April 4: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1581 - Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
2. 1812 - U.S. President James Madison enacts a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
3. 1818 - The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
4. 1841 - William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and with the shortest term served.
5. 1873 - The Kennel Club is founded, the oldest and first official registry of purebred dogs in the world.
6. 1949 - Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
7. 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
8. 1975 - Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico
9. 1983 - Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space (STS-6).
10. 1996 - Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.
11. Famous Birthdays: Joseph-Nicolas Delisle (French astronomer), Zénobe Gramme (Belgian engineer, invented the Gramme machine), William Henry Jackson (American painter and photographer), Maya Angelou (American author, poet, actress, and director), Shing-Tung Yau (Chinese-American mathematician)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: April 3

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: April 5

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.