TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 1
0374 Halley’s Comet approaches within 0.0884 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1748 Ruins of Pompeii rediscovered by Spaniard Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre
1778 Oliver Pollock, creates the dollar sign.
1789 Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.
1826 Samuel Mory patents internal combustion engine
1863 The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the United States.
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.
1933 The Nazi persecution of Jews began in Germany with a boycott of Jewish businesses.
1939 The Spanish Civil War effectively ends with the official recognition of Franco’s government.
1945 U.S. forces launch invasion of Okinawa.
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 The U.S. Air Force Academy is founded in Colorado.
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. A number of viewers later contacted the BBC to inquire where to find and how to grow such a plant. The hoax is regarded as one of the best April Fools jokes ever pulled.
1970 President Nixon signed a bill into law banning cigarette ads from radio and television.
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 Supreme Court rules jurors can’t be barred from serving due to race
1992 Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) decommissioned
1998 A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell “far short” of being worthy of a trial.
2001 China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.
2003 Pvt. Jessica Lynch was rescued by U.S. commandos in a raid on an Iraqi hospital.
2004 President Bush signed the “Laci Peterson” bill making it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an attack on the mother.
2010 The U.S. Congress cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians by 21%.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
