April 3rd



~33 - The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (traditional date).

~1043 – Edward the Confessor was crowned King of England.

~1077 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor granted the county of Friuli (with ducal status) to Sigaerd, Patriarch of Aquileia.

~1287 – Died this day: Pope Honorius IV (b. circa 1210).

~1559 – At Le Cateau-Cambrésis, south-east of Cambrai, the final signatures were attached to the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis Treaty, ending the Italian War (1551-1559).

~1680 - Died this day: King of Maratha Kingdom, founder of India's Maratha Empire (b. 1630).

~1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California began.

~1882 – Jesse James was shot and killed by Bob Ford, a member of the gang living in the James house who was hoping to collect a state reward on James' head.

~1895 – The libel trial against the Marquess of Queensberry, instigated by Oscar Wilde, began. This would eventually result in Wilde's imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

~1897 - Died this day: Johannes Brahms, renowned German composer and pianist (b. 1833).

~1912 - RMS Titanic of the White Star Line completed her sea trials and was declared seaworthy. She then steamed into Southampton where she docked in preparation for her maiden voyage just 7 days later.

~1922 – Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

~1929 – The Cunard White Star Line placed its order to John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering for the the liner RMS Queen Mary.

~1929 - The Nakajima A1N was selected by the Imperial Japanese Navy to replace its aging Mitsubishi 1MF fighters. The nimble little biplane entered into service later that year.

~1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh II, the baby son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. (And to this day nobody really believes that he did it...)

~1942 – In the Philippines, Japanese forces begin their final assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula that would result in their surrender 6 days later.

~1946 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma was executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March of 1942.

~1948 – President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan into law, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

~1948 – The Jeju Uprising: On Jeju island in South Korea, rebellion broke out. Between 14,000 and 30,000 individuals were killed in fighting between various factions on the island. The suppression of the rebellion by the South Korean army has been called “brutal”, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of many villages on the island and sparking rebellions on the Korean mainland. The rebellion, which included the mutiny of several hundred members of the South Korean 11th Constabulary Regiment, lasted until May of 1949 although small isolated pockets of fighting continued well into 1953.

~1953 - The national TV Guide was first published. Its premiere issue cover featured a photograph of Lucille Ball's and Desi Arnaz's newborn son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.

~1956 – The Hudsonville-Standale Tornado: The western half of the Michigan's Lower Peninsula was struck by a deadly F5 tornado. It was one of 3 tornadoes to move across southwest Lower Michigan on that day. A 4th tornado struck north of the Manistee area. The twister killed 18 people and injured 340 more.

~1956 - Elvis Presley sang "Heartbreak Hotel" on the Milton Berle Show, with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing.

~1968 - Simon and Garfunkel released their critically acclaimed album "Bookends".

~1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop". Toward the end of the speech, King referred to threats against his life and used language that seemed to foreshadow his impending death; he was murdered the next day.

~1973 – In New York City, Motorola researcher and company executive Artin Cooper made the first call on a hand held mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. (Yes, it was an old brick...)

~1974 – The Super Outbreak occurred. There were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 US states, including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York; and the Canadian province of Ontario. They extensively damaged approximately 900 square miles (1,440 square kilometers) along a total combined path length of 2,600 miles (4,160 km). The Super Outbreak of tornadoes of April 3rd-4th 1974 remains the most outstanding severe convective weather episode of record in the continental United States. The outbreak far surpassed previous and succeeding events in severity, longevity and extent. The death toll was 330, with nearly 5,500 others injured.

~1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. (CHICKEN!!!)

~1982 – Britain set plans in motion to send a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands that Argentinian troops had invaded the previous day.

~1986 - IBM unveiled the "PC Convertible", their first laptop computer and also the first IBM computer to utilize the 3.5" floppy disk which went on to become the standard. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries. It was the follow-up to the IBM Portable and was model number 5140. The concept and the design of the body was made by the German industrial designer Richard Sapper.

~1996 – FBI agents arrested the "Unabomber" at his remote cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, where he was found in an unkempt state. The Unabomber was the target of one of the most expensive investigations in the FBI's history.

~1996 – A USAF CT-43 (a modified Boeing 737) carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 on board. While attempting an instrument approach to Čilipi airport, the airplane crashed into a mountainside. Everyone aboard was killed instantly except Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shelley Kelly, a flight attendant, who died while being transported to a hospital. The final Air Force investigation attributed the crash to pilot error and a poorly designed landing approach.

~1997 – The Thalit Massacre took place in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit were murdered by Islamist guerrillas.

~2000 – United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft was ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.

~2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the March 11th, 2004 Madrid Train Bombings were trapped by police in their apartment and killed themselves by setting off explosives. (No big loss...too bad they killed a badge in the process, though.)

~2007 – A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line set an official new world train speed record. The top speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) was reached at kilometer point 191 near the village of Le Chemin, between the Meuse and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations, where the most favorable profile exists.

~2008 – ATA Airlines, once one of the 10 largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, filed for bankruptcy for the 2nd time in 5 years and ceased all operations. At the time of the shutdown ATA employed around 2,300 people all of whom were permanently laid off. According to press reports, up to 10,000 passengers were affected and many of them had to scramble for help on several airlines. Most of them, however, had to pay for new tickets.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 4th



~397 – Died this day: St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (b. circa 338).

~636 – Died this day: Saint Isidore of Seville (b. circa 560).

~896 – Died this day: Pope Formosus (b. 816).

~1081 – Alexios I Komnenos was crowned Byzantine emperor at Constantinople, beginning the Komnenian dynasty.

~1284 – Died this day: King Alfonso X of Castile (b. 1221)

~1581 – Francis Drake was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth I aboard his ship Golden Hind in Deptford, England for completing a circumnavigation of the world.

~1588 – Died this day: King Frederick II of Denmark (b. 1534)

~1655 – The statue entitled the Infant Jesus of Prague was solemnly crowned by command of Cardinal Harrach. (Although I've got 2 sources that shoot this one down in flames...)

~1660 – The Declaration of Breda, by King Charles II of England, was made. Charles made known the conditions of his acceptance of the crown of England which he was to accept, or resume, later in the same year. The declaration cemented the terms of the English Restoration after the Commonwealth period. It was written in response to a secret message sent by General George Monck, who was then the effective ruler of England.

~1687 - The Declaration of Indulgence was proclamed by James II of England. It was a first step at establishing freedom of religion in England. It was later revised, by him, on April 27th, 1688 to include further text. The declaration was greatly opposed in England for it did not guarantee that the Anglican Church of England would remain the established church, as Charles's Royal Declaration of Indulgence had in 1671. The declaration was voided when James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution later that year, in part provoked by the trial of the 7 bishops who had petitioned against the declaration.

~1721 – Sir Robert Walpole entered office as the first Prime Minister of Britain, serving under King George I.

~1814 – Napoleon abdicated in favor of his son. The Allies of the Sixth Coalition refused to accept this and Napoleon was forced to abdicate unconditionally on April 11th.

~1818 – The United States Congress passed a plan, at the suggestion of U.S. Naval Captain Samuel C. Reid, in which the flag was changed to have 20 stars, with a new star to be added when each new state was admitted, but the number of stripes would be reduced to 13 so as to honor the original colonies. The act specified that new flag designs should become official on the first July 4 (Independence Day) following admission of one or more new states.

~1841 – William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served (32 days).

~1850 – The Great Fire of Cottenham, a large part of the Cambridgeshire village (England) was burnt to the ground under suspicious circumstances.

~1850 – Los Angeles, California was incorporated as a city. (160 years and the jury's still out on whether or not that was a good thing.)

~1865 – US President Abraham Lincoln arrived in Richmond just one day after the final engagements that saw the capture of the Confederate capital by Union forces, with the city still smoldering from the fires. Lincoln wanted to make a public gesture of sitting at Jefferson Davis's own desk, symbolically saying to the nation that the President of the United States held authority over the entire land. He was greeted at the city as a conquering hero by freed slaves, whose sentiments were epitomized by one admirer's quote, "I know I am free, for I have seen the face of Father Abraham and have felt him".

~1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at the gates of the Summer Garden in St.Petersburg. The attempt was thwarted by Osip Komissarov, a peasant-born hatter's apprentice, who jostled the assassin's elbow right before the shot was fired.

~1873 – In England, the Kennel Club was founded, the club is the oldest of the world’s all-breed kennel clubs. It is the governing body for dogs in Britain and its primary objective is "to promote in every way, the general improvement of dogs". It was the first official registry of purebred dogs in the world.

~1878 - The Gunfight of Blazer's Mills: A shootout between what were known as the Lincoln County Regulators and buffalo hunter Buckshot Roberts took place. at Blazer's Mills, New Mexico. The Regulators, including Henry McCarty (Billy the Kid), Charlie Bowdre, John Middleton, Doc Scurlock, George Coe and led by Dick Brewer, were in the process of hunting down anyone believed to have been associated with the murder of John Tunstall (which had sparked the Lincoln County War). Roberts had been implicated in crimes associated with the "Murphy-Dolan" faction, but in reality it is believed he wanted nothing to do with the ongoing range war. John Middleton received a serious chest wound in the gunfight, one slug grazed Doc Scurlock and another struck George Coe in the right hand, costing him his trigger finger. Buckshot Roberts and Dick Brewer were both killed.

~1887 – Argonia, Kansas elected Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States. (You show 'em, Sue!)

~1905 – The Kangra Earthquake struck India's Kangra valley with a magnitude of 7.8. It killed over 20,000 and destroyed most of the buildings in Kangra, Mcleodganj and Dharamshala.

~1914 - The first known serialized moving picture opened in New York City, NY. It was "The Perils of Pauline". (Only 2 of 7 sources list a date.)

~1939 - Died this day: King Ghazi I of Iraq. Killed in a sports car accident under mysterious circumstances. Today, it is generally believed that he was killed on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri as-Said (b. 1912).

~1939 – Faisal II ascended the throne of Iraq upon the death of his father Ghazi I.

~1944 – 28 USAAF B-24 Liberators of the 449th Bombing Group attacked the Bucharest rail marshalling yard, Gara de Nord. Warm weather and strong winds deflected some bombs which landed on Calea Griviţei and Giuleşti. Western/north-western Bucharest was severely hit, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing/injuring over 5,000.

~1945 – American troops liberated Ohrdruf forced labor and extermination camp in Germany, the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops. When soldiers of the 4th Armored Division entered the camp, they discovered piles of bodies, some covered with lime, and others partially incinerated on pyres. The ghastly nature of their discovery led General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to visit the camp on April 12th, with Generals George S. Patton and Omar Bradley.

~1949 – In Washington, 12 Nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty bringing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) into existence.

~1953 – Died this day: King Carol II of Romania (b. 1893)

~1960 – Senegal achieved (took)its independence from France. (Good on you, guys!)

~1967 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech. Beginning in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States' role in the Vietnam War. In an appearance at the New York City Riverside Church he delivered his famed anti-war speech. In this speech, he spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, insisting that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today". Rev. King also argued that the country needed larger and broader moral changes:

"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."

~1968 – In Memphis, Tennessee an assassin's bullet felled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he stood on the 2nd floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was staying. As news of the assassination spread, it led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 100 cities.

~1968 – NASA launched Apollo 6. It was the Apollo program's second and last unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle. While the vehicle experienced a number of significant malfunctions, the flight nonetheless provided NASA with enough confidence in the Saturn V to proceed to manned launches.

~1968 – AEK Athens BC became the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup by defeating Slavia Prague in the finals with a score of 89-82 in front of 120,000 spectators, 80,000 watching from inside the arena and 40,000 watching from outside the arena (the Guinness world record in basketball attendance).

~1969 – Drs. Denton Cooley and Domingo Liotta implanted the first temporary artificial heart at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston . The patient lived for 64 hours on the device until it was replaced by a donor heart. Cooley and his associates have since performed over 100,000 operations, more than any other group in the world.

~1975 – Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their founding product was the programming language "Altair BASIC".

~1975 – The Tan Son Nhut C-5 Accident: A Lockheed C-5A Galaxy participating in "Operation Babylift" (the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States, Australia, France, and Canada at the end of the Vietnam War) crashed on approach to an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. The locks on the rear loading ramp had failed at 23,000 ft. causing the cargo door to blow open explosively. Following the crash the cargo compartment was completely destroyed, killing 141 of the 149 orphans and attendants. Only 3 of 152 in the troop compartment perished. 5 of the flight crew, 3 of the medical team and 3 others lost their lives, but 175 of the 328 aboard survived. The official cause of the disaster was ascribed to loss of flight control due to explosive decompression and structural failure. The incident marked the 2nd operational loss and first fatal crash for the C-5 Galaxy fleet.

~1976 – The Khmer Rouge forced Prince Sihanouk out of office as leader of Cambodia and into political retirement..

~1979 – Former Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed (murdered) after being tried for murder. Even though he wasn't found guilty at trial he had been sentenced to death anyway by what can only be described as a kangaroo court. (Ah yes...the Pakistani judicial system at its best!)

~1983 – STS 6: Space Shuttle Challenger was launched on its maiden voyage into space.

~1988 – Evan Mecham, the 17th Governor of Arizona, was convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office. Arizona Secretary of State Rose Mofford became governor upon Mecham's removal.

~1991 – Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and 6 others were killed when a Bell 412 helicopter collided with their small Piper Aerostar plane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.

~1994 – Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark founded Netscape Communications Corporation under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation".

~1995 - During the Don Imus radio program U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato ridiculed judge Lance Ito using a mock Japanese accent. D'Amato apologized 2 days later for the act. (That's OK, Alfonse...we all know how pathetically feeble your mind is.)

~2002 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels signed a Memorandum of Understanding as an addendum to the Lusaka Protocol, which would lead to the end of the Angolan Civil War.

~2007 – 15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran were released upon orders of the Iranian President who claimed it was a "gift" to Britain. (Translation: "We saw what happened to the Argentinians in the Falkland War so you guys can go home now...no hard feelings, right?")

~2008 – A raid by authorities took place on the FLDS owned ranch called the "YFZ Ranch" just outside of Eldorado, Texas. 401 children and 133 women were taken into state custody. The courts would later rule the seizing of the children as unwarranted.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 5th



~582 – Died this day: Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. circa 512)

~1242 – The Battle of the Ice: During a battle on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus, Russian forces under the command of Alexander Nevsky repelled an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights. (I dunno...fighting a battle in full armor atop a frozen lake in April? Sounds kinda suicidal to me.)

~1566 – 300 Dutch kinights, led by Hendrik van Brederode, forced themselves into the presence of regent Margaret of Parma and presented the petition Compromise of Nobles, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands.

~1614 – In Virginia, Indian princess Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe.

~1621 – The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to Great Britain, where she arrived on May 6th.

~1654 - The "Treaty of Westminster" was signed, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. Based on the terms of the accord, the United Provinces recognized Oliver Cromwell's Navigation Acts, which required that imports to the Commonwealth of England must be carried in English ships, or ships from the goods' origin. Since the Navigation Acts had been one of the causes of the war, the treaty failed to resolve the dispute between the two countries and merely set the stage for the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665-1667. The Treaty of Westminster also had a secret clause: the Act of Seclusion which excluded William III, Prince of Orange from being appointed Stadtholder. This was a "deal" from the leading Dutch politicians Johan de Witt and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff.

~1697 – Died this day: King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1655)

~1722 – The expedition of Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island.

~1792 – U.S. President George Washington vetoed the Apportionment Act, on constitutional grounds. This was the first time the presidential veto was used in the United States.

