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Today is Saturday, April 04th
The 094th day of 2009.
There are 271 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn.
On April 4, 1915, Muddy Waters, American blues musician, was born.
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On this date in:
1818 - Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state.
1841 - President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. president to die in office.
1850 - The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
1887 - Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community - Argonia, Kan.
1888 - Baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker was born in Hubbard, Texas.
1902 - British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships at Oxford University in England.
1945 - U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
1949 - Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.
1974 - Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's career home run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.
1975 - A U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed shortly after takeoff from Saigon, killing more than 130 people, most of them children.
1981 - Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio, Texas.
1988 - The Arizona Senate convicted Gov. Evan Mecham of two charges of official misconduct, and removed him from office.
1991 - Sen. John Heinz, R-Penn., and six other people were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa.
1999 - The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 in baseball's first season opener held in Mexico.
2003 - U.S. forces seized Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad.
2003 - Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the 18th major league baseball player to hit 500 career homers, connecting for a solo shot in a 10-9 loss to Cincinnati.
2006 - The Iraq tribunal charged Saddam Hussein and six others, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds.
2007 - Radio host Don Imus made offensive on-air remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Despite a subsequent apology, Imus was fired by CBS Radio and cable network MSNBC.