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April Events Through History

April Events

  • 4:Cancer Control Month
  • 4:Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Month
  • 4:Holy Humor Month
  • 4:International Guitar Month
  • 4:International TWIT (Tiresome WIT) Award Month
  • 4:Keep America Beautiful Month
  • 4:Knuckles Down Month
  • 4:Mathematics Education Month
  • 4:Month of the Young Child (Michigan)
  • 4:Municipal Community Services Month (California)
  • 4:National Anxiety Month
  • 4:National Cable Month
  • 4:National Garden Month
  • 4:National Humor Month
  • 4:National Occupational Therapy Month
  • 4:National Sexually Transmitted Diseases Education and Awareness
  • :Month
  • 4:National TMJ Awareness Month
  • 4:National Woodworking Month
  • 4:Parkinson’s Awareness Month
  • 4:Pets are Wonderful Month
  • : Events depending on weekdays
  • R(4/7) :Nafels Pilgrimage (Switzerland) (first Thursday).
  • F(4/7) :Arbor Day (parts of Arizona) (Friday after April 1).
  • F(4/7) :Student Government Day (Massachusetts) (first Friday).
  • S(4/7) :Sorry Charlie Day (first Saturday).
  • U(4/7) :Daylight Savings Time Begins (2:00 am) (first Sunday).
  • M(4/21):Patriot’s Day (Maine and Massachusetts) (third Monday).
  • T(4/21):Look-Alike Day (third Tuesday).
  • U(4/21):Sechselauten (Switzerland) (third Sunday and Monday of April)
  • M(4/22):Sechselauten (Switzerland) (third Sunday and Monday of April)
  • M(4/26):St. George’s Day (Newfoundland) (Monday nearest April 23).
  • W(4/27):Professional Secretaries Day (Wednesday of last full week).
  • M(4/28):Fast Day (New Hampshire) (fourth Monday).
  • M(4/30):Arbor Day (Wyoming) (last Monday).
  • M(4/30):Confederate Memorial Day (Alabama and Mississippi) (last Monday).
  • W(4/30):World YWCA Day (last Wednesday).
  • U(4/30):Arthritis Foundation National Telethon (last Sunday).
  • : Normal events
  • 4/1 :April Noddy Day.
  • 4/1 :All Fool’s Day.
  • 4/1 :Gowkie Day.
  • 4/1 :Gowkin’ Day.
  • 4/1 :Save The Rhino Day.
  • 4/1 :Youth Day (Benin).
  • 4/1/1621 :First treaty signed between the American colonists and indians.
  • 4/1/1634 :Authority to build the first bridge in US issued (Neponset River).
  • 4/1/1665 :Great Plague hit London.
  • 4/1/1719 :First edition of “Mother Goose” published (Boston).
  • 4/1/1789 :US House of Representatives held its first full meeting (New
  • :York).
  • 4/1/1810 :Napoleon I married Marie-Louise, his second wife.
  • 4/1/1826 :Patent granted for two cylinder internal combustion engine
  • :(Captain Sam Mory).
  • 4/1/1832 :Robert the Hermit died.
  • 4/1/1864 :First accident insurance policy printed (Hartford).
  • 4/1/1865 :Confederate forces defeated by Union troops at Five Forks,
  • :Virginia.
  • 4/1/1913 :First moving assembly line installed (Henry Ford).
  • 4/1/1917 :Scott Joplin, ragtime composer, died.
  • 4/1/1918 :Royal Air Force founded.
  • 4/1/1924 :Adolf Hitler imprisoned for Beer Hall Putsch involvement.
  • 4/1/1932 :Gene Autry married Ina Mae.
  • 4/1/1943 :Meats, cooking oil, and cheese placed under US wartime rationing.
  • 4/1/1945 :US forces swarmed ashore on Okinawa.
  • 4/1/1954 :Air Force Academy established.
  • 4/1/1960 :Last “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” aired.
  • 4/1/1960 :Tiros-1 (US), first meteorological satellite, launched.
  • 4/1/1974 :Yourdon, Inc. founded.
  • 4/1/1982 :Control of the Panama Canal Zone transferred to Panama.
  • 4/1/1984 :Marvin Gaye killed.
  • 4/1/1986 :World oil prices dropped below $10 a barrel.
  • 4/1/1988 :Jim Jordan, radio actor (“Fibber McGee”), died.
  • 4/2 :International Children’s Book Day.
  • 4/2 :National Holiday (Argentina).
  • 4/2 :Pascua Florida Day (Florida).
  • 4/2/1513 :Florida discovered (Juan Ponce de Leon).
  • 4/2/1751 :John Smibert, American artist, died.
  • 4/2/1792 :US Mint established.
  • 4/2/1819 :First successful agricultural journal (“The American Farmer”)
  • :began publication.
  • 4/2/1863 :Bread riot in Richmond, Virginia.
  • 4/2/1872 :Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of the electromagnetic
  • :telegraph, died.
  • 4/2/1877 :First human cannonball.
  • 4/2/1877 :First White House Easter Egg Roll.
  • 4/2/1878 :First hotel to cater to unescorted women opened (The Women’s
  • :Hotel, New York).
  • 4/2/1902 :First motion picture theater opened (Los Angeles).
  • 4/2/1912 :Plans for “Oreo Biscuit” circulated to Nabisco plant managers.
  • 4/2/1917 :Woodrow Wilson asked US Congress to declare war on Germany.
  • 4/2/1932 :Charles Lindbergh left $50,000 in a Bronx cemetery in hopes of
  • :regaining his son.
  • 4/2/1956 :”Edge of Night” debuted (CBS).
  • 4/2/1976 :First ambulance ship for boaters and pleasure craft christened.
  • 4/2/1982 :Argentine troops stormed the Falkland Islands.
  • 4/3 :Armenian Appreciation Day.
  • 4/3 :Birthday of Pak Tai (Hong Kong).
  • 4/3 :Jimmu Tenno Sai, Demise of the First Emperor (Japan).
  • 4/3/1531 :Martin Luther excommunicated by Diet of Worms.
  • 4/3/1776 :George Washington received an honorary doctor of law degree from
  • :Harvard College.
  • 4/3/1860 :Pony Express inaugural run.
  • 4/3/1865 :Richmond Virginia surrendered to Union forces.
  • 4/3/1866 :Patent for hat blocking and shaping machine granted.
  • 4/3/1882 :Jesse Woodson James shot (Robert Ford).
  • 4/3/1893 :First US ambassador appointed (Thomas F. Bayard, Great Britain).
