Today in History: April 21

2002: French President Jacques Chirac faced a reelection challenge on this day in 2002 from extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting but two weeks later handily defeated him to win a second term.

1992: Robert Alton Harris is executed in California’s gas chamber after 13 years on death row.

1989: Six days after the death of Hu Yaobang, the deposed reform-minded leader of the Chinese Communist Party, some 100,000 students gather at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate Hu and voice their discontent with China’s authoritative communist government.

1980: Rosie Ruiz, age 26, finishes first in the women’s division of the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:31:56 on April 21, 1980.

1975: Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls to the communists.

1973: “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” tops the U.S. pop charts and creates a cultural phenomenon.

1967:  General Motors (GM) celebrates the manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car.

1965: The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency report a “most ominous” development: a regiment of the People’s Army of Vietnam–the regular army of North Vietnam–division is now operating with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

1953: Roy Cohn and David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief aides, return to the United States after a controversial investigation of United States Information Service (USIS) posts in Europe.

1945: Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin, at Zossen, assault the headquarters of the German High Command. The only remaining opposing “force” to the Russian invasion of Berlin are the “battle groups” of Hitler Youth, teenagers with anti-tank guns, strategically placed in parks and suburban streets....

1836: General Sam Houston led 800 Texans to victory over a Mexican army of 1,500 under General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto, ensuring the Texans' independence from Mexico.

1930: A fire at an Ohio prison kills 320 inmates, some of whom burn to death when they are not unlocked from their cells.

1918: Manfred, Freiherr (baron) von Richthofen, Germany's top flying ace in World War I, was shot down and killed during a battle near Amiens, France.

1895: On this day in 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrate their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed in the United States.

1865: A train carrying the coffin of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln leaves Washington, D.C. on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on May 4.

1863: Union Colonel Abel Streight begins a raid into northern Alabama and Georgia with the goal of cutting the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta.

1838: John Muir, a dedicated advocate for the protection of American wild lands, is born in Dunbar, Scotland. When he was still a boy, Muir’s parents immigrated to the United States.

1836: During the Texan War for Independence, the Texas militia under Sam Houston launches a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna along the San Jacinto River.

1830: James Starley, an inventor and the father of the bicycle industry, was born in Albourne, Sussex, England.

1816: Charlotte Bronte, the only one of three novelist Bronte sisters to live past age 31, is born.

1800: French forces under General Jean-Baptiste Kléber recaptured Cairo and initiated the brief French occupation of Egypt.

1782: Friedrich Froebel, German educational reformer and the founder of kindergarten, was born in Oberweissbach, Thuringia.

1777: British troops under the command of General William Tryon attack the town of Danbury, Connecticut, and begin destroying everything in sight.

The yellow ribbon— has long been a symbol of support for absent or missing loved ones.

1526: Bābur, the ruler of Kabul, led Mughal forces in victory against Sultan Ibrāhīm Lodī, establishing the Mughal dynasty in India.