History for April 18

History for April 18 - On-This-Day.com

Clarence Darrow 1857 - Attorney, famous for his part in the Scopes 'monkey trial'

• 1775 - American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that the Regulars were coming out. Later, the phrase "the British are coming" was attributed to Revere even though it is unlikely he used that wording.
• 1847 - U.S. troops defeated almost 17,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo. (Mexican-American War)
• 1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.
• 1906 - San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The original death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate.
• 1923 - Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx, NY. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. John Phillip Sousa's band played the National Anthem.
• 1938 - Superman made his debut when he appeared in the first issue of Action Comics. (Cover date June 1938)
• 1942 - James H. Doolittle and his squadron, from the USS Hornet, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
• 1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.