TV actor Benjamin Rojas

Events in 1985 and 16-4

Events in the world in the birth year of Benjamin Rojas

• Soviet leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Under the slogans of glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev initiates a broad program of reform and liberalization. Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).
• PLO terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed (Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16).
• Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).

Birthday Benjamin Rojas (16-4) in history

• Day 16-4 year 1746: The revolt that restored the senior line of the House of Stuart to the English Jacobite throne ended when the Duke of Cumberland defeated Charles "Bonnie Prince Charlie" Stuart.
• Day 16-4 year 1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
• Day 16-4 year 1917: Lenin returned to Russia after 10 years in exile in Switzerland.
• Day 16-4 year 1947: Financier Bernard Baruch coined the term “cold war” in a speech in South Carolina.
• Day 16-4 year 1972: China sent President Nixon two giant pandas as a gift.
• Day 16-4 year 1999: Hockey great Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement.
• Day 16-4 year 2007: A male student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a Virginia Tech dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded.