Today in History
By Correspondent
YEAR | DAY | EVENT |
843 | Apr 19 | Judith, French empress, 2nd wife of Louis de Vrome, died. |
1524 | Apr 19 | Pope Clemens VII fired the Netherlands inquisitor-general French Van de Holly. |
1529 | Apr 19 | The 2nd Parliament of Speyer banned Lutheranism. At the Diet of Speyer the Lutheran minority protested against restrictions on their teachings and were called “Protestant” for the first time. |
1539 | Apr 19 | Emperor Charles V reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany. |
1587 | Apr 19 | Sir Frances Drake sailed into Cadiz, Spain, and sank the Spanish fleet. |
1600 | Apr 19 | The Dutch ship Liefde, piloted by Will Adams, reached Japan with a crew of 24 men. 6 of the crew soon died. 4 other ships in the expedition were lost. |
1666 | Apr 19 | Sarah Kembel Knight, diarist, was born. |
1689 | Apr 19 | Residents of Boston ousted their governor, Edmond Andros. |
1721 | Apr 19 | Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born. |
1763 | Apr 19 | Teedyuscung, a Lenape Indian, burned to death while sleeping in his cabin in the Wyoming Valley, Pa. The fire destroyed the whole Indian village. A few days later settlers from Connecticut arrived to resume their construction of a town. |
1764 | Apr 19 | The English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money. |
1768 | Apr 19 | Canaletto (b.1697), Venetian printmaker and landscape painter, died. |
1770 | Apr 19 | Capt. James Cook first saw Australia. |
1774 | Apr 19 | Gluck’s opera “Iphigenia in Aulis,” premiered in Paris. |
1782 | Apr 19 | Netherlands recognized the United States. |
1794 | Apr 19 | Tadeusz Kosciusko forced Russians out of Warsaw. |
1798 | Apr 19 | Franz Joseph Glaser, composer, was born. |
1802 | Apr 19 | Spain reopened the New Orleans port to American merchants. |
1813 | Apr 19 | Benjamin Rush (67), physician, revolutionary (signed Declaration of Independence), died. |
1819 | Apr 19 | The USS Alabama and Louisiana destroyed a pirate base at the Patterson’s Town Raid on Breton Island, Louisiana. |
1824 | Apr 19 | George Gordon, (6th Baron Byron, b.1788) aka Lord Byron, English poet, died of malaria in Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for Greek independence. In 1999 Benita Eisler published the biography “Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame.” In 2002 Fiona MacCarthy authored “Byron: Life and Legend.” In 2009 Edna O’Brien authored “Byron in Love.” |
1832 | Apr 19 | Lucretia Rudolph, President Garfield’s first lady, was born. |
1861 | Apr 19 | President Lincoln ordered the blockade of Confederate ports. |
1862 | Apr 19 | Simon Fraser, Canadian explorer, died. |
1864 | Apr 19 | Naval Engagement at Cherbourg, France: USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama. |
1868 | Apr 19 | Paul P. Harris, founder of the Rotary Club, was born in Racine, Wisconsin. |
1877 | Apr 19 | Ole Evinrude, inventor of the outboard marine engine, was born. |
1880 | Apr 19 | The Times war correspondent telephoned a report of the battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news was sent from a field of battle in this manner. |
1881 | Apr 19 | Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, British PM (1868, 1874-1880), novelist, died. |
1882 | Apr 19 | Charles R. Darwin (b.1809), English naturalist (Origin of Species), died at Downe, England, at age 73. In 1995 Janet Browne authored “Voyaging” the 1st of her 3-part biography. In 2002 her 2nd volume “The Power of Place” was published. |
1893 | Apr 19 | The Oscar Wilde play “A Woman of No Importance” opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London. |
1894 | Apr 19 | Jules Massenet’s opera “Werther,” premiered in NYC. |
1897 | Apr 19 | The first Boston Marathon was run from Ashland, Mass., to Boston. Winner John J. McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds. |
1898 | Apr 19 | Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independence and demanding that Spain relinquish authority over Cuba. President McKinley was also authorized to use military force to put the resolution into effect. |
1900 | Apr 19 | Richard Hughes, English novelist and playwright (A High Wind in Jamaica), was born. |
1903 | Apr 19 | Eliot Ness, Treasury agent, was born. He fought for prohibition in Chicago, Ill. |
1904 | Apr 19 | Much of Toronto was destroyed by fire. |
1905 | Apr 19 | Tom Hopkinson, British writer, was born. |
1906 | Apr 19 | Pierre Curie, French physicist, chemist (Nobel 1903), died. Curie, was hit by a truck and killed as he crossed a street in Paris. |
