"The Charbor Chronicles"

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Weekend Humor - Cognitive Test: Doctor or Jesus?

This was something which I saw floating around on Facebook for the past few days. It also has everything to do with Trump claiming that the picture of him as Jesus is not actually what we are seeing. He thought that it was a picture of him as Jesus, which it clearly seems that is. Apparently, he thought it was a picture of him as a doctor. Because, you know, all doctors wear robes similar to the ones worn by Jesus in many paintings, and all doctors have golden light emanating from their healing hands.

What a joke.

Anyway this gave me a good laugh. Maybe it might do the same for you.

Enjoy.

Bill Beecher Facebook April 14, 2026:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=27266436106282022&set=a.450396384979358

Facebook

April 18th: This Day in History

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

310 - St Eusebius begins his reign as Catholic Pope

387 - Bishop Ambrosius of Milan baptizes Augustinus

1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.

1506 - The cornerstone of the present day St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City was laid.

1521 - Cardinal Alexander questions Martin Luther, after Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that ultimately would lead to his excommunication.

1663 - Osman declares war on Austria

1676 - Natives attacked Sudbury, Massachusetts.

1775 - Paul Revere rides from Charlestown to Lexington and warns the locals of the arrival of British troops, preparing them for what would be the true opening battle of the American Revolution, with the "shot hear around the world".

1838 - Wilkes and his group began their expedition to the South Pole.

1847 - American troops defeated almost 17,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo during the Mexican-American War.

1853 - The first ever train to run in Asia, from Bombay to Tanna.

1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies for the upcoming war between the states, and he would eventually become the most prominent military leader for the Confederate cause.

1861 - The Battle of Harper's Ferry, in what was then Virginia, but would shortly be a part of West Virginia, when it seceded from Virginia, after Virginia seceded from the Union. Whew! Say that three times fast!

1897 - John J. McDermott, of New York, won the first Boston Marathon with a time of 2:55:10.

1902 - Denmark became the first nation to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals

1906 - A huge earthquake registering 8.25 ion the richter scale in San Francisco destroyed over 4 square miles, more than three quarters of the city, and killed more than 500.

1923 - The first game was played in the old Yankee Stadium (“the House that Ruth built”). The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 4–1

1937 - Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1942 - France's collaborationist Vichy government capitulated to Adolf Hitler and invited Pierre Laval to form a new government.

1946 - League of Nations was dissolved.

1949 - The Republic of Ireland was established.

1955 - Albert Einstein died.

1956 - Egypt & Israel agree to a cease fire

1968 - London Bridge was sold to an American, and it was eventually relocated and rebuilt in Arizona.

1978 - The U.S. Senate voted to hand over the Panama Canal to Panamanian control, scheduled for December 31, 1999.

1989 - Protests by students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square continue.

1999 - Wayne Gretzky played his final game in the NHL for the New York Rangers. He retired as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records.

Below is the list of the websites used to compile this list:

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/April-18

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.historyorb.com/day/april/18

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr18.htm

Revised

On this day in 310, St Eusebius started his reign as the Catholic Pope. In 387 on this day, Bishop Ambrosius of Milan baptized Augustinus. Bolesław Chrobry was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland on this day in 1025. In 1521 on this day, Martin Luther became defiant while being interrogated by Cardinal Alexander at the Diet of Worms. Luther, the chief catalyst of Protestantism, defied the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by refusing to recant his writings. On this day in 1775, Paul Revere & William Dawes rode from Charleston to Lexington to warn locals that the British "regulars are coming!" It came to be known as the legendary "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." General George Washington issued General Orders to the Continental Army announcing the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain on this day in 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War of Independence. It came eight years to the day after hostilities had begun. Charles Darwin sailed to Rio Santa Cruz up Patagonia on the HMS Beagle on this day in 1834. The Battle of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) took place on this day in 1861, during the early phase of the American Civil War. Confederate General Johnson surrendered to Union General Sherman in North Carolina on this day in 1865 during the American Civil War. In 1874 on this day, British explorer of African David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey, London. On this day in 1906, there was a major earthquake in San Francisco which hit at 5:13 a.m., and reached 8.0 on the Richter scale. Hundreds of people were killed, and there was considerable structural damage in the city. On this day in 1915 during the Great War (World War I), Germans shot down French pilot Roland Garros. He nevertheless managed to glide the plane down on the German side of the lines. On this day in 1946, the League of Nations dissolved three months after the United Nations officially began operations. On this day in 1961, American President John F. Kennedy sent a letter responding to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's claim that the U.S. was engaging in armed aggression against the communist regime in Cuba. Kennedy denied the allegations, told Kruschev he was under a serious misapprehension and stated that the U.S. intended no military intervention in Cuba. In 1969 on this day, American President Richard Nixon stated during a news conference that he felt that the prospects for peace in Vietnam were improving, claiming that chances to end the conflict in Southeast Asia had "significantly improved" since he took office. On this day in 1980, the Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) was proclaimed at a ceremony in the capital city then known as Salisbury (now known as Harare), during which time Robert Mugabe was sworn in as Prime Minister. On this day in 1983, a suicide car bomb explosion destroyed the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, and killing 63 people, including the suicide bomber and 17 Americans. The terrorist attack was carried out in protest of the U.S. military presence in Lebanon. Thousands of Chinese students continued to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and called for greater democracy in the communist People's Republic of China (PRC) on this day in 1989. The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples began burning works of art after cultural institution budget cuts on this day in 2012. In 2013 on this day, 27 people were killed and 65 injured in a cafe bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Two earth-like planets were discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62 on this day in 2013.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 310, St Eusebius started his reign as the Catholic Pope.

• In 387 on this day, Bishop Ambrosius of Milan baptized Augustinus.

• Bolesław Chrobry was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland on this day in 1025.

1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.

German Priest & Theologian Martin Luther

• In 1521 on this day, Martin Luther became defiant while being interrogated by Cardinal Alexander at the Diet of Worms. Luther, the chief catalyst of Protestantism, defied the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by refusing to recant his writings. He had been called to Worms, Germany, to appear before the Diet (assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire and answer charges of heresy. Martin Luther was a professor of biblical interpretation at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. In 1517, he drew up his 95 theses condemning the Catholic Church for its corrupt practice of selling "indulgences," or forgiveness of sins. Luther followed up the revolutionary work with equally controversial and groundbreaking theological works, and his fiery words set off religious reformers across Europe. In 1521, the pope excommunicated him, and he was called to appear before the emperor at the Diet of Worms to defend his beliefs. Refusing to recant or rescind his positions, Luther was declared an outlaw and a heretic. Powerful German princes protected him, however, and by his death in 1546 his ideas had significantly altered the course of Western thought.

1552 - Mauritius of Saksen occupies Linz

1663 - Osman declares war on Austria

1666 - Peace of Kleef: Netherlands & bishop Von Galen of Munster

1676 - Sudbury, Mass attacked by Indians

1738 - Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") founded in Madrid.

• On this day in 1775, Paul Revere & William Dawes rode from Charleston to Lexington to warn locals that the British "regulars are coming!" It came to be known as the legendary "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." British troops marched out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen. By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington. The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British. Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a lady friend. Early on the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington. About 5 a.m. on April 19, 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded; only one British soldier was injured. The American Revolution had begun.

Equestrian statue of George Washington near his headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey.

• General George Washington issued General Orders to the Continental Army announcing the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain on this day in 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War of Independence. It came eight years to the day after hostilities had begun.

1797 - France & Austria signs cease fire

1809 - 1st run of 2,000 guineas horse race at Newmarket England

British Botanist Charles Darwin

• Charles Darwin sailed to Rio Santa Cruz up Patagonia on the HMS Beagle on this day in 1834.

1835 - William Lamb (Lord Melbourne) forms British government

1838 - Wilkes' expedition to South Pole sails

1848 - American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.

1853 - 1st train in Asia (Bombay to Tanna, 36 km)

1856 - Russian Republic Chancellor Earl von Nesselrode resigns

• The Battle of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) took place on this day in 1861, during the early phase of the American Civil War.

