Today's Trivia and What Happened on April 11

A mile-long train moving at 30 mph enters a mile-long tunnel. How long will it take for the entire train to pass through the tunnel?

A mile-long train moving at 30 mph enters a mile-long tunnel. How long will it take for the entire train to pass through the tunnel? Close Large View

4 minutes. It take two minutes for the front of the train to reach the end of the mile-long tunnel, at which point the mile-long train's rear is just entering the tunnel. It will take another two minutes for the rear to pass through the tunnel.

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Quote: Men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them. - George Orwell

Quote: Men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them. - George Orwell Close Large View

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What Happened On

Rap Music Killer

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Rap Music Killer

April 11, 1992

19-year-old Ronald Ray Howard kills a state trooper who stopped him for a broken headlight. He claimed the anti-police rap music he was listening to made him do it. The car he was driving was stolen and drug tests showed he had cocaine and cannabis in his system. He was convicted and executed for the crime. The song he blamed was Tupac's Soulja's Story with the lyrics:
Cops on my tail, so I bail 'til I dodge 'em
They finally pull me over and I laugh
"Remember Rodney King?" and I blast on his punk ass
Now I got a murder case…
…What the fuck would you do? Drop them or let 'em drop you?
I chose droppin' the cop

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Apollo 13 Launched

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Apollo 13 Launched

April 11, 1970

Two days later an oxygen tank exploded, leading to famous expression, "Houston, we've had a problem here". The mission to land on the Moon was aborted. The crew was able to overcome limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the need to make makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system and return safely to Earth six days later.
Note: The actual phrase was "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here", spoken by Jack Swigert. After being asked to repeat the transmission Jim Lovell responded with "Uh, Houston, we've had a problem". In the 1995 movie Apollo 13, the line was shortened to the more dramatic, "Houston, we have a problem".

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Jackie Robinson Breaks a Color Barrier

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Jackie Robinson Breaks a Color Barrier

April 11, 1947

Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play Major League baseball in the modern era when he plays in an exhibition game for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees. He would play his first regular season game four days later.
Note: The last African-American to play major league baseball before Robinson was Moses Fleetwood Walker, who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884.

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Only U.S. General Killed in the Indian Wars

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Only U.S. General Killed in the Indian Wars

April 11, 1873

American General Edward Canby is killed by Indian chief Captain Jack while negotiating peace talks with the Modoc tribe, making him the only U.S. general killed during the Indian wars. The Modoc tribe, who had traditionally lived in Northern California, were forced to move to a reservation in Oregon which they were forced to share with their traditional enemies, the Klamath tribe. When requests to the U.S. government to return to California were refused, war broke out. The Modoc had fought to a stalemate and General Canby was sent to negotiate peace terms. When relocation to California was once again refused, Captain Jack killed Canby. Peace commissioner Reverend Eleazar Thomas was also killed in the confrontation.
Note: Although General George Armstrong Custer was given the temporary rank of major general of the Volunteers during the American Civil War, he was only a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army at the time of his infamous last stand in 1876.

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Thomas Jefferson on Jesus' Followers

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Thomas Jefferson on Jesus' Followers

April 11, 1823

Former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson writes in a letter to former U.S. President John Adams, "the truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in His genuine words. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his Father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
Note: Minerva was the Roman Goddess of Wisdom who was born inside Jupiter after he swallowed her mother, having tricked her into turning herself into a fly. At birth, she burst out his head fully armed and clad in armor.

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Ritual Sacrifice

April 11, 1989

The bodies of 15 people, mutilated by cultists, are discovered in Matamoros, Mexico. The victims, including a 21-year-old Univ. of Texas student, were killed as part of a ritual to protect drug smugglers from the police.

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Idi Amin Overthrown

April 11, 1979

Ugandan President Idi Amin is overthrown by Yusufu Lule. Two days later Lule was sworn in as president.

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Civil Rights Act

April 11, 1968

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the Civil Rights Act, making housing discrimination illegal.

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Baseball - First Black Major-League Umpire

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Baseball - First Black Major-League Umpire

April 11, 1966

Emmett Ashford umpires at third base for the season opener of the American League.
His flamboyant style behind home plate would prompt a reporter to declare, "For the first time in the history of the grand old American game, baseball fans may buy a ticket to watch an umpire perform."
He also went on to do some acting, appeared in commercials, television, and as an umpire in the movie The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976).

