Associated Press

Today is April 20. On this date in:

1841

Graham’s Magazine published “Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, credited as the first detective story.

1898

The United States moved closer to war with Spain as President William McKinley signed a congressional resolution passed the day before recognizing Cuban independence and authorizing U.S. military intervention to achieve that goal.

1914

The Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners; about 20 (accounts vary) strikers, women and children died.

1938

“Olympia,” Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, was first shown in Nazi Germany.

1971

National Public Radio made its on-air debut with live coverage of a U.S. Senate hearing on the Vietnam War.

1972

Apollo 16’s lunar module, carrying astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon.

1992

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness took place at London’s Wembley Stadium.

1999

The Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

2003

U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital.

2010

An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blow-out that began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. (The well was finally capped nearly three months later.)