1909 | Apr 19 | The new Orpheum Theater opened in San Francisco, Ca. |
1910 | Apr 19 | After weeks of being viewed through telescopes, Halley’s Comet was reported visible to the naked eye in Curacao. |
1912 | Apr 19 | Glenn T. Seaborg, first head of Atomic Energy Commission, was born. He won a Nobel Prize in 1951 for co-discovering Plutonium. |
1913 | Apr 19 | San Francisco’s Chinatown was put under a partial blockade following the killing of Lem Foon by Bing Kong tong highbinders. The blockade was the 2nd of its kind in as many years |
1914 | Apr 19 | Charles Sanders Peirce (b.1839), American polymath, philosopher and scientist, died in Milford, Pa. In 1883 he used randomization in a psychological experiment at Johns Hopkins Univ. |
1922 | Apr 19 | Erich Hartmann, German WW II pilot who later downed 352 Russian aircrafts, was born. |
1924 | Apr 19 | The “National Barn Dance” premiered on WLS in Chicago. |
1925 | Apr 19 | Hugh O’Brian, [Krampke], actor (Wyatt Earp), was born in Rochester, NY. |
1927 | Apr 19 | Rudolf Friml’s “Vagabond King” opened in London. |
1933 | Apr 19 | Etheridge Knight, poet, was born. |
1934 | Apr 19 | Shirley Temple appeared in her first movie. |
1935 | Apr 19 | Dudley Moore (d.2002), film actor, comedian and musician, was born in Dagenham, East London. |
1936 | Apr 19 | Clarence Darrow. Lawyer and social reformer Clarence Darrow voiced the opinion that “There is no such thing as justice””in or out of court” in an interview for the New York Times |
1938 | Apr 19 | General Francisco Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War. |
1939 | Apr 19 | Connecticut finally approved Bill of Rights. |
1943 | Apr 19 | Willy Graf, Kurt Huber and Alexander Schmorell, German resistance fighters, were beheaded. |
1945 | Apr 19 | The Rodgers and Hammerstein adopted Ferenc Molnar’s “Lilliom” and produced the musical “Carousel” on Broadway. |
1946 | Apr 19 | Tim Curry, actor (Rocky Horror Show), was born in Cheshire, England. |
1947 | Apr 19 | Murray Perahia, pianist (Avery Fischer Prize-1975, Grammy 1988), was born in NYC. |
1949 | Apr 19 | Paloma Picasso, [Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France. |
1951 | Apr 19 | Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” |
1956 | Apr 19 | In Spain 12 people died and about 70 were injured following earthquakes in the southern Granada region. |
1957 | Apr 19 | Charles Funk (76), Encyclopedist (Funk & Wagnall’s), died. |
1958 | Apr 19 | The last Key System train left Oakland for SF. Ferry service from the Ferry Building ended the next day when the Southern Pacific “Eureka” made its last crossing from SF to Oakland. |
1960 | Apr 19 | Baseball uniforms began displaying player’s names on their backs. |
1961 | Apr 19 | Howard Anderson was executed in Cuba after being convicted of arms smuggling to anti-Communist rebels. |
1964 | Apr 19 | There was a rightist coup in Laos. Suvanna Phuma remained premier. |
1965 | Apr 19 | At a cost of $20,000, the outer Houston Astrodome ceiling was painted because of sun’s glare. This in turn caused the grass to die. |
1966 | Apr 19 | Lt. Lee Aaron Adams of Willits, Ca., was killed when his F-105D Thunderchief fighter plane was shot down in North Vietnam. His remains were returned home in 2005. During 1966 the US Air Force lost 126 Thunderchiefs. |
1967 | Apr 19 | Conrad Adenauer (b.1876), West Germany chancellor (1949-63), died. |
1968 | Apr 19 | Ralph S. Plaisted (1927- 2008), insurance salesman turned explorer, reached the North Pole by snowmobile with 3 other men. This was the first expedition to indisputably reach the North Pole. |
1969 | Apr 19 | In Ithaca N.Y. some 80 armed, militant black students at Cornell Univ. took over Willard Straight Hall. They demanded a black studies program and cut a deal with frightened administrators for total amnesty. In 1999 Donald Alexander Downs described the events in his book: “Cornell ’69.” |
1971 | Apr 19 | The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the world’s first space station into orbit. |
1972 | Apr 19 | The Broadway production Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” opened at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for two months before transferring to the Edison. It had a total run of 1065 performances. The cast included Grant, Alex Bradford, and Hope Clarke. |
1975 | Apr 19 | India announced it had launched its 1st satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet rocket. |
1977 | Apr 19 | Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book “Roots.” |
1982 | Apr 19 | Astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped by NASA for U.S. space missions. |
