April Highlights @ Awesome Stories

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.

Poor Robin's Almanack(1760)

The origins of April Fool's Day - by 1760 - were already lost to history. Some scholars think the day has ancient, or medieval, roots. Maybe it stems from the Hilaria celebration in Rome, the Holi in India or the Festus Fatuorum (the Feast of Fools) where people (mostly in France) parodied Catholic-Church rituals. Caring little about its actual history, Mark Twain observed:
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

But ... April is not all tricks and foolishness. It is also a time to remember significant world events. Take a look at some of the stories that AwesomeStories.com is featuring this month.

WHAT'S NEW

To help users more quickly locate stories, we have created a new site map.

Each story included in the list also has (or will soon have) a new summary. In addition to a quick overview of the subject, the summaries include specifics about featured links. For example: Charlotte's Web provides a direct path to E.B. White reading from his much-loved book. The Black Death includes pictures of the bacteria which causes bubonic plague and the fleas which transmit it. Dead Sea Scrolls uncovers artifacts which ancient people used in their daily lives. Plessy v Ferguson reveals pictures of those involved in the "separate but equal" discrimination case of 1896 Victory in Europe provides a path to Russian-archive photos of the liberation of Berlin during April, 1945.

QUICK GUIDE to HOT TOPICS
We have also created a new "Hot Topics" section which lists stories by category:
Biographies
Disasters
History
Law and Government
Movies
Religion

FOCUSED TOPICS at AWESOME STORIES
Because the site has hundreds of stories which incorporate thousands of topics, it isn't always easy to do a "one-stop shop" on a particular subject. So ... we are creating a series of focused topics which provide our members, and site users, with detailed information - and direct access - to those sources.
This month we feature:
Civil Rights
Revolutionary War (American)
Triumph Over Tragedy
World War I

STREAMING AUDIO at AWESOME STORIES
We have completed many audio recordings. You do not have to load a player - just click on the green arrow, at the top of each recorded chapter, and off you go! (Soon the audio versions will also be available as podcasts.)

LEARNING TOOLS
AwesomeStories has hundreds of links to explanatory animations, audio/video clips, online games and virtual field trips. Linked throughout the entire site, they are not always easy to spot. We thought a separate section, where you can quickly locate these learning tools, would be helpful. The first version is now online.