  • 4/3/1920 :F. Scott Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre.
  • 4/3/1936 :Bruno Richard Hauptmann electrocuted for Lindbergh kidnapping.
  • 4/3/1953 :IBM 701 introduced.
  • 4/3/1962 :New Orleans ordered to integrate the first six grades of public
  • :schools.
  • 4/3/1966 :Luna 10 (USSR) became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon.
  • 4/3/1978 :FORTRAN77 standard officially adopted.
  • 4/3/1982 :Argentina captured the Falkland Islands dependency of South
  • :Georgia.
  • 4/3/1990 :Sarah Vaughan, singer, died.
  • 4/3/1991 :Graham Greene, English novelist, died.
  • 4/4 :Bonza Bottler Day.
  • 4/4 :Ching Ming Festival (Hong Kong).
  • 4/4 :Independence Day (Senegal).
  • 4/4 :National Holiday (Hungary).
  • 4/4/1581 :Sir Frances Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
  • 4/4/1692 :First post office established for American colonies.
  • 4/4/1774 :Oliver Goldsmith, Irish writer, died.
  • 4/4/1775 :First newspaper printed from American-made type (“The
  • :Pennsylvania Mercury”).
  • 4/4/1818 :US Congress decided to have a flag with thirteen stripes and one
  • :star added for each state.
  • 4/4/1831 :Isaiah Thomas, American printer and editor, died.
  • 4/4/1841 :William Henry Harrison, ninth US president, died (first to die in
  • :office).
  • 4/4/1859 :”Dixie” first performed (New York).
  • 4/4/1887 :First female US mayor elected (Susanna M. Salter – Argonia,
  • :Kansas).
  • 4/4/1896 :Yukon gold rush began.
  • 4/4/1912 :Isaac Kauffman Funk, US publisher, died.
  • 4/4/1931 :Andre Michelin, first mass produced auto tires, died.
  • 4/4/1949 :NATO established.
  • 4/4/1963 :Tandy Corporation acquired Radio Shack (nine stores).
  • 4/4/1967 :US Federal Drug Administration announced plans to study the
  • :smoking of banana peel.
  • 4/4/1968 :Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights leader, killed.
  • 4/4/1969 :First artificial heart transplant (Dr. Denton Cooley).
  • 4/4/1969 :Smothers’ Brothers show cancelled by CBS.
  • 4/4/1972 :First electric power generated using municipal refuse as fuel.
  • 4/4/1982 :El Chichon erupted (Mexico).
  • 4/4/1983 :STS-6 (first Challenger flight) (US) launched.
  • 4/4/1983 :Gloria Swanson (Gloria May Josephine Svensson), actress, died.
  • 4/4/1991 :Max Frisch, literary figure, died.
  • 4/4/1993 :Alfred Butts, Scrabble inventor, died.
  • 4/5 :Arbor Day (South Korea).
  • 4/5 :National Tomb Sweeping Day (Taiwan). (April 4th on leap years)
  • 4/5/-2348:Noah’s Ark grounded.
  • 4/5/-347 :Plato died.
  • 4/5/1614 :Pocahontas (a.k.a. Matoaka, a.k.a. Rebecca) married John Rolfe
  • :(in Virginia).
  • 4/5/1621 :The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth on a return trip to England.
  • 4/5/1653 :First use of postage stamps (Paris).
  • 4/5/1792 :First US presidential veto.
  • 4/5/1806 :Cider mill patented (I. Quintard, Stanfield, Connecticut).
  • 4/5/1851 :Central Park (New York) proposed.
  • 4/5/1887 :Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of the word “water”
  • :as spelled out in the manual alphabet.
  • 4/5/1892 :First public library board of trustees in Iowa (Sioux City).
  • 4/5/1895 :Oscar Wilde arrested and charged in connection with his intimate
  • :relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.
  • 4/5/1951 :Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for stealing atomic
  • :secrets.
  • 4/5/1964 :General Douglas MacArthur, WWII Allied forces commander, died.
  • 4/5/1967 :Gray Line began bus tours of Haight-Ashbury.
  • 4/5/1972 :First major league baseball game cancelled by strike.
  • 4/5/1973 :Pioneer 11 (US) launched.
  • 4/5/1975 :Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist Chinese leader, died.
  • 4/5/1976 :Howard Robard Hughes, reclusive billionaire, died.
  • 4/5/1982 :Abe Fortas, first US Supreme Court Justice to be forced to
  • :resign, died.
  • 4/5/1986 :Bomb explosion in La Belle, West Berlin.
  • 4/6 :Chakri Day (Thailand).
  • 4/6 :Van Riebeeck Day (South Africa).
  • 4/6 :Victory Day (Ethiopia).
  • 4/6 :Women and Children Day (Taiwan).
  • 4/6/1327 :Petrarch, Italian poet, met “Laura”, to whom he wrote 366 poems.
  • 4/6/1520 :Raffaello Santi (Sanzio), Italian painter and architect, died.
  • 4/6/1528 :Albrecht Durer, German painter and engraver, died.
  • 4/6/1789 :US Senate first achieved a quorum.
  • 4/6/1830 :Joseph Smith founded Mormon Church (Fayette, New York).
  • 4/6/1862 :Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee.
  • 4/6/1866 :G.A.R. established.
  • 4/6/1868 :Brigham Young married last (27th) wife.
  • 4/6/1888 :Thomas Green Clemson, mining engineer and agriculturist, died.
  • 4/6/1896 :First modern Olympic games formally opened (Athens, Greece).
  • 4/6/1909 :Admiral Robert Edwin Peary reached the North Pole.
  • 4/6/1909 :First US Credit Union Law passed.
  • 4/6/1917 :US declared war on Germany.
  • 4/6/1923 :John Dwight found sinking.
  • 4/6/1926 :Domestic air mail service began (Pasco, Washington to Elko,
  • :Nevada).
  • 4/6/1935 :Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (“Richard Cory”), died.
  • 4/6/1938 :Teflon (tetrafluoroethylene) accidentally created.
  • 4/6/1971 :Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, Russian-born composer, died.
  • 4/6/1973 :Designated hitter first used in American League (Ron Blomberg).
  • 4/6/1984 :STS-11 (US) launched.
  • 4/6/1985 :First artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the
  • :hospital (William J. Schroeder).
  • 4/6/1987 :Sugar Ray Leonard won middleweight title from Marvin Hagler.
  • 4/6/1992 :Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer, died.
  • 4/7 :Alewives run, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
  • 4/7 :Verrazano Day (New York).
