Opening day for the Chicago White Sox on April 16, 1940, was a raw, cold and windy day that kept most fans away—little more than 14,000 bothered to show up. Those that did, however, witnessed baseball history that day. The opponent was the Cleveland Indians, and their young flame-throwing phenom, Bob Feller, did something no one else has ever done: he pitched a no-hitter on opening day. read more...
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January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, decreed by the United Nations in 2005 to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust—a horrific program in which Nazi Germany murdered between 11 and 17 million people, approximately 6 million of them Jews. The date was chosen because Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest of the concentration camps, on Jan. 27, 1945. read more...
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On April 15, 1861, the day after Fort Sumter was occupied by Confederate troops in the opening battle of the Civil War, Washington, D.C., accelerated its preparations for the war that was now upon it. Someone who was there wrote a letter (signing it simply as “Observer”) to the Public Ledger describing the scene. This Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, newspaper published the letter on April 16, 1861: read more...
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At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the passenger liner RMS Titanic sank into the icy waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg shortly before midnight, killing 1,517 passengers and crew. It was the world’s largest passenger ship, carrying all the latest safety features, and was thought to be unsinkable. The Titanic was four days into its maiden voyage with 2,223 people on board when disaster struck. In full compliance with existing regulations, the ship had enough lifeboats for only 1,178 people. read more...
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Readers of the New York Herald picked up their papers on April 14, 1861, and learned that Fort Sumter had surrendered the previous afternoon after enduring a 34-hour bombardment—the opening battle of the Civil War had ended with a Confederate victory. read more...
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On the afternoon of April 12, 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the nation’s 32nd president, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His life ended just as the great Allied victory in World War II that he had worked so hard for was in sight. In his remarkable and unprecedented four terms and 12 years in the White House, Roosevelt steered the nation through two of the greatest traumas in its history: the Great Depression and World War II. read more...
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The Civil War began at 4:30 in the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces began a 34-hour bombardment of Fort Sumter, held by Union forces in Charleston Harbor. The next day, anxious readers picked up their local papers to read the news many dreaded but most knew was coming: war had begun. The New York Herald began its war coverage with a front-page article featuring no less than 17 headlines! read more...
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U.S. soldiers from General George S. Patton’s Third Army liberated the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, on April 11, 1945. They were horrified at the unspeakable cruelty they found at the camp, whose official purpose was to provide slave labor for German armament factories. The camp’s policy was to starve, beat, and work the prisoners to death, then burn their bodies and bring in fresh victims. read more...
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On April 10, 1861, Charleston, South Carolina, was a beehive of activity, bursting with excitement and preparation. A Union fleet was on its way to relieve Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the Confederates were determined to attack the fort before its garrison could be strengthened. The opening shots of the Civil War were still two days away—the first mortar round was fired at 4:30 a.m. on April 12—but war fever already gripped Charleston. read more...
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At 4:30 in the morning of April 12, 1861, a mortar round was lobbed toward Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor—the shot that triggered the Civil War. One of the South’s leading newspapers, the Daily Picayune (New Orleans), had a correspondent posted on New York’s Wall Street in April of 1861. He makes it clear in his report of April 9 that the financial district knew war was looming. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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