1861 - Col Robert E. Lee turns down offer to command Union armies

1862 - Battle of Ft Jackson, Ft St Philip & New Orlean's, LA

1864 - Battle of Poison Springs, AR (Camden Expedition)

• Confederate General Johnson surrendered to Union General Sherman in North Carolina on this day in 1865 during the American Civil War.

1868 - San Francisco Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed

1869 - 1st international cricket match, held in SF, wins by Californian

• In 1874 on this day, British explorer of African David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey, London.

1876 - Daniel O'Leary completes a 500 mile walk in 139 hrs 32 min

1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.

1879 - Trial of Standing Bear-Crook on indians citizen rights begins

1880 - An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.

1881 - Natural History Museum opens in South Kensington, England

1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.

Frontier Outlaw Billy the KidFrontier Outlaw Billy the Kid 1890 - NY Commission of Emigration ends, closing Castle Clinton

1899 - John McGraw, at 36, managerial debut as Oriole manager

1899 - The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

1902 - Denmark is 1st country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals

1904 - L'Humanité, under Jean Jaurès begins publishing

1906 - 8.25 earthquake shakes SF Calif

1906 - Calvinist Reformed Union in Neth Church forms in Utrecht

• On this day in 1906, there was a major earthquake in San Francisco which hit at 5:13 a.m., and reached 8.0 on the Richter scale. Hundreds of people were killed, and there was considerable structural damage in the city. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles. San Francisco's brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and--because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping them--firestorms soon developed citywide. At 7 a.m., U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason reported to the Hall of Justice, and San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called for the enforcement of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and authorized soldiers to shoot-to-kill anyone found looting. Meanwhile, in the face of significant aftershocks, firefighters and U.S. troops fought desperately to control the ongoing fire, often dynamiting whole city blocks to create firewalls. On April 20, 20,000 refugees trapped by the massive fire were evacuated from the foot of Van Ness Avenue onto the USS Chicago. By April 23, most fires were extinguished, and authorities commenced the task of rebuilding the devastated metropolis. It was estimated that some 3,000 people died as a result of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and the devastating fires it inflicted upon the city. Almost 30,000 buildings were destroyed, including most of the city's homes and nearly all the central business district.

1906 - The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

1907 - Augustus Thomas' "Witching Hour" premieres in NYC

1907 - Fairmont Hotel opens

1908 - Tommy Burns KOs Jewy Smith in 5 for heavyweight boxing title

1912 - The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

• On this day in 1915 during the Great War (World War I), Germans shot down French pilot Roland Garros. He nevertheless managed to glide the plane down on the German side of the lines. On this day in 1915, a member of the German Bahnschutzwache, or Railway Protection Guard, shoots down the well-known French airman Roland Garros in his flight over German positions in Flanders, France, on a bombing raid. Garros, born in 1882, gained renown early in his career as an experienced practitioner of aerial acrobatics, the first French pilot to fly across the Mediterranean Sea and a two-time winner of both the Paris-Madrid and Paris-Rome flying races. In 1914, while working as a test pilot for Morane-Saulnier, an aircraft manufacturer, Garros set the then-world record for the highest flight: 4,250 meters. When war broke out in Europe that same year, he was sent to serve with the French air service, L'Aviation Militaire, on the Western Front. At the end of 1914, Garros took leave from his regiment and returned to the Morane-Saulnier factory to work with Raymond Saulnier to test a recently developed device that enabled a pilot to fire bullets from a machine-gun through the blades of the propeller of his plane. The device, employed successfully by Garros in the early spring of 1915, allowed him to approach his enemies head-on in the air, giving him a vast advantage. Garros shot down his first German victim, an Albatross reconnaissance aircraft, on April 1, 1915; in the next two weeks, he downed four more. Garros' run ended on April 18, however, when he was flying his single-seater plane, a Morane-Saulnier Type L, low in the skies above the German positions in Flanders. A member of the German Bahnschutzwache described the events of that day: At that moment we saw a southbound train approaching on the railway line Ingelmunster-Kortrijk. Suddenly the plane went into a steep diveHe flew over the train in a loop and as he rose up into the sky again with his wings almost vertical, he threw a bomb at the train. Fortunately it missed the target and there was no damage.As the plane had swooped down over the train the Bahnschutzwache troops had fired on it following my order to open fire. We shot at him from a distance of only 100 metres as he flew past. After he had thrown his bomb at the train he tried to escape, switching his engine on again and climbing to about 700 metres through the shots fired by our troops. But suddenly the plane began to sway about in the sky, the engine fell silent, and the pilot began to glide the plane down in the direction of Hulste. A German bullet had apparently hit the gas pipe on Garros' plane, forcing him to land. Although the daring airman attempted to set the plane on fire and escape on foot once he hit the ground, both he and the plane were captured by the Germans. Garros later managed to escape from captivity and rejoin L'Aviation Militaire. Killed in battle at Vouziers on October 5, 1918, he is remembered as one of France's most celebrated war heroes; the famous tennis stadium in Paris bears his name. The propeller of Garros' Morane-Saulnier plane and its innovative machine-gun firing device were sent immediately after his capture in April 1915 to the Fokker aircraft factory in Germany. A few weeks later, the first Fokker EI—a single-seater airplane fitted with machine guns, deflectors and interrupter gear that could synchronize the rate of fire of the gun with the speed of the propeller—was sent to German forces on the Western Front. From mid-1915 until mid-1916, the Fokker E-types of the German Air Force were the menace of the skies, shooting down a total of over 1,000 Allied aircraft.

1918 - Cleveland center fielder Tris Speaker turns an unassisted double play

1921 - Junior Achievement incorporated in Colorado Spring

1921 - Philip James Barry's "Punch for Judy" premieres in NYC

1922 - Netherlands soccer team defeats Denmark 2-0

1923 - 74,000 (62,281 paid) on hand for opening of Yankee Stadium

1923 - Poland annexes Central Lithuania

1924 - 1st crossword puzzle book published (Simon & Schuster)

1925 - World's Fair opens in Chicago

1926 - Rhein Stadium opens in Dusseldorf Germany

1927 - Chiang Kai-Shek forms anti-government in China

1929 - Palace for People's industry in Amsterdam devastated by fire

1934 - 1st "Washateria" (laundromat) opens (Fort Worth, Tx)

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1934 - Hitler names J von Ribbentrop, ambassador for disarmament

1935 - Gen Sarazen's double eagle on 15th, wins him his 2nd Masters

1935 - Netherlands election (Musserts NSB wins 8% of vote)

1936 - Pan-Am Clipper begins regular passenger flights from San Francisco to Honolulu

1938 - Headless Mad Butcher victim found in Cleveland

1938 - Superman, the world's first super hero, appeared in the first issue of Action Comics. The cover date was June 1938.

1939 - Franz von Papen becomes German ambassador in Turkey

1939 - Hubert Pierlot forms Belgian government

1942 - "Stars & Stripes" paper for US armed forces starts

1942 - James H Doolittle bombs Tokyo & other Japanese cities

1942 - Stanley Cup: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit Red Wings, 4 games to 3

1944 - 48th Boston Marathon won by Gerard Cote of Canada in 2:31:50.4

1944 - Leonard Bernstein & Jerome Robbins' ballet premieres in NYC

1945 - 1 armed outfielder, St L Brown Pete Gray, 1st game he goes 1 for 4

1945 - Epe freed (by corporal G van Aken)

1945 - Clandestine Radio 1212, after broadcasting pro-nazi propoganda for months used their influence to trap 350,000 German army group B troops

1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.

1946 - "Call Me Mister" opens at National Theater NYC for 734 performances

Baseball Player Jackie RobinsonBaseball Player Jackie Robinson 1946 - Jackie Robinson debuts as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals

Flag of the United Nations

• On this day in 1946, the League of Nations dissolved three months after the United Nations officially began operations.