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New York Mets

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New York Mets

April 11, 1962

The New York Mets play their first game, losing a road game to the St. Louis Cardinals (11-4). They were created to replace New York's departed NL teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.

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Passport using name of "Ricardo Klement" that Eichmann used to enter Argentina in 1950 Passport using name of "Ricardo Klement" that Eichmann used to enter Argentina in 1950

Passport using name of "Ricardo Klement" that Eichmann used to enter Argentina in 1950 Passport using name of "Ricardo Klement" that Eichmann used to enter Argentina in 1950
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Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann Goes on Trial

April 11, 1961

The German SS officer Adolf Eichmann, who organized the transportation of Jews to concentration camps for "the final solution" during World War II, goes on trial in Israel for war crimes. He was found guilty in December and hanged the following May.
After the war Eichmann was captured by the U.S., but was using forged papers that identified him as "Otto Eckmann." He eventually escaped and in 1950 used a phony passport to travel to Argentina. He was discovered hiding in Argentina after his son, Klaus Eichmann, bragged to his girlfriend about his Nazi father. He was then captured by Israeli Mossad agents and smuggled to Israel where he stood trial.

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Korean War - Truman Relieves MacArthur of Command

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Korean War - Truman Relieves MacArthur of Command

April 11, 1951

U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves Gen. Douglas MacArthur of all command for making unauthorized statements.

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View of the Dead Sea from a Qumran cave in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and portions of the scrolls View of the Dead Sea from a Qumran cave in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and portions of the scrolls

View of the Dead Sea from a Qumran cave in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and portions of the scrolls View of the Dead Sea from a Qumran cave in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and portions of the scrolls
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Dead Sea Scrolls

April 11, 1948

Discovery of the Dead Seas Scrolls is announced to the public.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish religious texts found in the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea. Dating back to between 150 B.C. and A.D. 70, they include some of the oldest known surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible.
The scrolls were initially discovered between November 1946 and February 1947 by Bedouin shepherds who found seven scrolls in jars in a cave near what is now known as the Qumran site. They took a handful of scrolls back to their camp to show their family, where the scrolls were hung on a tent pole. Eventually, they took them to a dealer who rejected them, saying they were worthless, but were able to sell three of the scrolls to another dealer for seven Jordanian pounds (approximately $28, or $367 in 2022 dollars). It wasn't until 1948 the significance of the scrolls was determined.

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First State Cigarette Tax

April 11, 1921

Iowa legalizes the sale of cigarettes in that state and levies a tax of $1 per 1,000 cigarettes.

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Queen Anne's War

April 11, 1713

The Treaty of Utrecht signed ending the war.

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Birthdays

Sheffied (right) in Tarzan Finds a Son! Sheffied (right) in Tarzan Finds a Son!

Sheffied (right) in Tarzan Finds a Son! Sheffied (right) in Tarzan Finds a Son!
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Boy in the Tarzan Movies

Johnny Sheffield

Born April 11, 1931 d. 2010

American actor. Film: He played Boy in the eight Tarzan movies of the 1940s and later starred in the Bomba the Jungle Boy (1949-55) movies. He died of a heart attack after falling from a ladder while pruning a tree at the age of 79.

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Meshach Taylor

Born April 11, 1947 d. 2014

American actor. TV: Designing Women (1986-1993, Anthony Bouvier).

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Citation

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Citation

Born April 11, 1945 d. 1970

American thoroughbred race horse. 1948 Triple Crown winner, and the first race horse to win $1,000,000 (1951).

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Louise Lasser

Born April 11, 1939

American actress. TV: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (title role).

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Tony Brown

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Tony Brown

Born April 11, 1933

American journalist. TV: Black Journal (1968-77, host) and Tony Brown's Journal (1978-2008, host).

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Joel Grey (Joel Katz)

Born April 11, 1932

American Oscar-Tony-winning actor. Broadway: Cabaret (1966, Tony, as the emcee). Film: Cabaret (1972, Oscar, as the emcee).

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Nicholas F. Brady

Born April 11, 1930

American banker, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

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Norman McLaren

Born April 11, 1914 d. 1987

Scottish-born Canadian film animator. Film: Neighbors (1952, Oscar), in which he animated actual actors by filming them one frame at time while slightly changing their positions.

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Oleg Cassini

Born April 11, 1913 d. 2006

French-born fashion and costume designer. He was the official couturier to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

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Pauline Tabor Webster

Born April 11, 1905 d. 1992

Kentucky's most famous brothel owner. She ran the Clay Street Brothel in Bowling Green, Kentucky for 38 years. Autobiography: Pauline's - Memoirs of the Madame on Clay Street.

