Flashback

Today is Saturday, April 23, the 113th day of 2005. There are 252 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.

Today’s highlight in history:

April 23, 1564, is believed to be the birthdate of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.

Ten years ago: The nation observed a national day of mourning for the victims of the Oklahoma City blast. Sportscaster Howard Cosell died in New York at age 77. Former Sen. John C. Stennis, D-Miss., died in Jackson, Miss., at age 93.

Five years ago: Elian Gonzalez spent a secluded Easter with his father at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, a day after the 6-year-old boy was removed from his Miami relatives’ home in a pre-dawn raid by immigration agents. A group of 21 tourists and workers were kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort by Abu Sayyaf rebels.

One year ago: President Bush eased Reagan-era sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi’s giving up weapons of mass destruction. South African President Thabo Mbeki was elected unopposed for a second term.

On this date:

In 1348, King Edward III of England established the Order of the Garter.

In 1789, President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.

In 1791, the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa.

In 1904, the American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded.

In 1940, about 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez, Miss.

In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his record 755 major-league home runs, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves won, 7-5.)

In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)

In 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke (negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version).

In 1993, labor leader Cesar Chavez died in San Luis, Ariz., at age 66.

In 1998, James Earl Ray, who’d confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he’d been framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70.