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