TODAY IS
Today is SUNDAY, APRIL 7, the 98th day of 2024. There are 268 days left in the year.
HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” opened on Broadway.
10 YEARS AGO
Jeb Bush signaled that he would break from GOP hardliners’ “harsh political rhetoric” on issues such as education and immigration if he ran for president in 2016. In a speech capping the celebration of the 25th anniversary of his father’s presidency, the former Florida governor said illegal immigration was often “an act of love” by people trying to provide for their families.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1915, jazz singer-songwriter Billie Holiday, also known as “Lady Day,” was born in Philadelphia.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held a news conference in which he spoke of the importance of containing the spread of communism in Indochina, saying, “You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly.” (This became known as the “domino theory,” although Eisenhower did not use the term.)
In 1962, nearly 1,200 Cuban exiles tried by Cuba for their roles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion were convicted of treason.
In 1966, the U.S. Navy recovered a hydrogen bomb that the U.S. Air Force had lost in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain following a B-52 crash.
In 1984, the Census Bureau reported Los Angeles had overtaken Chicago as the nation’s “second city” in terms of population.
In 2012, a massive avalanche engulfed a Pakistani military complex in a mountain battleground close to the Indian border; all 140 people on the base died.
In 2017, President Donald Trump concluded a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, saying he had developed an “outstanding” relationship with the Chinese leader.
In 2020, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned after lambasting the officer he’d fired as the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had been stricken by a coronavirus outbreak; James McPherson was appointed as acting Navy secretary.
In 2022, the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Country singer Bobby Bare is 89.
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown is 86.
Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 85.
Singer John Oates is 76.
Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is 75.
Actor Jackie Chan is 70.
College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett is 70.
Actor Russell Crowe is 60.
Former football player-turned-analyst Tiki Barber is 49.
Retired baseball infielder Adrian Beltre is 45.