April 13th

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 13th, 1970, "Apollo 13," four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)

On this date:
In 1742, Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.

In 1743, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born.

In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York.

In 1943, President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

In 1958, Van Cliburn became the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for "Lilies of the Field."

In 1986, Pope John Paul the Second visited a Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind.

In 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an eight-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy"; however, Cooke relinquished the prize two days later, admitting she'd fabricated the story.

In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.

In 1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first player of at least partly African heritage to claim a major golf title.

Ten years ago: The Soviet Union accepted responsibility and apologized for the World War Two murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, a massacre the Soviets had previously blamed on the Nazis.

Five years ago: A federal appeals court opened the way for Shannon Faulkner to become the first woman to take part in military training at The Citadel.

One year ago: Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Michigan, to ten to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient.

"I cannot give you the formula for success but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody."

-- Herbert Bayard Swope, American journalist (1882-1958).