March 30
1842: Ether anesthesia was used for the first time, in an operation at Massachusetts General Hospital by U.S. surgeon Dr. Crawford Long (1815-1878).
1867: Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cents per acre by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1909: The Queensboro Bridge in New York City opened, linking Manhattan and Queens.
1954: The Yonge Street subway line opened in Toronto, becoming the first subway in Canada.
1964: The TV game show Jeopardy! premiered with host Art Fleming and announcer Don Pardo.
March 31
1889: The Eiffel Tower officially opened.
1909: Construction of the ill-fated RMS Titanic began in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1918: Daylight saving time went into effect in the United States for the first time.
1951: Remington Rand, an early American business machines manufacturing company, delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1966: The Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which later became the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1985: The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWF (now the WWE), took place in Madison Square Garden in New York.
1991: Nearly 99 percent of the voters in Georgia supported the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
1995: U.S. Tejano singer Selena was murdered at a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, by her friend and employee of her boutiques, Yolanda Saldívar, who was embezzling money from the establishments. The event was named “Black Friday” by Hispanics.
April 1
A.D. 40: The first recorded April Fools Day joke took place in Rome, when Emperor Caligula said to his uncle, Claudius, “Braccae tuae aperiuntur” (“Your fly is open”).
1519: Hernán Cortez of Spain introduced smallpox to the Aztec Indians of Mexico.
1826: Samuel Morey patented the internal combustion engine.
1891: The Wrigley Company was founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1893: The rank of Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy was established.
1960: The U.S.-launched TIROS-1 satellite transmitted the first television picture from space.
1967: The United States Department of Transportation began operation.
1973: Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, was launched in the Jim Corbett National Park in India.
1975: Producer Lorne Michaels signed a deal with NBC to produce what would become Saturday Night Live.
1982: Ronald Reagan became the first president to address both houses of Congress wearing fuzzy bunny slippers.
1997: Comet Hale-Bopp is seen passing at its closest point to the Sun.
April 2
1778: During one hour at mid-morning, the Bandas Islands of Indonesia experienced a destructive volcanic eruption, a devastating earthquake, a tsunami (tidal wave) and a hurricane, regarded as the worst combination of natural disasters ever to occur at one time.
1792: The Coinage Act was passed establishing the United States Mint.
1800: Ludwig van Beethoven led the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna, Austria.
1902: Electric Theatre, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opened in Los Angeles, Calif.
1912: The ill-fated RMS Titanic began sea trials.
April 3
1860: The first successful United States Pony Express run began from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif.
1933: The Marquis of Clydesdale led an expedition in the first flight over Mount Everest.
1961: The Leadbeater’s possum, once feared extinct, was rediscovered in Australia after 72 years.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tenn.
1973: Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
1981: The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, was unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
1996: Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski was captured at his cabin near Lincoln, Mont.
2010: Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.
April 4
1147: First historical record of Moscow, Russia.
1818: Congress adopted the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
1873: The Kennel Club was founded in London, the first and oldest official registry of purebred dogs in the world.
1887: Argonia, Kansas, elected Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
1964: The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., by white supremacist James Earl Ray.
1973: The World Trade Center in New York was officially dedicated.
1975: Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, N.M.
April 5
1614: Native American Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
1792: U.S. President George Washington exercised his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power was used in the United States.
1923: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began production of balloon tires.
1956: On the 100th anniversary of Booker T. Washington’s birth, the house where he was born in Franklin County, Va., was designated as the Booker T. Washington National Monument.
ON THIS DAY…
MARCH 30 – APRIL 5
March 30
NATIONAL PENCIL DAY
Did you know that one pencil can write up to 45,000 words?
March 31
NATIONAL TATER DAY
Bake them, boil them, fry them, or mash them…they will always taste heavenly.
April 1
APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
A day where many of us unleash our most creative sides, all in a hilarious-sometimes over the top-attempt at bamboozling those around us.
April 2
NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY DAY
April 3
GEOLOGISTS DAY
Without geologists, we would know nothing about the history of the earth. Earth is over 4.5 billion years old. The ground we walk on is ever changing, always moving. Who can tell us that for certain? Geologists.
April 4
NATIONAL VITAMIN C DAY
A regular intake of vitamin C can lower the risk of heart disease and reduce blood pressure.
April 5
NATIONAL DEEP DISH PIZZA DAY
Deep dish pizza was invented in the Windy City in 1943 by Ike Sewell, founder of Uno’s Pizzeria.