Music Legends Neil Young & Paul McCartney Team Up & Perform Beatles Classic Together in Video

Ran into this video over the weekend, and thought it was definitely worth sharing here.

This is Neil Young performing "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles. 

Before long, he is joined by the legendary Paul McCartney, who of course sings the part of the song which was his in the original.

Looked like it was a fun night.

Take a look:

Neil Young & Paul McCartney-A Day In The Life(New Sound)Live From Hyde Park 27th June 2009

Adam Conover Explains How Much of What the Trump Administration Does Has the Specific Intent of Spreading Fear

This video seemed worth sharing.

In it, Adam Conover explains what I have long felt. Specifically, that much of what we are seeing today, with the United States increasingly looking and feeling like a dictatorship, is meant to instill fear in the populace. To stifle dissent, and to make people scared to criticize Trump.

Yet, he also makes a very valid point. Precisely because the Trump regime is trying to set this climate of fear is the reason that it is more important than ever to criticize him. To show that these scare tactics will not work. That American democracy - what remains of it - is worth fighting for, and that one incredibly spoiled and entitled man with clearly authoritarian, anti-democratic tendencies should not be allowed to ruin it for the rest of us. 

Take a look at this video, and see if you don't agree:

You are not safe.

April 28th: This Day in History

 

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!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 357, Emperor Constantius II visited Rome. In 585 on this day, the war between Lydia & Media was ended by a solar eclipse. This day in 1192 marked the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne was confirmed by election. The killing was carried out by Hashshashin. In 1202 on this day, King Philip II threw out John without Country, from France. On this day in 1253, Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounded Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declared it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism. In 1521 on this day during the Treaty of Worms, Emperor Charles named his brother Ferdinand Arch Duke of Netherlands-Austria. The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia" was published on this day in 1686. On this day in 1770, Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay in Australia while aboard the Endeavour. In 1804 on this day, 31 British ships sailed up the Suriname River demanding transition colony from the Dutch. Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine" premiered in Paris on this day in 1865. 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 day in 1902. On this day in 1945, "Il Duce," Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland. In 1965 on this day, U.S. troops landed in the Dominican Republic in an effort to forestall what American President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed would become a "communist dictatorship" in the country, like in Cuba. Johnson sent more than 22,000 U.S. troops to restore order on the island nation. World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army on this day in 1967, and was then immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. On this day in 1969, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France after he was defeated with his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum. In 1970 on this day during the American conflict in Vietnam, American President Richard Nixon formally approved of a Cambodian incursion, effectively widening the war, despite having promised to being an honorable end to the war prior to this.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 357, Emperor Constantius II visited Rome.

• In 585 on this day, the war between Lydia & Media was ended by a solar eclipse.

•  This day in 1192 marked the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne was confirmed by election. The killing was carried out by Hashshashin.

• In 1202 on this day, King Philip II threw out John without Country, from France.

1253 - -May 7th) Utrecht destroyed by fire

• On this day in 1253, Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounded Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declared it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.

1376 - English parliament demands supervision on royal outlay

1503 - Battle at Cerignalo: Spanish army under G Cordoba beats France

• In 1521 on this day during the Treaty of Worms, Emperor Charles named his brother Ferdinand Arch Duke of Netherlands-Austria.

1550 - Powers of Dutch inquisition extends

1611 - Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world.

1635 - Virginia Gov John Harvey accused of treason & removed from office

1655 - English admiral Blake beats Tunen pirate fleet

Bust of Sir Isaac Newton

• The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia" was published on this day in 1686.

Picture of a statue of British explorer Captain James Cook

• On this day in 1770, Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay in Australia while aboard the Endeavour.

1788 - Maryland becomes 7th state to ratify constitution

1789 - Fletcher Christian leads Mutiny on HMS Bounty & Capt William Bligh

1796 - Cease fire of Cherasco

• In 1804 on this day, 31 British ships sailed up the Suriname River demanding transition colony from the Dutch.

1818 - Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on Great Lakes & Lake Champlain

1829 - Dutch parliament accepts new press laws

1847 - George B Vashon becomes 1st black to enter NY State Bar

1848 - Free last slaves in French colonies

1855 - 1st veterinary college in US incorporated in Boston

• Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine" premiered in Paris on this day in 1865.

1892 - 1st performance of Antonin Dvorák's overture "Carneval"

1901 - 1st soccer game between Belgium (8) & Netherlands (0)

1901 - Cleveland's Bock Baker gives up a record 23 singles as White Sox beat Blues (Cleveland Blues!) 13-1

• 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 day in 1902.

1910 - 1st night air flight (Claude Grahame-White, England)

1914 - 181 die in coal mine collapse at Eccles WV

1914 - W H Carrier patents air conditioner

1919 - 1st jump with Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute (Les Irvin)

1920 - Azerbaijan SSR joins USSR (1st time)

1922 - WOI (Ames, Iowa) country's 1st licensed educational radio station

1923 - Wembley Stadium opens-Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United (FA Cup)

1924 - 119 die in Benwood West Virginia coal mine disaster

1925 - Kurdish rebels surrender to Turkish army

1925 - Netherlands & Great Britain return to gold standard

1930 - 1st night organized baseball game played in Independence Kansas

1931 - Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field

1932 - 1st broadcast of "One Man's Family" on NBC-radio

1932 - Yellow fever vaccine for humans announced

32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1934 - FDR signs Home Owners Loan Act

1934 - Soccer team Blue White '34 forms

1934 - Spanish government of Samper forms

1934 - Tigers' Goose Goslin grounds into 4 straight double plays

1935 - Moscow underground opens (81 km long)

1937 - 1st animated cartoon electric sign displayed (NYC)

1937 - 1st commercial flight across Pacific, Pan Am

1939 - Hitler claims German-Polish non-attack treaty still in effect

1940 - Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000"

1940 - Rudolf Hess becomes commandant of concentration camp Auschwitz

1941 - Last British troops in Greece surrender

1942 - "WW II" titled so, as result of Gallup Poll

1942 - Nightly "dim-out" begins along US East Coast

1943 - 1st performance of Marc Blitzstein's "Freedom Morning"

1943 - German-Italian counter offensive in North-Africa

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1943 - US 34th Division occupies Djebel el Hara North Tunisia

1944 - Stalin meets Polish/US priest S Orlemanski

1944 - Exercise "Tiger" ends with 750 US soldiers dead in D-Day rehearsal after their convoy ships were attacked by German torpedo boats

1945 - British commandos attack Elbe & occupies Lauenburg

1945 - US 5th army reaches Swiss border

• On this day in 1945, "Il Duce," Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.    The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the communist partisans, who had been fighting the remnants of roving Italian fascist soldiers and thugs in the north, would try him as a war criminal, he settled on escape to a neutral country.    He and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses.

1947 - Thor Heyerdahl & "Kon-Tiki" sail from Peru to Polynesia

1949 - Bkln, Commish Chandler suspends Durocher but he is absolved on May 3 NY fan charges Leo Durocher with assault after Giants lose 15-2 to

1949 - Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.

1952 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Richmond Golf Open

1952 - St Louis Browns lend 2 black minor leaguers to Hankyu Braves of Japan

1952 - WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect

1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.

