1775 | Civil Rights: The first abolitionist society in the U.S. was organized in Philadelphia.

1772 | War of Independence: The Pine Tree Riot.

1818 | The U.S. Medical Corps formed.

1828 | America’s first dictionary was published by Noah Webster.

1841 | Edgar Allan Poe published the first detective story,” Murders in Rue Morgue.”

1858 | Civil Rights: Abolitionist John Brown met Harriet Tubman at a convention.

1865 | Lewis Powell attacked U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family as part of the same conspiracy that assassinated Lincoln.

1865 | Civil War: The U.S. flag was re-raised at Fort Sumter four years after its surrender.

1865 | POTUS: Republican President Lincoln was shot at Ford Theatre.

1873 | Civil Rights: “Colfax Massacre,” a race riot in Colfax, Louisana.

1896 | John Harvey Kellogg patented “flaked cereal.”

1902 | Entrepreneur James Cash Penny opened his first store.

1906 | POTUS: Republican President Roosevelt denounced “muckrakers” in the press.

1910 | POTUS: Republican President Taft began the tradition of throwing the ceremonial first pitch on the Opening Day of baseball season.

1912 | The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, at 11:40pm with 306 Americans aboard.

1918 | WWI: Douglas Campbell became America’s first “ACE,” shooting down a fifth German plane.

1921 | Economist Thomas Schelling was born.

1924 | Architect Louis Sullivan died.

1932 | Musician Loretta Lynn was born.

1935 | Black Sunday dust storm ravaged the central midwest, named the “Dust Bowl.”

1938 | Activist Lilly Ledbetter was born.

1939 | Novelist John Steinbeck published “The Grapes of Wrath.”

1944 | WWII: General Eisenhower was promoted to the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

1945 | WWII: U.S. forces liberated Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany.

1950 | Scientist Francis Collins was born.

1960 | Motown Records was incorporated in Detroit, Michigan.

1964 | Biologist Rachel Carson died.

1973 | Actor Adrien Brody was born.

1986 | War on Terror: U.S. struck Libya in retaliation for terrorist attacks.

2003 | The U.S.-led human genome project was completed.

2011 | Chemist William Lipscomb died.

2020 | Entrepreneur Hank Steinbrenner died.

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1743 | POTUS: Thomas Jefferson was born.

1772 | Clock-making entrepreneur Eli Terry was born.

1796 | The first elephant arrived in the US from India.

1852 | Entrepreneur Frank Winfield Woolworth was born.

1861 | Civil War: Fort Sumter Surrendered. After 34 hours of bombardment, Union Major Robert Anderson surrendered to Confederate forces.

1863 | Civil War: The Battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana.

1866 | Outlaw Butch Cassidy was born.

1869 | Entrepreneur George Westinghouse patented the steam power brake.

1870 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art formed in New York.

1873 | Civil Rights: The Colfax massacre in Louisiana (potentially the bloodiest of the Reconstruction period).

1890 | Politician Frank Murphy was born in Harbor Beach, Michigan.

1890 | Congress: Speaker Samuel J. Randall died.

1891 | Novelist Nellallitea “Nella” Larsen was born.

1907 | Politician Harold Stassen was born.

1915 | Publisher and entrepreneur William Rockhill Nelson died.

1917 | POTUS: Democrat President Wilson signed Executive Order 2594, creating the first U.S. government bureau whose primary focus was on propaganda.

1919 | Activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair was born.

1943 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

1946 | Musician Al Green was born.

1947 | Poet Rae Armantrout was born.

1958 | Entrepreneur Henry Phillips died.

1964 | Civil Rights: Sidney Poitier won an Oscar. He became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field).

1970 | “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Following the launch on April 11, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13,beginning a desperate four-day survival mission.

1997 | Tiger Woods won the Masters. At age 21, he became the youngest person to win the tournament, by a record 12 strokes.

2008 | Physicist John Archibald Wheeler died.

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1724 | Founder Lyman Hall was born.

1787 | Civil Rights: Philadelphia’s Free African Society was formed.

1777 | Congress: Speaker Henry Clay was born.

1791 | Publisher Francis Preston Blair was born.

1831 | General Greenville M. Dodge was born.

1844 | Statehood: Texan envoys signed the Treaty of Annexation with the U.S.

1848 | Poet José Gautier Benítez was born.

