What Happened On This Day – April 4
1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed
The former President of Pakistan had been deposed by a coup d'etat. He was hanged despite international calls to stop the execution.
1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft
Microsoft has developed into a multinational corporation, and it is the world's largest software maker by revenue.
1969 Denton Cooley implants the first artificial heart
The machine kept patient Haskell Karp alive for 65 hours. He died before a human heart could become available.
1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
The civil rights activist was killed by James Earl Ray. Ray, a segregationist, received a 99-year prison sentence. He died in jail in 1998.
1949 NATO is formed
12 nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty to establish what is today one of the world's most important military alliances.
Births On This Day – April 4
1979 Heath Ledger
Australian actor, director
1979 Roberto Luongo
Canadian ice hockey player
1952 Gary Moore
Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer
1928 Maya Angelou
American author, poet, actress, director
1875 Pierre Monteux
French conductor
Deaths On This Day – April 4
2013 Roger Ebert
American journalist, critic, screenwriter
1984 Oleg Antonov
Soviet aircraft designer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company
1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Pakistani politician, 4th President of Pakistan
1968 Martin Luther King, Jr.
American minster, activist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 Karl Benz
German engineer, businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz