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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1818 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.
1841 President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. president to die in office.
1850 The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
1887 Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community - Argonia, Kan.
1888 Baseball hall-of-famer Tris Speaker was born in Hubbard, Texas.
1902 British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University in England.
On April 4, 1915, Muddy Waters, American blues musician, was born.
1945 U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
1949 Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn.
1974 Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's career home run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.
1975 A U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed shortly after takeoff from Saigon, killing more than 130 people, most of them children.
1981 Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio, Texas.
1991 Sen. John Heinz, R-Penn., and six other people were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa.
1995 Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., used a mock Japanese accent to ridicule O.J. Simpson trial judge Lance Ito on a nationally syndicated radio program. D'Amato apologized two days later on the Senate floor.
1999 The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 in baseball's first season opener held in Mexico.
2003 U.S. forces seized Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad.
2003 Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the 18th player to hit 500 career homers, connecting for a solo shot in a 10-9 loss to Cincinnati.
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