1749 - Benjamin Franklin on the banks of the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA, became the first person to cook by electricity. In a letter dated this day in 1749, he wrote: “A turkey is to be killed for our dinner by the electrical shock and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle.”
    1813 – The first record of rubber in the United States is a patent for gum elastic varnish for footwear, issued to Jacob F. Hummel.
    1830 – Birthday of Adolph Sutro in Prussia.  He was the 24th mayor of San Francisco and first German-American Jewish mayor, serving in that office from 1894 until 1896. He is today perhaps best remembered for the various San Francisco lands and landmarks that still bear his name.  He introduced his plans for de-watering and de-gassing the mine shafts of the Comstock Lode by driving a tunnel through Mount Davidson to drain the water. Sutro incorporated the Sutro Tunnel Company and raised US$3 million, a considerable fortune through this work in Nevada.  His wealth was increased by large real estate investments in San Francisco, where he became an entrepreneur and public figure after returning from the Comstock in 1879. These land investments included Mount Sutro, Land's End (the area where Lincoln Park and the Cliff House are today), and Mount Davidson, which was called "Blue Mountain" at the time.
    1845 - Macon B. Allen becomes the first African-American lawyer admitted to the bar in Massachusetts.  With Robert Morris Jr, they became the first African-Americans to open a law practice in the US.
http://www.jtbf.org/inter_fed_jud.htm
    1852 – The first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus was published.
    1854 - The first college for African-American students was the Ashmun Institute, Chester County, PA. It was named after Jeshudi Ashmun, the reorganizer of the colony of Liberia. In 1966, the college name was changed to Lincoln University.
http://www.lincoln.edu/
    1857 – The US Army, Pacific Division HQ permanently formed at San Francisco’s Presidio.  It had been a fortified location since 1776, when New Spain established it to gain a foothold on Alta California and San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848.  As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment and Closure process, Congress voted to end the Presidio's status as an active Army military installation. On October 1, 1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use.
    1861 - Maryland's House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.
    1863 - William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco.   He was an American newspaper publisher who built the nation's largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 after taking control of “The San Francisco Examiner” from his father. Moving to New York City, he acquired “The New York Journal” and engaged in a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer’s “New York World” that led to the creation of yellow journalism - sensationalized stories of dubious veracity. Acquiring more newspapers, Hearst created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world.  He was twice elected as a Democrat to the House, and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, for Governor of New York in 1906, and for Lt. Governor of New York in 1910. Nonetheless, through his newspapers and magazines, he exercised enormous political influence, and was famously blamed for pushing public opinion with his yellow journalism type of reporting leading the United States into a war with Spain in 1898.  His life story was the main inspiration for the development of the lead character of “Citizen Kane”.  His mansion, Hearst Castle, on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon, California, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, was donated by the Hearst Corporation to the state of California in 1957, and is now a State Historical Monument and a National Historic Landmark, open for public tours.
    1864 – Theta Xi fraternity was founded at Renssalear Polytechnic Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the Civil War.
    1873 - Eli Hamilton Janney of Alexandria, VA, obtained a patent on an “improvement in car-couplings.”  Eventually every railroad car in the United States, Canada, and Mexico was equipped with his invention. http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/
    1892 – The Philadelphia Phillies’ Charlie Reilly became baseball's first pinch hitter.  He is also the first of two Major Leaguers to have four hits that included two home runs in his first major league game, 1889 with the Columbus Solons.
    1894 - Commonwealth of Christ (Coxey's Army) arrived in Washington, DC, 500 strong, to protest unemployment.  Coxey was arrested for trespassing at the Capitol.
    1899 - Jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington was born in Washington, DC. He made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916, and two years later formed his first band. After appearances in Harlem nightclubs, Duke Ellington's orchestra became one of the most famous jazz bands, and remained so for more than 50 years. Some of Ellington's best-known songs include "Take the A Train," "Mood Indigo," "Solitude" and "Sophisticated Lady." He also wrote a number of concert works including "Creole Rhapsody" and "Black, Brown and Beige." Ellington made hundreds of recordings before his death in 1974.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr29.html
http://www.dukeellington.com/
    1901- For the first and only time, the Kentucky Derby was run in April instead of May. The winning cold was “His Eminence,” ridden by Jimmy Winkfeld. Sannazarro finished second, a length-and-a-half back.