1955 - WBIQ TV channel 10 in Birmingham, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - Last French troop leave Vietnam

1956 - Reds Frank Robinson hits his 1st of 586 HRs

Baseball Player and Manager Leo DurocherBaseball Player and Manager Leo Durocher 1957 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Western Golf Open

1957 - WSOC TV channel 9 in Charlotte, NC (ABC) begins broadcasting

1958 - Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

1958 - Vanguard TV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)

1958 - Vice Pres Richard Nixon begins goodwill tour of Latin America

1959 - KLOE TV channel 10 in Goodland, KS (CBS) begins broadcasting

1959 - KPLR TV channel 11 in Saint Louis, MO (IND) begins broadcasting

1960 - "Christine" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 12 performances

1960 - WIPM TV channel 3 in Mayaguez, PR (PBS) begins broadcasting

1960 - Elena Kagan,New York, US Supreme Court Judge

1961 - Lt Col Gueorgui Mossolov takes E-66A to 34,714 m altitude

1961 - Warren Spahn pitches 2nd no hitter at 41 beats SF Giants, 1-0

1963 - Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1963 - 17th Tony Awards: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" win

1964 - Japan joins OECD

Singer-songwriter & Actress Barbra StreisandSinger-songwriter & Actress Barbra Streisand 1965 - Barbra Streisand stars on "My Name is Barbra" special on CBS

1965 - Lindsey Nelson broadcasts game at Astrodome from a hanging gondola

1965 - Richard Helms replaces Marshall S Carter as deputy director of CIA

1965 - US marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966

• In 1965 on this day, U.S. troops landed in the Dominican Republic in an effort to forestall what American President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed would become a "communist dictatorship" in the country, like in Cuba. Johnson sent more than 22,000 U.S. troops to restore order on the island nation. Johnson's action provoked loud protests in Latin America and skepticism among many in the United States.    Troubles in the Dominican Republic began in 1961, when long-time dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated. Trujillo had been a brutal leader, but his strong anticommunist stance helped him retain the support of the United States. His death led to the rise of a reformist government headed by Juan Bosch, who was elected president in 1962. The Dominican military, however, despised Bosch and his liberal policies. Bosch was overthrown in 1963. Political chaos gripped the Dominican Republic as various groups, including the increasingly splintered military, struggled for power. By 1965, forces demanding the reinstatement of Bosch began attacks against the military-controlled government. In the United States government, fear spread that "another Cuba" was in the making in the Dominican Republic; in fact, many officials strongly suspected that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was behind the violence. On April 28, more than 22,000 U.S. troops, supported by forces provided by some of the member states of the Organization of American States (a United Nations-like institution for the Western Hemisphere, dominated by the United States) landed in the Dominican Republic. Over the next few weeks they brought an end to the fighting and helped install a conservative, non-military government.    President Johnson declared that he had taken action to forestall the establishment of a "communist dictatorship" in the Dominican Republic. As evidence, he provided American reporters with lists of suspected communists in that nation. Even cursory reviews of the list revealed that the evidence was extremely flimsy--some of the people on the list were dead and others could not be considered communists by any stretch of the imagination.    Many Latin American governments and private individuals and organizations condemned the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic as a return to the "gunboat diplomacy" of the early-20th century, when U.S. Marines invaded and occupied a number of Latin American nations on the slightest pretexts. In the United States, politicians and citizens who were already skeptical of Johnson's policy in Vietnam heaped scorn on Johnson's statements about the "communist danger" in the Dominican Republic. Such criticism would become more and more familiar to the Johnson administration as the U.S. became more deeply involved in the war in Vietnam.

1965 - William F Raborn Jr replaces John A McCone as 7th head of CIA

1966 - 20th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 3

1966 - 38th Academy Awards - "Sound of Music", Julie Christie & Lee Marvin win

1966 - Cleve ties record with 10th straight win since Opening Day

1966 - OCAM, Common Afro-Mauritian Organization forms

1967 - Expo 67 opens in Montreal

1967 - Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army & stripped of boxing title

• World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army on this day in 1967, and was then immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. Ali, a Muslim, cited religious reasons for his decision to forgo military service.    Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 14, 1942, the future three-time world champ changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964 after converting to Islam. He scored a gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and made his professional boxing debut against Tunney Husaker on October 29, 1960, winning the bout in six rounds. On February 25, 1964, he defeated the heavily favored bruiser Sonny Liston in six rounds to become heavyweight champ.    On April 28, 1967, with the United States at war in Vietnam, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces, saying “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” On June 20, 1967, Ali was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. He stayed out of prison as his case was appealed and returned to the ring on October 26, 1970, knocking out Jerry Quarry in Atlanta in the third round. On March 8, 1971, Ali fought Joe Frazier in the “Fight of the Century” and lost after 15 rounds, the first loss of his professional boxing career.  On June 28 of that same year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction for evading the draft.    At a January 24, 1974, rematch at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Ali defeated Frazier by decision in 12 rounds. On October 30 of that same year, an underdog Ali bested George Forman and reclaimed his heavyweight champion belt at the hugely hyped “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire, with a knockout in the eighth round. On October 1, 1975, Ali met Joe Frazier for a third time at the “Thrilla in Manila” in the Philippines and defeated him in 14 rounds. On February 15, 1978, Ali lost the title to Leon Spinks in a 15-round split decision. However, seven months later, on September 15, Ali won it back. In June 1979, Ali announced he was retiring from boxing. He returned to the ring on October 2, 1980, and fought heavyweight champ Larry Holmes, who knocked him out in the 11th round. After losing to Trevor Berbick on December 11, 1981, Ali left the ring for the final time, with a 56-5 record. He is the only fighter to be heavyweight champion three times. In 1984, it was revealed Ali had Parkinson’s disease.

1968 - 11 year-old Mary Bell strangles 4 year-old

1968 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies' Golf Invitational

1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France

• On this day in 1969, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France after he was defeated with his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum.   A veteran of World War I, de Gaulle unsuccessfully petitioned his country to modernize its armed forces between the wars. After Henri Petain and other French leaders signed an armistice with Nazi Germany in June 1940, he fled to London, where he organized the Free French forces and rallied French colonies to the Allied cause. His forces fought successfully in North Africa, and in June 1944 he was named head of the French government in exile. On August 26, following the Allied invasion of France, de Gaulle entered Paris in triumph. Three months later, he was unanimously elected provisional president of France.    He resigned in January 1946, however, claiming he lacked sufficient governing power. De Gaulle formed a new political party that had only moderate electoral success, and in 1953 he retired. However, five years later, a military and civilian revolt in Algeria created a political crisis in France, and he was called out of retirement to lead the nation. A new constitution was passed, and in late December he was elected president of the Fifth Republic.    During the next decade, President de Gaulle granted independence to Algeria and attempted to restore France to its former international stature by withdrawing from the U.S.-dominated NATO alliance and promoting the development of French atomic weapons. However, student demonstrations and workers' strikes in 1968 eroded his popular support, and in 1969 his proposals for further constitutional reform were defeated in a national vote. On April 28, 1969, Charles de Gaulle, 79 years old, retired for good. He died the following year.

1969 - King Crismson with Greg Lake & Ian McDonald debuts

French President Charles de GaulleFrench President Charles de Gaulle 

• In 1970 on this day during the American conflict in Vietnam, American President Richard Nixon formally approved of a Cambodian incursion, effectively widening the war, despite having promised to being an honorable end to the war prior to this. Nixon gives his formal authorization to commit U.S. combat troops, in cooperation with South Vietnamese units, against communist troop sanctuaries in Cambodia.    Secretary of State William Rogers and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who had continually argued for a downsizing of the U.S. effort in Vietnam, were excluded from the decision to use U.S. troops in Cambodia. Gen. Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cabled Gen. Creighton Abrams, senior U.S. commander in Saigon, informing him of the decision that a "higher authority has authorized certain military actions to protect U.S. forces operating in South Vietnam." Nixon believed that the operation was necessary as a pre-emptive strike to forestall North Vietnamese attacks from Cambodia into South Vietnam as the U.S. forces withdrew and the South Vietnamese assumed more responsibility for the fighting. Nevertheless, three National Security Council staff members and key aides to presidential assistant Henry Kissinger resigned in protest over what amounted to an invasion of Cambodia.    When Nixon publicly announced the Cambodian incursion on April 30, it set off a wave of antiwar demonstrations. A protest at Kent State University resulted in the killing of four students by Army National Guard troops. Another student rally at Jackson State College in Mississippi resulted in the death of two students and 12 wounded when police opened fire on a women's dormitory. The incursion angered many in Congress, who felt that Nixon was illegally widening the war; this resulted in a series of congressional resolutions and legislative initiatives that would severely limit the executive power of the president.        

