Today in American 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1770 - Townsend Acts repealed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.

Here and Back: On April 12, 1861, former Governor Isaac Stevens returned to Washington Territory from Washington D.C. to campaign for re-election to a third term as territorial delegate. That same day, the Civil War began back east with the shelling of Fort Sumter. Stevens left to join the army where he rose in the ranks, but was later killed in battle.

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 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


Edited by Don Quixote - 17-Apr-2012 at 19:44

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



Edited by Don Quixote - 16-Apr-2012 at 02:34

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.

And in the WA Sate history:

Washington State Highway Board holds its first meeting on April 17, 1905.

Postal clerk horsewhips Bothell publisher for a critical editorial on April 17, 1909.

Seattle's Roxy Theater becomes target of attempted bombing on April 17, 1933.

George A. McIntyre shoots and kills four people in Pullman on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1949.

Ferry Rhododendron enters service on April 17, 1954.

Seattle holds groundbreaking ceremony for the Space Needle on April 17, 1961.

Boeing wins design contract for AWACS on April 17, 1969.

Edited by Don Quixote - 17-Apr-2012 at 19:44

April 18th in WA state history:

Fire devastates Cheney on April 18,1889.

Redmond beginnings: York Post Office (later Derby, later Redmond) opens on April 18, 1890.

Author Henry James visits Seattle on April 18, 1905.

First Seattle production of Hair debuts at the Moore Theater on April 18, 1970.

China-U.S. trade resumes as M.V. LIULINHAI docks at Port of Seattle on April 18, 1979.

One of Western Washington's latest lowland snowfalls on record begins on April 18, 2008.

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:

Japanese Americans are ordered to evacuate Seattle on April 21, 1942.

Northgate Shopping Mall (Seattle) opens on April 21, 1950.

Century 21 World's Fair opens in Seattle on April 21, 1962.

Plane crashes during Century 21 opening day festivities on April 21, 1962.

Belgian waffles are introduced in America at the Seattle World's Fair on April 21, 1962.

Tacoma Dome opens its doors on April 21, 1983.

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.

In WA state history:

David Thompson concludes first scientific survey of the Columbia River and departs Kettle Falls for Montreal on April 22, 1812.

American customs inspector seizes the British ship Albion, whose crew is cutting timber at Discovery Bay, on April 22, 1850.

Duncan Hunter files a homestead claim in the future Lynnwood on April 22, 1889.

Cigar makers union in Seattle strikes on April 22, 1907.

Wireless operators strike the entire Pacific Coast on April 22, 1913.

Chaplin look-alike contest is held in Seattle on April 22, 1916.

Hoko River Bridge, located in Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula, collapses when a 40-ton log truck drives over it on April 22, 1947.

Group Health Cooperative expresses solidarity with Boeing machinists by granting them membership on a deferred-dues basis during their strike that begins on April 22, 1948.

Aeronautical Machinists Union strikes Boeing on April 22, 1948.

Seattle Jewish Archives Committee is created on April 22, 1968.

Earth Day first observed in Seattle on April 22, 1970.

Senator Henry M. Jackson is cheered and heckled during speeches about the environment at the University of Washington and Washington State University on the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970.

Group Health Cooperative holds its first Health Fair on April 22, 1978.

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:

Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder settle on the site of future Port Townsend on April 24, 1851.

First post office in Mason County is established at Oakland on April 24, 1858.

General Howard meets with Smohalla, Wanapum spiritual leader, on April 24, 1877.

Main administration building of the State Normal School at Cheney burns down on April 24, 1912.

Mary Davenport-Engberg debuts Seattle Civic Symphony Orchestra in concert at Metropolitan Theatre on April 24, 1921.

Two women die in an airplane crash at Pearson Field in Vancouver on April 24, 1927.

CHECC (Choose an Effective City Council) holds debut press conference in Seattle on April 24, 1967.

Bees disrupt protest at UW campus on April 24, 1969.

Legislature approves a $8.5 billion transportation tax package, which will survive a ballot challenge, on April 24, 2005.

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.