April 16, 1862 – President Jefferson Davis signed a bill into law requiring all able-bodied white men between the ages of 18 and 35 to serve at least three years in the Confederate military. This was the first national draft in American history.

By this time, Federal forces were closing in on Richmond, New Orleans, and vital points along the Mississippi River and Atlantic coast. The Confederates had just lost thousands of men in the largest battle ever fought in America up to that time, and many men who had enlisted in the Confederate army for 12 months at the beginning of the war were about to go home.

All these factors led to a growing call for conscription, which had been intensely debated in the Confederate Congress. Opponents argued that it violated the same civil liberties southerners had seceded to uphold. Some claimed that forcing men into the army showed weakness by indicating that volunteerism alone was no longer enough to maintain the war effort.

For the complete article go to: civilwarmoths.com

0069 – Otho committed suicide after being defeated by Vitellius’ troops at Bedriacum.

0556 – Pelagius I began his reign as Catholic Pope.

1065 – The Norman Robert Guiscard took Bari. Five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy ended.

1175 – Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, signed the Treaty of Montebello with the Lombard League.

1705 – Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton.

1746 – The Duke of Cumberland defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie (and his Jacobites) at the battle of Culloden.

1818 – The U.S. Senate ratified Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.

1851 – A lighthouse was swept away in a gale at Minot’s Ledge, MA.

1854 – San Salvador was destroyed by an earthquake.

1862 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.

1862 – In the U.S., slavery was abolished by law in the District of Columbia.

1883 – Paul Kruger became president of the South African Republic.

1900 – The first book of postage stamps was issued. The two-cent stamps were available in books of 12, 24 and 48 stamps.

1905 – Andrew Carnegie donated $10,000,000 of personal money to set up the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

1912 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

1917 – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution after years of exile.

1922 – Annie Oakley shot 100 clay targets in a row, to set a women’s record.

1922 – The Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo under which Germany recognized the Soviet Union and diplomatic and trade relations were restored.

1935 – “Fibber McGee and Molly” premiered.

1940 – The first no-hit, no-run game to be thrown on an opening day of the major league baseball season was earned by Bob Feller. The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0.

1942 – The Island of Malta was awarded the George Cross in recognition for heroism under constant German air attack.

1943 – In Basel, Switzerland, chemist Albert Hoffman accidently discovered the the hallucinogenic effects of LSD-25 while working on the medicinal value of lysergic acid.

1944 – The destroyer USS Laffey survived immense damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa.

1945 – American troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.

1947 – The Zoomar lens, invented by Dr. Frank Back, was demonstrated in New York City. It was the first lens to exhibit zooming effects.

1947 – In Texas City, TX, the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up. The explosions and resulting fires killed 576 people.

1948 – In Paris, the Organization for European Economic Co-operation was set up.

1951 – 75 people were killed when the British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel.

1953 – The British royal yacht Britannia was launched.

1962 – Walter Cronkite began anchoring “The CBS Evening News”.

1967 – At the Western Open in El Monte, CA, Ken Barnes Jr. became the first skeet shooter to break a perfect 400 x 400 in all four guns (.410, 28, 20, and 12 gauges). He is also the only shooter to do this with pump action guns.

1968 – The Pentagon announced that troops would begin coming home from Vietnam.

1968 – Major league baseball’s longest night game was played when the Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets 1-0. The 24 innings took six hours, six minutes to play.

1972 – Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon. It was the fifth manned moon landing.

1972 – Two giants pandas arrived in the U.S. from China.

1975 – The Khmer Rouge Rebels won control of Cambodia after a five years of civil war. They renamed the country Kampuchea and began a reign of terror.

1978 – In Orissa, India, 180 people died when a tornado hit.

1982 – Queen Elizabeth proclaimed Canada’s new constitution in effect. The act severed the last colonial links with Britain.

1983 – China shelled the Vietnam border in retaliation for raids.

1983 – Brazil detained four Libyan planes en route to Nicaragua after finding weapons, explosives and ammunition on the planes.

1985 – Mickey Mantle was reinstated after being banned from baseball for several years.

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sternly warned U.S. radio stations to watch the use of indecent language on the airwaves.

1987 – The U.S. Patent Office began allowing the patenting of new animals created by genetic engineering.

1992 – Italian financier Carlo de Benedetti and 32 others were convicted of fraud in connection with the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

1992 – The House ethics committee listed 303 current and former lawmakers who had overdrawn their House bank accounts.

1995 – The European Union and Canada agreed to protect threatened fish stocks in the north Atlantic.

1996 – Britain’s Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced that they were in the process of getting a divorce.

1996 – An Italian court found former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi guilty on charges of corruption. He was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison.

1999 – Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the National Hockey League (NHL).

2002 – The U.S. Supreme Court overturned major parts of a 1996 child pornography law based on rights to free speech.

2007 – In Blacksburg, VA, a student killed 33 people at Virginia Tech before killing himself.

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Dr. Kelly Morrison (MN-3) – There isn’t a single pro-choice OB/GYN out of 535 members of Congress in the post-Roe era. Kelly and Kristin (featured below) are running to change that.

In 2018, Kelly ran for a reliably Republican seat in the Minnesota State Legislature and defied the odds when she won as a first-time candidate – by just 200 votes (less than 1% of the vote!). In the state legislature, she has led the fight to not only defend reproductive rights but to expand them in Minnesota.

Now, she’s running for the open seat vacated by Democrat Dean Phillips in a district that used to be reliably Republican. Her ability to keep this seat blue and make history depends on us.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly (WI-8) – As an OB/GYN in Wisconsin, Kristin is currently unable to treat patients and pregnant people without threat of criminal prosecution due extreme abortion restrictions. She was one of three doctors who sued to block the state’s abortion ban from going into effect – causing her to be sued and targeted by Republicans and anti-abortion groups.

