Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
For me, the biggest news event to mark this day is that it is Earth Day. It has come to mean a lot to me over the years, and those who know me, or have been following my posts on this blog, by now understand why. So, it seems appropriate to give a bit of history about Earth Day here, although I will delve much further into the history of Earth Day in another post separate from this one. But this brief history is taken from the History Channel's web page, and here's the link: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches, and educational programs.
Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a staunch environmentalist who hoped to provide unity to the grassroots environmental movement and increase ecological awareness. "The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy," Senator Nelson said, "and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda." Earth Day indeed increased environmental awareness in America, and in July of that year the Environmental Protection Agency was established by special executive order to regulate and enforce national pollution legislation.
On April 22, 1990, the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.
Earth Day has been celebrated on different days by different groups internationally. The United Nations officially celebrates it on the vernal equinox, which usually occurs about March 21.
296 - St Gaius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
536 - St. Agapetus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1056 - Supernova Crab nebula last seen by the naked eye 1073 - Pope Alexander II buried/Ildebrando chosen as Pope Gregory VII
1145 - 19th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1164 - Raynald of Dassel names Guido di Crema as anti-pope Paschalis III
1370 - Bastille begins being built in Paris. Of course, more than four hundred years later, it will be stormed by peasants, and this event will become the biggest, and arguably the most positive, symbol of the French Revolution - a revolution that changed the world, and which many people feel was the true beginning of modernity..
1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral "discovers" Brazil and claims it for Portugal.
1509 - Henry VIII ascended to the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry VII.
1521 - French king Francois I declares war on Spain
1526 - First slave revolt occurs in South Carolina
1529 - Spain and Portugal divided the eastern hemisphere in Treaty of Saragosa.
1616 - Spanish poet Cervantes died in Madrid. (There is some dispute about the date, however, as some believe he died on April 23.)
1648 - English army claims king Charles I responsible for bloodshed
1659 - Lord protector Cromwell disbands English parliament
1671 - King Charles II sits in on English parliament
1745 - The Peace of Fussen was signed, restoring the status quo of Germany. 1792 - U.S. President George Washington proclaimed American neutrality in the war in Europe.
1861 - Robert E. Lee was named commander of Virginia forces.
1864 - The U.S. Congress mandated that all coins minted as U.S. currency bear the inscription "In God We Trust".
1870 - Vladimir Lenin was born.
1876 - The first official National League (NL) baseball game took place. Boston beat Philadelphia 6-5.
1876 - Tsjaikovsky completes his "Swan Lake" ballet
1884 - United States recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
1889 - At noon, the Oklahoma land rush officially started as thousands of Americans raced to stake their claim upon the land.
1893 - Paul Kruger elected president of Transvaal (one of the former Boer states inside of present-day South Africa) for third time
1898 - The first shot of the Spanish-American war occurred when the USS Nashville captured a Spanish merchant ship.
1913 - Montenegro troops march into Skoetari, North-Albania
1914 - Mexico ends diplomatic relations with the United States
1915 - At the Second Battle Ypres the Germans became the first country to use poison gas.
1933 - Dutch government forbids leftwing radio address
1937 - NYC college students stage 4th annual peace strike
1940 - Rear Adm Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable (He was right)
1943 - German counter attack in North-Tunisia
1943 - RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea
1944 - Allies land near Hollandia, New-Guinea
1944 - Hitler & Benito Mussolini meet at Salzburg
1945 - Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated
1947 - 1st NBA Championship: Philadelphia Warriors defeat the Chicago Stags, 4 games to 2
1952 - An atomic test conducted in Nevada was the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.
1954 - The U.S. Senate Army-McCarthy televised hearings began.
1970 - The first "Earth Day" was observed by millions of Americans.
1976 - Barbara Walters became first female nightly network news anchor.
1991 - Johnny Carson announces he will retire next year from Tonight Show
1993 - Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated in Washington DC
1994 - Richard M. Nixon died of a stroke at the age of 81.
2000 - Elian Gonzalez was reunited with his father. He had to be taken from his Miami relatives by U.S. agents in a predawn raid.
2002 - Filippino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a state of emergency in the city of General Santos in response to a series of bombing attacks the day before. The attacks were blamed on Muslim extremists.
Here are the websites that I used much of the information provided to complete this blog entry:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr22.htm
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/on-this-day/
http://www.historyorb.com/today/
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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