Today in History

[katcarasella]

1970: Apollo 13 blasts off

I remember watching this while I was holding Jenny, she was only 2 weeks old.
Good Grief I really feel old now.

[goofywife]

1961: Russia sends man into space

The Soviet Union successfully launched the first man into space today. Yuri Gagarin, a 27-year-old air force major, endured intense physical and psychological examinations before making the historic trip.

"By the Soviet account, Maj. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin rode a five-ton spaceship once around the earth in an orbit taking an hour and 20 minutes. He was in the air a total of an hour and 48 minutes," reported The Appleton Post Crescent on April 13, 1961. According to the article, Soviet Premier Khrushchev sent "a message of congratulations telling Gagarin the 'entire Soviet people acclaim your valiant feat which will be remembered down the centuries as an example of courage, gallantry and heroism in the name of service to mankind.'"

While U.S. President Kennedy congratulated the Soviets on "a most impressive scientific accomplishment," he told Americans that he hoped the U.S. would achieve other scientific firsts, because "the Soviet Union will remain ahead of the United States for some time in the space race," according to the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

2002: Hugo Chavez forced out of office

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was forced out of office today by a military coup. "The development stunned a nation that had seen one of the biggest civilian demonstrations against the 47-year-old Chavez's three-year rule. It came only three days after Chavez, a fiery populist and former army paratrooper who had led a failed 1992 coup, had vowed to crush a general strike organized by Venezuela's largest business and labor groups," reported the Sentinel & Enterprise on April 12, 2002. NOTE: Chavez resumed the presidency the following day after thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in protest.

1981: First space shuttle is launched

The United States launched its first space shuttle mission today, exactly 20 years after Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space. "Launched into a clear, still morning, the trim, milk-white space plane lifted from the launch pad on the largest solid rocket engines ever flown, nearly 6-million pounds of thrust beginning the 54-hour journey," informed the Winnipeg Free Press on April 13, 1981. "Shaking the earth and rapidly gathering speed, Columbia climbed straight up, leaving behind a white vapor trail as it climbed to an altitude of 50 kilometres and separated from its expended boosters."

1955: Polio vaccine cleared for use

The University of Michigan School of Public Health declared that the polio vaccine created by Dr. Jonas Salk was safe and effective today. "The mother with a dozen children or the mother with one, could not ask for a better gift today or any other day than a cure against polio. And that cure came today in the form of a long awaited announcement from the University of Michigan, that the Salk vaccine has been proven 80 to 90 percent effective in combating poliomyelitis," explained The Daily Intelligencer on April 12, 1955.

1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies

After serving as U.S. president for 12 years, Franklin D. Roosevelt died today from a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. Roosevelt's death catapulted Vice President Harry S. Truman to the highest office in the land. "Around the world, the humble and the great paid mournful tribute today to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in words of praise and sorrow," The Evening Tribune reported on April 13, 1945. "The flags of virtually all nations flew at half mast. Many governments decreed a period of mourning. Expressions of sympathy streamed into the White House from world capitals."

1864: Hundreds die in Fort Pillow massacre

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the Union stronghold at Fort Pillow today. During the attack, Forrest and his men killed many of the Union's African-American defenders. Forrest claimed the soldiers were trying to escape; however, Union sources countered this claim, arguing the soldiers had surrendered and were massacred by Confederate troops. On April 18, 1864, The New York Times reported, "According to Gen. Sherman, loss was fifty-three white troops killed, and one hundred wounded, and three hundred black troops murdered in cold blood after the surrender."

[katcarasella]

I remember the nuns having us line up in the hallway for those first polio shots.
(St. Mels-Holy Ghost Catholic school, I haven't seen that name for decades.)
Michelle, you're bringing back such fond memories,

[Janet]

Originally Posted by katcarasella

I remember the nuns having us line up in the hallway for those first polio shots.
(St. Mels-Holy Ghost Catholic school, I haven't seen that name for decades.)
Michelle, you're bringing back such fond memories,

Isn't she the sweetest for doing this everyday? I am enjoying it so much...thanks Michelle.

[goofywife]

You gals are too kind. I find it all just as interesting.