1971 - Dutch social democratic party/D'66/DS'70 win parliamentary election

1971 - Samuel Lee Gravely Jr becomes 1st black admiral in US Navy

1972 - Courts award 1968 Kentucky Derby prize money to 2nd place winner due to the winner being given drugs before the race

1973 - Over 6000 Mk. 82 500 pound bombs detonate over the course of 18 hours in a railyard in northern California. 5500 structures are damaged, and the town of Antelope, California ceases to exist, with every building being reduced to the foundation. This accident leads to the passing of the Transportation Safety Act of 1974 which makes the NTSB an independent agency.

1974 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic

1975 - John Lennon appears on "Tonight" & Ringo Starr on "Smother Brothers"

1975 - South-Vietnam Gen Duong Van Minh sworn in as president till April 30

1977 - Christopher Boyce convicted for selling secrets

1977 - Andreas Baader & members of Baader-Meinhoff jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart, Germany

1977 - The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.

1980 - Cyrus Vance, Carter's Secretary of State, resigns

1980 - Reunion Arena in Dallas opens

1981 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.

1983 - Argentine government declares all 15-30,000 missing persons dead

1983 - Bruins 4-Isles 1-Wales Conference Championship-Series tied 1-1

1983 - NASA launches Geos-F

1984 - "La Tragedie de Carmen" closes at Beaumont Theater NYC after 187 perfs

1985 - Alice Miller wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic

1985 - Billy Martin named NY Yankee manager for 4th time

1985 - Fernando Valenzuela sets record of 41 scoreless inn to start season

1986 - Chernobyl, USSR site of world's worst nuclear power plant disaster

1987 - NBA announces expansion to Charlotte NC & Miami Fla in 1988 & Minneapolis Minn & Orlando Fla in 1989

1987 - American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.

1988 - "Chess" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 68 performances

1988 - Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 roof tears off in flight; kills stewardess

1988 - Baltimore Orioles lose AL record 21 games in a row

1988 - NJ Devils set all time playoff mark for penalty minutes

1989 - Argentina, hit by rocketing inflation, runs out of money

1989 - Iran protests sale of "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie

1990 - "Chorus Line" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 6,137 performances

1990 - Boston Celtics score most points in a playoff, beat NY Knicks 157-128

1990 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Dave Ferraro

1990 - Last issue of Dutch communist daily De Waarheid (The Truth)

1991 - "Gypsy" opens at Marquis Theater NYC for 105 performances

1991 - "Taking Steps" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 78 perfs

1991 - Space Shuttle STS 39 (Discovery 12) launched

1992 - Brewers beat Blue Jays 22-2 with AL record 31 hits in 9 innings

1992 - Italian President Francesco Cossiga formally resigns

1993 - "Tango Passion" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 5 performances

1993 - Carlo Ciampi forms Italian government with ex-communists

1993 - Zambian plane crashes at Libreville, Gabon, 30 soccer players die

1993 - NY Islanders beat Wash Caps 4 to 1 in playoffs, Caps Dale Hunter attacks Pierre Turgeon after scoring, in hockey's worst cheap shot

1994 - 1st multi-racial election in South Africa ends [3 days]

1994 - Aldrich Ames, former CIA officer & wife Rosario plead guilty to spying

1994 - Freddy Thielemans sworn in as mayor of Brussels Belgium

1995 - Gas explosion in South Korean metro, 103 die

1995 - Sri Lankaan BAE748 crashes at Palaly, 52 die

1996 - "Big" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 193 performances

1996 - Martin Bryant shoots & kills 35 in Port Arthur Tasmania

1996 - Meg Mallon wins LPGA Sara Lee Golf Classic

1997 - "Jekyll & Hyde" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC

2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.

2005 - The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.

2012 - Tent collapse in St Louis, Missouri, kills one and injures 110 people

2013 - 8 people are killed and dozens are injured after Taliban attacks on election candidates in Pakistan

2013 - 3 people are killed and 14 are injured after a gas explosions causes a building to collapse in Reims, France

0357 - Constantius II visited Rome for the first time.   1282 - Villagers in Palermo led a revolt against French rule in Sicily.   1635 - Virginia Governor John Harvey was accused of treason and removed from office.   1686 - The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathamatic" was published.   1788 - Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the U.S. constitution.   1789 - A mutiny on the British ship Bounty took place when a rebel crew took the ship and set sail to Pitcairn Island. The mutineers left Captain W. Bligh and 18 sailors adrift.   1818 - U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.   1896 - The Addressograph was patented by J.S. Duncan.   1902 - A revolution broke out in the Dominican Republic.   1910 - First night air flight was performed by Claude Grahame-White in England.   1914 - W.H. Carrier patented the design of his air conditioner.   1916 - The British declared martial law throughout Ireland.   1919 - The League of Nations was founded.   1920 - Azerbaijan joined the USSR.   1930 - The first organized night baseball game was played in Independence, Kansas.   1932 - The yellow fever vaccine for humans was announced.   1937 - The first animated-cartoon electric sign was displayed on a building on Broadway in New York City. It was created by Douglas Leight.   1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.   1946 - The Allies indicted Tojo with 55 counts of war crimes.   1947 - Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip began in Peru and took 101 days to complete the crossing of the Pacific Ocean.   1952 - The U.S. occupation of Japan officially ended when a treaty with the U.S. and 47 other countries went into effect.   1953 - French troops evacuated northern Laos.   1957 - Mike Wallace was seen on TV for the first time. He was the host of "Mike Wallace Interviews."   1959 - Arthur Godfrey was seen for the last time in the final broadcast of "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" on CBS-TV.   1965 - The U.S. Army and Marines invaded the Dominican Republic to evacuate Americans.   1967 - Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army and was stripped of boxing title. He cited religious grounds for his refusal.   1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.   1969 - In Santa Rosa, CA, Charles M. Schulz's Redwood Empire Ice Arena opened.   1974 - The last Americans were evacuated from Saigon.   1977 - Christopher Boyce was convicted of selling U.S. secrets.   1985 - The largest sand castle in the world was completed near St. Petersburg, FL. It was four stories tall.   1988 - In Maui, HI, one flight attendant was killed when the fuselage of a Boeing 737 ripped open in mid-flight.   1989 - Mobil announced that they were divesting from South Africa because congressional restrictions were too costly.   1992 - The U.S. Agriculture Department unveiled a pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart.   1994 - Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had given U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pled guilty to espionage and tax evasion. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.   1996 - U.S. President Clinton gave a 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.   1997 - A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons took effect. Russia and other countries such as Iraq and North Korea did not sign.   1999 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected (on a tie vote of 213-213) a measure expressing support for NATO's five-week-old air campaign in Yugoslavia. The House also voted to limit the president's authority to use ground forces in Yugoslavia.   2000 - Jay Leno received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   2001 - A Russian rocket launched from Central Asia with the first space tourist aboard. The crew consisted of California businessman Dennis Tito and two cosmonauts. The destination was the international space station.   

1788 Maryland became the 7th state in the United States. 1789 Fletcher Christian led the mutiny aboard the British ship Bounty against Captain William Bligh. 1945 Benito Mussolini was executed. 1947 Thor Heyerdahl and five others began their Pacific Ocean crossing on the raft, Kon-Tiki. 1967 Boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army. 1992 The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture unveiled its first “food pyramid.” 2001 Dennis Tito became the first space tourist. 2004 The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal first comes to light when graphic photos of U.S. soldiers physically abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners were shown on CBS's 60 Minutes II.  

