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.

On April 18, 1942, 16 American B-25 bombers, launched from the
aircraft carrier USS Hornet 650 miles east of Japan and commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, attack the Japanese
mainland.

The now-famous Tokyo Raid did little real damage to Japan (wartime Premier Hideki Tojo was inspecting military bases during the raid;
one B-25 came so close, Tojo could see the pilot, though the
American bomber never fired a shot)–but it did hurt the Japanese government’s prestige. Believing the air raid had been launched
from Midway Island, approval was given to Admiral Isoroku
Yamamoto’s plans for an attack on Midway–which would also
damage Japanese “prestige.” Doolittle eventually received the
Medal of Honor.

James Harold Doolittle
(December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993)

ED DANAHUE

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar
spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey
to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.

On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was
launched from Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell,
John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed f
or a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However,
two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from
Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft.