Monday, April 11, 2011

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 11
1951:President Harry Truman relieves Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command of United Nations and U.S. troops in the Far East, because of a dispute between MacArthur and Truman over expanding the Korean War into mainland China. After returning home, MacArthur famously reflects in a farewell speech to a joint session of Congress that "old soldier never die, they just fade away."

1814: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte accepts the Treaty of Fontainebleau, abdicating the French throne and agreeing to exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba.

1970: NASA launches the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise aboard. Two days later, the explosion of an oxygen tank cripples the spacecraft, changing the mission objective from landing on the moon to simply bringing the three men home. Because of the joint efforts of mission control and the astronauts onboard, Apollo 13 will return to Earth safely on April 17.
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