By The Associated Press
- Today is Sunday, April 18, the 108th day of 1999. There are 257 days
left in the year.
- On April 18, 1949, the Irish republic was proclaimed.
- In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to
Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were
coming.
- In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by
raging fires. About 700 people died.
- In 1942, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James
H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
- In 1945, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed
by Japanese gunfire on a Pacific island off Okinawa.
- In 1946, the League of Nations went out of business.
- In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, N.J.
- In 1978, the U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over
to Panamanian control Dec. 31, 1999.
- In 1983, 62 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S.
Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
- Ten years ago: Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy
tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
- Five years ago: Former President Richard Nixon suffered a stroke at
his home in Park Ridge, N.J., and was taken to New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center; he died four days later.
- One year ago: Despite fierce internal dissent, Northern Ireland's
main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, approved a peace
agreement. The remains of Pol Pot were cremated, three days after
the Khmer Rouge leader blamed for the killings of up to 2 million
Cambodians died at age 73. Former North Carolina governor and U.S.
Sen. Terry Sanford died in Durham at age 80.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actress Barbara Hale is 77.
- Blues singer Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is 75.
- Actor Clive Revill is 69.
- Actor James Drury is 65.
- Actor Robert Hooks is 62.
- Actress Hayley Mills is 53.
- Actor James Woods is 52.
- Actress-director Dorothy Lyman is 52.
- Actress Cindy Pickett is 52.
- Country musician Walt Richmond (The Tractors) is 52.
- Actor Rick Moranis is 45.
- Actress Melody Thomas Scott is 43.
- Actor Eric Roberts is 43.
- Actor John James is 43.
- Talk show host Conan O'Brien is 36.
- Rock musician Greg Eklund (Everclear) is 29.