~1804 – High Possil Meteorite: A meteorite fell into a quarry near High Possil, on the northern outskirts of Glasgow. The High Possil meteorite was the first of only 4 ever to have been found in Scotland.

~1818 – The Battle of Maipú was fought near Santiago, Chile between South American rebels and Spanish royalists, during the South American wars of independence. The rebels, commanded by José de San Martín, leader of the resistance to Spain in southern South America, achieved a major victory. This completed the independence of Chile from Spanish domination.

~1847 – Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park in Britain, was opened in Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton.

~1862 – In Virginia, the Battle of Yorktown began. Despite outnumbering Confederate forces almost 3 to 1, at the end of the month long battle the results of the Union assault were inconclusive at best.

~1879 – Chile declared war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.

~1910 - The battleship USS Delaware (BB-28) received her commission from the US Navy.

~1930 – After marching to the sea, in an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi broke British law at Dandi and made salt.

~1932 – Prohibition in Finland ended following a national referendum and alcohol sales began in Alko liquor stores.

~1932 – In the Dominion of Newfoundland, a large parade was organized by the government opposition. They marched to the Colonial Building which was the seat of the House of Assembly. There were over 10,000 people at the protest and things got out of control. The crowd got angry when no one came out to address them and after a short while, several people managed to break into the building. Prime Minister Squires and government members had to escape around the back. Squires was nearly caught trying to get into a cab; he got away only by running through a house on Colonial Street (near the Colonial Building) to a waiting cab on the other side.

~1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens.

~1934 - The first flight of the Nakajima A4N fighter. The A4N was the last biplane designed by Nakajima and generally regarded as their best.

~1936 – The Tupelo-Gainesville Tornado Outbreak: 17 tornadoes struck the Southeastern United States from April 5th to 6th. 436 people were killed by the tornadoes and although the outbreak was centered around Tupelo, Mississippi along with Gainesville, Georgia, other destructive tornadoes associated with the outbreak struck Columbia, Tennessee, Anderson, South Carolina and Acworth, Georgia. Severe flash floods from the associated storms also produced millions of dollars in damage across the region.

~1937 - Born this day: Colin Powell, US 4 star general, 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former U.S. Secretary of State.

~1942 – The Easter Sunday Raid: The Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Colombo in Ceylon. During the raid the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire were sunk by aerial bombardment southwest of the island.

~1943 – In the Belgian town of Mortsel, the Minerva car factory which was then being used to repair Luftwaffe aircraft was the target of a large bombing raid by the USAAF. Due to navigational errors the target was missed and a residential area hit instead, resulting in the deaths of 936 civilians (including 209 children) and the injuring of an additional 1,300.

~1944 – 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura were murdered by the occupying Germans.

~1949 – Fireside Theater debuted on NBC television.

~1949 – In Effingham, Illinois, St. Anthony's hospital caught fire and burned to the ground. 70 people were killed in the blaze and as a result, fire codes nationwide were improved. Due to the extensive media coverage, including a LIFE magazine cover story, donations for rebuilding the hospital came in from all 48 states and several foreign countries.

~1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917, which prohibits transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government information "relating to the national defense." To the very end they both denied having performed espionage for the Soviet Union. The conviction helped to fuel Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into anti-American activities by U.S. citizens.

~1955 – Winston Churchill tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of Britain (taking effect on April 7th) amid indications of failing health.

~1956 – In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a landslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike became Prime Minister.

~1958 – Ripple Rock: In British Columbia's Seymour Narrows, the submerged rock that had claimed many ships over the years as an underwater threat to navigation was destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the history. The Ripple Rock explosion was seen throughout Canada, live on CBC Television, and was one of the first live coast to coast television coverages of an event in the country.

~1964 – Died this day: Douglas MacArthur, United States Army general (b. 1880).

~1971 – In Sri Lanka, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Communist political party launched an (ultimately unsuccessful) insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. An estimated 15,000 insurgents, most of them only in their teens, died in the conflict.

~1975 – Died this day: Chiang Kai-shek, 1st President of the Republic of China (b. 1887). (If this was anything other than the mentioning of his death I'd let loose with one hell of a barrage right now...)

~1976 - Died this day: Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, entrepreneur (b. 1905).

~1986 – The La Belle Discothèque Bombing took place in West Berlin, Germany. A bomb placed under a table near the DJ booth exploded at the club, killing a Turkish woman, 3 U.S. servicemen and injured 230 others, including more than 50 American servicemen. Libya was blamed for the bombing after telex messages had been intercepted from Libya to the Libyan East Berlin embassy congratulating them on a job well done. U.S. President Ronald Reagan retaliated by ordering airstrikes against the Libyan capital of Tripoli and city of Benghazi.

~1991 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flt. 2311, an EMB 120, crashed in Brunswick, Georgia after the port (left) engine propeller control unit malfunctioned. All 23 aboard died in the crash.

~1992 – Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Fujimori appeared on television and announced that he was "temporarily dissolving" the Congress of the Republic and "reorganizing" the Judicial Branch of the government. He then ordered the Army of Peru to drive a tank to the steps of Congress to shut it down. When a group of senators attempted to hold session, tear gas was deployed against them. That same night, the military was sent to detain prominent members of the political opposition. (He was and is SUCH a pompous arrogant bastard...)

~1992 – Died this day: Sam Walton, American retailer, founder of WalMart (b. 1918).

~1992 – The Siege of Sarajevo: In the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare, Serb forces of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. The siege lasted until February 29th, 1996.

~1998 – In Japan, the 3,911 meter (12,831 ft) long Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, linking Kobe with Iwaya and costing about $3.8 billion USD, opened to traffic. As of 2010 it is still the longest suspension bridge in the world.

~2009 – North Korea launched its Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of "six-party talks".

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 6th



~46 BC – The forces of Julius Caesar defeated those of Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) at the battle of Thapsus.

~402 – The forces of General Stilicho, the commander of the Western Roman armies, defeated the Visigoths under King Alaric I at the Battle of Pollentia fought near Asti, Italy.

~885 – Died this day: Saint Methodius (b. circa 815).

~1199 – Died this day: King Richard I of England (b. 1157).

~1320 – The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath. It is in the form of a letter submitted to Pope John XXII and sealed by 51 magnates and nobles. This letter is the sole survivor of 3 such letters created at the time. The others were a letter from the King of Scots, Robert I, and a letter from 4 Scottish bishops which all presumably made similar points.

~1327 – The poet Petrarch first saw his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.

~1385 – John, Master of the Order of Aviz, ascended the throne of Portugal as King John I.

~1483 - Born this day: Rafael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), Italian Renaissance painter and architect (d. 1520).

~1490 – Died this day: King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (b. 1443)

~1520 - Died this day: Rafael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), Italian Renaissance painter and architect (b. 1483). (Lousy way to spend your birthday, Raf...)

~1652 – At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck established a resupply camp that eventually became Cape Town.

~1667 – On the Adriatic coast a major earthquake devastated Dubrovnik killing over 5,000 residents. At the time, Dubrovnik was the capital of Republic of Ragusa and the earthquake marked the beginning of the end of the Republic.

~1782 – Rama I of Siam ascended the throne of Siam, after defeating a rebellion which had deposed King Taksin of Thonburi, founding the Chakri dynasty.

~1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830 and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was also one the first great trusts in American business, but the firm folded in 1842.

~1812 – British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assaulted the fortress of Badajoz. This was the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon led France.

~1832 – The Black Hawk War began. Black Hawk, a war chief of the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians, began attacks on white settlers in the native's former (ceded) territory in Michigan and Illinois.

~1841 - John Tyler was sworn in as the 10th President of the United States following the death of President William H. Harrison 2 days earlier.

~1862 – The opening engagements of the Battle of Shiloh were fought, in southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The Confederates achieved considerable success on the first day but were ultimately defeated on the 2nd day.

~1865 – The Battle of Sayler's Creek was fought April southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, as part of the Appomattox Campaign, in the final days of the American Civil War. As with all battles near the very end of the war, the result was a decisive Union victory.

~1866 – The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the Civil War, was founded by Benjamin F. Stephenson. It remained active until 1956.

~1886 - Vancouver, British Columbia was incorporated as a city. (And then promptly burnt to the ground less than 10 weeks later, just to mark the ocassion.)

~1888 – Thomas Green Clemson died, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.

~1893 – Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.

~1895 – Oscar Wilde was arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London for gross indecency 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 was celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

~1903 – The Kishinev pogrom (an anti-Jewish riot) in Kishinev began and lasted until the following day. Tens of thousands of Jews were forced to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world.

~1909 – Although impossible to prove with absolute certainty, Robert Peary and Matthew Henson are believed to have reached the North Pole. The first humans to ever do so.

~1917 – The United States declared war on Germany and entered into the First World War as an Allied combatant.

~1926 – Varney Airlines began operations as an air-mail carrier. Formed by Walter Varney, the airline was based in Boise, Idaho. In 1930 merged with Boeing Air Transport to form United Airlines.

~1938 - The first flight of the Bell P-39 Airacobra took place in the skies over upstate New York. The sleek mid engined fighter saw extensive service in World War II, particularly with the Soviet Air Force (under the Lend-Lease Act) where they proved themselves to be an excellent ground attack aircraft, as well.

~1941 - The Invasion of Yugoslavia (code-name Directive n. 25): The Axis Powers' attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The military invasion ended with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on April 17th, 1941, annexation and occupation of the region by the Axis and the creation of the Independent State of Croatia.

~1941- The Battle of Greece: Operation Marita began with German troops invading Greece through Bulgaria in an effort to secure its southern flank. The combined Greek and British Commonwealth forces fought back with great tenacity, but were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and finally collapsed. Athens fell on April 27th however, the British managed to evacuate about 50,000 troops before the city surrendered. The Greek campaign ended in a quick and complete German victory with the fall of Kalamata in the Peloponnese; it was over within 24 days. The Battle of Greece is generally regarded as a continuation of the Greco-Italian War, which began when Italian troops invaded Greece on October 28th, 1940. Within weeks the Italians were driven out of Greece and Greek forces pushed on to occupy much of southern Albania. In March of 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, and Germany was forced to come to the aid of its ally.

~1941 – Born this day: Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, American drag racer who dominated the NHRA "Funny Car" class for much of his 35 year career. (Enjoy your retirement, Donno!)

~1945 – Sarajevo was liberated from the occupying German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.

~1957 – Olympic Airlines was founded by Aristotle Onassis. In July of 1956 the Hellenic State reached an agreement with the Greek shipping magnate to sell TAE Greek National Airlines to Onassis. The company flew under the T.A.E. name until the end of the year and for the first few months of 1957 until the newly formed airline was ready to launch.

~1965 – The launch of Early Bird (Intelsat I) took place, it was the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit (an orbit around the planet with an orbital period that matches the planet's sidereal rotation period).

~1965 – In a move eerily similar to the treacherous cancellation of the Avro Arrow by the Diefenbaker Conservative government in Canada 6 years earlier, the British Government announced the cancellation of the TSR-2 (Tactical Strike/Reconnaissance) aircraft project. It had been developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The TSR-2 was designed to penetrate a well defended forward battle area at low altitudes and very high speeds, and then attack high value targets in the rear with close in bomb runs and precision drops. The TSR-2 included a number of advanced features that made it the highest performing aircraft in this role, yet the programme was controversially cancelled in favour of the General Dynamics F-111, a procurement that itself was later cancelled.

~1968 – In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion killed 41 and injured another 150. The primary explosion was due to natural gas leaking from one or more faulty transmission lines under the Marting Arms sporting goods store, located at the intersection of 6th and Main streets. A secondary explosion was caused by gunpowder stored inside the building.

~1970 – The Newhall Incident: In the parking lot of a restaurant near Newhall, California, 4 CHP officers were killed in a gun battle with 2 criminals much more heavily armed than they were.

~1971 - Died this day: Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music (b. 1882).

~1973 – NASA launched the Pioneer 11 spacecraft. Pioneer 11 completed a successful Saturn flyby in 1979, and it is now estimated (assuming it is still intact) to be following an escape trajectory from the solar system. There is no longer communication with the spacecraft as the last contact was made in November of 1995.

~1984 – Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya following his decision on the previous day to disband the Republican Guard and disperse its members across the military. Northern Muslims were the primary participants in this coup attempt, which was seen by many as an attempt to restore that group's supremacy.

~1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard took the middleweight boxing title from Marvin Hagler. (Even though Hagler kicked Sugar's ass for most of the fight...!)

~1994 – The aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down as it made its final approach to Kigali International Airport. The Rwandan Genocide, that saw upwards of 800,000 murdered, began as a result of this incident. (The rest of the world just sat by and watched the ensuing carnage with a yawn.)

~1998 – The merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group (into Citigroup) was announced to the world, creating a $140 billion firm with assets of almost $700 billion. The deal would enable Travelers to market mutual funds and insurance to Citicorp's retail customers while giving the banking divisions access to an expanded client base of investors and insurance buyers.

~2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was elected as the President of Iraq by the Iraqi National Assembly and sworn in the following day.

~2005 – Died this day: Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and husband of Grace Kelly (b. 1923).

~2009 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near L'Aquila, Italy, killing 308 and injuring more than 1,500. Over 65,000 were left homeless in the quake that was felt throughout central Italy.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 7th



~529 – The Code of Justinian: The first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence was issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

~1348 – Charles University: King Charles of Bohemia, gave the recently established university privileges and immunities from the secular power, in a Golden Bull.

~1498 – Died this day: King Charles VIII of France (b. 1470).

~1506 - Born this day: St. Francis (Xavier)(d. 1552).

~1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrived at Cebu, where he would die just weeks later.

~1541 – Francis Xavier left Lisbon together with 2 other Jesuits and the new Viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa aboard the ship "Santiago", on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies for King John III of Portugal.

~1776 – The USS Lexington, commanded by Captain John Barry, engageded the British sloop of war "Edward". After a fierce fight which lasted about an hour Edward struck her colors. Lexington took her prize into Philadelphia.

~1782 – Died this day: Taksin, King of Thailand (b. 1734).

~1788 – The "American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory" arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. This openeding the westward expansion of the new country.

~1789 – Died this day: Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725).

~1798 – The Mississippi Territory was organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It was expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.

~1805 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breoke its winter camp among the Mandan Indian tribe and resumed its journey West along the Missouri River.

~1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sold the first friction match that he had (accidently) invented the previous year. (Now there was a whack job for ya'!)

~1864 - The first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California. "Sultan" beat out 5 other camels with "Desert Daisy" coming in a distant last.

~1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation was (allegedly) assassinated by an Irish Fenian sympathizer, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations and (to date) the only one of a federal politician.

~1888 - P.F. Collier published a weekly periodical for the first time under the name "Collier's Once a Week".

~1890 – The first Lake Biwa Canal was completed. It was built to transport water, freight, and passengers from Lake Biwa to the nearby City of Kyoto. This waterway was also used as Japan's first hydroelectric power generator, which served to provide electricity for Kyoto's trams.

~1891 – Died this day: P. T. Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810).

~1904 - The London class battleship HMS Queen received her commission from the Royal Navy. She would go on to serve with distinction during World War I.

~1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupted and devastated the city of Naples. The eruption killed over 100 people and ejecting the most lava ever recorded from a Vesuvian eruption.

~1906 – The Algeciras Conference gave France and Spain basic control over Morocco. (The Moroccan delegates were prepared to tell the French and Spaniards to go pound it, but a decree of Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco on June 18 finally ratified the Act.)

~1916 - The The Sopwith 1½ Strutter entered into service with the Royal Flying Corps in the air war over Europe in World War I. It is significant as the first British designed two seater tractor fighter and the first British aircraft to enter service with a synchronised machine gun.

