Today in history: April 3

2009: “Fast & Furious,” the fourth film in an action-movie franchise centered around the world of illegal street racing, debuts in U.S. theaters on April 3, 2009, kicking off a record-breaking $72.5 million opening weekend at the box office.

1996: Federal agents in Montana apprehended Theodore J. Kaczynski, an American terrorist known as the “Unabomber,” who had killed 3 persons and injured more than 20 with explosives sent through the U.S. postal system.

1984: Coach John Thompson of Georgetown University becomes the first African-American coach to win an NCAA basketball tournament.

1972: Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States after a twenty-year absence.

1966: Three-thousand South Vietnamese Army troops lead a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.

1948: On this day in 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed into law George C. Marshall's post-World War II plan to revive the economies of western and southern European countries so as to foster democracy in the region.

1946: The Japanese army general Homma Masaharu was executed for forcing the Bataan Death March.

1944: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that black citizens are eligible to vote in all elections, including primaries.

1942: The Japanese begin their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.

1936: Bruno Hauptmann, killer of the Lindbergh baby, is executed.

1930: Helmut Kohl, who served as chancellor of West Germany (1982–90) and of reunified Germany (1990–98), was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Ger.

1924: American stage and motion-picture actor Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska.

1924: American singer and actress Doris Day was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1920: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre are married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

1910: Alaska's Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America is climbed.

1882: The American outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by his cousin, Bob Ford.

1879: Sofia, liberated from the Ottoman Empire by Russian troops, was named the capital of Bulgaria.

1865: Union forces occupy the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

1862: Slavery is abolished in Washington, D.C.

1860: The Pony Express mail delivery system, which used continuous horse-and-rider relays along a 1,800-mile (2,900-km) route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, was launched in the United States.

1559: Philip II of Spain and Henry II of France sign the peace of Cateau-Cambresis, ending a long series of wars between the Hapsburg and Valois dynasties.

1367: John of Gaunt and Edward the Black Prince win the Battle of Najara, in Spain.

628: In Persia, Kavadh sues for peace with the Byzantines.

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