This Week in History

USPA NEWS - The Great San Francisco earthquake, the Carpathia bringing survivors from the Titanic to New York City, Mae West discovered and begins her Hollywood career, the tribute concert for Freddie Mercury, and the Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse. All this and more, this week in history.

April 18 (1506) The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basillica is laid in the Vatican by Pope Julius II. (1775) Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” (1906) San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000, while destroying 75% of the city. (1912) Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City. (1924) First crossword puzzle book published by Simon and Schuster. (1930) BBC news announcer announces “there is no news” at 20:45 news bulletin and plays music instead. (1942) James Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities. (1943) Operation Vengeance: US Army Air Force P-38G fighter aircraft from Kukum Filed on Guadalcanal ambush and shoot down the transport bomber aircraft of Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy and mastermind behind the Pearl Harbor attack. (1963) Dr. James Campbell performed the first human nerve transplant. (1986) IBM produces first megabit-chip.

April 19 (1775) American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the World” took place in Concord later that day. (1892) Charles Duryea takes the first American-made automotive for a test drive. (1909) Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church. (1927) Actress Mae West found guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” in a New York stage play entitled “Sex”. She is sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $500, the resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career. (1943) Jews refuse to surrender the Warsaw Ghetto to SS Officer Jurgen Stroop, who then orders its destruction, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (1971) Charles Manson sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Sharon Tate. (1987) Last wild condor captured on California wildlife reserve. (1993) After a 51 day siege by the FBI, 76 Branch Davidians die in a fire near Waco, Texas. (2011) Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba’s central committee after 45 years of holding the title. (2021) NASA successfully flies its drone helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, first powered aircraft to fly on another world.

April 20 (1792) Amidst the French Revolution, France declares war on Austria and Prussia, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars. (1887) Georges Bouton wins the world’s first motor race on a steam-powered quadricycle, a “test” organized by French newspaper Le Velocipede. (1902) Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride. (1918) Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day. (1945) Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin. (1992) Madonna signs $60 million deal with Time Warner. (1992) All-star concert in memory of Freddie Mercury held at Wembley Stadium, London. (1999) Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others, before committing suicide at Columbine High School, Colorado. (2010) The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster. (2020) Price of US oil turns negative for the first time in history. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls.

April 21 (1820) Danish scientist Hans Christian Orsted is the first to identify electromagnetism, when he observes a compass needle. (1865) Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train leaves Washington. (1956) Elvis Presley’s first hit record, “Heartbreak Hotel”, becomes #1. (1967) Joseph Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Allilueva, arrives in New York City after defecting to the US. (1984) Centers for Disease Control says virus discovered in France causes AIDS. (1989) Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing’s Tienanmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom. (1991) French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio discovers the San Diego, Dutch galleon sunk in 1600 off Fortune Island in the Philippines. (1995) FBI arrests Timothy McVeigh and charge him with the Oklahoma City bombing. (2019) Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy wins the country’s presidential election in a landslide. (2021) Russian President Vladimir Putin warns the West not to cross a “red line” in his state of the union address, amid massing of 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine border.

April 22 (1509) Henry VIII, 2nd Tudor King of England ascends to the throne at age of 17, after the death of his father, Henry VII. (1915) First military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WWI. (1945) Battle of Berlin: Upon being informed that a planned counter-attack never happened, Adolf Hitler flies into a rage, denounces the German Army and concedes World War II is lost. (1952) First atomic explosion on network news, Nob, Nevada. (1969) First human eye transplant performed. (1970) First Earth Day celebrated, founded by Gaylord Nelson. (1976) Barbara Walters becomes first female US nightly network news anchor (ABC News). (1993) Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C. (1994) 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda. (1999) Luis Garavito, Colombian serial killer described as “the world’s worst serial killer” (138-300 victims) apprehended.

April 23 (1896) Vitascope system of movie projection first shown at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall, New York City. (1900) First know occurrence of word “hillbillie” used in New York Journal. (1931) US gangster film “The Public Enemy” starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow premieres. (1969) Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for killing US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (later commuted to a life sentence). (1972) Apollo 16 astronauts explore the Moon’s surface. (1992) McDonald’s opens its first fast-food restaurant in China. (1996) Sotherby’s begins four day auction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis items, bringing in $34.5 million. (2009) Gamma ray burst (GRB) 090423 is observed for 10 seconds, the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe. (2013) A 1% flash crash hits the US stock market after a news agency was hacked and claimed injury to President Obama. (2019) World’s first malaria vaccine, giving partial protection to children, begins in Malawi by the WHO.

April 24 (1184 BC) The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse. (1916) Easter Rising of Irish republicans against British occupation begins in Dublin. (1928) Fathometer, which measures underwater depth is patented. (1953) Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. (1961) US President John F. Kennedy accepts “sole responsibility” following Bay of Pigs. (1969) US B-52’s drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary (1990) Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine. (2013) Deadliest structural failure in history when 1,134 mostly garment workers killed and 2,500 injured after the Rana Plaza building collapses in Savar Upazila, Bangladesh. (2018) Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo arrested and charged with eight murders after being identified through genealogy websites. (2021) Joe Biden becomes the first US President to officially recognize killing of Armenians in the Ottoman empire during WWII as genocide.

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.