April History, Trivia and Fun Facts |
April History Highlights |
Traditional April Information |
| The origin of April’s name is uncertain. It likely derives from the Latin word Aprilis, derived from the Latin verb aperire, meaning “to open,” referring to the opening of flowers and plants in the springtime. April was the ancient Roman month dedicated to Venus, the goddess of beauty, whose festival occurred on April 1st. This April Festival is believed to be the source of many modern April Fool’s Day customs. April also coincided with Ovid’s celebration of the rites of Venus and traditional Roman festivals such as Veneralia (April 1) and Robigalia (April 25). The Anglo-Saxons called April Eosturmonath or Ostara after their goddess Ostara or Eostre. April is also traditionally associated with April showers, bringing May flowers. |
| Keep America Beautiful Month America is a beautiful country, and there’s no better time to celebrate than Keep America Beautiful Month. Every April since 2000, millions of people across the United States come together to help protect their local environment by volunteering in cleanups, organizing donation drives, and other activities promoting sustainability. During this month-long celebration, everyone can participate in making a difference. Here are just some of the ideas: Plant a tree or garden in your yard; Collect litter around your neighborhood; Donate reusable items like clothes or furniture; Recycle cans and bottles to reduce waste; Buy products made from recycled materials whenever possible; Educate yourself about environmental issues and share what you learn with others. Participating in Keep America Beautiful Month is easy, and the rewards are worth it. When everyone works together, we can make the world a little brighter and our environment a little healthier. So let’s get out there and show our appreciation for Mother Nature during Keep America Beautiful Month! |
April’s Moons |
| Ashes Moon, Awakening Moon, Big Spring Moon, Big Summer Moon, Black Oaks Tassel Moon, Broken Snowshoe Moon, Budding Time Moon, Budding Trees Moon, Bullhead Moon, Cherry Blossom Moon, Daisy Moon, Moon, Egg Moon, Moon, Fish Moon, Flower Moon, Frog Moon, Glittering Snow on Lake Moon, Grass Moon, Gray Goose Moon, Great Sand Storm Moon, Green Grass Moon,, Growing Moon, Half Spring Moon, Hare Moon, Ice Breaking in the River Moon, Leaf Split Moon, Loon Moon, Maple Moon, Maple Sugar Moon, Maple Sap Boiling Moon, Moon of Greening Grass, Moon of Red Grass Appearing, Moon of the Big Leaves, Moon of the Red Grass Appearing, Moon of Windbreak, Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation, Moon When Nothing Happens, Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs, Moon When They Set Indian Corn, Peony Moon, Pink Moon, Planter’s Moon, Planting Corn Moon, Planting Moon, Poinciana Moon, Red Grass Appearing Moon, Ring Finger Moon, Snowshoe Breaking Moon, Spring Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Strawberry Moon, Strong Moon, Sugar Maker Moon, Summer Moon, Sweet Pea Moon, Tulip Moon, White Lady Moon, Wildcat Moon, Willow Moon, Wind Moon, Wisteria Moon and Yellow Moon. |
April is… |
| Alcohol Awareness Month Arab American Heritage Month Autism Awareness Month BLT Sandwich Month Child Abuse Prevention Month Confederate History Month Customer Loyalty Month Defeat Diabetes Month Distracted Driving Awareness Month DIY Decorating Month Financial Literacy Month Florida Tomato Month Grilled Cheese Month Garlic Month Grange Month Keep America Beautiful Month Lawn & Garden Month Mathematics & Statistics Month National Humor Month Jazz Appreciation Month Occupational Therapy (OT) Month Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month Pecan Month Pet First Aid Awareness Month Poetry Writing Month Rape Awareness Month School Library Month Sexual Assault Awareness Month Soft Pretzel Month Soyfoods Month Stress Awareness Month Workplace Conflict Awareness Month |
| Taurus is the second astrological sign in the Zodiac, represented by the Bull. It is associated with the element of earth, and is considered a fixed sign. Those born under this sign are said to be dependable, practical, and determined. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, and its corresponding astrological period is typically considered to be from April 20 to May 20. Taurus is known for being strong willed and determined with a love for material comforts and pleasures. They are also known to be reliable and trustworthy. |
April Quotes |
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“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heartache, you want it so!” “Sweet April showers do spring May flowers.” “If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change! But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity. To most men, only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God’s power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.” “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing |
April History |
| Trivia for April 1 April 1 is known as April Fools Day or All Fools’ Day in many countries. 1789 – Pennsylvania Representative Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg was elected as the first US Speaker of the House of Representatives. 1877 – Edward Schieffelin founded Tombstone, Arizona, best known as the place where Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers had their shoot-out with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in 1881 1934 – Bonnie and Clyde kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas. 1963 – ABC premiered General Hospital, the daytime drama that eventually became the network’s longest-running (soap opera) serial program produced in Hollywood. On the same day, NBC debuted The Doctors. 1970 – President Richard Nixon signed legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. 1976 – Apple Computer Company was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1977 (Tornado) Madaripur and Shibchar, Bangladesh 1979 – Nickelodeon kid’s cable channel was launched 1984 – Singer Marvin Gaye was shot three times and killed by his father during a domestic dispute. 1997 – As part of a crossover April Fools joke, Pat Sajak hosted Jeopardy and Alex Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune. Trivia for April 2
