ROSS SIMPSON

Merle Haggard received many honors and awards for
his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010);
a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006); a BMI
Icon Award (2006) and induction into the Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall
of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
(1997). He died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—
at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having
recently suffered from double pneumonia.

 
ROSS SIMPSON

SAMARRA, Iraq (AP) — On this day in 2006, Sunni extremists blew up a revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen.

Iraqis walk past the damaged al-Askari shrine following the
explosion.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Mary Lou Retton is ‘fighting for her life’ as she battles a rare
form of pneumonia. She was unable to breathe on own and
is in ICU.

Retton, 55, won five medals in the 1984 Games, including
two silver medals for team and vault and two bronze
medals in the uneven bars and floor exercise.

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens
(September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980)

On this day at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track
star Jesse  Owens won his fourth gold medal of the Games in
the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of
39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. In their strong showing in
track-and-field events at the XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and
other African American athletes struck a propaganda blow
against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin
Games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority.

Owens with Adolf Hitler.

One of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals won at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin.