Monday, April 19th
The 109th day of 2010.
There are 256 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
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On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.) (Go to article.)
On April 19, 1883, Getulio Vargas, the Brazilian president who used dictatorial powers to modernize his country, was born. Following his death on Aug. 24, 1954, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On April 19, 1884, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the bipartisan reform team of Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1775 The American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1897 The first Boston Marathon was run.
1933 The United States went off the gold standard.
1943 Tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against Nazi forces.
1951 Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Harry S. Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
1989 A white female jogger in New York's Central Park was brutally beaten and raped. (Five black and Hispanic teenagers were imprisoned, but the convictions were overturned in 2003 when a serial rapist confessed and DNA evidence tied him to the crime.)
1993 A 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in. Dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
1994 A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King.
2001 The Mel Brooks musical "The Producers" opened on Broadway.
2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI.
Current Birthdays
Kate Hudson turns 31 years old today.
AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth Actress Kate Hudson turns 31 years old today.
73 Elinor Donahue
Actress ("Father Knows Best")
68 Alan Price
Rock musician (The Animals)
64 Tim Curry
Actor
63 Mark "Flo" Volman
Singer (The Turtles, Flo and Eddie)
58 Tony Plana
Actor ("Ugly Betty")
45 Suge Knight
Record company executive (Tha Row)
42 Ashley Judd
Actress
32 James Franco
Actor ("Milk," "Spider-Man")
29 Hayden Christensen
Actor
29 Catalina Sandino Moreno
Actress
29 Troy Polamalu
Football player
Historic Birthdays
Getulio Vargas
4/19/1883 - 8/24/1954
Brazilian president (1930-45, 1951-54)
(Go to obit.)
72 Roger Sherman
4/19/1721 - 7/23/1793
American statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence
84 Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre
4/19/1832 - 9/4/1916
Spanish mathematician, statesman, and Nobel Prize-winning dramatist (1904)
86 Lucretia Garfield
4/19/1832 - 3/14/1918
American first lady (1881)
57 Ole Evinrude
4/19/1877 - 7/12/1934
Norwegian-American inventor
70 Richard von Mises
4/19/1883 - 7/14/1953
Austrian-born American mathematician and aerodynamicist
54 Eliot Ness
4/19/1903 - 5/16/1957
American crime fighter; headed the "Untouchables" in Chicago
85 Sir Thomas Hopkinson
4/19/1905 - 6/20/1990
English editor and pioneering photojournalist
87 Glenn T. Seaborg
4/19/1912 - 2/25/1999
American Nobel Prize-winning nuclear chemist (1951)
34 Jayne Mansfield
4/19/1933 - 6/29/1967
American motion picture actress
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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