Today
1862
Today in History
Battle of Shiloh begins
On April 6, 1862, Confederate and Union armies collided at Shiloh in Tennessee. The first day's fighting stunned both sides with enormous casualties and proved that the Civil War would not be short or limited. The Union held the field after reinforcements arrived, preserving momentum in the western theater.
Daily moments from the American past
Browse the archive by month to see the people, decisions, and documents tied to each date.
Archive month
April
30 entries
April 1, 1789
House of Representatives reaches its first quorum under the Constitution
On April 1, 1789, the House of Representatives achieved the first quorum of the new federal government. Members could finally begin formal business under the Constitution after weeks of delay. The moment helped bring the new national institutions from paper into operation.
April 2, 1745
Richard Bassett is born
Richard Bassett was born on April 2, 1745. Richard Bassett was an American politician, attorney, slave owner and later abolitionist, veteran of the American Revolution, signer of the United States Constitution, and one of the Founding Fathers of America. As one of Delaware's delegates at Philadelphia, Richard helped move Delaware into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personApril 3, 1783
Washington Irving is born
Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783. Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" became foundational works of American prose fiction.
View the related personApril 4, 1968
Martin Luther King Jr. dies
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. King had become the most visible national advocate of nonviolent direct action through campaigns such as Birmingham and Selma. His murder intensified the national crisis of the late 1960s and deepened the struggle that had already produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.
View the related personApril 5, 1764
Sugar Act is passed
On April 5, 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act and tightened customs enforcement in the colonies. Merchants objected to the duties and to the expanded admiralty-court system used to punish violations. The act helped move the imperial dispute from trade regulation toward a larger argument over rights and representation.
View the related eventApril 6, 1862
Battle of Shiloh begins
On April 6, 1862, Confederate and Union armies collided at Shiloh in Tennessee. The first day's fighting stunned both sides with enormous casualties and proved that the Civil War would not be short or limited. The Union held the field after reinforcements arrived, preserving momentum in the western theater.
April 7, 1947
Henry Ford dies
On April 7, 1947, Henry Ford died. Ford had transformed manufacturing through the moving assembly line and the mass production of the Model T. His methods reshaped industrial labor, consumer culture, and the scale of American automobile ownership.
View the related personApril 8, 1726
Lewis Morris is born
Lewis Morris was born on April 8, 1726. Lewis Morris was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, presently part of Bronx County. As one of New York's delegates, Lewis helped tie New York to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personApril 9, 1865
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant's terms encouraged disbandment rather than guerrilla resistance, and Confederate collapse accelerated afterward. The surrender became the clearest symbol of Union victory and the preservation of the United States.
April 10, 1735
Button Gwinnett is born
Button Gwinnett was born on April 10, 1735. Button Gwinnett was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. As one of Georgia's delegates, Button helped tie Georgia to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personApril 11, 1898
President McKinley asks Congress for authority to intervene in Cuba
On April 11, 1898, President William McKinley asked Congress for authority to intervene in Cuba. The request came after the destruction of the USS Maine and growing pressure for action against Spain. It moved the United States to the brink of the Spanish-American War and a new era of overseas power.
April 12, 1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt dies
Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, after serving as president since 1933. He led the federal government through the Great Depression with the New Deal and then through most of World War II. His administration permanently expanded the modern presidency through programs such as Social Security and wartime executive mobilization.
View the related personApril 13, 1743
Thomas Jefferson is born
On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia. Jefferson later drafted the Declaration of Independence and served as the third president of the United States. During his presidency, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country and intensified later debates over western expansion and slavery.
View the related personApril 14, 1964
Rachel Carson dies
Rachel Carson died on April 14, 1964. Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book Silent Spring (1962) are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement. Carson's Silent Spring exposed the ecological cost of widespread pesticide use and became a founding text of the modern environmental movement.
