YEAR

DAY

EVENT

43 BC

Apr 21

Marcus Antonius was defeated by Octavian near Modena, Italy.

953

Apr 21

Otto I, the Great, granted Utrecht fishing rights.

1699

Apr 21

Jean Racine (59), French playwright (Phèdre), died.

1855

Apr 21

The 1st train crossed the Mississippi River’s 1st bridge.

1862

Apr 21

Ellen Price Wood’s “East Lynne,” premiered in Boston.

1862

Apr 21

Congress established the U.S. Mint.

1878

Apr 21

Ship Azor left Charleston with 206 blacks for Liberia.

1884

Apr 21

Potters Field reopened as Madison Square Park in NYC.

1916

Apr 21

Bill Carlisle, the infamous ‘last train robber,’ robbed a train in Hanna, Wyoming.

1930

Apr 21

Silvana Mangano, actress (Death in Venice, Barabbas), was born in Rome, Italy

1935

Apr 21

King Boris of Bulgaria forbade all political parties.

1940

Apr 21

The quiz show that asked the “$64 question,” “Take It or Leave It,” premiered on CBS Radio.

1943

Apr 21

President Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots were executed by Japanese.

1945

Apr 21

He Shima, Okinawa, was conquered in 5 days with 5,000 dead.

1948

Apr 21

The 1st Polaroid camera was sold in US.

1949

Apr 21

Patti LuPone, actress, singer (Evita, Life Goes On), was born in Northport, NY.

1955

Apr 21

The Jerome Lawrence-Robert Lee play “Inherit the Wind,” loosely based on the Scopes trial of 1925, opened at the National Theatre in New York.

1961

Apr 21

James Melton (57), opera tenor died.

1968

Apr 21

In the 22nd Tony Awards: “Rosencranz & Guildenstern” and “Hallelujah Baby” won.

1971

Apr 21

In Haiti Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier (b.1907) died. He was succeeded by his teenage son Jean-Claude “Baby-Doc” Duvalier (19), under the guidance of Simone Duvalier, aka “Mama Doc.”

1976

Apr 21

Full-scale testing of the swine flu vaccine began in Washington, D.C.

1983

Apr 21

Walter Slezak (b.1902), Austrian-born actor (Bedtime For Bonzo), committed suicide in NY.

1988

Apr 21

Tennessee Sen. Al Gore gave up his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, assuring supporters that “there will be other days for me and for the causes that matter to us.”

1990

Apr 21

Bob Engel, a National League umpire was arrested in Bakersfield, Ca., for stealing baseball cards.

1993

Apr 21

An 11-day siege at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, Ohio, ended after rioting inmates reached an agreement with prison officials. One guard and nine inmates were killed during the siege.

1994

Apr 21

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $28 billion get-tough-on-crime bill.

1997

Apr 21

Pres. Clinton approved a ban on new American investment in Burma due to human rights abuses. It also banned visas for senior Burmese government officials.

1998

Apr 21

It was reported that Microsoft planned its first retail store, an 8,500-sq. foot site, in the Yerba Buena Gardens complex of SF with plans to open in spring, 1999.

1999

Apr 21

The National Rifle Association scaled back its annual meeting in Denver from 3 days to one in response to the Littleton killings.

2000

Apr 21

Scientists reported that the 66 million-year-old plant-eating dinosaur, Thescelosaurus, had a 4-chambered heart and was likely warm-blooded.

2001

Apr 21

The Los Angeles Xtreme beat the San Francisco Demons 38-to-6 in the first and last XFL championship game.

2002

Apr 21

In France the 1st round of presidential elections put Jean-Marie Le Pen, a right wing extremist, into a runoff with Pres. Jacques Chirac. Le Pen took 17% of the vote vs. 16% for PM Lionel Jospin. Chirac ended up winning.

2003

Apr 21

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the temporary governing body of Iraq. Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, Pres. Bush’s appointed post-war administrator, arrived in Baghdad. His priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity.

2004

Apr 21

U.S. forces battled Taliban holdouts in a forbidding mountain range in southern Afghanistan, killing two fighters and arresting two others.

2005

Apr 21

Police in Melbourne seized 18 million dollars (14 million US) worth of the party drug ecstasy a week after announcing a world-record haul of the substance.

2006

Apr 21

Pres. Bush began a 4-day visit to California. He denied Gov. Schwarzenegger’s request for federal funds to repair Bay Area levees.

2007

Apr 21

A US Navy Blue Angel jet went down during an air show in South Carolina, plunging into a neighborhood of small homes and trailers and killing the pilot.

2008

Apr 21

A US judge in California sentenced Tai Mak (58) to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to take unclassified but sensitive information about US naval technology to China in 2005.

2009

Apr 21

In Afghanistan police in southern Uruzgan province clashed with militants in the Khas Uruzgan district, killing seven suspected insurgents.

2010

Apr 21

In Arizona the Havasupai Indian tribe ended a 7-year legal fight with Arizona State Univ. over blood samples members gave to university researchers for diabetes research that were also used to study schizophrenia, inbreeding and ancient population migration. Tribal members called it a case of genetic piracy.

2011

Apr 21

The US Justice Department indicted 3 US citizens and their two companies for illegally exporting millions of dollars worth of computers to Iran via Dubai.

2012

Apr 21

US DEA agents in San Diego raided a house for drugs and detained 9 people including engineering student Daniel Chong (23). The DEA forgot about Chong and left him in a holding cell for 4 days with no food or water. Chong planned to seek damages. On July 30, 2013, his attorney said Chong had agreed to settle claims for $4.1 million.

2013

Apr 21

The US said that it will double its non-lethal assistance to Syria’s opposition as the rebels’ top supporters vowed to enhance and expand their backing of the 2-year battle to oust President Assad’s regime.

2014

Apr 21

In Massachusetts more than 32,000 hit the streets in the first Boston Marathon since last year’s deadly bombing.