Today in History: April 18, San Francisco’s great earthquake
Today in History: April 18, San Francisco’s great earthquake
This photo, taken later in the day following the earthquake on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, shows the damage caused by the natural disaster along a broad avenue in San Francisco, Ca. (AP Photo)
This photo, taken later in the day following the earthquake on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, shows the damage caused by the natural disaster along a broad avenue in San Francisco, Ca. (AP Photo)
This is a photo showing the destroyed American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, following a car bomb, April 19, 1983. (AP Photo)
This is a photo showing the destroyed American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, following a car bomb, April 19, 1983. (AP Photo)
Portrait of Albert Einstein taken in Princeton, USA, in June 1954. Einstein was born at Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. Encouraged by his father, who was an electrical engineer, Einstein studied at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute until the age of 21, shortly afterwards starting work at the Swiss Patent Office. Although famous for his papers on special and general relativity, he won the 1921 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. Einstein died on April 18, 1955 without completing his Grand Unified Theory of the fundamental forces, still incomplete today. (AP Photo)
Portrait of Albert Einstein taken in Princeton, USA, in June 1954. Einstein was born at Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. Encouraged by his father, who was an electrical engineer, Einstein studied at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute until the age of 21, shortly afterwards starting work at the Swiss Patent Office. Although famous for his papers on special and general relativity, he won the 1921 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. Einstein died on April 18, 1955 without completing his Grand Unified Theory of the fundamental forces, still incomplete today. (AP Photo)
Senators who have been prominent in shaping the debate on the Panama Canal treaties, from left, Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.; Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, floor manager for the treaties; and Sen. Dennis DeConcini, considered to hold a pivotal vote meet Tuesday, April 18, 1978 at Capitol Hill prior to the final vote later in the day in Washington. (AP Photo)
Senators who have been prominent in shaping the debate on the Panama Canal treaties, from left, Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.; Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, floor manager for the treaties; and Sen. Dennis DeConcini, considered to hold a pivotal vote meet Tuesday, April 18, 1978 at Capitol Hill prior to the final vote later in the day in Washington. (AP Photo)
Today in History
On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British Regular troops were approaching.
On this date:
In 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.
In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.
In 1923, the first game was played at the original Yankee Stadium in New York; the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-1.
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.
In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 76.
In 1966, Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first Black coach.
In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.
In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
In 2002, police arrested actor Robert Blake in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, nearly a year earlier (Blake was acquitted at his criminal trial but found liable in a civil trial).
In 2015, a ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean off Libya; only about 30 people were rescued.
In 2016, “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop stage biography of America’s first treasury secretary, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
In 2019, the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was made public; it outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.
Ten years ago: The FBI released surveillance camera images of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing and asked for the public’s help in identifying them, hours after President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic cathedral. Randy Newman, Heart, Rush, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Albert King, and producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Five years ago: Cuba’s government selected 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed President Raul Castro, a move that would install someone from outside the Castro family in the country’s highest office for the first time in nearly six decades; the 86-year-old Castro would remain head of the Communist Party. Amid a blackout that affected much of the rest of Puerto Rico, generators helped keep the lights on at a stadium in San Juan for the second of two games between the Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins. Bruno Sammartino, who had once been one of the longest-reigning champions in professional wrestling, died at the age of 82.
One year ago: Russia launched a long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraine’s east, the country’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists had been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years. A federal judge in Florida voided the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Alex Jones’ Infowars filed for bankruptcy after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation suits over his comments that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.