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr28.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory





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!

So, this little bit of history is interesting, and focuses on the capture and execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. His fate was known by Hitler, and it scared him to death - literally. Trapped in the secret underground bunker in Berlin under the Reichstag, Hitler would take his own life, and had arranged to have his body burned. Mussolini, who had been dictator of Italy for over two decades, and Hitler's closest foreign ally, was captured, shot, and had his body hung upside down and beaten publicly. The end of the war in Europe was fast approaching.   http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 1945, "Il Duce," Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.  

The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the communist partisans, who had been fighting the remnants of roving Italian fascist soldiers and thugs in the north, would try him as a war criminal, he settled on escape to a neutral country.  

He and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses.

357 - Emperor Constantius II visited Rome for the first time.

585 - War between Lydia & Media ended by solar eclipse

1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne confirmed by election. Killing carried out by Hashshashin.

1202 - King Philip II throws out John without Country, from France

1253 - -May 7th) Utrecht destroyed by fire

1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.

1282 - Villagers in Palermo led a revolt against French rule in Sicily.

1376 - English parliament demands supervision on royal outlay

1503 - Battle at Cerignalo: Spanish army under G Cordoba beats France

1521 - Treaty of Worms: Emperor Charles names his brother Ferdinand Arch duke of Neth-Austria

1550 - Powers of Dutch inquisition extends

1611 - Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world.

1635 - Virginia Gov John Harvey accused of treason & removed from office

1655 - English admiral Blake beats Tunen pirate fleet

1686 - First volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia" published

1770 - Captain James Cook, aboard Endeavor, landed at Botany Bay in Australia

1788 - Maryland becomes seventh state to ratify constitution

1789 - Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on the British ship HMS Bounty took place when a rebel crew took the ship and set sail to Pitcairn Island. The mutineers left Captain W. Bligh and 18 sailors adrift.

1796 - Cease fire of Cherasco

1804 - 31 English ships sail Suriname river demanding transition colony from the Dutch

1818 - American President James Monroe proclaimed naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

1829 - Dutch parliament accepts new press laws

1847 - George B Vashon becomes 1st black to enter NY State Bar

1848 - Free last slaves in French colonies

1855 - 1st veterinary college in US incorporated in Boston

1865 - Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine," premieres in Paris

1892 - 1st performance of Antonin Dvorák's overture "Carneval"

1901 - 1st soccer game between Belgium (8) & Netherlands (0)

1901 - Cleveland's Bock Baker gives up a record 23 singles as White Sox beat Blues (Cleveland Blues!) 13-1

1902 - 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.

1910 - 1st night air flight (Claude Grahame-White, England)

1914 - 181 die in coal mine collapse at Eccles WV

1914 - W H Carrier patented the design of his air conditioner

1916 - The British declared martial law throughout Ireland, following the Easter Rebellion.

1919 - The League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) was founded.

1919 - First jump with Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute (Les Irvin)

1920 - Azerbaijan SSR joined USSR (first time)

1922 - WOI (Ames, Iowa) country's 1st licensed educational radio station

1923 - Wembley Stadium opens-Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United (FA Cup)

1924 - 119 die in Benwood West Virginia coal mine disaster

1925 - Kurd rebels surrender to Turkish army

1925 - Netherlands & Great Britain return to gold standard

1930 - 1st night organized baseball game (Independence KS)

1931 - Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field

1932 - The yellow fever vaccine for humans was announced.

1932 - 1st broadcast of "One Man's Family" on NBC-radio 1932 - Yellow fever vaccine for humans announced

1934 - FDR signs Home Owners Loan Act

1934 - Soccer team Blue White '34 forms 1934 - Spanish government of Samper forms

1934 - Tigers' Goose Goslin grounds into 4 straight double plays

1935 - Moscow underground opens (81 km long)

1937 - The first animated-cartoon electric sign was displayed on a building on Broadway in New York City. It was created by Douglas Leight.

1937 - 1st commercial flight across Pacific, Pan Am

1939 - Hitler claims German-Polish non-attack treaty still in effect

1940 - Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000"

1940 - Rudolf Hess becomes commandant of concentration camp Auschwitz

1941 - Last British troops in Greece surrenders

1942 - "WW II" titled so, as result of Gallup Poll

1942 - Nightly "dim-out" begins along East Coast

1943 - 1st performance of Marc Blitzstein's "Freedom Morning"

1943 - German-Italian counter offensive in North-Africa

1943 - US 34th Division occupies Djebel el Hara North Tunisia

1944 - Stalin meets Polish/US priest S Orlemanski

1944 - Exercise "Tiger" ends with 750 US soldiers dead in D-Day rehearsal after their convoy ships were attacked by German torpedo boats

1945 - British commands attack Elbe & occupies Lauenburg

1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

1945 - US 5th army reaches Swiss border

1946 - The Allies indicted Tojo with 55 counts of war crimes.

1947 - Thor Heyerdahl & "Kon-Tiki" sail from Peru to Polynesia

1949 - Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.

1952 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Richmond Golf Open

1952 - St Louis Browns lend 2 black minor leaguers to Hankyu Braves of Japan

1952 - WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect. The U.S. occupation of Japan officially ended when a treaty with the U.S. and 47 other countries went into effect.

1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.

1953 - French troops evacuated northern Laos.

1955 - WBIQ TV channel 10 in Birmingham, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - Last French troop leave Vietnam

1956 - Reds Frank Robinson hits his 1st of 586 HRs

1957 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Western Golf Open

1957 - WSOC TV channel 9 in Charlotte, NC (ABC) begins broadcasting

1958 - Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

1958 - Vanguard TV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)

1958 - Vice Pres Richard Nixon begins goodwill tour of Latin America

1959 - KLOE TV channel 10 in Goodland, KS (CBS) begins broadcasting

1959 - KPLR TV channel 11 in Saint Louis, MO (IND) begins broadcasting

1960 - "Christine" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 12 performances

1960 - WIPM TV channel 3 in Mayaguez, PR (PBS) begins broadcasting

1961 - Lt Col Gueorgui Mossolov takes E-66A to 34,714 m altitude

1964 - Japan joins OECO 1965 - Barbra Streisand stars on "My Name is Barbra" special on CBS

1965 - Lindsey Nelson broadcasts game at Astrodome from a hanging gondola

1965 - Richard Helms replaces Marshall S Carter as deputy director of CIA

1965 - US marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966

1965 - William F Raborn Jr replaces John A McCone as 7th head of CIA

1967 - Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army & stripped of boxing title

1968 - 11 year-old Mary Bell strangles 4 year-old

1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France

1969 - King Crismson with Greg Lake & Ian McDonald debuts

1971 - Dutch social democratic party/D'66/DS'70 win parliamentary election

1971 - Samuel Lee Gravely Jr becomes 1st black admiral in US Navy

1972 - Courts awarded Kentucky Derby prize money to 2nd place winner because winner was given drugs before race

1973 - Over 6000 Mk. 82 500 pound bombs detonate over the course of 18 hours in a railyard in northern California. 5500 structures are damaged, and the town of Antelope, California ceases to exist, with every building being reduced to the foundation. This accident leads to the passing of the Transportation Safety Act of 1974 which makes the NTSB an independent agency.

1974 - The last Americans were evacuated from Saigon.

1975 - John Lennon appears on "Tonight" & Ringo on "Smother Brothers"

1975 - South-Vietnam Gen Duong Van Minh sworn in as president till April 30

1977 - Christopher Boyce convicted for selling secrets

1977 - Andreas Baader & members of Baader-Meinhoff jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart, Germany

1977 - The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.

1980 - Cyrus Vance, Carter's Secretary of State, resigns

1981 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.

