By The Associated Press
     - Today is Wednesday, April 14, the 104th day of 1999. There are 261
       days left in the year.

     - On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded
       by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American
       Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. Lincoln died the following
       morning.
     - In 1759, composer George Frideric Handel died in London.
     - In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of
       the English Language" was published.
     - In 1902, J.C. Penney opened his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyo.
     - In 1912, the British liner Titanic collided with an iceberg in the
       North Atlantic and began sinking.
     - In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first
       published.
     - In 1939, the motion picture "Wuthering Heights" starring Merle
       Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premiered in New York.
     - In 1981, the first test flight of America's first operational space
       shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards
       Air Force Base in California.
     - Ten years ago: Testimony concluded in the Iran-Contra trial of
       former National Security Council staff member Oliver L. North.
       Former winery worker Ramon Salcido went on a rampage in Sonoma
       County, Calif., killing seven people, including his wife and
       daughters.
     - Five years ago: Two American F-15 warplanes inadvertently shot down
       two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people,
       including 15 Americans. The chiefs of the nation's seven largest
       tobacco companies spent more than six hours being grilled by the
       House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee about the effects of
       smoking.
     - One year ago: Despite international pleas for leniency, the state of
       Virginia executed Angel Francisco Breard, a Paraguayan convicted of
       murder. President Clinton moderated a town meeting on race with an
       all-star panel of sports figures. The Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald won
       the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service; author Philip Roth
       received the Pulitzer fiction award, his first, for "American
       Pastoral."

     *Happy Birthday*
     - Actor Sir John Gielgud is 95.
     - Actor Rod Steiger is 74.
     - Actor Bradford Dillman is 69.
     - Actor Jay Robinson ("The Robe") is 69.
     - Country singer Loretta Lynn is 64.
     - Actress Julie Christie is 59.
     - Baseball's all-time hit leader, Pete Rose, is 58.
     - Actor John Shea is 50.
     - Actor Brad Garrett is 39.
     - Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 37.
     - Rock musician Barrett Martin is 32.
     - Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 31.
     - Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar is 22.