TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 1
1578 William Harvey of England discovers blood circulation
1748 Ruins of Pompeii rediscovered by Spaniard Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre
1778 Oliver Pollock, creates the dollar sign.
1853 Cincinnati becomes 1st US city to pay firefighters a regular salary
1866 US Congress rejects presidential veto gives all equal rights in US
1891 Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Ill., by William Wrigley, Jr., originally selling goods such as soap and baking powder
1918 England’s Royal Air Force is formed.
1920 Germany’s Workers Party changes its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis).
1929 The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by Louie Marx.
1946 Weight Watchers forms
1948 The Berlin Airlift begins, relieving the surrounded city from the Soviet siege.
1952 Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow
1954 WQED TV channel 13 in Pittsburgh PA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1957 The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax The 3-minute film shown on the current affairs program, Panorama, portrayed a Swiss family apparently harvesting spaghetti from a tree.
1963 NYC’s newspapers resume publishing after a 114 day strike
1970 President Richard Nixon signed legislation calling for mandatory health warnings on tobacco product packaging and banning cigarette ads on TV and radio, effective January 1, 1971
1974 Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an Islamic Republic in Iran
1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’ parents house in Cupertino, California
1982 The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.
1990 “Ha!” the Comedy Channel on cable tv begins transmitting
1991 US minimum wage goes from $3.80 to $4.25 per hour
1991 Supreme Court rules jurors can’t be barred from serving due to race
1992 Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) decommissioned
1992 World’s 7 wealthiest nations agree on $24 billion aid for former USSR
2001 Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to make same-sex marriage legal
2003 U.S. Marines rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, who had been held prisoner in Iraq since an ambush on March 23.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
