Today is Monday, April 29, the 120th day of 2024 with 246 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Venus. Evening star is Jupiter.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1863; bandleader/composer Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington in 1899; Japanese Emperor Hirohito in 1901; actor Celeste Holm in 1917; musician Toots Thielemans, born Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, in 1922; British skiffle group leader Lonnie Donegan in 1931; country singer Willie Nelson in 1933 (age 91); baseball Hall of Fame member Luis Aparicio in 1934 (age 90); conductor Zubin Mehta in 1936 (age 88); financier/Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff in 1938; musician Duane Allen (Oak Ridge Boys) in 1943 (age 81); musician Tommy James in 1947 (age 77); long-distance runner/former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., in 1947 (age 77); golfer/TV analyst Johnny Miller in 1947 (age 77); auto racer Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1951; comedian Nora Dunn in 1952 (age 72); comedian/actor/producer Jerry Seinfeld in 1954 (age 70); actor Leslie Jordan in 1955; actor Kate Mulgrew in 1955 (age 69), actor Daniel Day-Lewis in 1957 (age 67); actor Michelle Pfeiffer in 1958 (age 66); actor Eve Plumb in 1958 (age 66); musician Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) in 1968 (age 56); actor Uma Thurman in 1970 (age 54); musician Master P, born Percy Robert Miller, in 1970 (age 54); actor Darby Stanchfield in 1971 (age 53); musician Mike Hogan (Cranberries) in 1973 (age 51); tennis player Andre Agassi in 1970 (age 54); tennis doubles specialist Bob Bryan in 1978 (age 46); tennis doubles specialist Mike Bryan in 1978 (age 46); actor Tyler Labine in 1978 (age 46); actor Katherine Langford in 1996 (age 28); U.S. women’s national soccer team member Mallory Pugh in 1998 (age 26); actor Ella Hunt in 1998 (age 26); actor Xochitl Gomez in 2006 (age 18).
On this date in history:
In 1854, Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, the first college founded solely for Black American students, was officially chartered. The private school was renamed Lincoln University in 1866 and became public in 1972.
In 1885, women were admitted for the first time to examinations at England’s Oxford University.
In 1913, Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, N.J., was issued a patent for the zipper.
In 1945, troops of the U.S. Seventh Army liberated 32,000 prisoners at the Nazi regime’s Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany.
In 1970, the South Vietnamese, with help from the United States, began a major ground operation into Cambodia to destroy Communist North Vietnamese sanctuaries.
In 1975, helicopters evacuated hundreds of American civilians and military support personnel, and thousands of South Vietnamese from Saigon — the day before the North Vietnamese overran the city.
In 1985, four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash stolen from the Wells Fargo armored car company in New York.
In 1986, an arson fire destroyed more than 1 million books in the Los Angeles Central Library.
In 1991, a typhoon struck Bangladesh, killing some 135,000 people.
In 1992, rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four White police officers of nearly all charges in the videotaped beating of Black motorist Rodney King. Fifty-three people died in three days of protest and violence.
In 2004, the final Oldsmobile was manufactured. The brand had been in existence for 107 years.
In 2010, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a policy change that allows women to serve on submarines.
In 2011, British Prince William, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and college sweetheart Kate Middleton, the new duchess of Cambridge, exchanged wedding rings and vows in a regal ceremony at Westminster Abbey before an estimated worldwide audience of 2 billion people.
In 2013, Jason Collins of the NBA became the first active player in a North American major sports league to announce he is gay.
In 2023, heavy fighting between warring factions of Sudan’s army broke out despite an extension of a cease-fire between the two sides. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces under Janjaweed leader Hemedti broke out April 15, 2023, and was ongoing through 2024.
A thought for the day: “When free discussion is denied, hardening of the arteries of democracy has set in, free institutions are but a lifeless form and the death of the republic is at hand.” — American publisher William Randolph Hearst