1983 - Argentine government declares all 15-30,000 missing persons dead

1983 - NASA launches Geos-F

1985 - Billy Martin named NY Yankee manager for 4th time

1985 - Fernando Valenzuela sets record of 41 scoreless inn to start season

1985 - The largest sand castle in the world was completed near St. Petersburg, FL. It was four stories tall.

1986 - Chernobyl, USSR site of world's worst nuclear power plant disaster

1987 - NBA announces expansion to Charlotte NC & Miami Fla in 1988 & Minneapolis Minn & Orlando Fla in 1989

1987 - American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.

1988 - Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 roof tears off in flight; kills stewardess 1988 - Baltimore Orioles lose AL record 21 games in a row

1988 - NJ Devils set all time playoff mark for penalty minutes

1989 - Argentina, hit by rocketing inflation, runs out of money

1989 - Iran protests sale of "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie

1990 - "Chorus Line" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 6,137 performances

1990 - Boston Celtics score most points in a playoff, beat NY Knicks 157-128

1990 - Last issue of Dutch communist daily De Waarheid (The Truth)

1991 - "Taking Steps" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 78 perfs 1991 - Space Shuttle STS 39 (Discovery 12) launched

1992 - The Milwaukee Brewers defeat the eventual World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays 22-2 with AL record 31 hits in 9 innings

1992 - Italian President Francesco Cossiga formally resigns

1993 - Carlo Ciampi forms Italian government with ex-communists 1993 - Zambian plane crashes at Libreville, Gabon, 30 soccer players die

1993 - NY Islanders beat Washington Capitals 4 to 1 in playoffs, Caps Dale Hunter attacks Pierre Turgeon after scoring, in hockey's worst cheap shot

1994 - First multi-racial election in South Africa ends [3 days]

1994 - Aldrich Ames, former CIA officer & wife Rosario plead guilty to spying

1994 - Freddy Thielemans sworn in as mayor of Brussels Belgium 1995 - Gas explosion in South Korean metro, 103 die 1995 - Sri Lankaan BAE748 crashes at Palaly, 52 die

1996 - Martin Bryant shoots & kills 35 in Port Arthur Tasmania

1996 - American President Clinton gave a 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.

1997 - A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons took effect. Russia and other countries such as Iraq and North Korea did not sign.

1999 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected (on a tie vote of 213-213) a measure expressing support for NATO's five-week-old air campaign in Yugoslavia. The House also voted to limit the president's authority to use ground forces in Yugoslavia.

2001 -A Russian rocket launched from Central Asia with the first space tourist aboard. The crew consisted of California businessman Dennis Tito and two cosmonauts. The destination was the international space station.

2004 - The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal first comes to light when graphic photos of U.S. soldiers physically abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners were shown on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

2005 - The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.

2012 - Tent collapse in St Louis, Missouri, kills one and injures 110 people


http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr28.htm

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

April 27th: This Day in History

  

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!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

This day in 4977 BCE was the day which, according to German mathematician and astronomer. Kepler, is considered a founder of modern science, and is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. On this day in 1124, David I became the King of Scots. In 1296 on this day, the Battle of Dunbar was fought, as the Scots were defeated by Edward I of England. Explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines on this day in 1521. King Charles I fled Oxford on this day in 1646. In 1773 on this day, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which would be one more factor in the growing resentment of the Colonials which would ultimately trigger the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War of Independence. US Marines attacked the shores of Tripoli on this day in 1805. A fire destroyed half of Charleston, South Carolina, on this day in 1838. On this day in 1861, American President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. In 1861 on this day during the American Civil War, West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the United States. In 1877 on this day, American President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from Louisiana, as Reconstruction ended. French troops under Captain Archinard occupied Oussebougou in West Sudan on this day in 1890. In 1920 on this day, Pogrom leader Petljoera declared Ukraine independence on this day in 1920. The Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) were created on this day in 1927. Heidrich Himmler ordered the establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp on this day in 1940, during World War II. German troops occupied Athens, Greece, on this day in 1941 during World War II. In 1942 on this day during the German occupation in World War II, Belgian Jews were forced to wear the Jewish Star of David as identifying markers while in public. The Second Republic of Austria was formed on this day in 1945, close to the end of World War II in Europe. On this day in 1945, Italian partisans captured former dictator Benito Mussolini and held him prisoner. The Völkischer Beobachter, the propaganda newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceased publication on this day in 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Berlin and were strangling the life out of Hitler's Germany. In 1950 on this day, the white minority government of South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, a major piece of apartheid policy segregating races. Liu Sjau-chi was elected President of the People's Republic of China on this day in 1959. The last Canadian missionary left the People's Republic of China on this day in 1959. On this day in 1960, Togo (formerly known as French Togo) declared independence from French colonial administration. NASA launched Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays on this day in 1961. Sierra Leone declared independence from the United Kingdom on this day in 1961. "Jopie" Pengel forms government in Suriname on this day in 1963. Cuban Premier Fidel Castro arrived in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, on this day in 1963. John Lennon's "In His Own Write" was published in United States on this day in 1964. Expo '67 opened in Montréal on this day in 1967. There were bloody riots in Soweto, South Africa, on this day in 1977. An accident at a nuclear reactor at Willow Island, West Virginia, killed 51 people on this day in 1978. This day in 1978 marked the Afghanistan revolution (National Day), and a pro-Soviet military coup. The US Justice Department barred Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States on this day in 1987, due to his aid of Nazi Germany during World War II. In 1989 on this day, Beijing students took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. On this day in 1994, South Africa officially held it's first multiracial elections, marking the final stage of the move away from the racist policies of apartheid. 

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

Bust of Astronomer Johann Kepler

• This day in 4977 BCE was the day which, according to German mathematician and astronomer. Kepler, is considered a founder of modern science, and is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.  Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.  In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Kepler corresponded with Galileo and eventually obtained a telescope of his own and improved upon the design. In 1609, Kepler published the first two of his three laws of planetary motion, which held that planets move around the sun in ellipses, not circles (as had been widely believed up to that time), and that planets speed up as they approach the sun and slow down as they move away. In 1619, he produced his third law, which used mathematic principles to relate the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun.  Kepler's research was slow to gain widespread traction during his lifetime, but it later served as a key influence on the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and his law of gravitational force. Additionally, Kepler did important work in the fields of optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works, and math. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensberg, Germany. As for Kepler's calculation about the universe's birthday, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.

• On this day in 1124, David I became the King of Scots.

• In 1296 on this day, the Battle of Dunbar was fought, as the Scots were defeated by Edward I of England.

1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicates Italian state of Venice

1518 - Treaty of St Truiden: anti-French Trapdoors/Bourgondisch covenant

1522 - The Battle at Bicaccamwas fought on this day in 1522, with Charles I & Pope Adrianus VI defeating France on this day in 1522.

152Mogol King Babur defeated the Sultan of Delhi on this day in 1526.

Bust of Ferdinand Magellan

• Explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines on this day in 1521. After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, nd Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.    Magellan, a Portuguese noble, fought for his country against the Muslim domination of the Indian Ocean and Morocco. He participated in a number of key battles and in 1514 asked Portugal's King Manuel for an increase in his pension. The king refused, having heard unfounded rumors of improper conduct on Magellan's part after a siege in Morocco. In 1516, Magellan again made the request and the king again refused, so Magellan went to Spain in 1517 to offer his services to King Charles I, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.    In 1494, Portugal and Spain, at the prompting of Pope Alexander VI, settled disputes over newly discovered lands in America and elsewhere by dividing the world into two spheres of influence. A line of demarcation was agreed to in the Atlantic Ocean--all new discoveries west of the line were to be Spanish, and all to the east Portuguese. Thus, South and Central America became dominated by the Spanish, with the exception of Brazil, which was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 and was somewhat east of the demarcation line. Other Portuguese discoveries in the early 16th century, such as the Moluccas Islands--the Spice Islands of Indonesia--made the Spanish jealous.    To King Charles, Magellan proposed sailing west, finding a strait through the Americas, and then continuing west to the Moluccas, which would prove that the Spice Islands lay west of the demarcation line and thus in the Spanish sphere. Magellan knew that the world was round but underestimated its size, thinking that the Moluccas must be situated just west of the American continent, not on the other side of a great uncharted ocean. The king accepted the plan, and on September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in command of five ships and 270 men.    Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarter at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.    On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. He was the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named "Pacific," from the Latin word pacificus, meaning "tranquil." By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam. Ten days later, they reached the Philippines--they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands.    After Magellan's death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Victoria, continued west under the command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Seville on September 9, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.

