April 19 Birthday
April 19, 1775: British regulars marched from Boston to Concord to seize colonial weapons. At dawn on the village green in Lexington, they encountered seventy-seven minutemen. A shot was fired — no one knows by whom — and the British opened fire. Eight colonists died. The British continued to Concord, where they encountered more resistance. At the North Bridge, the colonists fired back — "the shot heard 'round the world." The British retreated to Boston under continuous fire, losing 73 men. The war had begun. It would last eight years. General Gage, the British commander, had warned that the colonists were "zealous in their cause" — he was right, and the war that resulted created the first modern democracy. On April 19, 1993, the FBI raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, after a fifty-one-day siege. The compound, led by David Koresh, was a religious group that had been investigated for weapons violations and child abuse. The siege began on February 28, when four ATF agents were killed in a raid. On April 19, the FBI launched a tear gas assault. At noon, the building caught fire. Seventy-six people died, including twenty-five children. The fire's origin is debated — the government blamed the Davidians, the surviving Davidians blamed the government. The raid was authorized by Attorney General Janet Reno, who took responsibility. The anniversary of the Waco fire was chosen by Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing two years later. The Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history. Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck loaded with 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The bomb detonated at 9:02 AM, destroying the building and killing 168 people, including nineteen children in the daycare center. McVeigh was a Gulf War veteran who had been radicalized by the Waco siege and the Ruby Ridge standoff. He was stopped for a license plate violation seventy minutes after the bombing. He was executed in 2001. The bombing led to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and new security requirements for federal buildings. Eliot Ness, born this day in 1903, led the team of Treasury agents ("The Untouchables") who targeted Al Capone for Prohibition violations. The television series and film exaggerated their role — Capone was ultimately convicted of tax evasion, not bootlegging. Ness later became Cleveland's safety director, where he hunted the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," a serial killer who was never caught. People born on April 19 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Diamond and the birth flower is Daisy. Historical events on April 19 include 1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord begin the American Revolutionary War, 1993: Waco siege ends — Branch Davidian compound burns, 76 dead, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing kills 168. Famous people born on April 19 include Eliot Ness (1903), Dudley Moore (1935), Ashley Judd (1968).