This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to
secure our independence and our liberties that remain the
foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Apr 6-12, 2026
April 6
1789 – The first U.S. Congress began regular sessions at Federal Hall in New York City. George Washington was inaugurated there the same month.
1896 – The first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece. American James Connolly was known as the first modern Olympic Champion. He left Harvard at age 27 to compete in Athens. Connolly won a Silver medal in the high jump, a Bronze medal in the long jump, and a Gold medal in the triple jump. Connolly also competed in the 1900 and 1906 Olympics. Connolly died in 1957 at age 88.
1909 – Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole. Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole one year earlier. In 1988, Matthew Henson was buried next to Robert Peary in Arlington National Cemetery. Henson died in 1955 and was originally buried in New York City’s Woodlawn Cemetery.
1924 – Four Douglas airplanes left Seattle, Washington, on the first successful around-the-world flight. They traveled about 25,000 miles and returned to Seattle on September 28th.
1947 – The First Tony Awards, formally known as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Among the winners were José Ferrer in “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Ingrid Bergman in “Joan of Lorraine.” Antoinette “Tony” Perry was a stage actress and director in the early 1900s. She also co-founded the American
Theatre Wing, which operated the Stage Door Canteens during WWII. Perry died in 1946 at age 58 and the first awards were given out in 1947.
1954 – The first frozen TV dinner, made by Swanson & Sons, went on sale. They cost 98 cents and contained turkey, sweet potatoes, peas, and corn bread stuffing. Watch a 1955 Swanson commercial.
1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam. The last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam in March 1973. America’s longest war is now the War in Afghanistan (19 years, 10 months), which lasted five months longer than the Vietnam War (19 years, 5 months).
1983 – The Veteran’s Administration (VA) announced it will give free medical care for conditions traceable to radiation exposure to more than 220,000 veterans who participated in nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962.
2009 – President Barack Hussein Obama, during a visit to Turkey, announced that the U.S. is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Watch his claim.
April 7
1890 – Ellis Island was designated as an immigration station. Prior to this the individual states regulated immigration. A new structure was built and opened in 1892 and operated for 61 years. The original building is now part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
1922 – President Warren G. Harding’s Interior Secretary, Albert B. Fall, leased the Teapot Dome oil reserves to Harry Sinclair without competitive bidding, setting in motion what became known as the Teapot Dome Scandal.
1933 – Prohibition ended when Utah becomes the 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment. The prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages began in 1919.
1966 – The U.S. recovered an H-bomb from the floor of the Mediterranean Sea after a 2 ½ month search. Four H-bombs were released, with two detonating, when a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker collided in air while refueling, killing 7 of the 11 crew members on board the two aircraft. Both aircraft were destroyed and the other three bombs were found on land in southern Spain. Watch a report of the mission and crash, with actual recovery footage.
1970 – John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in the movie “True Grit.” He starred in over 200 films. John Wayne died in 1979 at age 72.
2001 – The Mars Odyssey rocket was launched. The mission has been extended five times. It had enough propellant to last until the end of 2025 but remains fully operational. It is the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet (other than Earth).
2003 – U.S. troops captured Baghdad, Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s regime fell two days later. Saddam was captured in December, convicted of mass killings, and hanged in 2006.
2003 – The Supreme Court ruled that, although burning a cross at a Ku Klux Klan rally is protected by the First Amendment, burning a cross as a means of intimidation is not, thus upholding a 50-year-old Virginia law.
April 8
1913 – The 17th amendment is ratified, requiring the direct election of senators. Prior to that, Senators were chosen by each state legislature and was vulnerable to corruption. It also allowed governors to appoint a Senator to fill a vacant seat until a special election could be held.
1952 – President Harry Truman seized U.S. steel mills to prevent a strike. In June the Supreme Court ruled the president lacked the authority to seize the steel mills. The 53-day strike ended with union workers accepting the same terms proposed before the strike.
1964 – The unmanned Gemini 1 rocket was launched on America’s first successful orbit of the earth. It completed three orbits.
1974 – Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714. Watch Hank’s record breaking swing and the subsequent pomp and circumstance.
2006 – The Senate was unable to approve the compromise bill that was designed for millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens. The bill’s supporters could only muster 38 of the 60 votes that were needed to protect it from amendments that its opponents introduced. Both parties blamed each other for the deal’s collapse.
2015 – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now age 32, was convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed 3 and injured 264 others. He was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution. Following several appeals the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty sentence would stand.
2015 – Sarah Thomas was hired as the first full-time female referee in NFL history. She was an official in the 2019 Patriots v Charges post-season game. There are currently five female NFL referees.
