This day in history - April 17

[seamusTX]

1790 - Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

1861 - The Virginia State Convention voted to secede.

1947 - The High Flyer, loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, burned and exploded in the port of Texas City.

The explosions of Grandcamp and High Flyer killed over 600 people, including the entire Texas City Fire Department, injured thousands, sank every ship in the port, destroyed thousands of buildings, knocked airplanes out of the sky, and broke windows up to 40 miles away. Fires burned for a week.

http://www.texascity-library.org/HistoryTCDisaster.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was launched.

1964 - The new Ford Mustang was exhibited in public at the New York World Fair.

The pet project of Lee Iacocca, the original Mustang reversed Ford's decline and became an automotive icon. The base price was $2368.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/lee-iacocca.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1970 - The Apollo 13 crew splashed down safely after their near-disaster.

- Jim