April 01:
1789: U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting, in New York City.
1873: Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff born in Novgorod Province, Russia.
1922: William Manchester born.
1933: Nazi Germany began its persecution of Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.
1945: American forces launched the invasion of Okinawa.
1953: Department of Health, Education and Welfare established.
1960: First weather satellite, Tiros 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
April 02
1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
1725: Casanova born.
1805: Hans Christian Anderson born in Odense, Denmark.
1872: Samuel F.B. Morse died in New York.
1882: James Joyce born.
1917: President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany.
April 03
1783: Washington Irving, author of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was born in New York.
1860: The Pony Express began service with runs between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacremento, California. Service lasted less than two years before the telegraph took over.
1882: Jesse James was killed in St. Joseph, Missouri, by Robert Ford, a fellow gang member.
1924: Marlon Brando born.
1927: Lawyer Richard "Racehorse" Haynes born.
1936: Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles and Anne Murrow Lindberg.
1942: Wayne Newton born.
1968: North Vietnam agreed to meet with the US to set up preliminary peace talks.
1982: England sent a naval task force to the South Atlantic to reclaim the Falkland Islands.
April 04
1818: Congress voted that the flag of the US should consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with an additional star added for each new state.
1841: William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, one month after being sworn in as president. He was the first president to die while in office.
1850: The City of Los Angeles was incorporated.
1877: The first telephone was installed in a private home as Charles Williams, Jr. of Somerville, Mass. had a line run between his home and his Boston office.
1895: Arthur Murray born.
1902: Cecil Rhodes, an English financier, left ten million in his will to fund schloraships for Americans at Oxford University.
1949: NATO formed.
1968: Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39.
1980: 3-M's Post-its are invented by Arthur Fry.
April 05
1614: Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
1621: The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass on a return trip to England.
1792: President George Washington cast the first veto, rejecting a Congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.
1856: Booker T Washington born in Franklin County, Virginia.
1916: Gregory Peck born.
1920: Arthur Hailey born.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction on charges of treason in connection with giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1964: General Douglas MacARthur died in Washington at age 84.
1975: Chiang Kai Shek died in Taipei at age 87.
1976: Howard Hughes died at age 72.
2008: Actor and gun rights activist Charlton Heston died at age 84.
2013: At 9:15 am Sarah, our loving Golden Retriever, died at 14 years, ten months and five days.
April 06
1671: Jean-Baptiste Rousseau born.
1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith at Fayette, New York.
1862: Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.
1866: Lincoln Steffens born.
1892: Lowell Thomas born.
1896: First modern Olympic Games opened in Athens.
1917: Congress approved a declaration of war on Germany.
1992: Isaac Asimov died at age 72.
2010: Wilma Mankiller, Principal Chief of the Cherokee tribe from 1985 to 1995, dies.
April 07
1862: Union forces, under the command of General US Grant, defeated the Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh.
1915: Billie Holliday born.
1938: James Garner born.
1947: Henry Ford died in Dearborn, Michigan at the age of 85.
1949: Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific premiered on Broadway.
2010: Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Principal Chief from December 1985 until 1995, died at age 64 of pancreatic cancer.
April 08
1513: Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
1895: US Supreme Court finds income tax unconstitutional. All monies collected were ordered refunded.
1935: The Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress.
1946: League of Nations assembled for last time.
1950: Ballet dancer Vaslau Nijinsky died in London.
1952: President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a strike.
1974: Hank Aaron of the Atlantic Braves hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record.
April 09
1865: Robert E Lee surrendered to US Grant.
1926: Hugh Hefner born.
1959: NASA announced the selection of the first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepherd and Donald Slayton.
1965: Houston Astrodome held its first exhibition game. Astros vs. NY Yankees. Mickey Mantle hit the first homerun in the Dome, but the Astros won.
April 10
1847: Joseph Pulitzer born in Mako, Hungary.
1866: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.
1912: RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England.
1974: Pennsylvania becomes the first state to adopt the firefly as its state insect when the governor signs a bill making Photuris pennsylvanica the state insect.
