Painting depicting the first Pony Express rider arriving in
Sacramento.

On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse
and rider relay teams, simultaneously left St. Joseph, Missouri,
and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the
westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately
1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the
eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting
a new standard for speedy mail delivery. Although ultimately
short-lived and unprofitable, the Pony Express captivated
America’s imagination and helped win federal aid for a more
economical overland postal system. It also contributed to the
economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service
needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph
or an efficient transcontinental railroad.

The world’s first anthrax epidemic began in Ekaterinburg, Russia
(now Sverdlovsk), on April 2, 1979. By the time it ended six weeks
later, 62 people were dead. Another 32 survived serious illness. Ekaterinburg, as the town was known in Soviet times, also
suffered livestock losses from the epidemic.

MIKE GRACIA

Woodrow Wilson before Congress in 1917.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson
(December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924)

On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower was dedicated in Paris in a
ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer,
and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful
of other dignitaries, and 200 construction workers.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel
​(15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923)