Today in HistoryToday is Friday, April 28, the 118th day of 2006. There are 247 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1789, there was a mutiny on HMS Bounty<$> as the crew of the British ship set Capt. William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army, the same day Gen. William C. Westmoreland told Congress the US “would prevail in Vietnam”.

In 1980, US president Carter accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran.

In 1986, the Soviet Union informed the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

In 1996, US president Bill Clinton gave 4[1/2] hours of videotaped testimony as a defence witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“If youth only had a chance or old age any brains.” — Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist-educator (1869-1944).