Sacco’s Snippets: April 2019
March 28, 2019Hard to believe we are here again in the tease after such bitter cold and sometimes nasty winter.
Not too much snow at all in NYC but it was at times a chore to listen to the Weather Forecasters get it wrong repeatedly.
Then the reports would come in from family in upstate New York and the Midwest who would chuckle at what we had feared at every time the sky would turn grey and cloudy.
Many years ago we had a snowstorm that virtually crippled the Northeast and shut everything down including transportation in and out of the city.
Long Island was no better, and everyone was amazed at the lack of response from the mayor at the time and the NYC administration who did not act until the city was virtually closed.
Bread, Milk, and Eggs became new luxuries due to no deliveries for quite some time due to blocked roadways. Yelling “get Milk and Bread” had become a catch phrase and is a running joke in modern times.
I can remember my father, who was a plumber, leaving the house with a couple of tool buckets to help those who had no heat or water on foot.
There was no way to get anywhere with a car and buses were not able to get down their routes. Of course “snow days” were magical times where you stayed in your pajamas until noon watching cartoons on TV, which most stations were smart enough to run them, gorging on bowls of cereal and waiting for the rest of the kids on the block to venture out. The first would lead to many, and then the real fun began. In today’s world, the kids have a hundred or more forms of entertainment and the cold and chilly outdoors is not on top of the list.
But hey! It’s spring, and the sun is shining, the Birds are chirping, and the Squirrels are running amuck across the roofs and fences like they are on the deck of the Titanic. Time to wash the car, the windows and screens as well as about a hundred or so other items on the list that hangs like a neon sign, flashing that message of “get it done!” Not all is terrible about the spring and all that it brings; there are some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, azure blue skies of chilly contentment and the rebirth of Mother Nature’s splendor. “Thirty Days hath September, April, June, and November…..
April is the 4th month of the year and the first to have 30 days. It is spring in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Romans named the month Aprillus which has been speculated to have been derived by the Verb”aperire” which means “to open” as in the opening of spring.
The month’s Birthstone is Diamond. The Flower is Daisy and Sweat Pea which has its origins from Sicily and the Aegean Islands.
Those warriors of the warmth have started to venture out of their caves and are seen daily around this time enjoying the knell of winter and packing into the city parks.
Spring also is the rebirth of all of the vegetation that surrounds us, and the pollen begins its journey from the trees and plants to your nose. Still too chilly for you or just still too cold.
We have the perfect solution to this. Spring at the Aviator Sports and Events Center is also in full bloom with everything from Hockey and Ice Skating to Gymnastics and indoor Basketball.
You name it, we got it, and there are daily specials and events posted on the website aviatorsportsandevents.com which is just a click away from entertaining your whole family.
Here are some facts and history about this month of April:
4/1 – 1891 Wrigley Company founded in Chicago
1954 United States Air Force Academy established in Colorado
Birthday – 1932 Debbie Reynolds
1938 Ali McGraw
4/2 – 1513 Ponce De Leon lands in Florida
1902 First Movie Theater in the U.S. Opens
Birthday – 1914 Alec Guinness….feel the force Luke!
1955 Dana Carvey
4/3 – 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Mountaintop Speech
1972 First Mobile Telephone call made
Birthday – 1926 Gus Grissom
1961 Eddie Murphy
4/4 – 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated in Memphis Tennessee
1973 The World Trade Center dedicated
Birthday – 1965 Robert Downey Jr.
1973 David Blaine
4/5 – 1614 Pocahontas marries colonist John Rolfe
1862 The Battle of Yorktown
Birthday – 1916 Gregory Peck
1934 Booker T. Washington
4/6 – 1917 The U.S. declares war on Germany
1930 The Hostess Twinkie invented
Birthday – 1866 Butch Cassidy
1937 Merle Haggard
4/7 – 1827 John Walker invents the Friction Match
2001 The Mars Odyssey is launched
Birthday – 1860 Will Kellogg (founder of Kellogg’s Cereal)
1934 Francis Ford Coppola
4/8 – 1893 First recorded College Basketball game
1974 Hank Aaron hit Homerun 715 passing Babe Ruth
Birthday – 1946 Catfish Hunter
1963 Julian Lennon
4/9 – 1895 Gen. Robert E. Lee Surrenders ending the Civil War
1913 Ebbets Filed opens in Brooklyn
Birthday – 1934 Carl Perkins
4/10 – 1912 The Titanic sets sail for the last time
1970 – Paul McCartney states the Beatles have broken up
Birthday – 1847 Joseph Pulitzer
1936 John Madden
* Note; this is day 100 of the year!
