Today in History: April 8

Celebration of the Buddha's birth: On this day practitioners of the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, especially those in Japan, celebrate the birth of the Buddha, who lived in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE and founded Buddhism.

2003: It was reported that springtails (Collembola), long thought to be among the oldest ancestors of insects, did not evolve as insects but rather evolved from a separate group that was formed even before crustaceans and insects diverged.

1975: Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians becomes first black manager of a major league baseball team.

1974: American baseball player Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run—breaking Babe Ruth's record, which had stood since 1935—and in 1976 completed his career with 755 home runs.

1973: Pablo Picasso, perhaps the most influential artist of the 20th century, died in Mougins, France.

1962: Bay of Pigs invaders get thirty years imprisonment in Cuba.

1952: President Truman orders the seizure of U.S. steel mills to prevent a strike.

1950: Jawaharlal Nehru of India concluded the Delhi Pact with Liaqat Ali Khan of Pakistan, providing for the safe passage of refugees displaced after the two countries severed relations in December 1949.

1942: The Soviets open a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad.

1939: Italy invades Albania.

1935: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is approved by Congress.

1913: The 17th Amendment is ratified, requiring direct election of senators.

1912: Sonja Henie, a Norwegian American figure skater who won the world amateur championship for women in 10 consecutive years (1927–36) and three gold medals in the Winter Olympic Games (1928, 1932, and 1936), was born.

1898: British General Horatio Kitchner defeats the Khalifa, leader of the dervishes in Sudan, at the Battle of Atbara.

1865: General Robert E. Lee's retreat is cut off near Appomattox Court House.

1864: In the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, Federals are routed by Confederate Gen. Richard Taylor.

1859: German philosopher Edmund Husserl, founder of phenomenology, was born.

1838: The Great Western, the earliest regular transatlantic steamer, embarked on its maiden voyage from Bristol, England, to New York City.

1832: Some 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in what would become known as the Black Hawk War.

1789: The U.S. House of Representatives holds its first meeting.