April 11
1814: Napoleon abdicated as Emperor of France and was banished to the Island of Elba.
1899: The treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
1945: American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.
1947: Jackie Robinson made in major-league debut, playing in an exhibition game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
1951: President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in the Far East.
April 12
1861: The Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
1877: The catcher's mask was first used in baseball.
1945: Franklin Roosevelt died at age 63.
1955: The Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.
1961: Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting earth once before landing.
1981: The first space shuttle, Columbia, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
2009: Actress Marilyn Chambers dies at age 56.
April 13
1743: Thomas Jefferson born.
1870: Metropolitan Museum of Art founded in New York.
1906: Samuel Beckett born.
1907: Harold Stasson born.
1919: Madalyn Murray O'Hair born
1930: The United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn apartheid in South Africa.
1964: Sidney Poitier wins an Aacademy Award for Lillies of the Field.
1970: The crew of Appollo 13, 4/5ths of the way to the moon, informed Houston, "We've got a problem here." A tank of liquid oxygen burst, seriously crippling the spacecraft. Fortunately, the capsule splashed down safely four days later.
April 14
1775: The first abolition society was formed by Ben Franklin and Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia. It was called the "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage."
1828: Noah Webster's dictionary is first published. It was called The American Dictionary of the English Language.
1865: Abraham Lincoln shot. He died the following morning.
1889: Arnold Toynbee born.
1902: JC Penny opened his first store, in Wyoming.
1904: Actor Sir John Gielgud born.
1912 RMS Titanic ran into an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began sinking.
1915: Actor Rod Steiger born.
1950: Donald Ray Burger born in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
1956: Ampex Corporation demonstrated the first commercial videotape recorder.
1981: The first test flight of the Columbia space shuttle ended successfully as the orbiter landed at Edwards Air Force Base.
April 15
1843: Henry James born.
1861: President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection.
1865: President Linclon died at 7:22 am
1871: City Council of Abilene, Kansas, hired James Butler Hickok as their Marshal.
1892: General Electric Company, formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Company and other firms, was incorporated in New York.
1912: RMS Titanic sank. About 1500 of the 2,200 on board died.
1980: Jean-Paul Satre died in Paris at age 74.
April 16
1889: Charles Chaplin born in London.
1947: At least 500 died in Texas City when a French freighter blew up in the harbor.
1972: Apollo 16 blasted off.
April 17
1492: Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain signed a contract giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1524: Giovannida Verrazano "discovered" New York harbor.
1790: Ben Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.
1861: The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.
1897: Thornton Wilder born.
1885: Isak Dinesen born.
1933: Johnny Roventini first went on the air with his commercial for cigarettes, calling out, "Call for Philip Morris.[Call for Phil-lip Mor-rees]"
1961: About 1500 Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion.
1964: Ford Motor Company introduced the Mustang.
1969: Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy.
April 18
1637: First draft in America.
1857: Clarence Darrow born.
1906: San Francisco earthquake. 700 died.
1934: The first laundromat (called a washateria) opened in Fort Worth.
1945: War correspondent Ernie Pyle killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific Island of Ie shima, off Okinawa.
1946: Hayley Mills born.
1955: Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey.
1775: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere took place from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass.
April 19
1775: Revolutionary War began in Lexington and Concord.
1807: Robert E Lee born in Stratford, Va.
1824: Poet Lord Byron died in Greece.
1892: The prototype of the first successful American automobile was completed in Springfield Mass. by Charles and Frank Duryea.
1897: First American Marathon. Time: 2:55:10.
1933: US went off the gold standard.
1935: Actor Dudley Moore born.
1951: Gen. MacArthur relieved of command. "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."
April 20
1836: Congress established the territory of Wisconsin.
1889: Adolf Hitler born in Braunau, Austria.
1898: War against Spain declared after the US Main blown up in Havana harbor.
1902: Marie & Pierre Curie isolated radium.
1940: RCA publicly demonstrated its new electron microscope.
1971: US Supreme Court upheld busing to acheive racial desegregation.
1972: Apollo 16 landed on moon.
