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Post by nabusan on Apr 1, 2008 14:28:03 GMT -5
Just realized this is somewhat of a fun board thread ^^
Anywho, today also happens to be the birthdays of Fred and George Weasley ;D
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 1, 2008 14:35:06 GMT -5
Well, it technically is, but we keep it here, it's not hurting anyone. It's just me and another guy doing this.
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 1, 2008 22:28:13 GMT -5
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the forum is all screwed up because of April fools April 1 continue...
-1789 the first U.S. House of Representatives, meeting in New York City, reaches quorum and elects Pennsylvania Representative Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg as its first speaker
1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's supply line into Petersburg, Virginia, is closed when Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant collapse the end of Lee's lines around Petersburg. The Confederates suffer heavy casualties, and the battle triggered Lee's retreat from Petersburg as the two armies began a race that would end a week later at Appomattox Court House
1865-Worn down by the stresses of his office, Florida Governor John Milton commits suicide at his plantation, Sylvania. Milton was a capable governor who valiantly defended his state and supplied provisions to the Confederacy, but by the end of the war much of Florida was occupied by Union forces and the state's finances were depleted. Just before his death, Milton addressed the Florida legislature and said that Yankees "have developed a character so odious that death would be preferable to reunion with them." Milton was 57 when he put a pistol to his head
1918 - the British Royal Air Force (RAF) is formed as an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RAF took its place beside the British navy and army as a separate military service with its own ministry
1945 - after suffering the loss of 116 planes and damage to three aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. combat troops of the 10th Army, under the command of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner Jr., land on the southwest coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa, 350 miles south of Kyushu, the southern main island of Japan
1948 - Soviet troops stop U.S. and British military trains traveling through the Russian zone of occupation in Germany and demand that they be allowed to search the trains. British and U.S. officials refused the Soviet demand, and the problems associated with the Soviet, British, and U.S. occupation of Germany grew steadily more serious in the following months
1972 - Following three days of the heaviest artillery and rocket bombardment of the war, between 12,000 and 15,000 soldiers of Hanoi's 304th Division--supported by tanks, artillery, and antiaircraft units equipped with surface-to-air missiles--sweep across the Demilitarized Zone. They routed the South Vietnamese 3rd Division and drove them toward their rear bases
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 2, 2008 7:23:33 GMT -5
Indeed, because of April Fool's Day.
April 2
68 - Galba, governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of Roman emperors begun with Julius Caesar and Augustus. 1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Ýstanbul), which would fall on May 29. 1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first European known to do so. 1755 - Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India. 1792 - The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint. 1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet. 1804 - Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal. 1810 - Napoleon Bonaparte marries Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. 1863 - Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia and demand the Confederate government to release emergency supplies. 1865 - American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken - Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat. 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. 1900 - The Foraker Act passes through Congress, giving Puerto Ricans limited self-rule. 1902 - Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated by a terrorist in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg. 1902 - "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California. 1917 - World War I: The Battle of Vimy Ridge commences when the Canada Corps launches an artillery bombardment of the Nacospeak trenches. At that time it was the biggest artillery bombardment in history. 1917 - World War I: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. 1917 - The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, takes her seat as a representative from Montana. 1930 - Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia. 1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established. 1962 - The first official Panda crossing is opened outside Waterloo station, London. 1972 - Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s . 1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins - North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province. 1973 - Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service. 1975 - Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops. 1975 - Construction of the CN Tower is completed in Toronto Ontario Canada. It reaches 553.33 metres in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure. 1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound. 1982 - Falklands War: The Falkland Islands are invaded by Argentina. 1984 - Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma is launched aboard Soyuz T-11, and becomes the first Indian in space. 1989 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations. 1991 - The first female Premier of a Canadian province takes office. Rita Johnston succeeds William Vander Zalm, who resigned, as Premier of British Columbia. 1992 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison. 2002 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues. 2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted. 2005 - James Stewart Jr. becomes first African American to win a major motor sports event. 2006 - Over 60 tornadoes breakout, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed. 2008- The first Annual Worldwide Autism Day, as declared by the United Nations
Observances International Children's Book Day Malvinas Day in Argentina Sizdah be dar in Iran
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 2, 2008 21:28:05 GMT -5
It really threw off my typing. April 2 continued... 1777 - The Continental Congress promotes Colonel Ebenezer Learned to the rank of brigadier general of the Continental Army. 1863 - Responding to acute food shortages, hundreds of angry women riot in Richmond, demanding that the government release emergency supplies. For several hours, the mob moved through the city, breaking windows and looting stores, before Confederate President Jefferson Davis threw his pocket change at them from the top of a wagon. Davis ordered the crowd to disperse or he would order the militia to fire upon them. The riot ended peacefully, although 44 women and 29 men were arrested. 1865 - After a ten-month siege, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his troops on a desperate retreat westward. This retreat would begin the great chase across Virginia called the Appomattox Campaign which would culminate seven days later with the capitulation of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. 1917 - “The world must be made safe for democracy,” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaims on this day in 1917, as he appears before Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. 1941 - Nacospeak Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, "the Desert Fox," resumes his advance into Cyrenaica, modern-day Libya, signaling the beginning of what nine days later will become the recapture of Libya by the Axis forces. 1972 - Soldiers of Hanoi's 304th Division, supported by Soviet-made tanks and heavy artillery, take the northern half of the Quang Tri province. This left only Quang Tri City (the combat base on the outskirts of the city) and Dong Ha in South Vietnamese hands. South Vietnam's 3rd Division commander Brig. Gen. Vu Van Giai moved his staff out of the Quang Tri combat base to the citadel at Quang Tri City, the apparent North Vietnamese objective. 1975 - As North Vietnamese tanks and infantry continue to push the remnants of South Vietnam's 22nd Division and waves of civilian refugees from the Quang Ngai Province, the South Vietnamese Navy begins to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from Qui Nhon. Shortly thereafter, the South Vietnamese abandoned Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang, leaving the North Vietnamese in control of more than half of South Vietnam's territory. During the first week in April, communist forces attacking from the south pushed into Long An Province, just south of Saigon, threatening to cut Highway 4, Saigon's main link with the Mekong Delta, which would have precluded reinforcements from being moved north to assist in the coming battle for Saigon. 1989 - In an effort to mend strained relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana to meet with Fidel Castro. Castro's suspicions regarding Gorbachev's economic and political reform measures in the Soviet Union, together with the fact that Russia's ailing economy could no longer support massive economic assistance to Cuba, kept the meetings from achieving any solid agreements.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 3, 2008 7:06:23 GMT -5
April 3
1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. 1077 - Creation of the first Parliament of Friuli. 1559 - The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars. 1834 - The generals in the Greek War of Independence stand trial for treason. 1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins. 1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. 1882 - American Old West outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward. 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a Nacospeak patent for his engine design. 1895 - Trial of the libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his prosecution, conviction and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. 1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution. 1922 - Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1929 - RMS Queen Mary is ordered from John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering by Cunard Line. 1933 - Unsuccessful boycott of Jewish stores in Nazi Germany. 1936 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh II, the baby son of world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh. 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. 1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March. 1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. 1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins, known as the Jeju massacre. 1948 - First run of the Texas Chief passenger train. 1953 - TV Guide is published for the first time. 1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges. 1956 - The western part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado (known as the Hudsonville-Standale Tornado). 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. 1969 - Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort. 1973 - The first portable cell phone call is placed in New York City. 1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured. 1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. 1982 - Great Britain dispatches a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina. 1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin. 1996 - A United States Air Force airplane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on board. 1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. 2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. 2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves. 2007 - Conventional-Train World Speed Record: a French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line east of Paris sets an official new world speed record of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph).
