Today in History.....April 11

On this day in …

* 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba

* 1898, President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain

* 1899, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect

* 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany

* 1951, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East

* 1968, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

* 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon.
(The astronauts managed to return safely)

* 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control

* 1981, President Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt

* 1996, seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff, who'd hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country, was killed along with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyo.

* 2001, ending a tense 11-day standoff, China agreed to free the 24 crew members of an American spy plane after President Bush said he was "very sorry" for the death of a Chinese fighter pilot whose plane had collided with the American aircraft. ALSO: A stampede at a packed soccer stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, killed 43 people

* 2005, during a meeting at his Texas ranch, President Bush told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon he could not allow further West Bank settlement growth and said Israeli and "Palestinian" doubts about each other were hampering peace prospects