20th April: Today In History

Today is Thursday, April 20th, the 110th day of 2017. There are 255 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History:

Events:

1977:  The U.S. Supreme Court, in Wooley v. Maynard, ruled 6-3 that car owners could refuse to display state mottoes on license plates, such as New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die.” The Woody Allen comedy “Annie Hall,” co-starring Diane Keaton in the title role, went into general release.

1792:  France declared war on Austria, marking the start of the French Revolutionary Wars.

1861:  Col. Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army. (Lee went on to command the Army of Northern Virginia, and eventually became general-in-chief of the Confederate forces.)

1889:  Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria.

1912:  Boston’s Fenway Park hosted its first professional baseball game while Navin Field (Tiger Stadium) opened in Detroit. (The Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11 innings; the Tigers beat the Cleveland Naps 6-5 in 11 innings.)

1914:  The Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners; about 20 (accounts vary) strikers, women and children died.

1916:  The Chicago Cubs played their first game at Wrigley Field (then known as Weeghman Park); the Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 7-6.

1947:  Denmark’s King Christian X, a popular symbol of resistance to German occupation during World War II, died at age 76, ending a reign of 35 years.

1968:  Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.

1972:  Apollo 16’s lunar module, carrying astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon.

1987:  The United States deported Karl Linnas to the Soviet Union, where he had been convicted in absentia of Nazi war crimes and faced a death sentence. (Linnas, who maintained his innocence, died of heart disease in Leningrad the following July.)

1999:  The Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

2010:  An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blow-out that began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. (The well was finally capped nearly three months later, on July 15.)

Birthdays: 

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 97.

Actor Leslie Phillips is 93.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is 81.

Actor George Takei is 80.

Singer Johnny Tillotson is 79.

Actor Ryan O’Neal is 76.

Bluegrass singer-musician Doyle Lawson (Quicksilver) is 73.

Actress Judith O’Dea (Film: “Night of the Living Dead”) is 72.

Rock musician Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band) is 69.

Actor Gregory Itzin (iht-zihn) is 69.