1902 – James Cash Penney opened his first store, The Golden Rule Store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming. It evolved into the JC Penney chain.
1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt denounced “muckrakers” in the media, taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
1910 – President William Howard Taft began the tradition of throwing a ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day of baseball season, tossing a pitch at a game between the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics.
1912 – RMS Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner, hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. off Newfoundland and sank in the early hours of April 15.
1925 – The first regular-season Chicago Cubs game was broadcast on radio. Quin Ryan broadcast the game on WGN from the grandstand roof as the Cubs beat Pittsburgh 8-2.
1936 – The Black Sunday dust storm ravaged the Midwest, leading to the region being named the “Dust Bowl.” The storm was so intense that it turned daylight into darkness, hence the name.
1939 – John Steinbeck’s novel “Grapes of Wrath” was published. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction
1955 – 26-year-old catcher/outfielder Elston Howard became the first African-American to play for the New York Yankees. He had a base hit and drove in a run in an 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox.
1981 – The first Space Shuttle, Columbia 1, returned to Earth after 2 days and 6 hours in space, marking the first time a reusable, piloted spacecraft had successfully orbited the Earth and returned safely.
1983 – President Ronald Reagan signed a $165 billion Social Security rescue plan.
1986 – United States aircraft attacked five terrorist locations in Libya during Operation El Dorado Canyon.
1992 – A federal court threw out Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft that accused Microsoft of stealing elements of its Macintosh operating system to create Windows 2.0.
1994 – An American F-15 accidentally shot down two United States helicopters over Iraq, killing all 26 military and civilians aboard.
2002 – 66th Masters Tournament, Augusta National Golf Club: Tiger Woods became the third player to claim back-to-back Masters championship with a 3-stroke win over Retief Goosen of South Africa.
2012 – J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, launched her website “Pottermore,” which is now the Wizarding World website.
2019 – 11 tornadoes hit southern states, killing eight people in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, and causing widespread damage.
2021 – President Joe Biden said “It’s time to end America’s longest war,” confirming his decision to withdraw all United States troops from Afghanistan by September 11.
Author: Sonny Jones
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