View the related personApril 15, 1865
Abraham Lincoln dies
Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, the morning after he was shot at Ford's Theatre. As president during the Civil War, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and kept the Union together through its greatest constitutional crisis. His assassination came just days after Appomattox and turned Reconstruction into the next central struggle of the postwar republic.
View the related personApril 16, 1859
Alexis de Tocqueville dies
Alexis de Tocqueville died on April 16, 1859. Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian. Democracy in America became one of the most influential books ever written about the United States, especially on local self-government, religion, and civic associations.
View the related personApril 17, 1790
Benjamin Franklin dies
On April 17, 1790, Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia. Franklin had been a printer, inventor, diplomat, and revolutionary statesman whose diplomacy helped secure the French alliance during the War of Independence. His career linked colonial civic life to the diplomatic success of the Revolution.
View the related personApril 18, 1927
Samuel P. Huntington is born
On April 18, 1927, Samuel P. Huntington was born. Huntington later became a major American political scientist whose books included *Political Order in Changing Societies* and *The Clash of Civilizations*. His work shaped late twentieth-century debates about modernization, military politics, and global conflict.
April 19, 1775
Battles of Lexington and Concord
On April 19, 1775, British regulars marched into Massachusetts and fought militia at Lexington and Concord. The British reached Concord but suffered heavy losses on the return to Boston as colonial militia turned the expedition into a running battle. The fighting opened the Revolutionary War and showed that armed resistance to British authority had become a continental crisis.
View the related eventApril 20, 1775
Siege of Boston begins
On April 20, 1775, New England militia forces effectively began the siege of Boston after the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Thousands of provincials hemmed British troops inside the town and forced the conflict into a sustained military campaign. The siege turned armed resistance into open war.
April 21, 1838
John Muir is born
John Muir was born on April 21, 1838. John Muir, also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. Muir helped found the Sierra Club and was one of the most important voices behind the preservation of Yosemite and other western landscapes.
View the related personApril 22, 1994
Richard Nixon dies
Richard Nixon died on April 22, 1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. Nixon opened relations with the People's Republic of China and signed major environmental laws, including the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
View the related personApril 23, 1993
Cesar Chavez dies
Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993, after decades of organizing farmworkers in California and the Southwest. He co-founded the United Farm Workers and used strikes, marches, and the nationwide grape boycott to pressure growers and retailers. That organizing helped produce California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, one of the first laws to recognize collective bargaining rights for farm laborers.
View the related personApril 24, 1800
Library of Congress is established
On April 24, 1800, Congress approved legislation creating the Library of Congress. The new library was intended to support the work of the national legislature in the federal capital. It became one of the nation's great civic institutions and a major repository of American law, culture, and memory.
April 25, 1810
Jacob Broom dies
Jacob Broom died on April 25, 1810. Jacob Broom was an American Founding Father, businessman, and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. As one of Delaware's delegates at Philadelphia, Jacob helped move Delaware into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personApril 26, 1865
John Wilkes Booth is killed
On April 26, 1865, Union troops cornered and killed John Wilkes Booth in Virginia. Booth had assassinated Abraham Lincoln eleven days earlier while plotting with fellow conspirators. His death closed the manhunt but could not undo the constitutional and political shock of Lincoln's murder during Reconstruction's opening days.
April 27, 1822
Ulysses S. Grant is born
Ulysses Simpson Grant was born on April 27, 1822. Grant used the Enforcement Acts and federal troops against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction.
View the related personApril 28, 1758
James Monroe is born
James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758. James Monroe was an American Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. The Monroe Doctrine made the Western Hemisphere a declared sphere of American opposition to European intervention.
View the related personApril 29, 1827
Rufus King dies
Rufus King died on April 29, 1827. Rufus King was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. As one of Massachusetts's delegates at Philadelphia, Rufus helped move Massachusetts into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personApril 30, 1789
George Washington is inaugurated as first president
On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office in New York and became the first president of the United States. His administration immediately had to give practical form to the Constitution's executive power. Washington's conduct in office established precedents for civilian leadership, cabinet government, and the peaceful transfer of authority.
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