1946 - Rome/Auerbach/Horwitt's musical "Call Me Mister" premieres in NYC

1946 - US recognizes Tito's Yugoslavia government

1948 - International Court of Justice opens at Hague Netherlands

1949 - Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth

1950 - 1st opening night-game, Cards beat Pirates, 4-2

1950 - 1st transatlantic jet passenger trip

1950 - Polish Catholic church & government sign accord over relations

1950 - Sam Jethroe is 1st black to play for Boston Braves

1950 - Yankees win 15-10 after trailing Red Sox 9-0 in 6th

1951 - "Make a Wish" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 102 performances

1951 - Dutch Antilles government of Da Costa Gomez forms

1951 - France, West Germany & Benelux form European Steel & Coal Community

1951 - NY Yankee Mickey Mantle goes 1-for-4 in his 1st game

1953 - "Pal Joey" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 542 performances

1954 - Colonel Nasser seizes power & becomes PM of Egypt

1954 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Babe Didrikson-Zaharias Golf Open

1955 - "Ankles Aweigh" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 176 perfs

1955 - 1st "Walk"/"Don't Walk" lighted street signals installed

1955 - 1st Bandoeng Conference - Afro-Asian conference opens

1956 - Egypt & Israel agree to a cease fire

1958 - Government troops reconquer Padang, Middle-Sumatra Indonesia

1958 - NL single-game record of 78,682, Giants lose to Dogers 6-5, in LA

Poet Ezra PoundPoet Ezra Pound 1958 - A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.

1959 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 games to 1

1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

• On this day in 1961, American President John F. Kennedy sent a letter responding to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's claim that the U.S. was engaging in armed aggression against the communist regime in Cuba. Kennedy denied the allegations, told Kruschev he was under a serious misapprehension and stated that the U.S. intended no military intervention in Cuba. However, Kennedy insisted that he would support Cubans who wish to see a democratic system in an independent Cuba and that the U.S. would take no action to stifle the spirit of liberty. In fact, the night before Kennedy wrote this letter, approximately 1,200 Cuban exiles, supplied and trained by the CIA, landed in Cuba's Bay of Pigs with plans to overthrow Castro. Kennedy was fully aware that the invasion was underway; he had authorized it three days earlier. CIA documents released in 2000 indicated that Kruschev had also learned of the plans for a CIA-led invasion well in advance and had passed the information on to Castro via the KGB, Russia's secret police. Early on April 18, Kruschev sent a letter to Kennedy warning the president to stop the little war against Cuba or risk an incomparable conflagration with the Soviet Union. Privately, Kennedy dismissed as hypocritical a lecture on intervention coming from a Soviet leader who had supported communist-led coups in Europe and Asia. In his official response, Kennedy warned Khrushchev not to use the U.S.'s support for Cuban rebels as an excuse to inflame other areas of the world and told the Soviet Union to stay out of the Western Hemisphere's internal affairs. The Bay of Pigs invasion quickly fell apart when it became apparent that the CIA had gravely miscalculated the willingness of Cuba's military to join the exiles in a coup. Castro's forces quickly put down the rebellion, killing approximately 200 of the exiles and capturing the rest, except for a few who managed to escape and report back to the CIA. On April 24, 1961, Kennedy accepted sole responsibility for the botched invasion. The Bay of Pigs failure did not stop Kennedy from supporting subsequent covert plans to overthrow Castro.

1962 - 16th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 3

1963 - "Sophie" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 8 performances

1963 - Dr James Campbell performed the 1st human nerve transplant

1963 - Stanley Cup: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit Red Wings, 4 games to 1

1964 - "Cafe Crown" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 3 performances

1964 - "Foxy" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 72 performances

1964 - Artisans strike in Belgium ends

1964 - Sandy Koufax is 1st to strike out the side on 9 pitches

1964 - Van Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr Sloane"

1966 - Bill Russell became 1st black coach in NBA history (Boston Celtics)

1968 - 178,000 employees of US Bell Telephone System go on strike

1968 - 1st ABA basketball championship began

Basketball Player Bill RussellBasketball Player Bill Russell 1968 - Dutch Department of Amnesty International forms

1968 - London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona)

1968 - Mart Crowley's "Boys in the Band" premieres in NYC

1968 - Peter Luke's "Hadrian VII" premieres in London

1968 - San Francisco's Old Hall of Justice demolished

1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1969 - Melina Mercouri establishes Greek Aid Fund

• In 1969 on this day, American President Richard Nixon stated during a news conference that he felt that the prospects for peace in Vietnam were improving, claiming that chances to end the conflict in Southeast Asia had "significantly improved" since he took office. He cited the greater political stability of the Saigon government and the improvement in the South Vietnamese armed forces as proof. With these remarks, Nixon was trying to set the stage for a major announcement he would make at the Midway conference in June. While conferring with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, Nixon announced that the United States would be pursuing a three-pronged strategy to end the war. Efforts would be increased to improve the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that they could assume responsibility for the war against the North Vietnamese—Nixon described this effort as "Vietnamization." As the South Vietnamese became more capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from South Vietnam. At the same time, U.S. negotiators would continue to try to reach a negotiated settlement to the war with the communists at the Paris peace talks. This announcement represented a significant change in the nature of the U.S. commitment to the war, as the United States would be withdrawing troops from the war for the first time. The first U.S. soldiers were withdrawn in the fall of 1969 and the withdrawals continued periodically through 1972. At the same time, the United States increased the advisory effort and provided massive amounts of new equipment and weapons to the South Vietnamese as well. When the North Vietnamese launched a massive invasion in the spring of 1972, the South Vietnamese wavered, but eventually rallied with U.S. support and prevailed over the North Vietnamese. Nixon proclaimed that the South Vietnamese victory validated his strategy. In fact, a peace agreement was finalized in January 1973, but the fighting continued anyway. The U.S. did not deliver the aid it had promised in the case of continued attacks—the South Vietnamese held out for two years but they succumbed to the North Vietnamese in April 1975.

1971 - Gavaskar makes 220 in 2nd inning v WI after 124 in 1st

1971 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Raleigh Golf Classic

1972 - "Lost in the Stars" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 39 performances

1974 - Red Brigade kidnaps Italian attorney general Mario Sossi

1975 - John Lennon releases "Stand by Me"

1976 - 30th Tony Awards: Travesties & Chorus Line win

1976 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA Karsten- Ping Golf Open

1977 - "Side by Side" by Stephen Sondheim opens at Music Box NYC for 390 perfs

Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John Lennon 1977 - 6th Boston Women's Marathon won by Miki Gorman of California in 2:48:33

1977 - 81st Boston Marathon won by Jerome Drayton of Canada in 2:14:46

1977 - Alex Haley, author of "Roots", awarded Pulitzer Prize

1977 - Eddie Murray hits his 1st HR

1977 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Michael Cristofer for "Shadow Box"

1978 - Senate votes to turn Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec 31, 1999

1979 - "Real People" premieres on NBC TV

1979 - Major Haddad declares South-Lebanon independent

Flag of Zimbabwe

• On this day in 1980, the Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) was proclaimed at a ceremony in the capital city then known as Salisbury (now known as Harare), during which time Robert Mugabe was sworn in as Prime Minister.

1981 - Pawtucket & Rochester start a 33-inning baseball game

1982 - Atlanta Braves win record 11th straight opening game (beat Astros)

🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁

1982 - Canada Constitution Act replaces British North America Act

1982 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA CPC Women's Golf International

1982 - Zimbabwe capital Salisbury renamed Harare

1983 - 12th Boston Women's Marathon won by Joan Benoit Samuelson in 2:22:43

Writer Alex HaleyWriter Alex Haley 1983 - 87th Boston Marathon won by Greg Meyer of Mass in 2:09:00

1983 - A lone suicide bomber kills 63, at US Embassy in Lebanon

• On this day in 1983, a suicide car bomb explosion destroyed the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, and killing 63 people, including the suicide bomber and 17 Americans. The terrorist attack was carried out in protest of the U.S. military presence in Lebanon. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups. During the next few years, Syrian, Israeli, and United Nations interventions failed to resolve the factional fighting, and on August 20, 1982, a multinational force featuring U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. The Marines left Lebanese territory on September 10 but returned on September 29, following the massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Christian militia. The next day, the first U.S. Marine to die during the mission was killed while defusing a bomb, and on April 18, 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut was bombed. On October 23, Lebanese terrorists evaded security measures and drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. Fifty-eight French soldiers were killed almost simultaneously in a separate suicide terrorist attack. On February 7, 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the end of U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force, and on February 26 the last U.S. Marines left Beirut.

