Why I am Going Out Tonight

A toast is in order! Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.

In 1927, New Yorkers saw Herbert Hoover (the then US commerce secretary) in the first successful long-distance broadcast of television. This helped spawn a future generation of couch potatoes for the World Health Organization to deal with (in addition to providing life-saving vaccinations to people throughout the world and other great work). The WHO was founded on this day in 1948.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific opened on Broadway on April 7th, 1948. I love that show and am seeing the revival playing at Lincoln Center soon.

April 7, 1953 marked the appointment of Dag Hammarskjold to secretary-general of the United Nations. Hammarskjold is the only secretary-general to have died while in office.

The last electric trolley traveled the Queens-Manhattan route in 1957 to “pave” the way for the proliferation of buses and the development of an underground subway system; they can’t quite match the scenery of the Queensborough Bridge trolley route though.

The Supreme Court struck down laws prohibiting the possession of obscene materials on this day in 1969. Would the web be here without that law?

John Poindexter was convicted for his role in the sale of weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra trial of 1990. History, however short has left Ronald Reagan unscathed by the affair.

On a more somber note: it has been 146 years since the ending of the Battle of Shiloh. On this day in 1862, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant, ended the battle after two days of heavy fighting and 23,741 casualties near Pittsburgh Landing in western Tennessee. This extraordinary amount of casualties was greater than the fatalities in all of the Civil War's major battles up to that date (Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, Fort Donelson, and Pea Ridge) combined. So let’s drink for freedom and choice, and toast in remembrance of all of the Americans that were killed and wounded.

To end on a joyous note, a posthumous happy birthday to the great Lady Day aka Billie Holiday; she was born on April 7, 1915.

P.S. I missed it. Every kid and kid at heart celebrates yesterday which marked the 78th anniversary of the creation of the Twinky. There’s a lot to celebrate in the month of April!

Disclosure: yes I am a history buff but the NY Times web site has most of the information used in this post.