This Day In History

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 April 12, 1862, a group of Union sympathizers stole a Confederate train, setting off a high-speed pursuit that lasted nearly eight hours. The event, later known as the Great Locomotive Chase, unfolded along a single rail line but revealed just how critical transportation had become in the Civil War.

On April 11, 1919, the International Labour Organization was created, marking a coordinated effort to improve working conditions across countries after World War I. Born out of both wartime strain and postwar planning, it introduced a new idea—that fair labor standards could support lasting peace.

On April 10, 1790, President George Washington signed the Patent Act of 1790 into law, creating a formal system to protect new inventions in the young United States. In just a few paragraphs, the new nation set rules that would shape American innovation for generations.

On April 11, 1919, the International Labour Organization was created, marking a coordinated effort to improve working conditions across countries after World War I. Born out of both wartime strain and postwar planning, it introduced a new idea—that fair labor standards could support lasting peace.

On April 5, 1856, Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. From those beginnings, he built a life centered on education, discipline, and practical progress in the years after the Civil War.

On March 25, 1931, civil rights leader, journalist, and suffragette Ida B. Wells died at the age of 68. Her life’s work—documenting injustice with facts and confronting violence with fearless reporting—left a detailed record of a nation struggling with race and equality.

On March 9, 1841, the US Supreme Court issued its final ruling in the case of United States v. Schooner Amistad. The decision ended a two-year legal battle over whether a group of kidnapped Africans were property—or free people who had fought for their liberty.

One of the most well known maritime disasters in history occurred on April 14, 1912, when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

On April 14, 1876, the Emancipation Memorial (also known as the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument) was unveiled in a special ceremony in Washington, DC. Most of the funds raised for the statue came from freed slaves and African American Union veterans.

On April 14, 1890, the United States and several Latin American countries created the Pan American Union to address matters of common interest. This day has since come to be known as the “Day of the Americas” and “Pan American Day.”

April 14, 1866 was the earliest known usage of the first US mourning stamp, which honored Abraham Lincoln.  It was issued a year after his assassination, during a critical time in US history, when the country was attempting to heal from the bloody Civil War.