The way it was: Today in history - April 21
Throwback Thursday: A look back at events in history on April 21, including Timothy McVeigh charged for the Oklahoma City bombing and Rosie Ruiz "winning" the Boston Marathon.
A group of Clark College students attempted to dramatize air pollution by taking walks around Vancouver wearing gas masks as an Earth Week project, April 21, 1970. "We're trying to show the effects of pollution, but most ignore us," said one of them, Ken Cochran.
Gloria Vanderbilt divorces
Gloria Vanderbilt Di Cicco is followed by attorney Lester D. Summerfield as she leaves the court in Reno, Nevada on April 21, 1945; one day after she obtained a divorce from Pasquale Di Cicco here, in a private trial, charging him with "unprovoked acts of cruelty." Later that day she married, in a ceremony in Mexico, 58-year-old maestro Leopold Stokowski, co-conductor, with Toscanini, of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Di Cicco was Vanderbilt's first husband, followed by Stokowski, Director Sidney Lumet, and Wyatt Cooper.
Belsen concentration camp survivors
A living skeleton seen delousing his clothes in concentration camp at Belsen, Germany, April 21, 1945.
During the advance of the 2nd Army, the huge concentration camp at Belsen, was liberated. Some 60,000 civilians, most suffering from typhus, typhoid and dysentery, were dying by the hundreds daily despite the frantic efforts made by medical services rushed to the camp.
"The troops were confronted by the most indescribable scenes, 60,000 people starving and without water for over six days. The dead and dying lay everywhere and on closer investigation it was discovered that huts made to house about 30 people in many cases were holding as many as 500. The S. S. men are being made to cart and bury, by their thousands, their unfortunate victims many of whose only crime was that they were born Jews."
Liberace in Vegas
Liberace's "Piano Roll Blues" rolled out the carpet at the premier of Las Vegas' new sky-scraper Hotel Riviera on April 21, 1955. His attire was designed by Dior.
Brazil's new capital
An aerial view of Brasilia, Brazil's new capital, showing some of the modern buildings that are going up there, February 14, 1960.
Brasilia will become the nation's new capital on April 21,1960, taking the capital status from Rio de Janeiro. (The Helicopter pilot's right knee and foot are in left foreground)
Dr. DeBakey
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, left, Baylor University Medical School heart surgeon, and one of his team of assistants, implants an artificial heart in patient Marcel L. DeRudder at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, April 21, 1966.
DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon, pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients. He died July 11, 2008 at the age of 99.
Great Train Robbery
Handcuffed to a police officer, James Edward White, 46, accused in connection with the Great Train Robbery, is pictured after appearing at the magistrates court at Linslade, Buckinghamshire, England on May 6, 1966. White was arrested on April 21, 1966 at Littlestone-on-sea, Kent.
The Great Train Robbery took place on August 8, 1963, when a gang of 15 men attacked the Royal Mail train headed from Glasgow to London. The men got away with £2.6 million, most of which was never recovered.
Rumsfeld & Cheney
President Richard M. Nixon announces the appointment of Rep. Donald Rumsfeld, left, of Illlinois, a director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, and as a presidential assistant wth cabinet rank, April 21,1969. Rumsfeld planned to resign his congressional seat when he was confirmed by the Senate.
Thalidomide apology
A view of a laboratory of the pharmaceutical company "Chemie Gruenenthal," in Stolberg, near Aachen, West Germany, during an animal experiment April 21, 1969.
"Prosecutors came to inspect the manufacturer of the drug Thalidomide, which was prescribed by doctors as a harmless sleeping drug to pregnant women and caused the miscarriage and birth of thousands of crippled children. The maker of a notorious drug that caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs or no limbs at all in the 1960's has finally apologized. Thalidomide was given to pregnant women to combat morning sickness but led to a wave of birth defects in Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.S. Despite the words of contrition, the drug maker Gruenenthal has refused to settle lawsuits, the most recent involving class actions in Australia."
Denazification
German movie director Leni Riefenstahl, center, her lawyer Dr. Alfred von Seefeld, right, and a Mr. Plehm (no further identification), left, are seen at West Berlin court for denazification on April 21, 1952.
New York World's Fair
Mexican dancers break into song and dance during the opening day parade at the New York World's Fair on April 21, 1965. The parade marked the opening of the fair's second year. The Mexican pavilion is one of the more popular foreign pavilions of the exposition.
Apollo 13 in jeopardy
Apollo 13 commander James A. Lovell gives a demonstration at a televised news conference at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, April 21, 1970.
Lovell describes the oxygen tank blast that occurred when the spaceship was 202,000 miles from earth. Lovell points to the spot on the service module where the explosion ripped the panel loose. The explosion cripped the orbiter Odyssey.
on April 13, 1970, astronaut Jack Swigert reported to Mission Control the famous words, "Houston, we've had a problem" (changed in the 1995 "Apollo 13" movie to "Houston, we have a problem" said by commander James Lovell).
