April 1

1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House Speaker.

1853 - Cininnati, Ohio became the first U.S. city to pay it's firefighters a regular salary.

April 2

1871 - The first census of the Dominion of Canada.

1663 - King Louis XIV issued an edict stating that Canada would be governed by the laws of France.

1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.

1792 - Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.

1805 - Storyteller, Hans Christian Anderson was born in Odense, Denmark.

1860 - The first Italian Parliament met at Turin.

1865 - Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.

1872 - Samuel F. B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, died in New York.

April 3

1882 - Jesse James killed by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang.

1860 - The legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.

April 4

1581 - Frances Drake completes circumnavigation of the world.

1896 - The discovery of gold in the Yukon was announced.

1818 - Congress decided the flag of the U. S. would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.

1841 - President William Henry Harrison succombed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

1850 - The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

April 5

1896 - The first modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece. Canada did not send a team.

1842 - The Gesner Museum, the first public museum in Canada, opened in Saint John, N.B.

1792 - George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

1614 - American Indian princess Pocahantas, daughter of chief Powhatan, married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1621 - The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass, on a return trip to England.

1649 - Elihu Yale, the English philanthropist for whom Yale University is named, was born.

April 6

1722 - Peter the Geat ends tax on men with beards.

1851 - Upper and Lower Canada took over the postal system from the British government, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia followed two months later.

1830 - The Church of the Latter-Day-Saints was organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, NY.

1862 - The Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.

1896 - The first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece.

April 7

1868 - Politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the most brilliant orators in Canadian parliamentary history and a father of Confederation, was assassinated in Ottawa by a member of the Irish extremist Fenian Brotherhood.

1862 - Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

April 8

1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon lands at St. Augustine, claims Florida for Spain.

1820 - Thomas Douglas Selkirk died in Pau, France at age 48. Born and educated in Scotland, the fifth earl of Selkirk was a philanthropist and colonizer. He established settlers at Orwell Bay, PEI in 1803, and at Baldoon near Lake St. Clair in Upper Canada in 1804. As well in 1812, he set up the Red River Settlement at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers on land owned by the Hudson's Bay co., a firm in which Selkirk and a relative had controlling interest.

1875 - The Northwest Territories Act, establishing a lieutenant-governor and a Northwest Territories council was signed.

April 9

1865 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA.

1682 - French explorer Robert LaSalle reached the Mississippi River.

April 10

1849 - The safety pin is patented.

1866 - A group of Fenians massed at Eastport Me., intending to invade Campobello Island, N.B. the Irish-Americans withdrew in the face of British Warships and American authorities. the Fenians hoped to use Canada as a base of operations against Britian, in their struggle for Ireland's independance. The collapse of the raid turned opinion in the Maritimes in favouir of Confederation.

1847 - American Newspaperman, Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary.

1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.

April 11

1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht eneded the War of Spanish Succession. Under the treaty, France gave up to Britain all forts and territories in Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Acadia (Nova Scotia). France retained Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and fishing rights off the north coast of Newfoundland.

1899 - The treaty ending the Spanish - American War was declared in effect.

1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicted as emporer of France was banished to the Island of Elba.

1898 - President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain.

April 12

1877 - Catcher's mask first used in a baseball game.

1861 - The American Civil War began as congederate forces fired on fort Sumter in South Carolina.

1606 - England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.

1862 - Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate Train near Marietta, GA, but were later caught. (This episode inspired the Buster Keaton comedy "The General".)

April 13

1796 - First elephant arrives in U.S. from India.

1859 - The University of New Brunswick was incorporated.

1743 - the 3rd president of the U.S., Thomas Jefferson was born.

1870 - The Metropolitan Museum of art was founded in New York.

April 14

1865 - President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

1759 - Composer George Frederic Handel died in London.

1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.

April 15

1452 - Italian painter/sculptor/scientist/visionary Leonardo da Vinci was born.

1841 - Joseph Seagram, founder of the world's largest producer of distilled spirits was born near Waterloo, Ontario.

1817 - The first American school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Conn.

1850 - The city of San Francisco was incorporated.

1865 - President Abraham Lincoln died.

1861 - three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.

April 16

1874 - An Agricultural College was established at Guelph, Ontario.

