Today in History

Published 3:11 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2020

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday, April 28, the 119th day of 2020. There are 247 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 28, 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title after he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.

On this date:

In 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

In 1789, there was a mutiny on the HMS Bounty as rebelling crew members of the British ship, led by Fletcher Christian, set the captain, William Bligh, and 18 others adrift in a launch in the South Pacific. (Bligh and most of the men with him reached Timor in 47 days.)

In 1918, Gavrilo Princip, 23, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, died in prison of tuberculosis.

In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

In 1958, the United States conducted the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I. Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin America that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1963, at Broadway’s Tony Awards, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was named best play while “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” won best musical.

In 1967, U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland told Congress that “backed at home by resolve, confidence, patience, determination and continued support, we will prevail in Vietnam over communist aggression.”

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran. (Vance was succeeded by Edmund Muskie.)

In 1986, the Soviet Union informed the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

In 1988, a flight attendant was killed and more than 60 persons injured when part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tore off during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu.

In 1994, former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 1998, in a breakthrough for the government’s tobacco investigation, cigarette maker Liggett and Myers agreed to tell prosecutors whether the industry had hidden evidence of health damage from smoking.

Ten years ago: Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was worse than officials had believed, and that the federal government was offering to help industry giant BP contain the slick threatening the U.S. shoreline.

Five years ago: Urging Americans to “do some soul-searching,” President Barack Obama expressed deep frustration over recurring black deaths at the hands of police, rioters who responded with senseless violence and a society that would only “feign concern” without addressing the root causes. Nigerian troops rescued nearly 300 girls and women during an offensive against Boko Haram militants in the northeast Sambia forest; those rescued did not include any of the schoolgirls kidnapped a year earlier from Chibok. Jack Ely, the singer known for “Louie Louie,” the low-budget recording that became one the most famous songs of the 20th century, died in Redmond, Ore., at age 71.

One year ago: Former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a leading voice on foreign policy during his 36 years in the Senate, died at a hospital in Virginia at the age of 87. A shooting in Topeka, Kansas, killed a Washburn University football player, Dwayne Simmons, and wounded a former team member, Corey Ballentine, who had been drafted just hours earlier by the New York Giants; authorities said they were “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when they were shot outside an off-campus house party. (Francisco Alejandro Mendez has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder.) “Avengers: Endgame” shattered the record for biggest opening weekend with an estimated $350 million in ticket sales domestically and $1.2 billion globally, on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film ever.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is 90. Actress-singer Ann-Margret is 79. Actor Paul Guilfoyle is 71. Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is 70. Rock musician Chuck Leavell is 68. Actress Mary McDonnell is 68. Rock singer-musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) is 67. Actress Nancy Lee Grahn is 64. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is 60. Rapper Too Short is 54. Actress Bridget Moynahan is 49. Actor Chris Young is 49. Rapper Big Gipp is 48. Actor Jorge Garcia is 47. Actress Elisabeth Rohm is 47. Actress Penelope Cruz is 46. Actor Nate Richert is 42. TV personalities Drew and Jonathan Scott are 42. Actress Jessica Alba is 39. Actor Harry Shum Jr. is 38. Actress Jenna Ushkowitz is 34. Actress Aleisha Allen is 29.

Thought for Today: “We have two lives… the one we learn with and the life we live with after that.” — Bernard Malamud, American author (1914-1986).