# Grim week in history (April is the cruelest month)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 20, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975 "2007-04-20T18:15:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975/1 "2007-04-20T18:15:34Z")

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Anyone else notice how many bad things have happened in this week in history?

Apr 12 1865: Ft. Sumter is fired upon, starting the US Civil War  
Apr 12 1945: FDR dies

Apr 13 1970: Explosion on Apollo 13

Apr 14 1865: Lincoln assassinated (dies on Apr 15)  
Apr 14 1912: Titanic hits an iceberg (sinks on Apr 15)

Apr 16 1947: Fertilizer explosion kills 581 in Texas City, TX  
Apr 16 2007: Massacre at Virginia Tech

Apr 17 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion/fiasco

Apr 18 1906: San Francisco earthquake

Apr 19 1993: Branch Davidian compounds burns in Waco, TX  
Apr 19 1995: Oklahoma City bombing

Apr 20 1999: Massacre at Columbine

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**Author:** ![starryspice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@starryspice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starryspice)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975/2 "2007-04-20T18:54:26Z")

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…but there’s also birthdays!

Apr 8 - my niece  
Apr 14 - my friend and my brother-in-law  
Apr 17 - my husband  
Apr 24 - me and my sister  
Apr 25 - my mother-in-law

Ok, my list isn’t quite as long as yours so I guess I can’t cancel out all the bad stuff, but hey, at least I tried 🙂

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**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975/3 "2007-04-20T20:22:41Z")

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Eh, take any seven day period and you can turn up enough catastrophe and misery on Wikipedia’s “On this Day” feature to make you weep for humanity.

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975/4 "2007-04-20T20:33:44Z")

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April 20, 1889 - Hitler’s Birthday

April 28, 1979 - My Birthday

April 28, 1937 - Saddam Hussein’s Birthday

Wheeee!

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grim-week-in-history-april-is-the-cruelest-month/400975/5 "2007-04-20T22:20:10Z")

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Now there’s one more…

At NASA in Clear Lake a man apparently troubled about the Virginia Tech killings, a William Phillips Jr, has taken two hostages. One apparently escaped and Bill Phillips has now killed the other and himself. Details unfolding.