What Happened in April?

The first successful flight around the world takes off from Seattle's Sand Point Naval Air Station. Eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics in four airplanes left to carry out the first circumnavigation of the globe by air. They completed their mission 175 days later. More

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, was the most destructive flood in United States history. It extended across Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The flood was caused by persistent, multi - month, heavy rainfall across the Central U.S.  Expand +

“The Dust Bowl”, in what came to be known as “Black Sunday,” a mountain of blackness swept across the High Plains and instantly turned a warm, sunny afternoon into a horrible blackness that was darker than the darkest night. High winds kicked up clouds of millions of tons of dirt and dust so dense and dark that some eyewitnesses believed the world was coming to an end. More

African American contralto Marian Anderson, sang at the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 75,000 on Easter Sunday after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. because she was black. At that time Washington DC was still a segregated city.

Germany invades Denmark and Norway during World War II. The German invasion of Denmark and Norway begins. Known as Operation Weseruebung, it heralded a new stage in warfare in which cooperation of air, land, and sea forces was essential for successful offensive operations.

The largest surrender of American troops since the American Civil War's Battle of Harpers Ferry takes place as 12,000 Americans soldiers and 66,000 Filipinos surrender to the Japanese at Bataan in the Philippines. Soon afterwards, U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March. More

The Doolittle Raid, also known the Tokyo Raid, takes place. 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, each with a crew of five, were launched from the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet, in the Pacific Ocean. Expand +

The Battle of Okinawa starts as more than 60,000 soldiers and US Marines of the US Tenth Army stormed ashore at Okinawa. Savage fighting erupted at the island’s southern end as the US forces encountered a network of Japanese inland defenses. The land, sea, and air battle raged for nearly three months. About 12,000 American and 90,000 Japanese combatants died in the fighting, but deaths among Okinawan civilians may have reached 150,000. More

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes president. More

American and Soviet troops meet on the Elbe in the vicinity of Torgau signaling that the end of the Second World War in Europe was within reach. More

U.S. President Harry S. learns of the Manhattan Project after the death of President Roosevelt in April of 1945, when he relinquished his role as Vice President and took the oath of office as the next president of the United States.  Expand +

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, “Il Duce,” is executed after being captured by partisans as he tried to escape Italy. More

Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, commits suicide in the Führerbunker via a self inflicted gunshot to the head after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin. Eva Braun, his longtime mistress, who he had married the prior day, also committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden, where they were doused in petrol and burned. The news of Hitler's death was announced on German radio the next day, May 1. More

An 8.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Near the source of the earthquake, at Unimak Island, huge tsunami waves reached more than 100 feet above sea level and destroyed completely the newly built steel-reinforced concrete U.S. Coast Guard's Scotch Cap lighthouse; killing all 5 crew members.  Expand +

Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball, making his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. More

An explosion triggered by a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp, docked in the port at Texas city, Galveston Bay, detonates her cargo of about 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate.[The explosion is started a chain reaction of fires and explosions aboard other ships and in nearby oil-storage facilities, ultimately killing almost 600 people, including all but one member of Texas City's 100 fire department volunteers. It was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history and one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions. More

President Truman signs the Economic Recovery Act of 1948 which became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who had proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe which was devastated making the Western European countries vulnerable to Soviet expansionism heightened the sense of crisis. More

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (née Greenglass) are sentenced to death after being convicted of spying and passing secret information about the atomic bomb and other military information to the Soviet Union. They were executed in June, 1953.  Expand +

President Truman fires General Douglas MacArthur officially removing MacArthur of his command.This decision came after a series of public disagreements between the two men regarding the Korean War and MacArthur's insubordination in challenging Truman's authority. More

U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands after MacArthur made public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. In relieving MacArthur for failing to "respect the authority of the President" by privately communicating with Congress, Truman upheld the president's role as preeminent and emphasized the U.S. policy of civilian control of the military.