~1922 – Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leased the Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming to Sinclair Oil. This was done without the reserves being offered for competitive bidding.

~1933 – Prohibition was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, 8 months before the ratification of the 21st amendment.

~1939 – Italian forces invaded Albania and siezed control of the country, with the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini proclaiming Italy's figurehead King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as King of Albania.

~1943 – In the Ukraine, German SS troops ordered 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they were shot dead and buried in ditches.

~1945 – The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, was sunk by American naval aircraft 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.

~1945 – Visoko, Yugoslavia was liberated from the occupying German troops by the Yugoslav Partisan forces.

~1947 – Died this day: Henry Ford, American automobile manufacturer and industrialist (b. 1863).

~1948 – The World Health Organization was established by the United Nations. (More bureaucracy, more paper pushers, more money down the crapper, more resolutions and what do we get for it? Jack Shyte...that's what.)

~1949 - The musical "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre. The production ran for more than 5 years. At the time it closed on January 16th, 1954, after 1,925 performances, it was the 5th longest running show in Broadway history.

~1954 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to clarify the need for American intervention around the world.

~1956 – Spain voluntarily relinquished its protectorate in Morocco.

~1957 - The last of New York City's electric trolleys completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

~1963 – Yugoslavia was proclaimed to be a Socialist republic.

~1963 - At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Green Jacket at the Masters Tournament.

~1964 – IBM announced the System/360 mainframe computer system family. It was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific. The design made a clear distinction between architecture and implementation, allowing IBM to release a suite of compatible designs at different prices. All but the most expensive systems used microcode to implement the instruction set, which featured 8 bit byte addressing and binary, decimal and floating point calculations. (And today we have handhelds that can do far more than that...go figure.)

~1970 - At the 42nd Academy Awards, John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit." He had been in over 200 films.

~1976 – Former British Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigned from the Labour Party making them a minority government. A few days later he joined the English National Party. (What a piece of work THAT jerk was...!)

~1977 – German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver were shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.

~1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk. (Yeah, a space walk...it's been done.)

~1985 - In Goteborg, Sweden, China swept all of the world table tennis titles except for men's doubles. (Sometimes it's really, really, REALLY hard not to fire off a cheap shot...)

~1989 – The Soviet submarine "Komsomolets" caught fire and sank in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.

~1990 – Former National Security Advisor John Poindexter was convicted on multiple felony counts for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair. The convictions were reversed in 1991 on appeal.

~1998 - Mary Bono, the widow of Sonny Bono, won a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term.

~1999 – The World Trade Organisation ruled in favor of the United States in its long running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas. (Well...I'm certainly glad we got THAT dire threat to world peace and modern civilization finally dealt with!)

~2000 - U.S. President Clinton signed the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000. The bill reversed a Depression-era law and allows senior citizens to earn money without losing Social Security retirement benefits.

~2001 – NASA launched the orbiter "Mars Odyssey" To date the spacecraft is still fully functional and operating well in its orbit over the Red Planet. (Now if GM, Ford and Chrysler could just get their American made products to do the same for this amount of time...)

~2003 – U.S. troops reached Baghdad. They occupied the city 2 days later and Saddam Hussein's regime fell.

~2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a 3 judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited back to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm, and two cases of kidnapping. On July 20th a Peruvian court sentenced Fujimori to an additional 7 1/2 years in prison for embezzlement after the former president admitted paying his spy chief (USD) $15 million in state funds. He also later pled guilty to bribery. (So nice to see that miserable little puke finally getting his...)

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 8th



~217 – Roman Emperor Caracalla was assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.

~1093 – The new Winchester Cathedral was dedicated by Walkelin.

~1143 – Died this day: John II Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1087).

~1149 – Pope Eugene III fled to the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum and took refuge there.

~1271 – In Syria, The forces of Sultan Baybars conquered the Krak of Chevaliers, with the aid of heavy trebuchets and mangonels, at least one of which was later used to attack Acre in 1291. However, to conquer the castle Baibars resorted to deception by presenting a forged letter from the Crusader Commander in Tripoli, ordering the defenders to surrender the castle. This immensely strong castle would probably never have fallen otherwise.

~1364 – Died this day: King John II of France (b. 1319).

~1513 – The expedition of explorer Juan Ponce de León encountered a current so strong that it pushed them backwards and forced them to seek anchorage. Their smallest ship, the San Cristobal, was carried out of sight and lost for 2 days. This was the first encounter with the Gulf Stream where it reaches maximum force between the Florida coast and the Bahamas. Because of the powerful boost provided by the current, it would soon become the primary route for eastbound ships leaving the Spanish Indies bound for Europe.

~1808 – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore was promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.

~1820 – The Venus de Milo was discovered by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas, inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos, on the Aegean island of Milos.

~1864 – The Battle of Mansfield: In the first major clash of the Union Army's Red River Campaign during the Civil War, Confederate forces achieved a decisive victory which eventually led to the defeat of General Banks' Red River campaign and the Federal evacuation at Grand Encore.

~1866 – Italy and Prussia allied against the Austrian Empire in preparation for the Austro Prussian War.

~1886 – The First Home Rule Bill was introduced by British Prime Minister William Gladstone into the British House of Commons. It proposed to create a devolved assembly for Ireland which would govern Ireland in specified areas. The Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell had been campaigning for home rule for Ireland since the 1870s.

~1893 – The first recorded college basketball game took place in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania when the intramural team from Geneva College defeated the New Brighton YMCA.

~1895 – In Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declared unapportioned income tax on interest, dividends, and rents to be unconstitutional because they violated the rule that direct taxes be apportioned.

~1902 - The Canopus class battleship HMS Vengeance received her commission from the Royal Navy. She would go on to serve with distinction in the First World War.

~1904 – The Entente-cordiale: A series of agreements was signed between the Great Britain and the French Republic. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent conflict between the 2 nations and their predecessor states and the start of a peaceful co-existence that has continued to date. (Even if they do hate each others guts...)

~1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley first heard a voice talking to him and calling itself "Aiwass". Aiwass claimed to be a messenger from the god Hoor-Paar-Kraat, meaning Horus as the child of Isis and Osiris. Crowley wrote down everything the voice told him over the course of the next three days, and subsequently titled it Liber AL vel Legis or The Book of the Law. The god's commands explained that a new "Aeon" for mankind had begun, and that Crowley would serve as its prophet. As a supreme moral law, it declared "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law", and that people should learn to live in tune with their "True Will". (Maybe he just partook of far too many recreational pharmaceuticals, but old Crowley was one whacked out Louie!!!)

~1904 – Longacre Square, in Midtown Manhattan, was renamed Times Square by proclamation of Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. at the urging of Adolph Ochs, owner and publisher of the New York Times. (No self interest on the part of Ochs there, no siree...)

~1905 - The Connecticut class battleship USS Minnesota (BB-22) was launched at Newport News, Viginia. She would serve until December of 1921 before finally being decommissioned.

~1906 – Died this day: Auguste Deter, she was the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (b. 1850).

~1913 – The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, became law.

~1916 - German fighter ace Oswald Boelcke became involved in a dogfight with a pair of British fighters while piloting his Halberstadt D.II biplane in the wartorn skies over the French countryside. His guns jammed and he spent the next 1/2 hour desperately trying to out-manoeuvre the enemy aircraft before managing to escape into cloud formations. Following this Boelcke was detailed to share his expertise with the head of German military aviation. The Dicta would go on to be used by the Luftwaffe in World war II.

~1917 - Chevrolet's first V8 engine, the 288 cu. in. (4.7 liter) Series D was run for the first time at their design factory in Detroit. The overhead valve design allowed it to produce 36 horsepower @2700 RPM. It was discontinued in 1918 when Chevy decided that the 4 cylinder was the way to go to catch up with industry sales leader, the Ford Model-T. Chevrolet wouldn't produce another V8 until the debut of the famous "small block" in the 1955 models.

~1918 – Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin went out and sold war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.

~1929 – Inside the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb and then followed up with a shower of leaflets stating that "it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear".

~1935 – The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 was passed during the "Second Hundred Days" as a part of US President Franklin D Roosevelt's "New Deal". It was a large scale public works program for the jobless which included the Works Progress Administration, it allocated $5 billion for this purpose. The bill also included funds for the Federal Arts Project, the Federal Writer Project and the Federal Theater Project.

~1935 - After witnessing the astonishing agility of the new Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister advanced trainer aircraft, Adolph Hitler immediately ordered 3 of the planes so that they could be shown off to the world at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

~1940 - The destroyer HMS Glowworm was sunk in an engagement with the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, but not before almost ramming and sinking the massive German battlewagon. 111 of the ship's company were killed and 39 were taken prisoner.

~1940 – Britain and France announced that they had mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships.

~1940 - The first Arado Ar 196 to fall into allied hands, belonging to the German cruiser Admiral Hipper, was captured in Lyngstad.

~1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, froze wages and prices, prohibited workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided by doing so and barred rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.

~1944 - The Japanese aircraft carrier Taihō was commissioned. She would last for just over 3 months before being sunk on June 19th at the Battle of the Philippine Sea by US carrier borne aircraft. (3 out of 7 sources list this as occurring on April 7th.)

~1943 - Wendell Wilkie’s "One World" was published for the first time. One World is a travelogue document of Wilkie's world travels and meetings with many of the then Allies heads of state as well as ordinary citizens and soldiers in locales such as El Alamein, Russia, and Iran. Willkie also discussed the need for some sort of World government.

~1950 – India and Pakistan signed the Liaquat-Nehru Pact, providing a "bill of rights" for the minorities of both countries. (I would suggest that in the ensuing 60 years India has done a far better job of meeting this treaty's obligations than has Pakistan.)

~1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman nationalized all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike the next day. The steel companies sued to regain control of their facilities and on June 2nd, 1952, in a landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that the president lacked the authority to seize the steel mills.

~1953 – Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with hard labor and indefinite restriction thereafter by Kenya's British rulers. The subsequent appeal was refused by the British Privy Council in 1954.

~1954 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard Mark II trainer collided with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star in mid-air over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing all 36 people in the 2 aircraft and 1 person on the ground.

~1968 – An engine on BOAC Flt. 712, a Boeing 707, caught fire shortly after take off and the crew was forced to make a fiery emergency landing at London Heathrow. In the ensuing scramble to escape the burning plane 5 people died and 38 more were injured. As a result of her actions in the accident, Stewardess Barbara Jane Harrison was awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.

~1970 – The Bahr el-Baqar Incident: The Israeli airforce carried out a raid on the Egyptian village of Bahr el-Baqar, south of Port Said, in the eastern province of Sharqiyya. It resulted in the destruction of a primary school full of school children. 5 bombs and 2 air to surface missiles struck the single floor school which consisted of 3 classrooms. Of the 130 school children who attended the school, 46 were killed and over 50 wounded, many of them maimed for life. The school itself was completely demolished. The Israelis claimed that they believed the target was a military installation. (Oh hell yeah! I believe you. I mean, I mistake primary schools for military installations all the bloody time...the similarity is frightening!)

~1974 – Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth's 39 year old record. The record breaking shot was hit off of Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers into the left field bullpen at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

~1981 – Died this day: Omar Bradley, renowned U.S. general, commander of US forces on D-Day (b. 1893).

~1985 – The Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.

~1992 – Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during the 2nd of his 2 heart surgeries.

~2004 – The Darfur Conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement was signed by the Sudanese government and 2 rebel groups. (Yet another meaningless piece of paper that did nothing to stop the ongoing carnage.)

~2006 – The Shedden Massacre: The bodies of 8 men, all shot to death, were found in a field in Ontario. The murders were soon linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

~2008 – The Bahrain World Trade Center: The construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines was completed and the 3 wind turbines were turned on for the first time.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 9th



~475 – Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus re-instated Timothy Aelurus and Peter Fullo to their sees. Timothy then persuaded Basiliscus to issue a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire supporting the Monophysite christological position and calling on them to accept as valid only the first 3 ecumenical synods, and reject the Council of Chalcedon.

~491 – Died this day: Zeno, Byzantine Emperor (b. circa 425).

~715 – Died this day: Pope Constantine (b. circa 646).

~1024 – Died this day: Pope Benedict VIII (b. circa 954).

~1241 – The Battle of Liegnitz: A combined force of Poles, Czechs and Germans under the command of the Polish duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by feudal nobility and a few knights from military orders sent by the Pope, attempted to halt the Mongol invasion of Europe near the city of Legnica in Silesia. The defending Europeans, however, were no match for the Mongols who completely routed them and very nearly wiped them out to a man.

~1413 – The coronation of Henry V of England took place at Westminster Abbey.

~1440 – Christopher of Bavaria was proclaimed King of Denmark at the Viborg Assembly.

~1483 – Died this day: King Edward IV of England (b. 1442)

~1626 - Died this day: Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman and essayist (b. 1561).

~1682 – Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed it for France.

~1860 – A 10 second recording (of low fidelity but recognizable) of the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was made by Scott de Martinville. It is the oldest known recording of a human voice.

~1865 – CSA General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

~1867 – The Alaska purchase: The United States Senate ratified a treaty, to purchase Alaska from Russia, by a vote of 37-2. However, the appropriation of money needed to purchase Alaska was delayed by more than a year due to opposition in the House of Representatives. The House finally approved the appropriation in July 1868, by a vote of 113-48.

~1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.

~1910 - HMS Colossus, the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships, was launched. With the outbreak of World War I she became the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron. Colossus would play a significant role at the Battle of jutland in 1916.

~1916 - At the Battle of Verdun, German forces launched their 3rd offensive of the battle.

~1917 – The Battle of Arras: The opening day of the battle saw the Canadian Corps executing a massive assault against 3 divisions of the German Sixth Army on Vimy Ridge.

~1918 – The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was crushed by German forces during the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders. This action was one of the greatest defeats ever suffered by Portuguese forces. The 2nd Portuguese Division, approximately 20,000 men commanded by General Gomes da Costa (later President of Portugal), lost about 300 officers and 7,000 men killed, wounded and prisoners.

~1918 - An intial batch of 10 Pfalz Dr.I fighters arrived at the Western Front, entering service for testing purposes prior to mass production. Although an extremely beautiful little aircraft it did not match up to the Allied fighters it would face. Service pilots involved in testing the Dr.I considered it too slow and its Sh III engine too unreliable for frontline use. As such no further examples were produced.

~1937 – The Kamikaze-go, a Mitsubishi Ki-15 Karigane, arrived with her 2 man crew to much fanfare at Croydon Airport in London. It was the first Japanese built aircraft to fly Japan to to Europe and made the grueling 15,357 km (9,480 mi) trip in 51 hours, 17 minutes.

~1939 – Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall due to her being black.

~1940 – Operation Weserübung: German forces invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned and openly discussed Franco-British occupation of both these countries. After the invasions, envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the Wehrmacht had come to protect the countries' neutrality against Franco-British aggression. (No, the Danes and Norwegians didn't believe them either...)

~1941 - The USS North Carolina (BB-55), lead ship of her class, received her commission from the US Navy. The first of the Fast Battleships she would go on to win 15 Battle Stars for her service during the Second World War. Today the North Carolina serves as a floating museum ship.

~1942 – The Battle of Bataan: US and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese high command on the Bataan Peninsula.

~1942 - The Japanese Imperial Navy launched a massive air raid on the port of Trincomalee in Ceylon. The British had warning of the attack and the aircraft carrier Hermes, along with her escorts, had left the night before. They were returning to port when they were discovered at 08:55. Hermes had no aircraft on board, and so was defenceless when 70 bombers attacked her at 10:35 off Batticaloa. Hit 40 times, Hermes sank with the loss of 307 men. The destroyer HMAS Vampire and the corvette Hollyhock were also sunk.

