April is the cruelest month

[WilliamPitt]

I got to thinking about April today while trying to nail down whether Gonzales was still scheduled to appear before the Senate tomorrow. His testimony had been slated for Tuesday, but was bumped after the Virginia Tech shootings. Tomorrow, when he will appear, is the 19th, the date marking both the fire at Waco and the OK City bombing.

Scratch the history of any day, and you'll probably find an event wreathed in darkness. The thirty days of April, however, seem especially freighted with woe. An abridged list of dark April days is below:

=====

4/4/1968: Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader, assassinated in Memphis at age 39;

4/6/1954: US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island;

4/7/1933: First two Nazi anti-Jewish laws enacted, barring Jews from legal & public service;

4/7/1971: President Richard Nixon orders Lieutenant Calley (My Lai) freed;

4/9/1927: Sacco & Vanzetti given death sentences;

4/10/1923: Hitler demands "hatred & more hatred" in Berlin;

4/12/1861: Fort Sumter SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting the Civil War;

4/12/1966: 1st B-52 bombing of North Vietnam begins;

4/13/1873: Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish LA (60 Blacks killed);

4/14/1865: President Abraham Lincoln shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth;

4/14/1909: Anglo-Persian Oil Company forms in London;

4/15/1865: President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 am after being shot by John Wilkes Booth;

4/15/1912: Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM in North Atlantic as the band plays on;

4/16/1975: Khmer Rouge occupy Phnom Penh;

4/16/2007: Gunman murders 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech before committing suicide, largest school massacre in American history;

4/17/1945: 8th Air Force bombs Dresden;

4/18/1906: San Francisco earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroys 75% of the city;

4/18/1983: US Embassy in Beruit bombed, 63 killed;

4/19/1989: Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors;

4/19/1993: Davidian compound at Waco assaulted by Federal agents, resulting fire kills 74;

4/19/1995: Truck bomb explodes outside Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 & injuring 500;

4/20/1889: Adolf Hitler is born;

4/20/1914: 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow CO;

4/20/1999: Teen gunmen kill 13 and wound 23 at Columbine High School;

4/21/1981: US furnishes $1 billion in arms to Saudi-Arabia;

4/22/1994: 7,000 Tutsi's slaughtered in Rwandan stadium;

4/24/1915: German army fires chloroform gas in Ieper;

4/24/1969 US B-52's drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia;

4/24/1980: US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran fails, 8 die;

4/26/1933: Jewish students are barred from school in Germany;

4/27/1950: South Africa passes Group Areas Act segregating races;

4/29/1970: 50,000 US & South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia;

4/29/1992: Jury acquits Los Angeles police officers of beating Rodney King, riots erupt;

4/30/1975: Last US helicopter leaves US embassy groundsin Vietnam, Saigon surrenders.

[piedmont]

1. See Gillian Welch's "April 14th" and "Ruination Day" for a great treatment in song nt.

[BuyingThyme]

2. One is the loneliest number.

[myrna minx]

3. Don't forget the Bay of Pigs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

April 15 - April 19, 1961

[zanne]

4. Alot of rotten things have happened on my birthday.

April 4.

[slackmaster]

5. I've had three close calls this month already

Almost run over by inattentive (cell phone) drivers twice, and Thursday night I got chased down by a meth-head road rager who was driving a Honda Civic. I managed to ditch him in my SUV.

[Missy M]

6. You forgot April 15th, Tax Day every year!

[Bicoastal]

7. Don't forget the reason why the Columbine massacre happened on that day.

April 20, 1889 was the birth date of one Adolf Hitler.

However, it's also interesting to note that he killed himself on April 30, 1945--at the tail end of the "month of woe"

[paparush]

8. 4/5/1994: Kurt Cobain Suicide (murder?)

[Marnieworld]

9. But it has the best holiday in it!

4-20!!!! And this year there is much cause for celebration- see top story on Front page. :smoke: Burn yo' spliff bright mon!

Though your list does remind me of a sad Prince song-

"Sometimes it Snows in April" about the loss of a friend.

Tracy died soon after a long fought civil war,
just after I'd wiped away his last tear
I guess he's better off than he was before,
A whole lot better off than the fools he left here
I used 2 cry 4 Tracy because he was my only friend
Those kind of cars don't pass u every day
I used 2 cry 4 Tracy because I wanted to see him again,
But sometimes sometimes life ain't always the way...

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
Sometimes I wish life was never ending,
and all good things, they say, never last

Springtime was always my favorite time of year,
A time 4 lovers holding hands in the rain
Now springtime only reminds me of Tracy's tears
Always cry 4 love, never cry 4 pain
He used 2 say so strong unafraid to die
Unafraid of the death that left me hypnotized
No, staring at his picture I realized
No one could cry the way my Tracy cried

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad
Sometimes, sometimes I wish that life was never ending,
And all good things, they say, never last

I often dream of heaven and I know that Tracy's there
I know that he has found another friend
Maybe he's found the answer 2 all the April snow
Maybe one day I'll see my Tracy again

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
Sometimes I wish that life was never ending,
But all good things, they say, never last

All good things that say, never last
And love, it isn't love until it's past

[SharonRB]

10. We were talking about this very thing

in the Countdown group the other night. April sucks. I can't wait until it's over.