1850 | Missionary Adoniram Judson died.

1861 | Civil War: An attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, at 4:30am, started the American Civil War.

1864 | The Colorado War starts.

1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Blair’s Landing, Louisiana

1864 | Civil War: The Fort Pillow massacre of surrendered Union soldiers.

1869 | Civil Rights: North Carolina passed anti-Ku Klux Klan Laws.

1878 | Boss Tweed died.

1900 | Congress: The Foraker Act established Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory.

1912 | Nurse and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton died.

1916 | Author Beverly Cleary was born.

1925 | Computer scientist Evelyn Berezin was born.

1934 | The US Auto-Lite Strike began.

1940 | Cleric John Hagee was born.

1945 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt died.

1945 | POTUS: President Truman was sworn in.

1947 | Comedian David Letterman was born.

1947 | Author Tom Clancy was born.

1949 | Author Scott Turow was born.

1950 | Singer David Cassidy was born.

1955 | At the University of Michigan, the Salk Polio Vaccine was declared safe.

1964 | Musician Amy Ray was born.

1973 | Comic artist J. Scott Campbell was born in East Tawas, Michigan.

1979 | Actress Claire Danes was born.

1981 | Boxer Joe Louis died.

1981 | NASA launched the first reusable space shuttle, the Columbia (STS-1).

1989 | Author Abbie Hoffman died.

1989 | Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson died.

1991 | Poet James Schuyler died.

1994 | Actress Saoirse Ronan was born.

1997 | Physiologist George Wald died.

1999 | POTUS: Democrat President Clinton was cited for contempt of court.

2001 | Graphic developer Harvey Ball died.

2009 | War on Terror: U.S. Navy rescued Captain Richard Phillips, killing three Somali pirates.

2013 | Professional chess player Robert Byrne died.

2022 | Comedian Gilbert Gottfried died.

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1783 | War of Independence: Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War after the Continental Congress proclaimed the “Cessation of Arms.”

1862 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes was born.

1865 | NAACP co-founder Mary White Ovington was born.

1881 | Spelman College (originally Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary) was founded.

1893 | Politician Dean Acheson was born.

1899 | Chemist Percy Lavon Julian was born.

1906 | Entertainer entrepreneur James Anthony Bailey died.

1916 | Author Richard Harding Davis died

1917 | Author David Westheimer was born.

1930 | Cleric Anton LaVey was born.

1945 | WWII: U.S. forces liberate Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald.

1951 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur.

1967 | Civil Rights: A Long, hot summer of riots starts in Louisville, Kentucky.

1968 | POTUS: Democrat President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

1976 | Steve Wozniak released The Apple I computer.

1993 | The First African American female licensed commercial pilot, Janet Harmon Bragg, died.

2007 | Novelist Kurt Vonnegut died.

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1799 | Explorer James Bowie was born.

1827 | Novelist Lew Wallace was born.

1841 | Horace Greeley began publishing the New York Tribune.

1847 | Publisher Joseph Pulitzer was born.

1849 | Walter Hunt patented the Safety pin.

1856 | The Theta Chi Fraternity was formed at Norwich University.

1861 | The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was formed.

1869 | Congress: Changed the number of members of SCOTUS from 7 to 9.

1872 | The first Arbor Day celebrated in Nebraska, later changed to April 22.

1880 | The First female cabinet member, Frances Perkins, was born.

1899 | Pana riots in Illinois.

1903 | Author and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce was born.

1912 | The H.M.S. Titanic departed for New York City, New York.

1915 | Actor Harry Morgan was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1916 | The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) was formed.

1925 | “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.

1931 | Poet Khalil Gibran died.

1936 | Football Pro John Madden was born.

1941 | Author Paul Theroux was born.

1951 | Actor Steven Seagal was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1963 | The USS Thresher sank. This nuclear-powered submarine was lost with all hands (129 men) during deep-dive tests off New England.

1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots continue in Wilmington, Delaware, and Trenton, New Jersey.

1984 | Entertainer Mandy Moore was born.

2001 | Cincinnati riots start.

2003 | Musician Little Eva died.

2024 | Football Pro O.J. Simpson died.

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1768 | War of Independence: John Hancock denied British government agents the ability to inspect his ship (Liberty), considered the colonies’ first physical act of rebellion.

1784 | War of Independence: The Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War was ratified by all parties.

