Recently in History Category

On May 1, 1915 the Lusitania departed New York for Liverpool despite a published warning from the German authorities that appeared in U.S. newspapers the morning of her departure.

By this time a number of British merchant ships had been sunk by German subs, but the famous liner's speed still seemed the best guarantee of safety. As the Lusitania neared the end of her crossing, a German U-boat sank three British ships in the waters south of Ireland through which she was about to sail. Yet on May 7, as the Lusitania entered the most dangerous part of her passage, Captain William Turner actually slowed down, apparently worried by patchy fog.
On May 7th, 1915 when a German U-20 submarine under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger found a huge four-stacker in its sights just south of Queenstown, Ireland, it was able to kill her with a single torpedo, penetrating the hull just below the waterline. The initial explosion set off a violent secondary blast. The ship sank in 18 minutes, with a lost of 1,195 of the 1,959 on board.

On May 6th, 1987 Mario Andretti sets the one-lap speed record at the Indianapolis 500 at 218.204 MPH.

On May 5th, 1925 John T Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee.
For 12 hot days in Dayton Tennessee two of the country's most famous lawyers, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow would argue the right to teach evolution to school children in what would become known as the Scopes "Monkey Trial". Scopes was eventually found guilty, but served no jail time. The prosecuting attorney, Bryan, would die just 5 days after the trial ended.

On May 4th, 1863 the Battle of Chancellorsville ends in defeat for the Union Army.
Chancellorsville was one of the Civil War's pivotal campaigns, it is often referred to as General Lee's greatest victory. It did, however, lead directly to the death of top Confederate general Stonewall Jackson.

On May 3rd, 1973 Chicago's Sears Tower, the world's tallest building at that time (443 meters), is completed.

The Sears Tower is 1,454 feet high, 1,808 feet including twin antenna towers. The combined weight of the building is 222,500 tons - 445,000,000 lbs. The cost of the Sears Tower building was in excess of $150 million. The Sears Tower opened in 1973 and took 3 years to build. The building has 4.5 million gross square feet of floor space. The average sway of the building is approximately 6 inches from true center. The Sears Tower has approximately 16,100 bronze-tinted windows and has 6 roof-mounted robotic window washing machines. The Sears Tower was designed for more than 12,000 occupants, approximately 25,000 people enter the building each day and approximately 1.5 million tourists visit the Skydeck each year.

On May 2nd, 1902 the 1st science fiction film, "A Trip To The Moon", is released.
It was a 14 minute masterpiece, created by imaginative French director and master magician Georges Melies (1861-1938). The silent film's plot, a light-hearted satire criticizing the conservative scientific community of its time, was inspired by Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and H. G. Wells' First Men in the Moon (1901).

On May 1st, 1883 "Buffalo Bill" Cody performs his first Wild West Show.
One of the most colorful figures of the Old West became the best known spokesman for the New West. He was born William Frederick Cody in Iowa in 1846. At 22, in Kansas, he was rechristened "Buffalo Bill". He had been a trapper, a bullwhacker, a Colorado "Fifty-Niner", Pony Express rider (1860), wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, Civil War soldier, and even hotel manager. He earned his nickname for his skill while supplying Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat.

On April 29th, 1961 ABC's Wide World Of Sports premieres.
The best things on there were the Mexican cliff diving and the Evel Kenevel motorcycle jumps.

On April 28th, 1988 an Aloha Airlines 737 roof from just behind the cockpit back to the wing blew off at 24,000 feet due to stress cracks in the fuselage. The plane made a safe landing at Maui, and suffered one dead, Clarabell Lansing who was the chief flight attendant, and 65 injured.

On April 27th, 1962 the US performs an atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island. Evacuation to off-shore ships was not considered necessary, but after two heavy explosions people became nervous and voluntary arrangements were made. Almost total for the next test, evacuation soon fell below half and only about a third of the people, including all the children, were leaving the island by the end of the series. Those still on shore went to the maneabas (public meeting houses) and waited with bowed heads and closed eyes for the countdown, for "flash" was still the danger. They were then free to go outside and see for the first time the boiling flames of the "mushroom" cloud and experience the delayed shock waves and the roar of the explosion.

On April 26th, 1986, the world's worst nuclear power plant accident occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union. Thirty-two people died and dozens more suffered radiation burns in the opening days of the crisis, but only after Swedish authorities reported the fallout did Soviet authorities reluctantly admit that an accident had occurred.
The radiation that escaped into the atmosphere, which was several times that produced by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was spread by the wind over Northern and Eastern Europe, contaminating millions of acres of forest and farmland. An estimated 5,000 Soviet citizens eventually died from cancer and other radiation-induced illnesses caused by their exposure to the Chernobyl radiation, and millions more had their health adversely affected. In 2000, the last working reactors at Chernobyl were shut down and the plant was officially closed.