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 3, 2008 21:25:33 GMT -5
April 3 continued...
1776 - Because it lacked sufficient funds to build a strong navy, the Continental Congress gives privateers permission to attack any and all British ships.
1865 - Petersburg and subsiquently Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy falls to the Union Army of the Potomac. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia withdrew from their trenches around Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2 and began moving South in hopes of linking up with Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina.
1918 - The Allied Supreme War Council formally confers the post of commander in chief on the Western Front to General Ferdinand Foch.
1942 - The Japanese infantry stage a major offensive against Allied troops in Bataan, the peninsula guarding Manila Bay of the Philippine Islands.
1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs off on legislation establishing the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, more popularly known as the Marshall Plan. The act eventually provided over $12 billion of assistance to aid in the economic recovery of Western Europe.
1969 - Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States is moving to "Vietnamize" the war as rapidly as possible. By this, he meant that the responsibility for the fighting would be gradually transferred to the South Vietnamese as they became more combat capable.
1972 - The United States prepares hundreds of B-52s and fighter-bombers for possible air strikes to blunt the recently launched North Vietnamese invasion. The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk was sent from the Philippines to join the carriers already off the coast of Vietnam and provide additional air support.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 3, 2008 21:26:57 GMT -5
April 4
1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. 1655 - The miraculous statue entitled the Infant of Prague is solemnly crowned by command of Cardinal Harrach. 1660 - Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of England. 1721 - Sir Robert Walpole enters office as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I. 1812 - U.S. President James Madison enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom. 1814 - Napoleon abdicates for the first time. 1818 - The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20). 1841 - William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served. 1850 - The Great Fire of Cottenham, a large part of the Cambridgeshire village (England) is burnt to the ground under suspicious circumstances. 1850 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city. 1859 - Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show. 1865 - American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital. 1866 - Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev. 1887 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States. 1905 - In India, an earthquake near Kangra kills 20,000. 1913 - The Greek aviator Emmanuel Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot victim of the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes. 1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends. 1930 - The Communist Party of Panama is founded. 1939 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq. 1945 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany. 1945 - World War II: Soviet Army takes control of Hungary. 1949 - Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. 1958 - The CND Peace Symbol displayed in public for the first time in London. 1960 - Senegal independence day. 1964 - The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. 1965 - The first model of the new Saab Viggen fighter aircraft plane is unveiled. 1967 - Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church. 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6. 1968 - AEK Athens BC becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup. 1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart. 1973 - The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated. 1975 - Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen. 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Baby Lift - A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans - 172 die. 1976 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest. 1979 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed. 1983 - Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space (STS-6). 1984 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons. 1988 - Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office. 1991 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania. 1994 - Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation". 1996 - Comet Hyakutake was imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous. 1999 - Against the plea of Pope John Paul II, NATO planes continued to bomb the former Yugoslavia on Easter Sunday. 2002 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War. 2007 - 15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran are released by the Iranian President.
Observances International Day for Landmine Awareness and Assistance Lesotho - Heroes' Day Taiwan and Hong Kong - Children's Day
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 4, 2008 11:44:44 GMT -5
This was mentioned in Ashley's post above, but I thought it deserved more than just a bullet point...
Forty years ago today, civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Officially, the assassin is recorded by history as being James Earl Ray, although much like the Kennedy Assassination five years prior, conspiracy theories and conjecture abound to this day.
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 4, 2008 22:54:42 GMT -5
Not surprising considering the era and the high profile of Dr. King. I'd like to think he would be at least relatively pleased with the nations progress.
April 4 continued...
1776 - After the successful siege of Boston, General George Washington begins marching his unpaid soldiers from their headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, toward New York in anticipation of a British invasion.
1841 - Only 31 days after assuming office, William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, dies of pneumonia at the White House.
1865 - President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln entered the still smoldering Confederate capital with only his secretary, son and a detachment of 4 guards. He was quickly surrounded by hundreds of freed slaves who saw him as their liberator. Lincoln would tour the Confederate White House and sit in Jefferson Davis's chair remarking, "I never thought I'd live to see the day..."
1884 - Yamamoto Isoroku, perhaps Japan's greatest strategist and the officer who would contrive the surprise air attack on U.S. naval forces at Pearl Harbor, is born .
1918 - Ger.man forces in the throes of a major spring offensive on the Western Front launch a renewed attack on Allied positions between the Somme and Avre Rivers.
1949 - The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War.
1967 - The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says in a speech that there is a common link forming between the civil rights and peace movements. King proposed that the United States stop all bombing of North and South Vietnam; declare a unilateral truce in the hope that it would lead to peace talks; set a date for withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam; and give the National Liberation Front a role in negotiations.