Trivia for April 2 1860 – Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously left St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. They used horses, not ponies. 1882 – Tombstone reads, “Jesse W. James, Died April 3, 1882, Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 days, Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.” Jesse James was shot and killed by frenemy Robert Ford for the reward money. There was a $5,000 bounty on the bank-robber, but they gave Ford $500 and then arrested him. 1917 – The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, takes her seat as a representative from Montana. 1953 – TV Guide debuted. 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night first aired on the CBS network in the United States, as the first half-hour serial dramas. 1956 – Elvis Presley sang “Heartbreak Hotel” on the Milton Berle Show, with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing. 1973 – The first portable cell phone call was placed in New York City. 1978 – Dallas premiered on CBS 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison. 1992 – Pope John Paul II died. 1996 – Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski was arrested at his Montana cabin. Trivia for April 3 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his engine design. 1953 – TV Guide published its first issue 1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announced it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book, Howl, against obscenity charges. 1956 – Elvis Presley appeared on The Milton Berle Show 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. 1978 – At the 50th annual Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1977. 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, was unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. 1986 – Merv Griffin sold Merv Griffin Enterprises, to The Coca-Cola Company, for $250,000,000. Trivia for April 4 1841 – US President Harrison died of pneumonia after one month in office 1850 – Los Angeles, California was incorporated as a city. 1933 – Akron, a dirigible, crashed in New Jersey, killing 73 people. 1949 – Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 1964 – The Beatles occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States, with Can’t Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me. 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis Tennessee. 1969 – CBS abruptly canceled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and replaced it with Hee Haw, they announced. Hee Haw episodes were ready to premiere in mid-June. 1973 – The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated. 1975 – Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico 1983 – Space Shuttle Challenger made its maiden voyage into space (STS-6). 2013 – Famed movie critic Roger Ebert died Trivia for April 5 1922 – The American Birth Control League, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated. 1936 (Tornado) Tupelo, Mississippi 1949 – Fireside Theater debuted on NBC. 1987 – FOX debuted two shows, Married… with Children and The Tracey Ullman Show 1991 – Katie Couric was designated a co-host of the Today Show. 1994 – Lead Singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and was found three days later. 1997 – The Crocodile Hunter premiered on Animal Planet 2006 – The first case of H5N1 avian flu was confirmed in the UK after tests on a dead swan found in Cellardyke, Fife. 2012 – Scandal premiered on ABC Trivia for April 6 1830 – The Mormon Church was founded in Fayette Township, New York, by Joseph Smith 1895 – Oscar Wilde was arrested, and later found guilty of being a homosexual, and sentenced to two years of hard labor. 1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. 1931 – Little Orphan Annie debuted on the Blue Network of NBC. 1936 (Tornado) Gainesville, Georgia 1966 – Hundred of children and their teachers reported seeing a UFO over Melbourne, Australia 1974 – “Waterloo” won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. ABBA went on to pop music success for much of the 1970s. Trivia for April 7 1933 – Prohibition in the United States was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight. 1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. 1945 – Japanese battleship Yamato was sunk by Allied forces off the coast of Okinawa. 1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his famous “domino theory” speech, regarding communism in Southeast Asia. 1967 – Film critic Roger Ebert published his first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times. 1970 – John Wayne won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in 1969’s True Grit. 1970 – Midnight Cowboy won in the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars. Trivia for April 8 1820 – The Venus de Milo statue was discovered on the Aegean island of Melos. 1838 (Tornado) Calcutta, India 1952 – US President Harry Truman announced the seizure of all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike. 1964 – Gemini 1, an unmanned test flight, was launched. 1990 – Twin Peaks premiered on ABC 1994 – Lead Singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was found dead, having committed suicide three days earlier. 2005 – Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph agreed to plead guilty. A security guard named Richard Jewell was initially considered the prime suspect in the case. Trivia for April 9 1867 – The Alaska Purchase – the United States bought Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million, in a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate. 1945 – 1945 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission was formed. 