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federate forces.
• In 1912, the Royal Flying Corps, a predecessor of Britain's Royal Air Force, was created.
• In 1943, Radio Berlin announced the discovery of thousands of graves of massacred Polish officers in Russia's Katyn Forest; the Nazis blamed the killings on the Soviets, who in turn blamed the Nazis. (Post-Soviet Russia has acknowledged the massacre was carried out by Josef Stalin's much feared secret police.)
• In 1958, Van Cliburn of the United States won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition for piano in Moscow; Russian Valery Klimov won the violin competition.
• In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for "Lilies of the Field." (Patricia Neal was named best actress for "Hud"; best picture went to "Tom Jones.")
• In 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)
• In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.
• In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.
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• Ten years ago: U.S.-led forces announced the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan, a half-brother of and adviser to Saddam Hussein. After three weeks of captivity, seven U.S. POWs, including Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, were released by Iraqi troops near Tikrit, Iraq. Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win the Masters after the first sudden-death playoff in 13 years.
• Five years ago: World Bank President Robert Zoellick (ZEL'-ik) urged immediate action to deal with mounting food prices that had caused hunger and deadly violence in several countries. Trevor Immelman won the Masters, becoming the first South African to wear a green jacket in 30 years. A construction worker's bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled when the home team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot. Physicist John A. Wheeler, who coined the term "black holes," died in Hightstown, N.J., at age 96.
• One year ago: President Barack Obama arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, to attend the Summit of the Americas; however, the visit was overshadowed by a scandal involving Secret Service agents and prostitutes. North Korea's much-touted satellite launch ended in a nearly $1 billion failure. Jennifer Capriati was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
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