1975 - A major U.S. airlift of South Vietnamese orphans begins with disaster when an Air Force cargo jet crashes shortly after departing from Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. More than 138 passengers, mostly children, were killed. Operation Baby Lift was designed to bring 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans to the United States for adoption by American parents. Baby Lift lasted for 10 days and was carried out during the final, desperate phase of the war, as North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon. Although this first flight ended in tragedy, all subsequent flights were completed safely, and Baby Lift aircraft brought orphans across the Pacific until the mission's conclusion on April 14, only 16 days before the fall of Saigon and the end of the war.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 4, 2008 23:25:59 GMT -5
April 5 456 - St. Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop. 1242 - During a battle on the ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights. 1566 - 200 Netherlands noblemen, led by Hendrik van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Inquisition in the Netherlands. The Inquisition is suspended and a delegation is sent to Spain to petition Philip II. 1609 - Daimyo (Lord) of the Satsuma clan in Southern Kyûshû, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryûkyû Kingdom in Okinawa. 1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. 1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to Great Britain. 1654 - The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed. 1792 - U.S. President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States. 1804 - The first recorded meteorite in Scotland falls in Possil (High Possil Meteorite). 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins. 1874 - Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, was opened in Birkenhead. 1879 - Chile declared war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific. 1897 - The Greco-Turkish War, also called "Thirty Days' War", is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. 1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires. 1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt. 1932 - Alcohol prohibition in Finland ended. Alcohol sales started in Alko liquor stores. 1932 - Dominion of Newfoundland: 10,000 rioters seized the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government. 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado kills 233 in Tupelo, Mississippi, United States. 1942 - World War II: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island. 1944 - World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town Kleisoura are executed by the Germans. 1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory." 1946 - Soviet troops leave the island of Bornholm, Denmark after an 11 month occupation. 1949 - Fireside Theater debuts on television. 1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements. 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg of the United States are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union. 1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. 1956 - Fidel Castro declares himself at war with the President of Cuba. 1956 - In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a landslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister. 1957 - In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad is sworn in as the first chief minister. 1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many United States cities. 1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike. 1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive. 1976 - In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident. 1986 - Three people are killed in the Bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin, Germany. 1991 - ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard. 1992 - Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C. United States. 1992 - Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru, dissolved the Peruvian congress by military force. 1992 - Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sucic on the Vrbanja Bridge. 1993 - The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom. 1998 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshû and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world. 1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands. 2000 - Leeds United football fans clash with Galatasaray SK fans resulting in the death of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight from multiple stab wounds. 2007 -Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone named Camerlengo of Holy Roman Church
Observances Mauritius: Ougadie. Qingming Festival in the Chinese calendar Arbor Day and Hansik in South Korea
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 5, 2008 18:57:26 GMT -5
April 5 continued...
1774 - Benjamin Franklin writes an open letter to Great Britain’s prime minister, Frederick, Lord North, from the Smyrna Coffee House in London. It was published in The Public Advertiser, a British newspaper, on April 15, 1774.
1862 - Union forces under General George McClellan arrive at Yorktown, Virginia, and establish siege lines instead of directly attacking the Confederate defenders. This would be the first large scale action of McClellan's Peninsula campaign. The siege however slowed down the Union advance considerably, allowing time for Confederate forces to establish defensive works across the peninsula closer to Richmond.
1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee pulls his troops from Amelia Court House and begins a desperate race west to escape pursuing Yankee troops. On April 2, Lee's men were forced to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg after a ten-month siege. The hungry army arrived at Amelia Court House expecting to find rations, but only ammunition and canons had been delivered. Lee was distraught, and he sent his troops out to the countryside to find food. They found little, however, and were forced to move on with empty stomachs.
1918 - General Erich Ludendorff formally ends "Operation Michael," the first stage of the final major Ger.man offensive of World War I.
1945 - Yugoslav partisan leader Tito signs an agreement permitting "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
1951 - The climax of the most sensational spy trial in American history is reached when a federal judge sentences Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for their roles in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. Although the couple proclaimed their innocence, they died in the electric chair in June 1953.
1969 - Approximately 100,000 antiwar demonstrators march in New York City to demand that the United States withdraw from Vietnam. The weekend of antiwar protests ended with demonstrations and parades in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities. The National Mobilization Committee, the Student Mobilization Committee, and the Socialist Workers Party were among the groups that helped organize the demonstrations. At the same time, Quakers held sit-ins at draft boards and committed other acts of civil disobedience in more than 30 cities.
1972 - Moving out of eastern Cambodia, North Vietnamese troops open the second front of their offensive with a drive into Binh Long Province, attacking Loc Ninh, a border town 75 miles north of Saigon on Highway 13. At the same time, additional North Vietnamese cut the highway between An Loc, the provincial capital, and Saigon to the south, effectively isolating An Loc from outside support.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 5, 2008 21:52:10 GMT -5
April 6
402 - Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia. 1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath. 1327 - The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon. 1385 - John, Master of the Order of Aviz, is made king John I of Portugal. 1652 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which eventually becomes Cape Town. 1667 - An earthquake devastates Dubrovnik, then an independent city-state. 1782 - Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Thailand, who was overthrown in a coup d'état. 1793 - During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic, and the period known as the Reign of Terror begins. 1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company. 1814 - Napoleon abdicates. He is then exiled to Elba. 1830 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith, Jr. and others at Fayette, New York. 1832 - Indian Wars: Black Hawk War begins - The Sauk warrior Black Hawk enters into war with the United States. 1860 - Joseph Smith III, creates the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr. 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh begins - In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston. 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Sayler's Creek - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia. 1866 - The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956. 1869 - Celluloid is patented. 1893 - Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dedicated by Wilford Woodruff. 1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested (in Cadogan Hotel, London) after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry. 1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. 1903 - The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world. 1909 - Robert Peary and Matthew Henson allegedly reach the North Pole. 1911 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg). 1917 - World War I: United States declares war on Nacospeaky (see Wilson's address to Congress). 1919 - Gandhi orders a General Strike. 1923 - The first Prefects Board in Southeast Asia is formed in Victoria Institution, Malaysia. 1924 - The first successful flight (with stops) completely around the world begins 1926 - Walter Varney Airlines makes first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines). 1930 - Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Thus he starts Salt Satyagraha. 1930 - James Dewar invents the Hostess cream-filled twinkie. 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203. 1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins; Nacospeaky invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece. 1947 - The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievements. 1957 - Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines. 1965 - Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit. 1968 - In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150. 1970 - Newhall Incident: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed. 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive - American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments. 1973 - Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft. 1984 - Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya. 1992 - A general strike is declared by communist groups in Nepal 1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down. 1998 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India. 2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment. 2005 - Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes the Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
Observances Tartan Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, a day set aside for the celebration of Scottish influence The date of organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, Jr.. Also the date on which many in The Church believe that Jesus was born. Chakri Day in Thailand, commemorating the reign of the Chakri Dynasty.
