This Week In History

This Week In History

April 12th

  1872 Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia, Kentucky.

 1937 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England. 

 1945 Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands.

  1945 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President.

 1955 Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be 'safe and effective' and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

  1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth.

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April 13th

 1796 First elephant arrives in US from India 

 1860 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento, California.

  1954 Physicist and Father of the Atomic Bomb
Robert Oppenheimer  accused of being a communist.

 1994 Asteroid 7373 Takei discovered and named after Star Trek actor George Takei. 

 2019 World's largest plane by wingspan at 117m (385 ft), the Stratolaunch, built as a flying launch pad for satellites, takes its first flight from Mojave, California. 

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April 14th

 1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington. 

 1903 Dr Harry Plotz discovers vaccine against typhoid.

 1912 RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11.40 p.m. off Newfoundland

 1981 1st Space Shuttle, Columbia 1, returns to Earth.

 2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99% 

 2015 Archeologists announce they have found at Lomekwi in Kenya 3.3 million-year old stone tools, the oldest ever discovered and which pre-date the earliest humans 

 2018 Beyoncé is the first black woman to headline the Coachella Music Festival, her performance on this day the most-watched performance ever on YouTube 

 2019 South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg officially announces his presidential campaign in Indiana, first openly gay candidate to run for US president 

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April 15th

 1877 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville in Massachusetts 

 1912 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people 

 1941 1st helicopter flight of 1 hr duration, Stratford, Ct 

 2013 Boston Marathon bombings: 3 people are killed and 183 injured after two explosions near the finish line 

 2019 Measles cases jump 300% in first three months of 2019, according to World Health Organization, largest rise in Africa (700%) with 800 deaths in Madagascar 

 2019 Aretha Franklin posthumously receives the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation honor, first individual woman to win it since 1930 

 2019 Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof 

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April 16th

 1789 George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration 

 1922 Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row 

 1929 NY Yankees become 1st team to wear uniform numbers 

 1993 Jury reaches guilty verdict in Federal case against police officer who beat Rodney King, 

 2007 Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide. 

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April 17th

 1492 Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the "Indies" with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. 

 1961 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro

 1969 Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy 

 2001 A letter between Gale Norton and Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction 6 million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico 

 2002 Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War 

 2019 Research showing pigs brains partially brought back to life at Yale University, published in "Nature" 

 2019 10 babies with "bubble boy disease" cured using a gene therapy made from HIV at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, according to new study 

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April 18th

 1775 Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the "regulars are coming!" 

 1783 Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day when it began 

 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000 while destroying 75% of the city 

 1983 A lone suicide bomber kills 63, at US Embassy in Lebanon 

1986 IBM produces 1st megabit-chip 

 2013 Two earth-like planets are discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62 

Sibling Rivalry: John Wilkes Booth And Edwin Thomas Booth.

John Wilkes Booth and Edwin Thomas Booth were brothers born to actor Junius Brutus Booth, who was considered one of the great American Shakespearean actors of the 19th century. John and Edwin's mother was their father's mistress, Mary Ann Holmes.

As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing. In school he was an indifferent student whom the headmaster described as "not deficient in intelligence, but disinclined to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered him. Each day he rode back and forth from farm to school, taking more interest in what happened along the way than in reaching his classes on time".

While attending the Milton Boarding School, John met a Gypsy fortune-teller who read his palm. She told him that he would have a grand but short life, doomed to die young and "meeting a bad end". 

Edwin was older than John and was Junius' favorite. In fact, Junius despised John so much that he wouldn't even let him be in photographs with the rest of the family. This established the brothers' rivalry, which Junius encouraged.

Edwin usually performed alongside his father and John aspired to follow in their footsteps.

By 1858, Edwin and John were the most famous actors in the world. Everyone loved Edwin. John, on the other hand, lacked Edwin's culture and grace and people had mixed feelings about him. Many people would say that he was the handsomest man in America and that he had an incredible memory. However, others would say that John was violent and a scene stealer.

When the civil war broke out, John was starring in Albany, New York. He was outspoken in his admiration for the South's secession, publicly calling it "heroic." Which infuriated local citizens who felt that John was committing treason and they wanted him banned from the theater. 

Abraham Lincoln was a big fan of Edwin and wanted him to perform at all government functions.

In 1863, Family friend John T. Ford opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theater on November 9th in Washington, D.C. John portrayed a Greek sculptor in costume, making marble statues come to life.  As Lincoln watched the play from his box John was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law was sitting with him in the presidential box. She turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you." The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?"

On November 25th, 1864, Booth performed for the only time with his brothers Edwin and Junius Jr. in a single engagement production of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. He played Mark Antony and his brother Edwin had the larger role of Brutus in a performance acclaimed as "the greatest theatrical event in New York history." This made John furious. Brutus was his favorite character. Not did Edwin take his role, everyone loved his brother's performance.