1983 - KMO-AM in Tacoma Wash changes call letters to KAMT (now KKMO)

1983 - Pulitzer Prize awarded to Alice Walker for "The Color Purple"

1983 - Rangers 3-Isles 1-Patrick Div Finals-Series tied at 2-2

1984 - Challenger flies back to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB

1984 - Joan Benoit runs world record female marathon (2:22:43)

1985 - Flyers 3-Isles 0-Patrick Div Finals-Flyers hold 1-0 lead

1986 - Robert M Gates, becomes deputy director of CIA

1986 - Titan rocket explodes seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg AFB

1987 - An unconscious skydiver is rescued by another diver in mid-air

1987 - Bob Land wins his 6th straight Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race

1987 - Mike Schmidt hits 500th home run (vs Robinson-Pirates)

1987 - Pat Knauff, France sets 1-leg downhill ski speed record (115.012 mph)

1988 - 17th Boston Women's Marathon won by Rosa Mota of Portugal in 2:24:30

Novelist Alice WalkerNovelist Alice Walker 1988 - 92nd Boston Marathon won by Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya in 2:08:43

1988 - Barbra Streisand records "Warm All Over"

The flag of the People's Republic of China

• Thousands of Chinese students continued to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and called for greater democracy in the communist People's Republic of China (PRC) on this day in 1989. The protests grew until the Chinese government ruthlessly suppressed them in June during what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. During the mid-1980s, the communist government of the PRC had been slowly edging toward a liberalization of the nation's strict state-controlled economy, in an attempt to attract more foreign investment and increase the nation's foreign trade. This action sparked a call among many Chinese citizens, including many students, for reform of the country's communist-dominated political system. By early 1989, peaceful protests against the government began in some of China's largest cities. The biggest protest was held on April 18 in the capital city of Beijing. Marching through Tiananmen Square in the center of the city, thousands of students carried banners, chanted slogans, and sang songs calling for a more democratic political atmosphere. The government's response to the demonstrations became progressively harsher. Government officials who showed any sympathy to the protesters were purged. Several of the demonstration leaders were arrested, and a propaganda campaign was directed at the marching students, declaring that they sought to "create chaos under the heavens." On June 3, 1989, with the protests growing larger every day and foreign journalists capturing the dramatic events on film, the Chinese army was directed to crush the movement. An unknown number of Chinese protesters were killed (estimates range into the thousands) during what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In the United States, the protests attracted widespread attention. Many Americans assumed that China, like the Soviet Union and the communist nations of Eastern Europe, had been moving toward a free market and political democracy. The brutal government repression of the protests shocked the American public. The U.S. government temporarily suspended arms sales to China and imposed a few economic sanctions, but the actions were largely symbolic. Growing U.S. trade and investment in China and the fear that a severe U.S. reaction to the massacre might result in a diplomatic rupture limited the official U.S. response.

1990 - Bankruptcy court forces Frank Lorenzo to give up Eastern Airlines

1990 - Birmingham Fire issued an original franchise in WLAF

1990 - Supreme Court rules states could make it a crime to possess or look at child pornography, even in one's home

1991 - Census Bureau said it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census

1991 - Congress ends railroad worker 1 day strike

1991 - John Stockton breaks his own NBA season assist record at 1,136

1992 - Start of South Africa's 1st Test Cricket since 1970 (v WI Bridgetown)

1993 - "Ain't Broadway Grand" opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC for 25 perfs

1993 - 54th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Tom Wargo

1993 - David Lee Roth arrested in NYC for purchasing marijuana for $10

1993 - Trish Johnson wins LPGA Atlanta Women's Golf Championship

1994 - "Beauty & the Beast" opens at Palace Theater NYC

Van Halen Rocker David Lee RothVan Halen Rocker David Lee Roth 1994 - 23rd Boston Women's Marathon won by Uta Pippig of Germany in 2:21:45

1994 - 98th Boston Marathon won by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 2:07:15

1994 - Arsenio Hall announces he will end his show in May 1994

1994 - Brian Lara scores 375 for WI vs England to beat Sobers' record

1994 - Cricketer Brian Lara hits 375 runs on 1 day (world record)

1994 - Former President Nixon suffered a stroke & dies 4 days later

1994 - Lebanon drops relations with Iran

1994 - STS-59 (Endeavour) lands [approx]

1995 - Houston Post folds after 116 years

1995 - Quarterback Joe Montana announces his retirement from football

1996 - "Funny Thing Happened" opens at St James Theater NYC for 715 perfs

1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces accidentally shell the UN compound at Quana.

2007 - The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.

• The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples began burning works of art after cultural institution budget cuts on this day in 2012.

• In 2013 on this day, 27 people were killed and 65 injured in a cafe bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.

• Two earth-like planets were discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62 on this day in 2013.

1521 - Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that led to his excommunication. 1676 - Sudbury, Massachusetts, was attacked by Indians. 1775 - American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that "the Regulars are coming out." Later, the phrase "the British are coming" was attributed to Revere. 1791 - National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris. 1818 - A regiment of Indians and blacks were defeated at the Battle of Suwann, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War. 1834 - William Lamb became prime minister of England. 1838 - The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole set sail. 1846 - The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House 1847 - U.S. troops defeated almost 17,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo. (Mexican-American War) 1853 - The first train in Asia began running from Bombay to Tanna. 1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies during the U.S. Civil War. 1895 - New York State passed an act that established free public baths. 1906 - San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The original death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate. 1910 - Walter R. Brookins made the first airplane flight at night. 1923 - Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx, NY. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. John Phillip Sousa's band played the National Anthem. 1924 - Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first "Crossword Puzzle Book." 1934 - The first Laundromat opened in Fort Worth, TX. 1937 - Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. 1938 - Superman, the world's first super hero, appeared in the first issue of Action Comics. The cover date was June 1938. 1938 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt threw out the first ball preceding the season opener between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. 1942 - James H. Doolittle and his squadron, from the USS Hornet, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities. 1942 - The Vichy government capitulated to Adolf Hitler and invited Pierre Laval to form a new government in France. 1943 - Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was shot down by American P-38 fighters. 1945 - American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. He was 44 years old. 1946 - The League of Nations was dissolved. 1949 - The Republic of Ireland was established. 1950 - The first transatlantic jet passenger trip was completed. 1954 - Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in Egypt. 1955 - Albert Einstein died. 1956 - Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco were married. The religious ceremony took place April 19. 1960 - The Mutual Broadcasting System was sold to the 3M Company of Minnesota for $1.25 million. 1978 - The U.S. Senate approved the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999. 1979 - The TV show "Real People" premiered. 1980 - Rhodesia became in independent nation of Zimbabwe. 1983 - The U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a suicide car-bomber. 63 people were killed including 17 Americans. 1984 - Daredevils Mike MacCarthy and Amanda Tucker made a sky dive from the Eiffel Tower. The jump ended safely. 1985 - Ted Turner filed for a hostile takeover of CBS. 1985 - Tulane University abolished its 72-year-old basketball program. The reason was charges of fixed games, drug abuse, and payments to players. 1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing. 1999 - Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) played his final game in the NHL. He retired as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records. 2000 - The Nasdaq had the biggest one-day point gain in its history. 2000 - Joan Lunden and Jeff Konigsberg were married. 2002 - Actor Robert Blake and his bodyguard were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Blake's wife about a year before. 2002 - The Amtrack Auto Train derailed in a remote area of north Florida. Four people were killed and 133 were injured. 2002 - The city legislature of Berlin decided to make Marlene Dietrich an honorary citizen. Dietrich had gone to the United States in 1930. She refused to return to Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power.