The mission to the Moon was aborted and the astronauts had to risk splashdown not knowing if Odyssey's heat shield still worked. The crew returned to Earth safely on April 17.
Barbar Walters
Barbara Walters, co-host of the "Today" show, is shown at NBC studios in New York City on April 21, 1976.
Walters has been asked to join "ABC Evening News," which would make her the first woman to co-anchor the network news.
Rosie Ruiz marathon fraud
Original caption: Rosie Ruiz, center, is helped by Boston police after winning the women's division of the Boston Marathon, April 21, 1980. Ruiz had a partial unofficial time of 2 hours, 31 minutes, and may have broken the women's record set in 1979.
What was learned later: Ruiz "won" the Boston Marathon by taking the subway to a stop about a mile from the finish line, and joining the race as part of its fastest pack. Boston police officers then jumped in to support Ruiz, as she feigned exhaustion despite barely haven broken a sweat.
Four-time winner Bill Rodgers
Four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers is aided by police after crossing the finish line in two hours, 12 minutes and 11 seconds, April 21, 1980. Rodgers said that last eight miles was sheer will power.
It was his third straight Boston Marathon win and fourth overall, breaking the record in two of the races. Rodgers also won the New York Marathon four times.
Joe Louis funeral
Member of the U.S. Army pall bearers carry the casket of boxing great Joe Louis to his final resting place Tuesday, April 21, 1981 at Arlington National Cemetery. Louis' widow Martha walks behind the honor guard procession.
Searching for Al Capone
Excavators Tom Kasper, left, and Dan Constantino dig out the sand fill after the walls into vaults at Chicago's Lexington Hotel, linked to mobster Al Capone, were blasted away during a TV telecast, April 21, 1986. The only thing the dig turned up was an old liquor bottle.
Great white eagle - Jimmy Carter
Iron Eyes Cody, a Cherokee, presents President Jimmy Carter with a Native American headdress in the Oval Office in Washington on April 21, 1978. Cody also gave Carter a Native American name, Wamblee Ska, which he said means great white eagle.
Tiananmen Square protests
Tens of thousands of students and citizens crowd at the Martyr's Monument at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, April 21, 1989.
The death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, known as a liberal reformer deposed by hardliners, led students to gather in large numbers in Tiananmen Square to mourn and protest. The protests, including a student-led hunger strike, galvanized the world's attention. Authorities declared martial law May 20th and sent troops to quash the protests the night of June 3-4th. It's unknown exactly how many people were killed or arrested in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Many top protest leaders fled the country into exile.
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, center, waves as he makes his way through the crowd during welcoming ceremonies on Sunday, April 21, 1991 at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Directly behind the General is his wife Brenda.
Schwarzkopf was given a heroes welcome after returning from eight months in the Persian Gulf.
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh, a suspect in the April 19 car bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is escorted from the Noble County Courthouse after being charged in Perry, Oklahoma, April 21, 1995.
The bombing left 168 people dead and hundreds injured. McVeigh was executed in 2001 for the crime. His co-conspirator Terry Nichols received a sentence of life in prison. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil until September 11, 2001.
Grand Forks flooding
The burned-out shell of one of 11 buildings that were destroyed by fire in downtown Grand Forks, N.D., continues to smolder while surrounded by floodwaters, April 21, 1997.
This Red River flood was the most severe one since 1826, affecting North Dakota, Minnesota and Southern Manitoba. In both Grand Forks and East Grand Forks floodwaters came more than three miles inland. Damages reached $3.5 billion.
Mourning Columbine victims
Jacquelle Francis, left, and Sabrina Christianson, both students at Eagle Crest High School in southeast Denver, comfort each other during a vigil in Denver's Civic Center Park, April 21, 1999, for victims of the April 20 shooting spree in Columbine High School in the southwest Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado.
Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide.
Bill Nye - Science guy
Bill Nye poses April 21, 1999, with a model of a sundial that will be sent to Mars in 2002.
Nye, host of public television children's science program, "Bill Nye, The Science Guy," was at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to show off a large model version of the Martian sundial to the media. Scientists hoped to eventually invent Martian time by using the sundial to be set on the planet's surface by NASA's Mars Surveyor.
Battle of Kosovo
Three Apache attack helicopters arrive at the Tirana military airport on April 21, 1999, during U.S. Army operations on the ground. Apaches were used to intensify the ongoing air campaign carried on by NATO allied forces against Yugoslav military and strategic targets. NATO's involvement with Kosovo conflict was controversial because it did not have UN approval.
The conflict ended with Yugoslavia withdrawing from Kosovo and refugees returning to the area. Kosovo declared independence February 17, 2008.