QuoteReplyTopic: Today in American History Posted: 12-Apr-2012 at 01:01
April 11th: 1862 - Rebels surrender Ft Pulaski, Georgia-Rebels surrender 1863 - Battle of Suffolk, VA (Norfleet House) 1865 - Battle of Mobile, AL - evacuated by Confederates 1865 - Lincoln urges a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction 1898 - President McKinley asks for Spanish-American War declaration 1899 - Treaty of Paris ratifies ends war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US 1900 - US Navy's 1st submarine made its debut 1921 - Iowa imposed 1st state cigarette tax 1945 - US captures Tsugen Shima 1945 - US soldiers liberate Nazi concentration camp "Buchenwald" 1945 - US troops conquers Mulheim, Oberhausen, Bochum, Unna, Essen 1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1981 - Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him In WA State history:
I wasn't able to do the the updates of the "today in" threads, so I figure better late than never. April 12th: 1770 - Townsend Acts repealed 1776 - Halifax resolution for independence adopted by North Carolina 1787 - Philadelphia's Free African Society forms 1811 - 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, WA 1859 - Hibernia Savings & Loan Society of SF incorporates 1861 - Fort Sumter, SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting Civil War 1862 - James Andrews steals Confederate train (General) at Kennesaw, GA 1862 - Union troops occupy Fort Pulaski Georgia 1863 - -14] Gunboat battle at Bayou Teche Louisiana 1864 - Battle of Blair's Landing LA 1864 - Confederate Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, Tn 1869 - North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan Law 1872 - Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia, Kentucky (1 dead/$1,500) 1938 - 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (NY) 1938 - Stanley Cup: Chicago Blackhawks beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3 games to 1 1938 - US began requiring medical tests for marriage licenses 1945 - US liberates Buchenwald concentration camp 1985 - US Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of Moscow games 1991 - US announces closing of 31 major US military bases 1999 -
US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving
"intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit. 2009 - U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth. In WA State history: Mob Brutality: On April 12, 1854, an angry crowd hanged two Snohomish Indians in Seattle after Sheriff Carson Boren was able to save one other man from the gallows. One of the mob's ringleaders was Luther Collins, a Seattle pioneer and one of King County's first commissioners. Collins had participated in lynching a Native American the previous year.
On the Snow: On April 12, 1951, Lieutenant John W. Hodgkin landed his ski-equipped Piper Cub on the top of Mount Rainier, establishing a new world record for a high-altitude landing.
When it came time to leave, his engine wouldn't start in the rarified
air, forcing him to huddle in the cockpit overnight before performing a
dead stick take off the next morning.
April 13th: 1796 - 1st elephant arrives in US from India 1860 - 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento Calif 1861 - After 34 hours of bombardment, Ft Sumter surrenders to Confederates 1863 - Battle of Irish Bend, LA (Ft Bisland) 1863 - Hospital for Ruptured & Crippled in NY is 1st orthopedic hospital 1865 - Battle of Raleigh, NC 1865 - Sherman's march through Georgia begins 1873 - Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish Louisiana (60 blacks killed) 1904 - Congress authorizes Lewis & Clark Expo $1 gold coin 1906 - Mutiny on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos & Vasco da Gama 1920 - 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed 1934 - 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments 1934 - US Congress passes Johnson Debt Default Act 1945 - US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa 1954 - Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist 1965 - 1st US Senate black page, Lawrence W Bradford Jr, 16, appointed by NY Sen Jacob Javits 1980 - US boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow 1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 2006 - Powerful tornadoes rip through Iowa City, Iowa.
April 14th: 1756 - Gov Glen of SC protests against 900 Acadia indians 1775 - 1st abolitionist society in US organizes in Phila 1777 - NY adopts new constitution as an independent state 1818 - US Medical Corp forms 1853 - Harriet Tubman began her Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape 1860 - 1st Pony Express rider arrives in SF from St Joseph, Mo 1861 - Formal Union surrender of Ft Sumter 1861 - Robert E Lee resigns from Union army 1862 - Battle of Ft Pillow TN 1865 - Mobile, Alabama is captured 1865 - US Secret Service created to fight counterfeiting 1865 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater 1868 - SC voters approved constitution, 70,758 to 27,228 1872 - San Francisco organizes Bar Association 1881 - The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas. 1900 - Veteran's Hospital at Ft Miley forms 1902 - JC Penney opens his 1st store, in Kemmerer, Wyo 1906 - Pres Theodore Roosevelt denounces "muckrakers" in US press 1910 - President Taft begins tradition of throwing out ball on opening day 1910 - Pan American Union forms 1935 - Sandstorm ravages US midwest (Dust Bowl) 1944 - Gen Eisenhower becomes head commander of allied air fleet 1945 - American planes bombed Tokyo & damaged the Imperial Palace 1945 - US 7th Army & allies forces captured Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany 1945 - US forces conquered Motobu peninsula on Okinawa 1945 - US marines attack Yae Take on Okinawa 1948 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak 1965 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1967 - In the Vietnam War, US planes bombed Haiphong for 1st time 1969 - Student Afro-American Society seized at Columbia College 1986 - US aircraft attacks 5 terrorist locations in Libya 1988 - USSR, US, Pakistan & Afghanistan sign Afghanistan treaty
April 15th: 1715 - Uprising of Yamasse-indians in South Carolina 1715 - Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina. 1850 - City of San Francisco incorporated 1861 - Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by Pres Lincoln 1864 - General Steeles' Union troops occupies Camden, Arkansas 1870 - Last day US silver coins allow to circulate in Canada 1874 - NY legislature passes compulsory education law 1892 - General Electric Company, forms & is incorporated in NY 1945 - FDR buried on grounds of Hyde Park home 1945 - US troops occupy concentration camp Colditz 1952 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1955 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1957 - Saturday mail delivery restored after Congress givs PO $41 million 1959 - US Sect of States John Foster Dulles resigns 1962 - US national debt above $300,000,000,000 1964 - Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens (world's longest) 1969 - North Korea shoots at US airplane above Japanese sea 1970 - "Cry for Us All" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 8 performances 1986 - US air raids Libya, responding to La Belle disco, Berlin bombing 1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya. 1989 - Then largest lottery in North America ($69M) drawn in Illinois
April 16th: 1787 - 1st American comedy, "The Contrast," made its debut in NYC 1789 - George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration 1818 - Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border) 1861 - US president Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states 1862 - Pres Davis approves conscription act for white males between 18-35 1862 - Slavery abolished in District of Columbia 1862 - US Confederate Congress calls up all white males (18-35 years) 1865 - Battle of Columbus & West Point, GA (Ft Tyler) 1868 - Louisiana voters approve new constitution 1869 - Ebenezer Bassett, 1st US Negro diplomat, begins service in Haiti 1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. 1900 - US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps 1945 - US troops enter Nuremberg, Germany, during WW II 1945 - US troops land on He Shima Okinawa 1962 - Brazil nationalizes US businesses 1980 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1990 - Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $260 per week 1990 - Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton
Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in
1977 2007 -
Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American
history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, shoots 32 people to death and
injures 23 others before committing suicide.
April 17th: 1817 - 1st US school for deaf (Hartford, Conn) 1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54° 40'N 1853 - US Marine Hospital at Presidio (SF) forms 1861 - Indianola TX-"Star of West" taken by Confederacy 1861 - Virginia is 8th state to secede 1863 - R Grierson's: La Grange, TN to Baton Rouge, LA 1864 - Battle of Plymouth, NC 1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia 1864 - Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges 1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination 1905 - US Supreme court judges maximum work day unconstitutional 1907 - Ellis Island, NY-11,745 immigrants arrive 1945 - US troops lands in Mindanao 1982 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 2002 -
Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire
from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat
zone for Canada since the Korean War.