1789 - President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, VA., for his inauguration in New York.

1862 - A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.

April 17

1524 - Florentine navigator Giovanni Verrazano discovers New York Bay.

1855 - Charlottetown was incorporated as a city.

1492 - Christoopher Columbus signed a contract with a representative of Spain King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.

1790 - American statesman Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

1861 - The Virginia State Convention voted to seceded from the Union.

April 18

1763 - The Upper Canada Gazette, the first newspaper published in what is now Ontario, was launched.

1775 - Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were coming.

April 19

1775 - The American Revolutionary War began with teh battles of Lexington and Concord.

1898 - Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independance and demanding that Spain relinquish its authority over Cuba.

April 20

1889 - Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria.

1534 - Jacques Cartier left France in search of the Northwest Passage to the Orient.

1836 - The Territory of Wisconsin was established.

April 21

1649 - The Maryland Toleration Act, which provieds for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland Assembly.

1789 - John Adams was sworn in as the first vice-president of the U.S.

1836 - An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independance.

April 22

1509 - Henry VIII ascended the throne of England following the death of his father Henry VII.

1864 - Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins.

1889 - The Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.

April 23

1564 - William Shakespeare was born.

1616 - William Shakespeare died at age 52.

1348 - King Edward III of England established The Order of the Garter.

1789 - President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.

1791 - The 15th President of the U.S., James Buchanan was born in Franklin Co., PA.

1899 - Russian - American author Vlodimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.

April 24

1800 - Congress approved a bitll establishing the Library of Congress.

1792 - The national anthem of France "La Marseillaise" was composed by Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

1877 - Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans ending the Norths post civil war rule in the south.

1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S. after rejecting Americas ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

April 25

1859 - Ground broken for the Suez Canal.

1792 - Highwayman Nicholas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be exectued by the guillotine.

1874 - Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy.

1898 - The U.S. formally declared war on Spain

1901 - New York became the first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was one dollar.

April 26

1900 - Ottawa was partially burned by fire. The fire started in Hull, Quebec, destroying 2/3 of that dity and fanned by strong winds the flames leapt across the Ottawa River to the capital. The fire claimed a total of 7 people, left 15,000 homeless, and caused $10 million in damage.

1607 - An expedition of English Colonists, including Capt. John Smith went ashore at Cape Henry, VA to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere

1865 - John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, VA and killed.

1900 - Seismologist Charles Richter, who devised the earthquake measuring scale that bears his name was born in Hamilton, Ohio.

April 27

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan dies, first explorer to sail around the world.

1805 - A force led by U.S. marines captured the city of Derna on the shores of Tripoli.

1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.

1822 - The 18th president of the U.S. Ulysses S. Grant, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

1865 - The steamer "Sultana" exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1400 Union prisioners of war.

April 28

1789 - Fletcher Christain leads mutiny on HMS Bounty against Captain William Bligh. They set the captian and 18 sailors in a launch in the South Pacific.

1760 - One fo the bloodiest battles in Canadian history was fought. In an attempt to recapture Quebec City, Grancois de Levis and his French force of 5,000 men attacked and defeated the British on the Plains of Abraham in what became known as the battle of Ste. Foy. The British retreated to Quebec, which they still held, and Levis was unable to take control of the city before British reinforcements arrived May 10. Levis was forced to retire to Montreal to get ready to battle again.

1876 - Queen Victoria was proclaimecd Empress of India.

1758 - The 5th president of the U.S., James Monroe, was born in Westmoreland Co., VA.

1788 - Maryland became the 7th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

April 29

1880 - Royal assent was given to an act approving the formation of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada.

1429 - Joan of Arc, victorious over the English, entered the besieged city of Orleans.

1862 - Marylands House of Delegates voted against seceding form the Union.

1899 - Jazz legend Duke Ellington was born in Washington, DC.

April 30

1803 - The territory of the U.S. doubles in size through the Louisiana Purchase.

1658 - The first school in Montreal, the Ville Marie School, opened in a stable.

1900 - A legend was born as John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Central Railroad died in a wreck near Vaghan, Miss., after staying at the controls in an effort to save the passengers.

1789 - George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the U.S.

1812 - Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.

1900 - Hawaii was organized as a U.S. Territory.