4/11 – 1899 Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the U.S.
1947 Jackie Robinson plays first MLB game
Birthday – 1913 Oleg Cassini
1980 Mark Teixeira
4/12 – 1861 The Civil War begins
1955 The Polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk
Birthday – 1577 King Christian IV of Denmark
4/13 – 1902 J.C.Penney opens the first store
1997 Tiger Woods youngest to win the Masters
Birthday – 1743 Thomas Jefferson
1926 Don Adams
4/14 – 1849 the first edition of Webster’s Dictionary published
1865 President Abraham Lincoln assassinated
Birthday – 1935 Miss Loretta Lynn
4/15 – 1865 President Lincoln passes away
1933 Insulin becomes available for diabetics
Birthday – 1452 Leonardo DaVinci
4/16 – 1912 Harriet Quimby is the first Woman Aviator to fly the English Channel
1919 Mohandas Gandhi first day of prayer and fasting
Birthday – 1867 Wilbur Wright
1889 Charlie Chaplin
4/17 – Nothing reported of historical significance
Birthday – 1894 Nikita Khrushchev
1918 William Holden
4/18 – Nothing reported of historical significance
Birthday – 1947 James Woods
1963 Conan O’Brien
4/19 – 1775 The Civil War begins
1995 The Oklahoma bombing
Birthday – 1903 Elliot Ness
1962 Al Unser
4/20 – 1862 the first milk Pasteurization (Bloomville N.Y.)
1912 Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium open
Birthday – 1959 Clint Howard
1962 Al Unser
4/21 – 735 BC Rome founded
1956 “Heartbreak Hotel” becomes Elvis’ first #1 Hit
Birthday – 1816 Charlotte Bronte
1926 Queen Elizabeth Windsor II
4/22 – 1978 The Blues Brothers 1st appearance
1993 The Holocaust Museum dedicated in Washington DC
Birthday – 1870 Vladimir Lennon
1936 Glen Campbell
4/23 – 1616 William Shakespeare dies
1954 Hank Aaron hits first Homerun
Birthday – 1564 William Shakespeare
1936 Roy Orbison
4/24 – 1184 The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan horse
1898 Spain declared war on the U.S.
Birthday – 1975 Chipper Jones
4/25 – 1719 Robinson Caruso published
1901 New York first state to require vehicle License Plates
Birthday – 1918 Ella Fitzgerald
1940 Al Pacino
4/26 – 1989 Lucille Ball dies
1994 South Africa has its first integrated election
Birthday – 1960 Roger Taylor
1963 Jet Li
4/27 – 1897 Grant’s Tomb dedicated
1981 The Computer Mouse invented
Birthday – 1791 Samuel Morse
1822 President Ulysses S. Grant
4/28 – 1789 The HMS Bounty mutiny
1930 First night Baseball game
Birthday – 1758 President James Monroe
1941 Ann Margaret
4/29 – 1945 German armed forced surrender in Italy
1975 The U.S. pulls out of Viet Nam
Birthday – 1951 Dale Earnhardt
4/30 – 1789 George Washington becomes the first U.S. President
1938 Bugs Bunny makes first appearance
Birthday – 1773 David Thompson
1930 Cloris Leachman
Notable Days:
– Autism Awareness Day
– Easter Sunday (Christians all over the world celebrate)
– Earth Day
– Arbor Day
– Teachers Day
– Take a Hockey Coach to lunch Day
Enjoy the beginning of spring and warmer weather with some nice sunny days. Come on in and see what’s going on and I’m sure that you will go away tired and happy.
“There is something for everyone and everyone for something.”
Aviator Sports and Events Center is located at 3159 Flatbush Avenue Brooklyn NY 11234.
Customer Service and general information 718-758-7500
Exit 11S off of the Belt Parkway and accessible by Q35 MTA bus.
See You There!
John Sacco
NY Aviators
USPHL
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