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James Parkinson

Born April 11, 1755 d. 1824

English surgeon. He described the disease of shaking palsy (1817), which now bears his name. He was also one of the first to give a scientific account of fossils.

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Lucius Septimius Severus

Born April 11, 146 d. 211

Roman Emperor (193-211).

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Deaths

Luther Burbank

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Created the Russet Potato

Luther Burbank

Died April 11, 1926 b. 1849

American naturalist. He created hundreds of new breeds of flowers, plants, and trees, including the Russet Burbank Potato (1873), which launched the Idaho potato industry.
The Russet Burbank potato has dark brown skin and few eyes and is most widely grown potato in North America. It is good for baking, mashing, and french fries.

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Joseph Merrick

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Elephant Man

Joseph Merrick

Died April 11, 1890 b. 1862

The Elephant Man.
'Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind's the standard of the man.
- poem used by Merrick, adapted from "False Greatness" by Isaac Watts.
Although his condition has not been definitively diagnosed, some believe he had Proteus Syndrome. According to the pamphlet used for his exhibition, at about five years old he started to develop "thick lumpy skin… like that of an elephant, and almost the same colour." His family said this was the result of his mother being knocked over and frightened by a fairground elephant while she was pregnant with Joseph. The belief that the emotional experiences of pregnant women could have lasting physical effects on their unborn children was still common in that time. Merrick held this belief for his entire life.

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Edward Richard Sprigg Canby

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Only U.S. General Killed in the Indian Wars

Edward Richard Sprigg Canby

Died April 11, 1873 b. 1817

American general. General Edward Canby was the only U.S. general killed during the Indian wars. He was killed by Indian leader Captain Jack while negotiating peace talks with the Modoc tribe. The Modoc tribe, who had traditionally lived in Northern California, were forced to move to a reservation in Oregon which they were forced to share with their traditional enemies, the Klamath tribe. When requests to the U.S. government to return to California were refused, war broke out. The Modoc had fought to a stalemate and General Canby was sent to negotiate peace terms. When relocation to California was once again refused, Modoc chief Captain Jack killed Canby. Peace commissioner Reverend Eleazar Thomas was also killed in the confrontation.
Note: Although General George Armstrong Custer was given the temporary rank of major general of the Volunteers during the American Civil War, he was only a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army at the time of his infamous last stand in 1876.

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Jerome Geils

Died April 11, 2017 b. 1946

American guitarist, founder of J. Geils Band. Music: Must Have Got Lost (1974), Freeze-Frame (1981), and Centerfold (1981, #1).

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Jonathan Winters

Died April 11, 2013 b. 1925

American Emmy-Grammy-winning comedian. TV: Mork & Mindy (their son Mearth).

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Roscoe Lee Browne

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Roscoe Lee Browne

Died April 11, 2007 b. 1922

American Emmy-winning actor. TV: Falcon Crest (1988, Rosemont).

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Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Died April 11, 2007 b. 1922

American author. Writings: Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).

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James E. Brown

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James E. Brown

Died April 11, 1992 b. 1920

American actor. TV: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954-59, Lt. Rip Masters).

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Erskine Caldwell

Died April 11, 1987 b. 1903

American author. Writings: Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933).

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Dolores del Río

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Dolores del Río

Died April 11, 1983 b. 1904

Mexican actress. She was the first major female Latin cross-over star in Hollywood. Film: Maria Candelaria (1943) and The Fugitive (1947).

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Ted De Corsia

Died April 11, 1973 b. 1903

American actor. His death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of the movie The Conqueror in 1953. By 1980, of the 220 members of the cast and crew, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.
Film: The Enforcer (1951) and The Conqueror (1956).

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James Anthony Bailey

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James Anthony Bailey

Died April 11, 1906 b. 1847

American showman. P.T. Barnum's partner in Barnum & Bailey's Circus and owner of Jumbo, the giant elephant.

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Francis Pharcellus Church

Died April 11, 1906 b. 1839

American editor. Author of Is There a Santa Claus? (1897) article in response to 8-year-old Virginia O' Hanlon's question.

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Saint Stanislaus

Died April 11, 1079 b. 1030

Bishop of Krakow, and patron saint of Poland.

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Donus

Died April 11, 678 b. ????

Italian religious leader, 78th Pope (676-678).

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