Today is.................

[Alikado]

International Be Kind To Lawyers Day

International Day for Street Children

International Day of Human Space Flight

1385 Willem van Oostervant of Bavaria weds Philip the Bold's daughter Marguerite (10)

1606 England adopts the Union Flag, replaced in 1801 by current Union Flag the Union Jack

1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge over the river Irwell in Salford, cause it to collapse, twenty were injured, including six who suffered severe injuries

1872 Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia, Kentucky (1 dead/$1,500)

1887 Henrik Ibsen's "Rosmersholm" premieres in Oslo

1892 George C Blickensderfer patents portable typewriter

1905 French Dufaux brothers test helicopter

1908 Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts

1911 1st non-stop London-Paris flight (Pierre Prier in 3h56m)

1919 Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages

1928 – The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.

1930 4th Test Cricket WI v England ends in a draw after nine days, the England team had to catch a boat home. Wilfred Rhodes ends Test Cricket career aged 52 years 165 days

1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed.

1935 First flight of the Bristol Blenheim

1937 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby

1938 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (NY)

1942 Japan kills about 400 Filipino officers in Bataan

1943 Allies conquer Soussa, North-Africa

1945 – The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reached Tangermünde—only 50 miles from Berlin.

1945 Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands

1945 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President

1954 Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around Clock"

1954 Joe Turner releases "Shake, Rattle & Roll"

1955 Polio vaccine tested by Dr Jonas Salk announced to be 'safe and effective'

1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1)

1963 Police in Birmingham, Alabama, use dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators

1966 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam

1975 Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast

1970 – Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.

1990 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for the Holocaust and asks for forgiveness

1992 Euro Disney (Disneyland Paris) opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France

2004 West Indian cricket batsman Brian Lara smashes highest individual score in a Test innings with 400 not out (773 mins; 582 balls; 43x4, 4x6) in drawn 4th Test against England at Antigua

2012 Bodleian, Oxford University and Vatican libraries announce over 1.5 million pages of ancient texts will be made available across the internet

2014 – The Great Fire of Valparaíso ravages the Chilean city of Valparaíso, killing 16, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying over 2,000 homes.

2014 The new drug, ABT-450, with a 90-95% success rate for treating Hepatitis C, is announced

2020 OPEC and other major oil companies agree to the largest-ever drop in production to stabilize world prices

2020 Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina killing 32 people across six states

2021 Great Britain loosens its COVID-19 restrictions, opening pubs and shops after 175 days, the world's longest period of restrictions

2021 Worst frost conditions in half a century will affect 80% of French vineyards according to industry officials


Born Today ;-

1705 William Cookworthy, English chemist, born in Kingsbridge, Devon was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like that imported from China. He subsequently discovered china clay in Cornwall.

1869 Henri Désiré Landru, French sex murderer, born in Pariswas tried and found guilty of 11 murders. The police eventually concluded that Landru had met or been in romantic correspondence with 283 women during the First World War, including 72 who were never traced. His last date was with Mme Guilotine

1899 Chief Thundercloud [Victor Daniels], Cherokee actor (The Lone Ranger; Colt .45), born in Muskogee, Indian Territory

1925 – Oliver Postgate, animator, puppeteer, and screenwriter, Pingwings, Pogles' Wood, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Bagpuss, born in Hendon

1929 Elspet Gray, Lady Rix, Scottish actress (4 Weddings & a Funeral, Solo, Tenko), born in Inverness

1932 Tiny Tim [Herbert Khaury], musician / singer (Tiptoe Through The Tulips), born in Manhattan

1939 – Alan Ayckbourn, director and playwright, has written and produced more than seventy full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1969. , born in London

1941 Bobby Moore, England footballer (108 caps; captain World Cup 1966; West Ham United), born in Barking

1942 Jacob Zuma, South African politician, President of South Africa (2009-), born in Nkandla

1947 – Tom Clancy, American historian and author (Rainbow Six, The Hunt for Red October), born in Baltimore

