Today is Tuesday, April 6, the 96th day of 2010. There are 269 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On April 6, 1909, American explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson and four Inuits became the first men to reach the North Pole.
ON THIS DATE
In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.
In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the next day.
In 1896, the first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece.
In 1917, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany.
In 1945, during World War II, the Japanese warship Yamato and nine other vessels sailed on a suicide mission to attack the U.S. fleet off Okinawa; the fleet was intercepted the next day.
In 2000, a private company mapping the human genetic blueprint announced it had decoded all of the DNA pieces that make up the genetic pattern of a single human being.
In 2005, 15 U.S. service members and three American civilians were killed when their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.
In 2009, an earthquake in central Italy killed about 300 people in the country’s deadliest quake in nearly three decades.
Associated Press
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