Birth of Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan Macy was born Johanna Mansfield Sullivan on April 14, 1866, in Agawam, Massachusetts. Sullivan is most well-known for teaching Helen Keller to communicate by spelling out words on her hand.
This Day in History
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Birth of Edna Lewis
Celebrity Chef Edna Lewis was born on April 13, 1916, in Freetown, Virginia. Lewis is credited with reviving the long-lost style of simple Southern cooking. She was the co-owner and only chef at Café Nicholson and wrote four cookbooks that infused classic recipes with personal stories.
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Arches National Park
Arches National Monument was established on April 12, 1929. Made into a national park in 1971, its home to more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches. That makes it the highest density of natural arches in the world.
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Birth of Percy Lavon Julian
Chemist Percy Lavon Julian was born on April 11, 1899, in Montgomery, Alabama. Julian was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry, and the first to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. He owned more than 100 chemical patents and was a pioneer in chemical synthesis of drugs used in medicine.
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Launch of the SS Saint Paul
The SS Saint Paul was launched on April 10, 1895. It was the first commercial ship commissioned for the Spanish-American War and later served during World War I.
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Birth of Charles Steinmetz
Mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz on April 9, 1865, in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Steinmetz developed the electrical theories that allowed for the expansion of the electric power industry. He was also known as the “Forger of Thunderbolts” and the “Wizard of Schenectady.”
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Birth of Melvin Calvin
Biochemist Melvin Calvin was born on April 8, 1911, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned the 1961 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discover of the Calvin cycle – the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic molecules during photosynthesis.
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Birth of Walter Camp
The “Father of American Football,” Walter Chauncey Camp, was born on April 7, 1859, in New Britain, Connecticut. Camp is credited with developing the rules and techniques that set American football apart from British rugby.
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HemisFair ’68
On April 6, 1968, HemisFair ’68 opened in San Antonio, Texas. It was the first official international exposition held in the Southwestern US. The fair also honored the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio.
