By The Associated Press
                - Today is Monday, April 19, the 109th day of 1999. There are 256 days
                  left in the year.

                - On April 19, 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command
                  by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a
                  ballad, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
                - In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of
                  Lexington and Concord.
                - In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was run from Ashland, Mass., to
                  Boston.
                - In 1898, Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independence
                  and demanding that Spain relinquish its authority over Cuba.
                - In 1933, the U.S. went off the gold standard.
                - In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in
                  the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi
                  forces.
                - In 1945, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" opened on
                  Broadway.
                - In 1982, astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became
                  the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S.
                  space missions.
                - In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco,
                  Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents
                  began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including David
                  Koresh, were killed.
                - In 1995, a truck bomb devastated the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
                  Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh and
                  Terry Nichols were later convicted of charges related to the
                  bombing.
                - Ten years ago: Forty-seven sailors were killed when a gun turret
                  exploded aboard the USS Iowa. A female jogger in New York's Central
                  Park was brutally beaten and raped. Six teen-agers were later
                  charged in the near-fatal attack; five were convicted, one pleaded
                  guilty to a lesser charge.
                - Five years ago: A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten
                  motorist Rodney King. The Supreme Court outlawed the practice of
                  excluding people from juries because of their gender.
                - One year ago: Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
                  pro-democracy protests, arrived in the U.S. after being freed by
                  China. It was announced that Linda McCartney, the wife of Paul
                  McCartney, had died two days earlier at age 56. Mexican
                  poet-philosopher Octavio Paz died at age 84.

                *Happy Birthday*
                - Actor Hugh O'Brian is 74.
                - Actor Don Adams is 73.
                - Actor-comedian Dudley Moore is 64.
                - Actress Elinor Donahue is 62.
                - Actor Tim Curry is 53.
                - Pop singer Mark "Flo" Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 52.
                - Tennis player Sue Barker is 43.
                - Actress Ashley Judd is 31.
                - Pop singer Bekka Bramlett is 31.