Today in HistoryToday is Monday, April 23, the 113th day of 2007. There are 252 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

In 1564, is believed to be the birthdate of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.

In 1896, the Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was publicly demonstrated in New York City.

In 1899, Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg.

In 1941, King George of the Hellenes and the Greek government fled the Greek mainland as German forces advanced; the Greek army surrendered.

In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)

In 1985, Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret flavour formula for Coke (negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version).

In 1998, James Earl Ray, who’d confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he’d been framed, died at a Nashville, Tennessee, hospital at age 70.

In 1999, Indonesia and Portugal completed an agreement paving the way for the people of East Timor to vote on their future.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” — From “Twelfth-Night,” by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).