April 18:

1521: Martin Luther defied the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms with the words, "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me."

1775: Paul Revere & William Dawes ride through the night warning the colonists that "The British are coming!" The British, who held Boston under military rule, were planning to seize a stash of ammunition being held on Concord.

1906: The great San Francisco earthquake devastated the city and killed about 3,000.

1942: Doolittle raid: 16 American bombers under Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle conducted a daring and highly improbably attack on Japan, just months after Pearl Harbor. The B-25 bombers were launched from the carrier USS Hornet 650 miles from their targets, although they were not designed to do so.

1956: Prince Rainier of Monaco married Grace Kelly.

1983: A suicide bomber destroyed the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

1989: Thousands of Chinese students took to the streets of Beijing to protest the government and its policies. The protests would grow, be centered at Tiananmen Square, and be ruthlessly suppressed by the tyrannical government in June.

historian said:

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April 18:


1775: Paul Revere & William Dawes ride through the night warning the colonists that "The British are coming!" The British, who held Boston under military rule, were planning to seize a stash of ammunition being held on Concord.

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Pretty good--and he even got some of his facts correct!

But I don't believe history is about memorizing dates, despite this thread.

April 19:

1775: The "shot heard round the world" began the American Revolution: As British regulars marched to Concord to seize ammunition hidden there by the colonists, they were met by armed civilians blocking their path in Lexington. They managed to make it to Concord, only to find the munitions had been moved. They retreated under fire to Boston.

1824: Lord Byron died in Greece while aiding their revolution against the Ottoman Empire.

1897: First Boston Marathon

1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began: Jewish resistance fighters fought against the German occupation authorities.

1989: The attack on the Central Park jogger.

1993: The Branch Davidian compound outside Waco burned after a 51-day standoff between federal authorities and members of the religious cult.

1995: Domestic terrorists denoted a truck bomb outside the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing over 100 people.

April 20:

1841: Edgar Allen Poe published the first detective story, his short story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

1861: Robert E. Lee resigned from the U.S. Army following the secession of his home state of Virginia.

1871: Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act to provide tools to fight the terrorist organization that had begun in the South after the Civil War.

1889: Birthday of Adolf Hitler

1898: Pres. William McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain after the USS Mainehad exploded in Havana Harbor. War was declared and the U.S. had an easy victory against a weakened Spanish Empire. To this day, there is uncertainty about the cause of the explosion but the Spanish were probably not responsible.

1902: Marie & Pierre Currie isolated radium.

1986: Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls scored 63 points in a playoff game against the Boston Celtics.

1999: Two teen gunmen killed 13 people at Columbine High School near Denver.

4-20. NATIONAL WEED DAY (unofficial)

April 21:

753 BC: Legendary founding of Rome

1816: Birthday of Charlotte Bronte

1836: The Texas Army under Gen. Sam Houston defeated the Mexican Army under Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at San Jacinto securing Texas independence.

1895: Demonstration of the first movie projector in the U.S. Earlier motion pictures could only be viewed through a hole in a box but now films could be projected on a screen for a larger audience.

1918: Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, was killed in action on the western front.

1989: Chinese students began their protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

April 22:

1778: John Paul Jones led a raid on an English port town.

1870: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's birthday

1915: German forces introduced poison gas on the western front.

1915: Beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres

1945: Hitler admitted defeat to those with him in the bunker in Berlin.

1954: Sen. Joseph McCarthy began hearings in his investigation of the U.S. Army. This was the beginning of his downfall.

1970: first Earth Day celebrated

1994: Death of Pres. Richard M. Nixon

2004: Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

April 23:

1014: King Brian of Ireland was murdered by Vikings.

1564: Birthday of William Shakespeare

1791: Birthday of future president James Buchanan

1945: Famous confrontation between Pres. Harry S. Truman and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslave Molotov. He took a tough stance against the Soviet for their duplicity in Europe.

1954: Hank Aaron hit the first home run of his MLB career.

1969: Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

I don't suppose there is a relationship to the famous French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

historian said:

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I don't suppose there is a relationship to the famous French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

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ive never heard anyone speak of a relationship before

Probably just a coincidence.

April 24:

1800: The Library of Congress was established.

