On this day in history, April 27, 1805, US Marines attack shores of Tripoli, key victory in Barbary Wars
'Miracle' assault after 400-mile trek across North Africa immortalized in 'The Marines' Hymn'.

August 1804: Tracers arc in the sky as ships of the U.S. Navy bombard Tripoli in an action against a ruler who supported the Tripolitan (Barbary) pirates. The pirates demanded protection money from all ships and the USA decided to go to war to release their hold on the area. (MPI/Getty Images)

 

27Apr 1945

In Europe, Benito Mussolini was captured while fleeing Italy. US First Army captured Kempten and Straubing, Germany. The Western allies rejected Himmler's attempt at a separate peace from the Soviets.

In the Pacific, kamikaze attacks continued to batter the US 5th Fleet supporting the Okinawa invasion, damaging vessels large and small.

 

On This Day In History
April 27, 1773
British Parliament Passes Unpopular Tea Act

On April 27, 1773, the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government and, thus, granting it a de facto monopoly on the American tea trade. Because all legal tea entered the colonies through England, allowing the East India Company to pay lower taxes in Britain also allowed it to sell tea more cheaply in the colonies. Even untaxed Dutch tea, which entered the colonies illegally through smuggling, was more expensive the East India tea, after the act took effect.

 

On April 28, 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, “Il Duce,” was captured while trying to flee Italy and executed.

He tried to cross the frontier disguised as a German soldier in a convoy of trucks retreating toward Innsbruck, Austria, but he was recognized. He and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were dragged from their vehicle and shot and killed.

Subsequently, their bodies were hung upside down at a gas station, which is today the site of a McDonalds restaurant, in the Piazza Loreto in Milan. Huge, jubilant crowds celebrated the fall of the dictator and the end of the war.




Do your thing, Kirsten:

 

28Apr 1945

In Europe, Hitler discovered Himmler's plot to negotiate a separate peace and ordered him arrested. Soviet forces occupied Berlin and pushed toward the Chancellery and the Reichstag, with the goal to install the Soviet flag for May Day celebrations. US Seventh Army captured Augsburg, Germany, while British Eighth Army captured Venice and US Fifth Army captured Brescia, Italy.

In the Pacific, kamikaze attacks struck multiple vessels, including destroyers, cargo ships, and notably two hospital ships.

 

On this day in history, April 28, 1967, Muhammad Ali refuses to serve military at height of Vietnam War
Boxer's stoic stand for his faith clouded by reports he refused draft upon order of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stands over Sonny Liston during their second bout in 1965 and taunts him to get up during their title fight. Ali knocked Liston out in one minute in the first round of their bout at the Central Maine Youth Center in Lewiston, Maine.

 

28th April

The Richard M. Nixon administration authorized the Cambodian Incursion on April 28, 1970. Involving approximately 30,000 U.S. troops and 50,000 South Vietnamese troops, it was one of the most significant operations of the war, and the largest since 1967.

The incursion’s primary objective was to disrupt and destroy supplies and bases along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Cambodia, from where the bulk of Communist arms and troops infiltrated South Vietnam. But other goals included relieving Communist military pressure on the pro-U.S. Lon Nol government in Cambodia; increasing Washington’s leverage in ceasefire negotiations with Hanoi; and demonstrating the ostensible improvement and competence of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

The United States also hoped that, with luck, they could locate and destroy the supposed headquarters of the Communist insurgency, known as the “Central Office for South Vietnam” (COSVN), believed to be located in a southeastern area of Cambodia known as the “Fishhook,” just northwest of Saigon.

The Nixon administration and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) believed that finding and destroying COSVN would strike a critical blow to Hanoi’s ability to wage war in South Vietnam.

 

1928: RCA and GE install three test television sets in homes in Schenectady, New York, allowing trials of inventor E.F.W. Alexanderson's first home television receiver; a poor and unsteady 1.5 square inch picture was received from radio transmitter.

 

On this day in history, April 29, 2004, World War II Memorial opens in Washington, D.C.: 'Stirs memories'
Memorial designed by architect Friedrich St. Florian honors ultimate sacrifice of over 400,000 Americans.

The World War II Memorial, designed by Austrian architect Friedrich St. Florian, opened on this day in history, April 29, 2004.

 

1961: Wide World of Sports makes it debut. The show begins its 37-year run, exposing a new audience to sports previously not covered on TV. Jim McKay will host for the entire run, and his introduction, 'the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat,' will become part of the American lexicon.

 

On This Day In History
April 29, 1863
Union captures New Orleans

Union troops officially take possession of New Orleans, completing the occupation that had begun four days earlier.
The capture of this vital southern city was a huge blow to the Confederacy. Southern military strategists planned for a Union attack down the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. In early 1862, the Confederates concentrated their forces in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee to stave off the Yankee invasion. Many of these troops fought at Shiloh in Tennessee on April 6 and 7. Eight Rebel gunboats were dispatched up the great river to stop a Union flotilla above Memphis, leaving only 3,000 militia, two uncompleted ironclads, and a few steamboats to defend New Orleans. The most imposing obstacles for the Union were two forts, Jackson and St. Phillip. In the middle of the night of April 24, Admiral David Farragut led a fleet of 24 gunboats, 19 mortar boats and 15,000 soldiers in a daring run past the forts.

 

On April, 29, 2018, The Simpsons surpassed 'Gunsmoke' as the longest running scripted prime time show in television history when they aired their 636th episode, 'Forgive and Regret'.

 

Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun in his bunker in Berlin, Germany, and began dictating his final political testament and will.

 

1789: George Washington, the first president of the United States, was inaugurated this day in 1789 in Federal Hall in New York City, addressing his constituency on “the proceedings of a new and free government.”

 

Not to split too fine a hair, but some historians insist that John Hanson was the first president, and some others have even made the case that Peyton Randolph of Virginia, or that John Hancock were the first presidents. All in how you define when, exactly, the United States became and when, exactly a President was named and sworn in.

 

2019 Japanese Emperor Akihito declares his abdication at a ceremony in Tokyo which officially takes effect the following day.

Akihito Emperor of Japan

Naruhito Emperor of Japan

 

On April 30, 1052, Mr. Potato Head became the very first toy ever advertised on television - this was also the first commercial directed at children rather than adults.

Thus began the era of kids pestering parents to buy them shit that they saw on TV.

 

30Apr 1945

In Europe, with the Soviets approaching the Chancellery and the Reichstag in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and his newlywed wife, and former companion, Eva Braun committed suicide. The Soviets and US First Army linked up near Ellenburg, Germany. US Third Army freed over 100,000 prisoners of war. Abiding by a previously negotiated truce, Allied aircraft airdropped humanitarian aid to civilians in the Netherlands without enemy hostilities.

 

On May 1, 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down and captured as he flew a U-2 spy plane on a reconnaisance mission over the Soviet Union.

Although sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers was returned to the U.S. on February 10, 1962 as part of a prisoner exchange for Soviet spy Rudolph Abel.