1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.

1565 - 1st Spanish settlement in Philippines, Cebu City, forms

1576 - Peace of Beaulieu & Paix de Monsieur

1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.

1643 - Tirso de Molina's "Bellaco Sois, Gomez," premieres in Madrid

• King Charles I fled Oxford on this day in 1646.

1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: Royalist army under Marquess of Montrose invades mainland Scotland from Orkney; defeated by a Covenanter army.

1662 - Netherlands & France sign military covenant

1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1694 - Frederik August I "the Strong" becomes monarch of Saksen

1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.

1773 - British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)

• In 1773 on this day, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which would be one more factor in the growing resentment of the Colonials which would ultimately trigger the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War of Independence.  On this day in 1773, the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government and, thus, granting it a de facto monopoly on the American tea trade. Because all legal tea entered the colonies through England, allowing the East India Company to pay lower taxes in Britain also allowed it to sell tea more cheaply in the colonies. Even untaxed Dutch tea, which entered the colonies illegally through smuggling, was more expensive the East India tea, after the act took effect.    British Prime Minister, Frederick, Lord North, who initiated the legislation, thought it impossible that the colonists would protest cheap tea; he was wrong. Many colonists viewed the act as yet another example of taxation tyranny, precisely because it left an earlier duty on tea entering the colonies in place, while removing the duty on tea entering England.    When three tea ships carrying East India Company tea, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to send back the cargo, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the so-called Boston Tea Party with about 60 members of the radically anti-British Sons of Liberty. On December 16, 1773, the Patriots boarded the British ships disguised as Mohawk Indians and dumped the tea chests, valued then at £18,000 (nearly $1 million in today's money), into the water.    Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, known to colonists as the Intolerable Acts, the following year. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to what they saw as British oppression.

• US Marines attacked the shores of Tripoli on this day in 1805.

Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich Handel 1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.

1813 - Americans under Gen Pike capture Toronto; Pike is killed

1828 - Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park London, opens

•  A fire destroyed half of Charleston, South Carolina, on this day in 1838.

1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.

1841 - Imakita Kosen, 1st Zen teacher of D.T. Suzuki, found the awakening

1857 - Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited

1859 - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard

1860 - Thomas Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry

• On this day in 1861, American President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

• In 1861 on this day during the American Civil War, West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the United States.

1863 - Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, AL

1865 - Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered

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.

1867 - Opera "Romeo et Juliette" is produced (Paris)

Confederate General Thomas JacksonConfederate General Thomas Jackson 1870 - Heinrich Schliemann discovers Troi

1874 - White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, forms

1877 - Opera "Le Roi de Lahore" is produced (Paris)

• In 1877 on this day, American President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from Louisiana, as Reconstruction ended.

1881 - Pogroms against Russian Jews started in Elisabethgrad on this day in 1881.

• French troops under Captain Archinard occupied Oussebougou in West Sudan on this day in 1890.

1897 - Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated

1903 - 1st Highlander (Yankee) shut-out, Phila A's win 6-0

1903 - Long Island's Jamaica Race Track opens

1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

1905 - World Exposition opens in Luik

1908 - 4th modern Olympic games opens in London

1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown

1910 - Belgian parliament rejects socialist motion for general voting rights

1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore (for the time being) of the United States Senate.

1912 - Relief laws replaces those of 1854, in Netherlands

1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1918 - Giants' 9-0 winning start & Dodgers' 0-9 losing streak are stopped

        

        

• In 1920 on this day, Pogrom leader Petljoera declared Ukraine independence on this day in 1920.

1921 - Hadjememaar, [Corn de Gelder] elected in Amsterdam

1922 - Fritz Langs "Dr Mabuse, der Spieler" premieres in Berlin

1922 - Yakut ASSR formed in Russian SFSR

1924 - Antwerp soccer tie Belgium-Netherlands 1-1

1926 - In the Giants' 9-8 win over Phillies, Mel Ott, 17, 1st appearance

Flag of Chile

• The Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) were created on this day in 1927.

1931 - 100°F (38°C), Pahala, Hawaii (state record)

1933 - Karl Jansky reports reception of cosmic radio signal in Wash DC

1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.

1935 - Brussel's World Expo opens

1935 - Yanks pull a 1st inning triple-play & beat Phila A's 9-8

1937 - 1st US social security payment made

 

 

• Heidrich Himmler ordered the establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp on this day in 1940, during World War II.

• German troops occupied Athens, Greece, on this day in 1941 during World War II.  On this day in 1941, the German army enters the Greek capital, signaling the end of Greek resistance. All mainland Greece and all the Greek Aegean islands except Crete are under German occupation by May 11. In fending off the Axis invaders, the Greeks suffer the loss of 15,700 men. Greece will not be liberated until 1944, by British troops from the Mediterranean theater.

• In 1942 on this day during the German occupation in World War II, Belgian Jews were forced to wear the Jewish Star of David as identifying markers while in public.

1942 - Tornado destroys Pryor Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300

1943 - Lou Jansen & Jan Dieters arrested, lead illegal CPN party in Holland

1943 - Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London

1944 - Boston Brave Jim Tobin no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 2-0

• The Second Republic of Austria was formed on this day in 1945, close to the end of World War II in Europe.

• On this day in 1945, Italian partisans captured former dictator Benito Mussolini and held him prisoner.

1945 - US 5th army enters Genua

• The Völkischer Beobachter, the propaganda newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceased publication on this day in 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Berlin and were strangling the life out of Hitler's Germany.

1946 - 1st radar installation aboard a coml ship installed

1947 - Babe Ruth Day celebrated at Yankee Stadium & through out US

1948 - Arab legion attacks Gesher bridge on Jordan River

1950 - "Tickets, Please" opens at Coronet Theater NYC for 245 performances

Flag of South Africa during the days of apartheid.

• In 1950 on this day, the white minority government of South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, a major piece of apartheid policy segregating races.

1951 - Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia

1952 - "4 Saints in 3 Acts" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 15 perfs

1953 - 1st general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP

1953 - Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"

1956 - Burma Premier U Nu's Volksliga voor Vrijheid loses election

1956 - Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing

1959 - "Today" show goes abroard 1st time (Paris France)

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky MarcianoHeavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano 

The flag of the People's Republic of China

•  Liu Sjau-chi was elected President of the People's Republic of China on this day in 1959.

•  The last Canadian missionary left the People's Republic of China on this day in 1959.

1960 - 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee)

1960 - South Korean President Syngman Rhee resigns

• On this day in 1960, Togo (formerly known as French Togo) declared independence from French colonial administration.

• NASA launched Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays on this day in 1961.

1961 - NFL officially recognizes Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio

•  Sierra Leone declared independence from the United Kingdom on this day in 1961.

1962 - Arnold Wesker's "Chips with Everything" premieres in London

1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

• "Jopie" Pengel forms government in Suriname on this day in 1963.

• Cuban Premier Fidel Castro arrived in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, on this day in 1963.

