On 4 April 1968, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, was shot at Memphis, TN. James Earl Ray was serving a 99-year sentence for the crime at the time of his death in 1998.
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National Hug a Newsperson Day is an opportunity to thank a local newsperson. Read more at https://nationaltoday.com/national-hug-newsperson-day/.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation Liscense, author VP7071.
On 4 April 1949. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created by this treaty, which was signed by 12 nations, including the US. (Other countries joined later.) The NATO member nations are united for common defense. The treaty went into effect Apr 24, 1949, and the first session of the North Atlantic Council was held Sept 17, 1949.
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Black educator and leader Booker Taliaferro Washington was born on 5 April 1856 at Franklin County, Virginia. “No race can prosper,” he wrote in Up from Slavery, “till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Died at Tuskegee, Alabama, 14 November, 1915.
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5 April is National Deep Dish Pizza Day to celebrate Chicago deep dish pizza—originated by Uno’s— and the efforts by Uno Chicago Grill to bring deep dish pizza to the entire United States. The original restaurant, which opened in 1943, began serving deep dish as a way to make sure hungry families could get a “real meal” when it came to pizza. Up to that point, pizza was hardly more than a snack. Annually celebrated on the anniversary of the day (5 April 1979) that the first restaurant outside Chicago opened (in Boston, Massachusetts).
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National Read a Road Map Day recalls the days before GPS, but knowing how to read a paper map will come in handy if you don’t have a signal or your electronic navigation fails. Read more at https://driving-tests.org/beginner-drivers/reading-a-road-map-lost-art/.
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On 5 April, the Confucian festival of Qing Ming was traditionally celebrated on the fourth or fifth day of the third month but is now on fixed dates (Apr 4 or 5) in China. It is observed by the maintenance of ancestral graves, the presentation of food, wine and flowers as offerings and the burning of paper money at gravesides to help ancestors in the after-world. People also picnic and gather for family meals.
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On 6 April 1830, under the leadership of Joseph Smith, Jr, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded with six members in a log cabin at Fayette, New York.
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On 6 April 1896, the first modern Olympics formally opened at Athens, Greece, after a 1,500-year hiatus. Thirteen nations participated, represented by 235 male athletes.
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On 6 April 1909, Robert E. Peary reached the North Pole after several failed attempts. The team consisted of Peary, leader of the expedition; Matthew A. Henson, a black man who had served with Peary since 1886 as ship’s cook, carpenter and blacksmith, and then as Peary’s co-explorer and valuable assistant; and four Eskimo guides— Coquesh, Ootah, Eginwah and Seegloo.
They sailed July 17, 1908, on the ship Roosevelt, wintering on Ellesmere Island. After a grueling trek with dwindling food supplies, Henson and two of the Eskimos were first to reach the Pole. An exhausted Peary arrived 45 minutes later and confirmed their location. Dr. Frederick A. Cook, surgeon on an earlier expedition with Peary, claimed to have reached the Pole first, but that could not be substantiated and the National Geographic Society credited the Peary expedition.
Image: Thom Gillis, CC, Wikimedia Commons
Tartan Day c
elebrates the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 and is a day to celebrate your Scottish roots.
On 6 April 1917, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany and the US entered WWI, which had begun in 1914. The first US “doughboys” landed in France 27 June 1917.
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A day to celebrate hard-copy media. Pick up a print newspaper or magazine and read it!
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On 7 April 1795, the metric system was adopted in France, where it had been developed.
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When the Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect at 12: 01 AM on 7 April 1933, thirsty customers could buy a beer that was 3.2 percent alcohol by weight instead of the “near beer” they had suffered with all through Prohibition. The public lined up on “New Beer’s Eve” (Apr 6) at breweries in 20 states and Washington, DC, and purchased 1.5 million barrels. 7 April has remained an unofficial holiday celebrating beer in the US.
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No trash. No dishes. No making of beds or washing of laundry. And no guilt. Give it a rest.
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On 8 Apil 1952, President Harry S Truman seized control of the nation’s steel mills by presidential order in an attempt to prevent a shutdown by strikers. On Apr 29, a US district court declared the seizure unconstitutional and workers immediately walked out. Production dropped from 300,000 tons a day to less than 20,000. After 53 days the strike ended July 24, with steelworkers receiving a 16-cent hourly wage raise plus a 5.4-cent hourly increase in fringe benefits.
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On 8 April 1974, Henry (“ Hammerin’ Hank”) Aaron hit the 715th home run of his career, breaking the record set by Babe Ruth in 1935. Playing for the Atlanta Braves, Aaron broke the record at Atlanta in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He finished his career in 1976 with a total of 755 home runs. At the time of his retirement, Aaron also ranked first in RBIs, second in at bats and runs scored and third in base hits. On 7 August 2007, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit his 756th home run to break Aaron’s record.
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National Zoo Lovers Day is the perfect time to visit a zoo.
Image © Laura Hedgecock, used with permission.
Apr 8, 1990. Born Dec 6, 1971, at Kokomo, IN, Ryan White put the face of a child on AIDS and helped promote greater understanding of the disease.
A hemophiliac, White contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. He was banned from the public school system in Central Indiana at the age of 10 due to misinformation and fear regarding the spread of the disease. He moved with his mother and sister to Cicero, IN, where he was accepted by students and faculty alike. His situation gained national media attention and the interest of many celebrities, notably Elton John. He died on this date at the age of 18 at Indianapolis, IN.
Learn more at RyanWhite.com.
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Apr 9, 1816. The first all-black US religious denomination, the AME Church was organized at Philadelphia, PA, with Richard Allen, a former slave who had bought his freedom, as the first bishop.
On 9 April 1942, American and Filipino prisoners were herded together by Japanese soldiers on Mariveles Airfield at Bataan (in the Philippine islands) and began the Death March to Camp O’Donnell, near Cabanatuan. During the six-day march they were given only one bowl of rice. More than 5,200 Americans and many more Filipinos lost their lives in the course of the march.
Image credit: Author Judgefloro, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license via Wikimedia Commons.
National Cherish an Antique Day is a good time to bring out those heirlooms and to learn the history behind an object that belonged to one’s ancestors.
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Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day – On the anniversary of the Bataan Death March, Americans pause to honor servicemen and women who experienced unspeakable cruelty as prisoners of war to ensure our freedom. Read more at https://www.vfwnationalhome.org/single-post/2017/04/09/Former-Prisoners-of-War-Recognition-Day.
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On 9 April 1947, a monster tornado clearing a 1.5-mile-long path struck through at least 12 towns in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 169 people and causing more than $ 15 million in damage. The tornado traveled 221 miles across the three states.
Image Credit: NOAA.gov image, public domain
