On April 19, 2011, Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee in Cuba. Virtual dictator of the island nation since overthrowing Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Castro had resigned as president over health issues in 2008, appointing his brother Raul as his successor. His resignation as party secretary (again, Raul is his successor) severed Fidel's final tie to the Cuban government. He died in 2016. On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the first Earth orbiting space station. It is the first of six launches for the Salyut program by the USSR/Russian Federation, the last of which - Zvezda - is the core of the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Salyut 1, however, would have a short and undistinguished history. Two manned linkups in space were attempted; the first was aborted when the Soyuz spacecraft could not dock with the station. The second docked successfully and three cosmonauts lived and worked aboard her for 23 days, before a pressure valve failed and the cosmonauts asphyxiated, the only human fatalities to have occurred beyond Earth's atmosphere. Salyut 1 was abandoned thereafter and burned up in the atmosphere on October 11. On April 19, 1927, actress/playwright Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity over the production of her play, Sex. West could be considered one of America's first sex symbols; her stage and film career often pushed the limits of the government censors of the day. Sex is a comedy/drama that follows the efforts of a Montreal prostitute to break away from her tawdry lifestyle. It premiered in NYC on April 26, 1926 to scathing reviews for its vulgarity, but the public received it well. Curiously, the show was allowed to run for a full year - 375 performances - before West and her company were arrested in an NYPD raid on the theater. She was sentenced to 10 days in a government workhouse and fined $500; the sentence only increased her popularity. The play had a revival in Canada in 2019.
On April 20, 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the U.S. Army. Lee's loyalties in the months preceding the opening of hostilities were conflicted. He opposed secession, but stated that he would not take up arms against his home state of Virginia. On the 17th, Lee declined a billet as commander of the capitol defense force, which came with a promotion to general. A day later, Lee asked Commanding General Winfield Scott for permission to sit out the upcoming conflict at home. Scott refused and suggested Lee should resign before receiving orders with which he felt unable to comply. Lee agreed, and upon the outbreak of hostilities was appointed general and commander of Virginia's Provisional Army. (despite changing uniforms, the 3 stars worn by Lee in the photo below denote his rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. Lee stated he would not wear a general's insignia - also 3 stars, but the center star being larger than the others - until he was promoted general in a peacetime Confederate Army) On April 20, 1918, Manfred von Richtofen - the Red Baron - scores his 79th and 80th victories as a pilot in the German air service. They were also the last victories of his career. A day later, the 25-year old Richtofen - who transferred from the cavalry to the air service 3 years earlier despite not knowing how to fly - was shot down and killed near Morlancourt, France. Richtofen is widely considered the first great pilot in the history of aerial combat. On April 20, 2008, Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300. In the closing laps of the race, Patrick drove conservatively and saved fuel, remaining on the track while other contenders pitted for fuel to secure the win. Patrick remains the only female driver to win in IndyCar's top series. She jumped to NASCAR full time in 2011 and retired from racing in 2018.
On April 21, 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept (with water intakes on the Detroit River and Lake Huron) to the Flint River. Almost immediately, residents began complaining about the smell and taste of the water. Investigators would learn that city officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors, allowing lead from the aging pipes to leach into the water and exposing some 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. The long-term effects remain to be seen; at least 12,000 children tested for elevated lead, placing them at later increased risk of Alzheimer's Disease. The city would switch back to the Detroit system 18 months later, and President Obama's declaration of a federal emergency allowed FEMA to pay for the replacement of pipes, a project that is still ongoing. The victims were awarded a class action settlement that approached $650 million. On April 21, 1782, the city of Rattanakosin is founded on the Chao Phraya River in central Siam (now Thailand), on the site of a 15th century trading post. The city would grow in size and importance thanks to its location, eventually becoming the nation's capital city, and known internationally as Bangkok. With a population of more than 14 million, Bangkok is considered a Primate City, one that is not only its nation's largest, but which is home to an unusually large percentage of the national population - in this case, more than 22%. On April 21, 1934, the Daily Mail, a London tabloid, publishes a photograph it claims offers the first photographic evidence of some type of creature living in Loch Ness, Scotland. Its one of four photos (the only one in which the image is relatively clear) supposedly taken by London doctor Robert Wilson, who refused publicity, leading to the picture being known as "the surgeon's photograph." The picture has always been regarded with skepticism, and was proven in 1993 to be a hoax perpetrated by Wilson and three other conspirators. The photo actually depicts a toy submarine to which a wooden "head and neck" have been added.