• John Lennon's "In His Own Write" was published in United States on this day in 1964.

1965 - "I'm Solomon" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 7 perfs

1965 - RC Duncan patents "Pampers" disposable diaper

Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John Lennon 1966 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd cello concert

•  Expo '67 opened in Montréal on this day in 1967.

1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1968 - "Education of Hyman Kaplan" closes at Alvin NYC after 28 perfs

1968 - Balt Oriole Tom Phoebus no-hits Boston, 6-0

1968 - Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands

1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies Golf Invitational

1971 - Curt Flood resigns Senators after 13 games & departs for Denmark

1972 - Apollo 16 returns to Earth

1972 - NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported

1973 - KC Royal Steve Busby no-hits Detroit Tigers, 3-0

1974 - Pan Am 707 crashes into mountains of Bali, killing 107

1975 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Charity Golf Classic

1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1976 - "So Long 174th St" opens at Harkness Theater NYC for 16 performances

1976 - Arabic Monetary Fund established in Abu Dhabi

•  There were bloody riots in Soweto, South Africa, on this day in 1977.

1977 - HCC, Hobby Computer Club, forms in Netherlands

1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.

1978 - 14th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 4-3 in 11

•  An accident at a nuclear reactor at Willow Island, West Virginia, killed 51 people on this day in 1978.

• This day in 1978 marked the Afghanistan revolution (National Day), and a pro-Soviet military coup.

1979 - George Harrison releases "Love Comes to Everyone"

1980 - Barbara Barrow wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic

1981 - 1st female soccer official is hired by NASL

1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1982 - Nordiques 1-Isles 4-Semifinals-Isles hold 1-0 lead

US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1982 - Trial of John W Hinckley Jr attempted assassin of Reagan, begins

1983 - Nolan Ryan becomes strikeout king (3,509), passing Walter Johnson

1984 - Cleve Indians beat Detroit Tigers, 8-4, in 19 innings

1984 - Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake Montana

1986 - "Sweet Charity" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 368 performances

1986 - Captain Midnight (John R MacDougall) interrupts HBO

1986 - Pat Bradley wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic

• The US Justice Department barred Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States on this day in 1987, due to his aid of Nazi Germany during World War II.

• In 1989 on this day, Beijing students took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

1989 - Hurricane in Bangladesh, kills 500

1989 - Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy

1990 - 50th annual barbershop quartet singing convention held (Mich)

1990 - Dodger Orel Hershiser undergoes career-threatening shoulder surgery

1990 - Villanova's women set a 6,000 m relay world record of 17:18:10

1991 - "Lucifer's Child" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 28 perfs

1991 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by David Ozio

1992 - "Small Family Business" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 48 perfs

1992 - NY Mets trade David Cone to Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, was proclaimed on this day in 1992.

1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1993 - Afghan Antonov AN-32 crashes at Tashqurgan, kills 76

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

Statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens in front of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa

• On this day in 1994, South Africa officially held it's first multiracial elections, marking the final stage of the move away from the racist policies of apartheid.  More than 22 million South Africans turn out to cast ballots in the country's first multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party, former President F.W. de Klerk's National Party, and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. In May, Mandela was inaugurated as president, becoming South Africa's first black head of state.    In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg's youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.    In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.    Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest.    In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South Africa's president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.    Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa's president, a position he held until 1999.

1994 - "Inspector Calls" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 454 performances

1994 - 29.0°C in Genevad, Sweden (Swedish April high temperature record)

1994 - 7th longest NHL game: NJ Devils beat Buffalo Sabres (125 min 43 sec)

1994 - Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (52,713 km)

1994 - President Nixon buried in Nixon Library in Calif

1994 - Twins righty Scott Erickson no-hits Brewers 6-0

1995 - "Indiscretions" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 221 perfs

1995 - Coors Field in Colo opens - Denver Rockies beats Mets 11-9 in 14

1996 - Brunswick World Tournament of Champions won by Dave D'Entremont

1997 - "Little Foxes" opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 56 performances

1997 - "Stanley" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC

1997 - Frank Nobilo wins Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic at Forest Oaks

1997 - Las Vegas Senior Golf Classic by TruGreen-ChemLawn

1997 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship

2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

In 2007 on this day, Estonian authorities removed the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

• 2011 - This day in 2011 marked the deadliest day of the 2011 Super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak in United States history.

• 2012 - Four explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, killed 27 people on this day in 2012.

2013 - 10 people are killed and 25 are injured after a bomb attack in Karachi, Pakistan

1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar.   1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.   1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.   1565 - The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established in Cebu City.   1805 - A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.   1813 - Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.   1861 - U.S. President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.   1861 - West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.   1863 - The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.   1865 - In the U.S. the Sultana exploded while carrying 2,300 Union POWs. Between 1,400 - 2,000 were killed.   1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.   1897 - Grant's Tomb was dedicated.   1899 - The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, IL.   1903 - Jamaica Race Track opened in Long Island, NY.   1909 - The sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.   1937 - German bombers devastated Guernica, Spain.   1938 - Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.   1938 - A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.   1945 - The Second Republic was founded in Austria.   1946 - The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.   1947 - "Babe Ruth Day" was celebrated at Yankee Stadium.   1950 - South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.   1953 - The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.   1953 - Five people were killed and 60 injured when Mt. Aso erupted on the island of Kyushu.   1960 - The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.   1961 - The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.   1965 - "Pampers" were patented by R.C. Duncan.   1967 - In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.   1975 - Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.   1978 - Pro-Soviet Marxists seized control of Afghanistan.   1982 - The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.   1982 - China proposed a new constitution that would radically alter the structure of the national government.   1983 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record when he struck out his 3,509th batter of his career.   1984 - In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.   1986 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.   1989 - Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.   1987 - The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that 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 was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its ally Montenegro.   1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.   2005 - The A380, the world's largest jetliner, completed its maiden flight. The passenger capability was 840.   2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.   2006 - In New York, NY, construction began on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower on the site of former World Trade Center. 

1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines. 1805 The U.S. Marines captured Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. 1865 The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed. 1956 Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. 1961 Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain. 1983 Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record—one that had held since 1927. 1987 Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States. He was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews in World War II. 1993 Eritrea declared itself independent.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr27.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory







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!

The single most important event to have taken place on this date (at least, if you believe it) was that the universe began. Here, according to www.history.com, is the story:

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.

Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.

In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Kepler corresponded with Galileo and eventually obtained a telescope of his own and improved upon the design. In 1609, Kepler published the first two of his three laws of planetary motion, which held that planets move around the sun in ellipses, not circles (as had been widely believed up to that time), and that planets speed up as they approach the sun and slow down as they move away. In 1619, he produced his third law, which used mathematic principles to relate the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun.

Kepler's research was slow to gain widespread traction during his lifetime, but it later served as a key influence on the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and his law of gravitational force. Additionally, Kepler did important work in the fields of optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works, and math. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensberg, Germany. As for Kepler's calculation about the universe's birthday, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.

