Today in History
Published 1:30 am Monday, April 8, 2019
Today is Monday, April 8, the 98th day of 2019. There are 267 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27.
On this date:
In 1911, an explosion at the Banner Coal Mine in Littleton, Alabama, claimed the lives of 128 men, most of them convicts loaned out from prisons.
In 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the American steel industry to avert a nationwide strike. (The Supreme Court later ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority, opening the way for a seven-week strike by steelworkers.)
In 1963, “Lawrence of Arabia” won the Oscar for best picture at the Academy Awards; Gregory Peck won best actor for “To Kill a Mockingbird” while Anne Bancroft received best actress honors for “The Miracle Worker.”
In 1990, Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance had gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian Shecky Greene is 93. Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh is 82. Basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek is 79. Actor Stuart Pankin is 73. Rock musician Steve Howe is 72. Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay is 72. Movie director John Madden is 70. Rock musician Mel Schacher (Grand Funk Railroad) is 68. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is 64. Actor John Schneider is 59.
Thought for Today: “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” — Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (born 1881, died this date in 1973).
—Associated Press
