Today in History
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1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed
The former President of Pakistan had been deposed by a coup d'etat. He was hanged despite international calls to stop the execution.
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1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft
Microsoft has developed into a multinational corporation, and it is the world's largest software maker by revenue.
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1969 Denton Cooley implants the first artificial heart
The machine kept patient Haskell Karp alive for 65 hours, until he received a human heart transplant. His body rejected the transplant and he died on April 8, 1969.
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1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
The civil rights activist was killed by James Earl Ray. Ray, a segregationist, received a 99-year prison sentence. He died in jail in 1998.
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1949 NATO is formed
12 nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty to establish what is today one of the world's most important military alliances.
Births On This Day,
April 4
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1979 Heath Ledger
Australian actor, director
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1979 Roberto Luongo
Canadian ice hockey player
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1952 Gary Moore
Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer
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1928 Maya Angelou
American author, poet, actress, director
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1875 Pierre Monteux
French conductor
Deaths On This Day,
April 4
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2013 Roger Ebert
American journalist, critic, screenwriter
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1984 Oleg Antonov
Soviet aircraft designer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company
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1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Pakistani politician, 4th President of Pakistan
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1968 Martin Luther King, Jr.
American minster, activist, Nobel Prize laureate
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1929 Karl Benz
German engineer, businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz