Fun On this date in history...

April 19:

65 – The freedman Milichus betrayed Piso’s plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators were arrested.
1012 – Martyrdom of Ælfheah in Greenwich, London.
1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: The Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism; a group of rulers and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
1770 – Captain James Cook sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world.
1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C..
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.
1985 – U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.
1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.
1993 – The 51 day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murderer Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to one of the bombers, Timothy McVeigh, is executed in Arkansas.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope John Paul II. The new Pope takes on the regnal name Benedict XVI.

Births:

1613 – Christoph Bach, court musician, grandfather of Johann Sebastian Bach
1793 – Ferdinand I of Austria
1903 – Eliot Ness, American lawman
1930 – Dick Sargent, American actor
1933 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress
1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian, and composer
1936 – Jack Pardee, American football player and coach
1946 – Tim Curry, British actor
1949 – Paloma Picasso, French-Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman
1956 – Randy Carlyle, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Spike Owen, American baseball player
1968 – Ashley Judd, American actress
1968 – Mswati III, King of Swaziland
1977 – Joe Beimel, American baseball player
1978 – James Franco, American actor
1979 – Kate Hudson, American actress
1981 – Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor
1981 – Martin Havlat, Czech ice hockey player
1981 – Troy Polamalu, American football player (GO STEELERS!!!)
1983 – Zack Duke, American baseball player
1983 – Joe Mauer, American baseball player

Deaths:

1054 – Pope Leo IX
1321 – Gerasimus I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
1689 – Christina of Sweden
1733 – Elizabeth Villiers, mistress of William III of England
1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist
1906 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1989 – Dame Daphne du Maurier, British novelist
1993 – David Koresh, American religious leader of Branch Davidians


Today is also "Bicyle Day" Huh.

 

April 20:

1453 – The last naval battle in Byzantine history occurs, as three Genoese galleys escorting a Byzantine transport fight their way through the huge Ottoman blockade fleet and into the Golden Horn.
1534 – Jacques Cartier begins the voyage during which he discovers Canada and Labrador.
1535 – The Sun dog phenomenon observed over Stockholm and depicted in the famous painting "Vädersolstavlan".
1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
1657 – Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1689 – The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
1770 – The Georgian king Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: the Siege of Boston begins, following the battles at Lexington and Concord.
1861 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment falsifying the theory of spontaneous generation.
1902 – Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
1914 – 19 men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.
1926 – Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
1939 – Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
1946 – The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.
1951– Dan Gavriliu performs the first surgical replacement of a human organ.
1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
1984 – The Good Friday Massacre, an extremely violent ice hockey playoff game, is played in Montreal, Canada.
1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.
2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

Births:

1586 – Saint Rose of Lima
1633 – Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan
1808 – Napoleon III of France
1879 – Paul Poiret, French couturier
1889 – Adolf Hitler, Dictator of Nazi Germany, most evil person to ever walk the face of the earth
1923 – Mother Angelica, American nun and broadcaster, aka the Pirate Nun
1937 – George Takei, American actor (YAY GEORGE!!!)
1941 – Ryan O'Neal, American actor
1943 – Edie Sedgwick, American actress
1949 – Jessica Lange, American actress
1951 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer
1958 – Viacheslav Fetisov, Russian ice hockey player
1961 – Don Mattingly, American baseball player
1964 – Andy Serkis, English actor
1971 – Allan Houston, American basketball player
1972 – Carmen Electra, American actress
1976 – Joey Lawrence, American actor
1980 – Chris Duffy, American baseball player
1983 – Danny Granger, American basketball player
1984 – Anthony Fasano, American football player
1985 – Brent Seabrook, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths:

1314 – Pope Clement V
1517 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed, Voivode of Moldavia
1521 – Zhengde Emperor of China
1769 – Chief Pontiac, Ottawa leader
1912 – Bram Stoker, Irish author
1931 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet, Scottish fencer, landowner and survivor of RMS Titanic
1935 – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer, Titanic survivor and wife of Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon
1947 – Christian X of Denmark
1991 – Don Siegel, American director
1992 – Benny Hill, English comedian
1996 – Christopher Robin Milne, English bookseller, son of A. A. Milne
1999 – Cassie Bernall, American student, victim of the Columbine High School massacre
1999 – Rick Rude, American wrestler
1999 – Rachel Joy Scott, American student, victim of the Columbine High School massacre and inspiration for Rachel's Challenge

Today is Unofficial "It must really suck to share a birthday with Hitler" Day.
It's also International cannabis culture holiday. Cool!

 

At least you get to smoke pot to forget about Hitler, I guess...

 

April 21:

753 BC – Romulus founded Rome
43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
571 – Prophet Muhammad was born in Makkah.
1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto – Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1863 – Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declares his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest".
1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).
1967 – Greek military junta of 1967–1974: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
1975 – Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
1989 – Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

Births: (lotta athletes born today, it seems)

1651 – Joseph Vaz, Indian priest, Apostle of Ceylon
1673 – Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick, Holy Roman Empire Empress
1816 – Charlotte Brontë, English author
1862 – John Thayer, American cricketer, (RMS Titanic victim)
1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman and entrepreneur, invented Clearasil and founded Combe Incorporated
1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor
1926 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the Commonwealth Realms and Head of the Commonwealth (God Save The Queen!)
1936 – James Dobson, American evangelist, author, and psychologist, founder of Focus on the Family, bigotted douchenozzle
1936 – Reggie Fleming, Canadian ice hockey player
1939 – Helen Prejean, American author and activist
1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1948 – Gary Condit, American politician, probably a murderer too
1949 – Patti LuPone, American singer and actress
1951 – Tony Danza, American actor
1957 – Jesse Orosco, American baseball player
1958 – Andie MacDowell, American actress
1959 – Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and musician
1962 – Craig Robinson, American basketball player and coach
1963 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player
1965 – Ed Belfour, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 – Nicole Sullivan, American actress
1980 – Vincent Lecavalier, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Tony Romo, American football player
1982 – Khalif Barnes, American football player
1982 – Carnell Williams, American football player
1983 – Tarvaris Jackson, American football player
2007 – Princess Isabella of Denmark

Deaths:

586 – Liuvigild, king of the Visigoths
941 – Bajkam, commander of commanders of the Abbasid Caliphate
1073 – Pope Alexander II
1142 – Pierre Abélard, French writer
1509 – Henry VII of England (as mentioned above)
1910 – Mark Twain, American author and humorist
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, German pilot (as mentioned above)
1922 – Alessandro Moreschi, Italian singer, the last Castrati and the only one to have made sound recordings
1946 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist
1971 – François Duvalier, aka Papa Doc, Haitian politician, 40th President of Haiti
1985 – Foster Hewitt, Canadian radio broadcaster
1989 – Deokhye, Princess of Korea
1990 – Erté, French artist
2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims

 

^I thought Far And Away was a good movie.

 

Wow!

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.

 

Dead Kennedys

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 25, 1945, the United Nations Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco.

 

Wow, big day in history. Please tell me you're trolling me?

 

April 25:

404 BC – Peloponnesian War: Lysander's Spartan Armies defeated the Athenians and the war ends.
1134 – The name Zagreb was mentioned for the first time in the Felician Charter relating to the establishment of the Zagreb Bishopric around 1094.
1644 – The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming Dynasty China, commits suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
1707 – The Habsburg army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
1847 – The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1849 – The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
1915 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins—The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
1916 – Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
1945 – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 – The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini tries to escape. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1965 – Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.
1966 – The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 – American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1990 – Violeta Chamorro takes office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position.
2003 – The Human Genome Project comes to an end two and a half years earlier than expected.
2005 – 107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
2007 – Boris Yeltsin's funeral – the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.

Births:

1214 – Louis IX of France
1284 – Edward II of England
1599 – Oliver Cromwell, English military and politician, murdering douchebag who even cancelled Christmas
1843 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria, mother of Empress Alexandra of Russia, maternal great-grandmother of Prince Philip.
1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor and developed Marconi's law, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
1897 – Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
1902 – Mary Miles Minter, American actress. She became embroiled in a scandal involving the murder of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922. (The case remains unsolved)
1906 – William J. Brennan, American Supreme Court Justice
1908 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist.
1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, American singer
1932 – Meadowlark Lemon, American basketball player
1933 – Joyce Ricketts, American baseball player. She was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and played for the Grand Rapids Chicks.
1940 – Al Pacino, American actor
1941 – Princess Muna al-Hussein, nee Antoinette Avril Gardiner, second wife of King Hussein of Jordan
1945 – Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (ABBA)
1946 – Talia Shire, American actress
1952 – Vladislav Tretiak, Soviet ice hockey player
1955 – Zev Siegl, American businessman, co-founded Starbucks
1961 – Dinesh D'Souza, American author
1964 – Hank Azaria, American actor, director, and comedian
1969 – Darren Woodson, American football player
1969 – Renée Zellweger, American actress
1970 – Jason Lee, American actor
1975 – Jacque Jones, American baseball player
1976 – Tim Duncan, American basketball player
1982 – Brian Barton, American baseball player
1983 – DeAngelo Williams, American football player
1983 – J.P. Howell, American baseball player

