On April 19…

1775 – The American Revolution begins.

1824 – Lord Byron dies in Greece.

1861 – In Baltimore, MD, residents attacked a Union regiment at a train station while the group was traveling to Washington, DC.

1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Blockade against southern ports. The blockade kept the rural South from being able to stay well supplied for the duration of the war.

1865 – The funeral for U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was held. His body then began a two-week journey back to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

1876 – Wyatt Earp dropped from Wichita police force.

1897 – First Boston Marathon run.

1903 – Eliot Ness born.

1932 – Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jane Palmer) born.

1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that removed the U.S. from the gold standard.

1933 – Dick Sargent born.

1934 – Shirley Temple appears in her first movie.

1935 – Dudley Moore born.

1939 – Connecticut approved the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution after 148 years.

1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule began. The Jews were able to fight off the Germans for 28 days.

1944 – Calvin Gray born.  Happy Birthday, Dad!

1946 – Tim Curry born.

1949 – Yankees dedicate a plaque for Babe Ruth.

1951 – General Douglas MacArthur gave his “Old Soldiers” speech before the U.S. Congress. In the address General MacArthur said that “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

1951 – Shigeki Tanaka won the Boston Marathon. Tanaka had survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.

1956 – Actress Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The civil ceremony took place on April 18.

1958 – The San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers played the first major league baseball game on the West Coast. This was the first game in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

1960 – Baseball uniforms began displaying player’s names on their backs.

1961 – The Federal Communications Commission authorized regular FM stereo broadcasting starting on June 1, 1961.

1962 – Al Unser, Jr. born.

1968 – Ashley Judd born.

1971 – Vietnam Veterans Against the War demonstrate.

1975 – The Captain and Tennille bring wedded bliss to the pop charts with their first hit record.

1977 – Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book “Roots.”

1978 – James Franco born.

1979 – Kate Hudson born.

1981 – Hayden Christensen born.

1981 – Troy Polamalu born.

1981 – Rochester Red Wings & Pawtucket Red Sox play to 2-2 tie in 32 innings, game suspended at 4:07 AM (Pawtucket later wins in 33rd).

1982 – NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.

1982 – NASA named Guion S. Bluford Jr. as the first African-American astronaut.

1982 – The U.S. announced a ban on U.S. tourist and business traval to Cuba. The U.S. charged the Cuban government with subversion in Central America.

1987 – Maria Sharapova born.

1993 – The Branch-Davidian’s compound in Waco, TX, burned to the ground. It was the end of a 51-day standoff between the cult and U.S. federal agents. 86 people were killed including 17 children. Nine of the Branch Davidians escaped the fire.

1994 – A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to Rodney King for violation of his civil rights.

1995 – The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, was destroyed by a bomb. It was the worst bombing on U.S. territory. 168 people were killed including 19 children, and 500 were injured. Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the bombing on June 2, 1997.

1999 – Cal Ripken Jr. (Baltimore Orioles) was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his 19 year career. He was suffering from a back problem.

2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope and took the name Benedict XVI.

2011 – Cuba’s Communist Party picked 79-year-old Raul Castro to replace his ailing brother Fidel as first secretary during a key Party Congress.

(from HistoryOrb.com,HistoryNet.com, NY Times, On-This-Day.com, History.com)