APRIL

April 1

–  birthdays:  1883 –  Lon Chaney (famous silent horror movie star –  “The Phantom of the Opera”)  /  1932 – Debbie Reynolds (actress –  “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”) 

–  1924 –  Hitler sentenced to five years in prison for involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch

–  1929 –  Louis Marx invents the yo-yo

–  1934 –  Bonnie and Clyde murder two state troopers

–  1945 –  invasion of Okinawa

–  1970 –  cigarette ads banned from TV

–  1976 –  Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs start Apple Computer in Jobs’ parents’ garage

–  1991 –  minimum wage goes from $3.80 to $4.25

–  2017 –  Bob Dylan receives his Nobel Prize for Literature

Quote:   Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.  We have guided missiles and misguided men.  –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 2

–  birthdays:  1875 –  Walter Chrysler (car maker)  /  1908 –  Buddy Ebsen (actor – Uncle Jed in “Beverly Hillbillies”)  /  1920 –  Jack Webb (Sgt. Friday in “Dragnet”)  /  1939 – Marvin Gaye ( singer – biggest hit =  “Let’s Get it On”)  /  1942 – Leon Russell (singer –  biggest hit =  “Tight Rope”)  /  1947 – Emmylou Harris (singer – biggest hit =  “If I Could Only Win Your Love”)

–  1513  –  Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida

–  1827 –  inventor Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils

–  1865 –  Jefferson Davis flees from Richmond

–  1877 –  first Easter egg roll at White House (Pres. Hayes)

–  1902 –  first movie theater

–  1917 –  Jeannette Rankin begins her term as the first female in the House of Representatives

–  1917 –  Wilson asks for a declaration of war

–  1977 –  Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumours” goes #1 and stays for 31 weeks

–  1978 –  Velcro goes on sale

–  2005 –  Pope John Paul II dies

Quote:   We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.  –  Aristotle

April 3

–  birthdays:   1715 – John Hanson (first president under the Articles of Confederation)  /  1783 – Washington Irving (author – “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”)  /  1823 – William “Boss” Tweed  /  1904 –  Sally Rand (nude   1922 – Doris Day (actress –  “Pillow Talk” and animal rights activist)  /  1924 –  Marlon Brando (actor –  “The Godfather” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”)  /  1926 – Virgil Grissom (one of the Mercury Seven astronauts)  /  1928 – Earl Lloyd (first African-American in the NBA)  /  1942 – Wayne Newton (singer –  “Daddy Don’t Walk So Fast”)  /  1944 – Tony Orlando (singer – biggest hit =  “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree”)  /  1958 –  Alec Baldwin (actor – “30 Rock”)  /  1961 –  Eddie Murphy (comedian –  “The Nutty Professor”) 

–  1860 –  Pony Express starts

–  1882 –  Jesse James killed by Robert Ford

–  1936 –  Bruno Hauptmann convicted of Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder

–  1948 –  Truman signs the Marshall Plan

–  1953 –  first TV Guide with Lucy and Desi Arnaz’s baby on the cover

–  1996 –  the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski) is arrested in a wilderness cabin in Montana

Quote:   You see things and you say ‘why?’  But I dream things that never were and ask ‘why not?’  – George Bernard Shaw

April 4

–  birthdays:   1802 – Dorothea Dix (first mental asylum)  /  1884 – Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese WWII naval commander)  /  1913 – Muddy Waters (blues guitarist)  /  1922 – Elmer Bernstein (film composer – “The Magnificent Seven”)  /  1928 – Maya Angelou (poet – “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing”)  /  1932 – Anthony Perkins (actor – “Psycho”)  /  1965 – Robert Downey, Jr.  (actor – “Ironman”)  /  1979 – Heath Ledger  (actor – Joker in “The Dark Knight”)  /  2012 – Grumpy Cat

–  1841 –  John Tyler takes over as President after William Henry Harrison dies after only 31 days as President

–  1949 –  NATO is established

–  1968 –  Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated

–  1975 –  Microsoft founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen

–  1986 –  Wayne Gretzky sets record for most points in an NHL season

–  1989 –  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays his last NBA game

Quote:   New opinions are always suspected and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.  –  John Locke

