Today is Saturday, April 19, the 109th day of 2025
with 256 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars and Uranus.
On this date in history:
In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight minutemen were killed and 10 injured in an exchange of musket fire with British redcoats.
In 1912, Col. Archibald Gracie, survivor on the ill-fated Titanic, told of being sucked under by the sinking ship before managing to make his way back to the surface and the safety of a life raft.
In 1943, Jewish residents of the Warsaw ghetto revolted when Germans tried to resume deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp. When the uprising ended on May 16, 7,000 Jews and 300 Germans had died and the ghetto lay in ruins.
In 1956, famed actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
In 1971, the Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.
In 1987, the first Simpsons cartoon appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.
In 1989, an explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors.
In 1989, a Wall Street banker jogging through Central Park was assaulted and raped, leaving her in a coma for more than a week. Five teenagers were convicted in the attack, but in 2002, another man confessed to the attack, which was confirmed by DNA evidence.
In 1993, a 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed a fortified compound after it was tear-gassed by authorities. Cult leader David Koresh and about 75 followers, including 17 children, were killed.
In 1994, a federal jury awarded police-beating victim Rodney King $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.
In 1995, a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring several hundred others.
In 2000, a federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez could stay in the United States until judges heard a full appeal from his relatives who sought to retain custody of the boy. He was eventually returned to his father in Cuba.
In 2005, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already a major power in the Roman Catholic Church, was elected pope to succeed John Paul II. He chose the name of Benedict XVI.
In 2013, one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was killed by police and another, his brother, was arrested. The city had been in a virtual lockdown.
In 2018, for the first time in decades, someone outside the Castro family assumed the presidency of Cuba -- Miguel Diaz-Canel.
In 2021, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter flew for 39 seconds on the surface Mars, the first powered aircraft to take flight on another planet.
In 2024, pop musician Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, amid her Eras world tour. The album won several awards, including the Top Billboard 200 Album and the iHeartRadio Music Awards Pop Album of the Year.
