Today in History: April 19

Today is Friday, April 19, the 110th day of 2024. There are 256 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 19, 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; about 80 people, including two dozen children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed. Then on the same date in 1995, Timothy McVeigh, seeking to strike at the government he blamed for the Waco deaths, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)

On this date:

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

In 1865, a funeral was held at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated five days earlier; his coffin was then taken to the U.S. Capitol for a private memorial service in the Rotunda.

In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

In 1912, a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opened hearings in New York into the Titanic disaster.

In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile uprising against Nazi forces.

In 1977, the Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright, ruled 5-4 that even severe spanking of schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa in the Caribbean.

In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.

In 2012, Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band, died in New York City at age 71.

In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, was taken into custody after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed; his older brother and alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed earlier in a furious attempt to escape police.

In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury in the back of a Baltimore police van while he was handcuffed and shackled. (Six police officers were charged; three were acquitted and the city’s top prosecutor eventually dropped the three remaining cases.)

In 2017, Fox News Channel’s parent company fired Bill O’Reilly following an investigation into harassment allegations, bringing a stunning end to cable news’ most popular program.

In 2018, Raul Castro turned over Cuba’s presidency to Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, the first non-Castro to hold Cuba’s top government office since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul.

In 2022, Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long and poured more troops into Ukraine in a pivotal battle for control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.

In 2023, a Pennsylvania grand jury accused nine men with connections to the Jehovah’s Witnesses of child sexual abuse.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Elinor Donahue is 87. Rock musician Alan Price (The Animals) is 82. Actor Tim Curry is 78. Pop singer Mark “Flo” Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 77. Actor Tony Plana is 72. Former tennis player Sue Barker is 68. Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 62. Actor Tom Wood is 61. Former recording executive Suge Knight is 59. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 57. Actor Kim Hawthorne (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 56. Actor Ashley Judd is 56. Singer Bekka Bramlett is 56. Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 54. Actor Jennifer Esposito is 52. Actor Jennifer Taylor is 52. Jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux is 50. Actor James Franco is 46. Actor Kate Hudson is 45. Actor Hayden Christensen is 43. Actor vis 43. Actor-comedian Ali Wong is 42. Actor Victoria Yeates is 41. Actor Kelen Coleman is 40. Actor Zack Conroy is 39. Actor Courtland Mead is 37. Retired tennis player Maria Sharapova is 37. NHL forward Patrik Laine is 26.