04/18/2024
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1905 – 127 degrees, Parker, Arizona (state record until 1994)

1912 – American athlete Jim Thorpe wins 4 of 5 events to win the Pentathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics, medal stripped 1913 (played pro baseball), reinstated 1982.

1923 – University of Delaware invents “junior year abroad” (at Sorbonne)

1928 – Sliced bread sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company, Missouri, using a machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. Described as the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.

1926 – American businessman Henry F. Phillips receives patents for a new “cross-recessed” screw, and the new screwdriver needed to make it work.

1941 – US forces land in Iceland to forestall Nazi invasion.

1946 – Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, Catholic nun (Missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,) canonized as 1st American saint.

1948 – 6 female reservists become 1st women sworn into regular US Navy.

1948 – Cleveland Indians stun Major League Baseball by signing 42-year-old veteran Negro Leagues pitcher Satchel Paige.

1958 – President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill approving Alaskan statehood.

1960 – USSR shoots down a US aircraft over Barents Sea.

1972 – 1st women FBI members sworn in (Susan Lynn Roley & Joanne E. Pierce)

1978 – NBA approves franchise swap: Buffalo Braves owner John Y. Brown and Harry Mangurian acquire Boston Celtics, while the Celtics owner Irv Levin gets Braves, later moved to San Diego to become the Clippers.

1981 – Sandra Day O’Conner nominated for the Supreme Court, 1st female Supreme Court justice.

1987 – Kiwanis Clubs end men-only tradition, vote to admit women.

1987 – Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North begins public testimony at Iran-Contra hearing.

1996 – Space Shuttle STS 78 (Columbia 20), lands.

2001 – In his first appearance at Daytona since the death of his father Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins Pepsi 400 coming from 7th with 9 laps remaining to beat teammate Michael Waltrip.

2016 – In Dallas, Texas, lone gunman shoots and kills five police officers, wounding others during a protest march against fatal police shootings of African Americans.

2017 – Tesla Motors produces its first mass-market car, the Model 3.

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