This Week in History

April 12
*1861: Fort Sumter was the site of the beginning of the Civil War.
*1947: David Letterman was born.
*1955: It was announced that Jonas E. Salk had developed a polio vaccine.
*1961: Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, orbiting Earth in Vostok I.
*1981: The space shuttle Columbia took her maiden flight with John Young and Robert Crippen on board. It was America's first manned flight since 1976.

April 13
*1743: Thomas Jefferson was born.

April 14
*1828: Noah Webster published the first American English dictionary.
*1865: Abraham Lincoln was shot. He died the next day.

April 15
*1912: Titanic sunk at 2:27 a.m. (Aside--while watching the movie in the theater, a girl friend of mine leaned over during the part when Jack was frozen and Rose had to pry his hand off hers to let him go. The friend whispered, "He's Jack Frost." Now I laugh inappropriately every time I see that scene.)

April 16
*1862: Slavery was abolished in D.C. and Congress appropriated $1,000,000 to compensate slave owners for their loss. They also set aside $100,000 to pay travel expenses for former slaves who wanted to relocate to Haiti, Liberia, or elsewhere.
*1889: Charlie Chaplin was born.

April 17
*1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion.

April 18
*1775: Paul Revere took a ride.
*1906: Nearly 4,000 people died in the San Francisco earthquake.
*1923: Yankee Stadium opened.

Posted by Jennifer at April 12, 2004 02:40 PM

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