1948 – Jeremy Beadle,television host and producer (Beadle's About), born in London

1958 Will Sergeant, rock guitarist (Echo & Bunnymen - Killing Moon), born in Liverpool

1958 Howard Stableford, actor, TV & Radio host ( Beat the Teacher, Newsround, Tomorrow's World, born in Poynton

1979 Paul Nicholls (Gerard Paul Greenhalgh), actor (EastEnders), born in Bolton

1990 – Francesca Halsall, swimmer, Olympian, multi medal winner European & Commonwealth Games, multi record holder distances & Styles, Born Southport, and attended St Mary's College, Crosby married to St Helens, England & GB rugby league star Jon Wilkin

Died Today ;-

1866 – Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, English politician MP Preston, founded Fleetwood, He was descended (through his paternal grandmother) from the Fleetwood family who had owned the large Rossall estate in West Lancashire for over 200 years. Robert inherited the estate in 1819 on the death of his elder brother, On Robert's death in 1824, the estate passed to Peter, his elder brother Edward having predeceased him in 1820.[2] By that time the family's land extended from Heysham in the north, to North Meols, near Southport, in the south, and encompassed most of the Fylde. Hesketh-Fleetwood immersed himself in his development plans. Southport, a town he owned much of, was becoming a popular sea bathing resort, and Hesketh-Fleetwood organised the construction of a promenade. In the face of enormous debts Hesketh-Fleetwood sold his estates at Blackpool, Southport, Meols Hall, and Tulketh Hall.

1945 – Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd US President (Democrat: 1933-1945), dies in office with the war almost won of a stroke at 63

1960 Archibald McIndoe, New Zealand plastic surgeon pioneer who rehabilitated badly burned Royal Air Force crew during WWII, dies in his sleep of a heart attack at 59

1975 Josephine Baker, revue artist (Folies-Bergere), dies at 68 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
A symbol of the Jazz Age, Josephine Baker became a star of the theater in 1920s Paris. She first danced in Paris in 1925 before becoming a sensation the next year when she performed her now famous "Danse Sauvage" at the Folies Bergère cabaret hall wearing just a skirt of bananas. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant. During WWII was a Spy & member of the Resistance for this she was awarded a number of honors by France including the French Legion by General Charles de Gaulle.

1981 Joe Louis, [Brown bomber], US heavyweight boxing champion (1937-49), dies of cardiac arrest at 66

1989 Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (world welterweight champion 1946-51; middleweight champion 1951-52, 55, 58), dies of Alzheimer's disease at 67

2001 Harvey Ball, American inventor and designer of popular 'smiley-face' graphic, dies at 79

2019 Tommy Smith, Liverpool & England soccer defender (1 cap; Football League Div 1 1966, 73, 76, 77; FA Cup 1965, 74; European Cup 1977; Liverpool 467 games), In his later years, Smith had a hip replacement operation (both knees and an elbow were also made of plastic) and also began to suffer from arthritis to the extent that he could not work and often needed a wheelchair or walking stick and had to claim incapacity benefit. Smith had his benefit payments stopped for a short time after he managed to take a penalty on the Wembley pitch at half-time during the 1996 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Manchester United; he stated that "I couldn't believe they would do that, I was getting money for charity. I only kicked the ball once." dies at 74 in Waterloo

2020 Peter Bonetti, England soccer goalkeeper (7 caps; World Cup 1966; Chelsea 600 games), dies at 78

2020 Stirling Moss, auto racer (16 x F1 Grands Prix; World F1 Drivers C'ship runner-up 1955-58; 12 Hours of Sebring 1954) and broadcaster (ABC F1, NASCAR), dies at 90

2020 Tim Brooke-Taylor, comedian (The Goodies), dies of COVID-19 at 79

[Alikado]

International Day of Pink

International FND Awareness Day

1668 John Dryden (36) appointed first English poet laureate by Charles II

1742 George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" performed for the 1st time at New Music Hall in Dublin, Though there is no detailed record of the performance, which raised £400 for the good causes, reports suggest that it was given by a chorus of 16 men and 16 boys, two women choristers, a small string orchestra, a chamber organ, and a harpsichord played by Handel himself. This was a modest ensemble compared to later performances when the work became world-famous, perhaps none exceeded by the London presentation in 1879 on the centenary of Handel’s death. It was performed by a choir of 2,765 accompanied by a 460-piece orchestra.

