This Week in History

April 27

Michelle Comins was born. 

Nancy Gahles was born.

1956 – Rocky Marciano retired as the undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion.

1983 – Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record — one Johnson had held since 1927.

APRIL 28

Jim Moore was born.

1945 – Benito Mussolini was executed.

1947 – Thor Heyerdahl and five others began their Pacific Ocean crossing on the raft, Kon-Tiki.

APRIL 29

Terence McNicholas was born. 

Mary Sternhell was born.

1992 – A Los Angeles jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating Rodney King. Massive rioting and looting ensued.

APRIL 30

Rose Love Resker was born. 

Margaret O’Hanlon was born.

Donna Hickey Graves was born.

1803 – France sold Louisiana and adjoining lands to the United States

as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

1945 – Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide.

MAY 1

John O’Connor was born.

Trends by Meg was born.

1931 – The Empire State Building opened in New York City. At 102 stories, it would be the world’s tallest building for the next 41 years.

1960 – The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Soviet territory.

MAY 2

Mary Kilgallen was born.

1939 – Lou Gehrig established a new major-league baseball record when he played his 2,130th consecutive game. It would take another 57 years before Cal Ripken, Jr., broke it.

2011 – U.S. troops and CIA operatives shot and killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

MAY 3

Marian Scannell Slakman was born.

Claudine Larson was born.

1937 – Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Gone With the Wind.