Moments in Time – April 7, 2021

#Middlebury

• On April 25, 1719, Daniel Defoe’s “The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” is published. The book, about a shipwrecked sailor who spends 28 years on a deserted island, is based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who spent four years on a small island off South America.
• On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approves legislation to appropriate $5,000 to establish the Library of Congress. The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801. Twelve years later, the library was destroyed when the British army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol.
• On April 22, 1945, Adolf Hitler, upon learning that no German defense was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, admits to all in his underground bunker in Berlin that the war is lost and suicide is his only recourse.
• On April 23, 1954, Hank Aaron hits the first home run of his Major League Baseball career. Twenty years later, Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing record of 714 career homers. Aaron retired from baseball in 1976 with 755 career homers.
• On April 20, 1971, the Pentagon confirms that fragging incidents (tossing fragmentation hand grenades into sleeping areas) are on the rise. Fragging incidents in combat were usually attempts to remove leaders perceived to be incompetent and a threat to survival.
• On April 21, 1980, Rosie Ruiz, 26, finishes first in the women’s division of the Boston Marathon. Ruiz was stripped of her victory eight days later after race officials learned she joined the race about a mile before the finish line.
• On April 19, 1995, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast collapsed the north face of the nine-story building, killing 168 people, including 19 young children in its day-care center.

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