"The Charbor Chronicles": On This Day in History - April 18 The Great San Francisco Earthquake

Revised

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!

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

Apr 18, 1906: The Great San Francisco Earthquake

At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. 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.

Apr 18, 1775: Revere and Dawes warn of British attack

On this day in 1775, British troops march 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.

Apr 18, 1521: Luther defiant at Diet of Worms

Martin Luther, the chief catalyst of Protestantism, defies 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.

Apr 18, 1989: Chinese students protest against government

Thousands of Chinese students continue to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and issue a call for greater democracy in the communist People's Republic of China (PRC). 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.

Apr 18, 1983: Suicide bomber destroys U.S. embassy in Beirut

The U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is almost completely destroyed by a car-bomb explosion that kills 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.

Apr 18, 1961: JFK denies U.S. military intervention in Cuba

On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy heats up Cold War rhetoric in 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. intends 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.

Apr 18, 1969: Nixon says prospects for peace in Vietnam are better

At a news conference, President Nixon says he feels the prospects for peace have "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.

Apr 18, 1915: Germans shoot down French pilot Roland Garros

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.

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

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 current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

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

1521 - Diet of Worms: Cardinal Alexander questions Maarten Luther

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.

1775 - Paul Revere & William Dawes ride from Charleston to Lexington warning the "regulars are coming!"

1783 - Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.

1797 - France & Austria signs cease fire

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

1834 - Charles Darwin sails to Rio Santa Cruz up Patagonia

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.

Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1853 - 1st train in Asia (Bombay to Tanna, 36 km)

1856 - Russian Republic Chancellor Earl von Nesselrode resigns

1861 - Battle of Harpers Ferry, VA

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)

1865 - Confederate Gen Johnson surrendered to Gen Sherman in North Carolina

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

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

1874 - David Livingstone, African explorer, buried in Westminster Abbey

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

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

1906 - San Francisco earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroy 75% of city

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.

1915 - French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

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

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

1946 - League of Nations dissolves (3 months after UN starts)

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.

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

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

1980 - Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) declares independence from UK

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

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"

1989 - Zimbabwe gains independence

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.

2012 - The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples begins burning artworks after cultural institution budget cuts

2013 - 27 people are killed and 65 are injured in a cafe bombing in Baghdad, Iraq

2013 - Two earth-like planets are discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62

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. 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. 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

"The Charbor Chronicles"

Friday, April 18, 2014

On This Day in History - April 18 The Great San Francisco Earthquake

Revised

No comments:

Post a Comment