    1910 - The temperature at Kansas City, MO, soared to 95 degrees to establish a record for the month of April. Four days earlier the afternoon high in Kansas City was 44 degrees, following a record cold morning low of 34 degrees.
    1913 - The zipper was invented about 1906 by Gideon Sundback of Hoboken, NJ, an inventor of Swedish ancestry, who obtained a patent on this day for his “separable fasteners.” His design consisted of two flexible tapes, each of which carried a row of metal teeth with tiny hooks, and a slider that locked the two rows of hooks together. This fastener was improved upon by later patents on March 20 and October 16, 1917, which were assigned to the Hookless Fastener Company of Meadville, PA, under the name “Talon.” The first manufactured garments to incorporate zippers were rubber boots made by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1923. Prior to this all clothes used buttons exclusively. The term “zipper” was coined by the English novelist Gilbert Frankau, who saw the device at a promotional luncheon and explained “Zip! It's Open! Zip! It's closed!” The first fashion designer to use zippers was Elsa Schiaparelli, who added them to garments in her 1930 collection.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa082497.htm
    1918 - Ace of Aces, Captain Edward Vernon Rickenbacker’s first victory took place in the Baussant region, in the Toul sector, France. He was credited with 26 victories, including 22 airplanes and four balloons.
http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/flyhy/101/eddie.htm
    1918 - Tris Speaker tied the career outfield record of 4 unassisted double plays
    1918 – Former Rams and Redskins Hall of Fame head coach, George Allen, was born in Nelson County, VA.  After he delivered them to the 1972 Super Bowl, losing to the undefeated Miami Dolphins, Redskins owner Edward Bennett Williams quipped, “I gave him an unlimited budget and he exceeded it!”
    1927 - Birthday of tenor saxophone Big Jay McNeely, Watts Ca
http://www.electricearl.com/dws/bigjay.html
http://www.soul-patrol.com/randbfoundation/jay.htm
http://www.123posters.com/bigjay.htm
http://www.greenmanreview.com/rawblues.html
    1927 – The construction of ‘The Spirit of St Louis’ was completed.  Officially known as the Ryan NYP, the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane was flown solo by Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927 on the first non-stop flight to Paris from New York.  It was designed by Donald A. Hall of Ryan Airlines and was named “The Spirit of St. Louis” in honor of Lindbergh's supporters from The St. Louis Raquette Club in his then hometown.  The design and build took a mere 60 days.
    1931 - British skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan birthday. His biggest North American hit was 1961's "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On the Bedpost Over Night)." Died November 3, 2002.
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/donegan_lonnie/bio.jhtml
    1933 - Birthday of guitarist Willie Nelson, Abbott, TX.  Singer-songwriter, musician, guitarist, author, poet, actor, and activist.  He was one of the main figures of ‘outlaw country’, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels, including significant investment in two bio-diesel plants, and the legalization of marijuana.   http://www.willienelson.com/
    1934 - Guitarist Otis Rush birthday, born Neshoba, MS
http://www.blueflamecafe.com/index.html
http://www.concertedefforts.com/Otis%20Rush.htm
    1934 – The Pittsburgh Pirates became the last Major League team to play a Sunday ball game.
    1934 – Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela.  He played 18 seasons for the White Sox, Orioles, and Red Sox (1956-73).   Aparicio was one of the most dominant shortstops of his era and was the first Venezuelan inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.  He was a 10-time All-Star, an American League stolen base leader for 9 consecutive seasons, and a 9-time Gold Glove. Ted Williams called Aparicio "the best shortstop he had ever seen". Aparicio was nominated for the MLB All-Century Team (selected as one of the one-hundred greatest players) in 1999.
    1936 – April Stevens was born Carol LoTempio in Niagara Falls, NY.  With her brother she was Nino Tempo and April Stevens who recorded “Deep Purple” (1963) that won the Grammy as "best rock & roll record of the year".
