Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

April 11

1992
Rap music killer: 19-year-old Ronald Ray Howard kills a state trooper who stopped him for a broken headlight. He claimed the anti-police rap music he was listening to made him do it. He was convicted and executed for the crime.

1989
Ritual sacrifice: The bodies of 15 people, mutilated by cultists, are discovered in Matamoros, Mexico. The victims, including 1 21-year-old Univ. of Texas student were killed as part of a ritual to protect drug smugglers from the police.

1979
Uganda: President Idi Amin is overthrown by Yusufu Lule. Two days later Lule was sworn in as president.

1968
Civil Rights: Pres. Johnson signs into law the Civil Rights Act, making housing discrimination illegal.

1962
New York Mets: They play their first game, losing to St. Louis (11-4).

1961
Adolf Eichmann: The German SS officer, who organized the transportation of Jews to concentration camps for "the final solution" during World War II, goes on trial in Israel for war crimes. He was found guilty in December and hanged the following May.

1951
Korean War: Pres. Truman relieves Gen. Douglas MacArthur of all command for making unauthorized statements.

1947
First black to play in a major-league baseball game: Jackie Robinson plays in an exhibition game for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1921
First state cigarette tax: Iowa legalizes the sale of cigarettes in that state and levies a tax of $1 per 1,000 cigarettes.

1921
Boxing: First U.S. radio broadcast of a boxing match. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1816
First black church in the U.S.: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia opens. Also, the first black bishop in the U.S., Rev. Richard Allen, is ordained to head the church.

1713
Queen Anne's War: The Treaty of Utrecht signed ending the war.

1945     d. 1970
Citation, thoroughbred race horse, 1948 Triple Crown winner, and the first race horse to win $1,000,000 (1951).

1939
Louise Lasser, American actress. TV: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (title role).

1933
Tony Brown, American journalist. TV: Black Journal (host, moderator).

1932
Joel Grey (Joel Katz), American Oscar-Tony-winning actor. Broadway: Cabaret (1966, Tony, as the emcee). Film: Cabaret (1972, Oscar, as the emcee).

1931
Johnny Sheffield, American actor. Film: He played Boy in the Tarzan movies of the 1940s.

1930
Nicholas F. Brady, American banker, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

1918
Cameron Mitchell, American actor. TV: High Chaparral (Buck Cannon).

1914
Norman McLaren, Scottish-born film animator. Film: Neighbors (1952, Oscar), in which he animated actual actors by filming them one frame at time while slightly changing their positions.

1913     d. 2006
Oleg Cassini, French-born fashion and costume designer. He was the official couturier to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

1755     d. 1824
James Parkinson, English surgeon. He described the disease of shaking palsy (1817), which now bears his name. He was also one of the first to give a scientific account of fossils.

146     d. 211
Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman Emperor (193-211).

1992     b. 1920
James L. Brown, American actor. TV: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (Lt. Rip Masters).

1987     b. 1903
Erskine Caldwell, American author. Writings: Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933).

1983     b. 1905
Dolores Del Rio, Mexican actress. Film: Maria Candelaria (1943) and The Fugitive (1947).

1926     b. 1849
Luther Burbank, American naturalist. He created hundreds of new breeds of flowers, plants, and trees.

1906     b. 1847
James Anthony Bailey, American showman, Barnum's partner, owner of Jumbo, the giant elephant.

1906     b. 1839
Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor, author of Is There a Santa Clause? (1897).

1873     b. 1817
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby, American general. He was killed by Indian leader Captain Jack while negotiating an Indian surrender. He was the only U.S. general killed fighting Indians.

678     b. ????
Donus, Italian religious leader, 78th Pope (676-678).

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