1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.

1869 Steam power brake patented (George Westinghouse)

1873 – The Colfax massacre, a group of white Democrats armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered Republican freedmen and state militia (also black) occupying the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax. An estimated 62-153 black militia men were killed while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, the number of black victims was difficult to determine because many bodies were thrown into the Red River

1904 A squadron of the Russian fleet is decoyed out of Port Arthur by Japanese maneuvers, when they realize they are sailing into a trap; their battleship Petropavlovsk hits a mine and sinks, with a loss of 700 men

1912 Royal Flying Corps forms (later Royal Air Force)

1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops lead by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer killed approx 379-1000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured.

1926 Cyclists without bicycle-tax-stamp rounded up in Amsterdam

1928 1st trans atlantic flight Europe-US (Fitzmaurice-von Hunefeld-Köhl)

1933 1st flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)

1934 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments

1940 Second battle of Narvik; 3 German destroyers and one U-boat sunk by the Royal Navy, 5 more German destroyers scuttled.

1941 Heavy German assault on Tobruk

1943 – The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyn Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.

1944 Transport #71 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany

1945 Canadian army liberates Teuge & Assen, Netherlnds

1945 Red Army occupies Vienna

1945 – German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.

1945 US Marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa

1945 Canadian soldier Léo Major single-handedly liberates Dutch town of Zwolle by fooling Germans into thinking a raid had begun he was the only Canadian and one of only three soldiers in the British Commonwealth to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) twice in separate wars (WWII & Korea).

1948 – In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.

1954 Robert Oppenheimer, Physicist and Father of the Atomic Bomb accused of being a communist

1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

1970 Greek composer and counter-revolutionist Mikis Theordorakis freed from Oropos concentration camp, and allowed to be exiled to France

1976 – Forty workers die in an explosion at the Lapua ammunition factory, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland.

1980 US and its allies boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest against Russia's invasion of Afghanistan

1986 50th Masters Golf Tournament: Jack Nicklaus wins his record 18th major with a 1-stroke victory over Greg Norman and Tom Kite; shoots final round 65 (-7); at 46 the oldest Masters winner

1994 Presidential guard at Kigali, Rwanda, chops 1,200 church members to death

1996 – Two women and four children are killed after Israeli helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon.[

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. He wins his first major title, a record 12 strokes ahead of Tom Kite; 4-round total 270 (-18) is tournament record

2003 67th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Mike Weir wins his only major title in a 1-hole playoff over Len Mattiace; only Canadian to win a major and first left-handed Masters champion

2014 Manny Pacquiao defeats Timothy Bradley to regain his WBO welterweight boxing title

2015 Migrant ship carrying around 550 sinks off the Libyan coast, about 400 drown

2017 – The US drops the largest ever non-nuclear weapon on Nangarhar Province, The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB /'mo?æb/, colloquially known as the "Mother of All Bombs"), Afghanistan against an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS) tunnel complex in Achin District. The bomb is designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules

2019 Australian super-horse Winx ends extraordinary career with a 3rd Queen Elizabeth Stakes win in Sydney; 33 consecutive race wins, a world record 25 Group One victories and $26.4 million prize money

2019 World's largest plane by wingspan at 117m (385 ft), the Stratolaunch, built as a flying launch pad for satellites, takes its first flight from Mojave, California

2019 Body of 38-year-old Filipino woman discovered in abandoned mine starts the hunt for Cyprus's first serial killer, at least 5 other bodies later discovered