    1939 – The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, connecting The Bronx and Queens over the East River was opened to traffic.
    1941 - The Boston Bees agreed to rename the National League team the Braves, the name they used prior to 1935.
    1945 - The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, part of the most decorated regiment in the history of the U.S. military (the 442nd regimental combat team), added another first to the history books. They liberated the remaining prisoners of the infamous Nazi death camp, Dachau. The 522nd was made up entirely of second generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei).
    1945 – The terms of surrender of German armies in Italy were signed.
    1945 – Adolph Hitler married Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designated Adm. Donitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun committed suicide the following day.
    1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened and indicted former Japanese Prime minister Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.
    1947 – Runner Jim Ryun was born in Wichita, KS.  He won a silver medal in the 1968 Olympic Games for the 1500 meters. He was also the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes, which he did twice (first in an AAU meet and again in a high school track meet).  He was a member of the US House of Representatives from 1996–2007.
    1947 – Tommy James, of The Shondells, was born in Dayton, OH.
    1951 - Marguerite Higgins won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and journalism. Her book, “War in Korea,” became a best-seller.  Among the many the many newspaper articles she wrote were the first report of the German death camps at the end of World War II, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1951. She was the first American to enter the Dachau death camp on 04-29-1945, in advance of military troops. From her dispatch filed that day: "Tattered, emaciated men, weeping, yelling and shouting `Long Live America' (in about 16 languages) swept toward the gate in a mob. Those who could not walk limped or crawled... at least a thousand prisoners were killed the night before... the barracks like those at Buchenwald (which she had also entered early) had the stench of death and sickness... the starving and dying lay virtually on top of each other in quarters where 1,200 men occupied a space intended for 200...in the crematorium itself were hooks on which the S.S. men hung their victims when they wished to flog them or to use any of the other torture instruments... Many of the living were so frail it seemed impossible they could still be holding on to life." More women were killed by the Germans in the concentration camps than men - and women were subjected to rape and other sexual tortures as well. So many of the Nazi doctors seemed fascinated by women's reproductive abilities and performed unspeakable horrors on pregnant women. She died in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 1966 of a disease which she apparently contracted while in Vietnam. On September 14, 2002, a stamp was issued to commemorate her life.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/mhiggins.htm 
http://www.unicover.com/EA1CCJH8.HTM 
    1951 - Top Hits
“If” - Perry Como
“Mockingbird Hill” -Patti Page
“Would I Love You” - Patti Page
“The Rhumba Boogie” - Hank Snow
    1952 - Birthday of Dale Earnhardt, stock car racer, in Kannapolis, NC. He was one of NASCAR's most popular personalities, winning the Winston Cup seven times. He was killed while driving in the Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, FL, Feb 18, 2001
http://www.daleearnhardt.net/ 
    1953 - "Coke Time with Eddie Fisher" began its TV and radio run on NBC-TV and Mutual radio. Fisher, a popular performer, was seen and heard on more TV and radio stations in 1954 than any other entertainer. The show ran on TV 1953-57, then “The Eddie Fisher Show” ran 1957-59.  From the negative fallout of his leaving his wife, singer/actress Debbie Reynolds, for her best friend, Elizabeth Taylor, NBC cancelled the show and RCA Victor dropped him as a singer.  “Oh! My Pa-Pa”, “Any Time”, “Lady of Spain”.  Fisher died in 2010.
    1953 - The first U.S. experimental 3D TV broadcast showed an episode of “Space Patrol” on ABC affiliate KECA-TV in LA.
    1953 – At the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, home of the New York Giants, the Braves’ Joe Adcock hit the first HR into the bleachers in dead CF, nearly 500’ away.
    1954 - Ernest Borgnine made his network television debut in "Night Visitor" on "Ford Theatre" on NBC-TV. The versatile film star won the Academy Award for Best Actor for “Marty” in 1955.   He would later become a sitcom sensation in "McHale's Navy" with comedian Tim Conway on CBS and, later, as a helicopter owner in "Airwolf".
