On This Day In History
April 27th
1565 1st Spanish settlement in the Philippines forms at Cebu City
1865 Steamboat “SS Sultana” explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.
1904 The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first Labor government in the world
1945 Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini at Dongo (Lake Como)
2005 The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France
Did You Know?
Blind and impoverished, English poet John Milton sells the copyright of “Paradise Lost” for £10
Today in History in 1667
Would You Believe?
RC Duncan patents “Pampers” disposable diaper
Today in History in 1965
April 28th
1611 Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, oldest existing university in Asia and largest Catholic university in the world
1770 British Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, lands at Botany Bay in Australia
1789 Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific
1910 First night air flight by Claude Grahame-White in England
1937 1st commercial flight across Pacific operated by Pan Am
1977 Andreas Baader and members of terrorist group the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang) jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart, Germany
Did You Know?
Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1 Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date
Today in History in 1902
Would You Believe?
Shrek the sheep from Tarras, Central Otago, New Zealand, is finally shorn live on TV after 6 years avoidance; the fleece weighed 27 kg (60 lb)
Today in History in 2004
April 29th
1862 New Orleans falls to Union forces during US Civil War
1864 Battle of Gate Pa (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Maori warriors in Tauranga
1916 Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising
1945 US Army liberates 31,601 people from the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany
1975 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war
1990 Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate
1991 Cyclone strikes the Chittagong district in Bangladesh, killing 139,000 people and leaving 10 million homeless
1997 Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 comes into force, outlaws production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories
Did You Know?
1st edition of Peter Roget‘s Thesaurus published in Great Britain
Today in History in 1852
Would You Believe?
The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV
Today in History in 1953
April 30th
311 Roman Emperor Galerius issues Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
711 Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)
1562 Jean Ribault and colonists arrive in Florida, the first French colonists in North America
1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in NYC
1859 Charles Dickens‘ “A Tale Of Two Cities” is first published in literary periodical “All the Year Round” (weekly installments until Nov 26)
2009 Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Did You Know?
World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee
Today in History in 1989
Would You Believe?
1888 Moradabad hailstorm: hail stones allegedly as big as oranges kill 246 people and some 1600 sheep and cattle in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Today in History in 1888
May 1st
1707 Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain
1753 Publication of “Species Plantarum” by Carl Linnaeus – the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
1840 “Penny Black“, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain
1886 US general strike for 8-hour working day begins
1924 German automobile manufacturers Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie begin their first joint venture (later merge into Mercedes-Benz)
1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City
Did You Know?
Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27
Today in History in 1939
Would You Believe?
US Admiral George Dewey commands “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley” as US rout Spanish fleet at Manila
Today in History in 1898
May 2nd
1945 More than 1,000,000 German soldiers officially surrender to the Western Allies in Italy and Austria
1945 World War II: Battle of Berlin ends as Soviet army takes Berlin forcing German commander of the city general Helmuth Weidling to surrender
1949 Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer Prize for “Death of a Salesman”
1982 Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men
2008 Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless
2011 Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man is killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan
Did You Know?
New research show plants “talk” to each other through their roots and the soil in study on corn published in journal “Plos One”
Today in History in 2018
Would You Believe?
Today’s one isn’t interesting enough to make it here.
May 3rd
1791 Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe
1926 Britain’s Trade Union Congress calls for the country’s first ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support striking coal miners, lasts 9 days
1937 Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With The Wind”
1945 World War II: German ship “Cap Arcona” laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed – one of largest maritime losses of life
1947 Japan’s post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan’s right to make war