Today is Tuesday, April 2, the 92nd day of 2019. There are 273 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II died in his Vatican apartment at age 84.
On this date:
In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.
In 1863, during the Civil War, the Richmond Bread Riot erupted in the Confederate capital as a mob outraged over food shortages and rising prices attacked and looted stores.
In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, because of advancing Union forces.
In 1912, the just-completed RMS Titanic left Belfast to begin its sea trials eight days before the start of its ill-fated maiden voyage.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” (Congress declared war four days later.)
In 1956, the soap operas “As the World Turns” and “The Edge of Night” premiered on CBS-TV.
In 1958, the term “beatnik” was coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen to refer to members of the pre-hippie counterculture; the term was inspired by the “Beat Generation” and by the Soviet launch of its second Sputnik spacecraft.
In 1968, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the groundbreaking science-fiction film epic produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.
In 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)
In 1986, four American passengers, including an 8-month-old girl, her mother and grandmother, were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.
In 1992, mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering; he was later sentenced to life, and died in prison.
In 2003, during the Iraq War, American forces fought their way to within sight of the Baghdad skyline.