April 5

–  birthdays:  1856 – Booker T. Washington  /  1900 – Spencer Tracy (actor –  “Adam’s Rib”)  /  1908 – Bette Davis (actress –  “Jezebel”)  /  1916 – Gregory Peck (actor – “To Kill a Mockingbird”)  /  1923 – Nguyen Van Thieu (president of South Vietnam 1965-1975)  /  1937 – Colin Powell  /  1976 –  Sterling K. Brown (actor –  “This is Us”) 

–  1792 –  Washington issues the first presidential veto

–  1887 –  Anne Sullivan teaches Helen Keller the sign for “water”

–  1951 –  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death

–  1954 –  Elvis records his debut single –  “That’s All Right”

–  1971 –  William Calley sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22 South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai

–  1972 –  major league baseball players go on strike for first time

–  1984 –  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s record for career points

–  1987 –  “Married With Children” premieres

Quote:   Imagination is more important than knowledge.  –  Albert Einstein

April 6

–  birthdays:  1866 –  Lincoln Steffens (muckraker –  “The Shame of the Cities”)  /  1866 – Butch Cassidy (outlaw partner of the Sundance Kid)  /  1874 –  Harry Houdini (escape artist)  /  1928 –  James Watson (co-discover of the structure of DNA)  /  1937 –  Billy Dee Williams (actor – “Empire Strikes Back”)  /  1937 –  Merle Haggard (country musician – “Okee from Muskogee”)  /  1969 –  Paul Rudd (actor –  “Antman”)  /  1975 –  Zach Braff (actor –  “Scrubbs”) 

–  1808 –  John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company

–  1830 – Joseph Smith organized the Mormon Church

–  1896 –  modern Olympics start in Athens, Greece

–  1909  –  Robert Peary reaches the North Pole

–  1917 –  U.S. declares war on Germany

–  1930 –  Twinkies invented by bakery owner James Dewar

–  1931 –  first broadcast of “Little Orphan Annie” on the radio

–  1938 –  Teflon invented by Roy Plunkett

–  1986 –  soccer ball juggled nonstop for 14 hours and 14 minutes

Quote:   Judge not, lest ye be judged.  –  The Bible

April 7

–  birthdays:  1859 –  Walter Camp (Father of American Football)  /  1860 –  Will Keith Kellogg (founder of the cereal company)  /  1928 – James Garner (actor –  “Rockford Files”)  /  1931 –  Daniel Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers)  /  1939 –  Francis Ford Coppola (director –  “The Godfather”)  /  1949 –  John Oates (of Hall and Oates –  biggest hit =  “Out of Touch”)  /  1954 – Jackie Chan  /  1954 –  Tony Dorsett (NFL Hall of Fame running back)  /  1964 –  Russell Crowe 

–  1862 –  Grant wins the Battle of Shiloh

–  1922 –  Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall leases Teapot Dome oil reserve to a private businessman

–  1945 –  U.S. planes sink Japanese super battleship Yamato on a suicide run to Okinawa

–  1954 –  Pres. Eisenhower coins the term “domino effect”

Quote:   Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 8

–  birthdays:  1460 – Juan Ponce de Leon  /  1892 Mary Pickford  (silent movie icon)  /  1918 – Betty Ford  /  1966 – Robin Wright (actress – “Princess Bride”)

–  1942 –  the War Production Board halts production of most consumer goods

–  1974 –  Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s home run record with his 715^th

–  1975 –  Frank Robinson debuts as the first African-American baseball manager

–  1994 –  Kurt Cobain of Nirvana commits suicide

Quote:   Knowledge is power.  –  Francis Bacon

April 9

–  birthdays:  1898 –  Paul Robeson  (actor and civil rights activist)  /  1926 –  Hugh Hefner  /  1954 – Dennis Quaid (actor – “Big Easy”)  /  1963 – Joe Scarborough (news personality)  /  1966 – Cynthia Nixon (actress – “Sex and the City”)  /  1990 – Kristen Stewart (actress – Twilight series)  /  1999 – Lil Nas X  (rapper –  “Old Town Road”) 

–  1865 –  Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House

–  1939 –  Marion Anderson sings for 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial

–  1942 –  American forces in Bataan in the Philippines surrender and the Bataan Death March begins

–  1963 –  Winston Churchill becomes the first honorary American citizen

–  1965 –  first baseball game in the Astrodome

–  1992 –  Manuel Noreiga found guilty of drug smuggling and racketeering in federal court

–  2003 –  American forces capture Baghdad in Operation Iraqi Freedom

–  2009 –  “Parks and Recreation” debuts

Quote:   Knowledge is of two kinds.  We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information about it.  –  Samuel Johnson

April 10

–  birthdays:  1794 – Matthew Perry  (commodore who opened up Japan)  /  1796 –  James Bowie (inventor of the Bowie knife and defender of the Alamo)  /  1827 –  Matthew Perry (naval commander who opened Japan up for trade)  /  1847 –  Joseph Pulitzer (yellow journalist publisher of the New York World)  /  1882 – Frances Perkins (first woman cabinet member)  / 1915 – Harry Morgan (Col. Potter on “MASH”)  /  1921 –  Chuck Connors (actor – “The Rifleman”)  /  1936 – John Madden (Hall of Fame football coach and sports commentator)  /  1951 –  Steven Seagal  (actor – “Under Siege”)  /  1984 –  Mandy Moore (actress / singer)  /  1988 –  Hayley Joel Osment (actor – “The Sixth Sense”) 

–  1849 –  Walter Hunt patents the safety pin

–  1912 –  the Titanic sets sail

–  1925 –  “The Great Gatsby” published

–  1933 –  FDR creates the Civilian Conservation Corps

–  1947 –  Jackie Robinson signs a contract to become the first African-American baseball player

–  1955 –  Jonas Salk successfully tests his polio vaccine

Quote:   It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.  –  Josh Billings

April 11

–  birthdays:  1862 –  Charles Evans Hughes (11^th Chief Justice and Republican candidate in 1916)  /  1899 – Percy Lavon Julian (African-American chemist with 130 patents;  pioneer in the chemical synthesis of plants for drugs)  /  1932 – Joel Grey  (actor –  “Cabaret”) 

–  1890 –  Ellis Island designated as an immigration station

–  1898 –  McKinley asks for a declaration of war against Spain

–  1900 –  U.S. Navy purchases John Holland’s first modern submarine

–  1945 –  American soldiers liberate Buchenwald concentration camp

–  1951 –  Truman fires MacArthur

–  1961 –  trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Israel

–  1970 –  Apollo 13 takes off

Quote:   The art of leadership is saying no, not yes.  It is easy to say yes.  –  Tony Blair

April 12

–  birthdays:   1777 –  Henry Clay (“The Great Compromiser”)    /  1932 –  Dennis Banks (leader of the American Indian Movement)  /  1940 –  Herbie Hancock  (jazz musician and composer)  /  1947 – David Letterman  /  1947 –  Tom Clancy (author – “The Hunt for Red October”)  /  1950 – David Cassidy (teen idol;  part of the Partridge Family – biggest hit = “Cherish”)  /  Vince Gill (country musician – biggest hit =  “When I Call Your Name”)  /  1971 – Shannen Doherty (actress –  “Beverly Hills 90210”)  /  1979 – Claire Danes (actress –  “My So Called Life”)  /  2000  – David Hogg (gun control activist)

–  1861 –  bombardment of Ft. Sumter starts the Civil War

–  1864 –  Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow and allows his men to massacre black soldiers

–  1945 –  FDR dies

–  1954 –  Bill Haley and the Comets record “Rock Around the Clock”

–  1961 –  Yuri Gagarin becomes first to orbit Earth

Quote:   Leadership is not about being nice.  It is about being right and being strong.  –  Paul Keating

April 13

–  birthdays:  1743 –  Thomas Jefferson  /  1852 – Frank Woolworth  /  1866 – Butch Cassidy (outlaw partner of The Sundance Kid)  /  1923 – Don Adams (Maxwell Smart in “Get Smart”)  /  1946 – Al Green (soul singer – biggest hit = “Let’s Stay Together”)

