Daily Calendar for Sunday, April 19, 2026

Daily Calendar

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Charles Darwin (naturalist) – 1882
Daphne du Maurier (author) – 1989
Norris McWhirter (co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, final arbiter on everything from the fastest climb of Mount Everest to the world’s longest hot dog) – 2004

The American Revolution began with the first shot fired at Lexington (no one knows from which side). The shot heard round the world” (a reference from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “The Concord Hymn”) occurred at the North Bridge in Concord later that same day. It was the first exchange where colonial militiamen were ordered to fire upon British soldiers.” – 1775
The Boston Marathon was held for the first time – 1897
Great fire in Toronto started – 1904
Canadian runner Tom Longboat won the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 24 seconds – 1907
Women granted the right to vote in Alberta, Canada – 1916
Leslie Irvin made the first free-fall parachute jump, Dayton, Ohio – 1919
John C. Miles won Boston Marathon – 1926
Oxford English Dictionary completed – 1928
Movie Stand Up and Cheer released in U.S., first to seriously launch Shirley Temple’s film career – 1934
Surgeon’s Loch Ness monster hoax photo taken – 1934
Spring peepers heard in Dublin, NH – 1941
WIYY DJ Bob Rivers began an on-air vigil until baseball’s Baltimore Orioles won (which was in 258 hours) – 1988
Oklahoma City bombing – 1995
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI. He was the oldest pope elected since 1730 – 2005
The death of the oldest known spider (43-year-old trapdoor species) was announced – 2018
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet (Mars). – 2021

Last snow of a late winter raised snow cover to 3 feet in southern New Hampshire – 1785
In the second day of an early-season heat wave in the Northeast, Providence, Rhode Island, reached 98 degrees F – 1976
The Boston Marathon was run in 90-degree heat – 1976
The temperature reached 88 degrees F in Portsmouth, New Hampshire – 2004
Lead, South Dakota, received 59 inches of snow – 2006