Today In History

April 29 - 1429: France - Joan of Arc, a 17 year-old peasant girl, led a French force to relieve the city of Orleans besieged by the English. #history

April 29 - Happy bday: Willie Nelson 90, Duane Allen[Oak Ridge Boys] 80, Nora Dunn 71, Jerry Seinfeld 69, Kate Mulgrew 68, Daniel Day-Lewis 66, Michelle Pfeiffer 65, Carnie Wilson[Wilson Phillips] 55, Uma Thurman 53, Andre Agassi 53, Katherine Langford 27.

April 28 - 1996: Australia - Martin Bryant (28) began a killing spree ending in the deaths of 35 men, women and children in Port Arthur, Tasmania. #history

April 28 - 1994: U.S. - Aldrich Ames, former CIA counter-intelligence officer and analyst, pled guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Russians. #history

April 28 - 1995: South Korea - a gas explosion beneath a busy city street in Taegu killed more than 100 people including 60 school children. #history

April 28 - 1988: Hawaii - part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines 737 tore off during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu killing an attendant plus injuring 60. #history

April 28 - 1986: Russia - authorities publicly announced the Chernobyl disaster after high levels of radiation from the accident were detected in Sweden. #history

April 28 - 1969: France - President Charles de Gaulle resigned following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum. #history

April 28 - 1967: Sports - Heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army. #history

April 28 - 1965: Dominican Republic - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, sent more than 22,000 troops in an effort to forestall a "communist dictatorship." #history

April 28 - 1958: U.S. - Vice President Richard Nixon, and his wife Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin America facing hostile mobs in Peru and Venezuela. #history

April 28 - 1945: Italy - dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were killed by partisans as they tried to flee the country. #history

April 28 - 1944: WW2 - nine German motor torpedo boats attacked U.S. and U.K. units during the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946. #history

April 28 - 1897: U.S. - the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, became the first to give up tribal communal land to white settlement. #history

April 28 - 1881: U.S. - Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, while waiting execution for the murder of Sheriff Brady. #history

April 28 - 1869: U.S. - Chinese and Irish laborers laid 10 miles of railway track in one day on the first Transcontinental Railroad ~ a feat never matched. #history

April 28 - 1789: South Pacific - Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors were set adrift after a mutiny by the crew of HMS Bounty ~ Mutiny on the Bounty. #history

April 28 - 1788: U.S. - Maryland became the 7th state to ratify the Constitution. #history

April 28 - 1192: Jerusalem - Conrad I, King of Jerusalem, was assassinated by Hashshashin in Tyre, two days after being elected to the throne. #history