April fifth

Today's Highlight in History:
On April fifth, 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

On this date:
In 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

In 1621, the "Mayflower" sailed from Plymouth, Massachusetts, on a return trip to England.

In 1649, Elihu Yale, the English philanthropist for whom Yale University is named, was born.

In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who'd accused the writer of homosexual practices.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction on charges of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.

In 1964, Army General Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.

In 1975, nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 72.

In 1988, a 15-day hijacking ordeal began as gunmen forced a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet to land in Iran.

In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70.

Ten years ago: The United States and the Soviet Union announced that President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev would hold their first full-scale summit in the United States in late May-early June.

Five years ago: The House of Representatives passed, 246-to-188, a tax-cut bill, the final major item in the Republicans' "Contract with America."

One year ago: NATO missiles and aircraft blasted Serbian targets inside Yugoslavia for a 13th straight day. The United Nations suspended sanctions against Libya after Moammar Gadhafi surrendered two suspected Libyan intelligence agents for trial in the 1988 Pan Am bombing. In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.

"Birth, ancestry and that which you yourself have not achieved can hardly be called your own."

-- Greek proverb.