1881 – Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
1900 – US Post Office issues 1st book of postage stamps.
1922 – Annie Oakley sets women’s record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row.
1923 – 27th Boston Marathon won by Clarence DeMar in 2:23:37.4 for second straight year; 3rd race victory.
1932 – Short film “The Music Box” released in the US, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (1932 Academy Award Best Live Action, Short Film)
1940 – Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller hurls the first and only Opening Day no-hitter in MLB history; beats Chicago White Sox 1-0 at Comiskey Park.
1945 – Battle of Okinawa: US troops land and seize the Le Shima airfield on Le Shima Island near Okinawa.
1947 – Fire aboard French -flagged cargo ship SS Grandchamp, docked at Port of Texas City, Texas and loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate, causes massive explosion and spreads to nearby ships and oil facilities; deadliest industrial accident in US history kills 581, including all but one member of the city’s fire department.
1956 – 1st solar powered radios go on sale.
1962 – Walter Cronkite begins anchoring CBS Evening News.
1972 – Two giant pandas arrive in the US from China.
1978 – Cardinals’ Bob Forsch no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0, in St. Louis.
1987 – FCC imposes a broader definition of indecency over airwaves.
1987 – Michael Jordan becomes the second NBA player in history to score 3,000 points in a season.
1990 – Maximum New York state unemployment benefits raised to $260 per week.
1993 – Jury reaches guilty verdict in federal case against police officers (two convicted, two acquitted) who beat Rodney King, but the verdict is not read until April 17th.
2004 – The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first Transatlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.
2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide.
2019 – Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson becomes the highest-paid player in NFL history with a 4-year, $140m extension including a record $65m signing bonus.
2020 – 12 million Americans have filed for unemployment in 4 weeks (5.2 million in the last week), wiping out 9½ years of job gains.
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