  • 4/7 :World Health Day.
  • 4/7 :Yugoslav Republic Day.
  • 4/7/30 :Jesus crucified (“by many scholars’ reckoning”).
  • 4/7/1862 :Union forces defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, Tennessee.
  • 4/7/1891 :Phineas Taylor Barnum, showman, died.
  • 4/7/1904 :First installment finance company (Fidelity Contract Co.).
  • 4/7/1922 :US Naval Reserve #3, “Teapot Dome,” leased to Harry F. Sinclair.
  • 4/7/1927 :First successful demonstration of TV (Washington DC to New York).
  • 4/7/1939 :Italy invaded Albania.
  • 4/7/1939 :”The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle,” starring Fred Astaire and
  • :Ginger Rogers, released.
  • 4/7/1947 :Henry Ford, auto pioneer, died.
  • 4/7/1947 :Millions in US left without telephone service by a nationwide
  • :strike (23 days).
  • 4/7/1949 :Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/7/1964 :IBM announced System/360.
  • 4/7/1969 :Major League Baseball’s first official save earned (Bill Singer).
  • 4/7/1973 :Comet Kohoutek discovered.
  • 4/7/1979 :Bob and Ken Forsch became the first brothers to throw a no hitter
  • :(Bob threw his a year earlier).
  • 4/8 :Buddha’s Birth Celebrated (Japan).
  • 4/8 :Fast and Prayer Day (Liberia).
  • 4/8 :Flower Festival (Hana Masuri) (Japan).
  • 4/8/1513 :Ponce de Leon landed in Florida to search for the “Fountain of
  • :Youth”.
  • 4/8/1826 :Duel between Henry Clay and John Randolph.
  • 4/8/1847 :Scott began march into Mexico.
  • 4/8/1879 :Anthony Panizzi, only librarian hanged in effigy, died.
  • 4/8/1900 :Claude William Dukenfield (W.C. Fields) married Harriet Hughes.
  • 4/8/1913 :17th Amendment to US Constitution (popular Senate elections)
  • :ratified.
  • 4/8/1917 :Austrio-Hungary severed diplomatic relations with US.
  • 4/8/1938 :Italy invaded Albania.
  • 4/8/1949 :Kathy Fiscus (3 – San Marino, California) fell into a well (found
  • :dead 2 days later).
  • 4/8/1952 :Harry Truman ordered government seizure of the US steel industry
  • :to avoid a general strike.
  • 4/8/1953 :First major 3D movie released (“Man in the Dark”).
  • 4/8/1973 :Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Spanish artist, died.
  • 4/8/1974 :Hank Aaron set home run record (715 – off Dodger, Al Downing).
  • 4/8/1979 :Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, found to be geologically active.
  • 4/8/1981 :Longest game in professional baseball history (8 hours, 25
  • :minutes – 25 innings, Pawtucket Red Sox vs. Rochester Red
  • :Wings).
  • 4/8/1981 :Omar Nelson Bradley, US General, died.
  • 4/8/1990 :Ryan White, AIDS victim, died.
  • 4/8/1993 :First player ever to hit a home run from both sides of the plate
  • :in the same inning (Carlos Baerga).
  • 4/9 :Bataan Day (Philippines).
  • 4/9 :Buddha Day (Hawaii).
  • 4/9 :Martyrs’ Day (Tunisia).
  • 4/9/1388 :Battle of Nafels.
  • 4/9/1483 :Edward V became English Sovereign.
  • 4/9/1626 :Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher and statesman, died.
  • 4/9/1682 :Mouth of Mississippi claimed for Louis XIV (Robert Cavalier).
  • 4/9/1731 :Robert Jenkins’s ear cut off (led to the “War of Jenkins’s Ear”).
  • 4/9/1804 :Jacques Necker, French banker and statesman, died.
  • 4/9/1852 :John Howard Payne, American author and actor, died.
  • 4/9/1865 :Lee surrendered to Grant ending Civil War (1:30 pm).
  • 4/9/1883 :”The Old Captain Collier Library,” first US detective fiction
  • :magazine, published.
  • 4/9/1912 :Red Sox defeated Harvard (2-0) in an open house exhibition game.
  • 4/9/1913 :Ebbets Field (Brooklyn, New York) opened.
  • 4/9/1914 :Eben Sumner Draper, former Massachusetts Governor, died.
  • 4/9/1922 :Patrick Manson, “father of tropical medicine,” died.
  • 4/9/1939 :Marian Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
  • 4/9/1940 :Germany invaded Norway and Denmark.
  • 4/9/1943 :ENIAC project began.
  • 4/9/1948 :”The Big Clock” released by Paramount Pictures.
  • 4/9/1959 :First seven US astronauts selected by NASA.
  • 4/9/1959 :Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect, died.
  • 4/9/1961 :Last Red Car ran in Los Angeles.
  • 4/9/1963 :Winston Churchill made an honorary US citizen (first ever).
  • 4/9/1965 :Houston Astrodome opened (first baseball game ever played
  • :indoors).
  • 4/9/1976 :US and Russia agreed on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful
  • :use.
  • 4/9/1979 :The US government declared the crisis was over at Three Mile
  • :Island.
  • 4/9/1980 :Soyuz 35 (USSR) launched.
  • 4/9/1983 :Record-breaking floods in Louisiana.
  • 4/9/1989 :Soviet troops spray demonstrators with poison gas.
  • 4/10 :Bulgarelli Spring or Real Spring in the Great Northeast.
  • 4/10 :Childcare Professionals Recognition Day.
  • 4/10/1790:First American circumnavigated the earth (Robert Gray).
  • 4/10/1790:Patent Act approved.
  • 4/10/1841:New York Tribune began publishing (Horace Greeley).
  • 4/10/1845:Gingham making equipment patented.
  • 4/10/1849:Safety pin patented (Walter Hunt).
  • 4/10/1864:Austrian Archduke Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico.
  • 4/10/1866:ASPCA chartered (New York).
  • 4/10/1872:First observation of Arbor Day (Nebraska).
  • 4/10/1877:Catamaran patented (N. Herreshoff).
  • 4/10/1912:RMS Titanic set sail.
  • 4/10/1916:First professional golf tournament held (Bronxville, New York).
  • 4/10/1942:Bataan Death March began.
  • 4/10/1944:Synthetic quinine first produced (Cambridge, Massachusetts).
  • 4/10/1945:Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald liberated by the US 80th
  • :division.
  • 4/10/1955:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher, died.
  • 4/10/1960:The US Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill.
