TODAY HISTORY LESSON: APRIL 5
2348 BC Noah’s ark grounded, Mount Ararat (calculated date)
1242 Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.
1614 Pocahontas married John Rolfe.
1621 The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, MA, on a return trip to England.
1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific
1792 George Washington casts the first presidential veto.
1806 Isaac Quintard patented the cider mill.
1843 Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.
1847 Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, opens in Birkenhead, England, designed by Joseph Paxton
1865 As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine’s Cross Road.
1894 11 strikers killed in riot at Connellsville PA
1895 Oscar Wilde loses his criminal libel case triggered by accusations of homosexuality. The Marquess of Queensbury had left his calling card in the Albemarle Club with the added inscription, “For Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite” (sic).
1930 Mahatma Gandhi defies British law by making salt in India instead of buying it from the British.
1933 The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.
1955 Winston Churchill resigns as U.K. Prime Minister
1986 A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.
1987 Fox TV network premieres showing “Married With Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show”
1998 The world’s largest suspension bridge opens to traffic. The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan features the world’s longest central span, measuring 1991 meters (6532 feet).
1999 In Laramie, WY, Russell Henderson pled guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard.
1999 Two Libyans suspected of bombing a Pan Am jet in 1988 were handed over so they could be flown to the Netherlands for trial. 270 people were killed in the bombing.
2009 North Korea launched the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
2063 Earth’s 1st contact by extra-terrestrials (Vulcan); according to Star Trek
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
