APRIL 1 — 1946 Aleutian earthquake rocks the Pacific; 1877 Schieffelin heads for Tombstone; 1978 Museum of Magic opens in Michigan;; 2007 Diary of a Wimpy Kid is published; April Fish
APRIL 1
1946 Aleutian island earthquake rocks the Pacific.
Literally, since there’s tectonics involved.
This land-shattering 8.6 magnitude monster killed around 170 folks in Alaska and Hawaii and cause around $26M in damages.
The earthquake raised the ground floor of the ocean around the fault line, causing massive tsunamis. Much of the island of Scotch Cap near Alaska, including the lighthouse, was instantly decimated when a hundred foot wave climbed right over it, killing five crewmembers and leaving behind only the concrete reinforced base.
Since the lighthouse and its radio was destroyed, it was impossible to warn Hawaii of the tsunami, and around 45 minutes later, a 30 or 40 wave hit the Hawaiian Islands, followed by two smaller waves. This would lead to the development of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center just a few years later.
1945-The Battle of Okinawa begins
On the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War. It didn’t end for another 82 days. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching japan, and planned on using Okinaway as a base for operations for the planned invasion of Japanese mainland. Four divisions of the US 10th army, the 7, 27th, 77th, and 96th and two Marine Divisiouns, the 1st and 6th, fought on the island. The battle, otherwise known as typhoon of steel referring to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders grew and this battle because one of the bloodiest in the Pacific. Mainland japan lost over 77,000 soldiers, who were either killed or committed harikari, and the allies lost about 14,000 deaths.
On April 1, Americans quickly seized two airfields and advanced inland to cut the island’s waist. They battled nearly 120,000 japanese army, militia, and labor troops under the command of Liutenanct General Misuru Ushijima. The Japanese surprised the American forces with a change in strategy , drawing them into the mainland rather than confronting them at the beach. When Americans landed without loss of men, they would suffer more than 50,000 casualties, including more than 12,000 deaths, as the Japanese staged a desperate defense of the island, a defense that included waves of kamikaze air attack, until the Japanese ran out of planes and peop.e. A 1952 movie calledOkinawa which stared pat O’Brien, does a good job of telling this story as well.
1877-Edward Schieffelin starts looking for silver in Tombstone, AZ.
Tombstone, as we all know, and the great story of Doc Holiday and the Earp brothers and the shoot—out at the OK Corral, but Tombstone had an interesting story before that. When Schieffelin started heading his search for silver, his fellow miners scoffed at him, telling him he won’t find silver, he’ll find his own Tombstone instead. So that’s how the town got its name, FYI. Yeah, he found silver. Tombstone was a great place for the Wild West and a terrific booming hom to 10,000 gamblers, criminals, gunslingers, and wanna-be law enforcement. And everyone wanted that silver. It got so bad that in 1882 President Chester Arthur considered martial law. Shortly thereafter, the digging found groundwater instead of silver, so the party was over. Most of the mines closed and everyone took off. By 1929, the town seemed to headed for ghost town status and the county seat moved to Bisbee. After WWII, the people of Tombstone started catering to the American fascination to the Wild West, and museums and the restoration of the OK Corral made Tombstone into a tourist destination, leading some to call it the town that is “too tough to die”.
2007 – Diary of a wimpy Kid is published.
Author Jeff Kimnsey, born in 1971 in Maryland, wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist growing up. But by 1998, he gave up on getting it syndicated. So he spent six years writing wimpy Kid, and in 2004 published it on FunBrain.com, where it was read 20 million times.
By 2007, Jeff had signed a deal for a book series with Harry N. Abrams, and on this day in 2007 the first of the series was released and became an instant hit on the New York Times best sellers list. It later became a movie with several sequels.
1948-Sovients stop U.S. and British military trains in Germany.
What happened after that is an amazing story of how Americans started airlifting supplies in, and we just don’t have time for that story today because I’m going to want time to tell it correctly. It’s that good of a story.
By the way, did you know that while Americans say A;pril Fools Day after a prank, Europeans say April Fish? I didn’t know that either.
1978 – The American Museum of Magic opens in Michigan.
Otherwise known as the Smithsonian of Magic, it’s a tribute to Harry Blackstone, Harry Houdini and the other predecessors of the same magic tricks we see to this day. In the 1930’s magic fan Bob Lund began collecting magic pieces and artifacts until he died in 1995. Let’s face it; some of us just aren’t cut out for magic.
The last time I tried to pull a rabbit out of you know where I got a rubber chicken instead. I tried to pull out the never ending handkerchief from my pocket and it pulled out a hose that squirted me in the face! How embarrassing. The last time I tried to get sawed in half my legs cramped in that illusion box so bad I couldn’t walk off stage! For people like us, Bob created the Museum we can all appreciate.
In October, things can get pretty spooky as the Great Blackstone himself just might come across onto this side to say hello.
1976-Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett was released.