On this date in 1876 the “International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine,” the Centennial Exhibition, the first major World’s Fair to be held in the United States, opened on a 285-acre tract of Fairmount Park overlooking the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. Designed by it planners to showcase America as a new industrial world power that would soon eclipse the might and production of every other industrialized nation.

On this date, May 4, 1970 the Kent State shootings took place on the campus of Kent State in Ohio at 12:22 in the afternoon. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. However, other students who were shot had merely been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance. The incident became the lightening rod of the anti-war movement and protests erupted across the United States. The event was chronicalled in the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song “Ohio”.

On this date, April 30, 1927, Alderson Federal Prison Camp opened as the first  female only prison in the United States. Most of the 1050 inmates at FPC Alderson have been convicted of non-violent or white-collar crime. They sleep in bunk beds in dormitories or in cottages. The prison is nicknamed “Camp Cupcake” by most residents and the media. The most recent famous inmate was Martha Stewart.

On this date, April 28, 1967, Expo ‘67 opened in Montreal, Canada and lasted until October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World’s Fair of the 20th century, with over 50 million visitors and 62 nations participating. It also set the single-day attendance record for a world’s fair with 569,000 visitors on its third day. To this day, many Canadians from that time still regard it as one of the country’s finest cultural achievements.

On this date, April 20, 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion ended in humiliation for the USA. The military action was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The failed invasion severely embarrassed the Kennedy Administration and made Castro wary of future US intervention in Cuba. As a result of the failure, CIA Director Allen Dulles, CIA Deputy Director Charles Cabell, and Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell were all forced to resign. All three were held responsible for the planning of the operation at the CIA.

On this date, April 16, 1947, the master of the “sky-hook” was born, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  The basketball star grew up in the Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician. College took him to Los Angeles, and he returned there for 14 seasons in the NBA after six seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks. In recent years Kareem has become a best selling author writing such epics as;

• Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement, with Alan Steinberg (1996) ISBN 0-688-13097-6
• A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches, with Stephen Singular (2000) ISBN 0-688-17077-3
• Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes with Anthony Walton (2005) ISBN 978-0767909136
• On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance with Raymond Obstfeld (2007) ISBN 978-1416534884

Besides being Tax Day in the USA which can be a disaster for some folks, another disaster occurred on this date in history. On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, making it one of the most deadly peacetime maritime disasters in history.

On this date, April 14, 1956, the first public demonstration of videotape was held at the National Association of Broadcasters’s convention in Chicago.  Apex’s Mark IV machine was unveiled which featured 2 inch or “Quad” reels which could record up to 90 minutes on a single reel.  This revolutionized TV news in the following years as film did not have to come back to the station and be processed.

On this date, April 13, 1997, Tiger Wood became the youngest player ever at 21 years old to win golf’s prestigious Masters Tournament. He won another three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, in only his 42nd week as a professional, rose to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings, the fastest-ever ascent to world No. 1.

Today April 12, 1979 was the birth of American actress Claire Danes. In 1994, Danes starred as Angela Chase in the television drama series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination. She played Elizabeth (Beth) March in the 1994 movie adaptation of Little Women. She also appeared as Holly Hunter’s daughter in Home for the Holidays, which was directed by Jodie Foster. She portrayed Juliet Capulet in Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague. Happy birthday Clair!