This Week in History: April 7 – April 13
Monday
0030 – Scholars’ reckon Jesus was crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem
1798 – Mississippi Territory organized
1923 – 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney
1943 – Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg
1953 – 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
1966 – US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor (whoops!)
1983 – Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt
Tuesday
1766 – 1st fire escape patented, wicker basket on a pulley & chain
1865 – General Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
1879 – Milk was sold in glass bottles for 1st time
1913 – 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified
1952 – Pres Truman seizes steel mills to avert a strike
1968 – Baseball’s Opening Day is postponed because of M L King assassination
1986 – Clint Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel California, Make his day
1991 – Oakland A’s stadium becomes 1st outdoor arena to ban smoking
Wednesday
1770 – Capt James Cook discovers Botany Bay (Australia)
1833 – 1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough, NH)
1869 – Hudson Bay Company cedes it’s territory to Canada
1912 – Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for NY
1940 – Germany invades Norway & Denmark during WW II (Denmark surrenders)
1959 – NASA names 1st 7 astronauts for Project Mercury
1963 – Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen (posthumously)
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr, buried in Atlanta
1989 – Wash DC march supporting 1973 Roe vs Wade decision (allow abortions)
1991 – Date of Microsoft MS DOS 5.0
Thursday
1790 – Robert Gray is 1st American to circumnavigate the Earth
1841 – NY “Tribune” begins publishing under editor Horace Greeley
1872 – 1st National black convention meets in New Orleans
1887 – President Abraham Lincoln’s re-buried with his wife in Springfield Il
1923 – Hitler demands “hatred & more hatred” in Berlin
1945 – US troops liberate Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany
1955 – Ruth Ellis shoots jilting lover David Blakely
1971 – US table tennis team arrives in China PR
1989 – Intel corp announces shipment of 80-486 chip
1995 – NYC bans smoking in all restaurants that seat 35 or more
Friday
1890 – Ellis Island designated as an immigration station
1899 – Treaty of Paris ratifies ends war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US
1941 – Germany blitzes Conventry, England
1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes 1st black in modern major-league baseball
1956 – Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater by whites
1968 – Pres Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act
1974 – WW II war criminal JP Philippa arrested
1981 – Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him
1984 – Challenger astronauts complete 1st in space satellite repair
1991 – UN Security Council issues formal cease fire with Iraq declaration
Saturday
1787 – Philadelphia’s Free African Society forms
1811 – 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, WA
1861 – Fort Sumter, SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting Civil War
1869 – North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan Law
1908 – Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea Massachusetts
1933 – Moffatt Field commissioned
1938 – US began requiring medical tests for marriage licenses
1945 – Harry Truman sworn in as 33rd pres
1957 – USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1963 – Birmingham police use dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators
1983 – Harold Washington becomes Chicago’s 1st black mayor
1988 – Harvard U patents genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
1990 – 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust & asks for forgivenesss
Sunday
1742 – George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” performed for 1st time (Dublin)
1860 – 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento Calif
1865 – Sherman’s march through Georgia begin
1904 – Congress authorizes Lewis & Clark Expo $1 gold coin
1933 – 1st flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)
1934 – 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
1945 – US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa
1954 – Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist
1961 – UN General Assembly condemns South-Africa’s apartheid
1970 – Apollo 13 announces “Houston, we’ve got a problem!” as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
1992 – Great Chicago Flood – Chicago’s underground tunnels flood
