Important Events From This day in History – 19 April

Today in History

• 1995 168 die in the Oklahoma City bombing

  Timothy McVeigh, the attack’s mastermind, was executed on June 11, 2001. The motives behind the bombing, which also killed 19 babies and children, are still unknown.

• 1987 The first installment of The Simpsons is aired

  The hugely popular animated sitcom debuted on the Tracey Ullman Show in the form of one-minute shorts.

• 1971 The Soviet Union launches the world’s first manned space station

  Salyut 1 was 23 meters long and offered 100 cubic meters of pressurized space.

• 1919 Leslie Irvin makes the world’s first free-fall parachute jump

  The jump was carried out to test a new type of parachute, which was also the first to include a ripcord. On landing, the Hollywood stuntman broke his leg.

• 1775 The American Revolutionary War begins

  The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the start of an armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and 13 British North American colonies. The war resulted in the independence of the United States.