GMT

Today in History: April 5

1242 Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.

1614 Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1792 George Washington casts the first presidential veto.

1865 As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine's Cross Road.

1986 A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.

1997 Steve Irwin's "The Crocodile Hunter" debuts

2021 India records over 100,000 new daily COVID cases for the first time, more than half in the state of Maharashtra, which begins a new lockdown

2022 Shanghai lockdown extended to cover the whole city as COVID-19 cases increase, as China remains one of the last to employ a "zero-Covid" system

2063 Earth's 1st contact with the extraterrestrial Vulcan species in the Star Trek universe

Born on April 5

1858 Washington Atlee Burpee, founder of the world's largest mail-order seed company.

1908 Bette Davis, film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve).

1920 Arthur Hailey, novelist (Hotel, Airport).

1937 Colin Powell, U.S. Army general, Secretary of State.

JOTD
An old man was sitting on his front porch watching the sun rise. He sees the neighbor's kid walk by carrying something big under his arm

He yells out "Hey boy, whatcha got there?" Boy yells back "Roll of chicken wire." Old man says "What you gonna do with that?" Boy says "Gonna catch some chickens." Old man yells "You damn fool, you can't catch chickens with chicken wire!" Boy just laughs and keeps walking. That evening at sunset the boy comes walking by and to the old man's surprise he is dragging behind him the chicken wire with about 30 chickens caught in it. Same time next morning the old man is out watching the sun rise and he sees the boy walk by carrying something kind of round in his hand. Old man yells out "Hey boy, whatcha got there?" Boy yells back "Roll of duck tape." Old man says "What you gonna do with that?" Boy says back "Gonna catch me some ducks." Old man yells back, "You damn fool, you can't catch ducks with duck tape!" Boy just laughs and keeps walking. That night around sunset the boy walks by coming home and to the old man's amazement he is trailing behind him the unrolled roll of duck tape with about 35 ducks caught in it. Same time next morning the old man sees the boy walking by carrying what looks like a long reed with something fuzzy on the end. Old man says "Hey boy, whatcha got there?" Boy says "It's a pussy willow." Old man says "Wait up ... I'll get my hat."