TODAY IN HISTORY

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Today is Friday, April 3, the 94th day of 2020. There are 272 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 3, 1996, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested at his remote Montana cabin.

On this date:

In 1860, the legendary Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. (The delivery system lasted only 18 months before giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.)

In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.

In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces began their final assault on Bataan against American and Filipino troops who surrendered six days later; the capitulation was followed by the notorious Bataan Death March.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.

In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what turned out to be his final speech, telling a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, that “I’ve been to the mountaintop” and “seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!” (About 20 hours later, King was felled by an assassin’s bullet at the Lorraine Motel.)

In 1973, the first handheld portable telephone was demonstrated for reporters on a New York City street corner as Motorola executive Martin Cooper called Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.

Today’s Birthdays: Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall is 86. Actor Eric Braeden is 79. Actress Marsha Mason is 78. Singer Wayne Newton is 78. Singer Tony Orlando is 76.Blues singer-guitarist John Mooney is 65. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 64. Actor Alec Baldwin is 62. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 61. Rock singer John Thomas Griffith (Cowboy Mouth) is 60. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 59. Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 52. Rock musician James MacDonough is 50. Olympic gold medal ski racer Picabo Street is 49. Actress Jennie Garth is 48.

Thought for Today: “I didn’t invent the world I write about — it’s all true.” — Graham Greene, British author (1904-1991).

By The Associated Press

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