Today in history

753 B.C. - According to tradition, Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, founded Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants.

1836 - The Battle of San Jacinto,was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texas Army engaged and defeated General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's Mexican forces.

A family ancestor
Spanish-American War

1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States Congress, on April 25, recognized that a state of war had existed between the United States and Spain as of this date. War results: The United States gained control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific. The US lost 379 troops in combat and over 5,000 to disease. As a result of the war, Cuba would be declared independent in 1902.

1933 - Nazi Germany outlaws shechita, the Jewish butchering ritual for kosher meat preparation. Things only get worse from here.

1953 - Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides, recommend the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the United States Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau, calling them "pro-Communist".

1976 - Full-scale testing of the swine flu vaccine began in Washington, D.C.

Thought for Today

"Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved." -- Mark Twain (Nov. 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910).