1833 | The first American tax-subsidized government library was opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.

1865 | Civil War: Confederate forces surrendered at Appomattox, concluding the American Civil War.

1865 | General Thomas Alfred Smyth died.

1866 | Congress: An override of Democrat President Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Act was passed.

1867 | Congress: The U.S Senate approved the purchase of Alaska.

1872 | Entrepreneur Erastus Corning died.

1899 | SCOTUS: Justice Stephen Johnson Field died.

1905 | Politician J. William Fulbright was born.

1909 | Congress: The Payne-Aldrich tariff passed.

1926 | Publisher Hugh Hefner was born.

1932 | Musician Carl Perkins was born.

1939 Civil Rights: After contralto, Marian Anderson was denied singing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall; she performed to a crowd of 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

1942 | WWII: Japanese forces forced marched 75,000 Allied soldiers in what is known as the “The Bataan Death March” began.

1950 | TV: Bob Hope’s first television appearance.

1954 | Actor Dennis Quaid was born.

1959 | Architect Frank Lloyd Wright died.

1963 | Winston Churchill becomes the first “honorary” U.S. Citizen.

1963 | Politician and TV comentator Joe Scarborough was born.

1966 | Actress Cynthia Nixon was born.

1968 | Civil War: MLK-related riots continue in Kansas City, Missouri.

1968 | Martin Luther King, Jr. was buried in Atlanta, Georgia.

1990 | Actress Kristen Stewart was born.

1996 | Author Richard Condon died.

1999 | Musician Lil Nas X was born.

2003 | War on Terror: Baghdad surrendered to U.S. forces.

2019 | Author Charles Van Doren died.

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1726 | Founder Lewis Morris was born.

1730 | Civil Rights: Congregation Shearith Israel opened as New York’s first synagogue.

1732 | Astronomer David Rittenhouse was born.

1779 | General Benedict Arnold wed loyalist Peggy Shippen.

1842 | Author (and wife of General Custer) Elizabeth Bacon Custer was born in Monroe, Michigan.

1855 | Indian Wars: America’s achieved victory in the Jicarilla War.

1857 | Crabb massacre.

1861 | Entrepreneur Elisha Otis died.

1862 | Entrepreneur John D. Lynde patented an aerosol dispenser.

1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana

1869 | The Museum of Natural History opened in New York City.

1886 | Novelist Margaret Ayer was born.

1888 | Civil Rights: The first Hispanic U.S. Senator, Dennis Chavez, was born.

1913 | Congress: The 17th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, allowing senators to be elected by popular vote.

1918 | POTUS: Betty Ford, First Lady, was born.

1918 | Novelist Glendon Swarthout was born in Pinckney, Michigan.

1919 | Entrepreneur Frank Winfield Woolworth died.

1943 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt froze wages and prices, prohibiting workers from changing jobs unless the war effort is aided thereby, and barred rate increases for common carriers and public utilities.

1947 | Congress: Speaker Tom DeLay was born.

1950 | Cold War: A U.S. Navy plane was shot down by Soviet forces.

1952 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman seized steel mills to avert a strike. Later, in a lawsuit over this nationalization move, SCOTUS limited POTUS power in this regard via Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer.

1955 | Author Barbara Kingsolver was born.

1960 | Actor John Schneider was born.

1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots continue in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1974 | Sniper Chris Kyle was born.

1981 | General Omar Bradley died.

1983 | TV: In front of a live audience, David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

1990 | Activist Ryan White died.

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1712 | Civil Rights: A revolt of enslaved people occurs in New York City, New York.

1740 | Entrepreneur Haym Salomon was born.

1775 | Entrepreneur Francis Cabot Lowell was born.

1776 | War of Independence: Captain John Barry captured the HMS Edward.

1805 | Explorers Lewis and Clark departed Fort Mandan, launching their western expedition.

1818 | Indian Wars: General Andrew Jackson captured Fort San Marcos in the first Seminole War.

1860 | Entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg was born.

1869 | Botanist David Fairchild was born in Lansing, Michigan.

1890 | Activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born.

1891 | Entertainer P.T. Barnum died.

1893 | Intelligence professional Allen Dulles was born.

1900 | Painter Frederick Edwin Church died.

1902 | Texas Oil Company (Texaco) incorporated.

1915 | Musician Billie Holiday was born.