1124 - David I becomes King of Scots.
1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I of England at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice
1518 - Treaty of St Truiden: anti-French Trapdoors/Bourgondisch covenant
1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1522 - France is defeated by Charles I and Pope Adrianus VI at the Battle of Bicacca
1526 - Mogol King Babur beats sultan of Delhi
1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (presently known as Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 - First Spanish settlement in Philippines was formed at Cebu City
1576 - Peace of Beaulieu & Paix de Monsieur
1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1643 - Tirso de Molina's "Bellaco Sois, Gomez," premieres in Madrid
1646 - King Charles I flees Oxford
1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: Royalist army under Marquess of Montrose invades mainland Scotland from Orkney; defeated by a Covenanter army.
1662 - Netherlands & France sign military covenant
1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1694 - Frederik August I "the Strong" becomes monarch of Saksen
1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
1773 - British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)
1805 - American forces led by the US Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1813 - Americans under General Pike capture Toronto (then known as York); Pike is killed
1828 - Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park London, opens
1838 - Fire destroys half of Charleston
1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1841 - Imakita Kosen, 1st Zen teacher of D.T. Suzuki, found the awakening
1857 - Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited
1859 - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard
1860 - Thomas Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry
1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus
1861 - West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US
1863 - Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, Alabama
1863 - The Army of the Potomac began their march on Chancellorsville
1865 - Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered
1865 - Steamboat "Sultana" explodes in Mississippi River, killed up to 1,547. 1450 of 2000 paroled Union POWs on their way home are killed when river steamer "Sultana" blown up
1867 - Opera "Romeo et Juliette" was produced (Paris)
1870 - Heinrich Schliemann discovered Troy
1874 - White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, formed
1877 - Opera "Le Roi de Lahore" was produced (Paris)
1877 - President Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends
1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
1881 - Pogroms against Russian Jews start in Elisabethgrad
1890 - French troops under Capt Archinard occupy Oussebougou West Sudan
1897 - Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated
1899 - The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, Illinois
1903 - First Highlander (Yankee) shut-out, Philadelphia A's win 6-0
1903 - Long Island's Jamaica Race Track opens
1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1905 - World Exposition opens in Luik
1908 - Fourth modern Olympic games opens in London
1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown
1910 - Belgian parliament rejects socialist motion for general voting rights
1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1912 - Relief laws replaces those of 1854, in Netherlands
1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1918 - Giants' 9-0 winning start & Dodgers' 0-9 losing streak are stopped
1920 - Pogrom leader Petljoera declares Ukraine Independence
1921 - Hadjememaar, [Corn de Gelder] elected in Amsterdam
1922 - Fritz Langs "Dr Mabuse, der Spieler" premieres in Berlin
1922 - Yakut ASSR formed in Russian SFSR
1923 - Benito Mussolini government italian place in South Tirol/Alto Adige
1924 - Antwerp soccer tie Belgium-Netherlands 1-1
1926 - In the Giants' 9-8 win over Phillies, Mel Ott, 17, 1st appearance
1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1931 - 100°F (38°C), Pahala, Hawaii (state record)
1933 - Karl Jansky reports reception of cosmic radio signal in Wash DC
1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
1935 - Brussel's World Expo opens
1935 - Yanks pull a 1st inning triple-play & beat Phila A's 9-8
1937 - 1st US social security payment made
1937 - German bombers devastated Guernica, Spain.
1938 - Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.
1940 - Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1941 - German troops occupy Athens Greece
1942 - Belgium Jews are forced to wear stars
1942 - Tornado destroys Pryor Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300
1943 - Lou Jansen & Jan Dieters arrested, lead illegal CPN party in Holland
1943 - Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London
1944 - Boston Brave Jim Tobin no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 2-0
1945 - Second Republic of Austria formed
1945 - Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini prisoner
1945 - US 5th army enters Genua
1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
1946 - The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.
1947 - Babe Ruth Day celebrated at Yankee Stadium & through out US
1948 - Arab legion attacks Gesher bridge on Jordan River
1950 - "Tickets, Please" opens at Coronet Theater NYC for 245 performances
1950 - South Africa passes Group Areas Act, formally segregating the races
1951 - Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia
1952 - "4 Saints in 3 Acts" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 15 performances
1953 - The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.
1953 - First general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP
1953 - Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"
1956 - Burma Premier U Nu's Volksliga voor Vrijheid loses election
1956 - Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
1959 - "Today" show goes abroard 1st time (Paris France)
1959 - Liu Sjau-chi elected president of China PR
1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
1960 - 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee)
1960 - South Korean pres Syngman Rhee resigns
1960 - Togo (formerly French Togo) declares independence from French adm
1961 - NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays
1961 - NFL officially recognizes Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio
1961 - Sierra Leone declares independence from the United Kingdom
1962 - Arnold Wesker's "Chips with Everything," premieres in London
1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
1963 - "Jopie" Pengel forms government in Suriname
1963 - Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow
1964 - John Lennon's "In His Own Write" is published in US
1965 - "I'm Solomon" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 7 perfs
1965 - RC Duncan patents "Pampers" disposable diaper
1966 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd cello concert
1967 - In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.
1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - "Education of Hyman Kaplan" closes at Alvin NYC after 28 perf
1968 - Balt Oriole Tom Phoebus no-hits Boston, 6-0
1968 - Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands
1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies Golf Invitational
1971 - Curt Flood resigns Senators after 13 games & departs for Denmark
1972 - Apollo 16 returns to Earth
1972 - NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported
1973 - KC Royal Steve Busby no-hits Detroit Tigers, 3-0
1974 - Pan Am 707 crashes into mountains of Bali, killing 107
1975 - Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.
1975 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Charity Golf Classic
1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1976 - "So Long 174th St" opens at Harkness Theater NYC for 16 performances
1976 - Arabic Monetary Fund established in Abu Dhabi
1977 - Bloody riots in Soweto South Africa
1977 - HCC, Hobby Computer Club, forms in Netherlands
1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
1978 - 14th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 4-3 in 11
1978 - Accident at nuclear reactor Willow Island, W Virginia, kills 51
1978 - Afghanistan revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup
1979 - George Harrison releases "Love Comes to Everyone"
1980 - Barbara Barrow wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic
1981 - 1st female soccer official is hired by NASL
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1982 - Nordiques 1-Isles 4-Semifinals-Isles hold 1-0 lead
1982 - Trial of John W Hinckley Jr attempted assassin of Reagan, begins - he was later acquitted for reasons of insanity
1983 - Nolan Ryan becomes strikeout king (3,509), passing Walter Johnson
1984 - Cleve Indians beat Detroit Tigers, 8-4, in 19 innings
1984 - Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake, Montana
1986 - "Sweet Charity" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 368 performances
1986 - Captain Midnight (John R MacDougall) interrupts HBO
1986 - Pat Bradley wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1989 - "Starmites" opens at Criter Ctr SR Theater NYC for 60 performances
1989 - Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China
1989 - Hurricane in Bangladesh, kills 500
1989 - Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy
1990 - 50th annual barbershop quartet singing convention held (Mich)
1990 - Dodger Orel Hershiser undergoes career-threatening shoulder surgery
1990 - Villanova's women set a 6,000 m relay world record of 17:18:10
1991 - "Lucifer's Child" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 28 perfs
1991 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by David Ozio
1992 - "Small Family Business" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 48 perfs
1992 - NY Mets trade David Cone to Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent
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.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - Afghan Antonov AN-32 crashes at Tashqurgan, kills 76
1994 - "Inspector Calls" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 454 performances
1994 - 29.0°C in Genevad, Sweden (Swedish April high temperature record)
1994 - The seventh longest NHL game: New Jersey Devils beat Buffalo Sabres (125 min 43 sec)
1994 - Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (52,713 km)
1994 - President Nixon buried in Nixon Library in Calif
1994 - Twins righty Scott Erickson no-hits Brewers 6-0
1995 - "Indiscretions" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 221 perfs
1995 - Coors Field in Colo opens - Denver Rockies beats Mets 11-9 in 14
1996 - Brunswick World Tournament of Champions won by Dave D'Entremont
1997 - "Little Foxes," opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 56 performances
1997 - "Stanley," closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC
1997 - Frank Nobilo wins Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic at Forest Oaks
1997 - Las Vegas Senior Golf Classic by TruGreen-ChemLawn
1997 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship
2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.
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 deadliest day of the 2011 Super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak, in United States history.
2012 - Four explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, kill 27 people


I got most of the information used for this blog from the following pages:

http://www.historyorb.com/events/april/27
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr27.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/April-27
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history