~1945 – In Kiel, during a RAF bombing raid on the dockyards, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was struck and capsized at her berth.

~1945 – The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, finaly ended in a Soviet victoy after 2 1/2 months of fierce fighting. The battle concluded when the German garrison surrendered to the Red Army after a massive 3 day assault by the Soviets made their position untenable.

~1947 – The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes: A system of related tornadoes swept through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The event was similar to the Tri-State Tornado 2 decades before in that it appeared to observers to be a single, very long lived tornado. Later analysis suggested that it was a multiple tornado outbreak. These tornadoes, although deadly, did not match the astounding death toll of the 1925 event, nor did they match the record speed of that tornado, although at over 40 mph (64 km/h), they qualified as a fast tracking storm. A total of 181 people died and a further 970 were injured in the outbreak.

~1948 – The assassination of Columbia's front running presidential candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,provoked a violent riot in Bogotá and a further 10 years of violence in Colombia known as La violencia.

~1948 – The Massacre at Deir Yassin: Deir Yassin, a Palestinian Arab village of around 600 people near Jerusalem, had declared its neutrality during the civil war between Arab and Jewish Palestinians. In spite of this a massacre of some 107 of its residents was committed by paramilitaries from the Irgun and Lehi groups.

~1959 – Died this day: Frank Lloyd Wright, renowned American architect (b. 1867)

~1959 – Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first 7 astronauts, whom the news media quickly dubbed the "Mercury Seven".

~1961 – Died this day: King Zog of Albania (b. 1895)

~1965 – The Houston Astrodome opened and the first indoor baseball game was played. Judy Garland and The Supremes performed on opening night to a capacity crowd.

~1967 – A civil aviation milestone was reached when the (now infamous) Boeing 737 took to the skies over Western Washington on its maiden flight. After 43 years the 737 remains in production and has long been recognized as one of the greatest airliners in history.

~1968 – The Funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took place.

~1975 – The first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world behind the NBA, was held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City featuring Mariwasa-Noritake and Concepcion Carrier.

~1975 – In South Korea, 8 individuals who were involved in the People's Revolutionary Party Incident, were sentenced to death. They were hanged 18 hours later.

~1980 – The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein killed philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after 3 days of torture.

~1989 – The Tbilisi Massacre: A peaceful anti-Soviet demonstration, demanding the restoration of Georgian independence, was dispersed violently by Soviet troops. 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries resulted.

~1991 – Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

~1992 – A U.S. Federal Court found former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He was later sentenced to 40 years in prison (reduced to 30 years in 1993).

~1992 – John Major's Conservative Party won a 4th consecutive general election victory in the United Kingdom over the much favored Labour Party.

~2002 - The funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the "Queen Mother of the United Kingdom" was held at Westminster Abbey. On the day of the Queen Mother's funeral more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23 mile (37 km) route from central London to her final resting place beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

~2003 – The Invasion of Iraq: Baghdad fell to American forces. No longer under fear of persecution, Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader. The pulled down the statue and broke it into pieces.

~2005 – Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceromony at Windsor's Guildhall. (Well now, this calls for a celebration...slap a feed bag on that old girl!)

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 10th



~879 - Died this day: Louis II King of France (b. 846).

~879 – Louis III and his brother Carlomin II ascended the throne of France as joint rulers upon the death of their father Louis II.

~948 – Died this day: King Hugh of Italy (b. circa 885).

~1407 – The lama Deshin Shekpa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, visited the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing. Arriving on an elephant at the imperial palace, tens of thousands of monks greeted him. He was awarded with the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma.

~1500 – Ludovico Sforza Duke of Milan was handed over to the French forces laying siege at Novara by Swiss mercenaries in his employ.

~1533 – Died this day: King Frederick I of Denmark (b. 1471).

~1585 – Died this day: Pope Gregory XIII (b. 1502).

~1710 – The Statute of Anne (Copyright Act 1709) came into force in Great Britain. It is generally considered to be the first full fledged copyright statute and is now seen as the origin of copyright law. It is named for Queen Anne, during whose reign it was enacted.

~1741 – The Battle of Mollwitz was fought between Prussian and Austrian forces during the War of the Austrian Succession. It was the first battle of the new Prussian King Frederick II, in which both sides made numerous military blunders but Frederick the Great still managed to attain victory. This battle cemented his authority over the newly conquered territory of Silesia and gave him valuable military experience.

~1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano, on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, began a 3 month long eruption that lasteding until mid July. The eruption ultimately killed over 71,000 people and affected Earth's climate for the next 2 years. It was the largest known eruption in over 1,600 years and is generally acknowledged as the most contributing factor in the "Year Without a Summer" (1816).

~1821 – On orders of the Ottoman Sultan, Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was taken out of the Patriarchal Cathedral (on Easter Sunday) directly after celebrating the solemn Easter Liturgy, and hanged in full Patriarchal vestments for 3 days from the main gate of the Patriarchate compound. His body was then taken down and delivered to a squad of Jews who dragged it through the streets and finally threw it into the Bosphorus Strait. In his memory, the main gates of the Patriarchate compound were welded shut and have remained shut ever since.

~1826 – After a year of relentless enemy attacks and facing starvation, the people from the Greek town of Messolonghi decided to leave the beleaguered city in the "Exodus of its Guards". At the time, there were 10,500 people in Messolonghi, only 3,500 of whom were armed. Very few of the refugees survived the pincer movement of the Ottoman military after the betrayal of their plan.

~1858 – The original Big Ben, a 16.3 tonne bell for the Palace of Westminster cracked during testing. It was later recasted by Whitechapel Bell Foundry into the 13.76 tonne bell that is still in use today.

~1862 - Union forces laid siege to Fort Pulaski along the Tybee River in Georgia. The Union commander asked for the surrender of the fort to prevent needless loss of life. Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, who held command of the Confederate garrison, rejected the offer. Union forces then began their bombardment of the fort which lasted until April 14th.

~1864 – Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria, a member of the Imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine, was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, during the Second Mexican Empire. This with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists. Many foreign governments refused to recognize his government, including the United States. This helped to ensure the success of the Liberal forces led by Benito Juárez and Maximilian was executed after his capture by the Liberals in 1867.

~1865 – A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addressed his troops for the last time.

~1866 – After gaining an official charter, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded in New York City, by Henry Bergh.

~1868 – At the Battle of Arogye in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces totally destroyed an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only 2 of the British/Indian troops died in the battle.

~1874 – The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska where an estimated one million trees were planted.

~1904 – Died this day: Queen Isabella II of Spain (b. 1830).

~1912 – RMS Titanic of the White Star Line left port in Southampton, England on her maiden voyage enroute to New York.

~1919 – Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.

~1925 – F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby was first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.

~1941 – The Axis Powers in Europe established the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustaše fascist insurgents in power.

~1941 - U.S. troops occupied Greenland to prevent Nazi infiltration after the invasion of Denmark the previous day.

~1953 – Warner Brothers premiered the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax. It starred Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy and Charles Bronson.

~1963 – The submarine USS Thresher sank 220 miles east of Cape Cod during deep diving tests. All 129 officers, crewmen, and military and civilian technicians aboard perished.

~1968 – The Wahine Disaster: The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand inter-island ferry of the Union Company, foundered on Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour and capsized near Steeple Rock. Of the 610 passengers and 123 crew on board, 53 people lost their lives.

~1969 - Died this day: The great Harley Earl, General Motors industrial designer and pioneer of modern transportation design (b. 1893).

~1972 – Oberdan Sallustro, Director General of FIAT Concord in Argentina, was murdered by communist guerrillas 20 days after he was kidnapped in Buenos Aires.

~1973 – Invicta International Airlines Flt. 435, a Vickers Vanguard, flying from Bristol Lulsgate to Basle-Mulhouse, ploughed into a forested hillside near Hochwald, Switzerland. It somersaulted and broke up, killing 108 and injuring all of the 40 survivors.

~1979 – The Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak: An F5 tornado hit Wichita Falls, Texas. Additional tornadoes were reported across the Southern Plains as well as in the Mississippi River Valley on April 10th & 11th. 58 people were killed by the storm system.

~1991 – The Italian ferry Moby Prince collided with the oil tanker Agip Abruzzo in Livorno harbor and caught fire. Most of the 140 people killed were the result of a badly botched rescue effort. Initially the collision was attributed to very thick fog in the harbor, but amateur video footage of the incident disproved the theory.

~1992 – The Maraghar Massacre: During the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijani forces attacked the Armenian town of Maragha, decapitated more thaqn 45 villagers, burned and looted much of the town and kidnapped about 100 women and children. The inhabitants of Maragha who were driven out after the attack were unable to return to their village after the ceasefire of 1994 as the area was still under Azeri control.

~1992 - Outside Needles, CA, comedian Sam Kinison was killed when a pickup truck driven by a drunk slammed into his car on a desert road as he made his way home to Los Angeles.

~1994 - NATO warplanes launched air strikes for the first time on Serb forces that were advancing on the Bosnian Muslim town of Gordazde. The area had been declared a U.N. safe area.

~2002 - Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Senate as a representative of the Israeli government. He warned that suicide bombers would spread to the U.S. if Israel was not allowed to finish its military offensive in the West Bank. Netanyaho also cited the goals of dismantling the terror regime and expelling Yasser Arafat from the region, ridding the Palestinian territories of terrorist weapons and establishing "physical barriers" to protect Israelis from future Palestinian attacks.

~2009 - A tornado outbreak affected large portions of the Southern United States. At least 5 people were killed by tornadoes including 5 in Mena, Arkansas just south of Fort Smith and 2 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee just south of Nashville. A total of 85 tornadoes were confirmed over a 2 day period. Although the death toll fortunately was low, damage from the outbreak was both severe and widespread.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 11th



~491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.

~1034 – Died this day: Romanus III, Byzantine emperor (b. 968)

~1079 – Bishop (Saint) Stanislaus of Krakow was murdered by King Bolesław II of Poland, for excommunicating him.

~1165 – Died this day: Stephen IV, King of Hungary (b. 1133)

~1240 – Died this day: Llywelyn the Great, King of Gwynedd (b. circa 1173)

~1241 – The army of Batu Khan destroyed the opposing forces of Béla IV of Hungary at The Battle of Muhi. This was the main battle between the Mongol Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary during the Mongol invasion of Europe. It took place at Muhi, southwest of the Sajó River. After the invasion, Hungary lay in ruins. Nearly half of the inhabited places had been destroyed by the invading armies. Around a quarter of the population was lost, mostly in lowland areas, especially in the Great Hungarian Plain, the southern reaches of the Hungarian plain in the area now called the Banat, and in southern Transylvania.

~1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix achieved victory at the Battle of Ravenna. Although the French drove the Spanish-Papal army from the field, their victory failed to help them secure northern Italy and they would be forced to withdraw from the region entirely by August.

~1689 – William III and Mary II became joint sovereigns of Britain. The Bishop of London, Henry Compton, crowned William and Mary together at Westminster Abbey. Normally, the Archbishop of Canterbury performs coronations, but the Archbishop at the time, William Sancroft (although an Anglican), refused to recognise the validity of King James II's removal from the throne.

~1713 – The Treaty of Utrecht: The last of the Utrecht treaties was signed. This would ultimately lead to the end of the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714).

~1802 - John Stevens completed work on a twin-screw propeller (his own design) steamboat. He would later patent the design.

~1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ended the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleonic France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate his throne after the allied European nations had marched into Paris on March 30thand seized the city. Bonaparte was forced to abdicate unconditionally and banished to the island of Elba.

~1828 – The Argentinian city of Bahia Blanca was founded, as a fortress, by Colonel Ramón Estomba under the orders of Brigadier General and subsequent Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas.

~1865 – President Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.

~1888 – The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was inaugurated with a concert in which an orchestra of 120 musicians and a chorus of 500 singers participated. They performed works of Wagner, Handel, Bach, and Beethoven. The resident orchestra of the Concertgebouw is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest), which gave its first concert in the hall on 3 November 1888, as the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Concertgebouworkest).

~1905 – Albert Einstein revealed his Theory of Relativity.

~1910 - The Delaware class battleship, USS North Dakota (BB-29) received her commission from the US Navy.

~1918 - The first German Siemens-Schuckert D.III single-seat biplane fighter was introduced to frontline service.

~1919 – The Paris Peace Conference adopted the final report of the advisory Commission on International Labour Legislation without amendment. The report became Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles.

~1921 – The Emirate of Transjordan was created. It would last until 1946 when independence was achieved. Jordan took on its present name in 1949.

~1921 - The first live sports event on radio took place on KDKA Radio. The event was a boxing match between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee. (Johnny Ray got to go to sleep early that night...)

~1940 - Andrew Ponzi set a world's record in a New York pocket billiards tournament when he ran 127 balls straight.

~1945 – American forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.

~1945 - Advancing U.S. troops reached the Elbe River in Germany.

~1951 – US President Harry Truman relieveds General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea. (A classic case of 2 bickering egotists.)

~1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, was found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950.

~1952 – The Battle of Nanri Island began. The 2 day engagement resulted in a National Revolutionary Army (ROCA) victory, with the complete destruction of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces. (Being outnumbered 4 to 1 you kinda saw it coming that the PLA would get the worst of that encounter...)

~1955 – The Kashmir Princess, a chartered Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India, exploded in midair and crashed into the Pacific Ocean on while en route from Bombay, India and Hong Kong to Jakarta, Indonesia following a bomb explosion. 16 of those on board were killed, while 3 survived. The bombing was a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China. Enlai had planned to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong and then on to Jakarta on Kashmir Princess, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to miss the flight.

~1956 - The US Navy's VC-3 became the first squadron operational with the newly introduced Douglas F4D Skyray fighter.

~1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann began before an Israeli court in Jerusalem. He was indicted on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership in an outlawed organization.

~1965 – The (1965) Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak: The second Palm Sunday tornado outbreak occurred and involved 47 tornadoes (15 significant, 17 violent, 21 killers) hitting the US Midwest. It was the second biggest outbreak on record. In the Midwest, 271 people were killed and 1,500 injured (1,200 in Indiana). It was the deadliest ever tornado outbreak in Indiana history with 137 people killed. The outbreak also made that week the second most active week in history with 51 significant and 21 violent tornadoes.

~1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law. It prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

~1970 – NASA launched the nearly disasterous Apollo 13 mission.

~1974 - The Watergate Scandal: The Judiciary Committee subpoenaed U.S. President Richard Nixon to produce White House tapes for the impeachment inquiry.

~1979 – Despite military help from Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, the murderous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was forced to flee when Kampala was captured by the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), backed by Tanzanian forces. He escaped first to Libya and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia where the Saudi royal family paid him a generous wage in return for his staying out of politics. (While in power this brainless idiot titled himself "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".)

~1981 – A massive riot in Brixton, South London, resulted in 279 police injuries and 45 serious civilian injuries. Over a hundred vehicles were burned including 56 police units and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with 30 burned. There were 82 arrests made as a result of the melee. At the beginning of April the Metropolitan Police had begun "Operation Swamp 81", where plain clothes police officers were dispatched into Brixton. Within 5 days almost 950 people were stopped and searched through the heavy use of the "sus law" which allowed police to stop and search any individual on the basis of "suspicion" of wrong doing. This increased tension between the police and the community eventually leading to the riot.