April 7 529 - First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. 1348 - Charles University is founded in Prague. 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu. 1541 - Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies. 1795 - France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length. 1798 - The Mississippi Territory is organized from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina and is later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain. 1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River. 1805 - First public performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony (Eroica). 1827 - John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match. He had invented it in the previous year. 1829 - Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe. 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends - Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeat the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee. 1868 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers Of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, the only one at the federal level. 1890 - Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal. 1906 - Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples. 1906 - The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco. 1908 - H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 1922 - Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming. 1927 - First distance public television broadcast (from Washington, DC to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover). 1933 - Prohibition was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of XXI amendment. 1939 - World War II: Italy invades Albania. 1940 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. 1943 - Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Nacospeaks order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka. They were then shot dead and buried in ditches. 1945 - World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route on a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go. 1945 - World War II: Visoko was liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces. 1946 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised. 1948 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations. 1948 - Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai, China, leaving twenty monks dead. 1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. 1956 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco. 1963 - Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a Socialist republic and Josip Broz Tito is named President for life. 1964 - IBM announces the System/360. 1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1. 1971 - U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam. 1976 - Former British Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party, leaving Prime Minister James Callaghan in power. 1977 - Nacospeak Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light. 1978 - Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. 1983 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk. 1985 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe. 1989 - Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors. 1990 - Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal (the conviction was reversed on appeal). 1992 - Republika Srpska announces its independence. 1994 - Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda. 1999 - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas. 2001 - Mars Odyssey is launched. 2003 - U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
Observances World Health Day - Celebrated by the 191 member countries of the World Health Organization Mozambique - Women's Day. The feast of Annunciation is celebrated by the Western Orthodox Church.
April 8 217 - Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus. 1093 - The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by Walkelin. 1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated. 1149 - Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum. 1271 - In Syria, sultan Baybars conquers the Krak of Chevaliers. 1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de León declares Florida a territory of Spain . 1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated. 1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom falls to Burmese invaders. 1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos. 1832 - Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans. 1848 - Battle of Goito, part of the Italian Wars of Independence 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union forces are thwarted by a Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana. 1866 - Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary. 1867 - The first World's Fair is inaugurated in Paris. 1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1893 - The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. 1895 - The United States Supreme Court declares income tax to be unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. 1899 - Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair. 1904 - The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale. 1904 - British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of the Book of the Law. 1904 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times. 1913 - The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law. 1916 - In Corona, California, car racer Bob Burman crashes, killing three and badly injuring five spectators. 1918 - World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York, New York's financial district. 1929 - Indian Independence Movement: At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest. 1935 - The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law. 1940 - World War II: Great Britain and France announce that they have mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by Nacospeak supply ships. 1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad. 1942 - World War II: the Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines. 1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases to common carriers and public utilities. 1946 - The last meeting of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations, is held. 1950 - India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact. 1952 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike. 1953 - Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers. 1957 - The Suez Canal in Egypt is reopened. 1960 - The U.S. Senate approves a civil rights bill despite Southern senators' marathon filibuster effort. 1973 - 32 terrorist bombings in Cyprus 1975 - Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager. 1985 - Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000. 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline. 1989 - South Africa: the Democratic Party is formed from the merger of four parties. 1989 - The two Greek Communist parties, along with smaller left-wing parties, merge to form the Coalition of the Left and Progress in Greece. 1990 - New Democracy wins the national election in Greece. 1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries. 1999 - Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress. 2000 - 19 Marines are killed when an Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashes near Marana, Arizona. 2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups. 2004 - U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 Commission . 2005- Kim Possible: So The Drama premieres on the Disney Channel 2006 - Shedden massacre: the bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
Observances Buddha's Birthday in Japan Saint Walter of Pontoise (d. 1099) Saint Constance Saint Julie Billiart of Namur (d. 1816). International Day of the Roma International Jimmy Shaker Day And the day that So the Drama premiered in the USA
April 9-- this is the 100th day of the year. 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans). 475 - Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position. 1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeats the Polish and Nacospeak armies. 1413 - Henry V is crowned King of England. 1440 - Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark. 1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana. 1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war. 1867 - Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska. 1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. 1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - Nacospeak forces launch their third offensive of the battle. 1917 - World War I: Battle of Arras - The battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge. 1937 - The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London - it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe. 1939 - Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall. 1940 - World War II: Nacospeaky invades Denmark and Norway. 1942 - World War II: Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast. 1945 - World War II: The Nacospeak pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk. 1945 - World War II: Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends. 1945 - The United States Atomic Energy Commission formed 1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. 1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel. 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia). 1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin. 1953 - Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax 1957 - The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping 1959 - Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven". 1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight. 1969 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. 1975 - The first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world. 1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 - US Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty on drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison. 1992 - John Major's Conservative Party wins an unprecedented fourth general election victory in the United Kingdom. 1999 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, President of Niger, is assassinated. 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: Baghdad, Iraq falls to American forces. 2005 - HRH Charles, Prince of Wales weds Camilla Parker Bowles. (elephant and horse)
Observances Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor, celebrated as Bataan Day in Bataan) in the Philippines. Desan and companions
April 10 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1500 - Ludovico Sforza is captured by the Swiss troops at Novara and handed over to the French. 1606 - The Charter of the Virginia Company of London was established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 1710 - The first law regulating copyright is issued in Great Britain. 1741 - War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia defeats Austria in the Battle of Mollwitz. 1790 - United States Patent system established 1815 - Mount Tambora eruption covers several islands with ash in Indonesia. 1816 - The U.S. government approved the creation of a Second Bank of the United States. 1821 - Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Turks from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus. 1826 - The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town Messolonghi start leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive. 1856 - Theta Chi Fraternity Founded at Norwich University 1857 - The Sepoy Mutiny popularly known as the "Revolt of 1857" broke out in Meerut, India as part of the Indian independence movement. 1864 - Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is elected emperor of Mexico. 1865 - American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time. 1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh. 1868 - At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Theodore. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two die from the British/ Indian troops. 1869 - José Martí founds the Cuban Revolutionary Party. 1874 - The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska, USA. 1896 - Spiridon Louis wins the marathon of the first Olympic Games. 1906 - The Four Million, O. Henry's second short story collection, is published. 1912 - The RMS Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England for her first and only voyage. 1916 - The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City. 1919 - Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos. 1925 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York, New York by Charles Scribner's Sons. 1933 - New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps is created. 1938 - Édouard Daladier becomes Prime Minister of France. 1941 - World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustase fascist insurgents in power. 1944 - Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp. 1944 - Henry Ford II is named executive vice president of Ford Motor Company. 1957 - The Suez Canal is reopened for all shipping after being closed for three months. 1959 - Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko. 1963 - The submarine USS Thresher is lost at sea, with all hands (129 officers, crewmen and civilian technicians). 1968 - Shipwreck of the Wahine outside Wellington harbour. 1971 - Ping Pong Diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a weeklong visit. 1972 - 20 days after he was kidnapped in Buenos Aires, Oberdan Sallustro is executed by communist guerrillas. 1972 - Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967 American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam. 1973 - A British Vanguard turboprop crashes during a snowstorm at Basel, Switzerland killing 104. 1978 - Volkswagen becomes the first non-American automobile manufacturer to build cars in the United States, opening a plant in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. 1979 - On "Terrible Tuesday", a tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people. (see Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak). 1991 - Italian ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy killing 140. 1991 - A rare tropical storm develops in the Southern Hemisphere near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites. 1998 - The Belfast Agreement is signed. 2006 - Hundreds of thousands protest H.R. 4437 (aka the "Sensenbrenner Bill") in cities across the United States.