  • 4/10/1963:Atomic submarine Thresher went down 220 miles east of Boston.
  • 4/10/1966:Evelyn Waugh, novelist (“Brideshead Revisited”), died.
  • 4/10/1970:Paul McCartney announced departure from the Beatles.
  • 4/10/1971:Opening day’s first baseball was dropped from a helicopter
  • :(Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia).
  • 4/10/1971:US table tennis team arrived in China (first US group to
  • :penetrate “Bamboo Curtain”).
  • 4/11 :International Resistance Movement Day (Czechoslovakia).
  • 4/11 :National Heroes Day (Costa Rica).
  • 4/11/1713:Queen Anne’s War ended.
  • 4/11/1814:Napolean exiled to Elba.
  • 4/11/1847:Chinese students first arrived in New York.
  • 4/11/1862:Fort Pulaski siege anniversary.
  • 4/11/1914:George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” opened (London).
  • 4/11/1926:Luther Burbank, US naturalist and author, died.
  • 4/11/1938:Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop
  • :Quartet Singing in America founded.
  • 4/11/1939:Willard Huntington Wright (S.S. Van Dine), writer, died.
  • 4/11/1945:Buchenwald Camp liberated.
  • 4/11/1951:General Douglas MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea.
  • 4/11/1957:Freeman Wills Crofts, mystery writer, died.
  • 4/11/1960:First weather satellite launched (Tiros 1).
  • 4/11/1968:Civil Rights Act signed (discrimination in housing illegal).
  • 4/11/1968:President Johnson ordered 24,500 reservists called up, half for
  • :duty in Vietnam.
  • 4/11/1970:Apollo 13 was launched and aborted when an oxygen tank exploded.
  • 4/11/1970:The beatles announced their breakup.
  • 4/11/1975:US closed its embassy in Phnom Penh.
  • 4/11/1979:Idi Amin overthrown.
  • 4/11/1983:First black mayor of Chicago (Harold Washington) elected.
  • 4/11/1984:Konstantin U. Chernenko assumed the title of Soviet president.
  • 4/11/1987:South Africa barred all protests on behalf of political detainees.
  • 4/11/1992:Sam Kinison, comedian, killed.
  • 4/12 :Cosmonauts’ Day (Almogordo, New Mexico).
  • 4/12/1204:Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
  • 4/12/1682:First meal prepared in a pressure cooker.
  • 4/12/1770:Townsend Acts repealed.
  • 4/12/1776:North Carolina authorized delegates to vote on US Declaration of
  • :Independence.
  • 4/12/1811:First permanent US colony in the Pacific Northwest established
  • :(Ft. Astoria).
  • 4/12/1843:First charter to sell life insurance granted (Mutual Life
  • :Insurance Co. of New York).
  • 4/12/1853:First truancy law enacted (New York).
  • 4/12/1861:Confederate troops fired first shots of Civil War (Fort Sumter,
  • :South Carolina).
  • 4/12/1862:Union agents captured “The General” (a locomotive) for eight
  • :hours.
  • 4/12/1878:William March “Boss” Tweed, New York political boss, died.
  • 4/12/1912:Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton, American Red Cross founder, died.
  • 4/12/1912:Tinkers, Evers, and Chance (famous double play combo) played
  • :thier last game together.
  • 4/12/1934:Wind gusts to 231 miles per hour (Mount Washington, New
  • :Hampshire).
  • 4/12/1945:Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd US president, died.
  • 4/12/1955:Salk vaccine announced as “safe, potent, and effective.”
  • 4/12/1961:Vostok 1 (USSR), first man in space (Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin),
  • :launched.
  • 4/12/1975:Last American personnel evacuated from Cambodia.
  • 4/12/1980:Terrence Stanley Fox began his run across Canada for cancer.
  • 4/12/1981:Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champ, died.
  • 4/12/1981:Space shuttle “Columbia,” first reusable space craft, launched.
  • 4/12/1985:Discovery (US) launched.
  • 4/12/1988:Alan Paton, South African author, died.
  • 4/12/1989:Abbie Hoffman died.
  • 4/12/1989:Hewlett-Packard Co. announced its acquisition of Apollo Computer
  • :Inc.
  • 4/13 :Founder’s Day (University of Virginia).
  • 4/13 :National Day (Chad).
  • 4/13 :Songkron Day (Thailand).
  • 4/13 :Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday (Alabama and Oklahoma).
  • 4/13/1796:First elephant arrived in America (Jacob Crowninshield).
  • 4/13/1830:Jackson’s toast to Union.
  • 4/13/1843:First US president to have his photo taken (John Quincy Adams).
  • 4/13/1869:Steam power brake patented (George Westinghouse).
  • 4/13/1941:Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer, died.
  • 4/13/1962:”Silent Spring,” by Rachel Carson, released.
  • 4/13/1964:Ian Smith became prime minister of Rhodesia.
  • 4/13/1964:First black man won an Oscar as best actor (Sidney
  • :Poitier-“Lilies of the Field”).
  • 4/13/1972:First major league baseball strike ended.
  • 4/13/1973:First professional runner to break the four minute mile (Jim
  • :Ryun).
  • 4/13/1983:16 pound 6 ounce baby born (Tom’s River, New Jersey).
  • 4/13/1984:Australian Christopher Wilder (FBI’s “most wanted man”)
  • :accidentally killed himself.
  • 4/13/1986:Stephen Stucker, actor, died.
  • 4/13/1987:World population exceeded 5 billion.
  • 4/14 :Dia De Las Americas (Honduras).
  • 4/14 :Pan American Day (The Americas).
  • 4/14/1759:George Frederick Handel, German composer, died.
  • 4/14/1775:First abolition society in America formed (Philadelphia).
  • 4/14/1828:Noah Webster’s “American Dictionary of the English Language”
  • :first published.
  • 4/14/1861:Fort Sumter surrendered to the Confederacy.
  • 4/14/1865:Abraham Lincoln shot (John Wilkes Booth).
  • 4/14/1894:Kinetoscope first demonstrated (Thomas Edison).
  • 4/14/1910:First time a US president threw out the first pitch (Taft).
  • 4/14/1912:The Titanic struck an iceberg (11:40 pm).
  • 4/14/1914:Nonskid tire pattern patented.
  • 4/14/1918:First American became an air ace (Lt. Douglas Campbell).
  • 4/14/1937:Rodgers and Hart’s “Babes in Arms” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/14/1960:Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s “Bye Bye Birdie” opened on
  • :Broadway.
  • 4/14/1964:Rachel (Louise) Carson, US author (“Silent Spring”), died.
