...1786... A heavy snowstorm hit, bringing 12 inches from New Jersey to New Hampshire and prolonging winter into spring. This strong storm caused gale force winds and high tides. Five piers of the Charles Bridge were destroyed at Boston, Massachusetts.

...1807... The famous "1807 Spring Storm" buried interior New England in snow and caused a great tide along the coast. Danville, Vermont received 30 inches of new snow, bringing their snow cover amount to 60 inches. A freshet followed.

...1879... The ship "India" was abandoned off the Delaware coast after being caught between two waterspouts while well off shore.

...1912... A tornado with incredible velocity ripped into downtown Houston TX breaking the water table and giving the city its first natural waterspout.

...1923... At Newport, Rhode Island the temperature plummeted to 12 degrees, breaking the record of 21 degrees set in 1919 and is the lowest temperature for April at the station. Residents in the eastern U.S. awoke on "April Fool's Day" to bitterly cold temperatures. The mercury plunged to -34 degrees at Bergland MI and to 16 degrees in Georgia.

...1945... The temperature peaked at 70 degrees at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the previous record of 64 degrees set in 1938.

...1960... Tiros 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and became an immediate success. It had a lifetime of two and a half months, and transmitted 19,389 meteorologically usable pictures.

...1961... The barometric pressure at Newport, Rhode Island fell to 29.04 inches, breaking the record of 29.24 inches set back in 1902.

...1970... The snow depth at Newport, Rhode Island was 9 inches, breaking the record of 2 inches set in 1922.

...1987... Forty-five cities across the southeastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. Lows of 37 degrees at Apalachicola FL, 34 degrees at Jacksonville FL, 30 degrees at Macon GA, and 22 degrees at Knoxville TN, were records for April. (The National Weather Summary) A tornado touched down briefly during a snow squall on the south shore of White Fish Bay (six miles northwest of Bay Mills WI). A mobile home was unroofed and insulation was sucked from its walls.

...1988... A powerful spring storm produced 34 inches of snow at Rye CO, 22 inches at Timpas OK, 19 inches at Sharon Springs KS, and up to 35 inches in New Mexico. Severe thunderstorms associated with the same storm spawned a tornado which caused 2.5 million dollars damage at East Mountain TX.

...1989... Up to six inches of snow blanketed the Adirondacks of eastern New York State and the Saint Lawrence Valley of Vermont. Up to a foot of snow blanketed the Colorado Rockies.

...1990... Thunderstorms produced severe weather in Texas, from southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana to southern Georgia, and from northern South Carolina to the Upper Ohio Valley during the day and evening. Thunderstorms spawned a tornado at Evergreen AL, and there were more than eighty reports of large hail and damaging winds. Thunderstorms produced baseball size hail north of Bastrop LA, and produced damaging winds which injured one person west of Meridian MS.

...1997... The Blizzard of '97 dumped record snows across the Northeast. The storm began on March 31st, and winded down by midday on this date. A 28.88 barometer low cutoff just south of New England and spun a tremendous amount of moisture in from the Atlantic with southern New England and eastern New York bearing the full brunt of the storm. Boston, Massachusetts recorded 25.4 inches of snow for the storm, all in 24 hours for its greatest 24 snowfall on record and its third biggest snowstorm overall. Worcester, Massachusetts recorded 33 inches for its greatest snowstorm ever. The Blue Hill Observatory was buried under 30 inches and had wind gusts as high as 72 mph. Other big snowfall totals included 37 inches at East Jewitt, New York, 36 inches at Milford, Massachusetts, 30.5 inches at Burrillville, Rhode island, 5.5 inches at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 3.2 inches set in 1924., 23 inches at West Wardsboro, Vermont, and 21 inches at Putnam, Connecticut. The heavy wet snow and high winds caused severe damage to trees and power lines. At the height of the storm, 750,000 people were without power in Massachusetts. The city of Boston was paralyzed for two days.