1987 | Apr 19 | The last free-flying condor in California, a 19-pound, 7-year-old male, was captured. He was released in 2002. |
1988 | Apr 19 | Republican George Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis handily won the New York presidential primaries. |
1989 | Apr 19 | Daphne Du Maurier (82), English writer (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn), died. |
1990 | Apr 19 | Nicaragua’s nine-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. |
1991 | Apr 19 | Evander Holyfield won a unanimous decision over George Foreman to retain boxing’s heavyweight title in Atlantic City, New Jersey. |
1992 | Apr 19 | After six days, engineers plugged the tunnel leak under the Chicago River that caused an underground flood that had virtually shut down business in the heart of the city. |
1993 | Apr 19 | South Dakota Gov. George S. Mickelson (52) died in an Iowa plane crash. |
1994 | Apr 19 | A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King. |
1995 | Apr 19 | In Spain a failed ETA car-bomb attempted to kill conservative opposition leader and future Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. |
1996 | Apr 19 | On the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, hundreds of mourners paused for 168 seconds of silence at the site where the federal building once stood. |
1997 | Apr 19 | In Newton, New Jersey, Giorgio Gallara, a Pizza shop owner, and employee Jeremy Giordano, were killed after being lured to an abandoned house. [see Apr 21] |
1998 | Apr 19 | In Arizona grasshoppers by the millions descended on communities along the lower Colorado River. |
1999 | Apr 19 | The US Supreme Court ruled that a federal law aimed at limiting e-mail smut does not violate free-speech rights. |
2000 | Apr 19 | President Clinton knelt among 168 empty chairs memorializing each victim of the Oklahoma City bombing and declared the site “sacred ground” in the soul of America during a fifth-anniversary dedication ceremony. |
2001 | Apr 19 | The musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway. |
2002 | Apr 19 | US and British planes bombed Iraqi air defense systems in response to anti-aircraft fire. |
2003 | Apr 19 | In northeast Pennsylvania Hadley Bilger (13) was abducted by her uncle after he shot and killed her parents. Bilger was released the next day and Robert Lee Hixson (42) surrendered to police. |
2004 | Apr 19 | In the Boston Marathon Timothy Cherigat of Kenya won for the men at 2:10:37; Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won for the women at 2:24:27. |
2005 | Apr 19 | The US government sacked its one-size-fits-all food pyramid in favor of a dozen different guides geared to individual nutritional needs and lifestyles. |
2006 | Apr 19 | The US government released the most extensive list yet of the hundreds of detainees who have been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Nearly all 558 on the list were labeled enemy combatants, but only a handful of whom have faced formal charges. |
2007 | Apr 19 | US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a bleak assessment of Iraq, saying the war was “lost,” triggering an angry backlash by Republicans. |
2008 | Apr 19 | In NYC Pope Benedict XVI preached in St. Patrick’s cathedral, assuring priests and nuns that he was close to them as they battled the damage left by the clergy sex scandal. |
2009 | Apr 19 | In Arizona Doug Georgianni (51) was shot and killed while collecting data from a traffic enforcement camera inside an SUV in Phoenix. The next day police arrested Thomas Patrick Destories (68) on 1st degree murder charges. |
2010 | Apr 19 | In Oregon Jorge Ortiz-Oliva (40), the kingpin of one of the biggest drug organizations in Oregon history, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. |
2011 | Apr 19 | It was reported that a US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections. |
2012 | Apr 19 | The US military said 2 ethnic Uighur men from western China, held for almost a decade without charge at Guantanamo Bay, have been resettled in El Salvador. |
2013 | Apr 19 | The US’s annual global human rights report was issued by the State Department. It said China had imposed new registration requirements to prevent groups from emerging that might challenge government authority. |
2014 | Apr 19 | In Algeria 11 soldiers were killed and a dozen wounded in an ambush in the restive Kabylie region east of Algiers. On May 1 al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility. |
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