1775 Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British troops during the American Revolution. 1906 The Great San Francisco Earthquake destroyed over 4 sq mi. and killed over 500 people. 1923 The first game was played in Yankee Stadium (“the House that Ruth built”). Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4–1. 1956 Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 1968 London Bridge was sold to an American. It was rebuilt in Arizona. 1978 The U.S. Senate voted to hand over the Panama Canal to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999. 2002 Afghanistan’s former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned after 29 years in exile. 2012 American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin' Eve host Dick Clark died of heart failure.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr18.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Friday, April 17, 2026

Previously Unpublished Blog Entry About Trump’s Very Public Easter Sunday Threat to Iran Being Not Just Wrong, But Outright Blasphemous

Started writing this on the evening of Easter Sunday. At that point, I was still trying to determine whether the news of this ridiculous post was real or not. There is just so much nonsense about it, and without trying to echo Dear Leader, there nevertheless is a lot of fake nonsense around. And even by his standards, posting a promise to destroy an entire civilization later that night and ending the post with "Praise be to Allah!" on the holiest day in the Christian calendar feels crazy even by Trump standards. So I was admittedly not entirely certain that it was real.

But it was real. I found out that evening that this was real, and it made me angry. This was outrageous, and even, yes, blasphemous. Were his supporters even paying attention? Had they, too, grown numb to his ridiculous nonsense by this point? Was this yet another example of him getting away with shooting someone in downtown Manhattan in broad daylight and not losing a single supporter?

Well, we now know that some supporters were not cool with it.

Yet still, Trump maintains approval ratings still in the thirties. That's one in three Americans, folks. One out of three of us who look at all of this frankly ridiculous nonsense and apparently think it's okay. Maybe they believe it's presidential.

So I started writing this, and then just kind of stopped. Apparently distracted by something. I went on to address this post in another blog entry, and largely forgot about this one.

Until tonight. Saw it again, and decided that this article (see link below) should be seen by more eyes. And if I can do a small part to make sure that happens, then that would be great.

Take a look at my original (albeit incomplete) post, and the link to the article below:

Trump and team posted something highly inappropriate for Easter.

Are you even surprised?

I mean, this is the same guy who sends out Christmas messages which begin with some variation of "Merry Christmas to the liberal scum...."

So yeah, we're kind of used to this guy being generally and genuinely inappropriate, especially for supposed holy days of the Christian faith.

Still, this may have been something even by Trump's low bar standards.

Opinion: Trump’s Easter message isn’t just wrong—it's blasphemous Opinion by Michael Daly • 5h • 4 min read

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/opinion-trump-s-easter-message-isn-t-just-wrong-it-s-blasphemous/ar-AA209OVL?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=69d1d2418d584b33991791bcc39ede84&ei=19

Opinion: Trump’s Easter message isn’t just wrong—it's blasphemous

Chris Hedges Shares His Thoughts On Noam Chomsky & His Being Named on the Epstein List

It still feels like we have yet to learn enough about the Epstein Files. Indeed, it sure seems like Donald Trump is listed prominently - very prominently - in the Epstein Files. Frankly, that does not surprise me. He has displayed predatory behavior numerous times in the past Let's revisit just some of those things: cheating on multiple wives and paying hush money, creepy comments made to his daughter, boasting about sneaking into a room filled with undressed beauty pageant contestants, video clips of him partying with Epstein, praising Epstein in a major magazine published all the way back in 2002, and the so-called "locker room talk" when he boasted of being able to grab 'em by the pussy.

Yeah, not exactly a stretch to think that this guy is a predator, and a creep.

Was it shocking to think that an elected President of the United States would be on the Epstein Files?

No, not really. It's still somewhat shocking that tens of millions of Americans could look at someone like Trump and fail to see that he is an obvious and established con artist, a snake oil salesman. As I have said before, those are the people I blame for what has happened in American politics in the past decade or so. It's not like there was not plenty of warning, with no shortage of critics of Trump coming from members of both major parties, as well as more apolitical sources.

However, I was disappointed and a bit shocked to learn that Noam Chomsky was listed on the Epstein Files .I had read some of his stuff and watched some videos with him in them, including interviews. He always struck me as someone who was incredibly intelligent and well-spoken, as well as caring. In fact, he seemed sincerely to care about the well-being of the country, and of the people of the country.

So when he ended up being one of the prominent names listed, it was a huge disappointment.

In fact, it feels more like what Chris Hedges calls it in an article he wrote a couple of months ago, when we first learned that Chomsky was on the list. Indeed, it felt like a betrayal, frankly.

Seeing Trump and how he acts - how he has always acted in public, and shamelessly at that - it is difficult to really feel shocked that he would be on it. Ditto with Bill Clinton, and I will admit to voting for Clinton back in the day. Twice, actually. Yet, he had a well-known reputation for being a womanizer and, later, frankly, a predator, much like Trump.

Chomsky, however, is completely different. He was intellectual and reserved. Seemed thoughtful.

That is why it was truly a shock to hear about it. As Hedges suggests himself in this article, when it is slimy politicians such as Trump or Clinton, or Hollywood elites, it is significantly less of a shock. Hell, with some of them, you half expect it. But someone who seemed to have integrity, who seemed to have a good head on his shoulders like Chomsky?

Very shocking and extremely disappointing. And frankly, not easy to forgive what indeed truly feels like a betrayal, as Hedges rightly points out.

Take a look at the article (see link below) to read what Hedges has to say on this matter:

Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal Chris Hedges Feb 08, 2026

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-and

Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal

April 17th: This Day in History

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

858 - Benedict's reign as Pope ends.

1397 - The Canterbury Tales are told for the first time by Geoffrey Chaucer to the court of Richard II. Scholars of Chaucer also suggest that this was the date (ten years earlier, in 1387) when the pilgrimage that the story is about begins.

1492 - Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain to explore for a new, westward route to Asia and the Indies. We all know what happened next, right?

1521 - Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

1524 -New York Harbor is discovered by Giovanni Verrazano, a navigator from Florence.

1704 - The first newspaper to enjoy real success in America was published by John Campbell. It was known as the Boston "News-Letter."

1790 - Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers and a signed of the Declaration of independence, dies in Philadelphia.

1793 - Battle of Warsaw

1808 - The "Bayonne Decree" is issued by Napoleon I, which orders the seizure of American ships

1824 - Russia abandons all claims in North America south of 54° 40'N

1839 - The Republic of Guatemala is formed.

1861 - Virginia becomes the eight state to secede from the Union.

1869 - The first baseball game is played, as the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Cincinnati Amateurs, 24-15.

1895 - The Sino-Japanese War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and goes a long way towards establishing Japan as a world power with colonial interests.

1939 - Stalin signs an anti-Nazi pact with France and Britain

1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany

1946 - Syria declares independence from France, last French troops leave.

1961 - The infamous Bay of Pigs fiasco, with roughly 1,400 U.S.-supported Cuban exiles attempted to invaded Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro and rid Cuba of Communism. It was a failure, and caused Kennedy and the White House considerable embarrassment.

1969 - Sirhan Sirhan was convicted for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy a year earlier, following Kennedy's victory in the Democratic Primaries in California.

1970 - Paul McCartney releases his first ever solo album, titled simply "McCartney", shortly after announcing the break up of the Beatles.

1975 - The Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, ending the five-year war. This marks the beginning of the rule under the Khmer Rouge, where there is a brutal genocide. Estimates range from roughly 800,00 to up to two million dead.

1985 - The United.States Postal Service unveils its new 22-cent, "LOVE" stamp.

1989 - An important sign of changing times in Eastern Europe, as the Solidarity movement is given legal status in Poland.

1993 - In Los Angeles, a federal jury convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted.

1997 - New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, the winningest goalie in history, manages to become only the second goalie in NHL history to score a goal in a playoff game (against the Montreal Canadiens).