1947 (Tornado) Higgins, Texas and Woodward, Oklahoma 1962 – Sophia Loren won Best Actress Oscar for Two Women 1967 – The first Boeing 737 made its maiden flight. 1998 – The Price Is Right aired their milestone 5,000th episode. Every prize given away on that episode was a car. Trivia for April 10 1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded in New York City. 1906 – O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi was published. 1953 – The House of Wax, in 3-D and starring Vincent Price, opened at New York’s Paramount Theater. 1963 – USS Thresher, an atomic submarine, sank in the Atlantic Ocean, killing the entire crew of 129. 1970 – Paul McCartney announced the breakup of the Beatles 1971 – In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People’s Republic of China hosted the US table tennis team for a week-long visit. 2009 – Parks and Recreation premiered on NBC 2010 – Matt Smith debuted as the eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who on BBC America 2014 – Kathleen Sebelius resigned as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, after the faulty rollout of HealthCare.gov. Trivia for April 11 1909 – The city of Tel Aviv was founded. 1919 – The International Labor Organization was founded. 1945 – The American Third Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany. 1964 (Tornado) Bhabanipur, Bangladesh 1970 – Apollo 13 was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The difficult trip back home was the topic of the film, Apollo 13. 1981 – Van Halen’s lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen married One Day at a Time actress Valerie Bertinelli 1988 – Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian) won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1987’s Moonstruck. 2006 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium. Trivia for April 12 1914 – Mark Strand Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first official “movie theater.” 1934 – The strongest surface wind gust ever recorded on Earth, at 231 mph, was measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, was declared safe and effective. 1961 – Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space. 1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia), named the STS-1 mission. 1987 – 21 Jump Street premiered on FOX 1995 – Drew Barrymore appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and because it was his birthday she famously danced on his desk and flashed him on the air. Trivia for April 13 1570 – Guy Fawkes was born (died in 1606) 1742 – Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland. 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act gave Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in the UK’s Parliament. 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded. 1902 – James C. Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC. 1970 – An Oxygen tank exploded on Apollo13, but everyone survived. It was also the major plot for the 1995 film, Apollo 13. 1974 – Western Union, with NASA and Hughes Aircraft, launched the US’ first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1. 1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note Trivia for April 14 1818 – Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language. 1865 – John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play (Our American Cousin) at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. 1912 – RMS Titanic hit an iceberg, killing 1514 people that evening, and into the next day. 1933 – Jack Mackay and his wife reported seeing the Loch Ness Monster, “Nessie”, although the earliest report was in 565 AD, when St. Columba turned away a giant beast that was threatening a man in the Ness River, which flows into the lake. 1935 – “Black Sunday Storm” – the worst dust storm of the US Dust Bowl, hit from the Oklahoma Panhandle and Northwestern Oklahoma to the Texas Panhandles. 1953 – The CIA started to give unwitting subjects LSD in a search for a mind-controlling drug. 1969 (Tornado) East Pakistan, Pakistan 1969 – Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) tied for Best Actress Oscar 1984 – My Little Pony premiered, in syndication 1990 – In Living Color premiered on FOX 1994 – The 24-hour movie channel Turner Classic Movies made its debut. 2003 – The Human Genome Project was completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%. Trivia for April 15 1892 – The General Electric Company was formed. 1912 – Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, near Newfoundland & Nova Scotia, Canada, after hitting an iceberg the night before. 1923 – Insulin became available for use by people with diabetes. 1927 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 began. 1947 – Jackie Robinson, became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 1955 – McDonald’s opened its first franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1984 – The inaugural World Youth Day was held in Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City. 2013 – At approximately 2:50 PM (EDT), in a terrorist attack, two explosions around Copley Square were caught live on camera during the telecast of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring 260. Trivia for April 16 1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, gunslinger Bat Masterson fought his last gun battle. He paid an $8 fine and retired. 1943 – Albert Hoffmann accidentally discovered the psychedelic effects of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 1947 – Texas City Disaster, ammonium nitrate explosion killed 571 people. 1947 – Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coined the term “Cold War” to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. 1962 – Walter Cronkite became the news anchor for the CBS network. 1990 – Doctor Death, Jack Kevorkian, participated in his first assisted suicide. Janet Adkins was the patient, in Detroit, Michigan. 1995 – Governor George W. Bush named April 16 as Selena Day in Texas, after the singer was killed two weeks earlier. 