Tidbits of History

Pig in a Blanket Day

1184 BC – The Greeks entered Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date).

Anniversary of the death of Daniel Defoe in 1731, author of Robinson Crusoe. Defoe’s suspected inspiration for Robinson Crusoe is thought to be Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk. By the end of the nineteenth century, no book in the history of Western literature had more editions, spin-offs and translations (even into languages such as Inuktitut, Coptic and Maltese) than Robinson Crusoe, with more than 700 such alternative versions, including children’s versions with pictures and no text.

April 24, 1800 – The United States Library of Congress was established when President John Adams signed legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.

Birthday of John Russell Pope (1874), American architect whose work includes the National Gallery of Art and the Jefferson Memorial

Spanish-American War: Spain declared war April 24, 1898, after rejecting US ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

1901 The Chicago White Stockings win against the Cleveland Blues in the first game played in baseball’s American League. It claimed major league status 25 years after the formation of the National League. The American League was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the former Republican Hotel by five Irishmen. Eight teams made up the American League:

• original Baltimore Orioles (went bankrupt and became defunct after 1902 season, not to be confused with the current Baltimore Orioles), replaced in 1903 by the New York Highlanders (became the New York Yankees in 1913)
• Boston Americans (became the Boston Red Sox in 1908)
• Chicago White Stockings (became the Chicago White Sox in 1904)
• Cleveland Blues (became the Cleveland Indians in 1915)
• Detroit Tigers (name and locale unchanged from 1894 forward)
• original Milwaukee Brewers (became the St. Louis Browns in 1902 and the new Baltimore Orioles in 1954)
• Philadelphia Athletics (became the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and the Oakland Athletics in 1968)
• original Washington Senators (became the Minnesota Twins in 1961)

The National League in 1900: The eight-team lineupremained unchanged through 1952. All franchises are still in the league, with five remaining in the same city.

• Boston Beaneaters (later called the Boston Braves, then Milwaukee Braves, now the Atlanta Braves)
• Brooklyn Superbas (later called the Brooklyn Dodgers, now the Los Angeles Dodgers) The Dodgers were founded in 1880 as the Brooklyn Atlantics, taking the name of a defunct team that had played in Brooklyn before them. The team was known alternatively as the Bridegrooms, Grooms, Superbas, Robins, and Trolley Dodgers before officially becoming the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1930s.
• Chicago Orphans (now the Chicago Cubs)
• Cincinnati Reds
• New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants)
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• St. Louis Cardinals

1913 – The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City was opened. It was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930 at 792 feet tall with 57 stories.

1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.”

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990.

On April 24, 2004, the United States lifted economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

National Cherry Cheesecake Day
National Picnic Day
Lover’s Day

April 23, 1533 – The Church of England declared that Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon are not married.

Birthday of William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564).

Anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1616; Spanish novelist, author of Don Quixote.

Dutch Boats in a Gale

Birthday of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775), English landscape painter, admired for unusual use of light and color.
See Famous Works of J. M. W. Turner.

1789 – U.S. President George Washington moved into Walter Franklin House (also known as the Samuel Osgood House), New York. It was the first executive mansion.

Birthday of James Buchanan, (1791), 15th president of the United States. Scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the two or three worst American presidents because he did not act to prevent the Civil War.

1900 – The word “hillbilly” was first used in print in an article in the “New York Journal.” It was spelled “Hill-Billie”. It was defined as:

“A Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.”

1910 – Theodore Roosevelt made his The Man in the Arena speech.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

April 22 is :

Passover 2024 begins at sundown on April 22 and ends April 30. Passover, called Pesach, gets its name from a pretty dark story: When Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God unleashed 10 plagues on Egypt. The 10th plague was the death of every firstborn son. God told Moses to instruct Israelites to mark their doorposts with lambs’ blood so God would “pass over” their homes and let their firstborn sons live. Passover celebrates the Exodus, when Israelites fled to freedom from their enslavement in Egypt.

Girl Scout Leader Day
National Jelly Bean Day
Earth Day

Queen Isabella Day, honoring the 1451 birth of the Spanish queen who financed Christopher Columbus. Interesting sidenote: Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, were the parents of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII.

April 22, 1502 – Pedro Alvares Cabral became the first European to reach present-day Brazil. Celebrated as Discovery Day in Brazil.

Treaty of Saragossa in 1529 divided the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Molucca Islands in Indonesia.

Birthday of Immanuel Kant in 1724, German philosopher.

Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, forces under Texas General Sam Houston captured Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

1864 – The U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription “In God We Trust” be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

Birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in 1870, Russian revolutionary.

1876 – The first official National League baseball game took place. Boston beat Philadelphia 6-5.

Oklahoma Day celebrating the anniversary of the opening of the Oklahoma Territory for settlement in 1889.

1915 – The New York Yankees wore pinstripes and the hat-in-the-ring logo for the first time.

Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser is released on April 22, 1993. From this code sprang Internet Explorer, and from the people who wrote it, we get Netscape, then FireFox.

April 22, 1994: Death of Richard Milhous Nixon , thirty-seventh President of the United States, the only president to resign from the office. Nixon died of a debilitating stroke in New York City at age 81.

2000 – In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives’ home in Miami, Florida.

National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day
Look Alike Day
National Lima Bean Respect Day
Volunteer Recognition Day

April 20, 1534, Jacques Cartier began the voyage during which he discovered Canada and Labrador.

On April 20 in 1789, President George Washington arrived in Philadelphia after his inauguration to an elaborate welcome at Gray’s Ferry.

1832 – Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas was established by an act of the U.S. Congress. It was the first national park in the U.S.

U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wisconsin Territory in 1836.

Birthday of Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889), at Braunau, Austria; German leader of the Nazi party and dictator of Germany (1933-45).

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride in 1902.

1912 – Fenway Park opened as the home of the Boston Red Sox.

On April 20, 1916, the Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park. The name was later called Cubs Park and, in 1926, called Wrigley Field.

The League of Nations officially dissolved on April 20, 1946, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

1962 – The New Orleans Citizens’ Council offered a free one-way ride for blacks to move to northern states and promoted a boycott of Ford Motor Co. because of its (Ford Motor Co.’s) support of the Civil Rights movement.
In Louisiana, leaders of the original Citizens’ Council included State Senator and gubernatorial candidate William Rainach (Democrat), future U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., (Democrat), the publisher Ned Touchstone (Democrat), and Judge Leander Perez, (Democrat), considered the political boss of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes south of New Orleans.

April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil spill: A massive fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and caused a massive oil spill, the worst spill in US history.

National Rice Ball Day
National Garlic Day

Birthday of Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721), American patriot and statesman. The only man to sign all four of the major documents of American independence – the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

On April 19, 1770, Captain James Cook sighted the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

Patriots’ Day or Battles of Lexington and Concord Day, commemorating the first battle of the Revolutionary War in 1775 (observed in Massachusetts, Maine, and Wisconsin).

Parker Day or John Parker Day, a remembrance day in tribute to John Parker, a captain of the Minutemen who gave the order in 1775 at Lexington not to fire unless fired upon. Remembered for the words “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

April 19, 1782, John Adams secured Dutch Republic’s recognition of the United States as an independent government and the house he purchased in The Hague, Netherlands became first American embassy.

Birthday of Lucretia Garfield (April 19, 1832), wife of James A Garfield; first lady in 1881.

Anniversary of the death of Simon Fraser in 1862, Canadian explorer and fur trader who explored the upper course of the Fraser River.

April 19, 1934, Shirley Temple appeared in her first movie, “Stand Up & Cheer”

1951 – General Douglas MacArthur gave his “Old Soldiers” speech before the U.S. Congress. In the address General MacArthur said that “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

1960 – Baseball uniforms began displaying player’s names on their backs.

In 1971, Charles Manson was sentenced to death (later commuted life imprisonment) for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.

April 19, 1993 – The siege of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel Center, near Waco, Texas, ended in a fire that killed 82 people. The “Branch Davidians” are an offshoot (founded in 1959 by Benjamin Roden) of the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church. When Benjamin Roden died in 1978, he was succeeded by his wife Lois Roden. Vernon Howell arrived in Waco in 1981. He had an affair with the then-prophetess of the Branch Davidians, Lois Roden, while he was in his late 20s and she was in her late 60s. Howell wanted a child with her, who, according to his understanding, would be the Chosen One. When she died, her son George Roden inherited the position of prophet and leader of the commune. However, George Roden and Howell began to clash. Howell soon enjoyed the loyalty of the majority of the Branch Davidian community. In 1990, Vernon Howell changed his name to David Koresh, suggesting ties to the biblical King David and to Cyrus the Great (Koresh being Hebrew for Cyrus).

April 19, 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, was bombed, killing 168. On June 2, 1997, Timothy McVeigh was found guilty on 11 counts of murder and conspiracy. He was executed in 2001. McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge against the government for the sieges at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

April 15 is Rubber Eraser Day
Titanic Remembrance Day
Tax Day (United States)
Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
Jackie Robinson Day (Major League Baseball)

April 15, 1452 was the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, (Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci), Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, etc. See a sample of famous artwork.

First American School for the Deaf opened in Hartford, Connecticut on April 15, 1817.

In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.

1865 – Death of President Abraham Lincoln , sixteenth President of the United States. Lincoln was 56 years old.  The Civil War had ended only 6 days prior to Lincoln’s assassination.

On April 15, 1889, Father Damien (Jozef De Veuster) died of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) on the island of Molokai, Hawaii.

April 15, 1892, the General Electric Company was formed.

1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survived.

Insulin became generally available for use by people with diabetes in 1923.

In 1924 Rand McNally published its first Road Atlas.

1947 – Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.

McDonald’s restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois on this date in 1955.