–  1796 –  first elephant to set foot in America arrives in NYC

–  1860 –  first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento

–  1861 –  Ft. Sumter surrenders

–  1869 –  George Westinghouse patents the steam powered brake for railroads

–  1943 –  FDR dedicates the Jefferson Memorial

–  1964 –  Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American to win the Best Actor Oscar (“Lilies of the Field”)

–  1970 –  Apollo 13 is crippled by an oxygen tank explosion

–  1984 –  Pete Rose gets his 4,000^th  hit

–  1997 –  21-year-old Tiger Woods wins his first major – the Masters

Quote:   I know not what course others may take;   but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.  –  Patrick Henry

April 14

–  birthdays:  1866 –  Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller’s teacher)  /  1925 –  Rod Steiger (actor – “In the Heat of the Night”)  /  1932 –  Loretta Lynn (country singer – “Coal Miner’s Daughter”)  /  1941 – Pete Rose (MLB all-time hits leader)  /  1960 – Brad Garrett (actor – “Everybody Loves Raymond”)  /  1966 – Greg Maddux (Hall of Fame pitcher)  /  1973 – Adrien Brody (actor –  “The Pianist”)  /  1977 –  Sarah Michelle Geller (actress – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) 

–  1775 –  first abolitionist society formed in Philadelphia

–  1828  –  Noah Webster registers a copyright for the first American dictionary

–  1832 –  Brigham Young is baptized into the Mormon faith

–  1841 –  Edgar Allen Poe publishes the first detective story –  “Murders in the Rue Morgue”

–  1865 –  Lincoln is shot

–  1894 –  first public showing of Edison’s kinetoscope

–  1902 –  J.C. Penney opens his first store

–  1906 –  Teddy Roosevelt coins the term “muckrakers” to criticize crusading journalists

–  1910 –  Pres. Taft begins the tradition of throwing out the first baseball of the season

–  1912 –  the Titanic hits an iceberg

–  1918 –  Douglas Campbell becomes the first American ace

–  1939  –  John Steinbeck publishes “The Grapes of Wrath”

–  1958 –  space dog Laika burns up on reentry of Sputnik 2

Quote:   The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is a natural manure.  –  Thomas Jefferson

April 15

–  birthdays:  1741 – Charles Willson Peale (portrait painter)  /  1829  –  Mary Harris Thompson  (first woman surgeon)  /  1894 –  Bessie Smith (“Empress of the Blues”)  /  1894 –  Nikita Khrushchev  /  1912 – Kim Il-sung (dictator of N. Korea 1948-1994)  /  1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery (actress –  “Bewitched”)  /  1933 –  Roy Clark  (country music star of “Hee Haw”)  /  1943 – Hugh Thompson (helicopter pilot who saved civilians in the My Lai Massacre)  /  1982 – Seth Rogen (actor –  “This is the End”)  /  1990 –  Emma Watson (actress –  “Harry Potter” series)  /  1997 –  Maisie Williams (actress –  “Game of Thrones”)

–  1817 –  Siamese twins Chang and Eng arrive in the U.S. to join the Barnum and Bailey Circus

–  1865 –  Lincoln dies nine hours after being shot

–  1912 –  the Titanic sinks

–  1920 –  Sacco and Vanzetti participate in a robbery/murder

–  1923 –  Insulin becomes commercially available

–  1945 –  British soldiers liberate the first major concentration camp – Bergen-Belsen

–  1947 –  Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in a major league baseball game

–  1955 –  Ray Kroc opens his first McDonalds in Des Plaines, Illinois

–  1986 –  U.S. planes bomb Libya in failed attempt to kill Muamar Qadhafi

–  1997 –  Jackie Robinson’s #42 is retired by all teams

–  2013-  Boston Marathon bombing

Quote:   The enemies of freedom do not argue.  They shout and they shoot.  –  William Ralph Inge

April 16

–  birthdays:  1867 –  Wilbur Wright  /  1889 –  Charlie Chaplin  /  1924 –  Henry Mancini (composer –  “The Pink Panther”)  /  1927 –  Pope Benedict XVI  /  1947 –   Kareem Abdul Jabbar (all time NBA scorer)  /  1952 –  Bill Belichick (coach of the Patriots)  /  Martin Lawrence (comedian)  /  1971 –  Selena “Queen of Tejano Music”)  /  1993 –  Chance the Rapper (rapper)