~1986 - Kellogg's stopped giving tours of its Battle Creek, Michigan breakfast food plant. The reason for the end of the 80 year tradition was said to be that company secrets were at risk due to spies from other cereal companies. (Ooooooh...espionage at the cereal level!)

~1986 – The FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle occurred in Miami, Florida between 8 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and 2 serial bank robbers. The firefight claimed the lives of Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan. The 2 robbery suspects were also killed. In addition, 5 FBI agents were wounded in the engagement. The incident is infamous in FBI history and is well studied in law enforcement circles. Despite outnumbering the suspects 4 to 1, the agents found themselves pinned down by rifle fire and unable to respond effectively. Although both bank robbers were hit multiple times during the firefight, one of them fought on regardless and continued to injure and kill the officers. This incident led to the introduction of more powerful handguns in many police departments around the country.

~1986 - In Groton, Connecticut, the decommissioned nuclear submarine USS Nautilus opened to the public as part of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum and Library.

~1987 – The London Agreement was secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan. The agreement outlined the framework for an international peace conference hosted by the United Nations.

~1993 – The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility Riot: In Lucasville, Ohio 450 prisoners (including an unlikely alliance of the Aryan Brotherhood and Gangster Disciples) rioted and took over the facility for 11 days. The main causes apparently were serious overcrowding, mismanagement of the facility and discontent in the general population that the authorities were going to force Muslim prisoners to undergo tuberculosis vaccinations in violation of their religious beliefs. Investigations conducted after the riot found that the gangs were also collaborating to murder inmates accused of being informants. 9 inmates and one corrections officer were killed during the disturbance.

~1996 - The African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty opened for signatures in Cairo, Egypt.

~1996 - 7 year old Jessica Dubroff was killed along with with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming in heavy rain and a sudden storm. Jessica had hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross country.

~2001 - China released 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E Navy crew had been held since April 1st on Hainon, where the plane had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

~2002 – A natural gas truck fitted with explosives drove past security barriers at the ancient Ghriba Synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba. The truck detonated at the front of the synagogue, killing 14 German tourists, 5 Tunisians, and 2 French nationals. More than 30 others were injured. Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attack.

~2002 – An attempted coup d'état in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez took place. However, the wheels quickly came off the wagon and the coup failed. (I have absolutely no use for that brainless idiot but it still isn't the way top remove him from power.)

~2007 – The Algiers Bombings: A pair of suicide car bombs exploded in the Algerian capital of Algiers. The headquarters of the Algerian prime minister were hit by a large explosion that left many people dead and injured and could be heard 10 km away. Another explosion targeted a police station in an eastern suburb of the city, near the international airport. Al Qaida claimed responsibility for the bombings after the attack took place. A toal of 25 people died and another 162 were injured.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 12th



~467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

~1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breached the walls of Constantinople and entered the city. They completed their occupation the following day.

~1557 – The city of Cuenca was founded in Ecuador by the Spanish explorer Gil Ramírez Dávalos. The founding of the city was commissioned by Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, then Viceroy of Peru. Hurtado de Mendoza had the city named after his home town of Cuenca, Spain.

~1606 – A new flag to represent the regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree. The Union Jack, the Cross of St George over the Cross of St Andrew, was the design that was finally adopted as the flag of Great Britain.

~1770 - The British Parliament repealed a portion of the Townsend Acts. (But obviously not enough of them to satisfy the American colonists!)

~1776 – With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorized its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.

~1782 - The Battle of the Saintes began and resulted in a victory 4 days later of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica. The French fleet defeated by the Royal Navy was the same French fleet that had blockaded the British Army during the Siege of Yorktown. This battle is sometimes credited with pioneering the tactic of "breaking the line".

~1788 - Cape Disappointment was named by British fur trader John Meares, who was sailing south from Nootka in search of trade. After a storm, and with no commerce prospects in sight, he turned his ship around just north of the Cape and just missed the discovery of the Columbia River.

~1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis was declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.

~1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England collapsed due to a mechanical resonance induced by British troops marching over the bridge in step. A bolt in one of the stay-chains snapped, causing the bridge to collapse at one end and throwing about forty of the men into the river. As a result of the incident the British Military issued an order that troops should "break step" when crossing a bridge.

~1833 - Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe.

~1861 – The American Civil War: The war began in South Carolina at 04:30 hrs. with Confederate forces opening fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.

~1864 – The Fort Pillow Massacre took place at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee. 2,500 troops under the command of Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest seized control of the fort which was defended by a Union force of only 600, half of whom were blacks. Following the shortlived battle and subsequent surrender of the Union soldiers, 80% of the blacks were murdered by the Confederate troops. The white prisoners were, for the most part, spared.

~1865 – The city of Mobile, Alabama surrendered to the Union army to avoid destruction following the Union victories at the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakely.

~1905 - The Hippodrome Theatre opened in New York City at 6th Avenue and 43rd/44th, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders and seated 6,000 with a 100' X 200' (30 X 61 m) stage and a rising glass water tank. It stood until 1939.

~1911 - Pierre Prier completed the first non-stop London to Paris flight in 3 hours, 56 minutes.

~1917 – The Canadian Corps successfully completed the taking of Vimy Ridge from the German Sixth Army.

~1918 - Fast for its day and possessing exceptional maneuverability, the Halberstadt CL.IV ground attack/strike aircraft completed its type tests and was ordered into production by the German Luftstreitkräfte high command. The CL.IV is generally regarded as the epitome of WWI ground attack design.

~1920 - Construction began on the Colorado class battleship, USS West Virginia (BB-48). Perhaps most well known for being sunk during the December 7th, 1941 attack by Japanese forces on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, after West Virginaia was refloated and rebuilt she would go on to get her revenge by inflicting a serious mauling on the Japanese at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. West Virginia would be awarded 5 Battle Stars during her career, most of them for her action off Leyte.

~1927 – The April 12th Incident: Chiang Kai-shek ordered the mass murder of Communist Party of China members in Shanghai, ending the First United Front. (I don't care if he was one of the Allied leaders during World War II and supposedly on our side...Chiang was nothing less than a dick's dick.)

~1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, was measured on the summit of Mount Washington, US. This record stood for 62 years until it was finally surpassed in Australia in 1996.

~1934 – The US Auto-Lite Strike began, it would culminate in 5 day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.

~1934 - F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "Tender Is the Night" was first published.

~1935 – The Bristol Blenheim, which would serve as the RAF's principal light bomber during the first part of the Second World War, took to the skies over Filton, England on its maiden flight.

~1937 – At Rugby, England Sir Frank Whittle ground tested the WU engine. It was the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft.

~1939 - The delightful little Romanian fighter, the IAR 80, made its maiden flight above the Southern Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania.

~1941 - As the spectre of war with Nazi Germany loomed on the horizon, the Yakovlev Yak-3 took off on its first flight in Central Russia. It was one of the smallest and lightest major combat fighters fielded by any combatant during the war, and its high power to weight ratio gave it excellent performance with outstanding maneuverability. In its final form the Yak-3 would prove to be more than a match for the Luftwaffe's Bf 109 and Fw 190.

~1945 – After 12 years, 39 days as US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Vice-president Harry S. Truman was sworn in as the 33rd US President the same day.

~1954 – In New York City, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" on the "Decca Records" label.

~1961 – With the launch of the spacecraft Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1), Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space.

~1963 – The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collided with the Finnish merchant vessel MS Finnclipper in the Danish straits.

~1968 – 6,000 sheep in Skull Valley, Utah were killed by VX nerve gas released in a test from the nearby Dugway Proving Ground

~1980 – Samuel Doe seized control of Liberia in a coup d'état, killing President William R. Tolbert, Jr. in the Executive Mansion. This ended over 132 years of national democratic presidential succession. 13 members of the Cabinet were publicly executed 10 days later.

~1980 – In St. John's, Newfoundland the great Terry Fox began his "Marathon of Hope" run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research. Quite possibly the world's most well known cancer victim he would complete half of the 4,850 mile journey before a re-occurrance of cancer would halt his marathon.

~1981 – NASA launched the Space Shuttle Columbia on the STS-1 mission, the very first shuttle mission.

~1984 - Israeli troops stormed a bus that had been hijacked the previous evening by 4 Arab terrorists. All the passengers were rescued and 2 of the hijackers were killed.

~1985 - Federal inspectors declared that 4 animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns, they were merely goats with horns that had been surgically implanted.

~1990 – Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opened at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

~1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opened with its theme park Euro Disneyland. The resort and its park's name were subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.

~2002 – A female suicide bomber detonated her IED at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing 7 and injuring 104 others.

~2002 - A first edition version of Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit" sold for $64,780 at Sotheby's. A signed first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" sold for $66,630. A copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," signed by J.K. Rowling sold for $16,660. A 250 piece collection of rare works by Charles Dickens sold for $512,650. (Just like Dickens...always had to out-do everybody else.)

~2007 – The Iraqi Parliament Bombing: A suicide bomber penetrated the Green Zone and detonated in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and injuring 23 other people.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 13th



~814 - Died this day: Krum, Khan of Bulgaria (b circa 755).

~1111 – Henry V of Germany was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

~1598 – Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. The Edict was repealed in 1685.

~1605 – Died this day: Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia (b. circa 1551).

~1612 – Famed Japanese swordsman and samurai Miyamoto Musashi killed Sasaki Kojiro, "The Demon of the Western Provinces", in a duel on the remote Japanese island of Funajima.

~1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" premiered in Dublin, Ireland.

~1759 - The Battle of Bergen saw the French forces under Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie withstand an allied British, Hanoverian, Hessian, Brunswick army under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick near Frankfurt-am-Main during the Seven Years' War.

~1861 – The Union defenders of the besieged Fort Sumter surrendered to Confederate forces after 34 hours of bombardment.

~1868 – The Abyssinian War ended when a force of British/Indian troops captured Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II committed suicide as opposed to being captured.

~1870 – The New York State Legislature granted the Metropolitan Museum of Art an Act of Incorporation.

~1873 – The Colfax Massacre: In the wake of a contested election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, whites armed with rifles and a small cannon overpowered freedmen and state militia (also black) trying to control the Grant Parish courthouse in Col.fax, Louisiana. While white Republican officeholders were not attacked, most of the freedmen were killed after they surrendered. 50 more were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours. The total death count in the masssacre is generally regarded as being 114 to 119.

~1904 - The Missouri Mishap: During target practice aboard the recently commissioned battleship USS Missouri, a flareback from the port gun in her after turret ignited a powder charge and set off 2 others. No explosion occurred but the rapid burning of the powder suffocated 36 of the crew. Prompt action prevented the loss of the warship and 3 of her crew earned Medals of Honor for extraordinary heroism.

~1904 - SMS Schwaben, a Wittelsbach class pre-dreadnought battleship, was commissioned by the German Imperial Navy. Schwaben was built at the Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard.

~1916 - The first hybrid seed corn was purchased for 15-cents a bushel by Samuel Ramsay.

~1917 - The first flight of the Albatros D.V took place. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family, and the last Albatros fighter to see operational service. Despite its well known shortcomings and general obsolescence, approximately 900 D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production halted in early 1918. The D.Va continued in operational service until the end of the war.

~1919 – The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established.

~1919 - In India, the Britih government placed the Punjab under martial law.

~1919 – The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: In violation of newly imposed martial law, a crowd of thousands gathered near the Golden Temple in Amritsar. British General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire without warning or any order to disperse and to direct fire towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the firing, approximately 1,650 rounds in all, until ammunition was almost exhausted. At least 379 unarmed demonstrators were murdered and another 1200 were wounded or injured.

~1919 – Eugene V. Debs entered prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, following his sedition conviction for urging resistance to the military draft during World War I.

~1937 - The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was launched from the Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey. Ark Royal served in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial and U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship Bismarck and the Malta Convoys. Ark Royal survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a "lucky ship". The Germans incorrectly reported her as sunk on multiple occasions. Her luck finally ran out when she was torpedoed on November 13th, 1941 by the German submarine U-81 and sank the following day. Her wreck was discovered by a BBC crew in December 2002, approximately 30 nautical miles (56 km) from Gibraltar.

~1939 – In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) was formed and vowed to engage in armed struggle against British rule.

~1940 - In Norway, during the Second Battle of Narvik, the legendary british battleship HMS Warspite engaged and destroyed the German shore batteries of Narvik harbor. Next she unleashed her wrath on the Kriegsmarine destroyers and sent 3 of them to the bottom in short order. Warspite retired from the battle site that night unscathed.

~1943 – The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced. This alienated the Western Allies and the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union.

~1943 – Federal inmates James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton all took part in an elaborate (but ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to escape from Alcatraz.

~1943 – The Jefferson Memorial was officially dedicated by US President Franklin D Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

~1945 – The Gardelegen Massacre: German SS and Luftwaffe troops, retreating from the Allied advance, murdered 1016 political and military prisoners near the German town of Gardelegen. The crime was discovered 2 days later by the 405th Regiment of the US 102nd Infantry Division.

~1945 - Vienna fell to Soviet troops.

~1948 – The Hadassah Medical Convoy Massacre: 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital along with a British soldier were massacred in an ambush by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.

~1949 - Philip S. Hench and associates announced that cortizone was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

~1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launched the mind control program MKULTRA, a covert, illegal human research program run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence.

~1954 - Hank Aaron made his Major League Baseball debut with the Milwaukee Braves.

~1964 – At the 36th Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier earned an Oscar for Best Actor. This was for his role in "Lilies of the Field". Patricia Neal won Best Actress for her role in "Hud" and the Best Picture Award went to "Tom Jones".

~1969 – Closure of the Brisbane Tramway Network: The trams ran on the tracks through Brisbane Australia for the last time. Although still in pristine condition, most older wooden trams were stripped of metal parts and then burnt at the City Council's yard at Cribb Street Milton (adjacent to the tramway workshops). The bodies of later, all metal, cars were sold at firesale prices as sheds and playground equipment. Although there have since been many drives by the residents of Brisbane to bring back their beloved trams, council continually cites excessive costs to re-lay the tracks throughout the city as the insumountable obstacle. (To quote the lyrics of a very old song: "You can't go home again...")

~1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded, ending its mission to the Moon. The lives of the crew were in great jeopardy inside the badly damaged spacecraft and their safe return to earth was hailed as a miracle.

~1972 – The Universal Postal Union decided 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) launched the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1. Westar 1 was the first of five Westar satellites launched by Western Union from 1974 to 1982.

~1975 – The Bus Massacre: In Lebanon an attack by the Phalangist resistance killed 26 militia members of the P.F.L. of Palestine, marking the start of the 15 year long Lebanese Civil War.

~1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the 2 dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

~1981 - Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8 year old heroin addict named "Jimmy." Cooke relinquished the prize 2 days later after admitting she had fabricated the story.

~1990 - 47 years to the day after the crime had been discovered, the Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.

~1992 – The Great Chicago Flood: The damaged wall of a utility tunnel beneath the Chicago River opened into a breach which flooded basements and underground facilities throughout the Chicago Loop with an estimated 250 million gallons of water

~1997 – At Augusta National Golf Club, Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer ever to win The Masters Tournament. He also set a record when he finished at 18 under par.

~1998 - "Dolly", the world's first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb named "Bonnie".

~1999 - Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, MI, to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. Youk's assisted suicide was videotaped and shown on "60 Minutes" in 1998.

~2002 - 25 Hindus were killed and about 30 more were injured when grenades were thrown by suspected Islamic guerrillas near Jammu-Kashir. (Yup, different religion than ours...better kill the bastards.)

~2002 - Venezuela's interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office when thousands of protesters demonstrated over the ousting of president Hugo Chavez.

