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Inspire. Unite. Achieve.
AMERICANISM
April 2018
April Fools’ Day
April Fools’ Day is celebrated on April 1st in the United States with a great deal of pranking or practical jokes being
perpetrated on ones’ colleagues and friends. It has different meanings throughout the world according to the
calendars being used, such as the first day of spring or the first of the year. After a successful joke or prank a shout is
heard “April Fool.”
Europeans sometimes shout “April Fish” as someone pins a piece of paper on the back of a victim, but he or she is
still referred to as a “fool.” That symbol of a fish still appears on European April Fools’ greeting cards. One of the first
pranks recorded was in 1698 when Londoners were invited to a nonexistent lion-washing ceremony at the Tower
of London. In 1980, Londoners were again enraged as the BBC announced that the Big Ben clock tower would be
modernized and converted to a digital clock system.
In 1978, a businessman announced he would be towing an iceberg and said that the ice cubes would freshen ones’
drink and they would be sold for ten cents a cube. The “so-called” iceberg that was towed into Sydney, Australia,
turned out to be sheets covered with fire extinguisher foam and shaving cream.
It First Began in April
April begins with Easter Sunday on April 1. On Saturday on April 7 at sundown, Passover ends.
April 2, 1792 Congress established the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, which has expanded to Denver, Sacramento, and
West Point. Fort Knox is also part of the Mint system with its bullion depository.
April 3, 1860 The Pony Express Service began. The rider’s salary was $50 dollars a month to travel from St. Joseph,
Missouri, to the Pacific coast via relay teams. It took them ten days to travel 1800 miles, and after operating a little
over a year and a half, Congress approved the building of a transcontinental telegraph line.
April 6, 1896 The modern Olympics Games were reborn by King Georgios of Greece.
April 9, 1959 America’s first astronauts were introduced.
April 12, 1981 The first space shuttle Columbia was launched.
April 13, 1936 Work on the Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam) was completed.
April 19, 1897 The oldest Marathon Race was run in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally called Patriot’s Day
commemorating the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
April 22, 1972 Earth Day became an annual event Worldwide.
April 30, 1789 George Washington was inaugurated as the First President of the United States in the city of
New York.
June Rentmeester and Jeannee O’Neill | Americanism Co-Chairmen
PRESIDENT’S E-NEWSLETTER | APRIL 2018 17 TEXAS FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN
