This week in Indiana’s history …
1822 – Responding to an epidemic of malaria spreading throughout the state, Indiana Governor Jonathan Jennings proclaimed Friday, April 13, 1822, a “day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in hopes that the disease would abate. Jennings signed the proclamation at the Statehouse in Corydon.
1865 – News reached Indiana by telegraph that President Abraham Lincoln had died from an assassin’s bullet in Washington, D.C. He was shot while watching a play at Ford’s Theater. The assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, leaped from the Presidential box and escaped out the back door of the theater. A fellow conspirator attacked Secretary of State William Seward, leaving him badly wounded.
1910 – Burglars used glycerin to blow off the lock of the safe at the Greenfield Post Office. They took $2,400 worth of stamps and escaped in two buggies stolen from a nearby farm. Indianapolis Police later found the buggies on the near northside of the city. Newspapers reported that “the horses showed the wear of a long and hard drive.” Detectives said the theft, worth over $65,000 in today’s money, appeared to be the work of professionals.
1912 – The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Over 1,500 died in the disaster. Among 710 survivors were at least two from Indiana: Ellen Toomey from Indianapolis and Harry Haven Homer from Knightstown. Bloomington businessman John Bertram Crafton, traveling in first class, did not survive.
1934 – Radio commentator, author and world traveler Lowell Thomas spoke to a crowd of over 800 at the Coliseum in Richmond. His theme was, “The age of adventure and romance has not passed and there are still giants who walk the earth.” The reporter for The Richmond Item wrote that Thomas “greatly impressed his audience as he recounted amazing incidents during his colorful career.”
1945 – War Correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by sniper fire near Okinawa. Born in Dana, he attended Indiana University. During World War II, he wrote newspaper columns six days a week. Often on the front lines, he described the war through the eyes of ordinary soldiers.