Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885)

Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War leader and 18th president of the United 
States, was born on April 27, 1822.

The son of a tanner, Grant showed little enthusiasm for joining his 
father’s business, so the elder Grant enrolled his son at West Point
in 1839. Though Grant later admitted in his memoirs the he had no interest in the military apart from honing his equestrian skills, he
graduated in 1843 and went on to serve in the Mexican-American
War, though he opposed it on moral grounds. He then left his 
beloved wife and children again to fulfill a tour of duty in California
and Oregon.

President Harry S. Truman (above) officially opened the first
White House bowling alley on April 25, 1947. The two-lane
bowling alley, situated in the West Wing, had been constructed
earlier that year.           

According to Smithsonian magazine, a group of Truman’s
fellow Missourians funded the construction of the bowling
alley in honor of the president. They had intended to open
the alley as part of Truman’s 63rd birthday celebration on
May 8, but construction was completed ahead of schedule.

The Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley entertains thousands of
White House staffers and their guests each year.

SANDY KOZEL

survivors of the Titanic making their way to safety.

President Abraham Lincoln was  shot in the head at Ford’s
Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. The assassin,
actor John Wilkes Booth (below), shouted, “Sic semper
tyrannies! (Ever thus to tyrants!) The South is avenged,” as
he jumped onto the stage and fled on horseback. Lincoln
died the next morning.

John Wilkes Booth’s pistol used to kill President Abraham Lincoln is displayed at a new exhibit at the Ford’s Center for Education and Leadership.  

The box where Abraham Lincoln was shot is seen at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC on April 1, 2015.

Future President Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s preeminent political theorist, was
born in Shadwell, Virginia on April 13, 1743.