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Today is Wednesday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2002. There are 272 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 3, 1860, the legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. 

On this date: 

In 1865, Union forces occupied the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. 

In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang. 

In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh infant. 

In 1946, Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila. 

In 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries. 

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 1968, North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks. 

In 1982, Britain dispatched a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina. 

In 1996, an Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard. 

In 1996, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested. 

Ten years ago: President Bush, speaking in Philadelphia, said members of Congress should shorten their annual sessions and retire after 12 years, calling for changes in “a failed status quo”; Democratic leaders accused Bush of “scapegoating.” 

Five years ago: About 2,000 youngsters in California and Georgia lined up for shots to protect them against hepatitis from a contaminated shipment of frozen strawberries. 

One year ago: President Bush warned China it risked damaging relations with the United States unless it quickly released the American crew of a damaged Navy spy plane. (The plane had made an emergency landing in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter.) 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Marlon Brando is 78. Actress-singer Doris Day is 78. Actress Miyoshi Umeki is 73. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 72. Country singer Don Gibson is 70. Jazz musician Jimmy McGriff is 66. Actor William Gaunt is 65. Singer Jan Berry (Jan and Dean) is 61. Actress Marsha Mason is 60. Singer Wayne Newton is 60. Singer Billy Joe Royal is 60. Singer Tony Orlando is 58. Singer Richard Thompson is 53. Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 52. Rock musician Mel Schacher (Grand Funk Railroad) is 51. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 46. Actor Alec Baldwin is 44. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 43. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 41. Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 40. Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 34. Actress Jennie Garth is 30. Actress Amanda Bynes is 16.