Today’s Highlights

On April 11, 1945, during World War II, U.S. Army troops liberated the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.

On this date

1865: President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd outside the White House, saying, “We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart.” (It was the last public address Lincoln would deliver; he would die four days later after being shot by John Wilkes Booth.)

1961: Former SS officer Adolf Eichmann went on trial in Israel, charged with crimes against humanity for his role in the Nazi Holocaust. (Eichmann was later convicted and executed.)

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included the Indian Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

1970: Apollo 13, with astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert, blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. (The mission was aborted following an oxygen tank explosion two days after liftoff, and the crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17.)

1980: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published guidelines saying sexual harassment in the workplace amounted to unlawful sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Joel Grey is 93. Actor Louise Lasser is 86. Actor Peter Riegert is 78. Actor Bill Irwin is 75. Singer Lisa Stansfield is 58.