April 4th

Yielding to political opposition, the Obama administration gave up on trying avowed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in civilian federal courts and said it would prosecute them instead before military commissions.

Radio host Don Imus made offensive on-air remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. He was later fired by CBS Radio and cable network MSNBC.

The Iraq tribunal charged Saddam Hussein and six others, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds.

Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the 18th major league baseball player to hit 500 career home runs.

The Arizona Senate convicted Gov. Evan Mecham of two charges of official misconduct and removed him from office.

Henry Cisneros became the first Hispanic elected mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio, Texas.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed. The former President of Pakistan had been deposed by a coup d'etat. He was hanged despite international calls to stop the execution.

Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.

Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's career home run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.

World Trade Center, then the world's tallest building, opens in New York (110 stories).

Denton Cooley implants the first artificial heart. The machine kept patient Haskell Karp alive for 65 hours. He died before a human heart could become available.

US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.

British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships at Oxford University in England.

Baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker was born in Hubbard, Texas.

Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community - Argonia, Kan.

The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. president to die in office.

Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state.

Battle at Postage Farina, Tunis: English fleet beats Barbary pirates.

Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth I aboard Golden Hind at Deptford.