1922 | Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall leased the Teapot Dome oil reserves to Harry Sinclair, setting in motion a scandal.

1928 | Actor James Garner was born.

1933 | The Cullen-Harrison Act took effect, making it legal to sell 3.2% beer. This is still celebrated as “National Beer Day.”

1939 | Director Francis Ford Coppola was born.

1947 | Entrepreneur Henry Ford died at his home in Dearborn, Michigan.

1954 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower gave a foreign policy speech using the phrase “Domino Theory” to describe Communist expansion.

1970 | Author MacKenzie Scott was born.

2010 | Entrepreneur George Nissen died.

2012 | Journalist Mike Wallace died.

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1745 | William Dawes, a Revolutionary War hero, was born.

1785 | Poet John Pierpont was born.

1789 | Congress: The U.S. Senate achieved its first quorum. It allowed it to act also as the Electoral College and certify the election of our first President.

1808 | Entrepreneur John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company.

1830 | Bishop James Augustine Healy was born.

1832 | Indian Wars: Black Hawk War starts.

1857 | Artist Arthur Wesley Dow was born.

1862 | Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh (with 23,000 causalities).

1865 | Civil War: The Battle of Sayler’s Creek.

1866 | The Grand Army of the Republic forms.

1866 | Journalist Joseph Lincoln Steffens was born.

1889 | Entrepreneur George Eastman began selling Kodak flexible rolled film.

1892 | Entrepreneur Donald Willis Douglas was born.

1896 | POTUS: President Harrison wed Mary Scott.

1917 | WWI: The U.S. declared war on Germany, joining World War I.

1937 | Singer Merle Haggard was born.

1947 | Actor John Ratzenberger was born.

1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots continue in Jacksonville, Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland.

1969 | Actor Paul Rudd was born.

1992 | Author Isaac Asimov died.

1994 | SCOTUS: Justice Harry Blackmun resigns.

1997 | Journalist Andrea Mitchell wed economist Alan Greenspan.

1998 | Singer Tammy Wynette died.

2014 | Actor Mickey Rooney died.

2016 | Musician Merle Haggard died.

2020 | Baseball Pro (Detroit Tigers) Al Kaline died.

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1621 | The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, Massachusetts, on a return trip to England, leaving the Pilgrims it brought.

1676 | John Winthrop, the Younger, died.

1761 | War of Independence: Sybil Ludington, a military heroine, was born.

1764 | England imposed the Sugar Tax on the American settlers.

1768 | The first Chamber of Commerce formed.

1792 | POTUS: President Washington exercised the first presidential veto to strike down a Congressional bill to increase the number of seats for northern states in the House of Representatives.

1816 | SCOTUS: Justice Samuel Freeman Miller was born.

1827 | Revolutionary War heroine Deborah Sampson died.

1838 | Zoologist Alpheus Hyatt was born.

1856 | Booker T. Washington was born.

1862 | Civil War: The Siege of Yorktown, Virginia.

1865 | Civil War: Battle at Amelia Springs, Jetersville, Virginia.

1872 | Scientist Samuel Cate Prescott was born.

1888 | Navy Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh was born.

1900 | Actor Spencer Tracy was born.

1901 | Writer Chester Bowles was born.

1908 | Actress Bette Davis was born.

1916 | Actor Gregory Peck was born.

1922 | Eugenicists Margret Singer founded “The American Birth Control League” is a precursor to Planned Parenthood.

1923 | Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began mass producing inflatable tires.

1933 | Author Earl Derr Biggers died.

1933 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt forces Americans to sell their gold to the Federal Reserve by signing Executive Order 6102.

1937 | Inventor Allan R. Thieme was born in Bridgeport, Michigan.

1937 | General Colin Powell was born.

1939 | Singer Ronnie White was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1951 | Cold War: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Soviet spies, were sentenced to death.

1956 | Wrestler Diamond Dallas Page was born.

1957 | Entrepreneur and author George S. Clason died.

1964 | General Douglas MacArthur died.

1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots continue in Chicago, Illinois, Norfolk, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1970 | Civil Rights: Coachella, California riots.

1973 | Singer Pharrell Williams was born.

1976 | Entrepreneur Howard Hughes died.

1977 | Entrepreneur John Marriott died.

1982 | SCOTUS: Justice Abe Fortas died.

1992 | Entrepreneur Sam Walton died.

