Today is Thursday, April 9, the 100th day of 2020. There are 266 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 9, 1942, during World War II, some 75,000 Philippine and American defenders on Bataan surrendered to Japanese troops, who forced the prisoners into what became known as the Bataan Death March; thousands died or were killed en route.
On this date:
In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
In 1939, singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In 1968, funeral services, private and public, were held for Martin Luther King Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and Morehouse College in Atlanta, five days after the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1979, officials declared an end to the crisis involving the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, 12 days after a partial core meltdown.
In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger ended its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1992, former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges; he served a 17-year U.S. prison sentence.
In 2003, jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad and embracing American troops as liberators.
In 2005, Britain’s Prince Charles married longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles, who took the title Duchess of Cornwall.
In 2009, North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament appointed Kim Jong Il to a third term as leader. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22, and two others were killed in a car crash by a suspected drunken driver. (Andrew Thomas Gallo was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.)
Today’s Birthdays: Satirical songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer is 92. Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 87. Actress Michael Learned is 81. Country singer Margo Smith is 78. Country singer Hal Ketchum is 67. Actor Dennis Quaid is 66. Comedian Jimmy Tingle is 65. Country musician Dave Innis (Restless Heart) is 61. Talk show host Joe Scarborough is 57.
Thought for Today: “Thinking is like loving or dying. Each of us must do it for ourselves.” — Josiah Royce, American philosopher (1855-1916).
