Today in History: April 19

1995: In what was the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history up to that time, a truck bomb nearly destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 and injuring more than 500 people.

1993: After a 51-day standoff with U.S. federal agents, some 80 members of the millennialist Branch Davidian religious group perished in a fire at their compound near Waco, Texas.

1989: The battleship USS Iowa's number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors.

1982: NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut.

1977: Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots.

1975: Aryabhata, the first unmanned Earth satellite built by India, was launched from the Soviet Union by a Russian-made rocket.

1971: Russia launches its first Salyut space station.

1960: Baseball uniforms begin displaying player's names on their backs.

1956: American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco, becoming Princess Grace.

1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an act of resistance by Polish Jews under Nazi occupation, began this day and was quelled four weeks later, on May 16.

1939: Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights.

1938: General Francisco Franco declares victory in the Spanish Civil War.

1934: Shirley Temple appears in her first movie.

1927: In China, Hankow communists declare war on Chiang Kai-shek.

1880: The Times war correspondent telephones a report of the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news is sent from a field of battle in this manner.

1861: The Baltimore riots result in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed.

1861: President Lincoln orders a blockade of Confederate ports.

1824: English poet Lord Byron dies of malaria at age 36 while aiding Greek independence.

1802: The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants.

1794: Tadeusz Kosciuszko forces the Russians out of Warsaw.

1782: The Netherlands recognizes the United States.

1775: Launched this day in 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution was an effort by 13 British colonies in North America (with help from France, Spain, and the Netherlands) to win their independence.

1772: English economist David Ricardo, who gave systematized and classical form to the rising social science of economics in the 19th century, is believed to have been born on or about this day.

1764: The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money.

1689: Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros.

1539: Emperor Charles V reaches a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.