–  1862 –  the Confederacy begins drafting soldiers

–  1922 –  Annie Oakley sets woman’s shooting record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row

–  1943 –  Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman goes on the first “trip” when he accidentally takes a drug he created in 1938 –  LSD

–  1947 –  Bernard Baruch coins the term “Cold War” in a speech

–  1962 –  Walter Cronkite begins hosting the CBS Evening News

–  2014 –  Virginia Tech massacre – 32 killed

Quote:   “I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 17

–  birthdays:  1837 – J.P. Morgan (financier)  /  1870 – Ray Stannard Baker (muckraker)  /  1894 –  Nikita Khrushchev  /  1897 – Thornton Wilder (author –  “Bridge at San Luis Ray”)  /  1918 – William Holden  (actor –  “Bridges at Toko-Ri”)  /  1937 –  Daffy Duck (first appearance – “Porky’s Duck Hunt”)  /  1972 – Jennifer Garner (actress –  “Alias”) 

–  1790 –  Ben Franklin dies at age 84

–  1847 –  first major battle of the Mexican War –  Battle of Cerro Gordo

–  1941 –  Office of Price Administration starts

–  1947 –  Jackie Robinson bunts for his first hit

–  1961 –  Bay of Pigs Invasion

–  1967 –  last episode of “Gilligan’s Island” airs

–  1969 –  Sirhan Sirhan convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy

–  1970 –  Apollo 13 returns to Earth

–  2011 –  “Game of Thrones” premieres

Quote:   “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 18

–  birthdays:  1857 –  Clarence Darrow (attorney for John Scopes)  /  1875 – Syngman Rhee  /  1963 – Conan O’Brien  /  1976 – Melissa Joan Hart (actress –  “Sabrina”) 

–  1775 –  Paul Revere begins his midnight ride

–  1861 –  Robert E. Lee turns down command of the Union Army

–  1906 –  San Francisco Earthquake

–  1942 –  Doolittle Raid

–  1956 –  actress Grace Kelly marries the Prince of Monaco

–  1964 –  Sandy Koufax becomes the first to strike out the side in 9 pitches

–  1977 –  Alex Haley wins Pulitzer Prize for “Roots”

Quote:   “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 19

–  birthdays:  1721 –  Roger Sherman (Founding Father)  /  1903 –  Eliot Ness (head of the Untouchables)  /  1969 –  Ashley Judd (actress –  “Kiss the Girls”)  /  1979 – Kate Hudson (actress – “Almost Famous”) 

–  1775 –  Lexington and Concord

–  1934 –  Shirley Temple appears in her first movie – “Stand Up and Cheer”

–  1971 –  Charles Manson sentenced to life

–  1993 –  raid on the Branch Davidian religious cult compound results in 80 deaths

–  1995 –  Oklahoma City bombing –  168 killed

Quote:   “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 20

–  birthdays:  1889 –  Adolf Hitler  /  1893 –  Harold Lloyd (silent movie comedian)  /  1923 –  Mother Angelica  (EWTN)  /  1937 – George Takei (Sulu on “Star Trek”)  /  1941 –  Ryan O’Neal (actor – “Love Story”)  /  1949 –  Jessica Lange (actress –  “Tootsie”) 

–  1841 –  the first detective story appears in a magazine –  “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allen Poe

–  1871 –  the Third Force Act (the Ku Klux Klan Act) gives Pres. Grant the power to suppress the Klan

–  1918 –  Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) shoots down his 80^th plane

–  1979 –  Pres. Carter is attacked by a rabbit while fishing

–  1999 –  Columbine massacre  –  12 students and a teacher killed

–  2010 –  Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes to start the BP oil spill

Quote:   “True friends stab you in the front.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 21

–  birthdays:  1836 – John Muir (Father of the National Parks)  /  1915 –  Anthony Quinn (actor –  “Zorba the Greek”)  /  1947 –  Iggy Pop (rock star)  /  1951 – Tony Danza (actor –  “Who’s the Boss?”)  /  1959 –  Robert Smith (singer for The Cure –  biggest hit =  “Love Song”) 

–  1878 –  first firehouse pole (NYC)

