Most of you probably began Monday at work or at home. Just another day, right?

But April 19 is historically a date marked with horrific tragedy in the United States.

The first event – believed by many to have been what started a succession of terroristic-like  – was the end of the 51-day siege at the Branch Dividian cult building in Waco, Texas. A fire broke out and 81 people died.

In 1995, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla, killing 168 people. The “Oklahoma City Bombing” was believed to have been tied to the second anniversary of the Waco Siege, and McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols, who assisted McVeigh in the bombing, was sentenced to life in prison. The bombing investigation was the largest criminal investigation in American history.

A third deadly event – the Columbine High School massacre in Jefferson County, Colo. that killed 12 students and injured 21 others – could have possibly been planned for April 19, the anniversary of the previous two events. However, the fourth-deadliest school massacre in the U.S. occurred on April 20, Adolf Hitler’s birthday. The perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed suicide during the massacre, wanted to “outdo” the previous April 19 events, according to a book documenting the massacre,  “Columbine.” Harris in particular idolized Hitler.

As for other major April 19 tragedies, South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven other were killed in an airplane crash in Iowa in 1993 and the Red River flood took over Grand Forks, N.D. and fires breakout throughout the city in 1997. In 1971, Charles Manson was sentenced to to death for the Sharon Tate murders. In 1989, a gun turret that exploded on the USS Iowa killed 47 sailors. Mae West was sentenced in 1927 for her Broadway play “Sex,” which was raided by city officials for obscenity.

But April 19 hasn’t been all bad. Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956; the first space station, Salyut 1, was launched in 1971; “The Simpsons” premiered for the first time on “The Tracy Ullman Show in 1987;” and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005.

Katie Johnson is the managing editor of the Niles Daily Star, Cassopolis Vigilant and Edwardsburg Argus. She can be reached at (269) 683-7713 or at katie.johnson@leaderpub. com.