1775 – The first abolitionist society in U.S. was organized in Philadelphia with Ben Franklin as president.
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting
the Abolition of Slavery
In his later years, Benjamin Franklin became vocal as an abolitionist and in 1787 began to serve as President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. This Constitution was enacted by Franklin just one month before he would join the Constitutional Convention of 1787 held in Philadelphia.
The Society was originally formed April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, as The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage; it was reorganized April 16 in 1784, and, in 1787, it enacted this constitution which appeared in print for the first time in this Philadelphia Magazine while the delegates were all assembled at the Constitutional Convention. The Society not only advocated the abolition of slavery, but made efforts to integrate freed slaves into American society.
For the complete article:
source: benjaminfranklin.org
Share this:
Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes
On April 13, 1970, disaster strikes 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blows up on Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission. Astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise had left Earth two days before for the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon but were forced to turn their attention to simply making it home alive.
For the complete article … history.com
Citation Information
Article Title
Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes
AuthorHistory.com Editors
Website Name
HISTORY
URL
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/apollo-13-oxygen-tank-explodes
Access Date
April 13, 2022
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
April 12, 2021
Original Published Date
February 9, 2010
BY
FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn’t look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate
Image of Astronauts: apollo13page.tripod.com
Share this:
on this day … 4/13 – 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.
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.
Share this:
on this day … 4/12 1864 – Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and slaughters the black Union troops there.
1096 – Peter the Hermit gathered his army in Cologne.
1204 – The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
1606 – England adopted the original Union Jack as its flag.
1770 – The British Parliament repealed the Townsend Acts.
1782 – The British navy won its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.
1799 – Phineas Pratt patented the comb cutting machine.
1811 – The first colonists arrived at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1833 – Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe.
1861 – Fort Sumter was shelled by the Confederacy, starting America’s Civil War.
1864 – Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and slaughters the black Union troops there.
1877 – A catcher’s mask was used in a baseball game for the first time by James Alexander Tyng.
1892 – Voters in Lockport, New York, became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.
1905 – The Hippodrome opened in New York City.
1911 – Pierre Prier completed the first non-stop London-Paris flight in three hours and 56 minutes.
1916 – American cavalrymen and Mexican bandit troops clashed at Parrel, Mexico.
1927 – The British Cabinet came out in favor of women voting rights.
1934 – F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “Tender Is the Night” was first published.
1938 – The first U.S. law requiring a medical test for a marriage license was enacted in New York.
1944 – The U.S. Twentieth Air Force was activated to begin the strategic bombing of Japan.
1945 – In New York, the organization of the first eye bank, the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, was announced.
1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Spring, GA. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Harry S Truman became president.
1955 – The University of Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center announced that the polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was “safe, effective and potent.”
1961 – Soviet Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin became first man to orbit the Earth.
1963 – Police used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, AL.
1969 – Lucy and Snoopy of the comic strip “Peanuts” made the cover of “Saturday Review.”
1981 – The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, on its first test flight.
1982 – The British Navy began enforcing a blockade around the Falkland Islands.
1982 – Three CBS employees were shot to death in a New York City parking lot.
1983 – Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.
1984 – Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger made the first satellite repair in orbit by returning the Solar Max satellite to space.
1984 – Israeli troops stormed a bus that had been hijacked the previous evening by four Arab terrorists. All the passengers were rescued and 2 of the hijackers were killed.
1985 – U.S. Senator Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL.
1985 – In Spain, an explosion in a restaurant near a U.S. base killed 17 people.
1985 – Federal inspectors declared that four animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns. They were goats with horns that had been surgically implanted.
1987 – Texaco filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it failed to settle a legal dispute with Pennzoil Co.
1988 – Harvard University won a patent for a genetically altered mouse. It was the first patent for a life form.
1988 – The Chinese government named a new array of younger leaders to ensure economic reform.
1989 – In the U.S.S.R, ration cards were issued for the first time since World War II. The ration was prompted by a sugar shortage.
1992 – Disneyland Paris opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France.
1993 – NATO began enforcing a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2000 – More than 1,500 anti-drug agents raided four cities in Colombia and arrested 46 members of the “most powerful” heroin ring.
2000 – Robert Cleaves, 71, was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Cleaves had repeatedly run over Arnold Guerreiro on September 30, 1998 with his car after the two had an argument.
2000 – Israel’s High Court ordered the release of eight Lebanese detainees that had been held for years without a trial.
2002 – A first edition version of Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit” sold for $64,780 at Sotheby’s. A signed first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” sold for $66,630. A copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” signed by J.K. Rowling sold for $16,660. A 250-piece collection of rare works by Charles Dickens sold for $512,650.
2002 – It was announced that the South African version of “Sesame Street” would be introducing a character that was HIV-positive.
2002 – JCPenney Chairman Allen Questrom rang the opening bell to start the business day at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the company’s centennial celebrations. James Cash (J.C.) Penney opened his first retail store on April 14, 1902.
2012 – The game Candy Crush Saga was released on Facebook.
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.