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Borgnine,+Ernest
    1954 - Miles Davis Sextet records “Walkin'” (Prestige)
http://www.milesdavis.com/ 
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2822/miles_davis.htmlhttp://www.wam.umd.edu/~losinp/music/miles_ahead.htm
http://www.jan-lohmann.com/
http://home.snafu.de/miles/music/missing.htm
    1954 – Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn.  The heralded sitcom “Seinfeld” (1989–1998), which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, was a semi-fictional version of his life, reflecting much of the observational humor for which he became famous as a stand-up comedian.  In 2005, Comedy Central named him the 12th greatest stand-up comedian of all time.
    1957 – The first military nuclear power plant was dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Va.
    1957 – Decorated actor Daniel Day-Lewis was born in London.  Day-Lewis is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation and has earned numerous awards, including three Academy Awards for Best Actor:  “My Left Foot” (1989), “There Will Be Blood” (2007), and “Lincoln” (2012), making him the only male actor to win that many Best Actor awards and one of only three male actors to win three Oscars (Walter Brennan and Jack Nicholson).
    1958 - Ted Williams becomes the tenth major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits.
    1958 - "The Witch Doctor" goes to No.1 on Billboard's pop charts. The singer's voice was recorded at various speeds, mainly very Fast.  “…oo-ee-oo-ah-ah, ting tang walla bing bang…”  Songwriter and singer Ross Bagdasarian (who recorded under the name David Seville) topped the charts again at the end of the year with "The Chipmunk Song," sung by his dubbed voice at very fast speed, and this time the singers were: the Chipmunks.
    1958 – Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, CA.  She has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, for her performances in “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), and “Love Field” (1992).
    1959 - Top Hits
“Come Softly to Me” - The Fleetwoods
“(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I” - Elvis Presley
“Guitar Boogie Shuffle” - The Virtues
“White Lightning” - George Jones
    1959 - UNIVAC, the electronic computer that was the size of a house, actually picked four out of six winners at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. The electronic brain set a record for right choices in horse races. Of course, the winners all paid 2-1 or even odds, so it didn't win much. But, most of us don't...
    1960 - Dick Clark told a House of Representatives investigating committee looking into the payola scandal that he, the host of "American Bandstand", never took payola for records featured on his daily TV show. Clark would, however, relinquish rights to music publishing that he owned. The value of those rights, Clark indicated 30 years later, amounted to about $80 million.
http://www.history-of-rock.com/clark.htm
http://www.dickclarkproductions.com/
    1961 - “Spanning the globe ... to bring you the constant variety of sport, the constant variety of human competition, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. This is ABC's Wide World of Sports.” A Saturday afternoon sports program began its long run on ABC-TV. The show, featuring Jim McKay as host, along with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Al Michaels, Jack Whitaker, Heywood Hale Brun and others, was not an immediate hit. Although Roone Arledge's vision of a worldwide window on televised sports got off to a slow start, "ABC's Wide World of Sports" became one of TV's most popular and enduring programs.
    1963 - Andrew Loog Oldham signed the Rolling Stones to a management contract. He had seen them perform the previous night at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England.
    1967 - Top Hits
“Somethin' Stupid” - Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra
“A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” - The Monkees
“Sweet Soul Music” - Arthur Conley
“Need You” - Sonny James
    1967 - Aretha Franklin's "Respect" is released.
    1967 - Cindy Birdsong makes her stage debut with The Supremes at The Hollywood Bowl, replacing the increasingly unreliable Florence Ballard.
    1967 - Muhammad Ai was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship the day after he refused to be inducted into military service. Said Ali, “I have searched my conscience, and I find I cannot be true to my belief in my religion by accepting such a call.” He had claimed exemption as a minister of the Black Muslim religion. Convicted of violating the Selective Service Act but the Supreme Court reversed this decision in 1971
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/25/specials/ali.html
    1968 - "Hair" made its way from Greenwich Village to Broadway. The show certainly opened eyes. It was the first time that actors appeared nude in a Broadway musical. "Hair" ran for 1,844 shows on and off Broadway. It was even more successful in its London run later. Big songs from the show: "Hair" (The Cowsills) and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (The 5th Dimension).
http://www.cowsill.com/cowsills/discography/music-hair.html
http://www.orlok.com/hairpages/hairfaq.html
    1969 - Sir Duke, Duke Ellington, celebrated his 70th birthday. He was honored with the presentation of the Medal of Freedom, the U.S. government's highest civilian honor.
