April 21, 1930: The Ohio Penitentiary Fire kills 322 inmates. This is the deadliest prison fire in US history, and was the deadliest prison fire ever at the time.
April 21, 1992: The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.
April 21, 1918: Manfred von Richthofen aka “The Red Baron” is KIA.
April 22, 1945: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. 516 are killed and 84 escape. Before abandoning the camp shortly after the prisoner revolt, the Ustaše killed the remaining prisoners and torched the buildings, guardhouses, torture rooms, the “Picilli Furnace”, and all the other structures in the camp. Upon entering the camp in May, the Partisans came across only ruins, soot, smoke, and the skeletal remains of hundreds of victims.
April 22, 1934: FBI agents confront John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. A shootout ensues, but all the criminals manage to escape out the back.
April 22, 1918: Robert Wadlow, who would grow to become the world’s tallest man at 8’ 11.1" was born
April 22, 1724: German philosopher Immanuel Kant (who was a real pissant) was born.
April 23, 1940: The Rhythm Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi kills 209 and injures hundreds more. At the time it was the second deadliest structure fire in US history.
April 23, 1985: Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
April 24, 1908: This is the only day in US history where two separate tornadoes are known to have killed over 90 people each. This was during the Dixie Tornado Outbreak. The first touched down at about 5am in Louisiana and killed at least 91 before dissipating in Mississippi. 400+ were reported injured. The second tornado struck at about 11:45 am, also in Louisiana. This tornado (the 8th deadliest in US history) killed at least 143 and also injured hundreds before ending in Mississippi. The actual death toll in both tornadoes was probably a good bit higher, because deaths of African Americans were often not recorded in such events at the time. The Dixie Tornado Outbreak overall produced at least 29 tornadoes that in total killed over 320 and injured over 1700.
April 24, 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
April 26, 1942: The Benxihu mining disaster, the deadliest mining accident in history, occurs. After the initial coal dust explosion, the Japanese overseers order the mine sealed to put out the fire. Approximately 1549 Chinese miners inside die.
April 26, 1986: A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Practically all of the radioactive material goes on to fallout/precipitate onto much of the surface of the western USSR and Europe. Models predict that by 2065 about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 25,000 cases of other cancers may be expected due to radiation from the accident.
April 27, 1865: Boilers explode on the steamboat *Sultana *as it makes its way up the flooded Mississippi River carrying over 2300 recently released Union POWs. More than 1700 die in this, the worst maritime disaster in United States history. The boat was legally registered to only carry 376 people, but through greed and incompetence over 6 times that many were crowded aboard. More people died on the *Sultana *than on the Titanic.
April 27, 1667: John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
April 28, 1943: The *Kamakura Maru *is torpedoed by a US sub. Formally the Chichibu Maru, this passenger ocean liner had been commandeered by the Japanese Navy for troop transport and hospital services. 465 survivors were rescued. 2035 others died.
April 28, 1967: Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his boxing championship and license.
April 28, 1789: Mutiny on the Bounty
April 29, 1903: The Frank Slide, the deadliest rockslide in North American history, occurs when a portion of Turtle Mountain collapses onto the small mining town of Frank, in Alberta Canada. Around 90 people are buried under tons of rock. Most of the bodies have never been uncovered.
April 29, 1945: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor; Hitler and Braun both commit suicide the following day.
April 30, 1888: The Moradabad hailstorm drops hailstones the size of oranges in India. In places the hail reportedly piled up as much as two feet high. Over 230 are killed, making this the deadliest hailstorm in recorded history.