~2009 – Citi Field opened for the regular season to almost 44,000 people in a game lost by the New York Mets 6-5 to the San Diego Padres.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

Thanks Pam, I guess I owe you about 100 breakfasts by now, huh?

(I could send a couple of Chippendales over to your place right around bath time too, if you'd like!)

April 14th



~43 BC – The Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging the forces of Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeated the forces of the consul Pansa, coming to Brutus' aid. Pansa himself was seriuosly wounded. The Republican forces under the command of Aulus Hirtius then attacked Antony's exhausted troops and forced them into a retreat, thereby relieving Brutus' position.

~69 – The forces of Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeated those of Emperor Otho in the First Battle of Bedriacum. Vitllius then marched on Rome and seized the throne.

~966 – The date traditionally given for the baptism of Mieszko I and the beginning of the Christianisation of Poland.

~1028 – Henry III, son of Conrad, was elected king of the Germans. (We can only hope he didn't really look as dorky as his portrait suggests...)

~1132 – Died this day: Mstislav I of Kiev (b. 1076).

~1205 – At the Battle of Adrianople the Bulgarians led by Tsar Kaloyan completely destroyed the army of the 4th Crusade led by Latin Emperor Baldwin I. Baldwin was captured and later put to death.

~1294 – Temür, grandson of Kublai Khan, was appointed Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.

~1434 – The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France was laid by John VI, Duke of Brittany and Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.

~1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeated a Lancastrians army twice their size led by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Warwick was killed in the action and Edward resumed the throne.

~1699 – In accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar, this is the traditional date given as the Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion.

~1775 – In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush established the first abolition society in North America; The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. (Try and come up with an acronym for that one...)

~1828 – Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary.

~1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departed Springfield, Illinois for California, on what would become a year long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and ultimate survival.

~1860 – The first Pony Express rider reached Sacramento, California.

~1862 - Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, commander of the Confederate garrison at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia, surrendered to Union forces a long sustained artillery bombardment.

~1865 – The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. with his wife and 2 guests.

~1865 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family were attacked in their home by a would be assassin.

~1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight was fought in El Paso, Texas.

~1890 – The Pan-American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.

~1894 – A public Kinetoscope (a device for peep-show viewing of films) parlor was opened by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. It was the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had 10 machines, set up in parallel rows of 5, each showing a different movie. For 25 cents a viewer could see all the films in either row; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill.

~1907 - The semi-dreadnought type battleship Aki, of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was launched. She was designed and built by the Kure Naval Arsenal. Aki was the first Japanese battleship with turbine engine propulsion which allowed her to reach a speed of 20.7 knots (38 km/h) during trials in December 1910.

~1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg while underway in the North Atlantic at 11:40 PM. The ship would sink just over 2 1/2 hours later.

~1927 – The first Volvo (the ÖV4) made its public debut in Gothenburg, Sweden.

~1931 – The 2nd Spanish Republic began when King Alfonso XIII fled Spain. The Republic would endure until the last of the Republican (republicanas) forces surrendered to Nationals (nacionales) forces led by Francisco Franco, at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

~1935 – The Black Sunday Storm: The worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl era occurred the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.

~1941 – The Ustashe, a Croatian far right organization was put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the Axis Operation 25 invasion. The puppet government began operating 3 days later.

~1941 - The Afrika Korps, under command of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox) secured the whole of Libya.

~1944 – The Bombay Explosion: The freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed load of cargo (including over 1,400 tons of explosive) caught fire and was destroyed in 2 giant blasts. The explosions scattered debris, sank the surrounding ships and killed 740 people while injuring a further 1,800.

~1956 – In Chicago, Illinois, videotape was first publicly demonstrated at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (now the NAB) convention. After William Lodge of CBS finished his speech, an Ampex Mark IV replayed his image and words almost immediately, causing pandemonium among the astonished attendees. (If they'd been shown a DVD they would have all stroked out!)

~1958 – The orbit of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 decayed and it reentered Earth's atmosphere after a mission duration of 162 days.

~1978 – The Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrated against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

~1981 – STS-1 – The first operational flight of Space Shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) ended when the spaceship succesfully landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

~1986 – In retaliation for the April 5th bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin that killed 2 U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan ordered "Operation El Dorado Canyon" a major bombing raid against Libya.

~1986 – 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. To date these are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.

~1988 – The guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian laid mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. This led U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis, a 1 day campaign that was the largest American surface engagement since World War II.

~1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, 2 US Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot down a pair of US Army helicopters, killing all 26 military and civilian personnel aboard.

~1995 - Died this day: Burl Ives, folk singer, actor (b. 1909).

~1999 – A severe hailstorm struck Sydney, Australia causing (AU) $2.3 billion in damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history. Lightning also claimed one life during the storm and the event caused approximately 50 injuries.

~2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to office 2 days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.

~2003 - Jean Charest's "Parti libéral du Québéc" defeated Bernard Landry and the seperatist "Parti Québécois" in Quebec's general elections.

~2003 – The Human Genome Project was completed. It was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify and map the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. The project resulted in 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%. (ZZZZZZZ...)

~2003 – Muhammad Zaydan (Abbu Abbas), leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985, was captured by American forces in Iraq while attempting to flee from Baghdad to Syria.

~2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullified 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.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 15th



~1450 – Battle of Formigny: Near the end of the Hundred Years' War, French forces attacked and nearly annihilated an English army more than 50% larger than itself. For all intents this battle ended English domination in Northern France.

~1452 - Born this day: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Italaian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer (d. 1519). Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, one whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is universally considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote". Marco Rosci points out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.

~1632 – The Battle of Rain: During the Thirty Years' War, a Swedish army led by Gustavus Adolphus crushed the forces of the Holy Roman Empire.

~1715 – The Pocotaligo Massacre: 4 members of a peace envoy sent by the South Carolina Board of Commissioners were murdered by warriors of the Yamasee tribe. The event triggered the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

~1738 – George Frideric Handel's opera seria "Serse" premiered at the King's Theatre in Haymarket, London.

~1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in London. It is acknowledged to be one of the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. Johnson took nearly 9 years to complete the work and he did so single handedly. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to literary historian Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who labored under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".

~1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy came across a "long belt" of daffodils beside a lake, inspiring the Wordsworth to pen his famous I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

~1865 – Abraham Lincoln died without regaining consciousness after being shot the previous evening by an assassin at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C.

~1865 - Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th President of the United States upon the death of Abraham Lincoln.

~1889 - Died this day: Father Damien, Belgian missionary priest to the lepers in Hawaii (b. 1840).

~1898 - The Majestic class pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Illustrious was commissioned by the Royal Navy.

~1912 – The Titanic: His Majesty's Royal Mail Ship Titanic of the White Star Line was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of its launching and Titanic's builders hoped that it would dominate the transatlantic ocean liner business. Enroute to New York on her maiden voyage she struck an iceberg some 900 miles Southeast of Newfoundland at 11:40 p.m. (ship's time) on Sunday evening April 14th. 2 hours and 40 minutes later at 2:20 A.M. the next morning she sank. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 aboard, ranking as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most famous.

~1914 - The battleship USS New York (BB-34), lead ship of her class, received her commission from the US Navy. A formidible foe during World War I she is best remebered for her actions in support of the North African invasion and both the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. During her career New York earned 3 Battle Stars and a Presidential Commendation.

~1920 – 2 security guards were murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for the murders on May 5th.

~1921 – Black Friday: In British labour history this term refers to the day when the leaders of transport and rail unions announced a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners. The epithet "black" derives from a widespread feeling that the decision amounted to a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners who were prepared to strike over a wage reduction.

~1923 – Insulin became generally available for use by diabetics.

~1940 - British forces began their doomed attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by German troops. It was this farce of an expedition that brought down the government of Neville Chamberlain.

~1941 – The Belfast Blitz: 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked Belfast in Northern Ireland. More than 900 were killed in the raid and 1,500 injured. Roughly 100,000 of a total population of 425,000 were left homeless.

~1942 – The George Cross was awarded "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI.

~1943 - The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) received her commission from the US Navy. Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Yorkton participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 Battle Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. She presently serves as a Museum ship at Patriot's Point in Charleston, South Carolina.

1945 – The Bergen-Belsen death camp was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division. 60,000 prisoners were found inside, most of them seriously ill. Another 13,000 corpses lay around the camp unburied. The scenes that greeted British troops were described by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby, who accompanied them:

"...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life."

~1947 – Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball which had relegated blacks to the Negro leagues for 6 decades. The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation which then marked many other aspects of American life and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.

~1952 – The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress took to the skies over Western Washington on its maiden flight. 55 years after its introduction to the USAF the B-52 it is still in service today.

~1955 – McDonald's restaurants dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois

~1957 – In British Columbia, White Rock officially separated from the municipality of Surrey and was incorporated as a new city. (To honor the event, the same day the first senior citizen held up traffic by driving down North Bluff Rd. at 12 mph...)

~1958 – In the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast, Rubén Gómez of the San Francisco Giants hurled an 8-0 shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Giants' shortstop Daryl Spencer hit the first Major League home run on the Pacific Coast. A park record 23,192 fans packed Seals Stadium to witness the historic game.

~1979 – The Montenegro Earthquake: A quake which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale occurred at 07:19 hrs. local time, 15 kilometers from the Montenegrin coast between Bar and Ulcinj.The tremor lasted for 10 seconds and was mostly felt along the Montenegrin and Albanian coastline. The result was the total devastastion of the area including almost all its ancient heritage structures and cultural works. 136 people died and over 100,000 more were left homeless.

~1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opened. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States.

~1985 - "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler and Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns met in what was billed as The Fight; later it would become known as The War. This fight is widely regarded as one of the most brutal and thrilling boxing matches of all time. Hagler won with a third round knockout to retain boxing's world Middleweight championship.

~1986 – The US military launched Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to the La Belle discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

~1989 – The Hillsborough Disaster: A human crush occurred at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final. This resulted in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. fans and injuries to another 766.

~1989 - Upon the death of Hu Yaobang, the Tiananmen Square protests began in the People's Republic of China.

~1997 - Fire swept through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage. The official death toll from the disaster was 343. (Why in hell does there always seem to be huge number of people killed during this damned pilgrimage?)

~2002 – Air China Flt. CA129, a Boeing 767-200, crashed into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 129 of the 166 on board. This crash is currently recorded as the deadliest aviation accident in South Korea.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 16th



~1178 BC - A solar eclipse occurred over the Mediterranean. This probably marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, and his army to his kingdom after the Trojan War. The date is surmised from a passage in Homer's Odyssey, which reads, "The Sun has been obliterated from the sky, and an unlucky darkness invades the world." This happens in the context of a new moon and at noon, both necessary preconditions for a full solar eclipse.

~69 - Died this day: Otho, Roman Emperor, from suicide (b. 32).

~73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, fell to the Romans after several months of siege ending the Jewish Revolt.

~556 - Pelagius I was elected Pope.

~665 - Died this day: Saint Fructuosus of Braga (b. circa 605).

~1071 – Aided by the Norman fleet that blockaded the city's port, Bari (a major stronghold of the Byzantines in Italy) fell to the forces of Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.

~1175 - Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and the Lombard League negotiated peace at the Castle of Montebello, but after long talks negotiations broke with no result.

~1346 – The coronation of Stefan Uroš IV as Tsar of Serbia took place in Skopje.

~1521 – Martin Luther arrived at Worms, where he made his first appearance before the Diet of Worms the next day. He was to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.

~1582 – The city of Salta was founded in Argentina by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma. He intended the settlement to be an outpost between Lima, Peru and Buenos Aires.

~1705 - Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton during a royal visit to Trinity College, Cambridge. Newton was the first scientist ever to be knighted.

~1746 – The Battle of Culloden was fought on Scotland's Culloden Moor between the French supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The decisive Government victory ended Bonny Prince Charlie's attempts to sieze the British throne and resulted in more than 2,300 Jacobite Casualties while the Hanoverian casualties nubered just 300.

~1780 – The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany was founded with 4 faculties: Law, Health Science (Medicine), Philosophy and Theology. The ceremony of constitution was performed by Franz Freiherr von Fürstenberg.

~1799 – French forces led by Napoleon drove the Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre at the Battle of Mount Tabor. Despite being outnumbered more than 6 to 1, the French completely routed the Turks, inflicting more than 6,500 casualties upon them while incurring only 2 dead and 60 wounded themselves.

~1851 - Just offshore of Cohasset, Massachusetts, Minot’s Ledge Light (a new lighthouse that had been lit only 3 1/2 months earlier) was swept away by high seas during a severe gale that caused damage throughout the Boston area. The following day only a few bent pilings were found on the rock. The 2 assistant keepers who were tending the lighthouse at the time both perished.

~1853 – The first passenger train of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway left Bori Bunder station in Bombay for Tannah. The train took 57 minutes to reach Tannah, covering a distance of a distance of 21 miles (33.8 km). 3 locomotives named Sultan, Sindh and Sahib pulled the 14 carriages with 400 passengers on board.[

~1862 – A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law with the passage of the Compensated Emancipation Act.

~1863 – The Siege of Vicksburg: Ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter ran the blockade and moved through heavy Confederate artillery fire on the approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

~1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fought (and won) his last gunfight.

~1912 – Harriet Quimby took off from Dover, England for Calais, France and made the flight in 59 minutes. She landed about 25 miles (40 km) from Calais on a beach in Hardelot-Plage, Pas-de-Calais. With this she became the first woman to fly the English Channel. (Not bad for a woman in those days...especially an incredibly beautiful blond.)

~1917 - After years of exile in Switzerland, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin arrived at the Finland Station in Petrograd, Russia, to assume command of the Bolsheviks. He then published the April Theses (1917), calling for uncompromising opposition to the Provisional Government.

~1917 - The Pfalz Flugzeugwerke Pfalz D.III fighter plane of the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) made its maiden flight in the skies over the Rhineland. It would enter operational service on the Western Front just 5 months later and remain there until late summer 1918 by which time just over 1,000 units had been built. It continued to serve as a training aircraft until the end of the war.

~1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo, was signed. It was an agreement made in the Italian town of Rapallo between Germany (the Weimar Republic) and Soviet Russia under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I. The 2 governments also agreed to normalise their diplomatic relations and to "co-operate in a spirit of mutual goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries". (Well, THAT one sure came off the tracks further on down the line then, didn't it!)

~1924 - Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios was formed by the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company

~1925 – The St Nedelya Church Assault: A group of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) blew up the roof of the St Nedelya Church in the capital of Sofia. This occurred during the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been killed in a previous Communist assault on April 14th. 150 people, mainly from the country's political and military elite, were killed in the attack and over 500 others were injured.

~1927 – Born this day: Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

~1935 - "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered on NBC Radio and, though it took 5 seasons to become an irrevocable hit, it touched a nerve with listeners seeking cheer amid the despair of the Geat Depression. The series remained popular until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture.

~1940 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.

~1943 – Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD. (Read: He was the first stoner to trip out on Sid!)

~1944 - The Iowa class battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) received her commission from the US Navy. Iowa would see extensive action in the Pacific during World War II, the Korean War and again in the Gulf War. Over her career Wisconsin earned a total of 6 Battle Stars and a Navy Unit Commendation.

~1945 – The Battle of Berlin: The Red Army breached the German front as a result of the Vistula–Oder Offensive and rapidly advanced westward as fast as 30 to 40 kilometres a day, through East Prussia, Lower Silesia, East Pomerania, and Upper Silesia, temporarily halting on a line 60 kilometres east of Berlin along the Oder River.

