On This Day In History
On this day in 1956, white men attacked Nat King Cole during a segregated performance in Birmingham, Alabama. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/9vpyTdIH6S
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) April 10, 2022
April 11th
1512 Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars
1783 Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War
1868 The Shogunate is abolished in Japan
1955 Chartered Air India plane the “Kashmir Princess” is bombed and crashes into the South China Sea in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by a Kuomintang secret agent
1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act
1979 Tanzanian army captures Kampala, the capital of Uganda forcing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to flee into exile in Libya
2015 Barack Obama and Raúl Castro meet in Panama, the 1st meeting of US and Cuban heads of state since the Cuban Revolution
2019 Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir overthrown and arrested by the army in Khartoum after 29 years in power
Did You Know?
The first modern submarine designed and built by John Philip Holland is purchased by the U.S. Navy
Today in History in 1900
Would You Believe?
Fossilized dinosaur eggs with embryos are discovered in China
Today in History in 2013
This day 124 years ago - 11 April 1896 - Irish tennis player John Boland won both the men's singles and doubles finals in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens.
Boland was also a member of the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party, representing South Kerry from 1900 to 1918. pic.twitter.com/NE2Eiv6Lx6
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) April 11, 2020
In April 1910, a quilt by leading Art Nouveau craftswoman Ann Macbeth was sold to raise funds for the suffragette cause. It was embroidered with the signatures of 80 hunger strikers, and was carried in the 'Prison to Citizenship' march that June. https://t.co/Ruy4HrlhA0 pic.twitter.com/p5sVqiiaeM
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) April 11, 2022
On this day in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson authorized overt racial segregation in federal employment. Federal endorsement of Jim Crow policies was a significant blow to Black civil rights. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/gpncD2CF5U
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) April 11, 2022
April 12th
1204 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople
1811 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington
1927 Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai
1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1)
Did You Know?
Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.
Today in History in 1937
Would You Believe?
Harvard University patents a genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
Today in History in 1988
This day 93 years ago – 12 April 1928 – Capt James Fitzmaurice took off from Baldonnel Aerodrome, Co Dublin as co-pilot of the Bremen, on what would be the first transatlantic flight from east to west.
He and Capt Herman Koehl were honoured with a ticker tape parade in New York. pic.twitter.com/Q2vAvmOSl2
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) April 12, 2021
#OTD in 1799, Fanny Abington appeared on stage for the last time. A superstar comic actor and fashion icon, she played Lady Racket in the after-piece of ‘Three Weeks after Marriage' at Garrick's London theatre. She was often painted by Joshua Reynolds. https://t.co/0ANrTyBRnU pic.twitter.com/I0x7Tm9YzE
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) April 12, 2022
On this day in 1963, Bull Connor ordered dozens of people, including Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and Rev. Abernathy, to be violently arrested during an anti-segregation march in Birmingham, AL. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/bLq8sBU89K
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) April 12, 2022
12 April 1975. Josephine Baker died (aged 68). She was an American-born French entertainer, a French Resistance agent, and a civil rights activist. She was the first Black woman to star in a major picture, the 1927 silent film, Siren of the Tropics. pic.twitter.com/y2JXpMRF11
— Prof Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) April 12, 2022
April 13th
1250 The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France captured
1598 Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots
1860 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento, California
1868 Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide
Did You Know?
Apollo 13 announces "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here", as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
Today in History in 1970
Would You Believe?
New Zealander Colin Bosher shears a record 565 sheep in 1 work day
Today in History in 1964
This day 278 years ago - 13 April 1742 - Handel's Messiah was performed for the first time anywhere in the world in Neal's Musick Hall on Fishamble St, Dublin.
A reporter said, "Words are wanting to express the exquisite delight it afforded to the admiring and crowded Audience.” pic.twitter.com/jmcCbstOBv
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) April 13, 2020
Letitia Clarke traded as a goldsmith and jeweller at the Eagle and Pearl, Holborn in London, c.1790-1802. It was a family trade: she was the daughter of famous silversmith Hester Bateman. Luxury trades like these were often conducted by skilled craftswomen and business women. pic.twitter.com/lAOYvJ1vMJ
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) April 13, 2022
On this day in 1873, a mob of hundreds of armed white men attacked the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, killing an estimated 150 Black people as they tried to flee. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/To2pwewKjf
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) April 13, 2022
April 14th
1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington; he dies a day later
1912 RMS Titanic, the world's largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland, sinks in the early hours of 15 April
1914 Dr. Harry Plotz isolates the bacteria that causes Typhus Fever (Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City)
1935 Black Sunday: Severe dust storm ravages the US Midwest, led to the region being named "the Dust Bowl"
1981 1st Space Shuttle, Columbia 1, returns to Earth
2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%
Did You Know?
Archaeologists announce they have found at Lomekwi in Kenya 3.3 million-year old stone tools, the oldest ever discovered and which pre-date the earliest humans
Today in History in 2015
Would You Believe?
1st detective story published, Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue" (April 1841)
Today in History in 1841
This day 173 years ago – 14 April 1848 – Thomas Francis Meagher publicly unveiled the Irish tricolour to an audience in Dublin, saying:
“I need not explain its meaning... The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the Orange and the Green.” pic.twitter.com/EC9iLyMP6p
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) April 14, 2021