On April 22, 1944, a helicopter is used in a combat zone for the first time. During the Burma campaign, the 1st Air Commando Group (US Army Air Force), activated a few weeks earlier, was called on to conduct a behind-the-lines evacuation of three wounded Chindits (a British-Indian commando group) who's plane went down behind Japanese lines. The 1st Air Commandos deployed a Sikorsky R-4 piloted by Lt. Carter Harman. The aircraft could only carry two passengers, meaning Harman had to make two trips into enemy territory to rescue the Chindits and their pilot. On April 22, 1992, dozens of explosions in the Guadalajara, Mexico sewer system kill more than 200 people and damage about a thousand buildings. Days earlier, the city's residents had begun complaining to their elected officials of a foul stench that caused nausea and a stinging sensation in their noses and throats. Officials did not investigate; if they had, they may have found the gas line that was leaking its contents into the sewer system (the line had rusted out thanks to a leaking water line). At about 11:30 am on the 22nd, pockets of gas began exploding. Two square blocks of the city were leveled; in addition to the fatalities, about 1,500 people were injured. Lloyd's of London would put the death toll at 252, but some estimates go hundreds higher. Mayor Enrique Dau Flores was indicted for his failure to act and avoided jail time by resigning. On April 22, 1957, John Irving Kennedy pinch runs for the Philadelphia Phillies in a loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Kennedy's participation makes the Phillies the last National League team to integrate, 10 years after Jackie Robinson's historic debut for the Dodgers (it would be another two years before the Boston Red Sox would make the major leagues totally integrated). One historian chronicling the integration of baseball feels in the Phillies' case, they were just "getting it over with" in playing Kennedy. A team scout discovered him in the Negro Leagues a year earlier, and told the organization he could be the next Ernie Banks. Playing shortstop, he hit .333 and made only one error in spring training, and seemed destined to be the team's starting shortstop. But two weeks before the opener, the club paid the Dodgers cash for the contract of Cuban shortstop Chico Fernandez and put him at the "6" position. Kennedy would play only 5 games all year, going hitless in 2 at bats. His contract was not renewed.
On April 25, 1945, a 3-man American reconnaissance patrol makes contact with Soviet troops along the Elbe River near Strehla, Germany. Later in the day, small American and Soviet patrols meet on a destroyed bridge over the Elbe near Torgau. These are the first contacts of American and Russian troops of the war. The Soviets had already encircled Berlin; Germany is essentially Allied territory, and the final surrender is less than two weeks away. On April 25, 1990, the crew of space shuttle Discovery deploys the Hubble Space Telescope in low Earth orbit. Conceived in the 40's and 20 years in development and construction, the Hubble initially appeared to be a failure due to a flaw in its primary lens. The problem was repaired during multiple EVA's in 1993, and the Hubble has since provided remarkable views of the universe, literally seeing billions of years into the past. (Hubble seen from space shuttle Atlantis in 2009) On April 25, 1950, the Boston Celtics make Duquesne forward Chuck Cooper the first African-American player selected in the NBA draft, taking him with the first pick of the second round. The Washington Capitols would select Earl Lloyd later in the draft, and it would be Lloyd, not Cooper, who would offically integrate the Association by becoming the first African-American to actually take part in a game. Cooper would play 8 seasons with the Celtics as was often subjected to the Jim Crow-era segregation policies of the 50's. He died in 1984 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
On April 26, 1913, one of America's most infamous tales of bigotry and mob violence begins in Atlanta, GA. Despite the time and place, the focus is not anti-black but anti-Semitic. The target is Leo Frank (below), Jewish owner of the pencil factory where the molested body of 13-year old Mary Phagan was found. Planted evidence pointed the blame at Frank, and despite it soon becoming obvious that the evidence (planted by a black janitor who likely committed the crime himself) was fake, Frank was prosecuted by a zealous, bigoted populist DA in the courtroom of a judge who knew the evidence was phony. Readers of a locally published racist newspaper called The Jeffersonian were in regular attendance at the trial, and likely intimidated the jury into a guilty verdict and death sentence. Georgia governor John Slaton conducted his own investigation and commuted Frank's sentence, but Tom Watson, publisher of The Jeffersonian, rallied his readers into forming a lynch mob, who stormed the prison where Frank was being held, brought him to Phagan's hometown of Marietta and hung him from an oak tree. Local police watched the lynching without interfering, nor did they prevent hundreds of gleeful residents from posing for pictures with the body afterward. Watson would later be elected to the U.S. Senate; Frank would not be officially pardoned for the crime until 1986. On April 26, 1933, German Nazi Party official Hermann Goring establishes the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret Police). It will soon come to be known by a shortened version of the name, the Gestapo. A year later, Hitler reorganized party divisions and appointed Heinrich Himmler (head of the paramilitary Schutzstaffel - the SS) to also run the Gestapo. It would become the principal enforcement arm of the Nazi's racist policies, especially the persecution of Jews and homosexuals, and eventually the Holocaust. Following the war, the International Military Tribunal would declare the Gestapo a criminal organization; Himmler had already committed suicide. (below; Goring (right) officially hands leadership of the Gestapo to Himmler) On April 26, 1956, the SS Ideal X (left), a converted WWII oil tanker, departs Newark, NJ destined for Houston with a load of 58 intermodal containers. European and American railroads had been shipping cargo in large containers since the 1830's. As motorized trucks came into common usage before WWII, such containers became of a standardized size, and designed to be easily moved from truck to rail and vice versa. The Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company purchased the surplus oil tanker Portrero Hills in 1955 and converted her to ship intermodal containers. Although not the first container ship, the re-named Ideal X was the first to be profitable. Today, about 90% of all non-bulk cargo is transported in intermodal containers.
