This Day in History

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Today is April 26.

Many of the southern states in the U.S. celebrate Confederate Memorial Day today, commemorating the ~258,000 members of the Confederate States Army, Navy, Marines, and militia who died in combat during the Civil War.

Today is also Hug A Friend Day, so, hug somebody, dammit! Here's how.

As well, today is World Intellectual Property Day.

Russia, and Belarus, commemorate the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster with Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes, and Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl Tragedy, respectively.

Today is the Feast Day of Aldobrandesca. But don't say that word aloud. I did, and my coffee table disappeared.


Events

1777 – Legend tells that Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces.

1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist. Yeah, if something's there, it pretty much exists, alright.

1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.

1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship,



leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue



from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.

1982 - Out on a day's shopping, Rod Stewart was robbed by a gunman of his $50,000 Porsche on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.

2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.

2013 - US country singer George Jones who had a string of number one songs between the 1950s and 1990s, died aged 81. Nicknamed 'Possum', his signature song was He Stopped Loving Her Today, a track about love and death.



121 – Marcus Aurelius, 1785 – John James Audubon, 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, 1889 – Anita Loos, 1898 – Eddie Eagan, 1917 – I. M. Pei, 1927 - Grandmadigr The Younger, 1933 – Carol Burnett, 1938 – Duane Eddy♪ ♫, 1940 - Uncledigr The Elder, 1942 – Bobby Rydell♪ ♫, 1943 – Gary Wright, 1960 – Roger Taylor(Duran Duran), 1961 – Joan Chen, 1963 – Jet Li, 1965 – Kevin James, 1970 – Melania Trump (47th FLOTUS), 1970 – Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins♪ ♫(TLC), 1978 – Stana Katic (Castle), 1980 – Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious), 1983 – Jessica Lynch



1865 – John Wilkes Booth, 1956 – Edward Arnold, 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, 1981 – Jim Davis (Dallas), 1984 – Count Basie, 1986 – Broderick Crawford, 1989 – Lucille Ball, 1991 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., 2013 - George Jones, 2015 – Jayne Meadows

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Today is April 27.

1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.

1667 – John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' Hymn).

1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1986 – The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.

2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee, killing 348 and injuring hundreds more. The outbreak spawned 362 confirmed tornadoes. 218 tornadoes touch down on this day. This event was the costliest tornado outbreak, and one of the costliest natural disasters, in United States history (even after adjustments for inflation), with total damages of approximately $11 billion (2011 USD).



1791 – Samuel Morse, 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant (18th POTUS), 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, 1899 – Walter Lantz, 1922 – Jack Klugman (Odd Couple, Quincy M.E.), 1926 – Tim LaHaye, 1927 – Coretta Scott King, 1932 – Casey Kasem, 1938 – Earl Anthony, 1944 – Cuba Gooding Sr., 1947 – Pete Ham♪ ♫(Badfinger), 1951 – Ace Frehley(KISS, Frehley's Comet), 1955 – Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Inc), 1959 – Sheena Easton♪ ♫



1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, 1813 – Zebulon Pike (namesake of Pike's Peak), 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1932 – Hart Crane, 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, 1988 – Fred Bear(American bow hunter), 1996 – William Colby, 1999 – Al Hirt♪ ♫, 2002 – Ruth Handler (created the Barbie doll), 2015 – Verne Gagne

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Today is April 29.

This date is observed as a Day of Remembrance For All Victims of Chemical Warfare, and also as International Dance Day.


Events

1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.

1770 – James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names.

1834 – Charles Darwin during the second survey voyage of HMS Beagle, ascended the Bell mountain, Cerro La Campana on 17 August 1834, his visit being commemorated by a memorial plaque.

1903 – A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 people in Frank, in the District of Alberta, Canada.

1944 – World War II: British agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo's most wanted person, parachutes back into France to be a liaison between London and the local maquis group.

1945 – World War II: Start of Operation Manna.

1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor; Hitler and Braun both commit suicide the following day. [video link]

1953 – The first U.S. experimental 3D television broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army the previous day, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" ~Muhammad Ali

1968 – The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with some of its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.

1986 – A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.

1992 – Riots in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.

2015 – A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.

2016 - Fifteen of Prince's (<--Wait for it...) albums made it into the UK chart as fans rushed to buy his music following his sudden death. Six were in the top 40 with The Very Best Of, Ultimate and Purple Rain at two, three and four.



1863 – William Randolph Hearst, 1899 – Duke Ellington, 1901 – Hirohito, 1917 – Celeste Holm, 1931 – Lonnie Donegan, 1933 – Rod McKuen, 1933 – Willie Nelson, 1935 – Otis Rush, 1936 – Zubin Mehta, 1938 – Bernard Madoff, 1943 – Duane Allen, 1947 – Tommy James, 1947 – Johnny Miller, 1951 – Dale Earnhardt, 1951 – John Holmes (no, not that one), 1952 – Nora Dunn, 1954 – Jerry Seinfeld, 1955 – Kate Mulgrew, 1957 – Daniel Day-Lewis, 1958 – Michelle Pfeiffer, 1958 – Eve Plumb, 1970 – Andre Agassi, 1970 – Uma Thurman



1967 – J. B. Lenoir, 1980 – Alfred Hitchcock, 1997 – Mike Royko, 2008 – Albert Hofmann, 2014 – Bob Hoskins, 2015 – Calvin Peete

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Today is April 30, the last day of April, and the 120th day of the year. One third of the year has passed.

There are 245 days remaining in 2017.

On this date Western Christianity observes a Global Day Of Prayer.

Honesty Day is marked today in the U.S., coinciding with the anniversary of the first inauguration of George Washington.

UNESCO has proclaimed this day as an International Jazz Day, so, if you're a musician, find four buddies and all of ya play a different song at the same time.


Events

1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.

1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.

1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for less than three cents per acre, $15 million (~$250,000,000 in 2016 dollars), more than doubling the size of the young nation.

1885 – Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use.

1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete



at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9000 American and British airmen.

1956 – Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.

1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.

1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh.

1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.

2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.

2009 – Chrysler



files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.



1877 – Alice B. Toklas, 1908 – Eve Arden, 1926 – Cloris Leachman, 1938 – Gary Collins, 1943 – Bobby Vee, 1944 – Jill Clayburgh, 1953 – Merrill Osmond, 1954 – Jane Campion, 1961 – Isiah Thomas, 1963 – Michael Waltrip, 1981 – Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory), 1982 – Kirsten Dunst



65 – Lucan, 1900 – Casey Jones, 1956 – Alben W. Barkley (35th VPOTUS), 1970 – Inger Stevens, 1972 – Gia Scala, 1974 – Agnes Moorehead ('Endora' on Bewitched), 1983 – George Balanchine, 1983 – Muddy Waters, 1989 – Sergio Leone, 1994 – Richard Scarry, 2007 – Tom Poston, 2016 – Daniel Berrigan

[xoxoxoBruce]

1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for less than three cents per acre, $15 million (~$250,000,000 in 2016 dollars), more than doubling the size of the young nation.

I'd give $250 million for that property.

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Holy premiums Bruceman!!

Think of the insurance payments.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Think the rent would cover them? Of course I wouldn't do this for a profit, just to build a better America.