Today in History: April 23, Vietnam veterans stage protest at U.S. Capitol

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Today is Thursday, April 23, the 113th day of 2026. There are 252 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 23, 1971, hundreds of Vietnam War veterans opposed to the conflict protested by tossing their medals and ribbons over a wire fence constructed in front of the U.S. Capitol.

Also on this date:

In 1635, the Boston Latin School, the first public school in what would become the United States, was established.

In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States, which responded in kind two days later. (Spain's declaration followed months of tensions with the U.S. government, which supported Cuban independence in a conflict between revolutionaries on the island and Spain.)

In 1940, over 200 people trapped inside a dance hall died in the Rhythm Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi, one of the deadliest nightclub fires in U.S. history.

In 1988, a federal ban on smoking during domestic airline flights of two hours or less (accounting for 80% of all U.S. flights) went into effect.

In 1993, labor leader Cesar Chavez died in San Luis, Arizona, at age 66. (In March 2026, labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed she was among women and girls who say they were sexually abused by Chavez, the widely admired Latino icon who brought to light the struggles of farmhands while leading the United Farm Workers union.)

In 2005, the recently created video-sharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.

In 2007, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first popularly elected president, died in Moscow at age 76.

In 2018, a man plowed a rental van into pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 people and leaving 16 others hurt. (Alek Minassian was later convicted of 10 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.)

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Lee Majors is 87. Actor Blair Brown is 80. Actor Joyce DeWitt is 77. Filmmaker-author Michael Moore is 72. Actor Judy Davis is 71. Actor Valerie Bertinelli is 66. Actor-comedian George Lopez is 65. Actor Melina Kanakaredes (kah-nah-kah-REE’-deez) is 59. Actor-wrestler John Cena is 49. Retired MLB All-Star Andruw Jones is 49. Comedian-TV host John Oliver is 49. Actor Kal Penn is 49. Actor-model Jaime King is 47. Singer Taio Cruz is 46. Actor Dev Patel is 36. Model Gigi Hadid is 31. Singer-songwriter Laufey is 27. Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Chloe Kim is 26. Prince Louis of Wales is 8.