2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 17 before committing suicide. Trivia for April 17 1815 (Volcano) Tambora volcano in Indonesia killed almost 100,000 people 1897 – A UFO supposedly crashed into a farm owned by J.S. Proctor in Aurora, Texas. 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center in New York processed 11,747 people, more than on any other day. 1937 – Daffy Duck’s first appearance was in Porky’s Duck Hunt. 1960 – Singer Eddie Cochran died, and Gene Vincent was injured in a UK car accident. 1961 – The unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion began. 1964 – The Ford Mustang was introduced to the North American market. 1966 – Policemen Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff reported chasing a UFO at 5:00 AM in Portage County, Ohio 1973 (Tornado) Balurchar, Bangladesh 2011 – Game of Thrones premiered on HBO 2014 – NASA’s Kepler confirmed the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star. Trivia for April 18 1902 – Quetzaltenango, the second largest city of Guatemala, is destroyed by an earthquake. 1906 (Earthquake) At 5:13 AM, an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California. 1923 – Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built”, opened. 1924 – Simon & Schuster published the first crossword puzzle book. 1930 – BBC reported there was no news, and then played out with piano music. 1983 – The Disney Channel began as a cable channel 1983 – A suicide bomber destroyed the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people. 1989 – In the People’s Republic of China (PRC), student protests grew until the Chinese government eventually suppressed them in June, during what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. 1995 – Rox became the first television show distributed via the internet 2012 – Dick Clark, host of “American Bandstand” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” died. 2014 – 16 people were killed in an avalanche on Mount Everest. Trivia for April 19 1897 – The first Boston Marathon was held. 1919 – Leslie Irvin made the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a self-contained parachute. 1956 – American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 1963 (Tornado) Cooch Behar, India 1977 – The Amazing Spider-Man debuted on CBS 1987 – The Tracey Ullman Show featured a short with “The Simpsons” 1993 – At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the FBI launched a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending with a fire that killed 80 members, including 22 children. 1995 – A massive truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people. 2009 – Cake Boss premiered on TLC Trivia for April 20 1841 – The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allen Poe, was published in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. It is considered the first detective story. 1871 – The Third Force Act, popularly known as the Ku Klux Act, Congress authorized President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law in stopping the Ku Klux Klan. 1912 – Opening day for baseball’s Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston. 1926 – Western Electric and the Warner Brothers film studio officially introduced Vitaphone, a new process that would enable the addition of sound to film. 1999 – At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people and wounded 23 more before killing themselves. 2008 – Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Car race 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon, run by British Petroleum (BP) drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers. Trivia for April 21 1895 – Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrate the “Panopticon” – the first movie projector developed in the United States. 1918 – Above the Somme River in France, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was killed by Allied fire, either by an air fight or from the ground. 1930 – 320 people were dead and another 130 were seriously injured in a prison fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary. 1981 – “Weird Al” Yankovic made his first national television appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder 1986 – Geraldo Rivera hosted a live, highly promoted two-hour syndicated special The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault. They found nothing 1990 – Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue aired, a special program that warned children about the dangers of drugs and featured characters from several Saturday morning children’s shows, was simulcast by ABC, BET, CBS, Fox, NBC, USA Network, and Nickelodeon. 1992 – The first discoveries of planets outside of our solar system (two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12) were announced by astronomers Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. Trivia for April 22 1864 – The U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864 that mandated that the inscription ‘In God We Trust’ would be placed on all coins minted as United States currency. 1876 – The first-ever National League baseball game is played in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Stockings. Boston won the game 6-5. 1912 – Pravda, the “voice” of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg. 1970 – Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, and this year initiated the annual event. 1978 – The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) made their first appearance on Saturday Night Live. 1998 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened at Walt Disney World. 2000 – US Federal Agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives’ home in Miami, and sent him back to Cuba. Trivia for April 23 1635 – The first public school in the Americas, the Boston Latin School, was founded in Boston. 1940 – Rhythm Club Fire (or The Natchez Dance Hall Holocaust) Natchez, Mississippi killed 198 people. 1961 – Judy Garland performed at Carnegie Hall, the performance is often called “the greatest night in showbiz history.” 