April 11 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. 1079 - Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland. 1241 - Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi. 1512 - War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix was victorious in the Battle of Ravenna. 1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain. 1713 - War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War): Treaty of Utrecht. 1775 - Last execution for witchcraft in Nacospeaky. 1828 - Foundation of Bahia Blanca 1856 - In Rivas, Nicaragua, Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up. 1865 - Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech. 1868 - The Shogunate is abolished in Japan. 1876 - The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized. 1888 - The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated. 1899 - Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States. 1905 - Einstein reveals his Theory of Relativity (special relativity). 1919 - International Labour Organization founded. 1921 - First sports broadcast on the radio. 1921 - The Emirate of Transjordan is created. 1921 - Iowa becomes the first U.S. state to impose a cigarette tax. 1945 - World War II: United States forces liberate Buchenwald concentration camp. 1951 - Korean War: President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea. 1951 - The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its traditional (to the British government) location in Westminster Abbey. 1952 - The Battle of Nanri island takes place. 1955 - The Air India Kashmir Princess downs in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang. 1957 - Britain agrees to Singaporean self-rule. 1961 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem. 1965 - The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people. 1968 - Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. 1968 - Nacospeak student leader Rudi Dutschke is shot in Berlin. 1970 - Apollo 13 is launched. 1979 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed. 1981 - A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries. 1981 - President Ronald Reagan returns to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt. 1987 - The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan. 1990 - Customs officers in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq. 2000 - AT&T Park in San Francisco, Minute Maid Park in Houston, and Comerica Park in Detroit open. 2001 - The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People's Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter is released. 2002 - The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia. 2002 - An attempted coup d'état in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez began. 2006 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium. 2007 - Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others. 2007 Algiers bombings.
April 12 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire 1606 - The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain. 1633 - The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins. 1776 - North Carolina's Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves. 1820 - Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organisation to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece. 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre -- Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army. 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal. 1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Nacospeaks. It is also considered a major event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack. 1927 - April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the CPC members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front (China). 1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world, 231 mph, was measured by the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory on the summit of Mount Washington 1934 - The Auto-Lite Strike, which culminated in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers, began. 1935 - First flight of the Bristol Blenheim. 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England. 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry S. Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective. 1961 - Human spaceflight: Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). 1963 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. Although both vessels are severely damaged both can make it to port. 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah. Columbia launching during STS-1.1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country. 1980 - Terry Fox begins his "Marathon of Hope" by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic at St. John's, Newfoundland. 1981 - Human spaceflight: The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission. 1990 - opening of Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition, the work of the only living sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. 1992 - Disneyland Resort Paris opens in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France, and is the second international Disney resort property. 1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam. 1998 - An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale near the town of Bovec. 1999 - American President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil lawsuit. 2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a military coup against Hugo Chávez. 2007 - The Kremlin vetos an investigation into the death of Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man in space.
Observances The Roman holiday of Cerealia begins. Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin; in Russia (and formerly in USSR), the Cosmonautics Day.
April 13 1111 - Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople. 1250 - The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured. 1256 - The Grand Union of the Augustinian order formed when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. 1598 - Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. 1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics. 1849 - Hungary becomes a republic. 1861 - American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces. 1868 - Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala. 1873 - Colfax Massacre. 1902 - James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. 1919 - The Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. 1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India. 1921 - Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party. 1939 - In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British. 1941 - Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed. 1943 - World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners-of-war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government-in-exile in London, from the Soviet Union. 1943 - James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton take part in an Alcatraz escape attempt. 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth. 1944 - The diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union were established. 1945 - Nacospeak troops massacre more than 1000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen Germany. 1953 - CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind controle program MKULTRA. 1969 - Closure of the Brisbane tramway network. 1970 - An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew into deadly peril. 1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan. 1974 - Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the USA's first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1. 1975 - Bus Massacre in Lebanon : Attack by Phalangist militia gunmen kills 27 Palestinian civilians and marks the start of the 15-year Lebanese civil war. 1983 - Harold Washington is elected as the first African-American mayor in Chicago's history. 1984 - India moves into Siachen Glacier thus annexed more territory from the Line of Control. 1985 - Enver Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia as the leader of Albania. 1987 - Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to the latter in 1999. 1992 - Neil Kinnock resigns as British Labour leader following the party's defeat by the Conservatives in the general election four days earlier. 1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win golf's Masters Tournament.
