On April 19, 1995, a bomb set by Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 168 people were killed, including 19 children who were in the nursery housed in the building. More than 500 others were injured. McVeigh was captured, tried, and executed. Two accomplices were imprisoned. This was the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. I remember that at the time rumors flashed around that "mideastern terrorists" were responsible; later, we found it was Midwestern terrorists instead. I note that blond guys from Michigan (like Tim McVeigh and, uh, me) were not especially targeted by security forces after this, oddly enough.
On April 19, 1993, a 51-day seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas ended when the building caught fire. 77 members of the group, including their leader, David Koresh, died in the fire, which many have alleged was set by the FBI or ignited by the teargas they sent inside. (Note that non-incendiary tear gas kills children pretty easily; there was no form of teargas that could have been used at that compound without expecting at least some deaths.) A government-appointed investigator cleared the FBI of any wrongdoing in starting the fire, which I'm sure amazes you. The Oklahoma City bombing was conceived as a retaliation for this incident.
On April 19, 1972, speaking of exonerations, a government report excused the British Army for the deaths of 14 civilians in Northern Ireland's "Bloody Sunday" massacre. According to the BBC
The report by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, stated that if the illegal march - protesting against internment without trial - had not taken place there would not have been any deaths.Internment without trial. In FREE countries it's taken for granted that internment without trial won't happen. (Are there any free countries? I daresay there are people in Guantanamo Bay who would say there are not.) Gee, if people would just not peaceably assemble for redress of grievances all sorts of trouble could be avoided. Widgery (I refuse to make jokes about his name) also concluded that the army had been fired upon. Yeah, right. This report, even more than the incident itself, has been cited as one of the things that increased the militancy of the IRA, leading to decades of terror and injustice.
On April 19, 1956, Prince Ranier of Monaco married American actress Grace Kelly. This is not a tragedy or a disaster, though tragedy and disaster have dogged that family. I offer it to show that this date is not necessarily cursed, though I suppose it could have been cursed as early as 1957 without this proving anything.
The Columbine massacre didn't happen until the 20th.
UPDATE: I have just heard that a bunch of old men in Rome have just appointed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (aka Cardinal Rat) the new Pope. Pope Rat. Damnation. He's about as bad a man as they have; he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office of the Roman Inquisition. He's the one who threw Matthew Fox out of the Church, even after an investigation by his own order cleared him of any theological unorthodoxy. Since Cardinal Rat has been Pope in all but name for years, it doesn't change anything...and that's the biggest problem with the Church: it needs to CHANGE! Those hoping for a Pope from Africa or Latin America, even a very conservative one, have had those hopes dashed, as the Europeans assert that Roman Catholicism belongs to Europeans, at least at the highest levels.
So, for my money you can add 2005 to the list of years bad things happened on this date.
