1827 ~ The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was incorporated, becoming the first railroad offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal.

1854 ~ The United States Republican Party was organized in Ripon, Wisconsin. as a party opposed to the expansion of slavery

1900 ~ The Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.

1901 ~ Birthday of Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize winner: Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962

1935 ~ Nylon was discovered by Wallace Carothers.

1953 ~ James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had determined the chemical structure of DNA. The formal announcement followed on April 25 following publication in Nature.

For those who would like to learn more about this interesting development:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth..._50/default.stm
http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/archive.html
In Crick’s words: http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/Crick3.pdf

1979 ~ Death of "Mr. Ed", the talking horse.

1983 ~ The final episode of M*A*S*H was broadcast in the U.S. It became the most watched television episode in history, with > 75% viewership.

1986 ~ Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was assassinated in Stockholm.

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Eudaimonia