Sacco’s Snippets: April 2019

Hard 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 4^th 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 1^st 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