
1952 - Pres Harry Truman seizes steel mills to avert a
strike
1953 - Dag Hammarskjoeld chosen as secretary-general of UN
1953 - Jomo Kenyatta convicted of involvement with Mau Mau
and sentenced to 7 years in Kenya
1954 - "By the Beautiful Sea" opens at Majestic
Theater NYC for 270 perfs
1956 - 20th Golf Masters Championship: Jack Burke Jr wins,
shooting a 289
1956 - 6 marine recruits drown during exercise at Paradise
Is SC
1956 - M Bandaranaike's People's front wins election in
Ceylon
1960 - Neth & Germany sign accord concerning war
casualties
1960 - US Senate passes Civil Rights Bill with measures
against discriminatory voting pracrices
1961 - "Show Girl" closes at Eugene O'Neill
Theater NYC after 100 perfs
1961 - British liner "Dara" explodes in Persian
Gulf, kills 236
1962 - Accords of Evian (Algeria) accepted by referendum in
France
Kenyan Prime Minister and President Jomo KenyattaKenyan
Prime Minister and President Jomo Kenyatta 1963 - 35th Academy Awards -
"Lawrence of Arabia," A Bancroft & G Peck win
1963 - Tigers claim young pitcher Denny McLain from the
White Sox for $25,000
1964 - Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
1966 - AFL chooses 36 year old Al Davis as commissioner
1966 - Leonid Brezhnev elected secretary-general of
communist party
1966 - OAO 1, 1st orbiting astronomical observatory,
launched
1968 - 40th Academy Awards postponed to Apr 10th due to
death of M L King
1968 - Baseball's Opening Day is postponed because of M L
King assassination
1968 - Czechoslovakia Cernik government forms
1968 - New socialist constitution of East Germany takes
effect
1968 - WKPI TV channel 22 in Pikeville, KY (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1969 - 1st Baseball game in Canada - Mont Expos beats NY
Mets 10-9
1969 - Expansion teams Royals, Expos, Padres & Pilots
win their 1st games
1970 - "Cry for Us All" opens at Broadhurst
Theater NYC for 8 performances
1970 - Senate rejects Nixon's nomination of Carswell to
Supreme Court
1971 - 1st legal off-track betting system begins (OTB-New
York)
1972 - Alvin Kallicharran scores 100* in his 1st Test
Cricket innings v NZ
1973 - Thirty-two terrorist bombings in Cyprus take place.
1974 - Discovery Island opens
Baseball Player Hank AaronBaseball Player Hank Aaron 1974 -
Hammerin' Hank Aaron hits 715th HR, breaking Babe Ruth's record in Atlanta
1975 - 47th Academy Awards - "Godfather II," Ellen
Burstyn & Art Carney win
1975 - Frank Robinson debuts as 1st black baseball mgr
(Cleve, beats NY 5-3)
1977 - Israel premier Rabin resigns
1979 - "Carmelina" opens at St James Theater NYC
for 17 performances
1979 - 204th & final episode of "All in the
Family"
1979 - 8th Colgate Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by
Sandra Post
1979 - People's Republic of China joins IOC
1980 - Islander Potvin's 2 shorthanded goals tie NHL record
vs Kings & set NHL rec of 2 shorthanded playoff goals in 1 period
1981 - Islanders scored 9 goals against Toronto in playoffs
1982 - Penguins 2-Isles 4-Preliminary-Isles hold 2-0 lead
1982 - Tracy Caulkins, 19, wins her 36th US swimming title
1984 - 13th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by
Juli Inkster
1984 - 4th Golden Raspberry Awards: Lonely Lady wins
1985 - "Leader of the Pack" opens at Ambassador
Theater NYC for 120 perfs
1985 - Amdahl releases UTS/V, 1st mainframe Unix
1985 - India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal
disaster
Actor Clint EastwoodActor Clint Eastwood 1986 - Clint
Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel California, Make his day
1989 - 1-handed pitcher Jim Abbott debut but lasts only 4
2/3 inn
1990 - "Aspects of Love" opens at Broadhurst
Theater NYC for 377 performances
1990 - "Twin Peaks" with Peggy Lipton premieres on
ABC-TV
1990 - 54th Golf Masters Championship: Nick Faldo wins,
shooting a 278
1990 - King Birendra of Nepal lifts 30-year ban on political
parties
1990 - Kris Monaghan wins LPGA Red Robin Kyocera Inamori
Golf Classic
1990 - Norwegian Scandinavian Star catches fire; about 170
die
1990 - New Democracy wins the national election in Greece.
