This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

April 15, 1802

William Wordsworth takes a walk with his sister, Dorothy, and is inspired to write "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud".

1817

The American School For The Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, is founded in Hartford, Connecticut.

1861

President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to stop the insurrection that became the Civil War.

1865

President Lincoln dies a day after being shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson becomes President.

1892

General Electric is formed.

1912

The Titanic sinks the day after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

1924

Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.

1945

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.

1952

The B-52 Stratofortress makes its maiden flight.

1964

The first Ford Mustang rolls off the showroom floor.

2013

Two bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Births

Leonardo da Vinci-1452; Joseph Seagram-1841;Thomas Hart Benton-1889; Percy Shaw-1890; Corrie ten Boom-1892; Nikita Krushchev-1894; Roy Clark-1933; Dave Edmunds-1944; Michael Kamen-1948; Heloise-1951; Emma Thompson-1959; songwrite Linda Perry-1965; Samantha Fox-1966; Seth Rogen-1982

Deaths

Abraham Lincoln-1865; Wallace Beery-1949; Jean-Paul Sartre-1980; Corrie ten Boom-1983; Pol Pot-1998; Joey Ramone-2001

[rgb7]

Is music ok for this thread?

Hope so;

April 17th

1960: At age 21, Eddie Cochran was killed, in the UK, when a taxi he was riding in struck a lamp post on Rowden Hill, Chippenham, Wiltshire -- the taxi driver was convicted of "dangerous driving", fined £50, disqualified from driving for 15 years and imprisoned for six months

Plus, in a way of introduction (and proof that I am not a BOT/Spammer), my name is Randall, from Fort Worth TX.

Have a great day!

rgb

[Gravdigr]

April 17, 1397

Chaucer tells The Canterbury Tales for the first time.

1524

Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.

1861

Virginia votes to secede.

1897

The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident

1937

Daffy Duck makes his first appearance, in "Porky's Duck Hunt".

1961

Bay of Pigs invasion

1969

Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

1970

The best friend I've ever had was born.

Apollo 13 returns, safely, to Earth.

2013

An explosion at a fertilizer warehouse in West, Texas kills 15, wounds 160.



Births

Alexander Cartwright-1820; J.P.Morgan-1837; Thornton Wilder-1897; Nicolas Nabokov-1903; William Holden-1918; Harry Reasoner-1923; Don Kirshner-1934; Paul Thomas-1947; Rowdy Roddy Piper-1954; Sean Bean-1959; Boomer Esiason-1961; Maynard James Keenan-1964; John-1970; Ruffian (race horse)-1982; Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice)-1974

Deaths

Benjamin Franklin-1790; George Jennings (invented the flush toilet, God bless him)-1882; Eddie Cochran-1960; Felix Pappalardi-1983; Dick Shawn-1987; Linda McCartney-1998; Kitty Carlisle-2007

[Gravdigr]

April 19, 1770

Lt. James Cook sights the east of coast of what would become known as Australia.

1951

Gen. Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.

1971

Charles Manson is sentencd to death fro the Tate-LaBianca murders.

1985

ATF and FBI agents lay siege to The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in Arkansas. The CSA surrenders two days later.

1987

The Simpsons premieres as a short on The Tracey Ullman Show.

1989

A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47.

1993

The 51 day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas ends when fire breaks out in one of the buildings. 81 are killed.

South Dakota governor George Mickelson is killed, along with seven others, when a state-owned plane crashes near Dubuque, Iowa.

1995

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is bombed, killing 168 people.

1997

Fire breaks out in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is inundated by the Red River Flood. Eleven buildings are destroyed.

2011

Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a title he'd held since July 1961.

2013

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police.

Births

Ole Evinrude-1877; Eliot Ness-1903; Jack Roush-1942; Tim Curry-1946; Ashley Judd-1968; Jesse James (bike builder)-1969

Deaths

Lord Byron-1824; Charles Darwin-1882; Pierre Curie-1906; Jim Corbett-1955; David Koresh, George Mickelson-1993; Ruth Hussey-2005; Allan Arbus (Dr. Sidney Freedman on MASH), Al Neuharth, Tamerlan Tsarnaev-2013; Freddie Gray-2015

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

April 19, 1770

Lt. James Cook sights the east of coast of what would become known as Australia.

