This Day in HistoryApril 20

1689

Former English King James II—overthrown by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, during the Glorious Revolution—begins a siege of Derry in Northern Ireland

1841

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murderers of Rue Morgue” first appears in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine—it is generally considered to be the world’s first detective story

1861

Two days after being offered command of the Union Army and three days after his home state of Virginia seceded from the Union, Robert E. Lee resigns from the U.S. Army—he would go on to lead the Confederate Army during the Civil War

1871

During the Reconstruction period after the U.S. Civil War, Congress passes the Third Force Act, which authorizes President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law and use military force to suppress the Ku Klux Klan

1889

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is born Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary

1898

U.S. President William McKinley asks Congress to declare war on Spain

1902

Married French scientistsMarie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radium—the Curies and scientist A. Henri Becquerel would share the 1903 Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity

1957

Mr. Seeley’s sister Juliann, who worked for many years in Washington, D.C., as a Congressional aide, is born in Gunnison, Utah

1980

Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro announces the Mariel Boatlift, which enables Cubans to emigrate to the United States—125,000 would flee Cuba in 1,700 boats

1986

Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls sets an NBA playoff record with 63 points in a 135-131 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics

1999

Two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Colorado—the crime sparked a national debate on school safety and gun control

2008

American Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female winner in IndyCar racing history

2010

An explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig 50 miles south of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico kills 11 people and triggers the largest offshore oil spill in American history

2020

Broadway star Nick Cordero had his leg amputated Saturday because of complications from COVID-19

2020

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claims that a $300 billion relief bill for small businesses could be approved by the Senate today—the current$350 billion small business loan program ran out of money in less than 2 weeks

2020

Starting today, all Walmart and Sam’s Club employees will be required to wear masks or other face coverings

2020

The Last Dance, ESPN’s 10-part documentary about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, kicked off yesterday with the first 2 episodes

2020

Former First Lady Michelle Obama starts live-streaming a show called Mondays with Michelle Obama, where she will read from classic children books each Monday to entertain children during the pandemic

2020

More than 1,000 vehicles drove in circles around the Arizona state Capitol yesterday to protest Governor Ducey’s stay-at-home policies during the coronavirus pandemic

2020

ReOpen PA, a group opposed to the shutdown of schools and businesses during the coronavirus crisis, is planning a socially distant rally at the Pennsylvania state Capitol today

2020

A gunman disguised as a police officer went on a rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia yesterday, shooting people in their homes and setting fires—with 16 confirmed dead, it is Canada’s largest mass shooting since 1989

2020

Tex Earnhardt, the colorful founder of an Arizona car dealership empire, died yesterday at age 89—he opened his first dealership in Chandler in 1951

2020

Coronavirus Statistics:

World United States Arizona

72 hours ago 2,181,508 cases147,337 deaths

671,493 cases33,288 deaths

4,234 cases150 deaths

Today 2,422,525 cases166,235 deaths

760,245 cases40,690 deaths

4,929 cases184 deaths