Passover begins at sundown on this day. Passover, or Pesach, is an annual weeklong festival commemorating the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and slavery. The holiday, which begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan, derives its name from the passing over of the homes of the Israelite slaves during the tenth plague. Family and friends gather together on the first and second nights of the holiday for the high point of the festival observance, the Seder. During the Seder, which means “order” in Hebrew, the experience of the Exodus is told in story, song, prayer, and the tasting of symbolic foods. Perhaps the most well-known of these foods is the matzoh (flat, crackerlike unleavened bread), which is a reminder of the haste with which the slaves—who had no time to wait for the bread to rise—left Egypt. Read more about Passover here.
Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 21, 2027
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Wednesday, April 21, 2027
Died
- King Henry VII of England –
- Peter Apianus (astronomer) –
- Mark Twain (American writer) –
- Manfred von Richthofen (aviator, aka the Red Baron) –
- Aldo Leopold (American environmentalist) –
- Mary Doyle Keefe (model for Norman Rockwell’s 1943 painting of Rosie the Riveter) –
- Prince (musician) –
- Pope Francis I (Pope Francis I) –
Born
- Charlotte Brontë (author) –
- John Muir (Scottish-American naturalist, born in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland) –
- Anthony Quinn (actor) –
- Elizabeth II (Queen of Great Britain) –
- Charles Grodin (actor) –
- Patti Lupone (actress and singer) –
- Tony Danza (actor) –
- Nicole Sullivan (actress) –
Events
- John Adams sworn in as the first vice president of the U.S. –
- Battle of San Jacinto, Texas –
- David Dows, largest five-masted schooner of its time, launched –
- The New York Giants and New York Yankees played an exhibition game to benefit survivors of the Titanic –
- World record: 2,664-pound great white shark caught off southern coast of Australia –
- 70-lb. 5-oz. bigmouth buffalofish caught, Bastrop, Louisiana –
- 50-lb. 8-oz. African pompano caught, Daytona Beach, Florida –
- Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, journeyed into space –
- In a procedure billed as a first in the U.S., Stephanie Yarber, an infertile Alabama woman, received a transplanted ovary from her identical twin sister, Melanie Morgan –
- Thirteen year old Morgan Pozgar won the LG National Texting Championship. She typed the message, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious. in 15 seconds –
- Chicago White Sox pitcher Phil Humber threw a perfect game –
- Fireball exploded over Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, rattling homes from central California to Reno, Nevada. Experts believe it was caused by a meteoroid about the size of a minivan. –
Weather
- A tornado in northern Illinois killed 52 people –
- Tornadoes in Kansas –
- A Dodger Stadium doubleheader was rained out for the third day in a row, after heavy rains continued to pour down on southern California. In the previous 26 years, only 12 games had been rained out at the stadium. –
- Waterspout formed off Isle of Palms, South Carolina –
- Half-dollar-size hail fell near Marion, South Carolina –