By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
First stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" (1836) via en.wikipedia.org
(Photo: The Lexington Minuteman representing John Parker. The Concord Memorial and Old North Bridge can be seen on this vintage postcard here.)
History gets busy on April 19th's:
Vikings show Archbishop Ælfheah of Canterbury to his heavenly award in 1012.
Pope Saint Leo IX dies in 1054.
Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor in 1587.
The Baltimore Riot occurs when federal troops march through the pro-secession city in 1861.
Toronto is destroyed by fire in 1904.
FDR takes the US off the gold standard in 1933.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins when the ghetto is invaded by the SS in 1943.
The Bay of Pigs occurs (the CIA-backed failed invasion of Cuba) 1961.
USS Iowa gun turret accident occurs in 1989.
The seige of the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas comes to its fiery end courtesy of the ATF, FBI, Texas National Guard, and Texas Rangers (not the baseball team) in 1993.
Timothy McVeigh blows up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
It's also my friend Sharon's birthday.
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