History is a symphony of melodies

18 APR 1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes begin their famous "midnight ride" from Boston to Lexington, where they link-up with Samuel Prescott, who rides on to Concord. All three are sounding the alarm – warning town leaders and alerting the militia – that nearly 1,000 British infantrymen, grenadiers, and Royal Marines are advancing from Boston.

26 APR 1865: After three days of negotiations with Union MG William Sherman, GEN Joseph Johnson surrenders the Army of Tennessee, along with the remaining Confederates in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida - nearly 90,000 troops in the largest surrender of the war.

18 APR 1942: At 0738. a Japanese patrol vessel spots the task force bearing LTC James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle and his raiders 650 miles east of Japan. The ship is sunk, but not before her crew can report the position of the American aircraft carriers. Their cover blown, and the mission must begin ten hours earlier than planned. The crews will not have enough fuel to return to the carrier after the first raid against the Japanese mainland of World War II, so they have been instructed to strike Tokyo and other targets on Honshu, then fly to China and pray they’ll find suitable landing sites or bail out.

30 APR 1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his underground Berlin bunker.

13 APR 1970: "Houston, we've had a problem": Apollo 13 command module's oxygen tank explodes, knocking out the crew's supply of power, water, and the means to remove toxic gases. The moon landing is cancelled, and NASA works furiously to engineer a means to return the crew to earth.

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