  • 4/14/1965:Statute of limitations on WWII crimes extended.
  • 4/14/1975:Karen Ann Quinlan became comatose.
  • 4/14/1980:First rock video cassette offered for sale to the general public
  • :(“The Touring Principle” by Gary Numan).
  • 4/14/1981:Space shuttle Columbia completed its first flight.
  • 4/14/1986:US aircraft attacked five terrorist locations in Libya.
  • 4/15 :Bengali New Year (Bangladesh).
  • 4/15 :Income Tax Pay-Day.
  • 4/15/1755:Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” published.
  • 4/15/1789:First contested election in US.
  • 4/15/1817:First American school for the deaf opened (Hartford).
  • 4/15/1850:Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, wax figure creator, died.
  • 4/15/1850:San Francisco incorporated.
  • 4/15/1861:Abraham Lincoln sent US Congress a message recognizing war with
  • :the South.
  • 4/15/1865:Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president, died.
  • 4/15/1870:Emma Hart Willard, pioneer in higher education for women, died.
  • 4/15/1888:Matthew Arnold, English poet and essayist, died.
  • 4/15/1912:Jacques Futrelle, writer, died.
  • 4/15/1912:RMS Titanic sank (2:27 am – 1517 killed).
  • 4/15/1919:Jane Delano, US nurse and teacher, died.
  • 4/15/1947:Jackie Robinson’s first major league baseball game.
  • 4/15/1952:First bank credit card issued (Franklin National Bank of New
  • :York).
  • 4/15/1958:First major league baseball game played on west coast (San
  • :Francisco 8 – Los Angeles 0; Seals Stadium).
  • 4/15/1975:Marvin Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/15/1980:Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and author, died.
  • 4/15/1984:New York’s worst mass murder (three women and seven children).
  • 4/15/1986:Jean Genet, French dramatist, novelist, and poet, died.
  • 4/15/1989:Sheffield, England soccer stadium disaster (95 killed).
  • 4/15/1990:Greta Garbo (Greta Lovisa Gustaffson), actress, died.
  • 4/16 :Jose de Diego’s Birthday (Alabama).
  • 4/16 :Queen Margrethe’s Birthday (Denmark).
  • 4/16/1681:Province of New Jersey for sale ($25,000).
  • 4/16/1689:Aphra Behn, novelist and playwright, died.
  • 4/16/1787:First professionally produced US play with a US subject (“The
  • :Contrast”, New York).
  • 4/16/1828:Francisco Jose de Goya, Spanish painter, died.
  • 4/16/1851:Iron pile lighthouse at Minot’s Ledge, Massachusetts swept away.
  • 4/16/1862:Slavery abolished in Washington DC.
  • 4/16/1901:Minnesota Abrasive Co. incorporated (forerunner of 3M).
  • 4/16/1905:Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching established.
  • 4/16/1908:Natural Bridges National Monument established.
  • 4/16/1926:Book-of-the-Month Club distributed its first Selection (“Lolly
  • :Willowes”).
  • 4/16/1927:Gaston Leroux, author (“The Phantom of the Opera”), died.
  • 4/16/1940:Bob Feller threw the only Opening Day No-Hitter in baseball
  • :history.
  • 4/16/1943:Albert Hoffman took the world’s first LSD trip.
  • 4/16/1947:Zoom lens first demonstrated (New York).
  • 4/16/1968:Edna Ferber, novelist (“So Big”), died.
  • 4/16/1969:Michigan became the first US state to ban DDT.
  • 4/16/1972:Apollo 16 (US) launched.
  • 4/16/1986:Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Stalin, returned to US.
  • 4/16/1991:Sir David Lean, film director, died.
  • 4/16/1992:The communist era in Afghanistan ended.
  • 4/17 :Burmese New Year (Burma).
  • 4/17 :Independence Day (Syrian Arab Republic).
  • 4/17 :National Day (Kampuchea).
  • 4/17/1421:Dikes at Dort, Holland broke, drowning 100,000 people.
  • 4/17/1521:Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
  • 4/17/1524:New York harbor discovered (Giovanni Verrazano).
  • 4/17/1534:Sir Thomas More, English statesman and writer, imprisoned.
  • 4/17/1790:Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, scientist, and author, died.
  • 4/17/1892:Alexander Mackenzie, Canadian Prime Minister, died.
  • 4/17/1900:Eastern Samoa became American Samoa.
  • 4/17/1904:Samuel Smiles, Scottish writer, died.
  • 4/17/1933:First Civilian Conservation Corps camp opened (Luray, Virginia).
  • 4/17/1934:The “new” Fenway opened (Washington Senators 6 Red Sox 5).
  • 4/17/1961:”Bay of Pigs” invasion.
  • 4/17/1964:First woman to complete a solo flight around the world (Jerrie
  • :Mock, Columbus, Ohio).
  • 4/17/1964:Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2368 base).
  • 4/17/1967:Surveyor 3 (US) launched.
  • 4/17/1969:Sirhan Sirhan found guilty of the murder of Senator Robert F.
  • :Kennedy.
  • 4/17/1973:Ron Ziegler told newsmen that all previous White House statements
  • :on Watergate were to be considered “inoperative”.
  • 4/17/1976:Mike Schmidt hit four consecutive home runs (vs. Chicago).
  • 4/17/1980:Zimbabwe won independence.
  • 4/17/1982:Queen Elizabeth gave Canada complete independence from Britain.
  • 4/17/1986:Peace began between Netherlands and Scilly Isles.
  • 4/17/1989:Polish labor union Solidarity granted legal status.
  • 4/17/1991:Dow Jones broke 3,000.
  • 4/18 :Independence Day (Chile and Zimbabwe).
  • 4/18 :Pet Owners Independence Day.
  • 4/18/1676:Sudbury, Massachusetts attacked by Indians.
  • 4/18/1775:Paul Revere and William Dawes began their famed rides.
  • 4/18/1842:Dorr’s Rebellion (Rhode Island).
  • 4/18/1853:William Rufus Devane King, 13th US vice president, died.
  • 4/18/1865:General Johnston surrendered to General Sherman at Durham Station.
  • 4/18/1902:First country to adopt fingerprinting (Denmark).
  • 4/18/1906:San Francisco earthquake (47 seconds, 700 killed, 250,000
  • :homeless, 7.9 to 8.3 on Richter Scale).
  • 4/18/1923:Yankee Stadium opened (Yankees 4, Boston 1).
  • 4/18/1934:First laundromat opened in US (Ft. Worth, Texas).
