Events that occurred on April 19 throughout history
The American Revolution begins.
J.J. McDermott wins the first Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 10 seconds. The Boston Athletic Association hosted the race from Ashland to Boston and other games at Irvington Oval. Fifteen runners competed in the race.
WLS-AM in Chicago begins airing National Barn Dance. The radio show broadcast for 36 years. In 1925, George D. Hay created a similar radio show at WSM-AM in Nashville, Tennessee, called WSM Barn Dance. Within two years, he renamed it the Grand Ole Opry, which still airs today.
K.V. Switzer ran the Boston Marathon in 1967 and completed the race in four hours forty-four minutes thirty-one seconds. She was the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon, though, at the time, women weren't allowed to race.
More than 500 people were injured, and 168 people lost their lives in a domestic terrorist attack of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.