April 19: Oklahoma City Bombing

The second largest act of terrorism on American soil (the largest at the time), the Oklahoma City Bombing was carried out by militia movement sympathizers on April 19, 1995. The target was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The attack killed 168 people (including 6 children), injured 680 people, and caused at least $652 million dollars in damage. The explosion destroyed or damaged 324 buildings and measured a 3.0 on the Richter scale. It was heard and felt 55 miles away.

A memorial now takes the space where the

explosion took place. In the parking lot across

from the Murrah Building, there was a lone

American elm tree. In the explosion, it was badly damaged and initially it was not thought to have survived. However, a year later, it began to bloom. It is now known as the Survivor Tree and is one of the main features of the memorial. Around the base of the tree are the words, "The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us."

This links to a video by Garth Brooks called The Change.

This heart
Still believes
The love and mercy still exist
While all the hatred rage and so many say
That love is all but pointless in madness such as this
It's like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss

And I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me

April 14: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

On April 14, 1865, with the war winding down in the North's favor, a plan was carried out to to give vitality to the South's resolve. A conspiracy planned to kill the President, Vice President, and the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State was only wounded, the Vice President's would be assassin chickened out, but John Wilkes Booth, a well known actor at the time, carried out his part successfully.

"In the end, its not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

April 13: Apollo 13 Explosion

"It was the thirteenth scheduled lunar space exploration mission, scheduled for liftoff at the thirteenth minute after the thirteenth hour. The Lunar landing was scheduled for the thirteenth day of the month. All it lacked was a Friday to be a paraskevidekatriaphobe’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, no one at NASA was superstitious. "

On April 13, 1970, two days after launch, the idyllic words, "Houston, we've had a problem" were said.

The astronauts were instructed to stir their hydrogen and oxygen tanks. 98 seconds later, a loud bang was heard accompanied by fluctuations in power. Damaged shielding of the wires in the fan had caused a short circuit which lit the shielding material on fire. This fire increased the pressure in the oxygen tank, causing it to rupture. Facing limited water and power, carbon dioxide build up, and freezing temperatures, the astronauts survived only through ingenuity, perseverance, and faith, both in themselves as well as those on the ground.

In the end, NASA called the mission a "successful failure."

You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright, you'll be alright

Cause when push comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand, Then you stand

-Stand, Rascal Flatts

April 12: Cosmonautics Day

On April 12, 1961, 27 year old Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Celebrated in Russia and other nations, this holiday commemorates his 1 hour 48 minute flight aboard a Vostok (meaning east [no clue why. Anyone have any idea?]) 1 spacecraft.

The image is a 1965 postage stamp commemorating Costmonautics Day.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

April 11: Juan Santamaria Day

Juan Santamaria Day is a national holiday celebrated in Costa Rica. In the mid-19th century, a number of Americans attempted to foment insurrections in Latin American countries, which was known as filibustering. One more successful attempt overthrew the government of Nicaragua and attempted to take over surrounding nations.

In 1856, Costa Rica was being invaded. The president called upon the general population to take up arms; Juan Santamaria answered the call. The illegitimate son of a single mother, he joined as a drummer. On April 8, the Second Battle of Rivas began. By April 11, the battle was still at a standstill, with the invaders having taken residence in a hostel near the center of town.

The general suggested that a single man attempt to light the hostel on fire. After several failed attempts, Juan Santamaria took up the torch; he first made the others promise to take care of his mother if he should die. He was mortally wounded, but before dying, he lit the hostel on fire, which turned the tide of the battle.

