Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/119462
2B Daily News – Wednesday, April 3, 2013 PEANUTS® By Charles Schultz Today in History By The Associated Press DILBERT® GARFIELD® SHOE BLONDIE® BEETLE BAILEY® HAGAR the Horrible® ZITS FRANK & ERNEST® ALLEY OOP By Scott Adams By Jim Davis By Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins By Dean Young and Stan Drake By Mort Walker By Chris Browne BY JERRY SCOTT & JIM BORGMAN By Bob Thaves Today is Wednesday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2013. There are 272 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On April 3, 1973, the first handheld portable telephone was demonstrated for reporters on a New York City street corner as Motorola executive Martin Cooper contacted Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs using a Motorola device that, according to an AP story, looked like ''a small, domesticated version of military walkie-talkies'' and weighed less than three pounds. On this date: In 1776, George Washington received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard College. In 1860, the legendary Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. (The delivery system lasted only 18 months before giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.) In 1869, Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16, premiered in Copenhagen. In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James' gang. In 1913, British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to three years in jail for inciting supporters to bomb the home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. (Pankhurst, known for staging hunger strikes in prison, was repeatedly released and reincarcerated, serving roughly 30 days total behind bars.) In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J. for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces began their final assault on Bataan against American and Filipino troops who surrendered six days later; the capitulation was followed by the notorious Bataan Death March. In 1946, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander held responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed by firing squad outside Manila. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism. In 1968, the day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous ''mountaintop'' speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers. In 1974, deadly tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities resulted. In 1996, an Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard. Ten years ago: Moving with a sense of wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give President George W. Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq and meet the threat of terrorism. Five years ago: NATO allies meeting in Bucharest, Romania, gave President George W. Bush strong support for a missile defense system in Europe and urged Moscow to drop its angry opposition to the program. One year ago: Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination, sweeping primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Today's Birthdays: Actress-singer Doris Day is 90. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 83. Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall is 79. Actor William Gaunt is 76. Actor Eric Braeden is 72. Actress Marsha Mason is 71. Singer Wayne Newton is 71. Singer Billy Joe Royal is 71. Singer Tony Orlando is 69. Comedy writer Pat Proft is 66. Folk-rock singer Richard Thompson is 64. Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 63. Blues singer-guitarist John Mooney is 58. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 57. Actor Alec Baldwin is 55. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 54. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 52. Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 51. Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 45. Olympic gold medal ski racer Picabo Street is 42. Actress Jennie Garth is 41. Comedian Aries Spears is 38. Actress Amanda Bynes is 27. Thought for Today: ''Nothing spoils a good party like a genius.'' — Elsa Maxwell, American socialite (1883-1963). RUBES® By Leigh Rubin