BOOMER TIME-LINE FOR APRIL


April 1:
   In 1945, an assault by 50,000 U.S. troops led by General Buckner
   on the Japanese-held island of Okinawa heralded the beginning of
   the last major battle of the Pacific. It ended on July 2 with 
   7,000 U.S. and 100,000 Japanese dead.

   In 1948, the blockade of Berlin started when the Russians began
   checking all road and rail traffic between Berlin and the Western
   Zones.

   In 1960, Tiros I, the world's first meteorological satellite 
   which transmitted cloud cover pictures, was launched from the 
   United States. 

   In 1973, in Britain, Value Added Tax became operative. 

   In 1975, Cambodian President Lon Nol, leader of the U.S.-backed
   government, fled to Indonesia as Khmer Rouge guerrillas closed 
   in on the capital Phnom Penh. 

April 2:

   In 1956, two very successful daytime TV dramas premiered. "The
   Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" were seen for the first
   time on CBS. 

   In 1984, John Thompson became the first black coach to lead his
   team to the NCAA college basketball championship when his 
   Georgetown Hoyas defeated Houston 84-75. 

   In 1985, the NCAA Rules Committee adopted the 45-second shot
   clock for men's basketball beginning in the 1986 season. It was
   an effort to thwart stalling at the end of games. 

April 3:
   In 1941, the British evacuated Benghazi in the face of the Ger-
   man advance in World War II. 

   In 1948, U.S. President Truman signed the Marshall plan into 
   effect, allocating $6 billion in overseas economic aid. 

   In 1949, Transjordan signed an armistice with Joseph Stalin Gen-
   eral Secretary of the Communist Party. 

   In 1982, the U.N. Security Council voted 10-1 in favor of 
   Resolution 502 demanding withdrawal of Argentine forces from the
   Falkland Islands. 

April 4:
   In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated. 

   In 1862, the Battle of Yorktown began. 

   In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter was elected the first U.S. woman
   mayor, in Argonia, Kansas. 

   In 1905, an earthquake in Kangra India, killed 370,000 people. 

   In 1932, Vitamin C was first isolated in Pittsburgh. 

   In 1945, Hungary was liberated from Nazi occupation. 

   In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty 
   was signed. 

   In 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot
   in Memphis, Tennessee. 

   In 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artifi-
   cial heart. 

   In 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 714th home run, tying Babe Ruth's 
   record.

   In 1986, Wayne Gretzky set an NHL record with 213th point of
   season. 

   In 1990, securities law violator Ivan Boesky was released from 
   federal custody. 

April 5:
   In 1949, Space Shuttle Challenger engineer Dr. Judith Resnik was
   born. She died in the Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986. 

   In 1986, a bomb exploded in La Bell, a popular discotheque in 
   West Berlin, killing two American soldiers and a Turkish woman. 

   In 1987, the Fox television program "Married with Children"
   premiered. 

April 6:
   In 1943, the British and U.S. armies linked up in Africa during
   World War II. 

   In 1958, Arnold Palmer, who later became one of the best golfers
   in history, won his first major golf tournament, The Masters. 

April 7:
   In 1934, in India, Mahatma Gandhi suspended his campaign of civil
   disobedience. 

   In 1939, Italian troops began their invasion of Albania. 

   In 1943, the drug LSD was first produced at Sandoz Laboratorie in
   Basel, Switzerland, by Albert Hofman. 

   In 1943, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met for an Axis con-
   ference in Salzburg. 

   In 1945, U.S. navy aircraft sank Japan's largest battleship, the
   Yamato.

   In 1948, the constitution of the World Health Organization came
   into force. 

   In 1953, Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden was elected Secretary
   General of the United Nations by 57 votes to one. 

   In 1956, a declaration signed by Morocco and Spain recognized the
   independence of Morocco. 

   In 1963, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was estab-
   lished with Marshall Tito as its president for life. 

   In 1970, a U.S. federal court confirmed it had closed the inves-
   tigation of Sen. Edward Kennedy over the car crash in which Mary
   Jo Kopechne died at Chappaquiddick in 1969. 

   In 1972, Sheikh Abeid Karume, Tanzanian vice president and ruler
   of Zanzibar, was assassinated. 

   In 1976, after unprecedented riots in Peking, Deng Xiaoping was
   removed as a deputy prime minister and Hua Guofeng was promoted
   to full premier. 

   In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter broke off diplomatic rela-
   tions with Iran and ordered out all Iranian embassy staff because
   of the detention of U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran. 

   In 1981, voters approved a new constitution in the Philippines, 
   giving President Marcos sweeping powers. 

April 8:
   In 1939, one day after invading Albania, Italian troops took the
   capital Tirana and King Zog fled to Greece. 

   In 1946, the League of Nations began its final session in Geneva
   after being replaced by the United Nations. 

   In 1953, in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta was convicted of involvement 
   with the Mau Mau insurrection and was sentenced with five others
   to seven years hard labor. 

   In 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin admitted he 
   violated the country's currency laws; he later resigned. 

   In 1985, Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch bought 50 per-
   cent of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. 

   In 1986, film actor Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel,
   California. 

   In 1990, King Birendra of Nepal lifted a 30-year ban on political
   parties. 

April 9:
   In 1940, Germany launched its invasion of Denmark and Norway in
   World War II. 

   In 1942, after four months of siege, U.S. and Filipino forces on
   the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines surrendered to the 
   Japanese. 

   In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and anti-Nazi was
   executed in Flossenburg concentration camp. He was arrested in 
   1943 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. 

   In 1960, South African Prime Minister Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd was
   wounded in assassination attempt. 

   In 1963, Winston Churchill was proclaimed an honorary U.S. cit-
   izen at the White House. 

   In 1969, the supersonic aircraft Concorde made its maiden flight,
   from Bristol to Fairford in England. 

   In 1970, Paul McCartney sought a High Court writ to wind up the
   Beatles' business partnership, effectively ending the group's 
   career. 

   In 1974, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh signed an accord on the 
   return of prisoners of war. 

   In 1977, the Spanish Communist Party was legalized after a 
   38-year ban. 

   In 1981, in Northern Ireland, IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won
   a seat in the British parliament in the Fermanagh and South 
   Tyrone by-election. 

   In 1990, the Hungarian Democratic Forum swept to power in elec-
   tions, after 40 years of communism. 

   In 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. 

   In 1995, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori won re-election with
   a first-round victory. 

   In 1996, former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Illinois, once one
   of America's most powerful lawmakers, pleaded guilty to two crim-
   inal charges in a deal with prosecutors that called for a 
   17-month prison term. 

SOURCES:
            CNN Archive
            Judy Goldsmith's Timeline
            Bill Murrey's Timeline	
            History Channel Web Site
            Life Magazine CD,
            Compton Encyclophedia
            Dick Goodwin's web page.
             

    

  
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