~1945 – Troops from the US 1st Army liberated the Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner of war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

~1945 – The German transport ship Goya, carrying more than 7,000 mostly wounded Wehrmacht troops and civilians who were fleeing the advancing Red Army, was sunk by a Soviet submarine. Most of the crew and passengers died, and the sinking of the Goya was one of the largest single incident maritime losses of life of the war As such it is one of the largest maritime losses of life in history. There were only 183 survivors.

~1947 - The US Army Air Force placed its first order for the radical new Boeing B-47 Stratojet long range strategic bomber. A major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design, the B-47 helped lead to the development of modern jet airliners.

~1947 – The Texas City Disaster: Chemical explosions on board 2 freighters in port caused most of the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire. A minimum of 581 people died in the disaster and a further 5,000+ were injured.

~1949 - The Lockheed F-94 Starfire, the United States Air Force's first operational jet powered all weather interceptor aircraft, made its maiden flight high above Southern California's San Fernando Valley.

~1951 - 75 military personnel were lost when the British submarine HMS Affray (P421) foundered and sank in the English Channel.

~1953 – Queen Elizabeth II launched the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia.

~1962 - Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS Evening News (initially Walter Cronkite with the News), a job in which he became an American icon.

~1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against racial segregation by Birmingham's city government and downtown retailers.

~1972 – The Apollo Program: Apollo 16, the 6th manned mission to the lunar surface, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

~1978 - In Orissa, India, 180 people died when a tornado hit.

~1987 - The U.S. Patent Office began allowing the patenting of new animals created by genetic engineering.

~1987 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a harshly worded warning to U.S. radio stations to crack down on the use of indecent language on the airwaves or else.

~1992 - Italian financier Carlo de Benedetti and 32 others were convicted of fraud by a Milan court in connection with the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

~1995 - The European Union and Canada agreed to protect threatened fish stocks in the north Atlantic. (All parties involved have certainly failed dismally on that one...)

~1999 - Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the National Hockey League (NHL).

~2003 – The Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union. It entered into force on May 1st, 2004.

~2007 – The Virginia Tech Massacre: A gunman opened fire on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 2 separate attacks, approximately 2 hours apart, the perpetrator killed 32 people and wounded 23 others before committing suicide. To date the massacre is the deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 17th



~485 - Died this day: Proclus, Greek Neoplatonist philosopher (b. 412).

~617 – Died this day: Saint Donnán of Eigg, Celtic Christian martyr (b. circa 573).

~1080 – Died this day: King Harald III of Denmark (b. circa 1040).

~1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.

~1492 – In Santa Fe, Granada, Spain and Christopher Columbus signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

~1555 – After 18 months of siege, Siena surrendered to the Florentine Imperial army. The Republic of Siena was then incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

~1711 – Died this day: Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678).

~1780 - The Battle of Martinique was fought off the coast Martinique in the West Indies between a British fleet commanded by Sir George Rodney and a French fleet of comparable size led by the Comte de Guichen. Although the action that day was fierce the battle ended with inconclusive results.

~1790 - Died this day: Benjamin Franklin, American politician, inventor, diplomat, printer (b. 1706).

~1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby's force of 13,000 men and a 64 ship armada invaded the island of Puerto Rico. Island Governor and Captain General Don Ramón de Castro, with his troops, repelled the attack.

~1861 – Virginia voted to secede from the United States.

~1864 – The Battle of Plymouth began when Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, attacked the Federal garrison at Plymouth, North Carolina.

~1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed at the Shunpanrō hall between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The defeated Qing Empire was forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

~1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Lochner v. New York. This was a landmark case that held a "liberty of contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to 10 and limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60. By a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the law was necessary to protect the health of bakers, deciding it was a labor law attempting to regulate the terms of employment, and calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract."

~1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processed 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

~1934 - The first flight of the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber. Affectionately known as the "Stringbag" by its crews, it was obsolete by the time it entered service in July of 1936. In spite of this the Swordfish achieved some spectacular successes during the war, notably the sinking of one and damaging of 2 battleships of the Regia Marina (the Italian Navy) in the Battle of Taranto along with the famous crippling of the Bismarck. It was operated primarily as a fleet attack aircraft, however, (during its later years) it was also used as an anti-submarine and training craft. Designed in the early 1930s, the Swordfish outlived several types intended to replace it, and remained in frontline service through the end of the war in Europe.

~1936 - The North American Aviation BT-9, a primary trainer aircraft of the USAAF, made its maiden flight. It was deemed so successful and forgiving of pilot error by the Air Force that it was rushed into production using the prototype specifications. Several examples of the original 262 machine run are still flying today in private hands.

~1937 - Daffy Duck debuted in the Warner Bros' cartoon short "Porky's Duck Hunt".

~1941 – The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered to the invading Axis forces.

~1942 – French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his high-security POW castle prison in Festung Königstein.

~1945 – Brazilian forces liberated the town of Montese in Italy after a 3 day battle with the occupying German troops.

~1945 - In Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seized half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet plans to build an atomic bomb. (Just a little covert work there on the part of Army Intelligence before the Cold War got officially underway...)

~1946 – Syria obtained its Independence from the French occupation.

~1961 – The Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

~1964 – The world was introduced to the pony car when Ford Motor Company unveiled the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair.

~1964 – And just across town on the same day...Shea Stadium opened in New York.

~1964 – After 29 days, 21 stopovers and 22,860 miles, Jerry Mock became the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air. She made the landmark journey flying an unassuming Cessna 180. Mock was subsequently awarded the Louis Blériot medal the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

~1969 - Robert F. Kennedy's assassin was convicted.

~1969 – Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček was deposed. (See what happens when you encourage a little freedom and liberty in a Communist authoritarian state...)

~1970 – The Apollo program: The ill fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returned to Earth safely.

~1971 – During the Bangladesh Liberation War, a provisional government was formed in Meherpur district in western Bangladesh bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (who was being held as a political prisoner in Pakistan) as President.

~1971 – Sierra Leone declared itself a republic.

~1973 – The elite German counter terrorist unit GSG 9 der Bundespolizei was founded.

~1975 – The Cambodian Civil War ended when the Khmer Rouge captured the capital Phnom Penh. With the fall of the city Cambodian government forces surrendered.

~1982 – Queen Elizabeth II signed a proclamation that brought the 1982 Constitution Act into effect, severing Canada's last political ties to Britain.

~1984 - 24 year old Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed by automatic gunfire coming from the Libyan People's Bureau in central London. She had been policing a small demonstration outside the embassy. 10 other people were wounded in the attack. The events led to an 11 day siege of the building and the severing of diplomatic relations with Libya by Britain.

~1986 – The [i]Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War:]/i] The Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ended their war which had been declared on this date in 1651. Over the course of the 335 years no shot was ever fired by either side and indeed the war had been forgotten since 1654. This made it one of the longest wars in history and the war with the fewest casualties.

~1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 3004.46, its first ever closing above 3,000.

~1992 - The master of the Greek owned oil tanker Katina P deliberately ran the ship aground 40 kms (24.6 mi)north of Maputo in Mozambique and then abandoned ship. The tanker, which had been under way from Venezuela to the Persian Gulf, had lost a hull plate during a storm. 2 of the vessel's tanks had ruptured and spilled some 13,000 tonnes of #6 heavy fuel oil in the Mozambique Channel. A further 3,000 tonnes leaked from the ship while it was aground. The true environmental disaster would take place with the loss of the ship some 9 days later.

~1998 - Died this day: Lady Linda McCartney, American photographer, social activist, musician, beloved wife of Sir Paul (b. 1941).

~2002 - 4 Canadian Forces soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by "friendly fire" from two U.S. Air Force F-16s.

~2006 – A 21 year old Palestinian suicide bomber, at the behest of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, detonated and blew himself up in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 11 and injuring 70 people.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 18th



~1161 – Died this day: Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. circa 1090).

~1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica was laid, construction of the church lasted until November of 1626.

~1518 – In Krakow, 24 year old Bona Sforza married the widowed Polish King Sigismund I the Old (he was 51) and was crowned as queen consort of Poland.

~1521 - Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that had led to his excommunication.

~1689 - The residents of Boston ousted their governor, Edmond Andros.

~1775 – The Battles of Lexington and Concord: Joseph Warren told William Dawes and Paul Revere that the King's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safe, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Revere, Dawes and Samuel Prescott were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.

~1797 – During the War of the First Coalition, the Battle of Neuwied was fought. It resulted in the victory of French forces under General Louis Lazare Hoche against a much smaller Austrian army led by General Franz Freiherr von Werneck. The Austrians lost 10,000 men in the engagement while French losses were less than 1,000.

~1831 – The University of Alabama opened its doors to students.

~1848 – The Battle of Cerro Gordo was fought in the Mexican-American War. General Winfield Scott's US troops outflanked and drove Santa Anna's larger Mexican army from a strong defensive position. While the Mexican casualties numbered 1,000 killed and wounded with an additional 3,000 men taken prisoner, U.S. casualties comprised of only 64 killed and 353 wounded.

~1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned on April 20th and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23rd.

~1864 - The Battle of Dybbøl was fought. It was the key battle of the Second War of Schleswig and occurred following a siege of the Danish town lasting from April 7th. Denmark suffered a severe defeat against the German Confederation which decided the war.

~1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. Before Cros had a chance to follow up on this idea or attempt to construct a working model, Thomas Edison introduced his first working phonograph in the USA. Edison used a cylinder covered in tinfoil for his first phonograph, patenting this method for reproducing sound on January 15, 1878. Edison and Cros apparently did not know of each other's work in advance.

~1880 – A tornado measuring F4 on the Fujita scale struck Marshfield, Missouri. Its damage path was 800 yards (730 m) wide and 64 miles (103 km) long. The tornado killed 99 people and injured 100 more. 10% of Marshfield's residents were killed and all but 15 of its buildings were destroyed.

~1899 – The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

~1902 – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Guatemala. Damage was widespread and the city of Quetzaltenango was virtually destroyed. 900 people died in the shaker and up to 3,500 more were injured.

~1906 – The San Francisco Earthquake: The magnitude 7.9 earthquake and resulting fire left the city in total ruin with over 3,000 dead and injuries so numerous that an accurate count has never been made. The San Andreas Fault ruptured both northward and southward for a total of 296 miles (477 km) with shaking being felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada.

~1909 – Joan of Arc was beatified in Rome.

~1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived with 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic aboard.

~1915 – The fuel line of French pilot Roland Garros' fighter plane clogged and he glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I. His captured plane was equipped with a tractor propeller and German aircraft engineers, led by Anthony Fokker, used what they learned from this to help desig the improved interrupter gear system for forward firing machine guns. This new system would give the German fighter aircraft a distinct advantage over their Allied fighter adversaries.

~1916 - The Revenge-class battleship HMS Royal Sovereign (05) received her commission from the Royal Navy.

~1923 – Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," opened in New York City. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox (as usual) 4-1.

~1924 – Simon & Schuster publishes the first Crossword puzzle book.

~1942 – The Doolittle Raid on Japan took place. 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers were launched from the pitching deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep within enemy waters. The plan called for them to hit military targets in Japan, and land in China. All of the aircraft involved in the bombing were lost and 11 crewmen were either killed or captured. One of these B-25s landed in Soviet territory where its crew remained interned for more than a year. The entire crews of 13 of the 16 aircraft, and all but one of a 14th, returned to the United States or to Allied control. The raid caused little material damage to Japan, but succeeded in its goal of helping American morale. It also caused Japan to withdraw a carrier group from the Indian Ocean to defend their homeland and contributed to Japan's decision to attack Midway. Up to 250,000 Chinese were killed by Japanese retaliatory measures.

~1943 – Operation Vengeance, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was killed when his aircraft was shot down by US P-38 Lightnings over Bougainville Island in the South Pacific. US Naval Intelligence had intercepted and deciphered a Japanese memo that gave the itinery of Yamamoto and knew just where and when to find him.

~1943 - The Palm Sunday Massacre: During the final phase of the North African Campaign, a convoy of 59 Luftwaffe troop transport Junkers Ju 52s were jumped by RAF Spitfires and 24 of them were shot down, another 35 staggered back to Sicily where they crash landed. Lightly armed and with a top speed of only 265 km/h (165 mph), which was only half that of a contemporary Spitfire, the Ju 52 was very vulnerable to fighter attack and an escort was always necessary when flying in a combat zone. This day, though, the fighter escort did them no good.

~1944 - The Soviet ground attack aircraft Ilyushin Il-10 (developed near the end of World War II) made its maiden flight. The heavily armed & armored strike plane proved exceptionally effective at annihilating Axis materiel and personel during its relatively short World War II service stint. 6166 of the type would be built before production ended in 1949.

~1945 – 969 RAF bombers attacked the small island of Heligoland, Germany. The Naval base, airfield, & town were bombed into crater-pitted moonscapes. 3 bombers were lost in the raid.

~1945 - Famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle died on Ie Shima, an island off Okinawa Honto, after being hit by Japanese machine gun fire. He was travelling in a jeep with Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Coolidge (commanding officer of the 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division) and 3 other men. The road, which ran parallel to the beach 200-300 yards inland, had been cleared of mines and hundreds of vehicles had driven over it. As the jeep reached a road junction, an enemy machine gun located on a coral ridge about 1/3 of a mile away began firing at them. The men stopped their vehicle and jumped into a ditch. Pyle and Coolidge raised their heads to look around for the others. When they spotted them, Pyle smiled and asked Coolidge "Are you all right?" Those were his last words. The machine gun began shooting again, and Pyle was struck in the left temple. The colonel called for a medic, but none were present. It made no difference as Pyle had been killed instantly.

~1949 – The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) was laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the aircraft carrier was canceled 5 days later by US Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.

~1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act of 1948 came into effect. It is an Act of the Oireachtas which declared that the state, Ireland, is a republic and that the President of Ireland has executive authority of any executive function of the state or in the external relations of the state. It repealed the External Relations Act of 1936, which had declared that George VI of the United Kingdom and his successors should exercise that authority. As a consequence, Ireland ceased to be a Dominion of the Crown.

~1954 – Gamal Abdal Nasser seized power in Egypt, appointing himself Prime Minister.

~1955 - Died this day: Albert Einstein, renowned German (later American) physicist (b. 1879).

~1955 – Representatives of 29 nations met at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.

~1956 - Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco were married in a 40 minute civil ceremony took place in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco.

~1961 – The Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP) is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.)

~1974 – The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurated Lahore Dry Port.

~1979 - The reality TV show "Real People" premiered on NBC.

~1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) was recognized, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.

~1981 – The Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings, two teams from the Triple-A International League, played the longest game in professional baseball history at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game was suspended at 4:00 the next morning and finally completed on June 23rd.

~1983 – A suicide bomber destroyed the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

~1985 - Ted Turner filed for a hostile takeover of CBS. (That stunt landed ya' with a lot of egg on your face, didn't it, Teddy!)

~1988 – The United States launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retalliation for the Iranian mining of international waters that saw the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts severly damaged on April 14th. Praying Mantis was the largest U.S. surface engagement since World War II.

~1996 – The Qana Mmassacre took place in Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when Israeli artillery bombarded the area of a UN compound. Of the 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound to escape the fighting, 106 were killed and a further 116 injured. 4 Fijian United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon soldiers were also seriously injured. The incident took place amid heavy fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah during "Operation Grapes of Wrath". A United Nations military investigation later determined it was unlikely that Israeli shelling of the U.N. compound was the result of technical or procedural errors. A seperate NATO investigation determined that the attack was deliberate. (And just what did the absolutely worthless UN do about this? As usual, not a damned thing except pass a resolution...it's all they're good for.)