1994 | Musician Kurt Cobain died.

1997 | Poet Allen Ginsberg died.

2005 | Novelist Saul Bellow died.

2008 | Actor Charlton Heston died.

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1792 | Politician Thaddeus Stevens was born.

1802 | Nurse Dorothea Dix was born.

1818 | Congress: Enacted the Flag Act of 1818. It adopted the “U.S. Flag design” with thirteen stars and red and blue stripes, adding a new one for each new state on the 4th of July following a state’s admission to the Union.

1821 | Entrepreneur Linus Yale was born.

1841 | POTUS: President Harrison died.

1841 | POTUS: President Tyler was sworn in.

1859 | The first “minstrel” show, “Dixie,” premiered in New York.

1861 | SCOTUS: Justice John McLean died.

1862 | Civil War: Union forces launched the Peninsular Campaign.

1865 | Civil War: Battle of Amelia Springs, Virginia.

1869 | Architect Mary Colter was born.

1887 | Civil Rights: The first woman mayor was elected in Argonia, Kansas.

1895 | Choreographer and entrepreneur Arthur Murray was born.

1913 | Musician Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) was born.

1923 | Motion picture company Warner Brothers was formed.

1925 | Poet Emmett Williams was born.

1928 | Poet Maya Angelou was born.

1931 | Admiral Bobby Ray Inmann was born.

1932 | Producer Clive Davis was born.

1932 | Politician Richard Lugar was born.

1933 | The Navy’s “flying aircraft carrier” (a rigid airship) crashed off the coast of New Jersey during a storm, killing 73. It remains the deadliest airship accident in history.

1934 | Toledo riots starts.

1944 | Poet John Peale Bishop died.

1945 | Allied forces liberate the first concentration camp, Ohrdruf,(a part of the Buchenwald complex) in Germany. Generals Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley visited the camp a week later; Eisenhower was so horrified he ordered every nearby American unit that wasn’t at the front to visit so they could see the reality of the Holocaust.

1949 | The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed.

1950 | Actress Christine Lahti was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1965 | Actor Robert Downey Jr. was born.

1968 | Civil Rights: Martin Luther King (MLK) assassinated.

1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots break out in Memphis, Tennessee; Detroit, Michigan; New York City; Tallahassee, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Boston, Massachusetts; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

1973 | The twin towers (World Trade Centers) were officially dedicated in New York City.

1975 | Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft.

1991 | Congress: Senator Heinz (PA) died as his helicopter collided with a plane over an elementary school.

2013 | Film critic Roger Ebert died.

2023. | Auto racer Craig Breedlove died.

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1776 | Harvard College awarded George Washington an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree.

1783 | Sweden and the U.S. sign the treaty of Amity & Commerce.

1783 | Author Washington Irving was born.

1798 | Explorer Charles Wilkes was born.

1860 | The Pony Express started operations (between Missouri and California, for 19 months).

1823 | Boss Tweed was born.

1837 | Author John Burroughs was born.

1858 | Politician Matthew Ricketts was born.

1865 | Civil War: Union forces liberated Richmond, Virginia.

1882 | Outlaw Jesse James was murdered.

1898 | Publisher Henry Luce was born.

1918 | Congress adopted the American Creed written by William Tyler Page.

1920 | Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald wed Zelda Sayre at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC.

1922 | Singer Doris Day was born.

1924 | Actor Marlon Brando was born.

1927 | Navel Officer Wesley Brown was born.

1928 | Basketball Pro Earl Lloyd was born.

1944 | SCOTUS: The Court decided Smith v Allwright.

1950 | Historian Carter G. Woodson died.

1953 | TV: The first “TV Guide” was published.

1958 | Actor Alec Baldwin was born.

1961 | Actor Eddie Murphy was born.

1968 | Civil Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969 | Entrepreneur Mellody Hobson was born.

1982 | POTUS: Republican President Reagan started a 5-minute weekly radio broadcast.

2000 | Philosopher Terence McKenna died.

2018 | Entrepreneur David Edgerton died.

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1788 | Federalist No. 77 published.

1792 | Congress: The Coinage Act was passed. This established the United States Mint and authorized the construction of a mint building in Philadelphia. It also made the dollar the official currency unit.

1814 | Entrepreneur Erastus Brigham Bigelow was born.

1827 | Entrepreneur Joseph Dixon began manufacturing lead pencils

1833 | General Thomas Howard Ruger was born.

