On this day April 25, 1988, former Nazi guard John Demjanjuk was sentenced to death by an Israeli court for war crimes committed during World War II. Holocaust survivors in Israel identified him as the brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka
On this day April 24, 1980, a covert U.S. military mission ended in disaster during an attempt to rescue 52 hostages held at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran. The operation had been planned for months and involved multiple aircraft navigating deep into hostile territory.
On this day April 23, 1985, Coca Cola introduced New Coke, an updated formula meant to replace the original version of the world’s most popular soft drink. The change was made after years of taste testing and internal research showed people preferred a sweeter formula
On this day April 22, 1983, the German magazine Stern made headlines worldwide by claiming it had obtained Adolf Hitler’s personal diaries. The magazine reported that the volumes were discovered in wreckage from a plane crash in East Germany and had been secretly smuggled to
On this day April 21, 1985, members of the religious extremist group known as The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord surrendered to federal authorities after a tense two day standoff in northern Arkansas. Over 200 agents from the FBI, ATF, and
On this day April 19, 1984, Australia officially adopted Advance Australia Fair as its national anthem, replacing God Save the Queen. The decision came after a nationwide vote where the public chose the new anthem to better reflect the country’s identity and independence. Alongside the
On this day April 19, 1985, over 200 federal agents surrounded the compound of The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord, a radical white nationalist group based in northern Arkansas. The heavily armed standoff lasted two days and ended peacefully when the
On this day April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a van packed with explosives into the United States Embassy building in Beirut, Lebanon. The massive blast killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, and wounded over 100 others. It marked one of the deadliest attacks
On this day April 17, 1984, The North South Connection, made up of Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch, defeated The Soul Patrol — Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. The match marked a major shift in the tag team
On this day April 17, 1986, author Larry McMurtry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his epic novel Lonesome Dove. The book, a sweeping Western about two retired Texas Rangers driving cattle from Texas to Montana, became a literary milestone and redefined the