History of 1 April

History of 1 April

1905 – The British East African Protectorate became the colony of Kenya.

1905 – Paris and Berlin were linked by telephone.

1916 – The first U.S. national women’s swimming championships were held.

1918 – England’s Royal Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force.

1924 – Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for high treason in relation to the “Beer Hall Putsch.”

1924 – Imperial Airways was formed in Britain.

1927 – The first automatic record changer was introduced by His Master’s Voice.

1928 – China’s Chiang Kai-shek began attacking communists.

1929 – Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo.

1930 – Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA.

1931 – An Earthquake devastated Managua Nicaragua killing 2,000.

1931 – Jackie Mitchell became the first female in professional baseball when she signed with the Chattanooga Baseball Club.

1933 – Nazi Germany began the persecution of Jews by boycotting Jewish businesses.

1935 – The first radio tube to be made of metal was announced.

1937 – Aden became a British colony.

1938 – The first commercially successful fluorescent lamps were introduced.

1938 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, NY.

1939 – The U.S. recognized the Franco government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war.

1941 – The first contract for advertising on a commercial FM radio station began on W71NY in New York City.

1945 – U.S. forces invaded Okinawa during World War II. It was the last campaign of World War II.

1946 – Weight Watchers was formed.

1946 – A tidal wave (tsunami) struck the Hawaiian Islands killing more than 170 people.

1948 – The Berlin Airlift began.

1949 – “Happy Pappy” premiered. It was the first all-black-cast variety show.

1950 – Italian Somalia became a United Nations trust territory under Italian administration.

1952 – The Big Bang theory was proposed in “Physical Review” by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow.

1953 – The U.S. Congress created the Department of Health Education and Welfare.

1954 – The U.S. Air Force Academy was formed in Colorado.

1955 – “One Man’s Family” was seen on TV for the final time after a six-year run on NBC-TV.

1960 – France exploded 2 atom bombs in the Sahara Desert.

1960 – The U.S. launched TIROS-1. It was the first weather satellite.

1963 – Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962.

1963 – The Soap operas “General Hospital” and “Doctors” premiered on television.

1970 – The U.S. Army charged Captain Ernest Medina in the My Lai massacre.

1970 – U.S. President Nixon signed the bill, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, that banned cigarette advertisements to be effective on January 1, 1971.

1971 – The United Kingdom lifted all restrictions on gold ownership.

1972 – North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops renewed their offensive in South Vietnam.

1973 – Japan allowed its citizens to own gold.

1980 – A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz occurred.

1982 – The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.

1983 – New York Islander Mike Bossy became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 60 goals in 3 consecutive seasons.

1985 – World oil prices dropped below $10 a barrel.

1986 – The U.S. submarine Nathaniel Green ran aground in the Irish Sea.

1987 – Steve Newman became the first man to walk around the world. The walk was 22,000 miles and took 4 years.

1987 – U.S. President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, “We’ve declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1.”

1991 – Iran released British hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years.

1991 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors could not be barred from serving due to their race.

1991 – The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved.

1992 – Players began the first strike in the 75-year history of the National Hockey League (NHL).

1996 – U.S. President Bill Clinton threw out the first ball preceding a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.

1997 – David Carradine received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 – A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell “far short” of being worthy of a trial.

1999 – In Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Anatoliy Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men, women and children. 43 of the killings occurred in a 6-month period.

1999 – The Canadian territory of Nunavut was created. It was carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories and covered about 772,000 square miles.

2001 – China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.

2001 – Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour standoff with the police at his Belgrade villa.

2003 – North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its west coast.

2003 – Jason Mewes was ordered to complete drug rehabilitation or face five years in jail stemming from a drug conviction in 1999.

2004 – U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill made it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.

2004 – Gateway Inc. announced that it would be closing all of its 188 stores on April 9.

2009 – Albania and Croatia joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

2010 – The U.S. Congress cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians by 21%.

2016 – Nagorno-Karabakh clashes: The Four Day War or April War, began along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on April 1.

Celebrating Birthday Today

• 1981 – Antonis Fotsis, Greek basketball player
• 1981 – Bjørn Einar Romøren, Norwegian ski jumper
• 1982 – Taran Killam, American actor, voice artist, comedian, and writer
• 1982 – Andreas Thorkildsen, Norwegian javelin thrower
• 1983 – Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer
• 1983 – Sean Taylor, American football player (d. 2007)
• 1984 – Gilberto Macena, Brazilian footballer
• 1985 – Daniel Murphy, American baseball player
• 1985 – Beth Tweddle, English gymnast
• 1986 – Hillary Scott, American country singer-songwriter
• 1987 – Gianluca Musacci, Italian footballer
• 1987 – Oliver Turvey, English racing driver
• 1988 – Brook Lopez, American basketball player
• 1988 – Robin Lopez, American basketball player
• 1989 – Jan Blokhuijsen, Dutch speed skater
• 1989 – David N’Gog, French footballer
• 1989 – Christian Vietoris, German racing driver
• 1990 – Julia Fischer, German discus thrower
• 1992 – Deng Linlin, Chinese gymnast
• 1995 – Logan Paul, American Youtuber, and actor
• 1997 – Álex Palou, Spanish racing driver
• 1997 – Asa Butterfield, English actor