1862 | Philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler was born.

1863 | Civil War: “Bread riots” started throughout the South.

1865 | Civil War: Battle of Fort Blakely, Alabama.

1865 | Civil War: Battle of Selma, Alabama.

1872 | Entrepreneur, painter, and inventor Samuel Morse died.

1875 | Entrepreneur Walter Chrysler was born.

1877 | POTUS: The first Easter egg roll was held on the White House lawn.

1902 | The first movie theatre opened in Los Angeles, California

1902 | Activist Esther Morris died.

1917 | Congress: Jeannette Rankin began her term as the first woman member of the House Of Representatives.

1917 | WWI: Democrat President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany.

1928 | Chemist Theodore W. Richards died.

1932 | Charles Lindbergh paid $50,000 as ransom for his kidnapped son.

1939 | Musician Marvin Gaye was born.

1945 | Poet Anne Waldman was born.

1957 | Entrepreneur Hank Steinbrenner was born.

1965 | Police victim Rodney King was born.

1968 | Film: “2001: A Space Odyssey” debuted.

1978 | TV: “Dallas” debuted

1980 | SCOTUS: Justice Stanley Forman Reed died.

1986 | War on Terror: Four Americans killed at the TWA counter at the Athens, Greece airport by a bomb.

2012 | Sculptor Elizabeth Catlett died.

2015 | Cleric Robert Schuller died.

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1826 | Samuel Morey received a patent for a gas or vapor (internal combustion) engine.

1834 | Entrepreneur Jim Fisk was born.

1852 | Painter Edward Austin Abbey was born.

1853 | Cincinnati, Ohio, becomes the first municipality to employ (pay) full-time firefighters.

1857 | Novelist Herman Melville published “The Confidence-Man.”

1865 | Civil War: Battle of Five Forks ended, often considered the “Waterloo of the Confederacy,” leading to Lee’s eventual surrender at Appomattox.

1870 | Explorer Patrick Gass died.

1891 | The Wrigley Company was formed.

1901 | Author Whittaker Chambers was born.

1908 | Psychologist Abraham Maslow was born.

1917 | Composer Scott Joplin died.

1929 | Loray Mill Strike starts in Gastonia, North Carolina.

1945 | WWII: Operation Iceberg, the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater, launched on Easter Sunday/April Fool’s Day, the invasion of Okinawa.

1950 | SCOTUS: Justice Samuel Alito was born.

1954 | The USAF Academy was established.

1955 | Publisher Robert R. McCormick died.

1970 | POTUS: Republican President Nixon signed legislation curbing cigarette advertising.

1973 | Media personality Rachel Maddow was born.

1976 | Entrepreneurs Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computing.

1982 | The US transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.

1984 | Musician Marvin Gaye died after being shot by his father.

1985 | Author Douglass Wallop died.

1995 | Online personality Logan Paul was born.

2004 | Solider Aaron Bank died.

2004 | Google launched “Gmail.”

2020 | Admiral Edward L. Feightner died.

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1776 | Encouraging her husband John to remember women when writing laws in the Continental Congress, Abigail Adams, wrote him “remember the ladies.”

1835 | The start of the Toledo War between Michigan and Ohio.

1850 | Politician John C. Calhoun died.

1870 | Thomas Mundy Peterson was the first recorded African American voter under the 15th Amendment. Peterson lived in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

1880 | Wabash, Indiana, became the first US city to deploy electric street lighting.

1878 | Boxer Jack Johnson was born.

1913 | Entrepreneur J.P. Morgan died.

1918 | First daylight savings time in the US went into effect.

1927 | Activist Cesar Chavez was born.

1929 | Entrepreneur Liz Claiborne was born.

1930 | The Motion Pictures Production Code was instituted.

1931 | Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne died in a plane crash.

1932 | Ford publicly unveiled the first commercial V-8 engine.

1933 | Congress: The Civilian Conservation Corps was authorized.

1943 | Broadway: “Oklahoma” debuted.

1948 | Congress: Enacted the Marshall Aid Act.

1949 | Politician Al Gore was born.

1955 | Chase and Manhattan Bank merge.

1962 | SCOTUS: Justice Charles Whittaker resigned.

1968 | POTUS: Democrat President Johnson authorized a troop surge in Vietnam also announcing “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

1975 | TV: The show “Gunsmoke” ended.