John abruptly decided to join the Richmond Grays, a volunteer militia of 1,500 men traveling to Charles Town for abolitionist leader John Brown's hanging, to guard against an attempt by abolitionists to rescue Brown from the gallows by force. 

Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860. On April 12th, 1861, the Civil War began, and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union. 

In John's native Maryland, some of the slave holding portion of the population favored joining the Confederate States of America, but  Maryland legislature voted decisively against it. It also voted not to allow federal troops to pass south through the state by rail, and it requested that Lincoln remove the growing numbers of federal troops in Maryland. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Baltimore and other portions of the state, ordering the imprisonment of many Maryland political leaders at Ft. McHenry and the stationing of Federal troops in Baltimore.  

John saw Lincoln's actions as unconstitutional and formulated a plan to kidnap him. The plot was to abduct Lincoln, bring him to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and use him as a bargaining chip to secure the release of rebel prisoners.

On March 17th, 1865, John and his fellow conspirators hid along a country road in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was going to go to the matinee performance of a play at Campbell Hospital to benefit wounded soldiers. Lincoln had changed his plans and never showed. After the fall of Richmond and General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, John decided to kill Lincoln instead.

John and his conspirators plotted to not only kill Lincoln, but Grant, Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Ulysses S. Grant accepted Lincoln’s invitation to attend Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14th, 1865. Grant backed out at the last minute, or he would have possibly been killed as well. George Atzerodt failed to follow through on his assignment to slay Johnson at his residence in the Kirkwood House hotel.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army effectively ending the American Civil War, John entered the balcony at Ford's Theater and shot Lincoln in the head. In doing so, John broke his ankle. He then raised his knife in the air and yelled," Sic semper tyrannis". (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants," attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination.

Laura Keene, the actress, dashed into the Presidential box and had President’s head on her lap before the doctors arrived.

At the same time John shot Lincoln, Lewis Powell stormed Seward’s house and repeatedly stabbed him. Seward was already bedridden from a near fatal accident. Seward somehow survived the savage attack.

John escaped after shooting president. Lincoln did not immediately die from the gunshot wound and was brought to Peterson House, a house across the street from the theater. He passed away the next day in Peterson House. 

Within a few days of the assassination all the conspirators were arrested except John who was shot dead after he resisted arrest. In all, eight conspirators were tried for the assassination and four of them were sentenced to death by hanging. Three conspirators were handed life imprisonment and one was booked for six years.

Contrary to John Wilkes Booth’s expectations Lincoln's assassination did not trigger a confederate revival in war. After less than a month of Lincoln’s death, the civil war also reached its logical end with a thumping Union victory.

After Lincoln's assassination Edwin decided to write a letter to his friend John B. Murray. Addressed “To the People of the United States” and published in several major newspapers in June 1865, it consists of three somber, shame-laden paragraphs in which Edwin speaks of being “prostrated to the very earth by this dreadful event.” Also in the letter, Edwin announced his retirement from acting as a penance.

However, five months after Lincoln was assassinated Edwin returned to the stage and performed "Our American Cousin", which was the play during which Lincoln was murdered.

Some Stuff That Happened On January 1st.

January 1st In..

1776- General George Washington ordered the Grand Union Flag to be hoisted on a 76 foot tall pole, on a hill in Somerville, just outside of Boston. The Grand Union flag was created during the first year of the Revolutionary War. The designer and exact date of creation are unknown, but it is credited as the first national flag of the United States. It was an important signal that indicated increasing separation from the British.

1861- Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation. It would only apply to the Confederate States, as an act to seize enemy resources. By freeing slaves in the Confederacy, Lincoln was actually freeing people he did not directly control. He emphasized emancipation as a way to shorten the Civil War by taking Southern resources and hence reducing Confederate strength.  Lincoln made no such offer of freedom to the border states.

1880- Building of the Panama Canal begins. It is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama. Before the canal was built, ships traveling between the east and west coasts of North America had to go all the way around South America.

1886- 1st Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. It's a celebration that's more than a century old--a festival of flowers, music and sports unequaled anywhere in the world. The Tournament is more than just a parade and football game. It's America's New Year Celebration, a greeting to the world on the first day of the year, and a salute to the community spirit and love of pageantry in Pasadena.

1892 - Ellis Island becomes reception center for new immigrants to the United States. It was active until 1954. The federal government wanted to take control of immigration so it could make sure that immigrants didn't have diseases and were able to support themselves once they arrived in the country.

Did Abraham Lincoln Lie About His Belief In The Freedom Of Free Speech?

Harold Holzer won the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and four other awards in 2015 for his book, Lincoln and the Power of the Press.

On February 21st, at Washburn University’s Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center, people gathered to hear the 70 year old lecturer speak about President Abraham Lincoln and suppression of the media during the Civil War.