[Burma Jones]

11. April 18, 1983 - Bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut

63 dead.....

[Clark2008]

19. LOL - I was just going to point that out.

We KOEBers are on top of things, aren't we? :)

[Generator]

12. However

I got married on EARTH DAY, which is April 22nd and where I live April is a beautiful month. I guess some don't realize death happens every second of every day of every year. As does life. How many people were born on 9/11/2001? Does that make their life a tragedy then? This is not political. This is spiritual and philosophical. Nothing is a tragedy for everyone. For someone the best day is another's worst day. I keep thinking of "Well, I'm sure 33 people died on the highway in this country in the last two days." How many died this morning in Iraq? Life is where you live it. I've been living with grief for awhile since someone close to me died on May 2nd of last year and that anniversary is coming up. And for me, nothing really makes sense of that death, and it wasn't a murder, it wasn't political, it was just a young mother dying that I loved.

Crazy people will always do crazy things. Death is coming to a life near you. But my flowers are beautiful and if I live another day that is all there is. There is no guarantee of tomorrow.

[Cleita]

13. On the bright side, it's spring and everything is leafing out and

flowers are blooming on plants and trees that are ordinarily green most of the year. My kids decided to spend their wedding anniversary in Paris, an April in Paris vacation. She's gonna email me digital pictures of Monet's garden that she took in full spring bloom as soon as she finds an internet cafe somewhere. I can hardly wait.

It's too bad all those bad things have happened in April because Mother Nature puts on such a pretty show for us, like she's trying on a new spring outfit for us to admire.

[WilliamPitt]

14. Not here

It has been raining here for almost two straight weeks, temps never going above 45. Bleh.

[Cleita]

16. I'm in California but all that rain you are getting is going to trigger start

spring for you when the temperatures rise. So you have to wait for May maybe.

[Horse with no Name]

15. I wonder if it has to do with the weather change

making folks nuts?

[StarryNite]

17. Yeah

I was born in a sucky month. :-(

[karlrschneider]

18. April 19, 1995. American Christian bombs Murrah bldg, kills 168

...
tomorrow 12th anniversary

[Rocknrule]

20. I hate being born this month

I share a birth month with Hitler, Saddam, and McVeigh.

[KamaAina]

21. 4/18/2007: Extreme Court takes a step toward sending women back to the '50s

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2811889&mesg_id=2811889

the 1350's, that is. :grr:

[Blue Belle]

30. April 14th, 1912...

Titanic hits an iceburg and sinks.

[LeftishBrit]

22. But there were some great people born in April...

Maya Angelou (April 4th), Ravi Shankar (April 7th), Paul Robeson (April 9th), Thomas Jefferson (April 13th), Emma Thompson (April 15th), Clarence Darrow (April 18th), Yehudi Menuhin (April 22nd), Edward Murrow (April 25th), Coretta Scott King (April 27th), Duke Ellington (April 29th); Daniel Day-Lewis (April 29th). And most famous of all, William Shakespeare (April 23rd).

[geardaddy]

23. And me!

April 10. ;)

and my mom! April 27

Also, the Civil War ended - April 9, 1865

[David Zephyr]

24. Pitt always makes reading fun here at the DU.

April. Right after the Ides of March, too.

How may people know that the "P" in "BP" was not for "petroleum", but for "Persian"?

Thanks William for a delightful read on an otherwise dreary day.

[treestar]

25. One of those weird things, like things happening on a full moon

It could be some sort of inborn spring fever.

Does October have this history in the Southern Hemisphere?

[eggplant]

26. I'll agree, that's quite some list

I can't help but be reminded of the astonishing statistic that 40% of all worker absenteeism happens on a Friday or a Monday.

I also think it is safe to say that, on average, about 1/12 of *all* terrible events have happened in April. I'm not sure that makes it a special month.

[givemebackmycountry]

27. Two others born in April.

Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Me. (4/29)

[H2O Man]

28. April 10, 2007:

Water Man's son is forced to withdraw from Golden Gloves finals, due to flu.

[EFerrari]

29. Yeah, For some people, the new hopeful light just reminds them

they have no hope.

Fucking April.

[joe_sixpack]

31. Yes, Eliot does say it well.....

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.....

From "The Waste Land"

[Up2Late]

32. Hey! Will Pitt! Where ya been hiding?

I was just wondering this week if you had given up on us here at DU.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing after reading this article from AFP.

They wrote: <http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070420142633.lvzk7363.html>

"...The memorial day falls on the eighth anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, and one day after the 12th anniversary of the bombing of a government office building in Oklahoma City, that killed 168...."

Hey, I was checking out website stats at Alexa the other day and did you know that Truthout and DU have about the same amount of site traffic? Just another "fun fact."

<http://www.alexa.com/>