The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a peacetime infantry regiment that was activated by the Union army in the American Civil War. On April 19, 1861, the regiment was on its way to Washington, D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for troops when it was attacked by a crowd in Baltimore, Maryland, during the Baltimore Riot. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts was wounded and later died, becoming the war's first Union soldier to be killed in action. April 19 was the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution in 1775, and the men of the 6th Massachusetts (some of whom were descended from soldiers of that war) were often called the "Minutemen of '61". After proceeding to Washington, the regiment returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. In April and May 1863, the regiment saw action near Suffolk, Virginia, in the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Regiment_Massachusetts_Volunteer_Militia> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 797: Byzantine emperor Constantine VI was captured, blinded, and imprisoned by the supporters of his mother Irene. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_VI> 1713: With no living male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure one of his daughters would inherit the Habsburg lands. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI,_Holy_Roman_Emperor> 1903: A two-day anti-Jewish riot began in Kishinev, Bessarabia (now in Moldova), causing the death of nearly 50 Jews and focusing worldwide negative attention on the persecution of Jews in Russia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishinev_pogrom> 1927: American actress Mae West was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her play Sex. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West> 1971: The first space station, Salyut 1, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR, USSR. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: dreamworker: A person who attempts to discover what deeper meaning might be contained in his or her own, or another person's, dreams. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dreamworker> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   For heaven's sake enjoy life. Don't cry over things that were or things that aren't. Enjoy what you have now to the fullest. In all honesty you really only have two choices; you can like what you do OR you can dislike it. I choose to like it and what fun I have had. The other choice is no fun and people do not want to be around a whiner. We can always find people who are worse off and we don't have to look far! Help them and forget self! I would certainly say, above all, seek God. He will come to you if you look. There is absolutely NO down side.   --Barbara Bush <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Bush>