This Day in History — April 21
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
2010: An explosion rocks a BP offshore oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and eventually leading to the biggest oil spill in US history.
OTHER EVENTS
1856: Australia adopts eight-hour working day.
1898: United States recognises independence of Cuba.
1918: German air ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, is shot down and killed over the Western Front during a dogfight with Captain Arthur Roy Brown of Canada.
1977: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto assumes emergency powers and imposes martial law on three major cities in crackdown on opponents trying to force his resignation.
1980: Rosie Ruiz is the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon, but she is disqualified when officials discover she jumped into the race about a mile (1.6 kilometres) from the finish.
1987: Suspected Tamil Tiger separatists explode powerful bomb at height of rush hour near main bus station in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing as many as 150 people.
1989: Thousands of students, shouting for democracy and human rights, march from campuses to converge on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.
1991: Soviet hardliners launch a petition drive for a parliament session to impose a national state of emergency and take President Mikhail Gorbachev to task over worsening ethnic and economic troubles.
1993: The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
1997: The first Chinese Army soldiers march into Hong Kong in preparation for the handover of the British colony to China on July 1.
1998: South Korea drops efforts to get compensation from Japan for women held as sex slaves during World War II, and says it will pay surviving women.
2014: Syria calls for a presidential election June 3 to give President Bashar Assad a veneer of electoral legitimacy in the midst of a civil war that has killed more than 150,000 people and driven a third of the population from their homes.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Charlotte Bronte, English novelist (1816-1855); Anthony Quinn, Mexican-born actor (1915-2001); Queen Elizabeth II of England (1926- ); Elaine May, US entertainer-writer (1932- ); Omotoso Kole, Nigerian writer (1943- ); Iggy Pop, English punk singer (1947-); Patti LuPone, US actress/singer (1949-); James McAvoy, Scottish actor (1979- ); Michael Franti, US singer/rapper (1966- )
— AP