2005 – First YouTube video was uploaded, titled “Me at the zoo”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw Trivia for April 24 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, was published in Boston, Massachusetts. 1800 – The Library of Congress was established. 1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. 1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, set sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop “Spray”. 1908 (Tornado) Amite, Louisiana and Purvis Missouri 1982 – Jane Fonda’s first Workout video was released. 1990 – STS-31 – The Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. Trivia for April 25 1719 – Daniel Defoe’s The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was published. 1792 – Highwayman (thief) Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine. 1859 – Ground was broken for opened the Suez Canal by British and French engineers. The 100-mile canal opened ten years later. 1901 – New York became the first US state to require automobile license plates. 1944 – The United Negro College Fund was incorporated. 1947 – President Harry Truman opened the two-lane White House bowling alley. 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson published “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA. 1954 – The first practical solar cell was demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories. 1982 – Israel completed the withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords. 1983 – Pioneer 10 traveled beyond Pluto’s orbit. 1992- Growing Pains and Who’s The Boss aired their final episodes Trivia for April 26 1278 – Imprisoned for murder, John le F*cker sent a letter asking for bail, the earliest recorded instance of the English swear word “f*ck”. 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Traditionally baptized three days after birth, this is how we know his birthday was April 23. 1721 (Earthquake) Tabriz, Iran 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established. 1954 – Polio vaccine trials began. 1977 – Studio 54 opened at 254 West 54th Street in New York City. 1986 – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, Ukraine 1989 (Tornado) Daulatpur-Salturia Tornado, Bangladesh killed 1300 people and injured 12,000. 1978 – Ringo Starr’s, Ringo, a musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, airs on NBC, with George Harrison narrating. 2010 – Boobquake was envisioned by Jennifer McCreight. An estimated 200,000 people participated worldwide, and the epicenter was considered the Purdue Bell Tower in West Lafayette, Indiana. 2011 – The Voice premiered on NBC Trivia for April 27 1667 – Blind writer John Milton sold his copyright to ‘Paradise Lost’ for 10 pounds. He needed the money because he was penniless at the time. 1865 – SS Sultana explosion, Mississippi River, near Memphis, Tennessee. 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor. 1956 – Rocky Marciano retired as world heavyweight boxing champion. 1992 – Betty Boothroyd became the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history. 2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972. 2014 – Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were declared saints. Trivia for April 28 1965 – My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand’s first TV special, aired on CBS. 1967 – World boxing champion Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.) refused to be inducted into the US Army and was immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. 1975 – Tom Snyder interviewed ex-Beatle John Lennon on The Tomorrow Show 1988 – Over Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing was blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and fell to her death when part of the plane’s fuselage ripped open in mid-flight. 1994- The Simpsons aired its 100th episode 2001 – Millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist. Trivia for April 29 1945 – The US Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberated the Dachau concentration camp. 1968 – The musical, Hair, opened at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, 1991 (Cyclone) Bangladesh Cyclone, in Bangladesh, killed 135,000 people. 1993 – A cartoon version of Barry White appeared on the fourth season finale of The Simpsons. 1992 – Rodney King trial verdict announced. Four police officers who had been charged with using excessive force in arresting black motorist Rodney King a year earlier were acquitted. Rioting ensued – over the next three days 53 people were killed and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. 1996 – TV Land network made its debut. 2011 – The Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Kate Middleton. Trivia for April 30 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase from France, for 15 million dollars, also included much (if not all of) of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. 1812 – The Territory of Orleans became the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana. 1900 – Casey Jones died in a train wreck in Vaughan, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express. 1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, in Hollywood. 1939 – The New York World’s Fair opened at Flushing Meadow Park in Queens. 1948 – The Land Rover, a British-made all-terrain vehicle, debuted at an auto show in Amsterdam. 1966 – The Church of Satan was established at the Black House in San Francisco. 1989 – CNBC, the first NBC cable channel and the first financial cable channel, began transmitting. 1992 – The finale for The Cosby Show aired on NBC 1992- The Nickelodeon time capsule was buried at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, FL. 1993 – Tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed by Gunter Parchein in Hamburg, Germany. 1997 – During the “Puppy” episode of “Ellen” it was revealed that the main/title character (Ellen) was gay
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