What Happened in April?

The Pony Express begins service on April 3, 1860, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. It only operated for 18 months, ending service on October 26, 1861, the same day the transcontinental telegraph was completed. Although short lived, the Pony Express went on to become part of the lore of the Old West. Expand +

The Confederate Forces attack Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, marking the official beginning of the The American Civil War. The Union forces in the Fort, surrendered after a 33-hour bombardment by Confederate cannons. The war lasted four years, cost the lives of more than 620,000 Americans, and freed 3.9 million enslaved people from bondage. More

The Baltimore Riot of 1861, also called the Pratt Street Massacre, takes place on April 19, 1861, one week after the surrender of Fort Sumter, where a mob of Confederate sympathizers attacked Union soldiers resulting in the death of 4 soldiers and 12 civilians. More

General Robert E. Lee accepts on April 23, 1861, the appointment of major general of Virginia’s State forces. and On May 7 Virginia joined the Confederacy on May 7 and Lee was commissioned brigadier general in the Confederate army on May 14. He was promoted to full general on August 31, 1861. More

The Richmond Bread Riot, took place in the Confederate capital of Richmond on April 2, 1863, after a group of hungry Richmond women took their complaints to Virginia Governor John L. Letcher, and he refused to see them. The anger led to attacks on commercial establishments. Troops were deployed and it was eventually stopped with more than sixty protesters arrested and tried' Expand +

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Enabling Act legislation, on April 8, 1864, establishing the world's first institution of higher education for deaf and hard of hearing students. the National Deaf-Mute College, known today as Gallaudet University. Expand +

Confederate President Jefferson Davis, leaves the Confederate Capital city of Richmond, Virginia on April 2, 1865, by railroad with his cabinet, and official archives, followed by the retiring Confederate troops who ignited supplies, resulting in massive fires that destroyed approximately one-fourth of the city. Expand +

General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War. Although other Confederate forces; some large units, some small had yet to surrender. It was not until August 20, 1866, sixteen months after Lee's surrender, when President Andrew Johnson formally declared an end to the war. More

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot on April 14, 1865, on the back of the head at point-blank range as he watched a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC. The President was carried across the street to the Petersen House a private home, where he died nine hours later, early the following morning. Expand +

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, after being shot on the head the prior evening by John Wilkes Booth. President Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as the 17th president at 11am on April 15th. Booth was killed at the end of a 12-day chase. More

President's Lincoln, assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was killed on April 26, 1865, at the end of a 12-day chase by Union soldiers after refusing to surrender to Federal troops. Expand +

The sidewheel steamboat SS Sultana, explodes and sinks on April 27, 1865, near Memphis, Tennessee, killing over 1,100 people. The Sultana had a legal capacity of 376, but was carrying over 2,200 passengers mostly paroled Union soldiers on their way home.  Expand +

Ulysses S. Grant, still a Lieutenant General of the U.S. Army, is detained by two Police officers in Washington, D.C. on April 9, 1866, for fast driving on 14th Street while “exercising his fast gray nag”. The incident took place on the one-year anniversary of General Lee’s surrender to Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. Expand +

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded on April 10, 1866 in New York City.

The Straits Settlements, comprised of Singapore, Malacca and Penang, officially became a crown colony under direct British control on April 1, 1867. A ceremony at the Town Hall in Singapore marked the transfer of the Straits Settlements from the jurisdiction of British India to the direct administration of the Crown. Harry St. George Ord was appointed the first governor of the new crown colony.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, opens to the public on April 13, 1870, in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Museum acquired its first object, a Roman sarcophagus on November 20 of that same year. In 1871, 174 European paintings, including works by Anthony van Dyck, Nicolas Poussin, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, were added to the collection. More

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, is signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on April 20, 1871. The law aimed at breaking the power of the KKK and protecting the constitutional rights of African Americans. More

The Colfax massacre, (The Colfax riot), takes place in Colfax, Louisiana on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873. An estimated 62–153 Black men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Three White men also died during the confrontation. More

The city of Sofia is officially designated the capital of the newly established Principality of Bulgaria, on April 3, 1879. Russian forces had entered and liberated the city on January 4, 1878, without a fight, after the Ottoman army withdrew. Sofia had been an important administrative center (Rumelia Eyalet) in the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years.

The Oklahoma Land Rush begins on April, 22, 1889, as thousands of homesteaders plant their stakes pursuing their 160 acres claims to nearly 1.9 million acres of land that was formerly part of Indian Territory but had been identified by the federal government as unassigned land.  Expand +