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr17.htm

http://www.historyorb.com/day/april/17

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Updated

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 858, Benedict III ended his reign as Catholic Pope. In 1397 on this day, Geoffrey Chaucer told the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this same date in 1387 as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury begins. Christopher Columbus signed a contract with Spain to find the Indies on this day in 1492. Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, found New York Bay on this day in 1524. In 1534 on this day, Sir Thomas More was confined in Tower of London. The Bayonne Decree was issued by Napoleon I of France on this day in 1808, which ordered the seizure of US ships. On this day in 1815, a volcanic eruption at Tambora on Sumbawa Island, on the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, killed 80,000 people. Guatemala became a republic on this day in 1839. On this day in 1861 during the American Civil War, Virginia became the 8th state to secede from the Union. Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's assassination on this day in 1865. In 1895 on this day, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, officially ending the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). On this day in 1907, 11,745 immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, New York. Emperor Haile Selassie officially abolished slavery in Ethiopia on this day in 1932. In 1941 on this day during World War II, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Nazi Germany at Belgrade, ending 11 days of futile resistance against the invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner. On this day in 1945 at the tail end of World War II in Europe, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini fled from Salò to Milan. On this day in 1945 during World War II, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash commandeers over half a ton of uranium at Strassfut, Germany, in an effort to prevent the Russians from developing an A-bomb. Syria declared independence from French rule on this day in 1946. On this day1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by 1,400 Cuban exiles began in an ultimately doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. This was a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees which landed in Cuba and attempted to topple the communist government of Castro's Cuba. The attack was an utter failure. In 1961 on this day, American President John F. Kennedy waited for word on the progress of the covert plan (the Bay of Pigs invasion) to overthrow Cuba's government on this day in 1961. On this day in 1969, Alexander Dubcek, the communist leader an architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring who launched a broad program of liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia, was forced to resign as First Secretary by the Soviet forces occupying his country. Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Senator & Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy on this day in 1969. On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after a very tense few days. All of the astronauts on board survived. Muslim fundamentalists assaulted the military academy in Heliopolis, Egypt, on this day in 1974. On this day in 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured and occupied Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, The day was then celebrated as Kampuchea National Day when the country was temporarily renamed Kampuchea. In 1982 on this day, Canada formally adopted its constitution, finalizing official self-rule.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 858, Benedict III ended his reign as Catholic Pope.

A picture of the Riverside Edition of Chaucer's works, including The Canterbury Tales, which was the required textbook for the Chaucer class which I took at Rutgers.

• In 1397 on this day, Geoffrey Chaucer told the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this same date in 1387 as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury begins.

• Christopher Columbus signed a contract with Spain to find the Indies on this day in 1492.

German Priest & Theologian Martin Luther

• 1521 - Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

• Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, found New York Bay on this day in 1524.

• In 1534 on this day, Sir Thomas More was confined in Tower of London.

1555 - Siena surrenders for Spanish troops

1596 - Archduke Albrecht of Austria occupies Calais

1629 - 1st commercial fishery established

1704 - 1st successful US newspaper; published in Boston by John Campbell

1711 - Charles VI becomes Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his brother Joseph I

1747 - French troops occupy Zeeuws-Flanders, Netherlands

1758 - Francis Williams, 1st US black college graduate, publishes poems

1793 - Battle of Warsaw

1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions to Spanish territories in America.

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

• The Bayonne Decree was issued by Napoleon I of France on this day in 1808, which ordered the seizure of US ships.

• On this day in 1815, a volcanic eruption at Tambora on Sumbawa Island, on the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, killed 80,000 people. Heavy eruptions of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia are letting up by this day in 1815. The volcano, which began rumbling on April 5, killed almost 100,000 people directly and indirectly. The eruption was the largest ever recorded and its effects were noted throughout the world. There had been no signs of volcanic activity there for thousands of years prior to the 1815 eruption. On April 10, the first of a series of eruptions that month sent ash 20 miles into the atmosphere, covering the island with ash to a height of 1.5 meters. Five days later, Tambora erupted violently once again. This time, so much ash was expelled that the sun was not seen for several days. Flaming hot debris thrown into the surrounding ocean caused explosions of steam. The debris also caused a moderate-sized tsunami. In all, so much rock and ash was thrown out of Tambora that the height of the volcano was reduced from 14,000 to 9,000 feet. The worst explosions were heard hundreds of miles away. The eruptions of Tambora also affected the climate worldwide. Enough ash had been thrown into the atmosphere that global temperatures were reduced over the next year; it also caused spectacularly colored sunsets throughout the world. The eruption was blamed for snow and frost in New England during June and July that summer. Ten thousand people were killed by the eruptions, most on Sumbawa Island. In subsequent months, more than 80,000 people died in the surrounding area from starvation due to the resulting crop failures and disease.

1817 - 1st US school for deaf (Hartford, Conn)

1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54° 40'N

Flag of Guatemala

• Guatemala became a republic on this day in 1839.

1853 - Thorbecke government resigns

Explorer of the New World Christopher ColumbusExplorer of the New World Christopher Columbus 1853 - US Marine Hospital at Presidio (SF) forms

1861 - Indianola TX - "Star of West" taken by Confederacy

• On this day in 1861 during the American Civil War, Virginia became the 8th state to secede from the Union.

1863 - R Grierson's: La Grange, TN to Baton Rouge, LA

1864 - Battle of Plymouth, NC

1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia

1864 - Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges

• Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's assassination on this day in 1865.

1869 - 1st pro baseball games-Cin Reds 24, Cin amateurs 15

1875 - Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain

1892 - 1st Sunday NL baseball game, Reds beat Cards 5-1

• In 1895 on this day, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, officially ending the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95).

1900 - 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession

1905 - US Supreme court judges maximum work day unconstitutional

1905 - The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which held that the "right to free contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

A picture of Ellis Island (above) taken from the Jersey side. On the bottom is the same picture, but altered to lend it (hopefully) a vintage look and feel.

• On this day in 1907, 11,745 immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, New York.

1912 - 1st unofficial gold record (Al Jolson's "Ragging The Baby To Sleep")

1920 - American Professional Football Association forms (NFL)

1923 - Longest NL opening game, Phillies & Dodgers tie 5-5 in 14

1924 - Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form MGM

Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1925 - NY Yankee Babe Ruth has ulcer surgery

1925 - Paul Painlevé follows Edouard Herriot on as French premier

1927 - Japan's Wakarsoeki government falls/Baron Tanaka becomes premier

1930 - Abkhazian ASSR forms in Georgian SSR

• Emperor Haile Selassie officially abolished slavery in Ethiopia on this day in 1932.

1933 - Chicago Bears win their 1st NFL Game beating NY Giants 23-21

1934 - New Fenway Park opens, Washington Senators beat Red Sox 6-5

1935 - Provincial-National elections (Musserts NSB achieves 7.9%/44 chairs)

1937 - Cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Elmer J Fudd & Petunia Pig, debut

1939 - Joe Louis KOs Jack Roper in 1 for heavyweight boxing title

1939 - SN Behrman's "No Time for Comedy" premieres in NYC

1939 - Stalin signs British-France-Russian anti-Nazi pact

1941 - British troop land in Iraq/Yugoslavia; surrender to nazis

1941 - Office of Price Administration forms (handled rationing)

• In 1941 on this day during World War II, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Nazi Germany at Belgrade, ending 11 days of futile resistance against the invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner. Only 200 Germans died in the conquest of Yugoslavia. On March 27, 1941, two days after the Yugoslav government signed a controversial pact with the Axis powers, Yugoslav air officers, aided by the British secret services, toppled the country's pro-Axis regime. In response, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler launched a massive invasion of the country that began on April 6 with the bombing of Belgrade. The Yugoslav defenders, made up of various politically unstable nationalities, were routed by the hordes of German, Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops invading their country. On April 17, Yugoslavia surrendered and was divided, with the exception of the puppet state of Croatia, between the four invading Axis powers. The occupying troops aggravated the traditional religious and national differences in the region, and the Serbs were especially brutalized. However, by the end of the year, two separate effective resistance movements had sprung up, one led by Colonel Dragolyub Mihailovich, which was loyal to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, and another led by Josip Broz Tito, which was made up of members of the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

Soviet Union Premier Joseph StalinSoviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin 1942 - 12 Lancasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg

1942 - Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp

1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.

1943 - Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul

1943 - SS-lt-general Jurgen Stoop arrives in Warsaw

1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden

1945 - German occupiers flood Wieringermeer Neth

• On this day in 1945 at the tail end of World War II in Europe, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini fled from Salò to Milan.