1863: The Union issued a code of conduct for soldiers regarding the treatment of Confederate prisoners and civilians. It would become the basis for international agreements in future years, including the Geneva Conventions.

1916: Beginning of the Easter Rebellion in Ireland. It ended in failure, but the Republic of Ireland would be proclaimed shortly after WWI.

1945: Pres. Harry S. Truman was briefed about the Manhattan Project, the secret development of the atomic bomb.

1953: Winston Churchill was knighted.

1980: Mission to rescue American hostages being held in our embassy in Tehran, Iran ended in disaster.

historian said:

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April 24:

1800: The Library of Congress was established.

1863: The Union issued a code of conduct for soldiers regarding the treatment of Confederate prisoners and civilians. It would become the basis for international agreements in future years, including the Geneva Conventions.

1916: Beginning of the Easter Rebellion in Ireland. It ended in failure, but the Republic of Ireland would be proclaimed shortly after WWI.

1945: Pres. Harry S. Truman was briefed about the Manhattan Project, the secret development of the atomic bomb.

1953: Winston Churchill was knighted.

1980: Mission to rescue American hostages being held in our embassy in Tehran, Iran ended in disaster.

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Hearing about the hostage rescue disaster was painful.

The ingenuity that went into the upgrades for the C130 were really something

IIRC, in November, when the Sooners came to town, we had two C-130s for a flyover. That makes it even more special.

April 25:

1719: Daniel Defoe published his masterpiece Robinson Crusoe.

1859: Ground breaking for the construction of the Suez Canal.

1915: Allied forces began the invasion of Gallipoli.

1917: Birthday of Ella Fitzgerald

1945: American and Soviet forces met in central Germany, along the Elbe River, dividing Nazi Germany in two.

1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was placed in orbit.

April 26:

1865: Death of John Wilkes Booth, Pres. Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

1915: The Treaty of London was signed whereby Italy switched sides from the Central Powers to that of the Allies.

1937: The Germans tested their new Luftwaffe (air force) on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

1954: The first polio vaccine trials began.

1954: Opening of the Geneva Conference to deal with problems in Asia.

1986: Worst ever nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl in modern Ukraine.

1986: Maria Shriver married Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I meant to include this yesterday:











Amazing that there are 3 different live performance clips of that Duke Ellington masterpiece, including one with the master himself playing the piano!

historian said:

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April 26:

1865: Death of John Wilkes Booth, Pres. Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

1915: The Treaty of London was signed whereby Italy switched sides from the Central Powers to that of the Allies.

1937: The Germans tested their new Luftwaffe (air force) on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

1954: The first polio vaccine trials began.

1954: Opening of the Geneva Conference to deal with problems in Asia.

1986: Worst ever nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl in modern Ukraine.

1986: Maria Shriver married Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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1954 was huge. I wasn't alive then but, from what family has told me, just incredible!

I guess I should have added more detail:

Yes, it was huge. It resulted in the Geneva Accords whereby the French pulled out of Vietnam and the US began aiding the South Vietnamese against the communists of North Vietnam. There were supposed to be elections to reunite and determine the government for the country but they never happened--because we were afraid that Ho Chi Minh would win. A real possibility because he was a hero in their fight against Japan during WWII (like Mao in China), a fight that we had aided!

April 27:

4977 BC: According to Johannes Kepler, the creation of the universe.

1521: Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines by natives.

1773: Britain's Parliament passed the Tea Act to bail out the struggling monopoly, the British East India Company. It was widely hated by American colonists as an example of mercantilism.

1805: U.S. agent William Eaton led U.S. forces in an attack on Derna against Berber mercenaries. Thus, the Marines landed on "the shores of Tripoli."

1813: Explorer Zebulon Pike was killed in battle during the War of 1812.

1822: Birthday of Ulysses S. Grant

1994: South Africa held their first multiracial elections.

4/27/1937 - US Social Security system makes its 1st benefit payment

April 28:

1789: Famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty.

1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress were shot and killed by Italian partisans who then strung up their bodies in Milan.

1965: U.S. troops landed in the Dominican Republic to prevent a communist revolution.

1967: Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted by the U.S. Army.

1969: Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France.

1970: Pres. Richard M. Nixon approved American attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in "neutral" Cambodia to cut off the Viet Cong's supply lines.

