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April 3

1449  The earliest English patent was granted to John of Utynam for introducing the making of colored glass to England.

1860  First pony express service began.

1882  Outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back by Bob Ford, one of his own gang members, reportedly for a $10,000 reward.

1930  Ras Tafari became Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

1936  Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.

1948  President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which would foster the recovery of war-torn Europe.

1974  "Super Tornado Outbreak"strikes 13 U.S. states.

1996  U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown died in a plane crash in Croatia.

1996  Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested.

2004  A suspect in Madrid's March bombings blew up himself and three others.

2004  14 year old soccer star Freddy Adu became the youngest player in an American professional sport in over a century.

April 5

1614  Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

1792  George Washington cast the first Presidential veto.

1887  Anne Sullivan makes the breakthrough to Helen Keller by spelling "water" in the manual alphabet.

1951  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for giving away atomic secrets to the Russians.

1955  Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of Britain.

1971  Canadian Fran Phipps became the first woman to reach the North Pole.

1999  Libya gave over two suspects in the Lockerbie, Scotland Pan Am bombing.

April 7

1862  General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh.

1913  5,000 suffragists march to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., seeking the vote for women.

1927  U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's Washington' s speech was seen and heard in New York in the first long distance television transmission.

1948  The World Health Organization, a U.N. organization, was founded. 

1949  Rodger's and Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize winner, South Pacific opened on Broadway.

1994  Hutu extremists in Rwanda began massacring ethnic Tsutis and politically motivated Hutus.  In 100 days of killing, an estmated 800,000 are murdered.

2003  Cecile du Brunhoff, creator of Babar the elephant, died.

2003  The U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold a Virginia law making it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation.

April 9

1731  Robert Jenkins' ear was cut off, sparking the War of Jenkin's Ear, between Spain and England.

1865  Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysees S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

1914  The first color film, The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, was shown in London.

1939  Contralto Marion Anderson, after being denied performing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., gave a concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

1942  American and Phillipine troops on Bataan were overwhelmed by Japanese forces during World War II.  The "Bataan Death March" began soon after.

1959  NASA announced the selection of America's first astronauts, including Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

1963  Winston Churchill became the first honorary U.S. citizen.

1992  Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted of drug and racketeering charges.

2003  American Marines pulled down Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad after U.S. commanders declared his rule ended.

2005  Britain's Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles.

April 11

1814  Napoleon was exiled to the Island of Elba.

1836  George Mueller opened his famous orphanage on Wilson Street in Bristol, England.

1899  The treaty ending the Spanish-American War took effect.

1921  Iowa imposed the first state cigarette state tax.

1945  Allies liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

1951  President Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur.

1968  President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

1979  Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown.

1981  President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House after he was shot in an assassination attempt.

2007  Sciene fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut in New York City at age 84.

April 13 

1598  The Edict of Nantes gave religious tolerance to the Huguenots in France.

1742  Handel's Messiah was first publicly performed in Dublin, Ireland.

1964  Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for best actor.

1970  Apollo 13 announced, "Houston, we've got a problem," when an oxygen tank burst on the way to the Moon.

1975  Civil War began in Lebanon when gunmen killed 4 Christian Phalangists who retaliated by killing 27 Palestinians.

1977  Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Master Tournament and the first of African descent to win a major golf title.

2004  Barry Bonds hit his 661st homer, passing Willie Mays to take third place on the lifetime list.

April 15

1452  Leonardo da Vinci was born.

1755  Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language.

1817  Thomas Hopkins Gaullaudet opened the first free American school for the deaf in Harfford, CT.

1861  In response to the attack on Fort Sumter three days earlier, President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.

1892  Corrie ten Boom was born.

1912  Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland on its maiden voyage after it struck an iceberg.

1920  A paymaster and guard were murdered in Braintree, MA.  Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of the crime.

1945  Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated by Canadian and British forces.

1947  Jackie Robinson made his Brooklyn Dodger debut and scored the game winning run. 

1955  Ray Kroc acquired McDonald's and opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, IL, today the official corporate museum.

1996  The 100th Boston Marathon was won by Moses Tanui of Kenya.

1997  Jackie Robinson's number, 42, was retired.

1998  Cambodian despot Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, died.   

April 17

1790  Benjamin Franklin, U.S. patiriot, diplomat, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died in Philadelphia.

