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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 14, 2007 18:18:37 GMT -5
I thought I'd start this thread for the benefit of any history buffs that may reside on this list. This will be a place to post notices commerating any historically significant event that occured on the current calendar date. Since today is April 14th, I thought we'd start off with a couple of biggies, so here goes nuttin'. On this date in... 1865: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is assasinated at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. 1912: The luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks at a cost of 1,523 lives. I'll be adding more events as time goes on. Feel free to pop in with anything I may miss along the way. Peace out, dudes!
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Post by Yamal on Apr 15, 2007 6:25:21 GMT -5
I will if something important comes to mind. Cool thread, by the way.
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Post by Thorius Maximus on Apr 15, 2007 15:36:37 GMT -5
Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive element of radium.
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Post by Red on Apr 15, 2007 19:30:44 GMT -5
April 15 1947, 60 years ago today, a rookie dons number 42 and takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His name Jackie Robinson, the first black player in major league baseball. He became rookie of the year, later MVP, and even later a Hall of Famer. He was a player who transcended the sport and was truly great. His legacy and his legend have not been forgotten.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 16, 2007 7:15:55 GMT -5
1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth. 1865 - Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States. 1923 - Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics. 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance Roman Catholic polymath (d. 1519) -- his birth 1894 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937) -- her birth
United States - April 15 is the official deadline for filing tax return in most areas of the country.
(Did you file that? lol)
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 16, 2007 11:03:08 GMT -5
(I sure did, Ashley... Over a month ago now.) ;D And as for today, (April 16th), here's one from your neck of the woods... On this day in 1947: The coastal town of Texas City is decimated by a massive explosion aboard the cargo ship, S.S. Grandcamp. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_DisasterTo this day, it still ranks as the worst industrial accident in American history.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 16, 2007 11:46:26 GMT -5
Wow, that's not too far from Corpus Christi, prolly about a five hour drive. Guessing.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 18, 2007 1:28:14 GMT -5
Okay, onward to April 18th now... (This one is a biggie!) On this date in... 1775: Paul Revere makes his famous ride to warn American colonists of an impending attack by British Royal Forces. (Sorry, Nabu. ) 1906: The Great Earthquake strikes San Francisco at 5:18 AM. An ensuing three-day firestorm then destroys over 80% of the city. 1942: Lieutenant James Doolittle leads a squadron of 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers off the flight deck of the carrier U.S.S. Hornet in a surprise attack on Tokyo. 1943: Japanese Admiral Isiorokyu Yamamoto falls victim to an aerial assassination plot by American P-38 Lightning pilots. 1955: Physicist and creator of the Theory of General Relativity, Albert Einstein dies at the age of 76.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 18, 2007 6:51:14 GMT -5
1997: My cousin Codi was born.
1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 19, 2007 22:54:45 GMT -5
April 20th...
On this day in 1889:
Adolf Hitler is born.
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Post by dieter on Apr 19, 2007 23:45:33 GMT -5
Not the greatest inspiration in the world. While we're still standing under the political storm clouds created by the Virginia Tech massacre, we may as well remember the one that popularized this whole trend in the first place. They don't look nearly as unhappy as Cho Seung-hui, but they were just as violent. In remembrance of the fifteen lives lost at Columbine.
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Post by eclogite on Apr 20, 2007 1:09:22 GMT -5
[quote author=nutzkie board=general thread=1176592717 post=1176739388.... On this day in 1947:
The coastal town of Texas City is decimated by a massive explosion aboard the cargo ship, S.S. Grandcamp.
....quote]
Texas City blows up pretty regularly, the last time was just a couple of years ago. At least the Houston Ship Channel doesn't catch fire anymore.
"Not the greatest inspiration in the world. While we're still standing under the political storm clouds created by the Virginia Tech massacre, we may as well remember the one that popularized this whole trend in the first place. They don't look nearly as unhappy as Cho Seung-hui, but they were just as violent."
Guess they ought to declare April "Gutless Wonder Month" in honor of all who assault unarmed people.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 20, 2007 2:46:12 GMT -5
Not to mention that April 19th was the anniversary for both the Oklahoma City bombing and the ill-fated FBI/ATF raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 20, 2007 7:05:34 GMT -5
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: the siege of Boston begins, which followed the first battles at Lexington and Concord. 1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars. 1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia. 1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard. 1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride. 1979 - Jimmy Carter's rabbit incident. 570 - Prophet Muhammed, founder of Islam (d. 632) (date disputed) born 1808 - Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (d. 1873) born.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 20, 2007 22:20:00 GMT -5
April 21st...On this day in 1918: Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, a.k.a. "The Red Barron," is shot down over Vaux sur Somme, France. He is credited with 80 career kills. www.briggsenterprises.com/bluemax/
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Post by Luqkim... on Apr 20, 2007 22:58:13 GMT -5
Events
* 753 BC - Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional). * 1509 - Henry VIII ascends the throne of England (unofficially) at the death of his father, Henry VII * 1792 - Tiradentes, a revolutionary who was leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged and quartered. * 1836 - Texas Revolution: Battle of San Jacinto – Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. * 1863 - Bahá'u'lláh declares his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest". Considered the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. * 1894 - Norway formally adopts the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years. * 1898 - Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and Spain as of this date. * 1918 - World War I: Nacospeak fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France. * 1930 - A fire at a Columbus, Ohio, USA, penitentiary kills 320 people. * 1944 - Women in France receive the right to vote. * 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the Nacospeak High Command headquarters. * 1952 - Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated. * 1960 - Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 9:30 am the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. * 1960 - Founding of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith in Washington, DC. * 1962 - The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the U.S. since World War II. [1] * 1963 - The Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í faith is elected for the first time. * 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season. * 1966 - Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day. * 1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years. * 1975 - Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls. * 1987 - The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that explodes in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, killing 106 people. * 1989 - Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang. * 1994 - The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.
- Wikipedia...
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Post by dieter on Apr 25, 2007 23:45:19 GMT -5
26 April, 2002. Erfurt, Germany.
Robert Steinhaeuser, a 19 year old student who had been expelled from the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium the previous year (and had somehow managed to keep this a secret from his family), enters his old high school, and gears up in the bathroom. Dressing entirely in black, and wearing a black balaclava, he walks out carrying a shotgun and a 9mm Glock handgun. Steinhaeuser then charges into a classroom, where his peers are taking a crucial end-of-the-year test, and fires wildly, killing two students and the instructor. Then, with the skill of someone who has had years of practice at the local shooting club (which he did), he goes from classroom to classroom, apparently killing his former teachers execution-style. At one point, he gets a clear shot at a police officer outside, and kills him. By the time he is caught off guard and shoved into empty room (seemingly willingly) by another teacher, sixteen have already died in what was--before Virginia Tech--the worst school shooting ever. He then commits suicide, having spent 71 rounds from his Glock, and having never touched the shotgun.
You may derive your own answers from this incident.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 26, 2007 6:32:10 GMT -5
I'm not sure what to say to that.
Here are some more from April 26:
1564 - Shakespeare was christened. 1607 - English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia. 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. 1865 - Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin in Virginia. 1946 - Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims to be God, marries the much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement. 1954 - The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins. 1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon. 1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections. 1994 - Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 29, 2007 22:59:29 GMT -5
April 30th...
On this day in 1900:
Locomotive engineer Casey Jones is killed in a horrific pre-dawn collision at the small town of Vaughn, Mississippi. Casey is the only fatality.
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Post by dieter on Apr 30, 2007 9:06:36 GMT -5
^^That reminds me of the Maco Light legend, from North Carolina. Plenty of good ghost stories have come out of that state. I wish I still had relatives there...
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