    1970 – Former World’s #1 tennis champion, Andre Agassi, was born in Las Vegas.
    1971 – Bill Graham closed Fillmore and Fillmore East.
    1972 - A Detroit, Michigan band called Gallery enters the Billboard Hot 100 with "Nice To Be With You", which will rise to #4 during its 13 week run. They will follow with two more Top 20 hits, "I Believe in Music" (#22) and "Big City Miss Ruth Ann" (#23) over the next eight months.
    1973 - More than 15,000 people attending a Rock concert by Elvin Bishop, Canned Heat, Buddy Miles and Fleetwood Mac are routed from a baseball stadium in Stockton, California, by police firing tear-gas canisters. More than 80 people, including 28 police officers, are hurt and fifty arrests are made.
    1973 - The Mississippi River reached a crest of 43.4 feet, breaking the previous record of 42 feet established in 1785.
    1974 - Phil Donahue's TV show was on the move. "Donahue" was moving to Chicago, IL, where it would remain until 1985. The show was originally based in Dayton, OH. Following more than a decade in the Windy City, the show again moved, this time to New York City. During its stay in Chicago, "Donahue" earned nine Emmy Awards.
    1975 - Operation Frequent Wind, the largest helicopter evacuation on record, begins removing the last Americans from Saigon.
    1975 - Top Hits
“(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” - B.J. Thomas
“He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)” - Tony Orlando & Dawn
“Supernatural Thing”  - Ben E. King
“Blanket on the Ground” - Billie Jo Spears
    1979 - Van Halen's "Dance The Night Away" single is released
    1980 - Black Sabbath began their first tour with vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who had replaced Ozzy Osbourne.
    1981 - Steve Carlton, the Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, became the first left hander in the major leagues to get 3,000 career strikeouts. He fanned Montreal Expos' Tim Wallach in the first inning of a game that saw the Phillies beat the Expos 6-2. Carlton was only the sixth major leaguer to strike out 3,000 batters. He finished with 4,136.
    1983 – Harold Washington was sworn in as Chicago’s first African-American mayor.
    1983 - Top Hits
“Come on Eileen” - Dexys Midnight Runners
“Beat It” - Michael Jackson
“Der Kommissar” - After the Fire
“American Made” - The Oak Ridge Boys
    1985 - “Challenger” was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, piloted by the first African-American to enter outer space, Col. Frederick Gregory, who became a veteran of three space missions, logging in 455 hours. This flight had a crew of seven and a full animal menagerie of monkeys and other animals to learn about the effects of space. After 111 orbits of Earth, Challenger landed on May 6, 1985, at Edwards Air Force Base, Ca.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/gregory-fd.html
    1985 - George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, fired manager Yogi Berra after only 16 games into the young baseball season. He sent one of his staff to inform Berra, an act that stuck with Berra who vowed never to visit Yankee Stadium as long as Steinbrenner owned the team.  At the urging of announcer Suzyn Waldman, who urged Steinbrenner to apologize, The Boss did so at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in 1999.
    1986 - Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox set a major-league baseball record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariner batters on the way to a 3-1 win. This record for the Red Sox hurler surpassed the 19 strikeouts for a nine-inning game held by Nolan Ryan when he pitched for the California Angels. Tom Seaver of the New York Mets and Steve Carlton of the St. Louis Cardinals also held a piece of the previous 19-KO record.
    1987 - A storm off the southeast coast of Massachusetts blanketed southern New England with heavy snow. Totals of three inches at Boston, 11 inches at Milton, MA, and 17 inches at Worcester, MA, were records for so late in the season. Princeton, MA was buried under 25 inches of snow.