1895  The Sino-Japanese War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

1937  Daffy Duck made his debut in Porky's Duck Hunt.

1961  Supported by the U.S. government, 1,500 exiles made the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba.

1964  Geraldine Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world.

1969  Sirhan Sirhan was convicted for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.

1970  The Apollo 13 astronauts safely splashed down after their near-disastrous flight.

1975  Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, ending the five year Cambodian War.

April 19

1775  The "shot heard around the world" was fired.  Colonial Minute Men took on British Army regulars at Lexington and Concord, MA, starting the American Revolution. 

1824  Lord Byron died of a fever while helping the Greeks fight the Turks.

1882  Naturalist Charles Darwin, developer of the theory of evolution, died.

1897  The first Boston Marathon was run.

1933  The United States went off the gold standard.

1943  The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began, one of the first  mass rebellion against the Nazis.

1993  The siege at Waco, TX, ended when the FBI moved into the Branch Davidian compound with tear gas and cult members set fire to the compound killing over 80 people.

1995  The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma, OK,  was destroyed by a car bomb.  168 people,  including 19 children were killed in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history up to that time.

2005  Germany's Cardinal Joseph P. Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.

April 21                                                                          Yom Ha Sho'ah (5769)  (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

1649  Maryland passed a Tolerance Act which provided for freedom of worhip for all Christians.

1836  Texan Army under Sam Houston defeated Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto.

1897  A.W. Tozer was born.

1910  Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), author of the novel, Huckleberry Finn, died at the age of 74.

1918  Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious World War I German flying ace known as "The Red Baron," was killed in action.

1960  Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia.

1975  South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned.

1980  Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon.  She was later disqualified later for cheating.

1995  Timothy McVeigh was arrested in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing.

1997  The ashes of Timothy Leary, Gene Roddenberry, and 22 others blasted into space for the first space funerals

April 23

1616  Playwright William Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon, England.

1954  Hank Aaron hit the first of his 755 home runs.

1969  Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death (later reduced to a life sentence) for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

1985  Coca Cola announced that it was changing its formula and introduced New Coke.

1998  James Earl Ray, convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King, Jr., died.

2004  The U.S. resumed diplomatic relations with Libya.

April 25

1901  New York became the first state to require license plates on cars.

1915  British, Australian, and New Zealand forces landed in Gallipoli.

1928  The first seeing eye dog was presented to Morris S. Frank. 

1945  Delegates met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.

1953  The Frances Crick and James Watson article describing the double helix of DNA is published in the magazine Nature.

1959  The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.

1990  Violeta Barrios de Chamarro was inaugurated as President of Nicaragua.

1990  The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed.

1992  Islamic forces took over most of Kabul, Afghanistan after the Soviet-controlled government collapsed.

2003  The Georgia legislature voted to scrap the "Confederate flag" design from its state flag.

April 27 

1521  Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Phillipines.

1805  The Marines captured Dema, on the shores of Tripoli.

1865  The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed.

1927  Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther KIng, Jr., was born.

1956  Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

1961  Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain.

1983  Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson's strikeout record -- one that had held since 1927.

1987  Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States.  He was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews during WWII.

1993  Eritrea declared itself independent.

April 29                                                                                  Israeli Independence Day/Administrave Professional Day

1429  Joan of Arc entered the city of Orleans.  She would end its months-long siege and it would and would become known as the "Maid of Orleans".

1916  The Easter Rebellion in Ireland ended with the surrender of Irish nationalists.

1925  Dr. Florence Rena Sabin became the first woman elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

1945  American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp.

1978  Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelled by sled dog, became to reach the North Pole alone.

1980  Film director Alfred Hitchcock died at the age of 80.

1986  Pitcher Roger Clemens set a major league baseball record by striking out batters in a regular nine inning game.  He repeated his feat in 1996.

1992  A Los Angeles jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating Rodney King.  Massive rioting and looting ensued.

1997  The first joint U.S. - Russian spacewalk was made by Jerry Linenger and Vasily Tsiblyev from space station Mir.

May 1                                                                                                                   May Day

1707  The Act of Union joined England and Scotland to form Great Britain.

1931  The Empire State Building opened in New York City.  At 102 stories, it would be the world's tallest building for the next 41 years.

1941  Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, considered by many the greatest film ever made, premiered in New York.

1948  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established with Kim II Sung as President.

1960  The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Soviet territory.

1967  Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu.  (They divorced in 1973.)

1991  44 year old Texas fireballer Nolan Ryan hurled his 7th and final no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.  That same day, Oakland's Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's stolen base record.

2003  President Bush made a speech aboard an aircraft carrier proclaiming "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".