Happy Birthday to the Godfather. Al Pacino, born on this day in 1940, becomes eligible to receive social security..... unless actors have some other arrangement like the post office or the congressmen who get like 98% of their salary for the rest of their miserable lives.

On April 23rd 1969 Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for killing U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life in prison.

On April 22nd, 1991 Frank Thomas is the 1st Chicago White Sox to homer at new Comiskey Park, now unfortunately known as U.S. Cellular Field or just "The Cell".

Oh! Did I mention the White Sox are in FIRST PLACE and are 12-4!!!!!

On April 21st, 1836 Texas wins its independence from Mexico in the
Battle of San Jacinto.

More than 80 Branch Davidians burn to death in Waco, Texas as Janet Reno and the ATF attempt a disastrous final assault on the compound. This propelled David Koresh into the ranks of other cult icon like Charles Manson & Jim Jones.

I felt I needed to make up for the erroneous death announcement of Alfred Hitchcock in the first This Day In History posting today, so here's a bonus posting...

On April 19th, 1955 Volkswagen of America, Inc. was established in Engelwood, New Jersey, as a sales division for the German car company. 1955 was a banner year for Volkswagen as the company produced its 1,000,000th car and exceeded, for the first time, the production benchmark of 1,000 cars per day on average.

By the mid-1960s, the VW Bug had almost single-handedly ended the years of "virtual monopoly" that Detroit manufacturers had previously enjoyed.

I was just thinking about it and I don't think I have ever been inside a WW bug...... probably has something to do with my morbid obesity.

On April 19th, 1980 famed motion picture director Alfred Hitchcock dies of anal failure at age 80.
What kind of incredible coincidence is that? The guy is 80 years old and he dies in 1980. That wuold be like if I was 45 and died in 1945. It's like when Lou Gherig caught Lou Gehrig's disease..... what were the chances of that?

On April 18th, 1964 Sandy Koufax becomes the first pitcher in history to strike out the side on 9 pitches.

Koufax's final two seasons were his most dominating (26 wins in 1965, 27 in 1966), but he was in agony, relying on frequent cortisone shots and painkillers to enable him to get through games. His pain had little effect on his ability. Hitting Koufax, Pirates slugger Willie Stargell memorably said, was like trying to drink coffee with a fork.

Koufax had only two pitches, his overwhelming fastball and a devastating curveball. By his windup, he would often tip off which pitch was coming, but it didn't matter. "I knew what was coming," Willie Mays said, "and I still couldn't hit it."

On April 15, 1999 Dutch airlines KLM issued an apology for destroying 400 squirrels at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. The squirrels did not have importation papers, and were euthanized. People fighting for the rights of squirrels forced KLM's apology.

On April 15th, 1892 General Electric Company forms & is incorporated in New York.
Here's some GE trivia for ya..... They own NBC, if you didn't know that and if you're old enough you'll remember when they showed the NBC logo on TV they would play these 3 notes.... ding, ding, diiiing. Well, those musical notes were G-E-C for General Electric Company.
I worked for these bastards for a couple of years..... I'll never forget Neutron Jack's comment on layoffs..... "You can never cut too deep."

  

On April 14th, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.
Booth suffers a broken leg in his escape. He is tracked for over a week and finally cornered in a barn in Virginia where he refuses to surrender and he is shot and killed on April 26th.
Lincoln was taken across the street to the Peterson house where he died the next morning.

In one of Chicago's strangest accidents, a piling driven into the Chicago River bottom caused a leak in one of Chicago's underground freight tunnels. The resulting inrush of water spread throughout much of the system's 50 miles of tunnels, flooding subbasements and disrupting utility service throughout the Loop. No significant injuries were reported, and due to the subterranean nature of the accident, spectators had little to see. Prompt response by government agencies emptied the tunnels of water and restored utility service.

The freight tunnels are unique to Chicago. In 1899 under the guise of constructing a telephone system, developers semi-clandestinely began digging tunnels connecting any and all Loop office buildings they thought might be in the market for direct freight service. A two foot gauge mine type electric railway was laid in the tunnels. Connections were made to the major railroad and port facilities. Ultimately the system was extended to completely cover every block in the greater Loop area. After a series of financial setbacks the system was formally abandoned in 1959.

via: CPL Chicago: 1992, April 13: Freight Tunnel Flood

On April 13th, 1992 Pepsi begins test marketing in Providence, Denver & Dallas of their new soft drink, Crystal Pepsi.
How it ever made it out the test markets is beyond me. I had some of this crap and immediately predicted it would fail. One of the few things I've been right about.

On April 12, 1960 Bill Veeck & Chicago's White Sox Comiskey Park debut the "Exploding Scoreboard".