For some reason that song Welcome to the 60's from Hair Spray just keeps going through my head. I was a little girl during the 60's and there was nothing great about it but the Beatles

4/28/1919 - First successful parachute jump is made

April 29:

1429: Joan of Arc relieved Orleans from an English siege.

1854: The Pennsylvania legislature charted the Ashmun Institute, the first college established solely for blacks.

1862: Union forces captured New Orleans.

1863: Birthday of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper tycoon

1945: U.S. Army forces liberated the Dachau concentration camp outside Munich.

1945: Adolf Hitler married his girlfriend Eva Braun in his bunker in Berlin.

1974: Pres. Richard Nixon announced the release of the Watergate tapes.

1992: Riots broke out in Los Angeles after police officers were acquitted in the Rodney King beating trial.

2004: WWII Monument opened in Washington, D.C.

2011: Prince William married Kate Middleton.

April 30:

1789: George Washington delivered the first presidential inaugural address.

1803: Negotiations between representatives of the U.S. and France concluded the Louisiana Purchase, more than doubling the size of the young nation.

1897: British physicist J.J. Thomson announced the discovery of electrons.

1939: Opening of the New York World's Fair

1945: The day after his wedding, Adolf Hitler committed suicide with his new bride in the Berlin bunker.

1975: South Vietnam surrendered as communist forces overran Saigon.

1993: Launch of the World Wide Web in the public domain. Previously, it had been only for government and academic scientists.

1997: Big Ben stopped for 54 minutes.

4/30/1798 - Dept of the Navy established

May 1:

1851: The Great Exhibition opened at the Crystal Palace in London to showcase the technological marvels of the Industrial Revolution. It was a stunning success.

1852: Birthday of Calamity Jane

1863: Beginning of the Battle of Chancellorsville, one of the more important battles of the Civil War

1898: Battle of Manilla Bay: American naval forces destroyed the Spanish fleet in a huge mismatch: the guns on our ships had a longer range so our ships could stop outside the range of their ships & destroy them unimpeded.

1931: Dedication of the Empire State Building

1941: Release of Orson Welles's classic Citizen Kane

1960: American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive (he chose not to ingest the cyanide pill). It created an international crisis exploited by Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev and ruining Pres. Eisenhower's hopes for peaceful negotiations.

May 2:

1670: King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson Bay Company.

1933: First supposed sighting of the Loch Ness monster.

1942: Beginning of the Battle of the Coral Sea

1945: German troops surrendered to the Allied forces in Italy and in Berlin.

1957: Death of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy

1972: Death of J. Edgar Hoover, legendary FBI director

1980: Candy Lightner's daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver leading her to found MADD.

2011: Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces

The deaths of McCarthy and Hoover on the same date May 1st is somehow ironic

This Day in History:

On May 2, 1908112 years ago today--Von Tilzer's York Music Company copyrighted the original version of of the song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with music by Albert Von Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth. These days, it's generally just the chorus that's sung, but here are the original 1908 lyrics:
Katie Casey was baseball mad.Had the fever and had it bad;Just to root for the home town crew,Ev'ry sou Katie blew.On a Saturday, he young beauCalled to see if she'd like to go,To see a show but Miss Kate said,"No, I'll tell you what you can do.""Take me out to the ball game,Take me out with the crowd.Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,I don't care if I never get back,Let me root, root, root for the home team,If they don't win it's a shame.For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,At the old ball game."Katie Casey saw all the games,Knew the players by their first names;Told the umpire he was wrong,All along good and strong.When the score was just two to two,Katie Casey knew what to do,Just to cheer up the boys she knew,She made the gang sing this song:"Take me out to the ball game,Take me out with the crowd.Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,I don't care if I never get back,Let me root, root, root for the home team,If they don't win it's a shame.For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,At the old ball game."

Wait till we get to Nov. 22! Although, perhaps without so much irony.

May 3:

1469: Birthday of famed philosopher and political observer Niccolo Machiavelli

1933: Birthday of James Brown

1946: Beginning of war crimes trial by the International Military Tribunals in Japan.

1947: Japan's new postwar constitution went into effect.

1952: Joseph Fletch landed the first aircraft on the North Pole.