Observances First day of Lao New Year. First day of Thai New Year. First day of Cambodian New Year. Vaisakhi
April 14 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum. Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed. 69 - Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne. 1028 - Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected king of the Germans. 1205 - Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders. 1341 - Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo 1434 - The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France was laid. 1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne. 1699 - Khalsa. Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. 1775 - The first abolition society in the North America is established. The "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage" is organized in Philadelphia, U.S. by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. 1828 - Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary. 1831 - Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse. 1846 - The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, U.S. for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival. 1849 - Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader. 1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, U.S.. 1864 - Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement. 1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. 1865 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. 1881 - The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupted in El Paso, U.S.. 1890 - The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington. 1894 - Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies. 1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,503 lives. 1915 - The Turks invade Armenia. 1927 - The first Volvo car premieres, in Gothenburg, Sweden. 1931 - Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the 2nd Spanish Republic. 1935 - "Black Sunday", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl. 1935 - Babe Ruth plays his first National League game in Fenway Park in Boston, U.S.. 1940 - World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, occupying key points, preparatory to a larger force arriving two days later. 1941 - World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization that pursued Nazi and fascist policies, is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the April 6 invasion of Yugoslavia during Operation 25. 1944 - A massive explosion rocks the Bombay harbor killing 300 and causing a loss of 20 million pounds at that time. See: Bombay Explosion (1944). 1945 - Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascistic occupation. 1956 - Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.. 1958 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. 1962 - Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France. 1964 - A Delta rocket's third-stage motor prematurely ignites in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3. 1968 - At the U.S. Academy Awards, a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand results in the two sharing the Best Actress Oscar.. 1978 - 1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: thousands of Georgians demonstrate against the attempt by the Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language. 1981 - The first operational space shuttle, U.S. Columbia, lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California after its first test flight. 1986 - In retaliation for the April 5 bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Tripoli and Benghazi, in Libya, which kills 60 people. 1986 - 2.2 pound (1 kg) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded. 1988 - USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. 1988 - In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. 1994 - In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people. 1999 - NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed. 1999 - A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history. 2000 - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich filed a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually led the movement against file-sharing programs. 2002 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by his country's military. 2003 - Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy. 2003 - U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985. 2005 - Oregon Supreme Court nullifies nearly 3,000 marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County. 2007 - At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Observances Astrological New Year (sidreal equinox)- celebrated as new year in South and South East Asia. Namely by Bengalis, Burmese, Cambodians, Laotians, Malayalees, Punjabis, Sinhalese, Tamils and Thais. N'Ko Alphabet Day - the anniversary of the day the N'Ko alphabet was completed in 1949. Black Day - Informal celebration day for single people in South Korea. Youth Day in Angola. Mologa Day in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia Day of the Georgian language in Georgia Ambedkar Jayanti in India
April 15 1178 BC - A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War. 73 - Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt. 1071 - Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy. 1346 - Serbian Empire was proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the South-Eastern Europe. 1395 - Azzo X d'Este is defeated at the Battle of Portomaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops. 1521 - Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire. 1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina. 1746 - Battle of Culloden 1780 - The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded. 1799 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre. 1853 - The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane. 1858 - The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, was wound up. 1862 - American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia. 1862 - American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law. 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi. 1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. 1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel. 1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Saint Petersburg from exile in Finland. 1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre. 1922 - The Treaty of Rapallo, in which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations between Berlin and Moscow, is signed. 1925 - During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded. 1941 - World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships. 1943 - Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD. 1945 - The Red Army begins the final assault on Nacospeak forces around Berlin. 1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc . 1945 - More than 7,000 die when the Nacospeak refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo. 1946 - Syria gains independence. 1947 - Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600. 1947 - Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. 1953 - Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal Yacht Britannia. 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation. 1963 - Great Train Robbery - 12 men are sentenced to a total of 307 years. 1972 - Apollo program: Apollo 16 launches towards the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. 1987 - British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with gross indecency. 1988 - In Forlì, Italy, Red Brigades kill Italian Senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita. 1992 - The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean. 2003 - The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union. 2007 - Virginia Tech massacre: the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, in which a gunman shoots 32 people to death and injures 23 others before committing suicide.
April 17 69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor. 1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts. 1492 - Spain and Christopher Columbus sign a contract for him to sail to Asia to get spices. 1521 - Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings. 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor. 1555 - After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. 1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions to Spanish territories in America. 1861 - American Civil War: Virginia secedes from the Union. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina. 1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 1895 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan. 1907 - Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than any other day. 1924 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company. 1941 - World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany. 1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein. 1945 - In Stassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb. 1949- At midnight 26 counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland 1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. 1961 - Manos Hadjidakis receives an Academy Award in the best music category, for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name. 1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair. 1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air. 1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy. 1969 - Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed. 1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely. 1971 - People's Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor. 1973 - Federal Express delivers its first package. 1975 - Cambodian Civil War ends: The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender. 1982 - Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada. 1984 - Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building. 1986 - Treaty signed, ending Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly. 1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever gaining 17.58 to 3,004.46. 2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.
April 18 1025 - Bolesław Chrobry was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland. 1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid. 1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland. 1775 - American Revolution: British advancement by sea begin; riders warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. 1797 - Battle of Neuwied - French victory against the Austrians. 1880 - An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100. 1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico. 1899 - St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria. 1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 destroys much of San Francisco, California. 1906 - The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement. 1909 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome. 1915 - French pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the Nacospeak side of the lines during World War I. 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens. 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs. 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France. 1943 - World War II: "Operation Peacock", Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over the Solomon Islands. 1945 - Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany. 1945 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia were established. 1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved. 1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force. 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt. 1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum. 1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule. 1974 - Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port. 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades. 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President. 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people. 1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. 1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul. 1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses Cabinet. 1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Quana. 2007 - The US Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision. 2007 - 32 Chinese steel workers burn to death in the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation disaster.
April 19 1012 - Martyrdom of St. Alphege in Greenwich, London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers (Nacospeak: Fürst) and independent cities (Nacospeak: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant movement. 1587 - Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor. 1713 - With no living male heirs, Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717). 1775: American Revolution begins1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord which began the American Revolutionary War. 1809 - The army of Austria attacks and is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. 1810 - Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed. 1839 - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom. 1861 - American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city. 1892 - Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts. 1904 - Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is destroyed by fire. 1909 - Joan of Arc receives beatification. 1919 - Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute. 1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex. 1928 - The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published. 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the United States will be abandoning the gold standard. 1934 - Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer. 1936 - First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine. 1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp. 1943 - World War II: In Poland, Nacospeak troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 1943 - Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time. 1945 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala were established. 1950 - Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military. 1954 - Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decides Urdu and Bengali to be national languages of Pakistan. 1955 - The Nacospeak automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network. 1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco. 1960 - Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign. 1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders. 1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president. 1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC. 1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station. 1971 - Charles Manson is sentenced to life for the Sharon Tate murders. 1976 - Executive Order 9066 is rescinded. 1985 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours. 1985 - U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R. Heavy smoke pours from USS Iowa’s #2 Turret following an internal explosion1989 - A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors. 1993 - The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die. 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murderer Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, was executed in Arkansas. 1999 - The Nacospeak Bundestag returns to Berlin. 2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
Observances Patriot's Day (Traditional) (Massachusetts, Maine, and Wisconsin, USA). Bicycle Day. Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela). Landing of the 33 (Uruguay). Primrose Day (England) – primroses are placed on the statue of Benjamin Disraeli in Parliament Square, London on the anniversary of his death (1881). The Roman holiday of Cerealia ends. (Roman Empire) "Dia do Índio" in Brazil King Mswati III's birthday (Swaziland)
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 18, 2008 22:55:19 GMT -5
Hi Ashley, I'm back. I see you updated to April 19 already so I'll be quick about today.
