By The Associated Press
                      - Today is Thursday, April 8, the 98th day of 1999. There are 267 days
                        left in the year.

                      - On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th
                        career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking
                        Babe Ruth's record.
                      - In 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
                      - In 1935, the Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress.
                      - In 1946, the League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last
                        time.
                      - In 1950, ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London.
                      - In 1952, President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a
                        nationwide strike.
                      - In 1970, the Senate rejected President Nixon's nomination of G.
                        Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court.
                      - In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died at his home near Mougins, France,
                        at age 91.
                      - In 1981, General Omar N. Bradley died in New York at age 88.
                      - In 1990, Ryan White, the teen-age AIDS patient whose battle for
                        acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age
                        18.
                      - In 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news
                        conference that he had AIDS. He died in Feb. 1993 of AIDS-related
                        pneumonia at age 49.
                      - Ten years ago: The Soviet Union acknowledged that one of its nuclear
                        submarines caught fire and sank off Norway the day before. The next
                        day the Soviet government said 42 lives had been lost.
                      - Five years ago: Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge
                        band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently
                        self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27. Japanese Prime Minister
                        Morihiro Hosokawa announced his intention to resign in the wake of
                        an ever-widening financial scandal.
                      - One year ago: The nation's major cigarette makers withdrew support
                        for a historic tobacco settlement, saying Congress had twisted their
                        offer to help cut teen smoking into a harsh attack on their industry
                        and sharp tax increases for American smokers. Thirty-six people were
                        killed by tornadoes that struck Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

                      *Happy Birthdays*
                      - Former first lady Betty Ford is 81.
                      - Opera singer Franco Corelli is 76.
                      - Comedian Shecky Greene is 73.
                      - Actress Dorothy Tutin is 69.
                      - Lyricist Fred Ebb is 66.
                      - Actor Klaus Lowitsch is 63.
                      - Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh is 62.
                      - Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek is 59.
                      - Singer J.J. Jackson is 58.
                      - All-Star catcher Gary Carter is 45.
                      - Rock musician Izzy Stradlin is 37.
                      - Singer Julian Lennon is 36.
                      - Rapper Biz Markie is 35.
                      - Actress Robin Wright Penn is 33.
                      - Actress Patricia Arquette is 31.
                      - Rock singer Craig Honeycutt (Everything) is 29.
                      - Actor Taran Noah Smith is 15.