Today in history
Today is Thursday, April 5, the 95th day of 2007. There are 270 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On April 5, 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.
On this date:
In 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
In 1621, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on a return trip to England.
In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote, “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Ala., teacher Anne Sullivan taught her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, the word “water” as spelled out in the Manual Alphabet.
In 1895, Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who’d accused the writer of homosexual practices.
In 1964, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.
In 1975, nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.
In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 72.
In 1986, an American soldier and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, an incident which prompted the U.S. air raid on Libya more than a week later.
Ten years ago: Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who’d shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70.
Five years ago: U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni met with Yasser Arafat at the Palestinian leader’s besieged West Bank headquarters on the bloodiest day of fighting since the beginning of Israel’s week-old military offensive.
One year ago: Duke University’s lacrosse coach resigned and the school canceled the rest of the season amid a burgeoning scandal involving allegations that three players on the highly ranked team had raped a stripper at an off-campus party. (The rape charges were later dropped, but the players still face allegations of sexual offense and kidnapping; all maintain their innocence.)