Today in History: April 3, Unabomber arrested in Montana
Today is Friday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2026. There are 272 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On April 3, 1996, Theodore Kaczynski (kah-ZIHN’-skee), the Harvard-educated mathematician known as the Unabomber, was arrested at a remote Montana cabin by FBI agents. From his off-the-grid location, Kaczynski waged a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, permanently maiming several of his victims. (He died in prison on June 10, 2023, at age 81.)
Also on this date:
In 1860, the first Pony Express mail delivery rides began, one heading west from St. Joseph, Missouri, and one heading east from Sacramento, California.
In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.
In 1936, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the 1932 kidnap-murder of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr.
In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Smith v. Allwright, struck down a Democratic Party of Texas rule that allowed only white voters to participate in Democratic primaries.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what was to be his final speech, telling a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, “I’ve been to the mountaintop. ... I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!” (The following day, King was killed by an assassin’s bullet at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.)
In 1973, the first handheld portable telephone was...