(Sunday, April 14, 1935, 4:00 p.m. CST; during the Great Depression) — The “Black Sunday” dust storm descended upon the central Plains this afternoon, turning a sunny afternoon into total darkness. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history and it caused immense economic and agricultural damage.
Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 9 - The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Documentary' (Apr. 14, 1865, afternoon at 13:20-13:39)
(Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at around noon; during the American Civil War) — When actor John Wilkes Booth dropped by Ford’s Theatre today in Washington, D.C., to pick up his mail today, he learned that President Abraham Lincoln and Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant (and their respective wives) would be attending a performance of the British hit comedy Our American Cousin that evening (the Grants would bow out at the last minute, replaced by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris, daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris).
Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 9 - The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Documentary' (Apr. 14, 1865, at 11:34)
(Good Friday, April 14, 1865, noon; during the American Civil War) — Four years to the day after lowering the Fort Sumter Flag in surrender to Confederate forces, Major General Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army returned to the ruined fort to raise the flag he had lowered at the outbreak of war in 1861.
Video: 'WW2: Franklin Delano Roosevelt body arrival at the White House (13 April 1945)' (this was actually Apr. 14, 1945)
(Saturday, April 14, 1945, 11:20 a.m. EWT; during World War II) — Along streets that seemed heavy with a still and severely controlled grief, and which were silent but for the somber intermittent hymns of the military bands and the soft footfalls of marching service men and women, the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt was carried today upon a black caisson of honor back to the White House for the official farewell of the United States and of all the friendly world. Continue reading 500,000 view FDR’s final march in Washington 70 years ago this hour (Apr 14 1945)→
Video: 'Did the In Cold Blood Killers Murder a Second Family?'
(Wednesday, April 14, 1965, 12:41/1:19 a.m. CST) — The state of Kansas hanged Richard Hickock and Perry Smith this morning for the 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, his wife, Bonnie, and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon as described in Truman Capote’s 1966 non-fiction book In Cold Blood.
(Saturday, April 13, 1985) — “We Are the World” by USA for Africa, a song and charity single for African famine relief featuring 45 of the most famous artists in the music industry, peaked at #1 on today’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for four consecutive weeks (Apr. 13/20/27, May 4, 1985).
(Saturday, April 13, 1985) — “Missing You” by Diana Ross peaked at #10 on today’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks. It was her twelfth of 12 top ten hits on the chart since leaving The Supremes in 1970 (1970-1985).