What Happened in April?

“Houston, we’ve had a problem…” Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth after an oxygen tank ruptured two days into the mission. The spacecraft carried astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. Apollo 13 mission was to be the third manned lunar landing. More

The first Earth Day is celebrated in the United States to promote environmental awareness.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education unanimously rules that busing could be used as a tool to achieve racial integration in schools. This decision authorized judges to mandate busing to address racial imbalance in education. More

Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions, is successfully launched on its 238,000-mile journey to the moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts John W. Young (Commander), Charles M. Duke (Lunar Module Pilot) and Thomas K. Mattingly (Command Module Pilot). More

The World Trade Center "Twin Towers" in New York City officially open becoming the world’s tallest building at the time and a dominant feature of the city’s skyline. They were destroyed in a terrorist attack in 2001.

Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's home run record in Major League Baseball.

The "People Power" (the Carnation Revolution) of April 25, 1974. A largely peaceful military coup in Portugal, highlighted by civilians placing red carnations in soldiers' gun barrels, and the merging of military action and popular uprising into a massive popular movement.  Expand +

The Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh and the government forces surrender five days after the last helicopter taking American citizens and X Cambodia XYZ left the country. 
The Khmer Rouge  led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 during which The regime tried to purify the nation of suspected corruption and counter-revolutionary tendencies in order to bring about its utopian communist vision for Cambodia. But their extreme ideology and tactics  targeted most segments of Cambodian society for destruction. It is estimated that the regime was responsible for the deaths of two million of the country’s seven million people. More 

North Vietnamese troops begin to shell Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, as they get ready to capture the city and the U.S. orders the evacuation of all personnel, but the only way out was by helicopter. The attached photo by Dutch photographer Hubert Van Es, shows a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter landing on the roof of a CIA safe house in downtown Saigon at 22 Gia Long Street. The photo location is often incorrectly stated to be the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon. When the massive evacuation ends a day later, about 6,500 people had been airlifted including nearly 900 Americans. Hours later, on April 30, Saigon fell, and with it came the end of the Vietnam War. More 

The Vietnam War officially ends with the fall of Saigon and the reunification of Vietnam. The human costs of the long conflict was very high for all involved. Current estimates of those who had died or were missing as a result of the war are: As many as 2 million Vietnamese civilians on both sides and at least 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters.  Expand +

Korean Air Lines jet Flight 902 (KAL 902), on a flight from Paris to Seoul, is forced down over the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace. What happened next is not exactly clear. It may have been a missile fired by the fighters, or it may have been their guns. But the result was a major portion of the airline jet left wing was destroyed and the fuselage was punctured, causing immediate decompression of the cabin. Two of the passengers died and several others were injured. The jet managed to dive into the clouds and evade the Russian jets and it eventually made a rough landing on a frozen lake bout 300 miles south of Murmansk. More

Zimbabwe gains independence from Britain, ending white minority rule.

Fidel Castro announces that all Cubans wanting to leave the island could do so, as long as they left from Mariel Harbor, a port 25 miles west of the capital of Havana, and had someone waiting to retrieve them More

"Eagle Claw" The ill-fated military operation to rescue the 66 American hostages held in Tehran ended with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. More

Dan-Air Flight 1008, a Boeing 727-46 jet aircraft operated by Dan Air Services as a charter flight from Manchester to Tenerife on the Canary Islands crashes on La Esperanza Mountain killing all 146 on board. More

The space shuttle Columbia lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida and becomes the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space. Carrying the two-person crew of John Young and Robert Crippen., Columbia proved the operational concept of a winged, reusable spaceship. The flight lasted 54 hours in space, with 36 orbits before successfully touching down at California’s Edwards Air Force Base on April 14. Columbia went on to have a total of 27 successful flights. On 2/1/2003, on its 28th flight, Columbia and Crew were lost During reentry. More

A suicide bomber detonated a one-half-ton pickup truck laden with 2,000 pounds of TNT near the front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission to date, and changed the way the U.S. Department of State secured its resources and executed its missions overseas. More

The worst nuclear accident in history occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine. The accident was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel who were running a poorly designed test. About 350,000 people were evacuated as a result of the accident. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation has concluded that, apart from some 5000 thyroid cancers (resulting in 15 fatalities), "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident." More

The Geneva Accords to settle the situation relating in Afghanistan, were signed at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations, between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the United States and the Soviet Union serving as guarantors. The Afghan resistance, or mujahideen, were neither party to the negotiations nor to the Geneva accords and so refused to accept the terms of the agreement. After the signing of the Geneva accords, the 40th Soviet Army conducted a well-planned and executed nine-month withdrawal. The last Soviet soldier crossed the Freedom Bridge on 15 February 1989. More

Aloha Flight 243, 737 aircraft lands safely after Losing Its Roof at 24,000 feet. The explosive decompression, which tore off the cockpit door and over 18 feet of the aircraft's roof between the cockpit and the wings. The violent rush of air sadly caused flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing to be swept from the aircraft. She was the only fatality, with all passengers seated and belted at the time. Neither her body or the piece of the fuselage blown off the aircraft were ever found. The Investigation by the U. S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue exacerbated by crevice corrosion. More