–  1895 –  first time a movie is projected on a screen

–  1918 –  the Red Baron is shot down and killed

–  1930 –  “All Quiet on the Western Front” premieres

–  1956 –  “Heartbreak Hotel” becomes Elvis’ first #1

–  1975 –  Pres. Nguyen Van Thieu resigns as S. Vietnam’s last president

–  1984 –  “Footloose” knocks “Thriller” out of #1 after 37 weeks

Quote:   “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”  –  Oscar Wilde

April 22

–  birthdays:  1870 – Lenin  /  1904 – Robert Oppenheimer (lead scientist of the Manhattan Project)  /  1936 –  Glen Campbell (country singer –  biggest hit =  “Rhinestone Cowboy”)  /  1937 – Jack Nicholson (actor – “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”)  /  1950 –  Peter Frampton (rock singer –  biggest hit = “I’m in You”) 

–  1793 –  Pres. Washington declares neutrality in the war between Great Britain and France

–  1876 –  baseball’s National League begins play

–  1914 –  Babe Ruth plays his first professional baseball game (as a pitcher)

–  1915 –  first military use of poison gas (chlorine by the Germans) – Second Battle of Ypres

–  1954 –  Joseph McCarthy begins televised hearings about communists in the Army

Quote:   The best thing about the future is it comes one day at a time.  –  Abraham Lincoln

April 23

–  birthdays:  1791 –  James Buchanan (15^th President 1857-61)  /  1813 –  Stephen Douglas (Lincoln foe) /  1928 –  Shirley Temple  /  1936 – Roy Orbison (rock singer –  “Pretty Woman”)  /  1954 –  Michael Moore (documentarian –  “Roger and Me”)  /  1960 – Valerie Bertinelli (actress –  “Hot in Cleveland”)  /  1977 – John Cena (pro wrestler / actor)  /  1977 – Kal Penn (actor – Kumar in Harold and Kumar)  /  1977 –  John Oliver (comedian –  “Last Week with John Oliver”)

–  1954 –  Hank Aaron hits the first of his 755 home runs

–  1969 –  Sirhan Sirhan convicted of murdering Robert Kennedy

–  1975 –  Pres. Ford announces the end of American involvement in Vietnam

–  1985 –  New Coke is introduced

Quote:   You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.  –  Wayne Gretzky

April 24

–  birthdays:  1905 – Robert Penn Warren (author –  “All the King’s Men”)  /  1934 – Shirley MacLaine (actress –  “Irma La Douce”)  /  1942 –  Barbra Streisand (singer –  biggest hit =  “Evergreen”)  /  1964 –  Cedric the Entertainer  /  1982 –  Kelly Clarkson (first American Idol –  biggest hit =  “Stronger”)

–  1862 –  Admiral Farragut leads a Union fleet past two forts below New Orleans

–  1888 –  George Eastman creates Eastman Kodak

–  1898 –  Dewey sails for the Philippines

–  1925 –  biology teacher John Scopes teaches a lesson on evolution which results in the Monkey Trial

Quote:   It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.  –  Harry Truman

April 25

–  birthdays:  1908 –  Edward R. Murrow (newcaster)  /  1917 –  Ella Fitzgerald (jazz singer –  biggest hit =  “Mack the Knife”)  /  1932 – Meadowlark Lemon  (Harlem Globetrotter)  /  Al Pacino (actor – “The Godfather”, “Scent of a Woman”)  /  1964 – Hank Azaria (voices on “The Simpsons”)  /  1969 –  Renee Zellwegger (actress – “Bridget Jones”)  /  1976 –  Tim Duncan  (NBA Hall of Famer) 

–  1862 –  Farragut captures New Orleans

–  1898 –  U.S. declares war on Spain

–  1928 –  first seeing-eye dog – Buddy, a German Shepherd

–  1964 –  Pres. Johnson appoints William Westmoreland commander in Vietnam

–  1980 –  attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages fails miserably

–  1990 –  space shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Telescope in orbit

Quote:   All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;  the point is to discover them.  –  Galileo

April 26

–  birthdays:  1785 – John James Audubon (bird painter)  /  1798 –  James Beckwourth (black mountainman)  /  1933 – Carol Burnett (comedienne)  /  1970 – Melania Trump  /  1980 – Channing Tatum (actor – “Magic Mike”)

