April 20 — Today in history
By The Associated Press
Today's Highlight in History:
On April 20, 1912, Boston's Fenway Park hosted its first professional baseball game while Navin Field (Tiger Stadium) opened in Detroit. (The Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11 innings; the Tigers beat the Cleveland Naps 6-5 in 11 innings.)
On this date:
In 1812, the fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.
In 1836, Congress voted to establish the Wisconsin Territory.
In 1861, Col. Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army. (Lee went on to command the Army of Northern Virginia, and eventually became general-in-chief of the Confederate forces.)
In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria.
In 1912, author Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula, died in London at age 64.
In 1945, during World War II, allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.
In 1972, the manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
In 1978, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed.
In 1992, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness took place at London's Wembley Stadium. Comedian Benny Hill died in his Greater London flat at age 68.
In 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.
In 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months.
Ten years ago: The world's top economic powers, meeting in Washington, agreed to intensify efforts to combat terrorist financing and also adopted a plan to better deal with international debt crises.
Five years ago: The family of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who shot and killed 32 people and himself, told The Associated Press they felt "hopeless, helpless and lost," and "never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." A disgruntled worker, William Phillips, shot and killed NASA employee David Beverly at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before barricading himself with a hostage and then killing himself. (The second hostage escaped with minor injuries.)
One year ago: Two Western photojournalists, including Oscar-nominated film director Tim Hetherington, were killed in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata while covering battles between rebels and government forces. The U.S. government announced new protections for air travelers when airlines lose their bags, bump them off flights or hold them on the runway for hours.