Actor Billy Dee Williams turns 75 today. Above, Williams in 2006.
Today is Good Friday, April 6, the 97th day of 2012. There are 269 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.
Today�s Highlight in History:
�On April 6, 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 1909, American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits became the first men to reach the North Pole.
�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 1985, William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital as he moved into an apartment in Louisville, Ky.
�In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled a Nebraska farmer had been entrapped by postal agents into buying mail-order child pornography.
�In 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a mysterious plane crash near Rwanda�s capital; widespread violence and killings erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush repeated his call for Israel to �withdraw without delay� from West Bank towns it had occupied since launching an offensive after a string of suicide attacks; Bush also demanded the Palestinians call �an immediate and effective cease-fire.�
Five years ago: British sailors and marines newly freed by Iran said they were blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.
One year ago: Portugal became the third debt-stressed European country to need a bailout as the prime minister announced his country would request international assistance.
Today�s Birthdays: Nobel Prize-winning scientist James D. Watson is 84. Composer-conductor Andre Previn is 83. Country singer Merle Haggard is 75. Movie director Barry Levinson is 70. Actress Marilu Henner is 60. Author Vince Flynn is 46. Rock musician Markku Lappalainen is 39. Actor Zach Braff is 37. Actress Eliza Coupe is 31. Actor Bret Harrison is 30. Actor Charlie McDermott is 22.
© Copyright 2006-2019 GateHouse Media, LLC. All rights reserved • GateHouse Digests