Today is the 82nd day of 2026. There are 283 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2004: Former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says United Nations inspectors would have been able to determine Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction had the United States and Britain allowed more time for them to work before going to war.

OTHER EVENTS

1593: English Separatist Puritans John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe are tried and sentenced to death on the charge of devising and circulating books intended to encourage people to oppose the government.

1801: Russia’s Czar Paul I is assassinated by Russian aristocrats and succeeded by Alexander I.

1856: An 18-year-old English chemist William Perkin accidentally produces the first synthetic aniline dye “mauveine” (purple) during his Easter holiday.

1882: The Edmunds Act (Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act) is adopted by the United States to suppress polygamy; 1300 men are later imprisoned under the Act.

1881: A gas lamp sets fire to the Théâtre Municipal opera house in Nice, France; 70 die, and the building is destroyed.

1896: The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.

1903: The Wright brothers first file a patent for a flying machine; it is granted three years later.

1918: Germany begins using the long-range Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz (Emperor William Gun in English), aka Paris Gun, to shell Paris from Crépy-en-Laonnais, 75 miles away; over several days 303 rounds kill 256 and wound over 600.

1933: The German Reichstag, dominated by the Nazi Party and German National People’s Party, vote to pass the Enabling Act, thereby assuring Nazi primacy and granting Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

1945: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it becomes the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II.

1957: The last of the US Army’s combat pigeons are retired; trained pigeons had served during wartime for more than 50 years, travelling hundreds or even thousands of miles to deliver messages; the birds were especially valuable during World War I as telegraph lines could be easily cut or intercepted.

1962: Nawab of Pataudi captains the Indian cricket team against the West Indies at the age of 21 years and 77 days.

1973: Before sentencing a group of Watergate break-in defendants, Chief US District Judge John J Sirica reads aloud a letter received from James W McCord Jr which says there was “political pressure” to “plead guilty and remain silent”.

1976: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enters into force, incorporating almost all the international human rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

1977: Elvis Presley begins his final concert tour.

1980: Australian cricketer Allan Border becomes the first and only batsman to reach 150 in each innings of a test, in the third test vs Pakistan in Lahore.

1981: The US Supreme Court rules that states can require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.

1983: Dr Barney Clark, recipient of a Jarvik permanent artificial heart, dies at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.

1987: Soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful premieres on CBS
.

1990: The Soviet Government orders Western diplomats to leave and restricts the entry of foreigners into Lithuania.

1994: Wayne Gretzky sets a national Hockey League (NHL) record with 802 goals scored.

1996: Lee Teng-hui wins Taiwan’s first direct presidential election; during his time in office Lee worked to democratise Taiwan’s political system.

1998: James Cameron’s epic 1997 drama Titanic wins 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (James Cameron) and Best Song (My Heart Will Go On), tying the record set by the film Ben-Hur in 1959.

1999: Livin’ la Vida Loca, sung by Ricky Martin, is released and goes on to sell over eight million copies.

2003: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 US Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

2004: Usher releases his fourth studio album Confessions
; it wins Billboard Album of the Year for 2004 and the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album in 2005.

2008: Al Copeland, founder of the famous Popeyes fried chicken chain, dies near Munich, Germany, at age 64.

2010: In a major triumph for his presidency, a jubilant Barack Obama signs a massive, nearly US$1-trillion health-care overhaul (Obamacare) that will, for the first time, cement insurance coverage as the right of every US citizen.

2017: Abandoning negotiations, US President Donald Trump demands a make-or-break vote on health-care legislation in the House, threatening to leave “Obamacare” in place and move on to other issues if the next day’s vote fails; Trump and GOP leaders end up pulling their Bill when it becomes clear it would fail badly.

2018: A Sahara sandstorm turns snow in Sochi, Russia, orange in one of the largest-ever transfers of desert sand.

2019: Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken, raising flags in Baghuz, Syria, and ending the five-year Islamic State “caliphate”.

2021: The Suez Canal, one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes, is blocked after mega-freighter Ever Given runs aground; it takes six days to move the vessel.

2022: After 114 consecutive weeks as world number one female tennis player, 25-year-old Australian Ash Barty makes a shock retirement announcement, citing contentment with all she has achieved in the sport.

2023: Utah becomes the first state to limit social media for minors, including an overnight curfew and parental consents. Canada records record population growth of +2.7 per cent, adding one million people in 2022, mostly through immigration.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Emmy Noether, German mathematician whose innovations in higher algebra made her the most creative abstract algebraist of modern times (1882-1935); Joan Crawford, US actress (1908-1977); Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (1910-1998); Wernher von Braun, German-born rocket expert (1912-1977); Ric Ocasek, British rock singer-producer (1949-2019); Chaka Khan, US singer (1953- )

– AP/OnThisDay.com/ Britannica.com

On this day in 1976, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enters into force, incorporating almost all the international human rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.online