[goofywife]

1997: Tiger Woods youngest to win Masters
Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, today. Woods finished at 18-under-par 270, which was the lowest score ever shot during the Masters.
"When the green jacket was draped over the shoulders of the 21-year-old champion, golf greeted not just the first black to win a major professional championship, but also a player of the talent, intelligence and discipline to achieve his goal of being the best to ever play the game," reported The Intelligencer on April 14, 1997. "What Woods did this week at Augusta means that anything is possible. It was an effort recorded not on a scorecard, but in the record books and pages of history. Nearly every sentence uttered about Woods after his victory included words like lowest, fastest and youngest."
NOTE: As they reported on his victory, newspapers compared Woods and his achievements to Jackie Robinson, who became the first African-American to play major league baseball 50 years earlier. Yet Woods gave credit to other African-American golfers before him, such as Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Ted Rhodes.

1984: Pete Rose hits 4,000
While playing for the Montreal Expos, Pete Rose made his 4,000th hit today in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming only the second player in major league history to reach the 4,000 mark. "Only Ty Cobb, whose major league record of 4,191 hits could be in jeopardy next year, knows just what Pete Rose has accomplished," explained the Syracuse Herald Journal on April 14, 1984. "Shortstop Ivan DeJesus retrieved the relay throw and handed the ball to Rose, who trotted toward the first-base dugout as the Olympic Stadium crowd of 48,060 cheered." NOTE: Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits.

1983: Chicago elects African-American mayor
Harold Washington was elected the city of Chicago's first African-American mayor today. "Harold Washington, beating back the strongest Republican bid for citywide office in a generation, defeated Bernard Epton by barely a dozen votes a precinct Tuesday and called on his supporters to overcome the city's racial strife," informed the Daily Herald on April 13, 1983. "Describing his campaign as 'a pilgrimage,' Washington promised to follow as well as lead. 'I will initiate your reforms,' he told a jubilant crowd of supporters before imploring them to heal the racial sores infecting the city."


1970: Oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13
An explosion on Apollo 13 forced the astronauts to abandon their mission to the moon and head home today. Apollo 13, launched on April 11, was supposed to be the third mission to bring humans to the moon. However, the mission became the first in the Apollo program requiring an emergency abort after an oxygen tank exploded and damaged other systems on the spaceship. "James A. Lovell Jr., Fred W. Haise Jr. and John L. Swigert Jr. took shortcuts to conserve their precious consumables of water, oxygen and power as they raced farther from earth toward a moon which had been their landing target until a violent eruption of a pressurized fuel tank Monday night," reported the Stevens Point Daily Journal on April 14, 1970. NOTE: The astronauts managed to safely return to Earth in the spaceship's lunar module.

1943: Escape attempt made at Alcatraz
Four convicts attempted to escape from the prison at Alcatraz today. Two drowned in the San Francisco Bay after being shot in the attempt, and the remaining two were recaptured. "The four convicts opened their bid for freedom by jumping and binding Henry Weinhold, captain of the guards, and George Smith, custodial officer, threatening them meanwhile with prison-made knives," explained The Lowell Sun on April 14, 1943. "Weinhold managed to slip his bonds, loosen his gag and blow his whistle. Then, sirens shrieked, shots were fired and the hunt was on."


1883: Man convicted of cannibalism
Alfred Packer was sentenced to death today on charges of cannibalism. Packer confessed to consuming human remains after becoming lost nine years earlier during a winter expedition with five other men in Colorado. The Oshkosh Northwestern published a statement from Packer, who claimed that one of his companions killed the other men while Packer was looking for provisions and then proceeded to attack Packer, who shot him. News reports vilified the Packer: "The men became desperate, and some crazed. While his companions were in this condition Packer deliberately fell upon and butchered the whole party, and for several weeks lived on the flesh cut from their bodies," according to the Decatur Weekly Republican on April 19, 1883. NOTE: Packer's sentence was later overturned, and he was officially pardoned in 1981.