Today is Friday, April 19, the 110th day of 2024. There are 256 days left in the year.

Today’s story highlights:

On April 19, 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held; Winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

In this day:

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

In 1865, a funeral was held at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated five days earlier; His casket was then taken to the United States Capitol for a private memorial service in the Rotunda.

In 1912, a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opened hearings in New York on the Titanic disaster.

In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a brave but ultimately futile uprising against Nazi forces.

In 1977, the Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright ruled 5 to 4 that even severe spankings given to schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1989, 47 sailors died when a turret aboard the USS Iowa exploded in the Caribbean.

In 1993, the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when a fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began to fight their way through; About 80 people, including two dozen children and cult leader David Koresh, were killed. Then, on the same date in 1995, Timothy McVeigh, attempting to attack the government he blamed for the Waco deaths, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)

In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected Pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; He took the name Benedict XVI.

In 2012, Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band, died in New York City at age 71.

In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv), a 19-year-old college student wanted in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings, was arrested after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed; His older brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan (TAM’-ehr-luhn), 26, was earlier murdered in a furious attempt to escape from police.

In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury in the back of a Baltimore police van while handcuffed and shackled. (Six police officers were indicted; three were acquitted, and the city’s top prosecutor eventually dismissed the remaining three cases.)

In 2017, Fox News Channel’s parent company fired Bill O’Reilly following an investigation into harassment allegations, marking a shocking end to the most popular cable news show.

In 2018, Raúl Castro handed over the presidency of Cuba to Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the first non-Castro to hold Cuba’s top government position since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raúl.

In 2022, Russia attacked cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of kilometers long and sent more troops into Ukraine in a pivotal battle for control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland, filled with mines and factories. of coal.

In 2023, a Pennsylvania grand jury indicted nine men with connections to Jehovah’s Witnesses with child sexual abuse.

Today’s birthday: Actress Elinor Donahue is 87 years old. Rock musician Alan Price (The Animals) is 82. Actor Tim Curry is 78. Pop singer Mark “Flo” Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 77. Actor Tony Plana is 72. Former tennis player Sue Barker is 68 years old. Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 62 years old. Actor Tom Wood is 61 years old. Former recording executive Suge Knight is 59 years old. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 57 years old. Actor Kim Hawthorne (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 56 years old. Actor Ashley Judd is 56 years old. Singer Bekka Bramlett is 56 years old. Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 54 years old. Actress Jennifer Esposito is 52 years old. Actress Jennifer Taylor is 52 years old. Jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux (PAY’-roo) is 50 years old. James Franco is 46 years old. Actress Kate Hudson is 45. Actor Hayden Christensen is 43. Actor opposite is 43. Actor and comedian Ali Wong is 42. Actress Victoria Yeates is 41. Actor Kelen Coleman is 40. Actor Zack Conroy is 39. Actor Courtland Mead is 37 years old. Retired tennis player Maria Sharapova is 37 years old. NHL forward Patrik Laine is 26 years old.