This was covered pretty extensively in the recent Ken Burns documentary on Country Music. There were a lot of acts running through that place
Some LKF to go with today's anniversary of the start of the Pony Express: The Pony Express delivered the mail between St. Joseph, MO and Sacramento, CA from April 3, until October 1861, when it was made obsolete by the stringing of the first transcontinental telegraph line. There were 150 relay stations between the two cities. On average, horses were changed every 10 to 15 miles, and riders switched out every 75 to 100 miles; the full route was about 1,800 miles. Customers paid $5 for every half ounce per mail carried, and riders (who were paid $25/week) generally carried about 20 pounds of mail. An average delivery along the full route generally took 10 days; the record delivery was 8 days for the Express to carry the text of Lincoln's inaugural address to California.
O April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. The death of America’s leading civil rights advocate sparked a wave of rioting in the black communities of several cities around the country. Investigations lead to a single suspect, James Earl Ray, a prison escapee from Missouri. He was captured the following June in London and sentenced to 99 years. He died in prison in 1998. On April 4, 1975, childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, a company that makes computer software. In 1985, Microsoft released a new operating system, Windows, with a graphical user interface that included drop-down menus, scroll bars and other features. The following year, the company moved its headquarters to Redmond, Washington, and went public at $21 a share, raising $61 million. By the late 1980s, Microsoft had become the world’s biggest personal-computer software company. April 4, 1974 is opening day for major league baseball. In Cincinnati, Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron hits the first pitch he faces out of Riverfront Stadium for his career 714th home run, tieing Babe Ruth's 39-year old record.
On April 5, 1792, George Washington exercises the power of the presidential veto for the first time, vetoing a bill that would have increased seats in the House of Representatives, but only for northern states. After consulting with Thomas Jefferson, Washington concluded the bill was unconstitutional. Congress threw out the bill rather than voting for a two-thirds override. On April 5, 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's NBA career scoring mark with his 31,420th point. Abdul-Jabbar, who was named to a record 19 NBA All-Star teams, retired from pro basketball at age 42 in 1989 with 38,387 points. Lebron James is the points leader among active players with 34,087. On April 5, 1994, rock icon Kurt Cobain dies by suicide in his Seattle home, killing himself with a shotgun after ingesting near-fatal quantities of Valium and heroin. He was 27 years old. His body was discovered by an electrician 3 days later, and investigators found a suicide note in which Cobain quoted the Neil Young lyric,"Its better to burn out than to fade away."
I wasn't aware of this but apparently he had actually killed himself many times before by heroine od and Courtney would bring him back to life.
On April 6, 1917, Congress approves a formal declaration of war on Germany, officially bringing the US into World War I. The declaration comes after repeated German attacks on civilian shipping in the Atlantic, most famously the sinking of the HMS Lusitania. On April 6, 1941, Germany launches a massive bombing operation of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and simultaneously sends 24 divisions and 1,200 tanks into Greece. The bombing virtually wipes out the entire Yugoslavian air force on the ground, but also kills about 17,000 civilians. On April 6, 1909, U.S. Navy civil engineer Robert Peary and a team of 5 others reach what they determine to be the North Pole. It is Peary's 3rd attempt to reach the pole, little does he know that he didn't get there. Decades after Peary’s death, studies of his navigational log reveal he fell about 30 miles short of his goal. On April 6, 1896, Greece revives the Olympic Games, 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Athletes from 13 nations will compete in "The first games of the modern Olympiad." LKF: although the Olympics are rightly associated with Greece, it was a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was most instrumental in forming the International Olympic Committee, 2 years before the first games were held in Athens. On April 6, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh begins near Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. The next 2 days will be among the bloodiest of the Civil War, with combined losses of about 3,500 dead, and more than 16,000 wounded.
On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers. A crowd of 53,775 people, the largest in the history of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, witnesses Aaron hitting a 4th inning pitch off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Al Downing for the historic homer. Aaron received death threats and racist hate mail during his pursuit of one of America’s most distinguished sports records. Aaron ran the record to 755 before retiring in 1976. On April 8, 2005, in order to avoid a death penalty, Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to a series of bombings around the southeastern US, the first of which was the fatal bombing of Centennial Square, Atlanta, during the 1996 Olympics. Rudolph also bombed abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham, later citing his anti-abortion and anti-homosexual views as motivation for the bombings. Rudolph was sentenced to four life terms without parole and is living out his days in the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. On April 8, 2009, the MV Maersk Alabama was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. It is the first act of piracy of an American-flag vessel on the high seas since the 1820's. Four pirates boarded the ship, but only briefly held it before one of their number was injured struggling with a crewman. The pirates withdrew, taking Captain Richard Phillips as hostage. After 3 days of unsuccessful negotiations, Navy SEALS onboard the USS Bainbridge pull off a remarkable feat of marksmanship, firing from on deck through the windows of the pirates' lifeboat vessel, killing all three with headshots while leaving Phillips unharmed.
