TODAY HISTORY LESSON: APRIL 21
0043 Marcus Antonius is defeated by Octavian near Modena, Italy.
0753 Traditional date of the foundation of Rome.
1649 The Maryland Toleration Act is passed, allowing all people freedom of worship.
1689 William III and Mary II are crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
1792 Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes, is hanged, drawn and quartered in Rio de Janeiro
1794 NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
1836 General Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Texas wins independence from Mexico.
1895 Woodville Latham and his sons demonstrated their Panopticon. It was the first movie projector developed in the United States.
1898 The Spanish-American War begins.
1914 U.S. Marines occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico. They will stay six months.
1918 German fighter ace Baron von Richthofen, “The Red Baron,” is shot down and killed.
1944 NFL Chicago Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers merge (dissolves on Dec 3)
1960 Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia.
1967 Dictator Georgios Papadopoulos assumes power in Greece. During his six-year reign, thousands of polit
1976 Swine Flu vaccine, for non-epidemic, enters testing
1984 Centers for Disease Control says virus discovered in France causes AIDS
1986 Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone’s vault on TV & finds nothing
1989 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom
1992 Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed by the state of California in 25 years. He was put to death for the 1978 murder of two teen-age boys.
1995 Federal authorities arrest Timothy McVeigh in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing.
1998 Astronomers announced in Washington that they had discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away.
2000 The 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act went into effect.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
