Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Twain was born two weeks after Halley’s Comet‘s closest
approach in 1835.

In 1909 he said…”I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It
is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.
It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go
out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt:
"Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came
in together, they must go out together".

Twain’s prediction was accurate; he died of a heart attack
on April 21, 1910, in Stormfield, one day after the comet’s
closest approach to Earth.

On April 21, 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrated the manufacture
of its 100 millionth American-made car. At the time, GM was the
world’s largest automaker.

General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan, by
horse-drawn carriage mogul William Durant.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds. .

On April 19, 1897, John J. McDermott of New York won the first
Boston Marathon with a time of 2:55:10.

The Boston Marathon was the brainchild of Boston Athletic
Association member and inaugural U.S. Olympic team manager
John Graham, who was inspired by the marathon at the first
modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. With the assistance
of Boston businessman Herbert H. Holton, various routes were considered, before a measured distance of 24.5 miles from the
Irvington Oval in Boston to Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland was
eventually selected.

Fifteen runners started the race but only 10 made it to the finish
line.

John J. ("J.J.", "little Mac") McDermott
(1880 – 1948)

April 19, 1775: At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into
Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, a shot was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud
of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others
were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the
American Revolution had begun.

John Parker
(July 13, 1729 – September 17, 1775)

Battle of Lexington State Historic Site today.