U.S. Historical April Events Trivia Quiz

Despite the new government officially starting on March 4th, 1789, both the House of Representatives and the Senate did not host a quorum to elect a president for several weeks. Finally, on April 14th, 1789, Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, hand delivered the official notice to George Washington at Mount Vernon that he had been elected as president of the new nation.

Despite owning a huge Virginian estate, Washington actually had to borrow money to pay for the journey to the new seat of government in New York City because he had no funds to spare. On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn into office at Federal Hall in New York City. The New York Chancellor, Robert Livingston, administered the oath of office to the first President of the United States of America, George Washington.

On April 24th, 1800, an act of Congress established the Library of Congress within the Capitol building. The first volumes in the library were ordered from London, and were mostly regarding laws and legislative procedures. Unfortunately, the books made fantastic kindling for the British when they burned the Capitol building to the ground in the war of 1812. President Jefferson graciously provided his personal library of 6,500 books to reestablish the library. Today, the Library of Congress has over 170 million items cataloged, of which over 32 million are books.

On April 6th, 1830, Joseph Smith, along with a few dozen believers, officially registered the "Church of Christ" in Fayette, New York. According to author H. Michael Marquardt, they changed their name to "Church of Latter-day Saints" four years later to avoid creditors.

The term "Latter-day" was chosen because the Mormons believed they were living in the end times with the second coming of Jesus Christ imminent.

Originally, the Pennsylvania legislature wanted to build a canal to compete with both the Erie and Chesapeake Canals. However, it was decided that more goods could be moved using the railroad instead, and on April 13, 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad "Pennsy" began operations. By 1865, with the great success of the railroad, the "Pennsy" became the very first line to use steel rails.

By 1882 over 800 rail lines were owned by the Pennsylvania railroad, and it had become the largest corporation in the world. As railway use continued to decrease, the company reported its first profit loss in 1946, and by 1968 the company was bankrupt.

General Lee's Northern Virginia army was worn down, critically low on supplies, and completely surrounded by the morning of April 9th, 1865. Rather than fight a guerilla war and risk the slaughter of his troops, Lee surrendered to General Grant. The terms of this surrender were gracious to say the least, allowing the Confederates to go home instead of being imprisoned. The terms also allowed officers to keep their swords and horses as long as they submitted to U.S. federal rule.

These negotiations Lee and Grant paved the way for a peaceful way for the rest of the confederate troops to surrender. The Civil War had caused widespread damage to southern infrastructure, making a peaceful reconstruction critical for a hasty return to normalcy.

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell barely beat out Elisha Gray in patenting the telephone. At the time, most considered the telephone a novelty and had a hard time imagining a practical use for it. Charles Williams of Somerville, Massachusetts, became the first private citizen to install a telephone a year later on April 4, 1877.

So you may ask, who do you call when you are the only one who has a telephone? Williams ran a line from his home to his work where he was able to talk to his wife during the day. A year after that, the New York stock exchange installed a phone and many of the broker houses soon established lines to the exchange making it the first major use of the phone.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 ended in the Treaty of Paris with Spain giving up rights to Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The treaty went into effect on April 11, 1899, making Puerto Rico an official U.S. territory. In 1914, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates actually unanimously voted for independence from the US, but the U.S. Congress said "No!", gave them a wrist slap, and ruled it unconstitutional. In 1917, Congress did give anyone born after April 25, 1898, U.S. citizenship...however, this conveniently allowed the Puerto Ricans to be drafted for the first World War!

It was not until 1947 that Puerto Ricans were allowed to vote for their own governor. Fast forward to the beginning of the twenty-first century and about two-thirds of Puerto Ricans would like for Puerto Rico to become a U.S. state, while the rest would prefer to be an independent nation. Of course, the U.S. will only offer statehood if it is in its best interest. Only time will tell.

On April 24, 1908, the Murdock family of 5, along with a mechanic friend, left their home in Los Angeles on a cross-continental automobile drive. The family had made many trips by rail in previous years, and believed it could be done in their Packard car.

They drove straight through, stopping only on Sundays, taking 32 days to complete the trip. By the time they were driving through the underdeveloped west, a dirt road was a luxury making it quite the adventure. After an arduous journey, their trip finally ended in New York City on May 26, 1908.

On April 2, 1917, Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman to be sworn into a U.S. congressional seat. Rankin was part of the progressive party with the goal of giving women the right to vote and wanting to keep the U.S. out of the European War (WWI).

It is worth noting that popular sentiment at the time was in favor of women's suffrage, so it is not a surprise that when Rankin was sworn in the House of Representatives was met with applause. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment became law giving women the right to vote.

On April 6th, 1930, the Twinkie was born at the Continental Baking Company, a subsidiary of Hostess, in Schiller Park, Illinois. Company baker, James Dewar, designed the Twinkie to utilize a strawberry shortcake machine, with banana cream as the filling, for when the berries were out of season. During WWII the supply of bananas dwindled, so vanilla cream was substituted instead, giving us the modern Twinkie.

In 2012, Hostess claimed bankruptcy and declared the Twinkie would be discontinued. The following year, Hostess was bought by Apollo Global Management and the Twinkie was brought back to the market.