Deaths:

68 – Mark the Evangelist, the first Pope of Alexandria and the founder of Church of Alexandria
501 – Rusticus, French archbishop
1077 – Géza I of Hungary
1566 – Diane de Poitiers, French noblewoman, mistress of King Henry II of France
1605 – Naresuan, King of the Ayutthaya Kingdom
1644 – Chongzhen Emperor of China
1744 – Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer (yes, THAT Celsius!)
1878 – Anna Sewell, English author, author of Black Beauty
1919 – Augustus D. Juilliard, American businessman, (Juilliard School is named after him)
1944 – Tony Mullane, Irish-American baseball player
1988 – Valerie Solanas, American writer, attempted assassin of Andy Warhol
1995 – Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer
1998 – Christian Mortensen, Danish-American supercentenarian (at the time of his death, he was oldest man recored to be alive)
2002 – Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (I loved TLC!)
2009 – Bea Arthur, American comedienne, actress, and singer

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.

 

April 26:

1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
1923 – The Duke of York (the future George VI) weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
1989 – People's Daily publishes the People's Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests
1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
2002 – Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).

Births:

121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
1575 – Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France
1648 – Peter II of Portugal
1782 – Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, later Queen Consort of France
1812 – Alfred Krupp, German industrialist
1889 – Anita Loos, American writer (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
1894 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi politician and deputy
1900 – Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist, creator of the Richter scale
1900 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player
1933 – Carol Burnett, American comedian
1938 – Duane Eddy, American guitarist and actor
1956 – Koo Stark, American actress
1963 – Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
1970 – Tionne Watkins, American singer (TLC)
1977 – Tom Welling, American actor
1980 – Jordana Brewster, American actress
1983 – Jessica Lynch, American army private
1988 – Kimber James, American porn actress

Deaths:

499 – Xiao Wen Di, Chinese emperor
1192 – Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan
1478 – Giuliano de' Medici, ruler of Florence (as mentioned above)
1784 – Nano Nagle, Irish nun, founded the Presentation Sisters
1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (as mentioned above)
1945 – Sigmund Rascher, German SS doctor
1946 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger, discoverer of Carlsbad Caverns
1957 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese creator of karate
1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist and founder of aikido
1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress
1973 – Irene Ryan, American actress
1984 – Count Basie, American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer
1989 – Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian

 

2013 - George Jones, American country singer.

 

April 27:

33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.
1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scots army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1749 – First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
1810 – Beethoven composes Für Elise.
1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
1865 – The steamboat SS Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
2011 – The April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.

Births:

1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author, philosopher and womens' rights advocate (mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein)
1791 – Samuel Morse, American inventor and painter, co-inventor of the Morse code
1806 – Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, later Queen Consort of Spain
1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States
1848 – Otto I of Bavaria
1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player
1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis)
1922 – Martin Gray, Polish Holocaust survivor and author
1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor
1926 – Tim LaHaye, American author, fundie nutjob
1927 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.
1932 – Casey Kasem, American actor and radio personality
1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player
1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and musician (B-52s)
1951 – Ace Frehley, American musician and songwriter (KISS)
1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1961 – Andy Schlafly, American attorney and activist, founder of Conservapedia, complete moron
1967 – Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player
1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter, musician, and composer (Belle & Sebastian)
1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player

Deaths:

1272 – Zita, Italian saint
1463 – Isidore of Kiev
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer (as mentioned above)
1605 – Pope Leo XI
1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist
1989 – Konosuke Matsu****a, Japanese industrialist, founder of the Panasonic Corporation
1996 – William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency
2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American actress and singer
2002 – Ruth Handler, American businesswoman, created the Barbie doll
2006 – Julia Thorne, American writer, ex-wife of John Kerry

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 27, 1947, "Babe Ruth Day" at Yankee Stadium was held to honor the ailing baseball star.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 28, 1947, a six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 29, 1992, deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

 

(Hey, better late than never!)
April 29:

711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.
1862 – American Civil War: New Orleans, Louisiana falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
1882 – The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus – is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.
1916 – Easter Rising: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
1945 – World War II: The German army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1945 – World War II: The Captain class frigate HMS Goodall K479 is torpedoed by U-286 outside the Kola Inlet becoming the last ship of the Royal Navy sunk in the European theatre of World War II.
1945 – World War II – Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun commit suicide the following day.
1945 – The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.
1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1968 – The controversial musical Hair opens on Broadway.
1970 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1974 – Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the scandal.
1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
1986 – A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
1991 – A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless.
2004 – Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
2004 – Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
2011 – Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton.

