Today in History: April 11, the liberation of Buchenwald

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Today is Saturday, April 11, the 101st day of 2026. There are 264 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 11, 1945, during World War II, U.S. Army troops liberated the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.

Also on this date:

In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of the French and was banished to the island of Elba. (Napoleon later escaped from Elba and returned to power in March 1815, until his downfall in the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.)

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd outside the White House, saying, “We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart.” (It was the last public address Lincoln would deliver; he would die four days later after being shot by John Wilkes Booth.)

In 1951, President Harry S. Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command leading U.S. troops in the Korean War following multiple public statements by MacArthur that contradicted official U.S. policy.

In 1961, former Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann went on trial in Israel, charged with crimes against humanity for his role in the Holocaust. (Eichmann was later convicted and executed.)

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act, which included the Indian Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1970, Apollo 13, with astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert, blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. (The mission was aborted following an oxygen tank explosion two days after liftoff, and the crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17.)

In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published guidelines saying sexual harassment in the workplace amounted to unlawful sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 2012, George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. (He was acquitted at trial.)

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Joel Grey is 94. Actor Louise Lasser is 87. Actor Peter Riegert is 79. Actor Bill Irwin is 76. Former MLB catcher Jason Varitek is 54. Actor Jennifer Esposito is 53. Rapper David Banner is 52. Model Alessandra Ambrosio is 45. Singer Joss Stone is 39. Singer Summer Walker is 30. Rapper Ken Carson is 26. Actor Milly Alcock is 26.