TODAY IN HISTORY

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Today is Friday, April 23, the 113th day of 2021. There are 252 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)

On this date:

In 1616 (Old Style calendar), English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on what has traditionally been regarded as the 52nd anniversary of his birth in 1564.

In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States, which responded in kind two days later.

In 1940, about 200 people died in the Rhythm Night Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi.

In 1943, U.S. Navy Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy assumed command of PT-109, a motor torpedo boat, in the Solomon Islands during World War II. (On Aug. 2, 1943, PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, killing two crew members; Kennedy and 10 others survived.)

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

In 1987, 28 construction workers were killed when an apartment complex being built in Bridgeport, Connecticut, suddenly collapsed.

In 1988, a federal ban on smoking during domestic airline flights of two hours or less went into effect.

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

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

In 2005, the recently created video-sharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Lee Majors is 82. Hockey Hall of Famer Tony Esposito is 78. Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is 74. Actor Joyce DeWitt is 72. Filmmaker-author Michael Moore is 67. Actor Valerie Bertinelli is 61. Actor-comedian-talk show host George Lopez is 60. Professional wrestler/actor John Cena is 44. Actor-writer-comedian John Oliver is 44. Tennis player Ashleigh Barty is 25. U.S. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Chloe Kim is 21.

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