April 21
753 B. C.: According to legend, Rome founded this day.
1649: The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for Christians, was passed by the Maryland Assembly.
1789: John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
1816: author Charlotte Bronte, (Jane Eyre) born in Thornton, England.
1836: Santa Anna is defeated by Texans under the command of Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto.
1838: John Muir born.
1910: Samuel Clemens died in Redding, Conn.
1918: Baron Manfred von Richthofen, "the Red Baron" was killed in action during WWI.
1937: Joseph Wambaugh born.
April 22
1707: Henry Fielding born.
1724: Immanuel Kant born.
1864: Congress authorized the phrase "In God We Trust" on coins.
1889: The Oklahoma land rush began.
1915: The German army used poison gas for the first time in World War I.
1952: An atomic test in Nevada was the first to be shown on live TV.
1954: Televised Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin.
1970: First Earth Day observed.
April 23
1564: William Shakespeare born in Stradford-on-Avon.
1616: William Shakespeare died.
1791: James Buchanan, the fifteenth president of the United States, was born in Franklin, Penn.
1896: The first motion picture to be commercially shown premiered in New York City.
1985: Coca-Cola announced it was changing the formula for Coke.
1997: Reina Smith admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy
April 24
1704: The Boston News Letter, the first newspaper in North America, began publishing.
1792: The French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1800: Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress, appropriating $5,000 for books.
1898: Spain declared war on the U.S., refusing the US ultimatum to leave Cuba.
1942: Barbara Streisand born.
April 25
1792: France beheaded its first person via the guillotine. He was a highwayman named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier.
1859: Construction began on the Suez Canal.
1898: US declared war on Spain.
1901: New York became the first state to require license plates, charging $1.00.
1908: Edward R. Murrow born in Pole Creek, North Carolina.
1945: Delegates from 45 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.
April 26
1607: An expedition of English colonists, including Captain John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Virginia, to establish the first permanent English setlement in the "New World."
1785: John James Audobon born in Haiti.
1865: John Wilkes Booth was killed by federal troops near Bowling Green, Virginia.
1900: Seismologist Charles Richter was born.
1986: The Chernobyl plant exploded. The USSR didn't bother to tell the world until two days later, because of the weekend!
April 27
1509: Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.
1521: Protuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan killed by natives in the Phillipines.
1791: Samuel F.B. Morse born in Charlestown, Mass.
1805: US Marines captured the city of Derma, on the shores of Tripoli.
1820: Herbert Spencer born
1822: U.S. Grant born in Pont Pleasant, Ohio.
1937: First Social Security checks distributed.
1999: Al Hirt, legendary trumpeter, died at age 76.
April 28
1758: James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
1789: The crew of the Bounty mutined against Captain William Bligh.
1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress were captured and executed by Italian partisans.
1947: The voyage of the Kon-Tiki began as six men sailed from Peru aboard a balsa raft for a 101 day trip across the Pacific Ocean.
1967: Heavyweight champion Muhammuad Ali refused to be inducted into the army.
1952: The war with Japan officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the US and 47 other nations took effect.
1986: The Soviet Union finally admitted to the diaster in Chernobyl.
April 29
1429: Joan of Arc entered the beseiged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.
1863: Willian Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco.
1899: Duke Ellington born.
1913: The zipper was patented by Swedish engineer Gideon Sondback, of Hoboken, New Jersey.
1985: The Challenger lifted off.
April 30
1789: George Washington was inaugrated as the first president of the United States.
1803: US purchased the Louisiana Territory from France.
1812: Louisiana became the 18th state.
1900: Hawaii was organized as a US territory.
1900: Famous railroad engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones stuck with his engine (Illinois Central No. 382) and died while trying to avoid a collision with the rear of another train near Vaughn, Mississippi. His death was memorialized by William Saunders in a famous ballad.
1933: Willie Nelson born.
1945: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin as Russian troops closed in on them.
1970: President Nixon announced that the US was sending troops into Cambodia.
1975: South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh announced the surrender of Saigon.
1939: The first television broadcasts began as NBC premiered at the New York's World Fair.
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