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4B Daily News – Thursday, April 19, 2012 PEANUTS® By Charles Schultz Today in History The Associated Press Today is Thursday, April 19, the 110th day of 2012. There are 256 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: DILBERT® By Scott Adams On April 19, 1912, a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opened hearings in New York into the Titanic disaster. (The hearings, which were subsequent- ly moved to Washington, D.C., concluded on May 28.) On this date: In 1012, Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, was slain by Danish invaders in Greenwich, England, after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed. (Revered as a martyr, Alphege was canonized by Pope Gregory VII in 1078.) In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord. In 1861, a week after the Civil War began, President Abraham Lincoln authorized a blockade of Southern ports. In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard. In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces. GARFIELD® By Jim Davis In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Harry S. Truman, bid farewell in an address to Congress in which he quoted a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away." In 1966, Bobbi Gibb became the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon, which at that time did not allow women to participate. (Gibb jumped into the middle of the pack after the sound of the starting pistol and finished in 3:21:40.) SHOE By Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S. space missions. In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian com- pound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the struc- ture after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed. In 1982, astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.) BLONDIE® By Dean Young and Stan Drake BEETLE BAILEY® By Mort Walker offered a bleak assessment of Iraq, saying the war was "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans. One year ago: Cuba's Communist Party picked 79-year- old Raul Castro to replace his ailing brother Fidel as first secretary during a key Party Congress. (The 84-year-old Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance, to thunderous applause from the delegates.) Syria did away with 50 years of emergency rule, but emboldened and defiant crowds accused President Bashar Assad of simply trying to buy time while clinging to power. Today's Birthdays: Actor Hugh O'Brian is 87. Actress Elinor Donahue is 75. Rock musician Alan Price (The Animals) is 70. Actor Tim Curry is 66. Pop singer Mark "Flo" Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 65. Actor Tony Plana ("Ugly Betty") is 60. Former tennis player Sue Barker is 56. Former race car driver Al Unser Jr. is 50. Recording executive Suge Knight is 47. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 45. Actress Ashley Judd is 44. Singer Bekka Bramlett is 44. Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 42. Actress Jennifer Esposito is 40. Actress Jennifer Taylor is 40. Jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux is 38. Actor James Franco is 34. Actress Kate Hudson is 33. Actor Hayden Christensen is 31. Actress Catalina Sandino Moreno is 31. Actor Courtland Mead is 25. Tennis player Maria Shara- pova is 25. Thought for Today: "The crisis you have to worry about most is the one you don't see coming." — Mike Mansfield, American statesman (1903-2001). In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI. Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council gave unani- mous support to sending a U.N. fact-finding team to the Jenin refugee camp to determine what happened during Israel's military assault. Five years ago: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid HAGAR the Horrible® By Chris Browne RUBES® By Leigh Rubin ZITS BY JERRY SCOTT & JIM BORGMAN FRANK & ERNEST® By Bob Thaves ALLEY OOP