On This Day:
Saturday April 19, 2014 This is the 109th day of the year, with 256 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: dodo bird The dodo bird was first observed by Portuguese sailors on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean in 1507. Before this, the dodo had lived on the island for centuries with no human contact. The dodo, which was a little bigger than a turkey, had a unique appearance and did not fear humans; it was also slow, defenseless, and unable to fly, making it easy to catch. In 1598, Dutch colonists on Mauritius began to kill dodos and take their eggs for food. Even if a dodo escaped being caught by humans, it was still in danger from the animals that humans introduced to the island. It did not take long to kill off the dodo population, and by 1681 the bird became extinct.
Holidays Feast day of St. Leo IX, pope, St. Alphege, St. Geroldus, and St. Expeditus.
Sierra Leone: National Holiday.
Swaziland: King Mswati III's Birthday.
Events 1775 - The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Troops under the command of Brigadier General Hugh Percy, played "Yankee Doodle" as they marched from Boston to reinforce British soldiers already fighting the Americans.
1782 - The Netherlands recognized the United States.
1861 - The first blood was shed in the Civil War when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacked Massachusetts troops bound for Washington, D.C.
1892 - The prototype of the first commercially successful American automobile was completed in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Charles E. Duryea and his brother Frank Duryea.
1897 - The first Boston Marathon was run from Ashland to Boston, Massachusetts.
1933 - The United States went off the gold standard.
1939 - Connecticut finally approved the Bill of Rights.
1943 - In Warsaw, Poland, Nazi forces attempting to clear out the city's Jewish ghetto were met by gunfire from Jewish resistance fighters -- beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1945 - The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" opened on Broadway.
1960 - Baseball uniforms began displaying player's names on the backs.
1989 - A freak explosion aboard the USS Iowa battleship killed 47 sailors.
1990 - The Contra guerrillas, the leftist Sandinistas, and the Chamorro government ended the nine-year civil war with a truce.
1993 - The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended. A fire destroyed the structure after federal agents moved in; dozens of people including the leader, David Koresh, were killed.
1995 - A truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. Timothy McVeigh was later convicted and executed for the crime. His co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, was sentenced to life in prison.
1999 - The German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its prewar capital.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Births 1903 - Eliot Ness, American Prohibition agent, and leader of a legendary team nicknamed The Untouchables who helped take down gangster Al Capone.
1927 - Don Adams (Donald James Yarmy), actor.
1932 - Jayne Mansfield (Palmer), American actress.
1935 - Dudley Moore (born Dudley Stuart John Moore), English actor, musician, comedian, composer.
1962 - Al Unser, Jr., American race car driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.
1979 - Kate Hudson, American actress.
Deaths 1882 - Charles Darwin, English biologist who developed the theory of evolution.
2004 - Norris McWhirter, London-born co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records.
2006 - Scott Crossfield, American pilot, and first man to fly at Mach 2.
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