Today in history: April 19
In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and more events that happened on this day in history.
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1865: Abraham Lincoln
In 1865, a funeral was held at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated five days earlier; his coffin was then taken to the U.S. Capitol for a private memorial service in the Rotunda.
1943: The Warsaw Ghetto
In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.
1989: USS Iowa
In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa in the Caribbean. (The Navy initially suspected that a dead crew member had deliberately sparked the blast, but later said there was no proof of that.)
1993: Waco
In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; about 80 people, including two dozen children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
1994: Rodney King
In 1994, a Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King.
1995: Oklahoma City
In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh, who prosecutors said had planned the attack as revenge for the Waco siege of two years earlier, was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)
2005: Benedict XVI
In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.
2011: Grete Waitz
Ten years ago: Norwegian runner Grete Waitz, 57, who’d won nine New York marathons and the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, died in Oslo.
2011: Raul Castro
Ten years ago: Cuba’s Communist Party picked 79-year-old Raul Castro to replace his ailing brother Fidel as first secretary during a key Party Congress.
2013: Boston
In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv), a 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, was taken into custody after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed; his older brother and alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Tamerlan (TAM’-ehr-luhn), was killed earlier in a furious attempt to escape police.
2015: Freddie Gray
In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury in the back of a Baltimore police van while he was handcuffed and shackled. (Six police officers were charged; three were acquitted and the city’s top prosecutor eventually dropped the three remaining cases.)
2016: Fidel Castro
Five years ago: Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro delivered a valedictory speech to the Communist Party that he put in power a half-century earlier, telling party members he was nearing the end of his life and exhorting them to help his ideas survive.
2016: New York
Five years ago: Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton swept to resounding victories in New York’s primary.
2020: Eastern Orthodox
One year ago: A handful of Eastern Orthodox priests held mass for the Christian holiday of Easter in an empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem due to coronavirus restrictions. (Eastern Christian rites mark Easter a week after the Catholic calendar.)