Today is Wednesday, April 19, the 109th day of the year. There are 256 days remaining until the end of the year.
1995 In what was the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history up to that time, a truck bomb nearly destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and injuring more than 500 people.
1993 After a 51-day standoff with U.S. federal agents, some 80 members of the millennialist Branch Davidian religious group perished in a fire at their compound near Waco, Texas.
1989 The battleship USS Iowa‘s number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors.
1982 NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut.
1977 Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots.
1971 Russia launches its first Salyut space station.
1967 Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years (they don't) 1963 Johnny Cash releases single 'Ring Of Fire' written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore 1960 Baseball uniforms begin displaying player’s names on their backs.
1943 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an act of resistance by Polish Jews under Nazi occupation, began this day and was quelled four weeks later, on May 16.
1939 Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late) 1934 Shirley Temple appears in her first movie. 1932 Bonnie Parker is captured in a failed hardware store burglary, and subsequently jailed. A grand jury fails to indict her, however, and she is released a few months later 1927 American actress Mae West was sentenced to 10 days in jail, convicted of obscenity and “corrupting the morals of youth” with her portrayal of a prostitute in the Broadway play Sex, which she also wrote; the pu.blicity made her nationally known.
Also 1937 In China, Hankow communists declare war on Chiang Kai-shek 1906 San Francisco Earthquake ends killing 452 1897 First Boston Marathon (B.A.A. Road Race), won by John J. McDermott in 2:55:10; the world's oldest annual marathon inspired by success of the first marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics 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.
1861 Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports during the American War Between the States.
1775 American Revolution begun.
Launched this day in 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution was an effort by 13 British colonies in North America (with help from France, Spain and the Netherlands) to win their independence.