She’s regularly commuted to Minnesota and Arizona to provide reproductive care and is now running for office for the first-time.

Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District is an open seat that Democrats were just three points shy of carrying in 2018 in the statewide Senate race. With your help, we can elect Kristin and secure a pro-choice majority that will act to codify Roe v. Wade.

Dr. Anita Somani (OH HD-11) – Anita has over three decades of experience as a healthcare professional and is currently serving her first term as a State Representative, where she is the only pro-choice OB/GYN in either chamber.

After seeing Ohio take an extremist turn on abortion and gun safety, Anita felt compelled to run for office for the first time and believed she could be a strong advocate for improving public health and evidence-based legislation.

Last November, Ohioans voted on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution – which Anita traveled the state to rally support for. Alongside other 314 Action endorsed women, she authored the first bill to codify Roe v. Wade into law in Ohio after this measure passed.

Dr. Rita Fleming (IN HD-71) –

Rita Fleming is a retired OB/GYN who delivered over 7,000 babies throughout her career and taught medical students for a decade. Rita, like Anita, is the only pro-choice OB/GYN in her respective state legislature.

Rita has brought forward numerous pieces of legislation to protect contraceptive access and protect patients who require life-saving abortion care.

This month, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s near-total abortion ban violated a state law protecting religious freedom. With this moment, leaders like Rita will be critical in helping turn the tide and restoring abortion rights in the state.

1598 – King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes which granted political rights to French Protestant Huguenots.

1759 – The French defeated the European allies in Battle of Bergen.

1775 – Lord North extended the New England Restraining Act to South, Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act prohibited trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.

1782 – Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.

1796 – The first known elephant to arrive in the United States from Bengal, India.

1808 – William “Juda” Henry Lane perfected the tap dance.

1829 – The English Parliament granted freedom of religion to Catholics.

1849 – The Hungarian Republic was proclaimed.

1860 – The first mail was delivered via Pony Express when a westbound rider arrived in Sacremento, CA from St. Joseph, MO.

1861 – After 34 hours of bombardment, the Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.

1870 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.

1916 – The first hybrid, seed corn was purchased for 15-cents a bushel by Samuel Ramsay.

1933 – The first flight over Mount Everest was completed by Lord Clydesdale.

1941 – German troops captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

1945 – Vienna fell to Soviet troops.

1949 – Philip S. Hench and associates announced that cortizone was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

1954 – Hank Aaron debuted with the Milwaukee Braves.

1959 – A Vatican edict prohibited Roman Catholics from voting for Communists.

1960 – The first navigational satellite was launched into Earth’s orbit.

1961 – The U.N. General Assembly condemned South Africa due to apartheid.

1962 – In the U.S., major steel companies rescinded announced price increases. The John F. Kennedy administration had been applying pressure against the price increases.

1963 – Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds got his first hit in the major leagues.

1964 – Sidney Poitier became the first black to win an Oscar for best actor. It was for his role in the movie “Lilies of the Field.”

1970 – An oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing.

1972 – The first strike in the history of major league baseball ended. Players had walked off the field 13 days earlier.

1976 – The U.S. Federal Reserve introduced $2 bicentennial notes.

1979 – The world’s longest doubles ping-pong match ended after 101 hours.

1981 – Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named “Jimmy.” Cooke relinquished the prize two days later after admitting she had fabricated the story.

1984 – U.S. President Reagan sent emergency military aid to El Salvador without congressional approval.

1984 – Christopher Walker was killed in a fight with police in New Hampshire. Walker was wanted as a suspect in the kidnappings of 11 young women in several states.

1990 – The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.

1997 – Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament at the age of 21. He also set a record when he finished at 18 under par.

1998 – NationsBank and BankAmerica announced a $62.5 billion merger, creating the country’s first coast-to-coast bank.

1998 – Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb.

1999 – Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, MI, to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. Youk’s assisted suicide was videotaped and shown on “60 Minutes” in 1998.

2000 – It was announced that 69 people had died when the Arlahada, a Philippine ferry, capsized. 70 people were rescued.

2002 – Twenty-five Hindus were killed and about 30 were wounded when grenades were thrown by suspected Islamic guerrillas near Jammu-Kashir.

2002 – Venezuela’s interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office. Thousands of protesters had supported over the ousting of president Hugo Chavez.

2007 – Google announced that it had acquired the advertising service company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

The 13th Amendment:

· After the decisive battle of Antietam in September, 1862, when the Union beat the Confederate troops, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in the rebelling states were free as of January 1, 1863. Lincoln’s speech changed the tone of the Civil War from a battle about the rights of states versus the rights of the central government. The Civil War became about ending slavery once and for all. Lincoln realized that the Emancipation Proclamation was symbolic. He began lobbying Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to end slavery.

· April 8, 1864 – The Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment

· June 15, 1864 – The House of Representatives initially defeated the 13th Amendment by a vote of 93 in favor, 65 opposed, and 23 not voting, which is less that two-thirds majority needed to pass a Constitutional Amendment.

· January 31, 1865 – The House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment by a vote of 119 to 56.

· February 1. 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signed a Joint Resolution submitting the proposed 13th Amendment to the states.

· December 18, 1865 – Secretary of State William Seward issued a statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

· The first bill introducing the anti-slavery 13th Amendment was introduced into the House of Representatives by James Mitchell Ashley (Ohio), on December 14, 1864, nearly a year after President Lincoln issued the final executive order for the Emancipation Proclamation.

· The Senate Judiciary Committee drafted the final language for the 13th Amendment. The language of the amendment is simple. It is written in two sections.

· Section I of the 13th Amendment states; “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

· Section II of the 13th Amendment states; “Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”