Moments in Time

The History Channel

*On April 19, 1897, John J. McDermott of New York won the first Boston Marathon with a time of 2:55:10. Fifteen runners started the race but only 10 made it to the finish line. The marathon’s distance was changed in 1908 in accordance with Olympic standards to its current length of 26 miles, 385 yards.

* On April 21, 1918, in the skies over France, Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious German flying ace known as “The Red Baron,” is killed by Allied fire when an Australian gunner shoots him through his chest. He was 25 years old. Von Richthofen had downed 80 enemy aircraft.

* On April 23, 1923, “Mambo King” Tito Puente is born in New York City. Bandleader and percussionist Puente helped popularize Latin dance music and jazz in America. During a career that spanned six decades, the dynamic showman recorded more than 100 albums and won five Grammy Awards.

* On April 22, 1937, John Joseph “Jack” Nicholson, who would become known as one of the greatest actors of his generation and famous for his role in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” is born in Neptune, N.J. In his first film, Nicholson played a troubled teenager in the low-budget 1958 horror flick, “The Cry-Baby Killer.”

* On April 18, 1945, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on Okinawa. Extremely popular, Pyle had been at the London Blitz of 1941 and saw action in North Africa, Italy, France and the Pacific. A monument to him exists to this day on Okinawa, describing Pyle simply as “a buddy.”

* On April 24, 1976, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2, in 139 minutes and 15 seconds of total game play, making it the fifth-longest match in the history of the National Hockey League. A regulation hockey game lasts 60 minutes.

* On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel, west of Havana, launching the Mariel Boatlift. The first of 125,000 Cuban refugees reached Florida the next day in about 1,700 boats.