245 years ago, On this Day—April 19, 1775—the American Revolution begins with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Minute Men and militias rush to confront the British Regulars early that morning.

Robert Munroe is one of the first eight Patriot casualties in that opening engagement of the Revolutionary War—and the first officer killed on Lexington Common.

He is a soldier from Cambridge Farm who was born in 1712, who later had moved to Lexington, Massachusetts. Robert married Anna Stone on July 28, 1737, in Lexington. They have 6 children. Their first and last children did not survive childhood.

Robert is one of the 77 men present when the Company meets the British on Lexington Common. He is the third-highest ranking militia officer in the action there.

At the time of his death, at 63 years of age, he is one of sixteen Munroe's who are members of Captain John Parker's Company of Minute Men, and holds the rank of Ensign, the lowest infantry officer rank.

His wife, Anna, passes away f...

When the smoke cleared on this day, 245 years ago, April 19, 1775, here were the casualties of the Battle of Lexington and Concord:

KILLED.

Of Lexington.

* Mr. Robert Munroe,
* Mr. Jonas Parker,
* Mr. Samuel Hadley,
* Mr. Jonan Harrington,
* Mr. Caleb Harrington,
* Mr. Isaac Muzzy,
* Mr. John Brown,
Mr. John Raymond,
Mr. Nathaniel Wyman,
Mr. Jedediah Munroe.

Of Menotomy.

Mr. Jason Russel,
Mr. Jabez Wyman,
Mr. Jason Winship,
Of Sudbury.
Deacon Haynes,
Mr. ----- Reed.

Of Concord.

Capt. James Miles,
Of Bedford.
Capt. Jonathan Willson,
Of Acton.
Capt. Davis,
Mr. ----- Hosmer,
Mr. James Howard.

Of Woburn.

* Mr. Azael Porter,
Mr. Daniel Thompson.
Of Charlestown.
Mr. James Miller,
Capt. William Barber's Son.
Of Brookline.
Isaac Gardner, Esq;

Of Cambridge.

Mr. John Hicks,
Mr. Moses Richardson,
Mr. William Massey.
Of Medford.
Mr. Henry Putnam.

Of Lynn.

Mr. Abednego Ramsdell,
Mr. Daniel Townsend,
Mr. William Flint,
Mr. Thomas Hadley.

Of Danvers.

Mr. Henry Jacobs,
Mr. Samuel Cook,
Mr. Ebenezer Goldthwait,
Mr. George Southwick,
Mr. Benjamin Dalan...

On This Day, April 12, 1862, Union soldiers and sympathizers steal a passenger train and take it from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee sabotaging railway tracks, bridges, and telegraph lines along the way. They were pursued by Confederate troops, first on foot, then by handcar, and eventually by train. The raiders eventually ran out of wood for the steam engine and had to abandon the train, where they tried to escape on foot. The leader of the raid, civilian scout James J. Andrews, and his men were eventually captured. Eight of the men, including Andrews, were hanged. Six of the soldiers became the first to receive the Medal of Honor. However, Andrews was not eligible since he was a civilian.

The raid became known as "The Great Locomotive Chase.”

The Great Locomotive Chase has become a legendary, but still relatively little-known event that unfolded during the early years of the Civil War. It was an attempt by Union forces and sympathizers to destroy railroad infrastructu...

On This Day, April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 Launched from Kennedy Space Center.

The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as Apollo Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.

Two days later, the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission, leading to famous expression, "Houston, we have a problem."

To survive, the crew needed to overcome limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and make makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system.

There was a critical need to adapt the command module’s cartridges for the carbon dioxide scrubber system to work in the lunar module. Working together, thousands of miles apart, the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution.

Looping around the Moon, the crew returned safely to Earth six days later on April 1...

On This Day, April 9, 1940, the patent for the first shopping cart is granted to its inventor Sylvan Goldman, the owner of a Humpty Dumpty Grocery store in Oklahoma City. It was essentially a folding chair with wheels and baskets attached. The carts were initially a flop, as shoppers were reluctant to use them--men found them effeminate and women thought them too much like a baby carriage - so he hired models to shop with them.

Eventually, folding carts became very popular and Goldman became a multimillionaire by collecting a royalty on every folding design shopping cart in the United States.

By any measure, Goldman was an innovator. In addition to his invention of the shopping cart, early in his career as a grocer he developed many of the advertising and marketing techniques now commonly used by supermarkets.

He once said his idea for the shopping cart came from watching women carrying baskets. ''They had a tendency to stop shopping when the baskets became too full or too heavy,'...