April 2
1792: Congress passed the Coinage Act, authorizing the creation of the U.S. Mint.
1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled Richmond, Va., after Union troops broke through Confederate lines at the Third Battle of Petersburg.
1917: President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” (Congress declared war four days later.)
April 3
1860: The first Pony Express mail riders set out, one heading west from St. Joseph, Mo., and another traveling east from Sacramento, Calif.
1882: Outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.
1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech in Memphis, Tenn., telling striking sanitation workers, “I’ve been to the mountaintop. … I’ve seen the Promised Land.”
April 4
1949: Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C., establishing NATO.
1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was assassinated while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. His death sparked unrest in cities across the United States that left 43 people dead and more than 3,000 injured.
1973: The twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center were officially dedicated.
April 5
1614: Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan chief Wahunsenacawh (Powhatan), married English settler John Rolfe in the Virginia Colony.
1764: The British Parliament passed the American Revenue Act of 1764, known as the Sugar Act, enforcing duties on sugar and molasses imported into the American colonies.
1887: In Tuscumbia, Ala., teacher Anne Sullivan helped her deaf-blind pupil Helen Keller understand the word “water,” marking a major breakthrough in Keller’s education.
1994: Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain died by suicide at his home in Seattle at age 27.
April 6
1830: Joseph Smith and followers met in Fayette, N.Y., to organize the Church of Christ, later known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1896: The first modern Olympic Games officially opened in Athens, Greece.
1917: The United States entered World War I as the House joined the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany, which was signed by President Woodrow Wilson.
April 7
1862: Union forces led by Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
1922: Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall secretly leased U.S. Navy oil reserves to private companies in the scandal later known as Teapot Dome.
1994: A day after the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a missile attack, Rwanda’s moderate prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her husband were murdered, triggering the genocide that followed.
April 8
1820: A farmer on the Greek island of Milos discovered the ancient statue now known as the Venus de Milo.
1864: The U.S. Senate approved the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. (The House passed it in 1865.)
1992: Tennis great Arthur Ashe announced he had AIDS, saying he contracted HIV from a 1983 blood transfusion.