–  1777 –  16-year-old Sybil Ludington rides through the night to warn local minutemen to a British attack

–  1865 –  John Wilkes Booth is shot and killed while hiding in a barn

–  1986 –  Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the Soviet Union

–  2018 –  Bill Cosby convicted of sexual assault

Quote:   It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.  –  George Washington

April 27

–  birthdays:  1791 – Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph)  /  1822 – Ulysses Grant (18^th President 1869-1877)  /  1922 – Jack Klugman (actor – “The Odd Couple”, “Quincy, M.E.”)  /  1927 –  Coretta Scott King  /  1932 – Casey Kasem (“America’s Top 40”)  /  1944 –  Cuba Gooding (actor – “Jerry McGuirre)  /  1951 –  Ace Frehley (lead guitarist for KISS)  /  1959 – Sheena Easton (singer – biggest hit =  “Morning Train”) 

–  1805 –  Marines led by William Eaton attack Tripoli

–  1865 –  the worst steamboat disaster –  the Sultana explodes and sinks on the Mississippi, killing 1,700

–  1877 –  Pres. Hayes ends Reconstruction

–  1887 –  Dr. George Thomas Morton performs the first appendectomy

–  1956 –  Rocky Marciano retires as the only undefeated heavyweight boxing champ

–  1982 –  Reagan shot by John Hinckley

Quote:   Society is produced by our wants, and government by our weaknesses.  –  Thomas Paine

April 28

–  birthdays:  1758 –  James Monroe (5^th President 1817-25)  /  1908 – Oskar Schindler  (Holocaust figure)  /  1926 –  Harper Lee (author – “To Kill a Mockingbird”)  /  1930 –  Carolyn Jones  (Morticia in “The Addams Family”)  /  1937 – Saddam Hussein  /  1941 – Ann-Margaret (actress – “Bye Bye Birdie”)  /  1950 – Jay Leno (comedian –  “The Tonight Show”)  /  1981 –  Jessica Alba (actress – “Dark Angel”)

–  1945 –  Mussolini and his mistress are executed by Italian partisans

–  1967 –  Muhammad Ali refuses to be drafted and has his boxing title stripped

Quote:   Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”  –  Henry Ford

April 29

–  birthdays:  1863 –  William Randolph Hearst (newspaper publisher)  /  1899 – Duke Ellington (band leader)  /  1901 – Hirohito  /  1933 – Willie Nelson (country singer – biggest hit =  “Always On My Mind”)  /  1951 –  Dale Earnhardt (NASCAR driver)  /  1954 –  Jerry Seinfeld  /  1957 –  Daniel Day-Lewis (actor –  “My Left Foot”, “Lincoln”)  /  1970 – Andre Agassi (tennis player)  /  1970 – Uma Thurman (actress – “Kill Bill”) 

–  1862 –  Union forces take possession of New Orleans

–  1863 –  Battle of Chancellorsville

–  1942 –  survivors of the Bataan Death March stumble into prison camp

–  1945 –  Hitler marries Eva Braun

–  1945 –  Dachau is liberated

–  1967 –  Aretha Franklin releases “RESPECT”

–  1982 –  cops who beat Rodney King are acquitted, riots begin

–  2018 –  “The Simpsons” breaks the record of “Gunsmoke” for most episodes

Quote:   What luck for the rulers that men do not think.  –  Adolf Hitler

April 30

–  birthdays:  1975 – Johnny Galecki (actor – “The Big Bang Theory”)  /  1982 –  Kirsten Dunst (actress – “Spiderman”)  /  1985 –  Gail Gadot (actress –  “Wonder Woman”) 

–  1789 –  Washington inaugurated as the first President

–  1798 –  US Navy is established

–  1803 –  Robert Livingston and James Monroe sign the Louisiana Purchase treaty

–  1904 –  first ice cream cone

–  1945 –  Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide

–  1952 –  Mister Potato Head becomes first toy advertised on TV

–  1975 –  Vietnam Memorial dedicated

–  1997 –  Ellen DeGeneres comes out of the closet

Quote:   The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  –  Ben Franklin