April 16 Birthday
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people and wounded seventeen at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He was a senior at the university. He chained the doors of Norris Hall shut and moved from classroom to classroom with two handguns. The shooting lasted eleven minutes. It was the deadliest school shooting in American history until the Uvalde shooting in 2022, and it remains the deadliest by a single shooter at a school. Cho had been diagnosed with selective mutism and severe anxiety disorder. He had been ordered into outpatient treatment but was never committed, which would have prevented him from buying firearms. He bought the guns legally. The massacre prompted changes in campus security nationwide but no changes to gun laws. The Texas City disaster occurred on April 16, 1947. The French-registered ship SS Grandcamp, loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire in the harbor at Texas City, Texas. At 9:12 AM, the ship exploded. The blast was felt 100 miles away in Lafayette, Louisiana. It destroyed the Monsanto chemical plant nearby and ignited a second ship, the SS High Flyer, which also exploded the next day. 581 people died and over 5,000 were injured. It was the deadliest industrial accident in American history. The cause was never definitively determined — the ammonium nitrate was stable under normal conditions but could detonate if exposed to fire. The disaster led to new regulations on the storage and transport of hazardous materials. Charlie Chaplin, born this day in 1889 in London, was sent to a workhouse at seven after his mother was committed to a mental asylum. His father was an alcoholic who died at thirty-seven. Chaplin began performing in music halls at ten and went to Hollywood at twenty-four. He co-founded United Artists. The Tramp — his iconic character — was a combination of pathos and physical comedy that transcended language. Chaplin refused to make talkies for a decade after The Jazz Singer. He was accused of communism and left the United States in 1952. He won an honorary Oscar in 1972 and received the longest standing ovation in Academy Awards history — twelve minutes. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, born this day in 1947, scored more points than any player in NBA history — 38,387. He changed his name from Lew Alcindor after converting to Islam. He boycotted the 1968 Olympics in protest of racial inequality. His skyhook — a one-handed hook shot released from above his head — is considered the most unguardable shot in basketball history. He won six MVP awards and six championships. People born on April 16 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Diamond and the birth flower is Daisy. Historical events on April 16 include 1947: Texas City disaster — ship explosion kills 581 people, 1972: Apollo 16 launches to the Moon, 2007: Virginia Tech shooting kills 32 (deadliest school shooting in US history). Famous people born on April 16 include Charlie Chaplin (1889), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947), Ellen Barkin (1954).