Now I lay in my grave at age 21
Long before you were born
Before I bore a son
What good did it do?
Well hopefully for you
A world without war
A life full of color

-War Was In Color, Carbon Leaf

April 8: Funeral of Pope John Paul II

The largest gathering of heads of state, the one of the most watched events in history, and one of the largest gatherings of Christianity ever, the funeral of Pope John Paul II was unprecedented in many ways (as was his whole life):

• The Ecumenical Patriarch attended in the honorary first seat in the sector reserved for delegations from churches not in full communion with Rome; this was the first time an Ecumenical Patriarch attended a papal funeral since the Great Schism.
• The Archbishop of Canterbury was present at a papal funeral for the first time since the Church of England broke with the papacy in the 16th century.
• Breaking with tradition for the sacred prayer, the names of the Saints canonised by Pope John Paul II, such as Faustina Kowalska and Josemaria Escriva, were allowed to be included in the litany.
• The 14 April novemdiales Mass (9 days of masses of mourning) at St. Peter's Basilica replaced traditional hymns and prayers with those of the Maronite Rite, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. It was the first time a cardinal patriarch of an Eastern Catholic Church offered a novemdiales Mass, in his own rite, for a pope.

Pope John Paul II is set to be beatified on 1 May 2011 (May being the month of Mary).

Giovanni Paulo! Giovanni Paulo!

There was a boy, he came from Poland
He had a mother and a father and
a brother; they all loved him.
They named him Karol.
When he played futbol, he was the goalie.
He would grow up to be strong and to be holy.

Every day he would watch his daddy pray;
the biggest lesson he would learn to
keep him walkin' on the way.
The death of his mother, soon to be
followed by his brother, tore a hole
in his soul to be mended by another.

But the pain would increase when
his father would decease;
loneliest days to be endured
by this future priest.
The beast would have a feast
with all the anger and rage,
but Karol took it deeper
with his love for the stage.

Frustration with Nazi occupation
can't mess with the destiny
of this man's vocation.
They put him on the blacklist,
but he still practiced gift and mystery, breakin' history.

Walls comin' down, it's profound, stick around,
'cause pound for pound, the victory's
loomin' large as a way to live in resistance
with persistence let me give you a for instance:

He went underground, but he was never found.
They tried to kill him with a truck, had no luck.
With a wound to the head, left him lyin' for dead.
Ain't no gain without pain,
let's take it back to the refrain...

You can only know this man from within
so lets begin with the Virgin on a
maximum level contendin' with the devil.
Things just ain't what they seem;
ask the communist regime?
know what I mean?

Yo, that's why we be singin' the Hail! Holy Queen.
His priestly formation for your information
raises up a new kind of culture confrontation.
The judgment, eh, hist'ry will confound explanation.

He will do a new thing with the Papal ring,
He will bring the power of the keys;
Please don't miss this, the forgiveness of
his killer in prison, this is the vision.
Giovanni Paulo, John Paul II,
Giovanni Paulo, we love you!

-Giovanni Paolo, Tom Booth and Fr. Stan Fortuna (with help from Matt Maher)

April 6: Rwandan Genocide Begins

On April 6th 1993, the airplane carrying the Hutu President was shot down. 100 days later, atleast 800,000 people had been killed.

Let’s say were sorry, before it’s too late, give forgiveness a chance. Turn the anger into water; let it slip through our hands. We all bleed red, we all taste rain, all fall down, lose our way;  We all say words we regret, we all cry tears, we all bleed red.

-Bleed Red, Ronnie Dunn

April 4: St. Issy Day!

Happy Feast of St. Isidore of Seville! This saint is known as "the last scholar of the ancient world." For hundreds of years after his death, the histories written were based on all his works; he wrote a dictionary, encyclopedia, and a couple of histories of man and the church. A doctor of the church, after succeeding his bother (St. Leander) as bishop of Seville, he fought the Arian heresy and unified the Christians of Spain.

He is a proposed patron saint of the internet. He is much needed in today's world where things are so easy to find online, better or for worse.

Almighty and eternal God,
who created us in Thy image

and bade us to seek after all that is good,
true and beautiful,
especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,

Grant we beseech Thee that,
through the intercession of Saint Isidore,
bishop and doctor,
during our journeys through the internet

we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee
and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen

(PS: But most importantly, he is my Confirmation Saint.)