  • 4/18/1936:Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer, died.
  • 4/18/1942:First issue of “Stars and Stripes” published.
  • 4/18/1942:”30 Seconds Over Tokyo” raid occurred.
  • 4/18/1945:Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, killed by Japanese gunfire.
  • 4/18/1946:League of Nations dissolved.
  • 4/18/1949:Ireland declared itself an independent nation.
  • 4/18/1955:Albert Einstein, physicist, died.
  • 4/18/1955:”Third World” first used.
  • 4/18/1956:Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco (civil ceremony).
  • 4/18/1964:Tony C hit a home run off first major league pitch ever thrown to
  • :him.
  • 4/18/1978:Treaty ratified giving the Panama Canal back to Panama in 2000.
  • 4/18/1980:Rhodesia became the independent nation of Zimbabwe.
  • 4/18/1981:Yes broke up.
  • 4/18/1982:Canadian Constitution Act went into effect.
  • 4/18/1983:Joan Benoit won women’s Boston Marathon (2:22:42).
  • 4/18/1986:Titan 34-D Rocket failure.
  • 4/18/1987:First female mayor of Dallas elected (Annette Strauss).
  • 4/18/1987:Mike Schmidt hit 500th home run (vs. Robinson – Pirates).
  • 4/19 :Declaration of Independence (Venezuela).
  • 4/19 :Landing of the 33 Orientales Day (Uraguay).
  • 4/19 :National Holiday (Sierra Leone).
  • 4/19/1739:Sunspots first observed (John Winthrop).
  • 4/19/1775:American Revolutionary War began.
  • 4/19/1782:US and Netherlands began diplomatic relations.
  • 4/19/1813:Benjamin Rush, physician and patriot, died.
  • 4/19/1824:Lord George Gordon Byron, English poet, died.
  • 4/19/1861:First casualties of Civil War (Baltimore).
  • 4/19/1881:Benjamin Disraeli, British novelist and statesman, died.
  • 4/19/1882:Charles Robert Darwin, biologist, died.
  • 4/19/1897:First Boston Marathon.
  • 4/19/1933:The US ended the “gold standard” for the dollar.
  • 4/19/1943:Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
  • 4/19/1945:Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/19/1956:Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco (church service).
  • 4/19/1967:”Casino Royale” released.
  • 4/19/1971:Russia launched its first Salyut space station.
  • 4/19/1971:Sierra Leone became a republic.
  • 4/19/1972:Apollo 16 spacecraft (US) began orbiting the moon.
  • 4/19/1982:Salyut 7 (USSR) launched.
  • 4/19/1989:Explosion aboard the USS Iowa (47 killed).
  • 4/19/1993:George Mickelson, South Dakota Governor, killed in plane crash.
  • 4/20/1653:Oliver Cromwell dissolved the English Parliament to rule by
  • :decree.
  • 4/20/1812:George Clinton, 4th US vice president, died.
  • 4/20/1837:Massachusetts created a state board of education.
  • 4/20/1902:Curies isolated radium.
  • 4/20/1912:First game played at Fenway Park (Red Sox 7, New York Highlanders
  • :6).
  • 4/20/1912:First game played at Navin Field (now Tiger Stadium) (Detroit 6,
  • :Cleveland 5).
  • 4/20/1914:Miners attacked by National Guardsmen at Ludlow, Colorado.
  • 4/20/1916:First game played at Wrigley Field (Chicago 7, Cincinati 6).
  • 4/20/1926:First radio facsimile transmission.
  • 4/20/1959:Fidel Castro got red-carpet welcome, New York.
  • 4/20/1971:US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of busing.
  • 4/20/1972:Apollo 16 (US) made fifth manned landing on the moon.
  • 4/20/1976:US Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could order low cost
  • :housing for minorities in a city’s white suburbs to ease racial
  • :segregation.
  • 4/20/1979:Howard K. Smith left his resignation on the ABC bulletin board
  • :and went on vacation.
  • 4/20/1982:Archibald MacLeish, US poet, died.
  • 4/20/1987:First Nazi war criminal returned by US to USSR against his will
  • :(Karl Linnas).
  • 4/20/1988:Record for longest season-starting losing streak broken (14
  • :games, Orioles).
  • 4/20/1989:Daphne du Maurier died.
  • 4/21 :Kartini Day (Indonesia).
  • 4/21 :San Jacinto Day (Texas).
  • 4/21 :Tiradentes Day (Brazil).
  • 4/21/-753:Rome was founded by Romulus.
  • 4/21/1790:Funeral for Benjamin Franklin (20,000 attended).
  • 4/21/1836:Battle of San Jacinto (Texas).
  • 4/21/1857:Bustle patented (Alexander Douglas).
  • 4/21/1898:Only baseball player to hit a grand slam home run his first at
  • :bat (Bill Duggleby, Philadelphia Phillies).
  • 4/21/1910:Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), author, died.
  • 4/21/1918:Manfred von Richthofen (“Red Baron”) shot down (Captain R. Brown
  • :- Canada).
  • 4/21/1939:Kimball’s Ice Cream Stand (Littleton, Massachusetts) opened.
  • 4/21/1954:US Air Force planes began flying French troops to Indochina.
  • 4/21/1956:Elvis Presley got his first #1 record (“Heartbreak Hotel”).
  • 4/21/1967:King Constantine (of Greece) sent into exile (in Italy).
  • 4/21/1972:Copernicus, OAO 4 (US) launched.
  • 4/21/1975:Nyugen Van Thieu resigned as president of South Vietnam.
  • 4/21/1977:Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s “Annie” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/21/1992:Robert Alton Harris executed (first in California since 1967).
  • 4/22 :Arbor Day (Nebraska and Delaware).
  • 4/22 :Discovery of Brazil Day (Brazil).
  • 4/22 :Earth Day (first celebrated in 1970).
  • 4/22 :Girl Scout Leader’s Day.
  • 4/22 :Oklahoma Day (Oklahoma).
  • 4/22/1509:Henry VIII became English Sovereign.
  • 4/22/1794:Pennsylvania abolished capital punishment except for first degree
  • :murder.
  • 4/22/1855:First US railroad crossed the Mississippi River.
  • 4/22/1864:”In God We Trust” approved as US motto.
  • 4/22/1889:Start of the Oklahoma land rush (20,000 homesteaders).
  • 4/22/1912:Bram Stoker, author, died.
  • 4/22/1915:German forces became the first to use poison gas.
  • 4/22/1915:Rupert Brooke, English poet, died.
