Today is Wednesday, April 7, the 97th day of 2010. There are 268 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1199, King Richard I of England (also known as The Lion-Heart) died in the Limousin region of France at age 41 after being mortally wounded by an arrow.

In 1862, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

In 1927, the first successful long-distance demonstration of television took place in the United States. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover made a speech in Washington that was seen and heard in New York.

In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which was annexed less than a week later.

In 1943, the drug LSD was first produced at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, by Albert Hofmann.

In 1945, US aircraft sank Japan's biggest battleship, the Yamato.

In 1969, the Supreme Court, in Stanley v Georgia, unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

In 1976, Deng Xiaoping was removed as a Chinese deputy prime minister after unprecedented riots in Beijing; Hua Guofeng was promoted to full premier.

In 1990, a display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened in Cincinnati, the same day the centre and its director were indicted on obscenity charges (they were acquitted).

In 1994, Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was killed as troops, presidential guards, police and gangs of youths rampaged through the capital Kigali.

In 2000, US Attorney General Janet Reno met in Washington with the father of Elian Gonzalez; Reno later told reporters that officials would arrange for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to reclaim his son, but she gave Elian's Miami relatives one more chance to drop their resistance and join in a peaceful transfer.

Thought for Today

"Lying is done with words and also with silence." — Adrienne Rich, American poet.