Today in History |
April | Interesting Things |
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In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.
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In 1782, the Netherlands recognized American independence.
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In 1892, the prototype of the first commercially successful American automobile was completed in Springfield, Mass., by Charles E. Duryea and his brother Frank.
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In 1893, the Oscar Wilde play "A Woman of No Importance" opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
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In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
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In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began waging a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces.
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In 1945, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel," featuring the song, "You'll Never Walk Alone," opened on Broadway with Jan Clayton as Julie Jordan and John Raitt as Billy Bigelow.
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In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bade farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
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In 1971, the Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.
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In 1972, the U.S. Apollo 16 spacecraft began orbiting the moon two days before astronauts landed on its surface.
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In 1975, India announced it had launched its first satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet rocket.
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In 1985: The space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., after a mission that was marred by a deployed satellite that failed to operate properly.
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In 1989, an explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors.
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In 1989, pro-Democracy demonstrations began in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
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In 1990: Nicaragua's 9-year-old civil war appeared near an end as Contra guerrillas, leftist Sandinistas and the incoming government agreed to a truce and a deadline for the rebels to disarm.
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In 1992, a series of watercolors depicting members of the British royal family nude caused a stir with London's Fleet Street newspapers. The queen was not amused.
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In 1993, the 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended tragically when a fire destroyed the fortified compound after authorities tear-gassed the place. Cult leader David Koresh and 85 followers were killed.
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In 1993, the governor of South Dakota and seven other people were killed in a plane crash in Iowa.
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In 1994, a federal jury awarded police beating victim Rodney King $3. 8 million dollars in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.
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In 1994: Bosnian Serbs seized anti-aircraft guns from UN guards near Sarajevo and shelled a hospital and UN buildings in Gorazde.
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In 1994: The Supreme Court outlawed the practice of excluding people from juries because of their gender.
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In 1995, 168 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City.
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In 1995, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind, announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.
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In 1996, the leaders of the G-7 nations met in Moscow.
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