2020 NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says “I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” about the COVID-19 pandemic in New York as death toll passes 10,000

2021 US, South Africa and the EU authorities temporarily stop administrating Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines after six women developed blood clots (out of 6.8 million administered doses)

Born Today ;-

1519 Catherine de' Medici, Italian born Queen consort to Henry II of France and later regent to her sons, born in Florence

1545 Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of King Henry II of France and 3rd wife of Philip II of Spain, born in Fontainbleau, France

1570 Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator who was convicted in the "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up the British Parliament, born in York

1732 Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of Great Britain (Tory: 1770-82), "who lost America", born in London

1771 Richard Trevithick, inventor (steam locomotive), He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil born in Tregajorran, Cornwall

1780 Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer (inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse), born in Dublin

1832 James Wimshurst, designer and inventor (electrostatic generator), born in Poplar,

1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F. W. Woolworth Company

1866 Butch Cassidy [Robert LeRoy Parker], American desperado (Wild Bunch Passage), born in Beaver, Utah

1867 Sammy Woods, Australian cricket all-rounder (3 Tests Australia, 3 England, 1 x 50, 10 wickets; Somerset CCC) and rugby union flanker (13 caps England, 5 as captain), born in Sydney, Australia

1892 Arthur Harris, RAF Commanding Chief known as "Bomber/Butcher Harris" for commanding the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, born in Cheltenham

1892 Robert Watson-Watt, physicist and developer of the radar and radio direction finding in WWII, born in Brechin

1899 Alfred Mosher Butts, architect and game inventor (Scrabble), born in Poughkeepsie, New York

1903 Rex Evans, actor (Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman; Zara; Matchmaker), born in Southport

1906 Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist and playwright (Waiting for Godot, Nobel 1969), born in Foxrock, Ireland

1937 Edward Fox, actor (The Day of the Jackal, Gandhi), Son of actor / agent Robin Fox, brother of James & Robert, father of Actors Emelia & Freddie, born in Chelsea

1939 – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate born in Castledawson, County Londonderry

1940 – Max Mosley, English racing driver and engineer, co-founded March Engineering, former president of the FIA, born in London

1951 Peter Davison, actor (fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small), born in London

1952 – Jonjo O'Neill, Irish jockey and trainer, born in Cork never completed the Grand National course in 7 attempts, born in Cork

1953 Brigitte Macron, French teacher and wife of politician Emmanuel Macron, born in Amiens, France

1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player (world champion 1985-93), born in Baku, Azerbaijan

Died Today ;-

862 – Donald I, king of the Picts suceeded Brother Kenneth I

1983 – Gerry Hitchens, England footballer, He played for England in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and won a total of seven caps, scoring five goals. When chosen to appear for England in the World Cup, Hitchens became the first Englishman to represent his country while on the books of a foreign club. He died playing in 1983 during a charity football match for a Mold-based firm of solicitors at Castell Alun sports ground in Hope. Seconds after heading a cross over the bar, Hitchens collapsed and was taken to Wrexham General Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

2006 Muriel Spark, Scottish author (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), dies at 88

[Alikado]

International Moment of Laughter Day

1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.

1831 Soldiers marching on Broughton Suspension bridge built in 1826 to span the River Irwell between Broughton and Pendleton, now in Salford. One of Europe's first suspension bridge collapsed, reportedly due to mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step.As a result of the incident, the British Army issued an order that troops should "break step" when crossing a bridge. Though rebuilt and strengthened, the bridge was subsequently propped with temporary piles whenever crowds were expected. In 1924 it was replaced by a Pratt truss footbridge, still in use.

1841 1st detective story published, Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue"

1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington

1865 U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell as part of the same conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln
US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington; he dies a day later

1894 1st public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.