April 9
1865 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee and 26,765 Confederate troops surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia to U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War. The following day Lee issued his last order at Appomattox General Order #9, praising his soldiers and ordering them to return home.
1939 – Marian Anderson sang before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. She was scheduled to appear at Constitution Hall, but the DAR, who manages the Hall, denied her access because of her race. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR in protest and helped arrange for Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial. Watch a Newsreel story.
1963 – Winston Churchill became the first honorary U.S. citizen. Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome of Brooklyn, New York, married Lord Randolph Churchill of England. Winston was born in England.
1992 – Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami, Florida, on eight drug and racketeering charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. After his release, the French government ordered Noriega’s extradition to France, where he was convicted for his crimes. The Panamanian government found Noriega guilty in absentia in 1995 for murder and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He was transferred to Panama in 2011, where he died in 2017 at age 83.
2001 – The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered all U.S. stock markets to switch to the decimal system. Prior to that, stock prices were reported in fractions (sixteenths of a dollar).
2012 – “The Lion King” became (and remains) the highest grossing Broadway show, cumulatively grossing over $2 billion. “The Phantom of the Opera” is still the longest running Broadway show (37 years).
April 10
1790 – Captain Robert Gray was the first American to circumnavigate the globe. He repeated his trek in 1793. Gray died in 1806 at the age of 51.
1912 – RMS Titanic set sail for New York City on its first (and only) voyage. The “unsinkable” ship hit an iceberg just before midnight on the 14th and sank on the morning of the 15th. Titanic’s survivors arrived in New York City aboard the Carpathia on April 18th. Watch grainy silent footage of survivors aboard the Carpathia in New York.
1971 – The American table tennis team arrived in China. They were the first group of Americans officially allowed into China since the founding of the People Republic in 1949. The team received the surprise invitation while in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship.
1996 – President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill that would have outlawed a technique used to end pregnancies in their late stages (late term abortions).
2012 – Apple Inc. claimed a value of $600 billion, making it the largest company (by market capitalization) in the world.
April 11
1783 – After receiving a copy of the provisional Treaty of Paris on March 13th, the U.S. Congress proclaimed a formal end to hostilities with Great Britain (aka The Revolutionary War).
1898 – President McKinley asked for a declaration of War against Spain. Congress passed a resolution on April 20th, giving Spain an ultimatum to relinquish control of Cuba. When they refused, Congress voted to wage war on Spain. The Spanish-American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10th.
1921 – The first radio broadcast of a sports event aired on Westinghouse station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the broadcast of a 10-round, no-decision boxing match between Johnny Dundee and Johnny Ray at Pittsburgh’s Motor Square Garden.
1956 – Singer Nat “King” Cole was attacked and injured on stage of a Birmingham theater by whites in an apparent kidnapping. All four attackers were arrested and convicted.
1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. In 1957, then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX) opposed the bill because of fears it would divide his party. Southern Democrats also fought against the bill’s passage.
1970 – The ill-fated Apollo 13 rocket was launched on an unsuccessful mission to land men on the Moon. On April 13th, Apollo 13 astronauts calmly announced, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” after the Beech-built oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon. The spacecraft and its astronauts returned safely to earth on April 17th. The events of the mission were recounted in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13” starring Tom Hanks.
1976 – The Apple I computer, created by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was released. The Woz is 75 years old. Wozniak made a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory on September 30, 2010, one of many scientists, actors, and celebrities to appear on the hit TV show.
1996 – Seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff was killed with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming, during poor weather conditions. Jessica hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country. In October, President Clinton signed into law the “Child Pilot Safety Act.” Watch a short video with interviews taken before the crash.
2015 – President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met in Panama. It was the first meeting of U.S. and Cuban heads of state since the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
April 12
1861 – Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was shelled by the Confederacy, starting the Civil War. The Union troops surrendered the following day after 34 hours of shelling.
1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Spring, Georgia, of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63 just weeks into his 4th term. Vice President Harry S. Truman became president.
1961 – Five-star general Douglas MacArthur declined an offer to become the baseball commissioner. MacArthur was relieved of his command in 1951 by Harry Truman after criticizing the president’s policies.
1981 – The first space shuttle (Columbia STS-1) was launched on its maiden voyage. It landed safely on the 14th after orbiting the earth 37 times. John Young and Robert Crippen were the first space shuttle astronauts. Young died in 2018 at age 87 and Crippen is now 88 years old. Watch the NASA launch.
2015 – Hillary Clinton announced that she would run for the Democrat nomination for President for the second time. She lost the 2008 Democrat nomination to Barack Hussein Obama.
Image from: ms.now