Some call this “Patriots Day” – I’ve never quite figured out what a patriot is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not one. Nevertheless 4/19 is just about the only date I tend not to miss, just because historically things do seem to happen on this date:
1529 – At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant movement.
1775 – The Battle of Lexington and Concord begins the American Revolutionary War.
1861 – Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1933 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the abandonment of the gold standard.
1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.
1961 – End of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. (Oops)
1993 – Eighty-one people are slaughtered by fire, gas and gunfire by forces of the Federal Government at the end of the siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas.
1995 – The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
And lots of other stuff. Happy Interesting Times Day!
