Today is Monday, April 16, the 106th day of 2018. There are 259 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in which the civil rights activist responded to a group of local clergymen who had criticized him for leading street protests; King defended his tactics, writing, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
On this date:
In 1789, President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, Virginia, for his inauguration in New York.
In 1818, the U.S. Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot Treaty severely limiting the number of American and British military vessels on the Great Lakes.
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. The Confederacy conscripted all white men between the ages of 18 to 35.
In 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.
In 1935, the radio comedy program "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered on the NBC Blue Network.
In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoed and sank the MV Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers; it's estimated that up to 7,000 people died.
In 1947, the cargo ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate, blew up in the harbor in Texas City, Texas; a nearby ship, the High Flyer, which was carrying ammonium nitrate and sulfur, caught fire and exploded the following day; the blasts and fires killed nearly 600 people. At the South Carolina statehouse, financier Bernard M. Baruch declared: "Let us not be deceived - we are today in the midst of a cold war."
In 1968, American author Edna Ferber, whose novels included "So Big," ''Show Boat" and "Giant," and who collaborated with George S. Kaufman on such plays as "Stage Door" and "Dinner at Eight," died in New York at age 82.
In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon with astronauts John W. Young, Charles M. Duke Jr. and Ken Mattingly on board.
In 1986, dispelling rumors he was dead, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (MOO'-ah-mar gah-DAH'-fee) appeared on television to condemn the U.S. raid on his country and to say that Libyans were "ready to die" defending their nation.
In 1996, Britain's Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were in the process of divorcing.
In 2007, in one of America's worst school attacks, a Korean-born college senior killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech before taking his own life.