Today in History - April 17

Today is Thursday, April 17, the 108th day of 2008. There are 258 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (He was later declared an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.)
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano reached present-day New York Harbor.
In 1790, American statesman Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.
In 1861, the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.
In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II.
In 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World's Fair.
In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1969, Czechoslovak Communist Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek was deposed.
In 1970, the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.
In 1990, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, the civil rights activist and top aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta at age 64.

Ten years ago: A Thai military team collected evidence from the body of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to lay to rest doubts that one of the century's worst tyrants was truly dead. Photographer Linda McCartney, wife of rock legend Paul McCartney, died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 56.

Five years ago: U.S. special forces in Baghdad captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, a half brother of and adviser to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government awarded Bechtel Corp. a major contract for helping rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems. Diet Dr. Robert C. Atkins died in New York at age 72. Songwriter Earl King died in New Orleans at age 69. Sir J. Paul Getty Jr., the reclusive third son of American oilman J. Paul Getty, died in London at age 70.

One year ago: A day after the Virginia Tech massacre, President Bush visited the campus, where he told students and teachers at a somber convocation that the nation was praying for them and "there's a power in these prayers." In Rome, a U.S. soldier went on trial in absentia for the shooting death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari at an Iraqi checkpoint in March 2005. (However, a court later threw out the proceedings against Spc. Mario Lozano, saying Italy had no jurisdiction.) Actress Kitty Carlisle Hart died in New York at age 96.

Thought for Today: "A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future." _ Sydney J. Harris, American journalist (1917-1986).