..Historical Events

[Tania Admin]

I'm always interested in learning about our World History so thought I would start this thread about What Happened Today in History.

Please feel free to add things on the day.

 

[Tania Admin]

On April 18, 1906, at 5:13 AM. An earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing an estimated 3,000 people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.

 

[Tania Admin]

April 19th

1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia

 

[sabredog]

One for Phoebe

April 16th 1956
Grace Kelly becomes Princess Grace by marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco in a 16-minute civil ceremony in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco.

And does any one remember this on the news for several weeks?

April 16th 1993
The FBI ends a 51-day siege by storming the Branch Davidian religious cult headquarters in Waco, Texas.

 

[Tania Admin]

19th April 1884
First royal honour for New Zealand woman

The Royal Red Cross was awarded to Miss Alice Crisp, matron of Auckland Hospital, in a ceremony at Government House, Auckland

 

[Osman]

April 19th

1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia

View attachment 95821

That's funny, I have just been discussing the voyages of James Cook with a girl from New Jersey on Facebook, and how he was stabbed to death by natives in Hawaii in 1779. Fascinating story.

 

[Fat boy]

According to some sources, Joan of Arc received beatification on 19 April 1909 from the Catholic Church.
https://amedievalwomanscompanion.com/joan-of-arc/

 

[Tania Admin]

April 20, 1839. :

George Grey's expedition is saved by friendly Aborigines.

Sir George Edward Grey, born 14 April 1812, was Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony (South Africa), Premier of New Zealand and a writer. Prior to his political career, however, he was an explorer to one of Australia's remotest regions - the northwest.

His first expedition to the area was in late 1837, but was beset with numerous problems including Aboriginal attack and intense heat and humidity (in some areas, over 50 degrees C) compounded by lack of water. He departed on his second expedition to the northwest in February 1839. After discovering the Gascoyne River, the longest in Western Australia, Grey's party continued southwards in two whaleboats. The boats were wrecked in the pounding surf near today's Geraldton, necessitating an arduous journey on foot. Leaving weaker members of the party behind to be rescued later, Grey took five of his men and set off to make a final dash for Perth. They finished all their provisions in four days, and for the next three days, travelled without food or water. They were sustained briefly by a pool of liquid mud until, on 20 April 1839, friendly Aborigines found the party and gave them enough food to regain their strength to continue the journey.

In all, the expedition covered five hundred kilometers on foot. Meanwhile, all but one of the men who had been left back near Geraldton survived to be rescued by a relief party.

 

[Tania Admin]

20th April 1971

India won Cricket Test Rubber' for the first time after defeating West Indies Cricket Team.

 

[Fat boy]

 

[Tania Admin]

View attachment 95954

I was talking about Marie Curie yesterday. Many people think she was French but she was actually Polish.
Their bodies copped a lot of damage from the radiation.

 

[Phoebe]

Columbine High School Shooting.

Link not working so taken down

 

[Fat boy]

I was talking about Marie Curie yesterday. Many people think she was French but she was actually Polish.
Their bodies copped a lot of damage from the radiation.

I wish more recognition can be given to women who has made contributions in all fields to improve humanity.

 

[Fat boy]

On April 21, 1972, Commander John W. Young and Charles M. Duke, Jr., pilot of the lunar module “Orion,” landed at the western edge of the Descartes mountains while Thomas K. Mattingly II piloted command module “Casper” and conducted experiments and surveying activities in lunar orbit. Their descent was delayed by almost six hours because of a malfunction that affected the command and service module’s propulsion system. As a result, their stay on the lunar surface would be slightly shortened, and after they returned to the command module, a day would be shaved off the orbital part of the mission.

 

[Phoebe]

Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in London, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and she was educated privately at home. Wikipedia

Born: 21 April 1926 (age 94 years), Mayfair, London, United Kingdom

 

[Tania Admin]

Tuesday, April 21, 1970. :

The Hutt River province in Western Australia secedes from the Commonwealth of Australia.

The Hutt River Province Principality is a large farming property about 595 km north of Perth, Western Australia, and is about 75 square km in size. It was founded on 21 April 1970 by farmer Leonard George Casley when he and his family and associates proclaimed their secession from Western Australia.

The year 1969 saw the climax of a long-running dispute between Casley and the Western Australian government over what Casley believed to be unreasonable wheat quotas which would spell ruin for his farm, family and business. Casley resorted to an apparent provision in British common law which he felt allowed him to secede and declare independence from the Commonwealth of Australia. Casley was elected administrator of the new "sovereign state" by his family and later became the self-styled His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of Hutt. Exports of the principality include wildflowers, agricultural produce, stamps and coins, while tourism is also important to its economy. Although actual residents are very few, it claims to have a world-wide citizenship of 13,000. Neither Australia nor any other nation has acknowledged recognition of the Province publicly.


On a personal level I have included a photo of a Hutt River Province $1 coin I bought for my collection about 3 weeks before Prince Leonard passed away in February 2019.

 

[Tania Admin]

April 21st 1918

World War I: German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France, Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown credited with the kill .

 

[Fat boy]

22 April 1970, Earth Day was first celebrated. The first Earth Day celebrations took place in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favour of environmental reform. It now is observed in 192 countries, and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, chaired by the first Earth Day 1970 organizer Denis Hayes, according to whom Earth Day is now "the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year".

