>On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)

Is it just me, or does it seem that lately all the ~ On this Day ~ have been newsworthy but depressing? I decided that I would go to the NY Times website and read them all and find one that was not depressing. Here is what I found:

1775: The American Revolutionary War began, (war depresses me),

1897: The first Boston Marathon was run.

1933: The United States went off the gold standard (I admit, I don’t know if this is good or bad, I don’t even know what it means).

1943: Tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against Nazi forces (I suppose this is good, but it makes me think of all the horrible things happening at the time, and that makes me sad).

1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Harry S. Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

1989: A white female jogger in New York’s Central Park was brutally beaten and raped. (Five black and Hispanic teenagers were imprisoned, but the convictions were overturned in 2003 when a serial rapist confessed and DNA evidence tied him to the crime.)(Doubly sad, for the crime and incorrect convictions)

1993: A 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in. Dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.(Really sad)

1994: A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King. (This is sad, not because of the award, but the reason he got it, he got beaten)

1997: Flooding from the Red River forced more than 50,000 residents to abandon Grand Forks, N.D. (This is an exercise in futility)

1999: The German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its prewar capital. (Not sad, not happy, just news)

2001: The Mel Brooks musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway.(Finally!)

2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI. (Something else I am clueless about.)

So some good, or at least not depressing things happened on this day, but the majority? I’m going back to bed.

~The New York Times~

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