Day Tripping: April 19

First Shot, Last Stand, and Mass Terror

Revolutionary Beginnings

In 1775, 700 British troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith departed from Boston heading for Concord in Massachusetts. Their clandestine mission was to seek out and destroy Militia supplies being held in Concord. Instead, they were met at Lexington where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired.

Under orders from Patriot leaders, the militia opens the shooting but lost eight men while the British reported one fatality. The ‘Shot Heard Round the World’, is not a historically verified event, only appearing in a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Repelling Tyranny

Refusing to surrender to Gestapo police on this day in 1943, the last remaining Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto barricaded themselves with weapons smuggled into the village to stage the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. SS Officer Jürgen Stroop orders the destruction of the ghetto and transport of all its residents to Majdanek and Treblinka death camps.

The thirteen thousand Jews left from over 300,00 who had been sent earlier to the death camps, fought off the surprised Germans for over a month, but were ultimately killed. Many of them were burned alive. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising represents the single largest revolt against the Nazis during WWII.

Repulsive Attack

Just after 9:00 am in 1995, a rented truck packed with explosives is parked outside the Alfred P, Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. On destination, the force of the blast ripped the entire North wall of the structure off, killing 168 people and injuring over six hundred more.

The destructive force of the explosion damaged more than three hundred buildings in a sixteen-block radius, making the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh the largest terrorist act on American soil until September 11, 2001.

Musical Milestones

George Harrison and John Lennon leave the Indian meditation camp run by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi two weeks early, convinced the instructor is a fraud and a stalker of women. Still, Harrison maintains his belief in Transcendental Meditation.

Narratives

A rising star as one of Hollywood's elite leading ladies, Princess Grace Kelly gives up her acting career to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.

Remembrance

Poet and politician Lord Byron died in 1824, and scientist who expanded the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin died in 1882.

Notable Births

1903 — The Untouchables lawman who took down Al Capone during prohibition, Eliot Ness.

1933 — A major Hollywood star and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield was also a Playboy cover girl.

1935 — Not only was Dudley Moore the best and only Arthur, but he was also a major television star before in Britain with comedy partner Peter Cook.

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora

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