Easter should be a happy time — In the past it usually has been for me. But the last couple have been a little sad. Last year, Easter was on March 31. This year, it was on April 20 — a particularly bad day for me because it was the first anniversary of Claire’s funeral. Easter Sunday won’t fall on April 20 again until 2087 — that’s 62 years from now.
I think maybe that’s fortunate…. April 20th has seen its share of unhappy, or dark events over the years.
On April 20, 1914 the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado. The conflict killed 25 people, including women and children.
On April 20, 1972, a malfunction delayed the lunar landing of the Apollo 16 mission.
One of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history occurred on April 20, 1999. Eric harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured over 20 others before taking their own lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the deaths of 11 workers and the largest oil spill in history — on April 20, 2010.
And if that’s not enough, Alolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. The leader of Nazi Germany was responsible for World War II and the Holocaust.
All this makes April 20 a day fraught with tragedy…. I wonder how many more will occur in the next 62 years before Easter is again on the twentieth day of April?
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