TODAY HISTORY LESSON: APRIL 19
1012 Aelfheah was murdered by Danes who had been ravaging the south of England. Aelfhear became the 29th Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005.
1689 Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros.
1764 The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money.
1770 Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.
1775 American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the World” took place in Concord later that day
1802 The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants.
1861 Baltimore riots – 4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed
1861 Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports (Civil War)
1880 The Times war correspondent telephones a report of the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news is sent from a field of battle in this manner.
1892 The Duryea gasoline buggy was introduced in the U.S. by Charles and Frank Duryea.
1897 The first Boston Marathon was run.
1909 Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church
1933 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that removed the U.S. from the gold standard.
1939 Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights.
1943 The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule begins.
1951 General Douglas MacArthur gave his “Old Soldiers” speech before the U.S. Congress after being relieved by U.S. President Truman. In the address General MacArthur said that “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
1967 Surveyor 3 landed on the moon and began sending photos back to the U.S
1981 In Davao, Philippines, thirteen people were killed when members of the New People’s Army threw hand grenades into the Roman Catholic cathedral during Easter services.
1982 The U.S. announced a ban on U.S. tourist and business traval to Cuba. The U.S. charged the Cuban government with subversion in Central America.
1982 NASA named Guion S. Bluford Jr. as the first African-American astronaut.
1982 NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut.
1987 The last California condor known to be in the wild was captured and placed in a breeding program at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
1989 The battleship USS Iowa’s number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors.
1993 The siege at Waco, Texas, ended when FBI moved into the Branch Davidian compound with tear gas and cult members set fire to the compound killing over 80 people.
1995 168 die in the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind behind the attack, was executed on June 11, 2001. The motives for the bombing, which also killed 19 babies and children, remain somewhat unclear.
2002 The USS Cole was relaunched. In Yemen, 17 sailors were killed when the ship was attacked by terrorists on October 12, 2000. The attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
2005 Germany’s Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.
2011 Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba’s central committee after 45 years of holding the title.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