[goofywife]

1997: Tiger Woods youngest to win Masters
Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, today. Woods finished at 18-under-par 270, which was the lowest score ever shot during the Masters.
"When the green jacket was draped over the shoulders of the 21-year-old champion, golf greeted not just the first black to win a major professional championship, but also a player of the talent, intelligence and discipline to achieve his goal of being the best to ever play the game," reported The Intelligencer on April 14, 1997. "What Woods did this week at Augusta means that anything is possible. It was an effort recorded not on a scorecard, but in the record books and pages of history. Nearly every sentence uttered about Woods after his victory included words like lowest, fastest and youngest."
NOTE: As they reported on his victory, newspapers compared Woods and his achievements to Jackie Robinson, who became the first African-American to play major league baseball 50 years earlier. Yet Woods gave credit to other African-American golfers before him, such as Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Ted Rhodes.

1984: Pete Rose hits 4,000
While playing for the Montreal Expos, Pete Rose made his 4,000th hit today in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming only the second player in major league history to reach the 4,000 mark. "Only Ty Cobb, whose major league record of 4,191 hits could be in jeopardy next year, knows just what Pete Rose has accomplished," explained the Syracuse Herald Journal on April 14, 1984. "Shortstop Ivan DeJesus retrieved the relay throw and handed the ball to Rose, who trotted toward the first-base dugout as the Olympic Stadium crowd of 48,060 cheered." NOTE: Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits.

1983: Chicago elects African-American mayor
Harold Washington was elected the city of Chicago's first African-American mayor today. "Harold Washington, beating back the strongest Republican bid for citywide office in a generation, defeated Bernard Epton by barely a dozen votes a precinct Tuesday and called on his supporters to overcome the city's racial strife," informed the Daily Herald on April 13, 1983. "Describing his campaign as 'a pilgrimage,' Washington promised to follow as well as lead. 'I will initiate your reforms,' he told a jubilant crowd of supporters before imploring them to heal the racial sores infecting the city."


1970: Oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13
An explosion on Apollo 13 forced the astronauts to abandon their mission to the moon and head home today. Apollo 13, launched on April 11, was supposed to be the third mission to bring humans to the moon. However, the mission became the first in the Apollo program requiring an emergency abort after an oxygen tank exploded and damaged other systems on the spaceship. "James A. Lovell Jr., Fred W. Haise Jr. and John L. Swigert Jr. took shortcuts to conserve their precious consumables of water, oxygen and power as they raced farther from earth toward a moon which had been their landing target until a violent eruption of a pressurized fuel tank Monday night," reported the Stevens Point Daily Journal on April 14, 1970. NOTE: The astronauts managed to safely return to Earth in the spaceship's lunar module.

1943: Escape attempt made at Alcatraz
Four convicts attempted to escape from the prison at Alcatraz today. Two drowned in the San Francisco Bay after being shot in the attempt, and the remaining two were recaptured. "The four convicts opened their bid for freedom by jumping and binding Henry Weinhold, captain of the guards, and George Smith, custodial officer, threatening them meanwhile with prison-made knives," explained The Lowell Sun on April 14, 1943. "Weinhold managed to slip his bonds, loosen his gag and blow his whistle. Then, sirens shrieked, shots were fired and the hunt was on."


1883: Man convicted of cannibalism
Alfred Packer was sentenced to death today on charges of cannibalism. Packer confessed to consuming human remains after becoming lost nine years earlier during a winter expedition with five other men in Colorado. The Oshkosh Northwestern published a statement from Packer, who claimed that one of his companions killed the other men while Packer was looking for provisions and then proceeded to attack Packer, who shot him. News reports vilified the Packer: "The men became desperate, and some crazed. While his companions were in this condition Packer deliberately fell upon and butchered the whole party, and for several weeks lived on the flesh cut from their bodies," according to the Decatur Weekly Republican on April 19, 1883. NOTE: Packer's sentence was later overturned, and he was officially pardoned in 1981.

[goofywife]

Sorry Ladies, things got crazy at the convention. I missed a few days.

1969: Robert Kennedy assassin found guilty

Sirhan B. Sirhan was found guilty of first degree murder today for assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of slain President John F. Kennedy. After winning the California Democratic presidential primary, Robert Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June of 1968.