Births:

1636 – Esaias Reusner, German lutenist and composer
1665 – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman and soldier
1727 – Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer, founder of modern ballet
1745 – Oliver Ellsworth, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Chief Justice of the United States
1769 – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Anglo-Irish statesman
1818 – Alexander II of Russia
1868 – Alice Keppel, English socialite and mistress of King Edward VII (also the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall)
1876 – Zewditu I, Empress of Ethiopia
1899 – Duke Ellington, American composer, pianist, and bandleader
1901 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor
1929 – Mickey McDermott, American baseball player
1944 – Princess Benedikte of Denmark
1947 – Tommy James, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1951 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver
1952 – David Icke, English writer, complete and utter nutjob
1954 – Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian
1955 – Kate Mulgrew, American actress
1957 – Daniel Day-Lewis, English-Irish actor
1958 – Eve Plumb, American actress ("Marsha Marsha Marsha!")
1963 – Mike Babcock, Canadian ice hockey coach
1967 – Curtis Joseph, Canadian ice hockey player
1968 – Carnie Wilson, American singer
1970 – Andre Agassi, American tennis player
1970 – Uma Thurman, American actress
1983 – David Lee, American basketball player
1988 – Jonathan Toews, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths:

926 – Burchard II, Duke of Swabia
1380 – Catherine of Siena, Italian saint
1688 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg
1916 – The O'Rahilly, Irish Nationalist and member of the Easter Rising
1980 – Alfred Hitchcock, English director
2006 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist
2007 – Josh Hancock, American baseball player

 

2013 - NBA Player Jason Collins comes out of the closet and becomes (potentially as he's a Free Agent), the first openly gay active male athlete in any of the American Sports Leagues.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.

 

April 30:

311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.
313 – Battle of Tzirallum: Emperor Licinius defeats Maximinus II and unifies the Eastern Roman Empire.
1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
1907 – Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city.
1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1937 – The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.
1938 – The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny).
1938 – The first televised FA Cup Final takes place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
1966 – The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco, California.
1973 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aides H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and others have resigned.
1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
1980 – Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
1993 – Monica Seles is stabbed by Günter Parche, an obsessed fan, during a quarterfinal match of the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany
1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton becomes the first President to visit Northern Ireland.
2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, one of his sisters.
2009 – Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2009 – Seven people are killed and 17 injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix.
2013 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicates and Willem-Alexander is invested as King of the Netherlands.

Births:

1245 – Philip III of France
1651 – Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French educational reformer and Catholic saint
1662 – Mary II of England
1812 – Kaspar Hauser, German mystery boy
1877 – Alice B. Toklas, American businesswoman
1893 – Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Nazi foreign minister
1908 – Eve Arden, American actress
1909 – Juliana of the Netherlands
1923 – Al Lewis, American actor
1926 – Cloris Leachman, American actress
1933 – Willie Nelson, American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and activist
1938 – Gary Collins, American actor
1938 – Larry Niven, American author
1945 – Michael J. Smith, American astronaut
1946 – Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
1959 – Stephen Harper, Canadian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
1960 – David Miscavige, American leader of the Church of Scientology
1961 – Isiah Thomas, American basketball player
1975 – Johnny Galecki, American actor
1980 – Luis Scola, Argentinian basketball player
1982 – Kirsten Dunst, American actress

Deaths:

535 – Amalasuntha, queen of the Ostrogoths
1030 – Mahmud of Ghazni, Indian ruler of the Ghaznavid Dynasty
1063 – Emperor Renzong of Song
1131 – Adjutor, Roman Catholic Saint
1792 – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman, said to be the originator of the sandwich
1879 – Emma Hale Smith Bidamon, American religious leader, wife of Joseph Smith
1883 – Édouard Manet, French painter
1943 – Beatrice Webb, English economist
1945 – Eva Braun, German photographer and office and lab assistant, wife of Adolf Hitler (as noted above)
1945 – Adolf Hitler, most evil man ever to walk the face of the earth (as noted above)
1972 – Gia Scala, English-American actress
1974 – Agnes Moorehead, American actress
1983 – George Balanchine, Russian dancer and choreographer
1989 – Bangja, Crown Princess Euimin of Korea
2007 – Tom Poston, American actor