What is it about April?

You can probably pick and choose things from any given month that are horrible, but what is it about April -- and mid-April in particular -- that just seems to breed horrific historical events? Here's a partial list from the last 150 years or so:

• April 10, 1972 - 7.0 earthquake kills 1/5 of population of Iranian province of Fars
• April 11, 1965 - 40 tornadoes strike U.S. midwest killing 272 and injuring 5,000
• April 13, 1970 - Apollo 13 announces "Houston, we've got a problem!" as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
• April 14, 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln shot in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth
• April 15, 1912 - Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as band plays on
• April 16, 2007 - Gunman Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 people at Virginia Tech
• April 18, 1906 - 8.25 earthquake shakes San Francisco California; earthquake and ensuing fires kill nearly 4,000 and destroy 75% of city
• April 19, 1993 - Six-week standoff at Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, ends with fire and deaths of 74 cult members
• April 19, 1995 - Truck bomb at Federal Building in Oklahoma City, kills 168
• April 19, 1947 - French ship explodes in Texas City harbor, kills about 522
• April 20, 1999 - Two disaffected students brought guns to their high school in Columbine, Colorado and murdered twelve students, one teacher and then killed themselves
• April 20, 1889 - Adolf Hitler's birthday

You also had the Civil War breaking out in Mid-April 1861, and a smattering of tornado outbreaks where several hundred people died. So is there just some bad mojo with this time of year, or what?

 

I started to pay attention to this after Columbine when I found out that was Hitler's b-day. Certainly seemed to stand out after that.

 

Yes... I share that unfortunate honor with the dictator.

 

So does Don Mattingly.

 

Well, he did play for the "Evil Empire"...