April eighth

Today's Highlight in History:
On April eighth, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth's record.

On this date:
In 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress.

In 1946, the League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.

In 1950, ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London.

In 1970, the Senate rejected President Nixon's nomination of G. Harold Carswell to the US Supreme Court.

In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died at his home near Mougins, France, at age 91.

In 1975, Frank Robinson, major league baseball's first black manager, got off to a winning start as his team, the Cleveland Indians, defeated the New York Yankees, 5-to-3.

In 1981, General Omar N. Bradley died in New York at age 88.

In 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news conference that he had AIDS. (Ashe died in February 1993 of AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49.)

In 1994, Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27.

Ten years ago: Ryan White, the teen-age AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18. The cult series "Twin Peaks" premiered on ABC TV.

Five years ago: Former secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara, in an interview with AP Network News and "Newsweek" magazine to promote his memoirs, called America's Vietnam War policy "terribly wrong."

One year ago: At a White House news conference, President Clinton said NATO could still win in Kosovo by air power alone, and he expressed hope for an early release of three American POW's; also at the session with reporters was visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (joo rahng-jee), who promised to cooperate in investigations of alleged nuclear-weapons spying and illegal campaign contributions by Beijing.

"The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."

-- General Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981).