Today is Saturday, April 29, the 119th day of 2006. There are 246 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 29, 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; the same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.
On this date:
In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.
In 1861, Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.
In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.
In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities.
In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals.
In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate.
In 1981, truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the killer of 13 women in northern England during a five-year period.
In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.
In 1992, deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
In 1997, a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.
Ten years ago: Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned by authorities in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered.
Five years ago: The International Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-1998 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession.
One year ago: Insurgents unleashed a series of car bombings and other attacks across Iraq, killing at least 41 people, including three U.S. soldiers. NASA again delayed the first space shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster, worrying that ice falling off fuel tank could doom Discovery. Vietnam marked the 30th anniversary of war’s end.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Celeste Holm is 87. Rhythm-and-blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 78. Poet Rod McKuen is 73. Actor Keith Baxter is 73. Bluesman Otis Rush is 72. Conductor Zubin Mehta is 70. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 63. Singer Tommy James is 59. Movie director Phillip Noyce is 56. Country musician Wayne Secrest (Confederate Railroad) is 56. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 52. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 51. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 49. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 48. Actress Eve Plumb is 48. Rock musician Phil King is 46. Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 43. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 38. Actress Uma Thurman is 36. Tennis player Andre Agassi is 36. Rapper Master P is 36. Country singer James Bonamy is 34. Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 33. Actor Zane Carney is 21.
Thought for Today: “Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when may it suffice?” — William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and playwright (1865-1939).