This Week in History

USPA NEWS - The Titanic disaster, Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office, US record producer Phil Spector is found guilty of second-degree murder, US President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated and Metallica files a lawsuit against Napster. All this and more happened this in history.

April 11 (1848) Hungary becomes constitutional monarchy under King Ferdinand of Austria. (1890) Ellis Island, New York, designated as an immigration station. (1898) Spain declares war against the United States and President McKinley asks for Spanish-American War declaration. (1900) The first modern submarine designed and built by John Philip Holland is purchased by the US Navy. (1912) RMS Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland, for New York City. (1961) Trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in World War II begins in Jerusalem, Israel. (1965) 40 tornadoes strike US Midwest, killing 272 and injuring 5,000. (1981) Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him. (1993) 450 prisoners riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continue for 10 days, citing grievances about prison conditions and the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners for tuberculosis. (2013) Fossilized dinosaur eggs with embryos are discovered in China.

April 12 (1861) Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning The American Civil War. (1937) Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England. (1945) Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands. (1945) US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President. (1955) Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be “safe and effective” and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. (1961) Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. (1966) First B-52 bombing on North Vietnam. (1990) First meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for the Holocaust and asks for forgiveness. (2013) A man-made 32-foot and 60 tonne monument that dates from around 2000 BC is discovered in the Sea of Galilee. (2020) Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina, killing 32 people across six states.

April 13 (1883) US prospector Alfred Packer convicted of manslaughter though accused of cannibalism. (1928) First trans Atlantic flight from Europe to US on the Bremen. (1945) Canadian soldier Leo Major single-handedly liberates Dutch town of Zwolle by fooling Germans into thinking a raid had begun. (1994) Presidential guard at Kigali, Rwanda, chops 1,200 church members to death. (2009) US record producer Phil Spector is found guilty of second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. (2012) North Korean long range rocket testing ends in failure after the rocket broke up after launch. (2015) Migrant ship carrying around 550 sinks off the Libyan coast, about 400 drown. (2019) Body of 38 year old Filipino woman discovered in abandoned mine starts the hunt for Cyprus’ first serial killer, at least five other bodies later discovered. (2019) BTS is the first Korean pop band to perform on US television show “Saturday Night Live.” (2019) World’s largest plane by wingspan at 117m (385 ft), the Stratolaunch, built as a flying launch pad for satellites, takes its first flight from Mohave, California.

April 14 (1828) First American Dictionary: Its author, Noah Webster, registers its copyright for publication. (1841) First detective story published. Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in Rue Morgue” (1849) Hungary declares itself independent of Austria, with Louis Kossuth as its leader. (1865) US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth as Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. (1894) First public showing of Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope (moving pictures). (1912) RMS Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11:40pm off Newfoundland. (1961) First live television broadcast from Soviet Union. (1992) Court throws out Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft. (1994) Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender after completion of his Seven Seals manuscript. (2000) Metallica file a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This lawsuit eventually leads to the movement against file-sharing programs.

April 15 (1865) Abraham Lincoln dies nine hours after he is shot by John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington, (1877) Boston-Somerville installs the world’s 1st telephone in Massachusetts. (1896) First modern Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece. USA wins 11 gold medals. Greece has a total medal count of 46. IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver and bronze medals to the three best placed athletes in each event. (1912) RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27am as the band plays on, with the loss of life between 1,490 and 1,635 . (1923) Insulin becomes generally available for diabetics. (1947) Jackie Robinson becomes first African-American to play in US major league baseball, for the Dodgers. (1955) Ray Kroc opens first McDonald’s Inc. fast food restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. (1989) 96 crushed to death and 766 injured at Hillsborough Football Stadium, Sheffield, England, during FA semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. (2010) Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe. (2019) Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof.

April 16 (1866) Nitroglycerin explodes at a Wells Fargo and Co. office in San Francisco, shattering glass for half a mile. (1922) Sharp shooter Annie Oakley sets women’s record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row. (1943) Swiss scientist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the effects of LSD. (1945) Battle of Berlin: Red Army begins its attack on the capital of Nazi Germany. (1947) Massive explosion and fire kills 522 in Texas City, Texas. (1956) First solar powered radios go on sale. (1992) The Katina P runs aground of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean. (2003) Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, admitting 10 new member states to the European Union. (2007) Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide. (2018) Kendrick Lamar, first rapper and non-classical or jazz musician to win Pulitzer Prize for music with his album “Damn”.

April 17 (1492) Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found and the governorship of any lands encountered. (1758) Francis Williams, the first US black college graduate, publishes his poems. (1860) Boxing match that went 42 rounds. Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight out brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw near Farnborough, England. Police stop fight that is acknowledged as the first world title bout. (1865) Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. (1907) Ellis Island, New York records 11,745 immigrants. (1964) Ford Mustang formally introduced with a base price of $2,368. (1969) Shirhan Shirhan is convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy. (1978) A record 63,500,000 shares are traded on the New York stock exchange.1969) (2012) The 8th century St. Cuthbert Gospel, Europe’s oldest intact book, is purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds. (2021) Global COVID-19 death toll passes three million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Thank you for reading my article. These are merely my thoughts and insights based on the facts. I use only verified sources. No fake news here. I write about a variety of subjects, mainly things I want to research and know more about. You can check out my website – Small Village Life at smallvillagelife.com, where I share useful articles and news.

Wendy writes for the United States Press Agency and is a former columnist with the Fulton County Expositor, Wauseon, Ohio.