1980 | POTUS: Democrat President Jimmy Carter deregulated the banking industry.

1980 | Olympian Jesse Owens died.

1995 | Entertainer Selena was murdered.

1999 | Film: “The Matrix” debuted.

2020 | Psychoanalyst Richard Friedman died.

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1822 | Congress: The bifurcated West and East Florida are combined into a single territory.

1849 | Indian Wars: The Jicarilla War started.

1858 | Entrepreneur Hymen Lipman patented the pencil with an eraser.

1861 | Outlaw Gratton Hanley “Grat” Dalton was born.

1867 | The US bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (2c per acre).

1870 | Statehood: Texas became the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union.

1873 | The Colfax County, New Mexico War starts.

1883 | Sculptor Jo Davidson was born.

1893 | The US appointed its first ambassador to England, Thomas F. Bayard.

1909 | New York’s Queensboro Bridge opened.

1937 | Actor Warren Beatty was born.

1964 | Entertainer Tracy Chapman was born.

1964 | TV: “Jeopardy” debuted.

1967 | Author Jean Toomer died.

1979 | Entertainer Norah Jones was born.

1981 | POTUS: A gunman in Washington, D.C, wounded Republican President Reagan.

1981 | Publisher DeWitt Wallace died.

1986 | Actor James Cagney died.

2005 Activist Fred Korematsu died. Korematusu challenged Roosevelt’s interment EO (9066) all the way to SCOTUS.

2005 | Poet Robert Creeley died.

2021 | Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy died.

2023 | Satirist Mark Russell died.

2023 | POTUS: A Grand Jury indicted former President Trump.

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1799 | Civil Rights: New York passed a gradual abolition law, freeing those born after July 4, 1799.

1806 | Construction was authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road. It connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers.

1813 | POTUS: President Tyler wed Letitia Christian.

1848 | Entrepreneur John Jacob Astor died.

1819 | Entrepreneur Edwin Drake was born.

1847 | Mexican-American War: General Scott captured Veracruz.

1852 | Ohio mandates a 10-hour work day.

1867 | Congress: Approved the building of the Lincoln Memorial, which did not commence until 1914.

1867 | Baseball Pro Cy Young was born.

1874 | POTUS: Future First Lady Lou Henry Hoover was born.

1878 | Entrepreneur Mark Hopkins, Jr. died.

1882 | Knights of Columbus was chartered.

1888 | Entrepreneur James E. Casey was born.

1916 | Politician Eugene McCarthy was born.

1918 | Entrepreneur Sam Walton was born.

1928 | Yeshiva College was chartered.

1929 | POTUS: President Hoover installed the first telephone on the desk at the Oval Office in the White House. Previously, it was in the hallway to preserve the “dignity” of the Oval.

1932 | William Charette, Medal of Honor recipient, born in Ludington, Michigan. Charette was a Navy Hospital Corpsman during the Korean War.

1943 | WWII: Democrat President Roosevelt began domestic rationing of meat, butter and cheese.

1951 | Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.

1957 | Actor Christopher Lambert was born.

1961 | The 23rd Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified.

1973 | Vietnam War: US troops leave Vietnam.

1990 | Politician Lee Atwater died.

2024 | Actor Louis Gossett Jr. died.

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1776 | Juan Bautista de Anza discovered the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.

1793 | Explorer Henry Schoolcraft was born.

1796 | Bethel African Methodist Church of Philadelphia became the first independent US-African denomination.

1797 | Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine.

1804 | Civil Rights: Ohio passed a law restricting the movement of Blacks.

1828 | Architect William Thornton died.

1834 | POTUS: Senate censured President Jackson for taking fed deposits from the Bank of US, later expunged.

1836 | Entrepreneur Frederick Pabst was born.

1864 | Civil Rights: Charleston, Illinois “riot” broke out between Republicans and “Copperhead Democrats.”

1884 | Civil Rights: Cincinnati race riots start.

1885 | The US Salvation Army was incorporated.

1899 | Entrepreneur August A. “Gussie” Busch Jr. was born.

1968 | Memphis sanitation strike and riot.

1909 | Author Nelson Algren was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1910 | SCOTUS: Justice David Josiah Brewer died.

1914 | Politician Edmund Muskie was born.

1929 | Poet Katharine Lee Bates died.

