This Day in History

On April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims to nearly 1.9 million acres of land that was formerly part of Indian Territory. By the end of the day, the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie were established with as many as 10,000 settlers each.

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In 1915, German forces unleashed its first full-scale use of chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres (EE'-preh) in Belgium during World War I. Thousands of Allied soldiers are believed to have died from the poison gas attacks.

In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.

In 1970, an estimated 20 million Americans participated in gatherings for the first Earth Day, a series of events proposed by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to promote environmental protections.

In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States and the first to resign from office, died at a New York hospital four days after having a stroke. He was 81.

In 2000, in a dramatic predawn raid, armed immigration agents seized 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives' home in Miami. Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

In 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui (zak-uh-REE'-uhs moo-SOW'-ee) pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington, D.C., to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison in May 2006.)

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by BP, sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Jack Nicholson is 88. Singer Mel Carter is 86. Author Janet Evanovich is 82. Filmmaker John Waters is 79. Basketball Hall of Famer Spencer Haywood is 76. Singer Peter Frampton is 75. Actor-comedian Ryan Stiles is 66. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is 59. Actor Sheryl Lee is 58. Actor-talk show host Sherri Shepherd is 58. Actor Eric Mabius is 54. Entrepreneur Sam Altman is 40. Actor Amber Heard is 39. Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch is 39. Rapper-singer Machine Gun Kelly is 35.