On This Day in History - April 6th - Almanac

Today is Monday, April 6, the 97th day of 2020 with 269 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Mars and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian painter Raphael in 1483; newspaper editor Joseph Medill in 1823; journalist Lincoln Steffens in 1866; radio commentator Lowell Thomas in 1892; geneticist James Watson in 1928 (age 92); musician Andre Previn in 1929; country singer Merle Haggard in 1937; actor Billy Dee Williams in 1937 (age 83); drag racing legend Don "The Snake" Prudhomme in 1941 (age 79); producer/director Barry Levinson in 1942 (age 78); actor John Ratzenberger in 1947 (age 73); actor Marilu Henner in 1952 (age 68); actor Michael Rooker in 1955 (age 65); former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in 1963 (age 57); rock singer Black Francis, born Charles Thompson IV, in 1965 (age 55); actor Paul Rudd in 1969 (age 51); actor Zach Braff in 1975 (age 45); actor Candace Cameron Bure in 1976 (age 44); model Hilary Rhoda in 1987 (age 33); actor Charlie McDermott in 1990 (age 30); actor Miranda May in 1996 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, originally known as the Church of Christ, was founded between three groups of followers in Fayette, Manchester and Colesville, N.Y.

In 1851, Portland, Ore., was founded.

In 1896, the first modern Olympics formally opened in Athens, Greece. The Olympics had last been staged 1,500 years earlier.

In 1909, explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole. It would be November of the same year before the National Geographic Society confirmed the accomplishment.

In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, propelling America into World War I.

In 1938, DuPont researchers Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok stumbled upon the chemical compound that was later marketed as Teflon.

In 1947, the first Tony Awards, honoring distinguished work in the theater, were presented in New York City.

In 1968, federal troops and National Guardsmen were deployed in Chicago, Washington and Detroit as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1973, American League baseball teams used a designated hitter for the first time. It hasn't always been a popular rule.

In 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were among those killed when their plane was hit by rockets as it was landing in Kigali, Rwanda. The attack triggered fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that left hundreds of thousands of people dead in what became known as the Rwandan Genocide.

In 2004, the University of Connecticut became the first school to win both the NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball championships the same year. The UConn teams did it again in 2014.

In 2005, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, one of Europe's longest-reigning monarchs, died from multiple organ failure at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Prince Albert, one of three children of Rainier and his wife, movie star Grace Kelly, who died in a car crash in 1982.

In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy's Abruzzo region, killing 307 people and causing damage throughout the city of L'Aquila.

In 2019, for the first time, a tremor was detected on the surface of Mars by the InSight lander's SEIS seismometer. NASA described the phenomenon as a marsquake.

A thought for the day: "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear." -- Myanmar politician Aung San Suu Kyi