1945 - US troops lands in Mindanao

• On this day in 1945 during World War II, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash commandeers over half a ton of uranium at Strassfut, Germany, in an effort to prevent the Russians from developing an A-bomb. Pash was head of the Alsos Group, organized to search for German scientists in the postwar environment in order to prevent the Russians, previously Allies but now a potential threat, from capturing any scientists and putting them to work at their own atomic research plants. Uranium piles were also rich "catches," as they were necessary to the development of atomic weapons.

• Syria declared independence from French rule on this day in 1946.1The last French troops left Syria.

1956 - Bulgaria premier Tchervenkov resigns

1956 - Premium Savings Bonds introduced in Great Britain

1956 - USSR's Cominform (Parliament) dissolves

1958 - Brussells (Belgium) World Fair opens

1960 - American Samoa sets up a constitutional government

• On this day1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by 1,400 Cuban exiles began in an ultimately doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. This was a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees which landed in Cuba and attempted to topple the communist government of Castro's Cuba. The attack was an utter failure. Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro's attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his inflammatory anti-American rhetoric, and Cuba's movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led U.S. officials to conclude that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train and arm a force of Cuban exiles for an armed attack on Cuba. John F. Kennedy inherited this program when he became president in 1961. Though many of his military advisors indicated that an amphibious assault on Cuba by a group of lightly armed exiles had little chance for success, Kennedy gave the go-ahead for the attack. On April 17, 1961, around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow Castro's government. The plan immediately fell apart--the landing force met with unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro's military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles' supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured. The failure at the Bay of Pigs cost the United States dearly. Castro used the attack by the "Yankee imperialists" to solidify his power in Cuba and he requested additional Soviet military aid. Eventually that aid included missiles, and the construction of missile bases in Cuba sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union nearly came to blows over the issue. Further, throughout much of Latin America, the United States was pilloried for its use of armed force in trying to unseat Castro, a man who was considered a hero to many for his stance against U.S. interference and imperialism. Kennedy tried to redeem himself by publicly accepting blame for the attack and its subsequent failure, but the botched mission left the young president looking vulnerable and indecisive.

• In 1961 on this day, American President John F. Kennedy waited for word on the progress of the covert plan (the Bay of Pigs invasion) to overthrow Cuba's government on this day in 1961. Kennedy had authorized Operation Zapata, the attempt to overthrow Cuba's communist leader, Fidel Castro, on April 15. The failed coup became what many have called the worst foreign-policy decision of Kennedy's administration. When Kennedy entered the White House in January 1961, he inherited from his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, an ongoing conflict with the leftist regime in Cuba. Aided by Soviet-bloc weaponry, Castro led a brutal clampdown on human rights and dissent after taking power in 1959. That same year, Eisenhower had implemented a trade embargo on Cuban goods and, in 1960, broke off diplomatic relations with the island nation. Before he left office, Eisenhower had approved, but did not launch, a covert plan devised by his vice president, Richard Nixon, and the CIA to overthrow Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro. When Kennedy assumed the presidency, he retained Eisenhower's CIA and military advisors who had helped plan the mission. At their urging, Kennedy made the final decision to send approximately 1,200 CIA-trained Cuban exiles to land at the bay on Cuba's southern coast called Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). The attempted coup failed miserably, largely due to faulty intelligence. Kennedy and the CIA leaders in charge of the mission (all inherited from Eisenhower) believed that Cuba's people and its military would spontaneously rise up to help the exile army overthrow Castro, a grave miscalculation. Instead, Castro's forces captured most of the exile army, executed some and held the rest prisoner until private American groups raised funds for their ransom. The CIA and JFK's administration blamed each other for the plan's failure. The CIA cited JFK's failure to order prolonged offensive air strikes against Cuba's air force at the same time as the land operation, while JFK and his advisors blamed the CIA for keeping information from the president, including several analysts' conclusions that the plan's success was dubious. The ensuing tension between the president and his military and intelligence advisors prompted JFK to rely even more heavily on the advice of his brother, Robert F. Bobby Kennedy, who was also his attorney general, when making future foreign-policy decisions. A former special assistant to JFK, Arthur Schlesinger, has since recorded Bobby Kennedy's recollections of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In a memorandum written in June 1961, Bobby Kennedy concluded that the mission broke down from the incompetency of the CIA and a complete lack of communication. He also noticed that the disaster weighed heavily on his brother, who was concerned about how it would reflect upon his leadership and the nation's credibility. In an oral history interview, Bobby Kennedy recounted that he and his brother had been through a lot of things together, and he was more upset [by the Bay of Pigs failure] than any other.

1964 - 1st game at Shea Stadium, NY Mets lose to Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3

1964 - Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2,368 base)

1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes 1st woman to fly solo around the world

1966 - 100th international soccer match between Netherlands-Belgium (3-1)

1966 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies Golf Invitational

Actress Elizabeth TaylorActress Elizabeth Taylor 1967 - Shortwave Radio NY Worldwide goes back on the air after a week off

1967 - Surveyor 3 launched; soft lands on Moon, April 20

1968 - "Fade Out-Fade In" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 72 perfs

1968 - A's 1st game in Oakland-Alameda Stadium, lose 4-1 to Balt Orioles

1969 - Bernadette Devlin elected to British house of commons

1969 - Alexander Dubcek forced to resign as first secretary of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party

Old flag of Czechoslovakia, which is still the current flag of the Czech Republic, or Czechia.

• On this day in 1969, Alexander Dubcek, the communist leader an architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring who launched a broad program of liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia, was forced to resign as First Secretary by the Soviet forces occupying his country. The staunchly pro-Soviet Gustav Husak was appointed Czechoslovak leader in his place, reestablishing an authoritarian communist dictatorship in the Soviet satellite state. The trend toward liberalization in Czechoslovakia began in 1963, and in 1968 reached its apex after Dubcek replaced Antonin Novotny as first secretary of the party. He introduced a series of far-reaching political and economic reforms, including increased freedom of speech and an end to state censorship. Dubcek's effort to establish "communism with a human face" was celebrated across the country and the brief period of freedom became known as the "Prague Spring." On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union answered Dubcek's reforms with the invasion of Czechoslovakia by 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops. Prague was not eager to give way, but scattered student resistance was no match for Soviet tanks. Dubcek's reforms were repealed, and the leader was replaced with the staunchly pro-Soviet Gustav Husak, who reestablished an authoritarian communist regime in the country. In 1989, as communist governments folded across Eastern Europe, Prague again became the scene of demonstrations for democratic reforms. In December 1989, Husak's government conceded to demands for a multiparty parliament. Husak resigned, and for the first time in two decades Dubcek returned to politics as chairman of the new parliament, which subsequently elected playwright Vaclav Havel as president of Czechoslovakia. Havel had come to fame during the Prague Spring, and after the Soviet crackdown his plays were banned and his passport confiscated.

1969 - Mont Expos Bill Stoneman no-hits Phillies, 7-0

Bust of Robert F. Kennedy

• Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Senator & Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy on this day in 1969.

1969 - The Band (formerly The Hawks), perform their 1st concert

1970 - Apollo 13 limps back safely, Beech-built oxygen tank no help

• On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after a very tense few days. All of the astronauts on board survived. With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth. On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed for a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, "Houston, we've had a problem here," and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water had been disrupted. The landing mission was aborted, and the astronauts and controllers on Earth scrambled to come up with emergency procedures. The crippled spacecraft continued to the moon, circled it, and began a long, cold journey back to Earth. The astronauts and mission control were faced with enormous logistical problems in stabilizing the spacecraft and its air supply, as well as providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow successful reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Navigation was another problem, and Apollo 13's course was repeatedly corrected with dramatic and untested maneuvers. On April 17, tragedy turned to triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1970 - Paul McCartney's 1st solo album "McCartney" is released

1971 - Egypt, Libya & Syria form federation (FAR)

1971 - People's Republic Bangladesh forms, under sheik Mujib ur-Rahman

1972 - 1st Boston Women's Marathon won by Nina Kuscsik of NY in 3:10:26

1972 - 76th Boston Marathon won by Olavi Suomalainen of Finland in 2:15:39

Musician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartneyMusician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartney 1972 - Revised Dutch constitution proclaimed

1972 - Kiteman attempting to throw out 1st ball in Phillie Vet crashes into centerfield seats

1973 - 2nd Boston Women's Marathon won by Jacqueline Hansen of CA in 3:05:59

1973 - 77th Boston Marathon won by Jon Anderson of Oreg in 2:16:03

1973 - German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 founded.

