1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.
1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 – American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1888 – The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1934 – Jane Goodall, English primatologist and ethologist was born.
1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the baby son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1939 – Paul Craig Roberts, American economist was born.
1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges.
1958 – Alec Baldwin, American actor and producer was born.
1959 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor was born.
1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.
1969 – Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to “Vietnamize” the war effort.
1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.
1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
1996 – Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his cabin in Montana, United States.
1996 – A United States Air Force airplane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on board.
2000 – United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping “an oppressive thumb” on its competitors.
2003 – Michael Kelly, American journalist (war hawk) (b. 1957) died.
2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
2008 – Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS’s YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be removed and taken into state custody.
Notable Births not mentioned above:
1898 - Henry R Luce, Tengchow China, publisher (Time, Fortune, Life, Skull and Bones)
1924 - Marlon Brando, Omaha Neb, actor (Superman, Godfather)
1942 - Wayne Newton, American singer
1944 - Tony Orlando, NYC, singer (& Dawn-Tie a Yellow Ribbon)
1946 - Dee Murray, rocker (Elton John Band)
1961 - Eddie Murphy, Brooklyn New York, American actor (SNL, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Raw)
MORE here http://www.historyorb.com/birthdays/april/3
RIP:
33 - Christ, crucified (according to astronomer Humphreys & Waddington)
1897 - Johannes Brahms, German composer/conductor (Hung Dances), dies at 63
1990 - Sarah Vaughn, jazz singer, dies of lung cancer at 66
1991 - Graham Greene, Brit writer (3rd Man, Our man in Havana), dies at 86
MORE HERE – http://www.historyorb.com/deaths/april/3