What Happened in April?

President Truman signs the Economic Recovery Act on April 3, 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 a devastated postwar Europe to make the Western European countries less vulnerable to Soviet expansionism. 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 +

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.

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

Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around The Clock" It may not have been the first rock’n’roll record but it is an event often referred to as marking the beginning of the Rock and Roll era. Bill Haley, a square-looking country singer from the suburbs of Philadelphia, nearly 30 years old at the time, was an unlikely hero of the Rock era.

Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

American actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

A Federal Court decides to release Poet Ezra Pound from the St. Elizabeth Hospital for the criminally insane, where he had been interned for 13 years since his arrest in Italy in 1945 on charges for treason. After his release, Pounds returned to Europe. He died in 1972. More

Fidel Castro visits the United States, four months after his guerilla army took charge of Cuba. The trip, labeled a "Good will trip", was part of Castro’s publicity victory lap after toppling the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. touring the city with all the swagger of a rock star.  Expand +

More than 100,000 students in South Korea marched in Seoul in protest over election fraud committed by President Syngman Rhee in the voting of March 15. Police fired into the crowds, killing 140 protesters. The protests served as the catalysts for the "April 19 Revolution" a widespread civic resistance movement which unfolded on a national scale. resulting in the resignation of Syngman Rhee and marking the inauguration of the Second Republic. 

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into space and orbit the Earth. More

The Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) Invasion on the southwestern coast of Cuba begins. The CIA trained forces consisting of about 1,500 Cuban exiles assembled and launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua by boat with the objective to ignite an uprising that would overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The Cuban military crushed the incursion by the third day. The invasion was a U.S. foreign policy failure. The Cuban government's victory solidified Castro's role as a national hero and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. More

Sierra Leone achieves its independence from Britain after years as a British colony and protectorate. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Josip Broz (Tito), is named President of Yugoslavia for life. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was created in 1945 and Tito became Prime Minister. He became the first president of Yugoslavia in 1953 and successfully led Yugoslavia on its his own path, refusing to join the East European Communist bloc and pursuing his own policies including nonalignment, alliances with countries which were not aligned in the East West conflict.

The Thresher (SSN-593), the first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, sinks approximately 220 miles east of Massachusetts while performing deep dive exercises and carrying a crew of 129 men, in the worst submarine accident in history. The Thresher had been originally launched on July 9, 1960. More

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. composes his famous "Open Letter from Birmingham Jail" advocating for civil rights.

President Lyndon B. Johnson sends more than 22,000 U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic, Ultimately, 42,000 American armed forces were deployed and remained there until September 1966. The U.S, military intervention, purportedly to prevent the establishment of a Communist government in the Central American Nation was followed by protests in Latin America. More than 3,000 Dominicans and 31 American servicemembers lost their lives. This was the second time that the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic. The first time was in 1916, lasting over 8 years and resulting in the establishment of an American-sponsored puppet government in the Dominican Republic. More

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 is signed by President Lyndon Johnson on April 14, 1966. The act mandated standard time within the established time zones and provided for Day Light Savings time (DST). Expand +

Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when the Soyuz 1spacecraft became entangled in its main parachute at an altitude of several miles and fell back to Earth.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his Mountaintop Speech.