April 18 continued...
1775 - British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.
1864 - At Poison Springs, Arkansas, Confederate soldiers under the command of General Samuel Maxey capture a Union forage train and slaughter black troops escorting the expedition. The forage train part of the ill fated Camden expedition had been sent out to gather supplies for a near by Union garrison. The wagon trains escort included the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry one of the earliest African American Regiments to join the Union war effort. The troops were successful in repulsing the initial Confederate ambush and a subsequent assult but by the end of the day were overwhlemed by increasing numbers of Confederates. Many fled in to the Poison Spring Swamp and returned to the garrison. Those however who were wounded or captured by the Confederate forces were killed.
1915 - A member of the Ger.man Bahnschutzwache, or Railway Protection Guard, shoots down the well-known French airman Roland Garros in his flight over Ger.man positions in Flanders, France, on a bombing raid.
1945 - On this day in 1945, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off the coast of Okinawa. Extremely popular, especially with the average GI, whose life and death he reported on (American infantrymen braved enemy fire to recover Pyle's body), Pyle had been at the London Blitz of 1941 and saw action in North Africa, Italy, France, and the Pacific. A monument exists to him to this day on Ie Shima, describing him simply as "a buddy."
1969 - At a news conference, President Nixon says he feels the prospects for peace have "significantly improved" since he took office. He cited the greater political stability of the Saigon government and the improvement in the South Vietnamese armed forces as proof.
1989 - Thousands of Chinese students continue to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and issue a call for greater democracy in the communist People's Republic of China (PRC). The protests grew until the Chinese government ruthlessly suppressed them in June during what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 19, 2008 7:56:12 GMT -5
Welcome back! Good to see ya back. I basically almost did two weeks fo day in history all in one entry.
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 19, 2008 20:42:15 GMT -5
I see that, great work! It's nice to be back, the southwest was very interesting but I'm glad to be home.
April 19 contunued...
1775 - At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town's common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.
1861 - Residents of Baltimore, Maryland, attack a Union regiment while the group makes its way to Washington, D.C. The 6th Massachusetts regiment disembarked from a train and was met with an even more hostile crowd. Tensions rose as the 11 companies of the 6th arrived. Cobblestones rained down on the soldiers as they prepared to transfer from the President Street Station to Camden Station. Shots were fired, and when the smoke cleared four Massachusetts soldiers lay dead along with 12 Baltimoreans, while 36 troops and an undetermined number of civilians were wounded.
1865 - A pall shrouds the nation's capital on the day of President Lincoln's funeral. His body lay in the East Room of the White House, where members of the Supreme Court, Congressional leaders, diplomats, and military leaders filed by. The casket was then moved to the rotunda of the Capitol, where thousands paid respect to their martyred leader.
1919 - The Saturday before Easter, tense and complicated negotiations begin at the Paris peace conference over Italy’s claims to territory in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto. Himmler sent more than 2,000 Waffen SS soldiers to combat the Jewish resistance. Ger.man tanks, howitzers, machine guns, and flamethrowers were met with Jewish pistols, rifles, homemade grenades, and Molotov cocktails. The Jews were able to fend off the Ger.man assault for 28 days. Finally, SS Gen.eral Jurgen Stroop set the entire ghetto block, now reduced to an area 1,000 yards by 300 yards, on fire and blew up the synagogue. By May, 56,065 Jews were dead. It is estimated that the Ger.mans lost 300, with 1,000 wounded.
1949 - At the opening night of the spring edition of the famous Moscow Circus, clowns and magicians fire salvos of jokes aimed at the United States. Although a relatively minor aspect of the total Cold War, the night was evidence that even humor played a role in the battle between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1967 - Over North Vietnam, Air Force Maj. Leo K. Thorsness, from the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron, and his electronic warfare officer, Capt. Harold E. Johnson, destroy two enemy surface-to-air missile sites, and then shoot down a MiG-17 before escorting search-and-rescue helicopters to a downed aircrew. Although his F-105 fighter-bomber was very low on fuel, Major Thorsness attacked four more MiG-17s in an effort to draw the enemy aircraft away from the downed aircrew. Awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous action this day, Major Thorsness did not receive his medal until 1973--on April 30, 1967, he was shot down over North Vietnam and spent the next six years as a prisoner of war.
1971 - As a prelude to a massive antiwar protest, Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C. The generally peaceful protest, called Dewey Canyon III in honor of the operation of the same name conducted in Laos, ended on April 23 with about 1,000 veterans throwing their combat ribbons, helmets, and uniforms on the Capitol steps, along with toy weapons. Earlier, they had lobbied with their congressmen, laid wreaths in Arlington National Cemetery, and staged mock "search and destroy" missions.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 19, 2008 21:47:15 GMT -5
April 20
1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII. 1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador. 1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament. 1657 - Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. 1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City). 1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry. 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. 1810 - The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain. 1828 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter in Timbouctou. 1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory. 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. 1871 - Civil Rights Act of 1871 1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus. 1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride. 1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League. 1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. 1914 - Forty-five men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike. 1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day. 1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film. 1945 - World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union. 1945 - World War II: U.S. B-29 bombers destroy the Musashi Aircraft plants, halting production of the Nakajima Ki-84 fighter planes. 1945 - Mayor of Leipzig, Germany, killed himself along with his wife and daughter 1945 - Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth. 1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba. 1962 - First production of Bentlage brand cigars, Habana, Cuba. 1964 - BBC Two launches with the power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station. 1967 - A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126. 1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa, killing 122. 1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech. 1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon. 1978 - Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets. 1980 - Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested. 1985 - ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas. 1986 - Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years. 1986 - Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in an NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics. 1998 - TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53. 1998 - Nacospeak terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years. 1999 - Columbine High School massacre: Two gunmen kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado. 2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92. 2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
April 21 753 BC - Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional) 43 BC - Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Although Antony fails to capture Mutina, Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly afterwards. 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. 1922 - The first Aggie Muster was held as a rememberance for fellow Aggies who had died in the previous year. 1942 - The most famous (and first international) Aggie Muster was held during WWII, on the Philippine island of Corregidor, by Brigadier General George F. Moore (with 25 fellow Aggies who were under his command), while 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the island over a 5 hour long attack. 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. 1970 - The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia 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. 1982 - Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves. 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.