  • 4/22/1922:First three homer baseball game in American League (Ken Williams,
  • :St. Louis Browns, Sportsman’s Park).
  • 4/22/1946:Harland Fiske Stone, former US Supreme Court Chief Justice, died.
  • 4/22/1948:”Barney Blake, Police Reporter” premiered on NBC TV.
  • 4/22/1970:Tom Seaver (New York Mets) struck out ten consecutive batters
  • :(San Diego).
  • 4/22/1972:Apollo astronauts John Young and Charles Duke walked and rode
  • :around the surface of the moon for 7 hours and 23 minutes.
  • 4/22/1985:Jose Sarney sworn in as Brazil’s first civilian president in 21
  • :years.
  • 4/22/1994:Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th US president, died.
  • 4/23 :Book Day and Lover’s Day (Barcelona, Spain).
  • 4/23 :National Sovereignty and Children’s Day (Turkey).
  • 4/23 :Peppercorn Ceremony (Bermuda).
  • 4/23/303 :Saint George died.
  • 4/23/1616:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish writer (“Don Quixote”),
  • :died.
  • 4/23/1616:William Shakespeare, English playwright, died.
  • 4/23/1635:Boston Latin founded.
  • 4/23/1850:William Wordsworth, English poet, died.
  • 4/23/1896:Premier of motion pictures (Koster and Bial’s Music Hall, New
  • :York).
  • 4/23/1905:Joseph Jefferson, actor, died.
  • 4/23/1923:Turkish Grand National Assembly inaugurated.
  • 4/23/1941:”America First” rally was staged in New York.
  • 4/23/1951:Charles Gates Dawes, 30th US vice president, died.
  • 4/23/1954:Hank Aaron hit his first home run.
  • 4/23/1965:More than 200 US planes struck North Vietnam.
  • 4/23/1967:First casualty in space. (4/24?)
  • 4/23/1968:Columbia University taken over by students.
  • 4/23/1971:Soyuz 10 (USSR) launched.
  • 4/23/1980:Artificial skin first made.
  • 4/23/1983:Buster Crabbe, star of Flash Gordon, died.
  • 4/23/1985:Sam Ervin, ex-Senator (North Carolina), died.
  • 4/23/1986:Harold Arlen, US composer and songwriter (“Over the Rainbow”),
  • :died.
  • 4/23/1986:Otto Preminger, producer-director, died. (4/24?)
  • 4/23/1987:Apartment building under construction (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
  • :collapsed (28 killed).
  • 4/24 :Arbor Day (most US states).
  • 4/24 :Armenian Martyrs Day.
  • 4/24 :National Disc Jockey Day.
  • 4/24 :National Sportsmanship Day.
  • 4/24 :Victory Day (Togo).
  • 4/24 :World Day for Laboratory Animals.
  • 4/24/1704:First US newspaper published on a regular basis (Boston News
  • :Letter).
  • 4/24/1767:First professionally performed American play (“The Prince of
  • :Parthia”).
  • 4/24/1800:US Library of Congress established.
  • 4/24/1833:Soda fountain patented.
  • 4/24/1877:Occupation of the South by US Federal troops ended.
  • 4/24/1895:Joshua Slocum left Boston on solo circumnavigation sail.
  • 4/24/1898:Spain declared war on the US.
  • 4/24/1909:First photographs taken from an airplane.
  • 4/24/1913:Woolworth Building (New York) dedicated.
  • 4/24/1928:Fathometer patented (H.G. Dorsey).
  • 4/24/1933:First radio series based on Fu Manchu broadcast its last program.
  • 4/24/1947:Willa Cather, American author, died.
  • 4/24/1967:First man to die in space (V. Komarov, USSR). (4/23?)
  • 4/24/1970:China launched its first earth satellite (fifth nation to do so).
  • 4/24/1980:Military mission to free American hostages in Iran was aborted.
  • 4/24/1986:Otto Preminger died. (4/23?)
  • 4/24/1986:The Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Warfield Simpson) died.
  • 4/25 :Anzac Day (Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, and Western Samoa).
  • 4/25 :Liberation Day (Italy).
  • 4/25 :National Flag Day (Swaziland).
  • 4/25 :Portugal’s Day (Portugal).
  • 4/25 :Sinai Day (Egypt).
  • 4/25/1507:New World named “America” (Martin Waldseemueller).
  • 4/25/1595:Torquato Tasso, Italian poet, died.
  • 4/25/1682:Penn guaranteed freedom in Pennsylvania.
  • 4/25/1792:Guillotine first used (on Nicolas Jacques Pelletier).
  • 4/25/1800:William Cowper, English poet (“The Castaway”), died.
  • 4/25/1853:William Beaumont, pioneer US army surgeon, died.
  • 4/25/1859:Ground was broken for the Suez Canal.
  • 4/25/1862:Confederate forces in New Orleans surrendered.
  • 4/25/1898:The US formally declared war on Spain in the battle over Cuba.
  • 4/25/1901:First US state to require automobile license plates (New York).
  • 4/25/1915:Anzac landing at Gallipoli.
  • 4/25/1945:46 countries gathered to organize the UN (in San Francisco).
  • 4/25/1959:Saint Lawrence Seaway opened to traffic.
  • 4/25/1962:Ranger IV landed on the moon.
  • 4/25/1967:First US abortion law signed (Colorado).
  • 4/25/1974:Portuguese revolution on Macau.
  • 4/25/1984:David Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead.
  • 4/25/1989:Noboru Takeshita, Japanese prime minister, resigned.
  • 4/25/1990:Dexter Gordon, jazz saxophone giant, died.
  • 4/25/1990:Hubble Space Telescope (US) deployed.
  • 4/26 :Confederate Memorial Day (Florida and Georgia).
  • 4/26 :Holocaust Day (Israel).
  • 4/26 :Hug an Australian Day.
  • 4/26 :Union Day (Tanzania).
  • 4/26/1564:William Shakespeare baptized.
  • 4/26/1607:First permanent British colonists to sight land in America (Cape
  • :Henry, Virginia).
  • 4/26/1731:Daniel Defoe, novelist (“Robinson Crusoe”), died.
  • 4/26/1819:Odd Fellows Lodge established.
  • 4/26/1854:Emigrant Aid Society founded (Massachusetts).
  • 4/26/1865:John Wilkes Booth shot by US Federal troops (Bowling Green,
  • :Virginia).
  • 4/26/1912:First home run hit in Fenway Park (Bradley).
  • 4/26/1924:MGM Studios opened.
  • 4/26/1937:German-made planes destroyed the Basque town of Guernica in Spain.