1991 - "I Hate Hamlet" opens at Walter Kerr
Theater NYC for 88 performances
1991 - Jockey, Bill Shoemaker, paralyzed in a car accident
1991 - Major league umpires & baseball reach a 4-year
agreement
1991 - Michael Landon announces he has inoperable cancer of
pancreas
1991 - Oakland A's stadium becomes 1st outdoor arena to ban
smoking
1992 - "5 Guys Named Moe" opens at Eugene O'Neill
Theater NYC for 445 perfs
1992 - After 151 years Britain's "Punch Magazine"
final issue
1993 - Indians' Carlos Baerga is 1st to switch hit HRs in
same inn (vs Yanks)
1993 - STS-56 (Discovery) launches into orbit
1994 - Atlanta Brave Kent Mercker no-hits Dodgers, 6-0
Baseball Player Darryl StrawberryBaseball Player Darryl
Strawberry 1994 - Darryl Strawberry enters Betty Ford clinic
1994 - Japans premier Morihiro Hosokawa resigns
1994 - Smoking banned in Pentagon & all US military
bases
1995 - BPAA US Open won by Dave Husted
1995 - Oliver McCall beats Larry Holmes in 12 for
heavyweight boxing title
1996 - Bruce Seldon TKOs Tony Tucker in 7 to win vacated WBA
boxing title
1997 - Microsoft Corp releases Internet Explorer 4.0
1997 - STS 83 (Columbia 22), lands
1999 - Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the
Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.
2000 - Nineteen Marines are killed when a V-22 Osprey
tilt-rotor aircraft crashes near Marana, Arizona.
2001 - 65th Golf Masters Championship: Tiger Woods wins,
shooting a 272
2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement
is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
2004 - U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
testifies before the 9/11 Commission.
2006 - Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot
to death, are found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders are soon linked
to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
2007 - 71st Golf Masters Championship: Zach Johnson wins,
shooting a 289
Golfer Tiger WoodsGolfer Tiger Woods 2008 - The construction
of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines completes, in Bahrain.
2012 - Gunter Grass labelled persona non gratta by Israeli
internal affairs minister Eli Yishai
2012 - Pope Benedict XVI calls for an end to Syrian blood
shed in papal Easter message
2012 - 76th Golf Masters Championship: Bubba Watson wins,
shooting a 278
2013 - 15 people are killed and 53 are wounded by a car
bombing in Damascus
2013 - 163 people are killed and 50,000 are displaced after
tribal violence erupts in Darfur, Sudan
2013 - Filip Vujanović’s election as President of Montenegro
is confirmed by the electoral commission
1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. 1525 - Albert von Brandenburg, the leader of the Teutonic Order, assumes the title "Duke of Prussia" and passed the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state. 1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its first meeting. 1832 - About 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in the Black Hawk War. 1834 - In New York City, Cornelius Lawrence became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote in a city election. 1839 - The first Intercollegiate Rodeo was held at the Godshall Ranch, Apple Valley, CA. 1873 - Alfred Paraf patented the first successful oleomargarine. 1911 - The first squash tournament was played at the Harvard Club in New York City. 1913 - The Seventeenth amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators. 1935 - The Works Progress Administration was approved by the U.S. Congress. 1939 - Italy invaded Albania. 1942 - The Soviets opened a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad. 1943 - Wendell Wilkie’s "One World" was published for the first time. 1946 - The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time. 1947 - The first illustrated insurance policy was issued by the Allstate Insurance Company. 1952 - U.S. President Truman seized steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike. 1953 - The bones of Sitting Bull were moved from North Dakota to South Dakota. 1962 - Bay of Pigs invaders got thirty years imprisonment in Cuba. 1974 - Hank Aaron hits 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth's record. 1975 - Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became first black manager of a major league baseball team. 1985 - India filed suit against Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster. 1985 - Phyllis Diller underwent a surgical procedure for permanent eyeliner to eliminate the need for eyelid makeup. 1986 - Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA. 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned over remarks he had made. While on ABC's "Nightline" Campanis said that blacks "may not have some of the necessities" to hold managerial jobs in major-league baseball. 1988 - Former U.S. President Reagan aid Lyn Nofzinger was sentenced to prison for illegal lobbying for Wedtech Corp. 1990 - In Nepal, King Birendra lifted the 30-year ban on political parties. 1992 - In Britain, the last issue of "Punch Magazine" was published. 1994 - Smoking was banned in the Pentagon and all U.S. military bases. 1998 - The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. presented new evidence in an appeal for new federal investigation of the assassination of her husband. 2000 - 19 U.S. troops were killed when a Marine V22 Osprey crashed during a training mission in Arizona. 2001 - Microsoft Corp. released Internet Explorer 6.0. 2002 - Ed McMahon filed a $20 million lawsuit against his insurance company, two insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. The suit alleged breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress concerning a toxic mold that had spread through McMahon's Beverly Hills home. 2002 - Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama for her play "Topdog/Underdog."
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr08.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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