April 01:
1789: U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting, in New York City.
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.
April 02
1917: President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany.
April 03
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.
1936: Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, New Jersey, for the kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles and Anne Murrow Lindberg.
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.
1949: NATO formed.
1968: Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39.
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.
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.
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.
1917: Congress approved a declaration of war on Germany.
April 07
1862: Union forces, under the command of General US Grant, defeated the Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh.
April 08
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.
1952: President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a strike.
April 09
1865: Robert E Lee surrendered to US Grant.
April 10
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.
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.
1945: Franklin Roosevelt died at age 63.
April 13
1743: Thomas Jefferson born.
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.
April 15
1861: President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection.
1865: President Linclon died at 7:22 am
April 16
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.
1854: Benjamin Tucker born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
1861: The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.
1961: About 1500 Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion.
1969: Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy.
April 18
1637: First draft in America.
1857: Clarence Darrow born.
1775: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere took place from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass.
April 19
1775: Revolutionary War began in Lexington and Concord.
1933: US went off the gold standard.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
April 25
1792: France beheaded its first person via the guillotine. He was a highwayman named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier.
1898: US declared war on Spain.
1901: New York became the first state to require license plates, charging $1.00.
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."
1865: John Wilkes Booth was killed by federal troops near Bowling Green, Virginia.
April 27
1820: Herbert Spencer born
1822: U.S. Grant born in Pont Pleasant, Ohio.
1937: First Social Security checks distributed.
April 28
1758: James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress were captured and executed by Italian partisans.
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.
April 30
1789: George Washington was inaugurated 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.
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.
Last revised January 7, 2003
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