    1988 - Top Hits
“Wishing Well”- Terence Trent D Arby
“Anything For You”- Gloria Estefan
“Angel”- Aerosmith
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go”- Whitney Houston
“Pink Cadillac”- Natalie Cole
    1988 - The 1988 Baltimore Orioles finally won a game after losing the first 21 games of the season. They beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-0, on a combined four-hitter by pitchers Mark Williamson and Dave Schmidt. The Orioles' streak, lasting from April 4 to 28, set an American League record but fell two losses short of the National League mark.
    1988 - Thunderstorms produced large hail and damaging winds throughout central Texas with baseball size hail reported at Nixon, Texas and wind gusts to 70 mph recorded at Cotulla, Texas. In contrast, a late winter storm dropped up to a foot of snow over northern West Virginia and western Maryland.
    1989 - Porter Wagoner joined Dolly Parton on stage for the first time since Parton split with her mentor in 1976. The duet sold out four shows at Parton's Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
http://www.porterwagoner.com/ 
    1990 - A storm system crossing northern New Mexico blanketed parts of the Rocky Mountain Region and the Northern High Plains with heavy snow, and produced blizzard conditions in central Montana. Much of southern Colorado was buried under one to three feet of snow. Pueblo tied an April record with 16.8 inches of snow in 24 hours. Strong canyon winds in New Mexico, enhanced by local showers, gusted to 65 mph at Albuquerque. Afternoon temperatures across the Great Plains Region ranged from the 20s in North Dakota to 107 degrees at Laredo, TX
    1990 - The TV movie “Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys” airs on ABC. 
    1991 - Top Hits
“Baby Baby” - Amy Grant
“Joyride” - Roxette
“I Like the Way” (“The Kissing Game”) - Hi-Five
“Down Home” – Alabama
    1992 - A jury in Simi Valley, CA failed to convict four Los Angeles police officers accused in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, providing the spark that set off rioting, looting and burning at South Central Los Angeles, CA, and other areas across the country. The anger unleashed during and after the violence was attributed to widespread racism, lack of job opportunities and the resulting hopelessness of inner-city poverty.  It claimed 54 lives and over $1 billion in property damage.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0429.html#article
    1992 - State Farm Insurance was ordered to pay $157 million to hundreds of California women who were not offered or given jobs as State Farm agents because of their sex. It was the largest sex-discrimination settlement in US history to that time. The settlement was shared by more than 814 women. The case that began in June, 1979 when Muriel Kraszewski sued because she was turned down repeatedly for agent jobs at State Farm offices in South California because she was a woman. As a result of the suit, the ratio of women agents with State Farm has increased from less than 1% in 1979 to more than 50% today. Women make up more than 50% of the population.
    1995 - Severe thunderstorms moved across Tarrant County in Texas. Hail up to 3.5 inches in diameter did an enormous amount of damage. 100 aircraft were damaged at DFW airport. Damages in the county totaled $220 million. This was the second major hailstorm to hit the area in a month.
    1997 - The US House of Representatives voted to bestow Congress's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, on Frank Sinatra. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan had presented the singer with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US.
    1997 - Craig MacIavish, the last player to go without a helmet, retired from the National Hockey League. The NHL mandated helmets at the start of the 1979-80 season but allowed players then active to refrain by signing a waiver absolving the league of responsibility in case of head injury. MacIavish was the last remaining player of those who signed the waiver. He retired from the St. Louis Blues after a 16-year career during which he scored 213 goals. Despite his personal choice, he admitted, “Certainly, it's very dangerous out there without a helmet.”
    1998 - Top Hits
“Too Close” - Next
“You’re Still The One” - Shania Twain
“Let’s Ride” - Montell Jordan Featuring Master P
“All My Life” - K-Ci
    2004 – Vice-President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush testified before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
    2004 – The last Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly after 107 years of production.
    2005 – Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary, had bone-marrow transplant surgery to attempt to stave off the leukemia that will take her life in 2009.
    2007 - Nancy Sinatra made a rare TV appearance in an episode of The Sopranos where she sang "Bossman" to a small gathering of the main characters.