On This Day for April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated, Marguerite Duras is featured, and more

Created: 2020-04-04 10:02 Updated: 2020-04-04 10:02 Notebook: On this Day in History

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April 04

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

Marguerite Duras

FEATURED EVENT

1968

Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2013: American film critic Roger Ebert, who was perhaps the best known of his profession and the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975), died in Chicago.

2002: After 27 years of fighting, the Angolan government and UNITA signed a cease-fire agreement that ended the country's civil war.

2000: The government of South Korea ordered some 85 percent of the country's livestock markets closed in an attempt to end an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that had struck Asian livestock.

1928: American poet Maya Angelou—perhaps best known for her several volumes of autobiography, which explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression—was born.

1913?: Muddy Waters, an American blues guitarist and singer who played a major role in creating the modern rhythm-and-blues style, was born.

1841: After serving for only one month, William Henry Harrison became the first U.S. president to die in office; he was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1979

Heath Ledger
Australian actor

1928

Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist, and actress

1965

Robert Downey, Jr.
American actor

1932

Anthony Perkins
American actor

1913

Muddy Waters
American musician