This Week in History

April 11

Joe Kenel was born.

Kelly Werner was born.

Tom Burke was born.

1814 – Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba.

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

April 12

Edwin Williams was born.

Charles Knopper was born.

Miriam Rosenberg was born.

1955 – The polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was called “safe, effective, and potent.”

2017 – Jim Cunningham appeared in The Word Search.

April 13

Pesach Osina was born.

Kate Rizzo was born.

1970 – Apollo 13 announced, “Houston, we have a problem,” when an oxygen tank burst on the way to the Moon.

1997 – Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first of African descent to win a major golf title.

April 14

Peter Galvin was born.

Linda Humphrey was born.

1828 – Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary.

1865 – Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

April 15

Michael William Coughlin was born.

Phil Goldfeder was born.

Kelly Kalisak was born.

Catherine Murphy was born.

Kathy Marquardt was born.

1912 – Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland after it struck an iceberg.

1947 – Jackie Robinson made his Brooklyn Dodger debut and scored the game-winning run.

April 16

1972 – China sent President Nixon two giant pandas as a gift.

1999 – Hockey great Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement.

April 17 

Robert Zimmer was born.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan was convicted for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.

1970 – The Apollo 13 astronauts safely landed after their near-disastrous flight.