So I was digging for stuff on the Battle of Derna (discussed here in February; it will be tomorrow), and I came across this beauty from earlier in the month. On April 5, 1943, the destroyer USS O'Bannon (named for the hero of Derna) is on patrol and spots a Japanese sub running on the surface; it is about 2:30am. Distance is about 9,000 yards and supposedly, a visiting admiral who was on the bridge ordered the helmsman to ram the sub. Her commander was asleep but noticing the acceleration, came to the bridge and ordered the ramming aborted, swinging the O'Bannon into a new course that left her sitting yards from the sub, too close to depress her guns low enough to use. Sailors on deck could see Japanese sailors who had been sleeping on the sub's deck awaken and scramble for her deck cannon. The O'Bannon sailors were unarmed, and began to use the only thing they had at hand, the potatoes they had been peeling for the following day's meals. They began throwing the potatoes at the Japanese, who apparently mistook them for hand grenades and began ducking back into the sub for cover. The sub attempted to retreat and in doing so, gave the O'Bannon room to aim and fire its guns, sinking the sub. All of the above is legend; while the O'Bannon did indeed sink a sub that night, the role of potatoes in the attack is unconfirmed. But first Stars and Stripes (the military newspaper) and then the civilian press learned of the story and reported it, and over the years, the crew of the O'Bannon all managed to avoid giving a straight answer to any press who inquired. In 1945, the Maine Potato Growers Association awarded the ship a plaque commemorating the attack; it remained on the ship until it was scrapped in 1970, its current whereabouts are unknown.
On April 27, 1805, a small force of U.S. Marines and Berber mercenaries enter the port city of Derna, Tripoli, intending to depose the ruling pash, Yusuf Karamanli. The U.S. has been at war against the Barbary States - Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli - for 4 years, over repeated acts of piracy by the states against U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean. The Marines successfully depose Yusuf and install his brother Hamet - who has always been friendly to the U.S. - in his place. It is the first victory on foreign soil for a U.S. military force. Hamet would later present Lt. Presley O’ Bannon, commanding the Marines, with an elaborately designed sword that now serves as the pattern for the swords carried by Marine officers. The phrase “to the shores of Tripoli,” from the Marine Corps Hymn, commemorates the Derna campaign. (I actually did this in the first year of the thread - page 68 - but since we discussed it in February and I mentioned it again yesterday, I am obliged to do a repeat) On April 27, 1667, English poet John Milton sells his epic poem, Paradise Lost, to a publisher for 10 pounds. It is some ten thousand lines of verse telling the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden and man's fall from God's grace, and probably took Milton more than a decade to write. He would publish a second version in 1674 in which he rearranged the poem into 12 books rather than the original 10. Milton, considered among the greatest English poets, was 62 years old, blind and financially destitute when he published Paradise Lost. On April 27, 1978, an under-construction cooling tower collapses at the Pleasants Power Station, Willow Island, West Virginia, killing 51 workers. It is believed to be the deadliest construction accident in U.S. history. An OSHA investigation would identify several safety violations in the tower construction, most notably, that workers had attached a scaffold to concrete that had not been given sufficient time to cure. The case was settled with the construction company for $85,000, about $1,700 per deceased worker.
On April 28, 1952, the Treaty of San Francisco takes effect, officially ending the post-war American-Allied occupation of Japan and restoring sovereignty to the defeated nation. In the treaty, Japan agreed to accept the judgements of the International Military Tribunal, including sentences for war crimes. The Treaty, along with a Security Treaty signed the same day (9/8/51), has dictated Japan's international relations since. Forty-nine nations signed the Treaty, though two principals of the Pacific Theater of War were omitted; China and Korea due to disputes (People's Republic of China or Republic of China, North or South Korea) over who would officially represent the nations. On April 28, 1994, CIA counterintelligence expert Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to espionage. Ames' career with the CIA began in 1962 as a cleric, but by 1969 he had risen in grade sufficiently to begin Career Training. His first overseas assignment in Turkey was to target Soviet agents for potential recruitment. He had similar assignments at CIA stations in Mexico City and NYC, but by the time he was assigned to a Washington post in 1985 he had been turned by the Soviets himself, passing classified documents to the KGB countless times. Ames came to the FBI's attention in 1993 due to his accumulated wealth (estimates on his payments by the KGB approach $2 million) and he was arrested several months later. The investigation indicates about 100 operations being compromised and 10 people killed can be linked to Ames. He is serving a life sentence in federal prison in Indiana with no hope of parole. On April 28, 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon, the eighth studio album by British rock band Pink Floyd, hits number one on Billboard magazine's chart of the top 200 selling albums in the US. Although it only held the number one position for a week, it was part of an unprecedented run of 741 weeks on the chart, ending October 8, 1988. It has reappeared on the chart multiple times since, for a total of 962 weeks as of February, 2022. It's estimated that one out of every 14 adult Americans under the age of 50 owns, or has owned, a copy of the album.
