The Daily Standard
World News
Today is Friday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2026. There are 272 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On April 3, 1996, Theodore Kaczynski (kah-ZIHN'-skee), the Harvard-educated mathematician known as the Unabomber, was arrested at a remote Montana cabin by FBI agents. From his off-the-grid location, Kaczynski waged a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, permanently maiming several of his victims. (He died in prison on June 10, 2023, at age 81.)
Also on this date:
In 1860, the first Pony Express mail delivery rides began, one heading west from St. Joseph, Missouri, and one heading east from Sacramento, California.
In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a member of James' gang.
In 1936, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the 1932 kidnap-murder of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr.
In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Smith v. Allwright, struck down a Democratic Party of Texas rule that allowed only white voters to participate in Democratic primaries.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what was to be his final speech, telling a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, "I've been to the mountaintop. ... I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!" (The following day, King was killed by an assassin's bullet at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.)
In 1973, the first handheld portable telephone was demonstrated for reporters on a New York City street corner as Motorola executive Martin Cooper called Bell Labs engineer Joel S. Engel, who led the team that developed the design for the first cellular telephone system.
In 1974, an outbreak of tornadoes began hitting wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; 148 tornadoes caused more than 300 fatalities in what became known as the 1974 Super Outbreak.
In 1996, a U.S. Air Force jet crashed as it approached Dubrovnik, Croatia; all 35 people on board were killed, including U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
In 2009, a gunman opened fire on a room where immigrants were taking a U.S. citizenship exam in Binghamton, New York, killing 13 people before taking his own life.
In 2022, shooters opened fire in California's capital city of Sacramento, killing six people and wounding 12 as bars closed for the night in the city's downtown. (Three suspects were arrested in connection with the shootings; one died in jail in 2024.)
Today's birthdays: Actor Marsha Mason is 84. Singer Wayne Newton is 84. Singer Tony Orlando is 82. Singer-songwriter Richard Thompson is 77. Actor Alec Baldwin is 68. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 67. Actor-comedian Eddie Murphy is 65. Celebrity chef Cat Cora is 59. Olympic skiing gold medalist Picabo Street is 55. Actor Jennie Garth is 54. Actor Adam Scott is 53. Football Hall of Famer Jared Allen is 44. Actor Cobie Smulders is 44. Singer Leona Lewis is 41. Actor-comedian Rachel Bloom is 39. Model and actor Paris Jackson is 28. Actor Elsie Fisher is 23.