1974 - Bundy victim Susan Rancourt disappears from CWU, Ellensburg, WA

• Muslim fundamentalists assaulted the military academy in Heliopolis, Egypt, on this day in 1974.

• On this day in 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured and occupied Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, The day was then celebrated as Kampuchea National Day when the country was temporarily renamed Kampuchea.

1975 - Penguins 6-Isles 4-Quarterfinals-Penguins hold 3-0 lead

1976 - NL greatest comeback, trailing 12-1 Phils win 18-16 in 10, Mike Schmidt hits 4 consecutive HRs

1977 - "I Love My Wife" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 864 performances

1977 - Christian-democrats win Belgium parliamentary election

1977 - Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Women's International Golf Tournament

1978 - 63,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)

1978 - 7th Boston Women's Marathon won by Gayle Barron of Ga in 2:44:52

1978 - 82nd Boston Marathon won by Bill Rodgers of Mass in 2:10:13

1978 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Carl Sagan for "Dragons of Eden"

1979 - Brian Clark's "Whose Life is it Anyway?" premieres in London

1981 - Isle Potvin's 3 playoff power-play goals tie NHL record vs Oilers

1981 - Ranger's Anders Hedberg is 2nd to score on a Stanley Cup penalty shot

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• In 1982 on this day, Canada formally adopted its constitution, finalizing official self-rule.

1982 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1983 - 1st National Coin Week begins

1983 - Grete Waltz runs female world record marathon (2:25:29)

1983 - In Warsaw, police route 1,000 Solidarity supporters

The flag of India

• 1983 - India entered space age launching SLV-3 rocket

1983 - Lynn Adams wins LPGA Combanks Orlando Golf Classic

1983 - Nolan Ryan strikes out his 3,500th batter

NHL all-time top scorer Wayne GretzkyNHL all-time top scorer Wayne Gretzky 1983 - Islanders tie NHL record with 3 shorthanded playoff goals vs Rangers Rangers 7-Isles 6-Patrick Div Finals-Isles hold 2-1 lead Wayne Gretzky scores 7 goals in one Stanley Cup playoff game

1984 - Braves pitcher Pascual Perez suspended due to cocaine usage

• 1984 - During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, British police officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead

1986 - IBM produces 1st megabit-chip

1986 - Netherlands & Scilly Islands sign peace treaty (war of 1651)

1986 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Larry McMurtry for "Lonesome Dove"

1987 - Julius Erving becomes 3rd NBA player to score 30,000 points

1987 - Richard Wilbur appointed as US poet laureate

1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1988 - Ethiopian Belayneh Densimo runs world record marathon (2:06:50)

1988 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA AI Star/Centinela Hospital Golf Classic

1989 - 18th Boston Women's Marath won by Ingrid Kristiansen of Nor in 2:24:33

1989 - 93rd Boston Marathon won by Abebe Mekonen of Ethiopia in 2:09:06

1989 - Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $245 per week

• 1989 - Polish labor union granted legal status

• 1989 - Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros

1990 - Gas explosion on passenger train in Kumrahar India, 80 die

1991 - Dow Jones closes above 3,000 for 1st time (3,004.46)

1991 - Railroad workers go on strike in US

Victim of Police Violence Rodney KingVictim of Police Violence Rodney King 1993 - Police officers found guilty of violating Rodney Kings civil rights

1993 - STS-56 (Discovery) lands

1994 - "Little More Magic" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 30 perfs

1994 - "Twilight - Los Angeles 1992" opens at Cort Theater NYC for 72 perfs

1994 - 55th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Lee Trevino wins

1994 - Aruba government of Oduber falls

1994 - Val Skinner wins LPGA Atlanta Women's Golf Championship

1995 - 24th Boston Women's Marathon won by Uta Pippig of Germany in 2:25:11

1995 - 99th Boston Marathon won by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 2:09:22

1997 - John Bell, 115, recieves new pacemaker

1997 - NJ Devil Martin Brodeur is 2nd NHL goalie to score in a playoff game

• 2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.

2012 - The St Cuthbert Gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds

2013 - 5 people are killed in Wana, Pakistan, by a United States drone attack

2013 - 15 people are killed and 100 are injured after a fertilizer plant explodes in West, Texas

2013 - North Korea blocks a South Korean supply delegation from the Kaesong joint industrial zone

2013 - Same-sex marriage is legalized in New Zealand

1492 - Christopher Columbus signed a contract with Spain to find a passage to Asia and the Indies. 1524 - New York Harbor was discovered by Giovanni Verrazano. 1535 - Antonio Mendoza was appointed first viceroy of New Spain. 1629 - Horses were first imported into the colonies by the American Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1704 - John Campbell published what would eventually become the first successful American newspaper. It was known as the Boston "News-Letter." 1758 - Frances Williams published a collection of Latin poems. He was the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere. 1808 - Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France ordered the seizure of U.S. ships. 1810 - Pineapple cheese was patented by Lewis M. Norton. 1824 - Russia abandoned all North American claims south of 54' 40'. 1860 - New Yorkers learned of a new law that required fire escapes to be provided for tenement houses. 1861 - Virginia became the eighth state to secede from the Union. 1864 - U.S. Civil War General Grant banned the trading of prisoners. 1865 - Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. 1875 - The game "snooker" was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain. 1895 - China and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. It was the end of the first Sino-Japanese War. In the treaty China ceded Taiwan to Japan. 1916 - The American Academy of Arts and Letters obtained a charter from the U.S. Congress. 1917 - A bill in Congress to establish Daylight Saving Time was defeated. It was passed a couple of months later. 1935 - "Lights Out" debuted on NBC Radio. It ran until 1952. 1941 - Igor Sikorsky accomplished the first successful helicopter lift-off from water near Stratford, CT. 1941 - The office of Price Administration was established in the U.S. to handle rationing. 1947 - Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn Dodgers) performed a bunt for his first major league hit. 1961 - About 1,400 U.S.-supported Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. It was an unsuccessful attack. 1964 - Jerrie Mock became first woman to fly an airplane solo around the world. 1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled its new Mustang model. 1967 - "The Joey Bishop Show" debuted on ABC-TV. 1967 - The U.S. Supreme Court barred Muhammad Ali's request to be blocked from induction into the U.S. Army. 1969 - Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek was deposed. 1970 - Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after an on-board accident with an oxygen tank. 1975 - Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It was the end of the five-year war. 1983 - In Warsaw, police routed 1,000 Solidarity supporters. 1983 - In New York, a transit strike that began on March 7 ended. 1984 - In London, demonstrators outside the Libyan Embassy were fired upon from someone inside. Eleven people were injured and an English Police woman was killed. 1985 - The U.S. Postal Service unveiled its new 22-cent, "LOVE" stamp. 1985 - In Lebanon, the cabinet resigned as Shiites took W. Beirut. 1987 - In Sri Lanka, Tamil guerrillas killed 122 people in a road ambush. 1989 - In Poland, courts gave Solidarity legal status. 1993 - A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted. 1996 - Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing their parents. 1999 - In India, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee collapsed after losing a vote of confidence. 2002 - At the National Maritime Museum in London, the exhibit "Skin Deep - A History of Tattooing" opened.

1790 Benjamin Franklin, U.S. patriot, diplomat, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died in Philadelphia. 1895 The Sino-Japanese War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. 1937 Daffy Duck made his debut in Porky's Duck Hunt. 1961 Supported by the U.S. government, 1,500 exiles made the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. 1964 Geraldine Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world. 1969 Sirhan Sirhan was convicted for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy. 1970 The Apollo 13 astronauts safely splashed down after their near-disastrous flight. 1975 Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, ending the five year Cambodian war.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr17.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory