On June 29, 1995, the US Space Shuttle Atlantis docked the Russian space station Mir for the first time. The mission, STS-71, was the third in the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir program. It began on June 27, 1995, when the Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the 100th US human space launch from Cape Canaveral.
On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Bosnia Serb nationalist, sparking World War I.
On June 4, 1944, Allied troops entered Rome, Italy, freeing it from German control. The city’s liberation came after months of hard fighting over mountains, across rivers, and in bad weather, against strong German defenses.
On May 25, 1967, the Canada Centennial stamp was issued in Montreal – the first time a US stamp had a First Day ceremony in another country.
On April 25, 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway was nearly as ambitious as the Panama Canal project.
On April 21, 1836, Texan soldiers led a swift attack on an unsuspecting Mexican force at the Battle of San Jacinto. It was the final, decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.
One of the most well known maritime disasters in history occurred on April 14, 1912, when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.
Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805, in Odense, Funen, Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. Best known as an author of Fairy Tales, his birthday is celebrated as International Children’s Book Day.
On March 21, 1918, Germany launched its Spring Offensive in the hopes of tipping the scales of the war before American troops and supplies could reach the front.