APRIL HIGHLIGHTS
RUINS OF POMPEII - DISCOVERED
In early April, 1748, a team of excavators rediscovered Pompeii. Once a thriving town, it was completely destroyed by Vesuvius, a nearby volcano, in the summer of 79 A.D. Discoveries at the site, which is like a living museum, continue to this day.
AMERICA JOINS WORLD WAR ONE
European countries had been at war nearly three years before President Woodrow Wilson asked the U.S. Congress to enter the conflict on April 2, 1917. Germany's formidable weapon - its rigid airships (see Chapter 9) - had been creating fear and inflicting damage in London while its use of chemical weapons - the first ever - compounded the misery of soldiers fighting in the trenches of France. More than two million Americans were ultimately drafted while government-created posters - like Uncle Sam declaring "I WANT YOU" - helped to change the attitude of isolationist Americans who had long resisted involvement in the conflict. During the war, Congress passed censorship laws which greatly limited the people's right to freely speak their mind. Americans - and citizens living in war-torn countries - grew "tired of the war and everything belonging to it." The various stories profiled in this segment include video recreations and eyewitness accounts, explanatory animations and virtual field trips.
JESSE JAMES - ASSASSINATED
It was hot in Missouri on the 3rd of April, 1882. After feeding his horses that morning, Jesse James returned to his rented home. Then he did something he almost never did - he took off his gun belt. Soon thereafter, he was fatally shot by one of his own men, Robert Ford. Learn the story of Jesse James within the context of the American Civil War. And ... learn what happened to his assassin, ten years later.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. - ASSASSINATION
Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on the 4th of April, 1968. The night before his death he gave a powerful, extemporaneous speech - known today as "The Mountaintop Speech" - which seemed to foreshadow his untimely end. We provide links to a video of the entire speech, its written transcript, the assassination scene and the federal government's investigation into Dr. King's death.
APOLLO 13 - SAVED
Before Apollo 13 launched, some folks wondered whether its mission number should be changed. It was that thing about suspicion...about the number 13. Keeping the sequential numbers in place, however, NASA launched the intended moon shot on the 11th of April, 1970. Two days later - on April 13 - the astronauts radioed Houston control with the now-famous words: "Houston, we have a problem." With links to official documents, video and radio transmissions, learn about the "problem" and how the astronauts were saved.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION
On the 14th of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended a play - Our American Cousin - at Ford's Theater. It was just a week after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, ending the American Civil War. John Wilkes Booth, an actor who often performed at Ford's Theater, knew the place well. He also knew the President would be there. Wielding a knife and a derringer, Booth had no trouble entering the President's box since no bodyguards were there to resist him. Lincoln died from a single shot to the head. Three others were attending the play with the President. Each faced serious personal challenges as a direct result of what they had witnessed.
Thanks to the Library of Congress and National Archives, you can see Booth's derringer, the contents of the President's pockets when he was shot, the theater as it appeared at the time, the only known photograph of Lincoln in his coffin and much more. Also learn "the rest of the story" regarding several others whose lives were impacted by the first assassination of an American president.
DIARY of JOHN WILKES BOOTH
Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, kept a diary about the shooting. Many pages of that diary are missing, causing an ongoing debate about what they might have said.
THE TITANIC
Crossing the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage, the Titanic - then the world's largest ship - received several warnings about ice in the area. Some of the messages were not marked for the captain to see. Late in the evening of April 14, 1912 - a moonless, windless night - the Titanic struck an iceberg. Within five to ten minutes, the ship had a starboard list of five degrees. She was already sinking, without enough lifeboats to save everyone. Although it was not the most deadly sinking of all time, Titanic remains the most sensational. Learn how icebergs are formed and how they reach "Iceberg Alley." See a picture of the iceberg believed to be the one which Titanic struck. Examine photographs of the ship - before and after its sinking. Review the testimony of witnesses and discover how Titanic communicated with other ships Learn how her new wireless system operated, and meet rescuers and heroes who risked their own lives to help others.
MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE
It was the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, in 1775. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later penned:
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
The poem, of course, commemorates the famous ride of Paul Revere, sent to alert Massachusetts colonists that British troops were on their way. But three men, not just Revere, attempted to warn the colonists. And only one - Dr. Samuel Prescott - made it to Concord. Revere and his other companion, William Dawes, were captured. Perhaps Longfellow changed the facts because his poem would have lacked good rhyme and rhythm had he used Prescott's name!
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
While the people of San Francisco slept, the ground below them was moving. At first, during the early hours of April 18, 1906, no one knew that something was awry. But then the rolling motions came, causing streets to rise, and fall, and rise again. It seemed, to one observer, as though the earth itself was breathing. What happened next devastated one of America's most popular cities and traumatized her citizens. Learn the story from eyewitnesses and archived photographs.
AMERICAN REVOLUTION - THE FIRST SHOTS
By the time an advance guard of British soldiers arrived at the town of Lexington - on April 19, 1775 - most of the minutemen under Captain John Parker's command had gone home. He had earlier admonished them: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." It did - hours later.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
It is believed that on the 20th of April, 1853, Harriet Tubman began the "underground railroad." What was it - and - how did it work?
CAPTURE of BATAAN
We provide this story to mark an important event, but be advised it is neither for children nor for anyone who does not want to see pictures of war.
On the 9th of April, 1942, Filipinos and Americans could no longer defend Bataan during World War II. The following day, the "Bataan Death March" began. Thousands of Filipinos and Americans died before the last survivors were rescued.

SEARCHING AwesomeStories
To find general topics, see the new site map. To find story summaries, examine the new Quick Guide to Hot Topics. To find details of specific subjects, check out the subject index.

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