"When the verdict was announced, Sirhan, who had been nervously chewing at his fingers, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion," reported the Syracuse Herald Journal on April 17, 1969. "After a one-day recess, the same jurors will hear arguments as to whether Sirhan's fate should be life in prison or a sentence to the gas chamber at San Quentin."

NOTE: On April 23, 1969, Sirhan was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison, a sentence he is still serving.

1990: Civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy dies

Rev. Ralph Abernathy, the man who cradled Martin Luther King Jr.'s head after he was shot to death on the balcony of a Memphis motel in 1968, died today in an Atlanta hospital. "As King's chief lieutenant, Abernathy was at his side almost every key battle of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s and took his place as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after King's 1968 assassination. But the fame and adulation enjoyed by King never quite extended to Abernathy," an obituary in The Valley Independent read on April 18, 1990. NOTE: In 1989, Abernathy released his autobiography And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, which prompted a firestorm of protest when the book reported on King's extramarital affairs.

1970: Apollo 13 crew returns safely

"Apollo 13's astronauts blazed back to the safety of their home planet today with a pinpoint landing in the Pacific Ocean, bringing a successful conclusion to America's most perilous space adventure," informed The Daily Times News. NOTE: The spacecraft was forced to abandon its mission after an April 13 oxygen tank explosion damaged the craft.

1964: Jerrie Mock completes pioneer flight

Jerrie Mock, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to fly solo around the world today. "She landed her single-engine Cessna at Port Columbus at 9:36 p.m., 29 days after takeoff. She descended into a throng of well-wishers," reported Oshkosh Daily Northwestern on April 18, 1964. NOTE: The following day, Jerrie Mock Day was announced in Columbus, Ohio, in honor of her achievement.

1961: Cuban exiles invade Bay of Pigs

Today, a group of 1,500 Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. "As the government acted to fight off the invaders, Cuba charged in the United Nations that the attack was waged by 'mercenaries' from bases in Florida and Guatemala," explained The Lima News on April 17, 1961. "In Washington, Secretary of State Dean Rusk denied that the invasion came from American soil, but said the United States is sympathetic with the invaders' aims." NOTE: The exiles were easily defeated by the Cuban government. Although the U.S. State Department initially denied any involvement in the attack, President Kennedy later confessed to funding and supplying the exiles and took full responsibility for the invasion.

1861: Virginia State Convention votes to secede

The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union today. "There seems to be no room to doubt that the Virginia Convention have voted to secede, but as the Ordinance was passed in secret session, its exact terms are not yet known," reported The New York Times on April 20, 1861. NOTE: The northwest portion of Virginia subsequently seceded from Virginia, joining the Union as West Virginia on June 20, 1863.

[goofywife]

1910: Mark Twain dies
Writer and humorist Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, died today after a brief illness at the age of 74. In 1909, he predicted his death, noting, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it."

"Samuel Langhorne Clemens was considered the best-known American man of letters. Often he was referred to as the 'Dean of American Literature.' He was known far beyond the boundaries where English is spoken as the greatest humorist, using that tongue, if not actually the greatest humorist and satirist living. His famous telegram to a newspaper publishing a report of his death, when it happily was untrue, has been quoted and requoted everywhere. 'The report of my death,' he wired. 'Is greatly exaggerated,'" reported The Washington Post on April 22, 1910.

NOTE: Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn along with many, many other novels, stories, and articles. Nobel Prize winning author William Faulkner once noted that Twain was "the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs." Twain continues to be widely read and well-loved today.


1986: Al Capone's vault is opened
Geraldo Rivera, host of the two-hour special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, witnessed the opening of Al Capone's legendary vault today, only to find a few old bottles and dust. The vault, located under the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, was predicted to hold whiskey, money and the bones of his enemies. "The discovery came before a worldwide TV audience and special agent Dennis Sansone of the Internal Revenue Service, which didn't want to miss a shot at collecting its due from one of the nation's most notorious tax evaders," informed The Capital on April 22, 1986.

1966: Grounation Day“His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of Judah, arrived in Jamaica yesterday afternoon to a welcome of superlatives,” reported The Gleaner on April 22, 1966. “And he wept.” Selassie I was heralded as the second coming of Jesus by the Rastafarian faith, a claim that he never endorsed but also never discouraged. This arrival became the second-most important Rastafarian holy day after the Emperor’s coronation day. NOTE: During the visit, Emperor Selassie I told elder Rastafarian leaders that they should not emigrate to Ethiopia until they had liberated the people of Jamaica, a doctrine that became known as “liberation before repatriation.”

1930: Ohio prison fire kills more than 300
More than 300 prisoners died at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus after a fire broke out today. "The blaze was believed set by a band of vengeful lifers who supposedly conceived the fire as a means of inciting a mutiny that would deliver the prison into their hands," explained The Chronicle Telegram on April 22, 1930.


1912: Giants, Yankees raise money for Titanic survivors
The New York Giants and the Yankees played an exhibition game to benefit the survivors of the Titanic today. On April 22, 1912, the Trenton Evening Times reported, "At the baseball game between the Giants and the Yankees at the Polo Grounds yesterday for the benefit of the Titanic survivors the attendance was 14,083 and the receipts $9,425.25."

[katcarasella]

1986: Al Capone's vault is opened

Here are some of his quotes:

Vote early and vote often. (Very popular here)

When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.

[Dobie]

I can remember watching Capone's vault being opened - it was like a 2 hour special with Geraldo - absolutely nothing was in it. I think that's when Geraldo stopped being a legitimate reported in the eyes of a lot of people.

[Janet]

So true, I thought it would have been so exciting to see what was in it and after that...Geraldo kind of left the public for a while. I see here lately he's making a come back.

[goofywife]

1964: World's Fair opens
The New York World's Fair opened today on schedule, even though there were threats that the fair would be disrupted by civil rights groups.

"The demonstration had been planned largely as a stall-in – the deliberate stalling of automobiles to block traffic leading to the fair," reported The Daily Times-News on April 22, 1964. "Police spotted a number of stalled cars and towed them away, but traffic appeared lighter than usual. Many motorists who ordinarily pass the fairground area in commuting from Long Island to New York City apparently took other routes."

NOTE: According to newspaper reports from 1964, 18-year-old Bill Turchyn from St. Peter's College in New Jersey became the first to enter the fair after he waited in line for nearly two days.

1994: Richard Nixon dies
Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, who left the White House in disgrace due to the Watergate scandal, died today at the age of 81. "In a career brimming with paradoxical twists, Nixon went from red-baiting congressman in the Cold War era, to vice president, to a seeming political has-been after beatings in the early 1960s. He went on to become president in 1968; the ruined man of Watergate in 1974; the beneficiary of a stunning presidential pardon, and a rich recluse in retirement limbo," explained the Daily Herald on April 23, 1994.

1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum opens
President Clinton led the dedication ceremony for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. today. "In his dedication address, Clinton said the museum binds 'one of the darkest lessons in history to the hopeful soul of America,'" informed the Daily Herald on April 23, 1993.

1952: TV viewers watch atomic bomb test
For the first time in U.S. history, television viewers witnessed live the detonation of an atomic bomb at the U.S. testing site in Yucca Flat, Nevada. "It was a bomb of 'king-size,' at least as powerful as any tested here since the proving grounds was activated 18 months ago. It was officially declared to be more powerful than the atomic bombs which knocked out Hiroshima and Nagasaki," reported the San Mateo Times on April 22, 1952. NOTE: During the test, U.S. troops were stationed closer to the atomic blast than ever before.

1889: First land run
“The Furious Rush of the Home Seekers Commenced at Noon Today—The Town Site Companies Even More Daring Than the Claim Hunters,” announced the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette on April 22, 1889. The land run of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands and included two million acres of land in Oklahoma. The Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 had opened the land for settlement, and with the land run, more than 50,000 people lined up to claim land. Each person was allowed up to 160 acres. NOTE: If a settler lived on the land and improved it, he would then receive the title to the land.

[goofywife]

OK, I have to reply to the land run article. First let me say, I did not grow up in Oklahoma, I met my DH and moved here to be with him. I do not understand why OU has selected the Sooners as a mascot. The Sooners were the people who cheated and went out and staked a claim before the race. Why would a university have a mascot honoring cheaters?