On This Day for April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated, Marguerite Duras is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. April 04 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Marguerite Duras READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2013: American film critic Roger Ebert, who was perhaps the best known of his profession and the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975), died in Chicago. [ Test your knowledge of films.] 2002: After 27 years of fighting, the Angolan government and UNITA signed a cease-fire agreement that ended the country's civil war. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa.] 2000: The government of South Korea ordered some 85 percent of the country's livestock markets closed in an attempt to end an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that had struck Asian livestock. [Take our quiz about viruses, bacteria, and diseases.] 1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, which became the world's largest personal- computer software company. [Sort fact from fiction in our computer quiz.] 1969: American surgeon Denton Cooley implanted the first complete artificial heart in a human; several days later the patient received a donor heart but died shortly thereafter. [Take our quiz about medical firsts.] 1959: In West Africa the Mali Federation, a short-lived union between the autonomous territories of the Sudanese Republic and Senegal, led by Léopold Senghor, came into being. [Test your knowledge of African leaders.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1979 Heath Ledger Australian actor 1928 Maya Angelou American poet, memoirist, and actress 1965 Robert Downey, Jr. American actor 1932 Anthony Perkins American actor 1913 Muddy Waters American musician 1884 Yamamoto Isoroku Japanese military officer SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2021 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help