April 18th: 1775 - Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington 1783 - Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began. 1861 - Battle of Harpers Ferry, VA 1861 - Col Robert E Lee turns down offer to command Union armies 1862 - Battle of Ft Jackson, Ft St Philip & New Orlean's, LA 1864 - Battle of Poison Springs, AR (Camden Expedition) 1865 - Confederate Gen Johnson surrendered to Gen Sherman in North Carolina 1868 - San Francisco Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed 1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico. 1890 - NY Commission of Emigration ends, closing Castle Clinton 1906 - 8.25 earthquake shakes SF Calif 1925 - World's fair opens in Chicago 1946 - US recognizes Tito's Yugoslavia government 1958 - A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum. 1968 - 178,000 employees of US Bell Telephone System go on strike 1968 - London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona) 1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1990 - Supreme Court rules states could make it a crime to possess or look at child pornography, even in one's home 1991 - Census Bureau said it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census 1991 - Congress ends railroad worker 1 day strike 2007 - The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
April 19th: 1782 - Netherlands recognizes US 1782 - John Adams secured the Dutch Republic's recognition of the
United States as an independent government and the house that he
purchased in The Hague, Netherlands became the first American embassy. 1852 - California Historical Society forms 1861 - Baltimore riots-4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed 1932 - Pres Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week 1933 - FDR announces US will leave gold standard 1945 - US aircraft carrier Franklin heavy damaged in Japanese air raid 1945 - US offensive against Shuri-barrier on Okinawa 1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site In WA state history:
April 20th: 1775 - British begin siege of Boston 1777 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state 1836 - Territory of Wisconsin created 1853 - Harriet Tubman starts Underground Railroad 1861 - Battle of Norfolk, VA 1861 - Colonel Robert E Lee resigns from Union army 1861 - Robert E Lee resigns from Union army 1865 - Chicago's Crosby Opera House opens 1871 - 3rd Enforcement Act (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus) 1872 - SF Bar Association organized 1894 - 136,000 mine workers strike in Ohio for pay increase 1898 - US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota opens 1904 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis 1914 - 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow, Colo 1945 - US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg 1945 - US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa 1951 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak 1967 - US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during Vietnam War 1971 - US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation 1972 - Apollo 16's Young & Duke land on Moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2 1983 - Pres Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security In WA State history:
April 21st: 1649 - Maryland Toleration Act passed, allowing all freedom of worship 1789 - John Adams sworn in as 1st US VP (9 days before Washington) 1794 - NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British 1828 - Noah Webster publishes 1st American dictionary 1836 - Battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas wins independence from Mexico 1855 - 1st train crosses Miss River's 1st bridge, Rock Is Ill-Davenport Ia 1862 - Congress establishes US Mint in Denver, Co 1865 - Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington 1878 - First Lady Lucy Hayes begins egg rolling contest on White House lawn 1878 - NY installs 1st firehouse pole 1898 - Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25,
recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and
Spain as of this date. 1914 - US marines occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico, stay 6 months 1945 - US 7th Army occupies Neurenberg 1954 - USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam 1965 - New York World's Fair reopens for 2nd & final season 1966 - Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) visits Kingston Jamaica 1967 - Dodgers 1st rain out in Los Angeles (after 737 consecutive games) 1967 - EO, Evangelical Broadcasting, begins in Netherlands 1967 - Josef Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defects to US 1981 - US furnish $1 billion in arms to Saudi-Arabia 1995 - FBI arrested Timothy McVeigh & charge him with Oklahoma City bombing 2008 - The United States Air Force retires the F-117 Nighthawk.
In WA state history: "...Fifty years ago this week, on April 21, 1962,
the gates opened at the Seattle World's Fair, and thousands of people
poured in to catch a glimpse of the future. Billed as "America's Space
Age World's Fair," the Century 21 Exposition had plenty to see and do. A ride up to the top of the Space Needle was a must, as was a trip on the monorail. Exhibits, both foreign and domestic, captured the imagination. Performances and artwork stirred the soul. And newly introduced Belgian waffles sated the most ravenous appetites.
The fair traced its origins to the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which Seattle City Councilman Al Rochester
remembered fondly from his youth. Recalling the successes of the A-Y-P,
Rochester advocated for a second world's fair to commemorate the first,
but the 1957 launch of Sputnik shifted the theme to science and
technology as a way of showcasing Seattle's strides towards Century 21.
The space-age fair received broad support from local, state, and federal officials.
One goal of the fair was to have a civic
center in place once the event was over. The site chosen for the
fairgrounds was close to downtown, and had structures that could be
modified for reuse. Older -- and in some cases , derelict -- buildings had to be torn down, but more people were concerned over the loss of homes less than a mile away that were being demolished for the construction of Interstate 5.
