This Day In History

On April 17, 1897, playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the next several decades, he would become one of America’s most respected writers, known for works that explored everyday life with unusual clarity and structure.

On April 16, 2015, National Orchid Day was created to celebrate one of the most diverse and fascinating families of flowering plants. The date honors orchids not only for their beauty, but also for the personal story behind the day’s founding.

On April 15, 1926, Charles Lindbergh made his first airmail flight, launching a new contract route between Chicago and St. Louis. Just over a year later, that same young pilot would become world famous—but on this morning, he was focused on carrying the mail safely and on schedule.

On April 14, 1947, the court case of Mendez v. Westminster was decided in favor of Gonzalo Mendez, marking a clear legal victory against school segregation in California. Years before Brown v. Board of Education, this case showed that organized community action and careful legal strategy could challenge unequal treatment in public education.

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Colony of Virginia. He would go on to draft the Declaration of Independence, serve as the country’s third president, and shape the early United States through his ideas on liberty, education, and expansion.

On March 4, 1791, Vermont was admitted to the Union. After years of land disputes, frontier battles, and even a period as an independent republic, the small mountain region officially became the 14th state of the United States.

On February 17, 1801, the young United States faced a constitutional crisis that tested whether its new government could transfer power peacefully. That day, after weeks of deadlock, the House of Representatives finally chose a president, proving that the nation’s system—though imperfect—could still function under pressure.

On January 10, 1776, a short pamphlet quietly appeared in Philadelphia—and helped change the course of history. Published anonymously and written in clear, forceful language, Common Sense urged American colonists to do something many still feared to say aloud: break completely from Great Britain. Within weeks, its ideas were being read aloud in taverns, debated in meeting halls, and discussed around kitchen tables, helping turn the dream of independence into a shared conviction.

On April 18, 1923, the Yankees played their first game in “The House that Ruth Built.”

On April 18, 1942, Jimmy Doolittle led a daring raid against the Japanese in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On April 18, 1900, the US Post Office issued its first stamp books. The books proved to be very popular with the general public and several post offices sold out of their supplies on the first day they were placed on sale. 

On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere took his historic ride to warn the people of Lexington and Concord that the British were coming.  It’s one of the most famous tales from the Revolutionary War, popularized and romanticized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.