 

[Madmax1700]

The benefits of lock down

 

[Tania Admin]

22 nd April 1976

Barbara Walters becomes 1st female nightly network news anchor (Today Show)

 

[Osman]

On April 21, 1972, Commander John W. Young and Charles M. Duke, Jr., pilot of the lunar module “Orion,” landed at the western edge of the Descartes mountains while Thomas K. Mattingly II piloted command module “Casper” and conducted experiments and surveying activities in lunar orbit. Their descent was delayed by almost six hours because of a malfunction that affected the command and service module’s propulsion system. As a result, their stay on the lunar surface would be slightly shortened, and after they returned to the command module, a day would be shaved off the orbital part of the mission.
View attachment 96031 View attachment 96032

Yes, Apollo 16. Thomas "Ken" Mattingly was initially assigned to the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission 2 years earlier but was replaced by Jack Swigert as command module pilot because of exposure to German Measles. Amazing to think that was 50 years ago

 

[Fat boy]

23 April 1957
William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
The Merry Wives of Windsor is Shakespeare's lighthearted account of the emerging middle class in Elizabethan England. G. R. Hibbard, in his introduction to Merry Wives states "The play could be considered the Bard's recounting of his world as it was lived in a small country town in 1600." Elizabeth was Queen, and in Shakespeare's play, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford rule their suburban domestic empires with wit, wisdom and strength. In this way these women portray the power of the Elizabethan female during a century where men were assumed dominant.

 

[Fat boy]

23 APRIL 1968
The first decimal coins were introduced in Britain on this day in 1968.
The new 5p and 10p pieces were introduced to replace the one- and two-shilling coins respectively.
However, they would be used alongside the old currency until 1971 when the 240p-per-pound system was replaced by a simpler 100p pound.

 

[dan60]

23 APRIL 1968
The first decimal coins were introduced in Britain on this day in 1968.
The new 5p and 10p pieces were introduced to replace the one- and two-shilling coins respectively.
However, they would be used alongside the old currency until 1971 when the 240p-per-pound system was replaced by a simpler 100p pound.
View attachment 96322

at least the old system gave your brain a bit of a workout.
worked behind the bar for years, didn't need a till to work out the price of a round.
TBH the till didn't add things up (and no, it wasn't a friggin abacus!)
that'll be £4 17s 8p please sir.
most of the barpersons now couldn't add 2 drinks together lol

 

[Tania Admin]

April 23, 1928

Shirley Temple, actress, singer, dancer, businesswoman and diplomat was born

 

[Tania Admin]

April 24th 1922

New Zealand's 1st Poppy Day

A total of 245,059 small poppies and 15,157 larger versions were sold, earning £13,166 (equivalent to more than $1.3 million in 2019). Of that amount, £3695 ($372,000) was sent to help war-ravaged areas of northern France; the remainder went to unemployed New Zealand returned soldiers and their families.

The idea of selling artificial poppies to raise funds for veterans’ organisations was conceived by a French woman, Madame E. Guerin. Her plan was to have widows and orphans in northern France manufacture artificial poppies that could be sold to benefit veterans and destitute children.

After Colonel Alfred S. Moffatt took the idea to the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association in September 1921, an order for 350,000 small and 16,000 large silk poppies was placed with Madame Guerin’s French Children’s League.

Unlike the practice in other countries, the NZRSA did not hold its inaugural Poppy Appeal in association with Armistice Day (11 November). The shipment arrived too late for Poppy Day to be properly promoted prior to Armistice Day, so the NZRSA decided to postpone it until the day before Anzac Day 1922.

The first Poppy Day was a ‘brilliant success’. The annual Poppy Day Appeal – now generally held on the Friday before Anzac Day – has become the NZRSA’s primary means of raising funds for the welfare of returned service personnel and their dependants.

 

[Fat boy]

April 24th 1990: Hubble telescope takes off for space
The American space agency Nasa has successfully launched the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its historic mission to carry the Hubble space telescope into orbit 380 miles (611.5 km) above the Earth.
The telescope will operate from high above the atmosphere, thus avoiding the interference which limits ground-based telescopes.
It will be able to see up to the edge of the known universe, taking images of objects and events which happened up to 14 billion years ago.

 

[Tania Admin]

April 25th 1915



In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The objective was to capture Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was an ally of Germany during the war. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Army commanded by Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk).What had been planned as a bold strike to knock the Ottomans out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. The Allied deaths totalled over 56,000, including 8,709 from Australia and 2,721 from New Zealand. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed to achieve its military objectives of capturing Constantinople and knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war, the actions of the Australian and New Zealand troops during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an "Anzac legend" became an important part of the national identity in both countries. This has shaped the way their citizens have viewed both their past and their understanding of the present. The heroism of the soldiers in the failed Gallipoli campaign made their sacrifices iconic in New Zealand memory, and is often credited with securing the psychological independence of the nation.[

 

[Fat boy]

April 25, 1954: Bell Labs Demonstrates the First Practical Silicon Solar Cell
Solar cells, which convert sunlight into electrical current, had their beginnings more than a hundred years ago, though early solar cells were too inefficient to be of much use. In April, 1954, researchers at Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first practical silicon solar cell.

Calvin S. Fuller at work diffusing boron into silicon to create the world's first solar cell.

 

[Fat boy]

26 April 1986 - Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986, at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and is one of only two nuclear energy disasters rated at 7, the maximum severity, on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.
The Chernobyl accident was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe. Two Chernobyl plant workers died due to the explosion on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation syndrome.