He spoke about conflicts between United States Of American presidents and the media, dating back to George Washington, who threw newspapers on the floor and jumped up and down on them because people weren’t treating him “like a god” anymore.

Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also battled the press according to Holzer.

Most of the lecture centered on Lincoln and extreme measures that Lincoln took to suppress the media.

Holzer stated,

“Lincoln believed that in the case of rebellion, contingency trumped the Bill of Rights and before his inaugural, even though he insisted that the freedom of the press was necessary for a free government, he responded to secession and open warfare by assuming extraordinary and unprecedented powers to hit back against critical newspapers and journalists.”

Holzer said that he found 200 incidences in which newspapers and their editors were blocked. And in some of those cases the newspaper was banned from the U.S. mail, people were arrested and imprisoned, press equipment was seized and destroyed and publications were suspended.

“The 1864 campaign and the things Lincoln did to gain re-election remind me that Abraham Lincoln may have initiated surprising and unprecedented crackdowns on liberty of the press because he believed that there was no way to save the Constitution without sacrificing a part of it temporarily,” 

Holzer said.

At the end of his talk, Holzer closed with, 

“Lincoln cracked down on fake news, much more than any president before him and any president after him.

Nothing we are seeing is new, and it’s always been there, and I think probably as we continue and debate current events, it’s good to remember that history is complicated and Lincoln set standards in more ways than sometimes we even like to imagine.”

William Mumler and Lincoln's Ghost.

William Mumler was an American spirit photographer who worked in New York and Boston.

Infamous “spirit photographer” William Mumler supposedly has the ability to use photographic plates to capture images of spiritual beings.

His first spirit photograph was apparently an accident.

In the early 1860's, he developed a self-portrait that appeared to feature the ghost of his cousin who had been dead for 12 years.

Mumler's most famous photograph apparently shows Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of her deceased husband, Abraham Lincoln.

Also Abraham Lincoln's Ghost, otherwise known as The White House Ghost, is said to have haunted the White House since his death in 1865.

Eleanor Roosevelt, President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, and Liz Carpenter, press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, said they felt Lincoln's presence many times.

The former president's footsteps are also said to be heard in the hall outside the Lincoln Bedroom.

President Harry S. Truman's daughter said she heard a specter rapping at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom when she stayed there, and believed it was Lincoln.

First Lady Grace Coolidge said she saw the ghost of Lincoln standing at a window in the Yellow Oval Room staring out at the Potomac.

Abraham Lincoln Knew He Was Going To DieAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
Mary Todd Lincoln Had Seances At the White House

Mary Todd Lincoln had seances in the White House

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln 

She was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

She was the First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.

She was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky to Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (Parker) Todd.

She and Lincoln had four sons together, only one of whom outlived her.

During Lincoln's years as an Illinois circuit lawyer, Mary was often left alone for months at a time to raise their children and run the household

During her White House years, she often visited hospitals around Washington to give flowers and fruit to wounded soldiers. 

She wrote letters for them to send to their loved ones.

From time to time, she accompanied Lincoln on military visits to the field.

She was responsible for hosting many social functions.

After Abraham Lincoln's son Willy died of Typhoid Fever in 1862, Mary Lincoln had seances in the White House.

She was hoping to communicate with him.

Several of her half-brothers served in the Confederate Army and were killed in action.

One brother served the Confederacy as a surgeon.

Mary firmly supported her husband in his quest to save the Union and was strictly loyal to his policies.

She suffered from severe headaches, described as migraines, throughout her adult life, as well as depression.

Her headaches became more frequent after she suffered a head injury in a carriage accident during her White House years.

A history of mood swings, fierce temper, public outbursts throughout Lincoln's presidency, as well as excessive spending.

It was also suggested that she suffered from bipolar disorder.

Some doctors say that she had pernicious anemia.

She witnessed her Abraham Lincoln's fatal shooting when they were together in the President's Box at Ford's Theater.

After the shooting, she received messages of condolence from all over the world.

Many she attempted to answer personally. 

To Queen Victoria she wrote:

I have received the letter which Your Majesty has had the kindness to write. I am deeply grateful for this expression of tender sympathy, coming as they do, from a heart which from its own sorrow, can appreciate the intense grief I now endure.

She returned to Illinois and lived in Chicago with her sons.

The United States Congress granted Mrs. Lincoln a life pension of $3,000 a year.

She had lobbied hard, writing numerous letters to Congress and urging patrons to petition on her behalf.

She insisted that she deserved a pension just as much as the widows of soldiers, as she portrayed her husband as a fallen commander.

She was briefly involuntarily institutionalized for psychiatric disease ten years after her husband's murder, but later retired to the home of her sister.

On July 15, 1882, she became unconscious and died the next morning of a stroke.