April 4
Today in America's Present Past
1750 | Founder George Mason wed Ann Eilbeck.
1792 | Politician Thaddeus Stevens was born.
1802 | Nurse Dorothea Dix was born.
1818 | Congress: Enacted the Flag Act of 1818. It adopted the “U.S. Flag design” with thirteen stars and red and blue stripes, adding a new one for each new state on the 4th of July following a state’s admission to the Union.
1821 | Entrepreneur Linus Yale was born.
1841 | POTUS: President Harrison died.
1841 | POTUS: President Tyler was sworn in.
1859 | The first “minstrel” show, “Dixie,” premiered in New York.
1861 | SCOTUS: Justice John McLean died.
1862 | Civil War: Union forces launched the Peninsular Campaign.
1865 | Civil War: Battle of Amelia Springs, Virginia.
1869 | Architect Mary Colter was born.
1887 | Civil Rights: The first woman mayor was elected in Argonia, Kansas.
1895 | Choreographer and entrepreneur Arthur Murray was born.
1913 | Musician Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) was born.
1923 | Motion picture company Warner Brothers was formed.
1925 | Poet Emmett Williams was born.
1928 | Poet Maya Angelou was born.
1931 | Admiral Bobby Ray Inmann was born.
1932 | Producer Clive Davis was born.
1932 | Politician Richard Lugar was born.
1933 | The Navy’s “flying aircraft carrier” (a rigid airship) crashed off the coast of New Jersey during a storm, killing 73. It remains the deadliest airship accident in history.
1934 | Toledo riots starts.
1944 | Poet John Peale Bishop died.
1945 | Allied forces liberate the first concentration camp, Ohrdruf,(a part of the Buchenwald complex) in Germany. Generals Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley visited the camp a week later; Eisenhower was so horrified he ordered every nearby American unit that wasn’t at the front to visit so they could see the reality of the Holocaust.
1949 | The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed.
1950 | Actress Christine Lahti was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1965 | Actor Robert Downey Jr. was born.
1968 | Civil Rights: Martin Luther King (MLK) assassinated.
1968 | Civil Rights: MLK-related riots break out in Memphis, Tennessee; Detroit, Michigan; New York City; Tallahassee, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Boston, Massachusetts; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
1973 | The twin towers (World Trade Centers) were officially dedicated in New York City.
1975 | Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft.
1991 | Congress: Senator Heinz (PA) died as his helicopter collided with a plane over an elementary school.
2013 | Film critic Roger Ebert died.
2023. | Auto racer Craig Breedlove died.