April 5

1921 — Voters in Hastings defeated a proposal to allow the showing of movies on Sundays.

1944 — Wendell Willkie told about 4,000 people at the Omaha Civic Auditorium that he was withdrawing from the presidential campaign after being defeated in the Wisconsin primary election.

April 6

1944 — An explosion ripped through the Naval Ordnance Depot at Hastings, killing eight people. It was the second of three fatal explosions at the depot during the year.

April 7

1871 — The first group of settlers from the Soldiers Free Homestead Colony reached Gibbon by Union Pacific Railroad. The colonists at first lived in train boxcars.

1891 — The Legislature passed one of the first eight-hour workday laws in the nation.

1895 — A prairie fire raced through Deuel County, killing an estimated 1,400 sheep near Big Springs.