Observances Bahá'í Faith - First day of the festival of Ridván. Roman Empire - the Parilia was held in honor of Pales. Rome - city birthday. Tiradentes - Brazil. Grounation Day in Rastafari movement. San Jacinto Day - Texas state holiday. Aggie Muster at Texas A&M University. Holy Infant of Good Health
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 20, 2008 21:22:44 GMT -5
April 20 continued...
1777 - The first New York state constitution is formally adopted by the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, meeting in the upstate town of Kingston.
1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States army two days after he was offered command of the Union army and three days after his native state, Virginia, seceded from the Union.
1917 - An ambitious Allied offensive against Ger.man troops near the Aisne River in central France, spearheaded by the French commander in chief, Robert Nivelle, ends in dismal failure.
1945 - Allied bombers in Italy begin a three-day attack on the bridges over the rivers Adige and Brenta to cut off Ger.man lines of retreat on the peninsula. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler celebrates his 56th birthday as a Gestapo reign of terror results in the hanging of 20 Russian prisoners of war and 20 Jewish children: Of these, at least nine are under the age of 12. All of the victims had been taken from Auschwitz to Neuengamme, the place of execution, for the purpose of medical experimentation.
1970 - In a televised speech, President Nixon pledges to withdraw 150,000 more U.S. troops over the next year "based entirely on the progress" of the Vietnamization program. His program, which had first been announced in June 1969, included three parts. First, the United States would step up its effort to improve the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that they could assume responsibility for the war against the North Vietnamese. As the South Vietnamese became more capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from South Vietnam. At the same time, U.S. negotiators would continue to try to reach a negotiated settlement to the war with the communists at the Paris peace talks. Nixon's new strategy and the continuing U.S. troop withdrawals represented a significant change in the nature of the American commitment to the war, as the primary responsibility for the fighting was transferred to the South Vietnamese armed forces.
1971 - The Pentagon releases figures confirming that fragging incidents are on the rise. In 1970, 209 such incidents caused the deaths of 34 men; in 1969, 96 such incidents cost 34 men their lives. Fragging was a slang term used to describe U.S. military personnel tossing of fragmentation hand grenades (hence the term "fragging") usually into sleeping areas to murder fellow soldiers. It was usually directed primarily against unit leaders, officers, and noncommissioned officers.
1978 - Soviet aircraft force a Korean Air Lines passenger jet to land in the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace. Two people were killed and several others injured when the jet made a rough landing on a frozen lake about 300 miles south of Murmansk.
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Post by Nutzkie on Apr 21, 2008 1:44:29 GMT -5
A little something for all you railfans out there... April 20th...On this date in 1958:After 19 years of active service between thew cities of Oakland and San Francisco, the last of the East Bay Electric Railway's suburban streetcars rumbles across the Bay Bridge and into the Oakland Transit Terminal. Since January of 1939, a pair of tracks on the structure's lower deck had provided rail access to the geographically-isolated city of San Francisco. Operated jointly by the Pacific Electric Railway, Sacramento Northern Railway, and East Bay Electric Railway, (a.k.a. the "Key System"), the demise of this trackage heralded an era of near-complete reliance on road-based transportation within the region, and created the circumstances which are responsible for the problems of traffic congestion and rampant pollution with which local municipalities currently struggle. On an operational level, the unique task of running the bridge was given to an equally unique type of streetcar. Known as "Bridgers," these machines were large, articulated trains that carried a diamond-shaped pantograph on one end, allowing them to draw 600-volt DC current from an overhead cantenary wire. They were big, noisy, unique to the Key System and fixtures on Bay Area streets for nearly two decades. The end of bridge service spelled the demise of these magnificent machines, and their conspicuous absence from the San Francisco and Oakland cityscapes would be noted and lamented for years to come. Looking west from Oakland, Bridgers await dispatcher clearance to proceed onto the bridge.Entering the lower deck of the Bridge, heading for San Francisco.Running the Bridge.The Motorman's view: As seen from the control compartment.However, the end of bridge service did not spell the doom of these cars entirely. Today, four of the original several-dozen Bridgers survive intact, and three of these reside at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California. Here, they are cared for and maintained in near mint condition, and on this day, they were allowed the rare opportunity to stretch their legs. In observance of the golden anniversary this day, one of these mighty machines came out of the car barn, raised its pantograph to the wire, and offered rides to the public. As a devoted railfan, I naturally couldn't help but be there to partake... Preparing to depart the platform.Heading outbound, down the main.Entering the yard.Rounding the corner back into the platform. (Notice the distinct "bend" caused by the car's articulated construction.)Back again!Take a good look, folks, because it might be another 50 years until you see this particular sight again!
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Post by mrmatt on Apr 21, 2008 22:22:08 GMT -5
April 21 continued...
1777 - British troops under the command of General William Tryon attack the town of Danbury, Connecticut, and begin destroying everything in sight. Facing little, if any, opposition from Patriot forces, the British went on a rampage, setting fire to homes, farmhouse, storehouses and more than 1,500 tents.
1863 - Union Colonel Abel Streight begins a raid into northern Alabama and Georgia with the goal of cutting the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta. The raid ended when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Streight's entire command near Rome, Georgia.
1918 - In the well-trafficked skies above the Somme River in France, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious Ger.man flying ace known as the “Red Baron," is killed by Allied fire. With 80 career kills the Red Baron remains one of the most recognized figures from either side of the Great War.
1945 - Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin, at Zossen, assault the headquarters of the Ger.man High Command. The only remaining opposing "force" to the Russian invasion of Berlin are the "battle groups" of Hitler Youth, teenagers with anti-tank guns, strategically placed in parks and suburban streets. In a battle at Eggersdorf, 70 of these Hitler teens strove to fight off a Russian assault with a mere three anti-tank guns. They were bulldozed by Russian tanks and infantry.
1953 - Roy Cohn and David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides, return to the United States after a controversial investigation of United States Information Service (USIS) posts in Europe. Upon their recommendation, thousands of books were removed from USIS libraries in several Western European countries.
1965 - The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency report a "most ominous" development: a regiment of the People's Army of Vietnam--the regular army of North Vietnam--division is now operating with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
1975 - Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls to the communists.
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