~2002 - The Amtrack Auto Train derailed in a remote area of north Florida. 4 people were killed and 133 were injured.

~2007 – In the case of Gonzales v. Carhart the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5 to 4 decision. The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act defines "partial-birth abortion" as follows:

"An abortion in which the person performing the abortion, deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus; and performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus." (18 U.S. Code 1531)

~2007 – A series of 5 car bomb attacks occurred across Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring another 251. The attacks targeted mainly Shia locations and civilians. The Sadriya market had already been struck by a massive truck bombing on February 3rd, 2007 and was in the process of being rebuilt when the attack took place. The bombings were reminiscent of the level of violence before Operation Law and Order was implemented to secure the Iraqi capital in February of 2007.

...

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

Never mind.....!

This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 19th



~1012 - Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by his Viking captors Danes after he refused to allow himself to be ransomed.

~1054 – Died this day: Pope Leo IX (b. 1002).

~1390 – Died this day: King Robert II of Scotland, first monarch of the House of Stewart (b. 1316).

~1689 – Died this day: Queen Christina of Sweden (b. 1626).

~1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, if he should have one. This proved a wise move as, finally (in 1717), his daughter Maria Theresa of Austria was born.

~1764 - The English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.

~1770 – The expedition of Captain James Cook reached the eastern coast of Australia, the first recorded Europeans to do so.

~1770 – Marie Antoinette was married Louis XVI in a proxy wedding. (Ya' know, if there's one thing in life 2 people should show up for...you'd think it would be their marriage.)

~1775 – The Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord. The engagements ended with a Colonial victory and the Redcoats withdrawing to Boston. (Standing by the Old North Bridge and looking across the field where the battle took place leaves you with a feeling that's hard to describe.)

~1782 – John Adams secured the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands became the first American embassy.

~1794 - The Warsaw Uprising: The Polish garrison of Warsaw, led by Jan Kiliński and aided by the civilian population, expelled the Russians troops from the city.

~1809 - The first Battle of Raszyn was fought between the army of the Austrian Empire led by Archduke Ferdinand and the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw commanded by Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski, as a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in the Napoleonic Wars. The Austrian army was totally defeated in this battle.

~1809 – The Battle of Teugen-Hausen was fought in Bavaria and resulted in a French victory by the forces of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout over divisions of the Austrian Army of Archduke Charles. The battle was the first engagement of a 4 day campaign which culminated in the French victory at the Battle of Eckmühl.

~1810 – Vicente Emparan, although a well liked Governor of the Captaincy General in Venezuela, was removed from power by the people of Caracas and a Junta was installed.

~1839 – The Treaty of London (1 of at least 18 treaties by that name) was signed by the European Great Powers, establishing Belgium as an independant and neutral kingdom.

~1861 – The Baltimore riot of 1861: Confederate sympathizers attacked members of the Massachusetts militia marching through Baltimore en route to Washington for Federal service. In response, several soldiers fired into the mob and chaos immediately ensued as a giant brawl began between the soldiers, the violent mob and the Baltimore police. This incident is regarded by historians as the first bloodshed of the American Civil War.

~1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports.

~1882 – Died this day: Charles Darwin, English biologist and creator of the Theory of Evolution (b. 1809).

~1892 – Charles Duryea claimed to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts. (I'm not buying this...John William Lambert initially designed and built his "horseless carriage" gasoline automobile in 1890.)

~1897 - The first annual Boston Marathon was held. It was the first of its type in the U.S.

~1915 - The Kongo class battlecruiser Haruna was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Haruna underwent two major reconstructions during her maritime career. The first of these, in 1926, rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armour and improving her speed and power capabilities. The second, in 1933, completely rebuilt her superstructure, upgraded her speed capabilities and equipped her with floatplanes. Capable of the speeds necessary to accompany Japan's carrier fleet, Haruna was reclassified as a fast battleship following her second reconstruction. Haruna fought in almost every major naval action of the Pacific Theatre during World War II.

~1919 – Leslie Irvin made the first premeditated free fall parachute descent. The parachute that was used was designed by Floyd Smith and made by Major EC Hoffman from the U.S. Air Service Engineering Division. What was notable was that the parachute was deployed from a backpack using a 'rip cord' rather from a canister attached to the aircraft. ("...Well I'm, sad to say, he die dat day...fell to earth in an awful way, he make da' nasty sound when he hit da' ground...an' messy stuff get splattered now all around!..." OK, I'll stop now.)

~1927 – In New York, Mae West was prosecuted on morals charges for her play Sex and was sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth". She served 8 days with 2 days off for good behavior.

~1928 – The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. (I had a facicle once, but the chain broke and the tire went flat...it was slow after that.)

~1936 – The Great Uprising in Palestine began against colonial rule.

~1942 – In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto was established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

~1943 – In Poland, German troops entered the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews for deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp. This triggered the most significant portion of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

~1943 – Bicycle Day: Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately toook LSD for the first time. He had one MOTHER of a bad trip after dropping 250 mikes of Sid, and rode his bicycle home while high. (Ooooo...like, it was so Surreallllll!!!)

~1945 - British forces, rapidly advancing into Germany, captured an airworthy Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger single engine jet fighter. It was the first intact He 162 to fall into Allied hands. The plane became the basis of an in-depth technical investigation and careful dismantling, providing the Allies with valuable technological information about this, the world's fastest first generation jet fighter. Some of the knowledge gained was applied to British and American fighter designs already under development.

~1950 – Argentina became a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. (Just thought I'd mention that in case there's actually somebody out there who gives a rat's ass.)

~1951 - US General Douglas MacArthur gave his "Old Soldiers" speech before the U.S. Congress. In the address General MacArthur said that "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."

~1954 – The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decided Urdu and Bengali would be the national languages of Pakistan. (Just thought I'd mention that in case there's actually somebody out there who...)

~1955 – The German automaker Volkswagen, after 6 years of selling cars in North America, founded Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.

~1960 – The April 19th Movement: Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee. It led to the peaceful resignation of Rhee and the transition to the Second Republic. The events were touched off by the discovery of a body in Masan Harbor, that of a student killed by a tear gas shell in demonstrations against the elections of March.

~1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ended in total defeat for the CIA backed Cuban exiles.

~1971 – Vietnam Veterans Against the War began a 5 day demonstration in Washington, D.C. It was referred to by the participants as "a limited incursion into the country of Congress."

~1971 – Salyut 1 (DOS-1), the first space station of any kind, was launched by USSR. It was launched unmanned and lifted into orbit using a Proton-K rocket. Its first crew came later in Soyuz 10 but was unable to dock completely. The second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 days. Salyut 1 remained in orbit for 6 months.

~1971 – Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten were sentenced to death for the Tate-LaBianca murders.

~1975 – India's first satellite Aryabhata was launched by the Soviet Union from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle. Aryabhata was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to gain experience in building and operating a satellite in space. Unfortunately a power failure halted experiments after 4 days in orbit and all signals from the spacecraft were lost after 5 days of operation. The satellite reentered the Earth's atmosphere on February 11th, 1992 and burnt up.

~1985 – The U.S.S.R performed a massive nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.

~1987 – The Simpsons premiered as a short cartoon on Fox's "The Tracey Ullman Show".

~1987 - In Phoenix, Arizona, skydiver Gregory Robertson went into a 200 mph free-fall to save an unconscious colleague, 3,500 feet above the ground.

~1987 - The last California Condor known to be in the wild was captured and placed with 21 other condors captured earlier. These 22 birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors have been reintroduced into the wild. The project is the most expensive species conservation project ever undertaken in the United States.

~1989 – A turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16 inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. (The Navy's public response to this was nothing short of disgusting as they tried to blame it all on a sailor killed in the disaster.)

~1993 – The 51 day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas endeds when fire erupted inside the structure. 81 people died in the ensuing inferno.

~1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and 7 others were killed when a state owned aircraft crashed. The plane, a Mitsubishi MU-2 turboprop, reported engine trouble while flying near Dubuque, Iowa and smashed into a farm silo about 9 miles south of the city. All aboard the aircraft were killed. After the crash, Mickelson was succeeded as Governor by then Lieutenant Governor Walter Dale Miller.

~1995 – The Oklahoma City Bombing: A bomb attack was made on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City an American militia movement sympathizer who detonated an explosive filled truck parked in front of the building. His co-conspirator had assisted in the bomb preparation. The bombing was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11th, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6 and injured more than 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16 block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. The truck bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.

~1997 – The Red River Flood of 1997: Flood waters overwhelmed the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire then broke out and spread throughout the downtown core but high water levels hampered efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.

~2000 - Air Philippines Flt. 541, a Boeing 737 with 131 passengers and crew members aboard, left Manila at 05:21 AM flying to Davao City about 600 miles southeast of Manila. As it approached the airport another aircraft was on the runway. Flt. 541 began to circle in low clouds, waiting for the plane on the ground to move off the runway. While circling, it slammed into the side of a mountain 500 feet above sea level. The plane caught fire and disintegrated, killing everyone on board. To date this remains the deadliest air disaster in Philippine history.

~2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,

April 20th



~1139 - The Second Lateran Council opened in Rome.

~1303 – Sapienza University of Rome was founded as La Sapienza with the bull In supremae praeminentia dignitatis by Pope Boniface VIII, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies more under his control than the universities of Bologna and Padua.

~1314 – Died this day: Pope Clement V (b. 1264).

~1521 – Died this day: Zhengde, Chinese Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (b. 1491).

~1534 - The Catholic nun, Sister Elizabeth Barton, was executed as a result of her prophecies regarding the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn, which had taken place against the wishes of the Pope.

~1534 – Jacques Cartier's expedition set sail on their voyage that would see them discover and map the lands north of Nova Scotia. No Europeans had been here since the Norsemen some 500 years earlier.

~1535 – The Sun Dog phenomenon was observed over Stockholm and depicted in the famous oil on panel painting "Vädersolstavlan", by Urban Målare.

~1653 – Oliver Cromwell, in total disgust, dissolved the Rump Parliament.

~1657 – At Santa Cruz de Tenerife, an English naval fleet led by Admiral Robert Blake destroyed a Spanish silver fleet of 16 ships while under heavy fire from the Spaniards' ships and the defensive shore batteries.

~1769 - In Cahokia, Ottawa Chief Pontiac was murdered by an Illinois Indian, possibly in retaliation for an earlier attack led by Pontiac.

~1792 – France declared war on Austria after a long list of grievances was presented to the Legislative Assembly by foreign minister Dumouriez. This marked the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.

~1809 – 2 Austrian army corps in Bavaria were defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Abensberg, on the 2nd day of a 4 day campaign which would end with a French victory.

~1818 – The case of Ashford v Thornton was concluded, with Abraham Thornton allowed to go free after his demand for "trial by battle" was upheld but turned down by his accuser.

~1828 – René Caillié becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou and live to tell about it.

~1832 - In central Arkansas adjacent to the city of Hot Springs, Hot Springs Reservation was created by an act of the US Congress, the area was made a national park on March 4th, 1921. It is the smallest national park by area in the United States.

~1841 - In Philadelphia, Edgar Allen Poe's first detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," was published in Graham's Magazine.

~1861 – Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army. He assumed command of the Virginia state forces 3 days later.

~1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard completed the first pasteurization tests. The process was originally conceived as a way of preventing wine and beer from souring.

~1884 – Pope Leo XIII promulgated the encyclical Humanum Genus. Coming in the ascent of the industrial age (and Marxism), it posited that the late 19th Century was a dangerous era for Christians, and condemned Freemasonry as well as a number of beliefs and practices allegedly associated with Freemasonry, including naturalism, popular sovereignty which does not recognize God, and the idea that the state should be "without God". Some of the encyclical's strictures remain in force today.

~1908 – The opening day of competition for the Sydney premiership of the New South Wales Rugby League. 9 teams contested the initial season.

~1912 - Died this day: Bram Stoker, Irish author (b. 1847). (It's believed that he died from the bite of a vampire...)

~1912 – It was opening day for both of baseball's Tiger Stadium in Detroit and Fenway Park in Boston.

~1914 – The Ludlow Massacre: 19 people died during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado. The murders occurred after a day long fight between strikers and the Guard. 2 women and 11 children were asphyxiated and burned to death while 3 union leaders and 2 strikers were killed by gunfire, along with one child. A passer-by and one National Guardsman were also killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard. Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument in memory of the miners and their families who died that day.

~1916 – The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings.

~1916 - The British battlecruiser (large light cruiser) HMS Glorious was launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast. She would serve through World War I before being converted to the infamous aircraft carrier that fought against Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the evacuation from Norway in 1940.

~1918 – The Red Baron: Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen scored his 79th and 80th kills, marking his final victories before his death the following day.

~1939 – Billie Holiday recorded her most famous and moving song "Strange Fruit", on the Commodore label. It would go on to become an anthem of the civil rights movement.

~1942 - In a radio broadcast, Pierre Laval Premier of Vichy France, established a policy of "true reconciliation with Germany." (Ah yes; Laval and Nazi Germany...that pair truly deserved one another.)

~1945 – US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

~1945 – The Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler made his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

~1945 - The Battle of Berlin began when the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov started shelling Berlin's city centre from just outside the city limits. Meanwhile Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front had pushed in the north through the last formations of the German Army Group Centre.

~1947 – Died this day: King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870).

~1953 - Operation Little Switch began in Korea. It was the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. The U.N. released 6,670 Chinese and North Korean prisoners while Communist forces returned 684 U.N. coalition prisoners (including 149 Americans).

~1962 - The New Orleans Citizens' Council offered a free one way ride for blacks to move to northern states.

~1964 – BBC Two failed to launch as scheduled due to a power cut caused by a fire at Battersea Power Station. Programming began at 11:00 hrs. the next day.

~1968 – English politician Enoch Powell, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West, made his controversial "Rivers of Blood speech" regarding British immigration policies.

~1972 – Despite a malfunction in the Command Module which almost aborted the lunar landing, Apollo 16 (the 10th manned mission in the Apollo program) landed successfully in the Descartes Highlands of the Moon.

~1977 - Woody Allen's production "Annie Hall" was released. Allen starred opposite Diane Keaton in this romantic comedy film that went on to win 4 Academy Awards.

~1978 – Korean Air Flight 902, a Boeing 707, was shot down by Soviet fighters after it inadvertantly strayed into Soviet airspace; even though the flight crew had identified themselves to the Soviet military. While 107 on board the airliner survived the forced landing onto a frozen lake, 2 passengers were killed by the attack of the Su-15 interceptors.

~1980 – The climax of Berber Spring in Algeria. The coordinated arrest of hundreds of Berber activists, students and doctors, sparked a general strike against the Arab nationalist FLN dictatorship government. The government refused to acknowledge Berber culture and banned the Berber language.

~1986 – Basketball great Michael Jordan set an all time record for points in an NBA playoff game by scoring 63 against the Boston Celtics.

~1992 - Expo '92, opened in Seville, Spain.

~1998 – The German terrorist group Red Army Faction announced their dissolution after 28 years of creating carnage and mayhem.

~1999 – The Columbine High School Massacre: A pair of senior students killed 13 people and injured 24 others in an armed attack before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado.

~2007 – A whack job with a handgun barricaded himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas after killing one man and taking a woman hostage. After his hostage managed to escape he turned the gun on himself. Police said the headcase was under review for poor job performance and he feared being dismissed.

~2008 – Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first woman driver in history to win an Indy car race. (Ya' see...she's not only beautiful, she's blinding fast!)

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This post has been edited at member's request.Ron,