1930 | Composer Robert Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1936 | Cleric Bill Gaither was born.

1953 | Athlete Jim Thorpe died.

1955 | Entertainer Reba McEntire was born.

1969 | POTUS: President Eisenhower died.

1970 | Actor Vince Vaughn was born.

1979 | A partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US resulted in the release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere but no deaths.

1986 | Entertainer Lady Gaga was born.

1990 | POTUS: President George H. W. Bush posthumously awarded Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

2004 | TV: The last “Friends” episode aired.

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1794 | The U.S. Navy was established.

1813 | Publisher Nathaniel Currier was born.

1814 | Indian Wars: Battle at Horseshoe Bend, Dadeville, Alabama.

1836 | Texas-Mexican War: The Goliad massacre.

1844 | Explorer Adolphus Washington Greely was born.

1866 | Civil Rights: Democratic President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act, which later became the 14th Amendment.

1866 | Entrepreneur Andrew Rankin patented the urinal.

1899 | Actress Gloria Swanson was born.

1910 | Composer David Duffle Wood died.

1912 | POTUS: First Lady Taft planted the first two Yoshino cherry trees on the bank of the Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C.

1914 | Author Budd Schulberg was born.

1915 | Typhoid Mary (Mallon) was arrested for evading public health officials in New York and placed in quarantine for the rest of her life.

1916 | Educator Susan Blow died.

1918 | Author Henry Brooks Adams died.

1926 | Author Frank O’Hara was born.

1937 | Painter Thomas Aquinas Daly was born.

1939 | Racer Cale Yarborough was born.

1945 | WWII: General Eisenhower declared German forces beaten on the Western Front.

1947 | Journalist Walt Mossberg was born.

1963 | Director Quentin Tarantino was born.

1964 | The “Good Friday Earthquake” magnitude 9.2 struck Alaska.

1969 | Entertainer Mariah Carey was born.

1975 | Musician Fergie was born.

1976 | Washington, D.C. underground Metro opened.

1980 | Mount St. Helens had its first recorded phreatic eruption.

1999 | Michigan State University students riot in East Lansing, Michigan.

2002 | Comedian Milton Berle died.

2006 | Journalist Lyn Nofziger died.

2020 | POTUS: Republican President Trump signed a 2.2 trillion government spending bill.

2024 | Politician Joe Lieberman died.

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1749 | Founder William Blount was born.

1773 | Mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch was born.

1790 | Congress: Passed the Naturalization Act.

1804 | Congress: Orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana.

1830 | Civil Rights: The Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra, New York.

1862 | Civil War: Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory.

1863 | Civil Rights: Voters in West Virginia approved gradual emancipation of slaves.

1850 | Novelist Edward Bellamy was born.

1872 | Thomas J. Martin received a pipe and valve fire extinguisher system patent.

1874 | Poet Robert Frost was born.

1878 | Hastings College of Law founded in San Francisco, California.

1885 | Eastman Film manufactured first commercial motion picture film.

1892 | Poet Walt Whitman died.

1904 | Mythologist Joseph Campbell was born.

1910 | U.S. barred immigration of criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick.

1911 | Author Tennessee Williams was born.

1914 | General William Westmoreland was born.

1930 | SCOTUS: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was born.

1931 | Actor Leonard Nimoy was born.

1940 | Actor James Caan was born.

1941 | Congress: Speaker Nancy Pelosi was born.

1943 | Author and CIA operative Bob Woodward was born.

1943 | WWII: Elsie S. Ott was the first woman awarded the Air Medal.

1944 | Entertainer Diana Ross was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1948 | Musician Steven Tyler was born.

1951 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman adopted the United States Air Force flag design.

1953 | Jonas Salk announced he had successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio.

1962 | Inventor Marjorie Colton died.

1968 | Musician Kenny Chesney was born.

1969 | Author John Kennedy Toole died.

1973 | Entrepreneur Larry Page was born in East Lansing, Michigan.

1977 | Focus on the Family was founded by Dr. James Dobson.

1982 | Vietnam War: Ground was broken for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1996 | Entrepreneur David Packard died.

1997 Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven’s Gate cult suicides in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

2003 | Politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan died.

2011 | Politician Geraldine Ferraro died.

2011 | Entrepreneur Harry Coover died.

2016 | Author Jim Harrison died.

2024 | Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship.

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