Planning progressed, and Seattleites watched as the Space Needle grew and the monorail pylons were put in place. The night before the fair opened, a twist party was held downtown. After that it was fun, fun, fun, all summer long and into the fall. And once the fair had ended, a civic center was indeed in place, and remains a lasting legacy well into the twenty-first century...' http://www.historylink.org/
April 22hd: 1526 - 1st slave revolt occurs in SC 1861 - Robert E Lee named commander of Virginia Confederate forces 1864 - US mints 2 cent coin (1st appearance of "In God We Trust") 1884 - US recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State 1889 - Oklahoma land rush officially started; some were "sooner" 1898 - 1st Spanish-American War action: USS Nashville, takes enemy ship 1898 - US President McKinley orders blockade of Cuban harbors 1914 - Mexico ends diplomatic relations with US 1930 - US, Britain & Japan sign London Naval Treaty 1955 - Congress orders all US coins bear motto "In God We Trust" 1964 - World's Fair (Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, NY) opens 1966 - USSR performs underground nuclear test 1981 - Largest US bank robbery (Tucson Ariz), more than $3.3 million stolen 1986 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1987 - Sri Lanka Air Force bomb Tamil, 100s killed 1990 - Lebanon release US hostage Robert Polhill after 39 months 1993 - Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Wash DC 2000 - In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida.
April 23rd: 1635 - Oldest US public institution, Boston Latin School founded 1789 - President-elect George Washington moves into Franklin House, NY 1795 - William Hastings acquitted in England of high treason 1860 - Dem convention in Charleston SC divided over slavery 1861 - Arkansas troops seize Ft Smith 1861 - Battle of San Antonio, TX 1864 - Battle of Cane River, LA (Red River Expedition, Monett's Ferry) 1871 - Blossom Rock in SF Bay blown up 1904 - American Academy of Arts & Letters forms 1943 - British & US offensive directed at Tunis/Bizerta 1945 - US troops in Italy cross river Po 1956 - US Supreme court ends race segregation on buses 1971 - Columbia University operations virtually end, by student strike
April 24th: 1704 - "Boston News-Letter," 1st successful newspaper in US, forms 1800 - Library of Congress establishes with $5,000 allocation 1863 - Skirmish at Okolona/Birmingham, Mississippi (Grierson's Raid) 1865 - Fire alarm & police telegraph system put into operation (SF) 1867 - Black demonstrators stage ride-ins on Richmond Va streetcars 1877 - Last federal occupying troops withdraw from south (New Orleans) 1897 - 1st reporter, William Price (Wash Star), assigned to White House 1898 - Spain declares war on US rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba 1898 - US fleet under commodore Dewey sails from Hong Kong to Philippines 1898 - The Spanish-American War: The United States declare war on Spain. 1944 - United Negro College Fund incorporates 1950 - Pres Harry Truman denies there are communists in US government 1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1969 - US B-52's drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary 1975 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1980 - US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die 1981 - US ends grain embargo against USSR In WA state history:
April 25th: 1861 - 7th NY arrives to reinforce Washington, DC 1861 - Battle of Lavaca, TX 1861 - American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington, D.C. 1862 - Battle of New Orleans LA - US Admiral Farragut occupies New Orleans 1864 - Battle of Marks' Mill, Arkansas (Camden Expedition) 1898 - US declares war on Spain over Cuba 1945 - US & Soviet forces meet at Torgau Germany on Elbe River 1954 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island atmospher 1962 - US resumes above ground nuclear testing, at Christmas Island 1967 - Abortion legalized in Colorado 1971 - US canal rights in Nicaragua & rights to Corn Islands expire 1973 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 2011 - At least 300 people killed in deadliest tornado outbreak in the Southern United States since the 1974 Super Outbreak.
April 29th: 1857 - US Army, Pacific Div HQ permanently forms at Presidio (SF) 1861 - Maryland's House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union 1862 - 100,000 federal troops prepare to march into Corinth, Miss 1862 - New Orleans fell to Union forces during Civil War 1863 - Battle of Chancellordville, VA (Fredericksburg, Wilderness Tavern) 1864 - -30] Skirmish at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas 1864 - The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. 1926 - France & US reach accord on repayment of WW I 1945 - US liberates 31,601 in Nazi concentration camp in Dachau Germany 1953 - The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV. 1964 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1971 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to
evacuate US citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese
takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end. 1987 - Japan's premier Nakasone visits the US 2002 -
The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years. 2004 - Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
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