  • 4/26/1962:Ariel 1 (US and England), first international satellite, launched.
  • 4/26/1964:Boston Celtics won their sixth straight NBA championship.
  • 4/26/1970:Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Louise Hovick), exotic dancer, died.
  • 4/26/1970:Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/26/1980:”Hawaii Five-O” aired its final episode.
  • 4/26/1982:Argentine troops surrendered to British on the Falkland Islands.
  • 4/26/1984:William “Count” Basie, jazz piano great, died.
  • 4/26/1986:Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, Soviet Ukraine.
  • 4/26/1989:Lucille Ball, comediene, died.
  • 4/27 :Independence Day (Sierra Leone).
  • 4/27 :Independence Day (Togo).
  • 4/27 :Saur Revolution Anniversary (Afghanistan).
  • 4/27/1521:Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer, killed.
  • 4/27/1794:William Jones died.
  • 4/27/1850:US owned steamship, Atlantic, began regular trans-Atlantic
  • :passenger service.
  • 4/27/1865:The Sultana exploded in the Mississippi River.
  • 4/27/1882:Ralph Waldo Emerson, US poet, died.
  • 4/27/1897:Grant’s Tomb dedicated.
  • 4/27/1898:US naval forces bombarded Matanzas, Cuba (mule only casualty).
  • 4/27/1932:Hart Crane, American poet (“The Bridge”), died.
  • 4/27/1937:First US social security payment made.
  • 4/27/1964:Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to become one state (Tanzania).
  • 4/27/1965:Edward R. Murrow (Egbert Roscoe), pioneer broadcast journalist,
  • :died.
  • 4/28 :Flora’s Day (Goddess of Growth).
  • 4/28 :Great Poetry Reading Day.
  • 4/28 :Kiss Your Mate Day.
  • 4/28/1754:Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Venetian painter, died.
  • 4/28/1760:Battle of Sillery.
  • 4/28/1788:Maryland became the 7th US state.
  • 4/28/1789:Mutiny on HMS Bounty.
  • 4/28/1818:Rush-Bagot Agreement (Great Lakes neutral).
  • 4/28/1855:First veterinary college in US incorporated (Boston).
  • 4/28/1910:First night air flight (Claude Grahame-White, England).
  • 4/28/1914:Air conditioner patented (W.H. Carrier).
  • 4/28/1919:First jump with Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute.
  • 4/28/1932:Yellow fever vaccine announced.
  • 4/28/1937:First animated cartoon electric sign displayed (New York).
  • 4/28/1942:Nightly “dim-out” began along the East Coast.
  • 4/28/1945:Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, shot.
  • 4/28/1956:First Godzilla movie opened (“Godzilla King of the Monsters”, New
  • :York).
  • 4/28/1961:Warren Spahn pitched a no hitter at age 41.
  • 4/28/1967:Expo ’67 opened (Montreal).
  • 4/28/1975:Last US civilians evacuated from South Vietnam.
  • 4/29 :Midori-no-hi (was Emperor’s Birthday) (Japan).
  • 4/29/1380:Saint Catherine of Siena (patron Saint of Italy), died.
  • 4/29/1652:Solar eclipse terrified English.
  • 4/29/1661:Cheng Cheng Kung (Koxinga), Ming dynasty loyalist landed in
  • :Taiwan.
  • 4/29/1813:Rubber patented.
  • 4/29/1882:First electric tramway (Berline).
  • 4/29/1885:Women first admitted to examinations at Oxford University.
  • 4/29/1895:First water-marked postage stamp issued.
  • 4/29/1945:German armies in Italy surrendered.
  • 4/29/1945:US troops liberated Dachau concentration camp.
  • 4/29/1960:Dick Clark testified at Senate committee payola probe.
  • 4/29/1965:Australia decided to send troops to South Vietnam.
  • 4/29/1968:”Hair” opened on Broadway.
  • 4/29/1980:Alfred (Joseph) Hitchcock, film director, died.
  • 4/29/1980:Data General MV-8000 (Eagle) sent to market.
  • 4/29/1983:Harold Washington sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.
  • 4/29/1984:Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor began operations (ten years behind
  • :schedule).
  • 4/29/1985:Challenger (US) launched.
  • 4/29/1985:Four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash from the Wells
  • :Fargo armored car company in New York.
  • 4/29/1986:Roger Clemens struck out twenty batters in a game (Seattle).
  • 4/29/1988:Boeing 747-400 first flew.
  • 4/29/1992:Police acquitted in Rodney King beating, rioting ensued (Los
  • :Angeles).
  • 4/30 :Beltane, Eve of May Day.
  • 4/30 :Feast of Valborg (Sweden).
  • 4/30 :Gifted/Talented Day.
  • 4/30 :National Honesty Day.
  • 4/30 :Queen’s Birthday (Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles).
  • 4/30 :Sho Konsai, Commemoration for the Departed (Japan).
  • 4/30 :Walpurgis Night (Northern Europe).
  • 4/30 :Workers Day (Uraguay).
  • 4/30/1562:First French colonizers in US (Port Royal, Parris Island).
  • 4/30/1598:First theatrical performance in North America (near El Paso,
  • :Texas).
  • 4/30/1789:George Washington inaugurated as US president.
  • 4/30/1792:John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich, inventor of the sandwich,
  • :died.
  • 4/30/1803:Louisiana Purchase.
  • 4/30/1812:Louisiana became 18th US state.
  • 4/30/1844:Thoreau accidentally set fire to the woods near Concord,
  • :Massachusetts.
  • 4/30/1900:John Luther “Casey” Jones, railroad engineer, killed (Vaughan,
  • :Mississippi).
  • 4/30/1936:A.E. Housman, poet (“A Shropshire Lad”), died.
  • 4/30/1939:NBC began regular broadcasting.
  • 4/30/1945:Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
  • 4/30/1949:”D.O.A.” opened.
  • 4/30/1956:Alben William Barkley, 35th US vice president, died.
  • 4/30/1968:Anthony Boucher (William Anthony White), critic and novelist,
  • :died.
  • 4/30/1968:Columbia University takeover ended.
  • 4/30/1972:Muhammad Ali stripped of his boxing title for draft dodging.
  • 4/30/1975:South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam.
  • 4/30/1976:First bridge to be named for a woman (Betsy Ross Bridge).
  • 4/30/1980:Iranian Embassy in London seized by Arabs.
  • 4/30/1983:George Balanchine (Georgi Militonovitch Balanchivadze), ballet
  • :choreographer, died.