April 8

I feel certain that anyone reading this is familiar with the statue of Venus de Milo. You know the one I mean? The tall, naked chick. No arms. In the Louvre. Paris. Now you’ve got it. Yeah, that’s the one. She was discovered, or rather, re-discovered on the 8th in 1820 on the Greek island of Milo by Yorgos Kentrotas.

April 7

Booker T. Washington (pictured), an African-American teacher, politician and author was honored on the 7th in 1940 when the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp bearing his image, the first black American to be so honored. However, Washington received his greatest honor when the song ‘Uptight’ went top ten with his band the MG’s.

April 6

In an event on a par with the perfection of the polio vaccine by Louis Pasteur and astronaut Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, on the 6th in 1938 Roy J. Plunkett (pictured), a DuPont chemist charged with developing a new refrigerant serendipitously discovered polytetrafluoroethylene, which was immediately re-named Teflon, so that it would fit properly into a cooking utensil. In recognition of Plunkett’s contributions to Western Civilization and life as we know it generally, in 1973 he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame. Additionally, in 1985 he was admitted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Will the joy never end?

April 5

On the 5th in 1930, in India, Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi, at the head of his followers, began the Salt March to Dandi. Upon arriving at the sea on the 6th, Gandhi dipped his hand into the ocean, scooped a bit of mud into his hand, raised his arm and called out “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire”.

April 4

For those of you who, like me, are fans of dramatic heart surgery, on the 4th in 1969 Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.

April 3

It’s difficult to get away from violence and death this month. On the 3rd in 1882, Robert Ford shot and killed outlaw Jesse James (pictured), in order to collect a $5000 reward. James must have recovered because today he is allegedly happily married to his third wife, actress Sandra Bullock, and in his spare time designs and builds exotic motorcycles.

April 2

On the 2nd in 1902, the first full-time movie theater opened at the Electric Theater in Los Angeles, California.

April 1

In spite of the bad rap it gets, April 1st must not be exclusively for fans of pranks because on that day in 1826, Samuel Morey patented the internal combustion engine, in 1854, Charles Dickens’ (pictured) book Hard Times began serialization in his magazine Household Words, and in 1857, Herman Melville published The Confidence-Man.