I'm amazed Tasman discovered New Zealand and didn't have a clue Australia was there. Then it took another 130 years before Cook found Australia. Google Earth would have shook those boys up.

[Gravdigr]

April 20, 1861

Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the U.S. Army to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

1918

The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, shoots down his final victim.

1945

Adolf Hitler makes his final trip to the surface from the Führerbunker. It is his 56th birthday.

1946

The League of Nations is offically dissolved.

1972

Apollo 16 lands on the moon.

1999

Columbine high school shooting kills 13, and injures 21.

2007

Johnson Space Center shooting

2010

The semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon explodes and burns. Oil spills for six months.

Births

Adolf Hitler-1889; Bruce Cabot-1904; Lionel Hampton-1908; John Paul Stevens-1920; George Takei-1937; Jamie Gillis-1943; Veronica Cartwright-1949; Jessica Lange-1948; Luther Vandross-1951; Clint Howard-1959; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf-1962; Andy Serkis-1964; Mike Portnoy-1967

Deaths

Chief Pontiac-1769; Bram Stoker-1912; Steve Marriott, Don Siegel-1991; Benny Hill-1992; Christopher Robin Milne-1996; Rick Rude, Señor Wences-1999

[Gravdigr]

April 22, 1970

The first Earth Day is celebrated.

1977

For the first time, optical fiber is used to carry live telephone traffic.

1993

Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser is released.

2008

The last F-117 Nighthawk in service is retired.

Births

Immanuel Kant-1724; Vladimir Lenin-1870; Nicola Sacco-1891; Vladimir Nabokov-1899; J. Robert Oppenheimer-1904; Eddie Albert1906; Yehudi Menuhin-1916; Charles Mingus-1922; Bettie Page, Aaron Spelling-1923; Glen Campbell-1936; Jack Nicholson-1937; Steve Fossett-1944; John Waters-1946; Peter Frampton-1950; Paul Carrack-1951

Deaths

Henry Royce-1933; Earl Hines-1983; Ansel Adams-1984; Richard Nixon-1994; Erma Bombeck-1996; Linda Lovelace-2002; Pat Tillman-2004; Richie Havens-2013

[Gravdigr]

April 23, 1985

Coca Cola has the biggest brainfart ever, and reformulates its product and releases it as "New" Coke. Yeah, that lasted three months.

2005

The first YouTube video is uploaded, entitled "Me, At The Zoo".

Births

James Buchanan-1791; Stephen Douglas-1813; Shirley Temple-1928; Halston, Jim Fixx-1932; Roy Orbison-1936; Lee Majors-1939; Sandra Dee-1942; Hervé Villechaize ("De plane! De plane!")-1943; Narada Michael Walden-1952; James Russo-1953; Tony Atlas-1954; Timothy McVeigh-1968; and just for Sheldon, John Cena-1977

Deaths

Bill Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes-1616; William Wordsworth-1850; Alferd (no, not Alfred) Packer-1907; Charles Dawes-1950; William Hartnell (Dr. Who)-1975; Buster Crabbe-1983; Otto Preminger-1986; Johnny Thunders-1991; Cesar Chavez-1993; Howard Cosell, John C. Stennis-1995; James Earl Ray-1998; David Halberstam, Boris Yeltsin-2007

[lumberjim]

can one of you Brits get your hands on one of these 2# coins for me?

[sexobon]

Those are 2 of 3 different coins. Which do you want? Click on the image to order all 3 from the Royal Mint.

[lumberjim]

Oh. I thought the crown was the back. I want the skull. Thanks!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cool, the Queen and her mother.

[sexobon]

He could get this nice shiny limited edition version and have it welded onto his Harley's gas tank, maybe one on each side.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nah, silver matches, gold clashes.

[sexobon]

And it is the Pound Sterling, not the Pound Carat. I suppose silver is more authentic too.