Today in History: April 4

British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (1881 - 1951) meets the Foreign Ministers of France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg at Lancaster House in London, to begin talks on the Washington draft of the North Atlantic Treaty, 14th March 1949. A. V. Alexander (1885 - 1965), Britain's Minister of Defence, is on the extreme right, with Mr Bevin on his right. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
FILE - In this April 3, 1968 file photo, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. King is one of America's most famous victims of gun violence. Just as guns were a complicated issue for King in his lifetime, they loom large over the 30th anniversary of the holiday honoring his birthday. (AP Photo, File)
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. (AP Photo, File)
Bill Gates, right, chairman and founder of Microsoft Corp., watches a video presentation prior to giving the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Washington Software Association in Seattle, Wash., Jan. 28, 1992. Looking on is Paul Grey, president of Softchec, Inc. of Kirkland, Wash. (AP Photo/Jim Davidson)
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975. (AP Photo/Jim Davidson)
In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office. Depicted in this illustration, the inauguration of William Henry Harrison in Washington on March 4, 1841. Harrison was 68-years-old when he took office. Hatless and without an overcoat he rode horseback from the White House to the Capitol on a wintry day and stood for an hour in a raw wind while delivering his inaugural address. A month later he died of pneumonia. The artist’s conception of the inauguration included some light finery which hardly matched the weather of the day. (AP Photo)
File - In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Jay Z, left, and Beyonce arrive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York. The couple dressed as Barbie and Ken for Halloween in photos posted on Instagram Nov. 1, 2016. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
In 2008, Beyonce and Jay-Z were married during a private ceremony in New York. File – In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Jay Z, left, and Beyonce arrive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating “China: Through the Looking Glass” in New York. The couple dressed as Barbie and Ken for Halloween in photos posted on Instagram Nov. 1, 2016. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, in All the President's Men.
In 1976, the film “All the President’s Men,” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, in All the President’s Men. (Bettmann Archive/Bettmann)
Facebook revealed that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in a privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a Trump-affiliated data mining firm. FILE – In this April 18, 2018, file photo, a graphic from the Cambridge Analytica website is displayed on a computer screen in New York. Among the most troubling cases of what made 2018 so ominous was the revelation in March that political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica swept up personal information of millions of Facebook users for the purpose of manipulating national elections. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
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British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (1881 - 1951) meets the Foreign Ministers of France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg at Lancaster House in London, to begin talks on the Washington draft of the North Atlantic Treaty, 14th March 1949. A. V. Alexander (1885 - 1965), Britain's Minister of Defence, is on the extreme right, with Mr Bevin on his right. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
FILE - In this April 3, 1968 file photo, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. King is one of America's most famous victims of gun violence. Just as guns were a complicated issue for King in his lifetime, they loom large over the 30th anniversary of the holiday honoring his birthday. (AP Photo, File)
Bill Gates, right, chairman and founder of Microsoft Corp., watches a video presentation prior to giving the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Washington Software Association in Seattle, Wash., Jan. 28, 1992. Looking on is Paul Grey, president of Softchec, Inc. of Kirkland, Wash. (AP Photo/Jim Davidson)
File - In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Jay Z, left, and Beyonce arrive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York. The couple dressed as Barbie and Ken for Halloween in photos posted on Instagram Nov. 1, 2016. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, in All the President's Men.

Today is Thursday, April 4, the 94th day of 2019.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; his slaying was followed by a wave of rioting (Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Chicago were among cities particularly hard hit.) Suspected gunman James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming he’d been the victim of a setup.

On this date:

In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted 82-6 in favor of declaring war against Germany (the House followed suit two days later by a vote of 373-50).

In 1933, the Navy airship USS Akron crashed in severe weather off the New Jersey coast with the loss of 73 lives.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp Ohrdruf in Germany. Hungary was liberated as Soviet forces cleared out remaining German troops.

In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C.

In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after takeoff from Saigon. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1976, the film “All the President’s Men,” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. (It was destroyed in the disaster of January 1986.)

In 1988, the Arizona Senate convicted Gov. Evan Mecham (MEE’-kuhm) of two charges of official misconduct, and removed him from office; Mecham was the first U.S. governor to be impeached and removed from office in nearly six decades.

In 1991, Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and six other people, including two children, were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz’s plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pennsylvania.

In 2008, Beyonce and Jay-Z were married during a private ceremony in New York.

Ten years ago: A gunman killed three Pittsburgh police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call; Richard Poplawski was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Police in Washington state found the body of James Harrison, who’d apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home in Graham. NATO leaders appointed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AHN’-derz fohg RAHS’-moo-sihn) the alliance’s new secretary-general during a two-day, 60th-anniversary summit in Strasbourg, France.

Five years ago: An Afghan police officer opened fire on two Associated Press journalists inside a security forces base in eastern Afghanistan, killing prize-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus (AHN’-yuh NEE’-dring-hows) and wounding veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon.

One year ago: Saying the situation had reached “a point of crisis,” President Donald Trump signed a proclamation directing the deployment of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration. Facebook revealed that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in a privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a Trump-affiliated data mining firm. After the United States said it would impose 25 percent duties on $50 billion of imports from China, Beijing quickly retaliated by listing $50 billion of products it could hit with its own 25 percent tariffs.

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