1895 1st performance of Gustav Mahler's (incomplete) 2nd Symphony

1903 Dr Harry Plotz discovers vaccine against typhoid

1912 RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland

1927 The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden

1932 Bizet, Massine & Mira's "Jeux d'Enfants" premieres in Monte Carlo

1935 Black Sunday: Severe sandstorm ravages the US Midwest, leading to the region being named "the Dust Bowl"

1936 French singer Édith Piaf questioned after nightclub owner and her patron Louis Leplée murdered in Paris

1939 John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published

1940 – Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.

1941 1st massive German raid in Paris, 3,600 Jews rounded up

1941 – German general Erwin Rommel attacks Tobruk.

1942 – Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag

1942 Destroyer Roper sinks German U-85 of US east coast

1943 A JN-25 decrypt by American intelligence detailing a forthcoming visit by Marshal Admiral Yamamoto to Balalae Island results in his plane shot down 4 days later

1944 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz

1944 Freighter "Fort Stikene" carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold, and ammunition including around 1,400 tons of explosives explodes in Bombay. The shower of burning material set fire to slums in the area. Around 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) were set ablaze in an 800 m (870 yd) arc around the ship. Eleven neighbouring vessels had been sunk or were sinking, killing 1,376. Some 80,000 people were made homeless and 71 firemen lost their lives in the aftermath. The sound of explosions was heard as far as 80 km (50 mi) away. It took three days to bring the fire under control, and later, 8,000 men toiled for seven months to remove around 500,000 tons of debris and bring the docks back into action.

1945 American planes bomb Tokyo & damage the Imperial Palace

1945 US 7th Army & allies forces capture Nuremberg & Stuttgart

1945 – Razing of Friesoythe: The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, captured it. During the fighting, the battalion's commander was killed by a German soldier, but it was incorrectly rumoured that he had been killed by a civilian. Under this mistaken belief, the division's commander, Major-General Christopher Vokes, ordered that the town be razed in retaliation and it was substantially destroyed. Twenty German civilians died in Friesoythe and the surrounding area during the two days of fighting and its aftermath. A few days earlier, the division had destroyed the centre of Sögel in another reprisal and also used the rubble to make the roads passable. Little official notice was taken of the incident and the Canadian Army official history glosses over it.

1956 Ampex Corp demonstrates 1st commercial videotape recorder

1958 Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard burns up during reentry into Earth's Atmosphere

1960 1st underwater launching of Polaris missile

1960 American record company Motown, founded by Berry Gordy Jr.

1972 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explodes twenty-four bombs in towns and cities across Northern Ireland

1973 Ireland edges France, 6-4 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin to create a 5-way tie for the Five Nations Rugby Championship; each nation wins their 2 home matches

1978 Korean Air Lines Boeing 707, fired on by Soviets, crashes in Russia

1986 – The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

1987 Turkey asks to join European market

1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

1999 NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.

1999 A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%

2012 165th Grand National: Daryl Jacob wins aboard Neptune Collonges; beats Sunnyhillboy in a photo finish and the closest ever GN finish

2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.

2015 Archaeologists announce they have found at Lomekwi in Kenya 3.3 million-year old stone tools, the oldest ever discovered and which pre-date the earliest humans

2017 Meethotamulla rubbish dump collapses onto houses in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing 26

2018 US, UK and French forces carry out airstrikes on sites associated with Syria's chemical weapons program, in response to Douma gas attack

2018 171st Grand National: Davey Russell wins aboard 10/1 Tiger Roll in a photo finish from Pleasant Company

2019 South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg officially announces his presidential campaign in Indiana, first openly gay candidate to run for US president

2020 PM Narendra Modi extends India's COVID-19 lockdown until May 3

2020 Parts of Europe begin to ease lockdown restrictions after 5-6 weeks with some shops opening in Austria and parts of Italy

2020 IMF warns the global economy expected to contract by 3% in 2020 due to COVID-19 "Great Lockdown", steepest downturn since the Great Depression

2020 US President Donald Trump freezes funding for the World Health Organization pending a review, for mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and for being "China-centric"

2021 Human cells grown in monkey cells for 20 days reported by US-Chinese team at the Salk Institute in "Cell"

2021 US President Biden says "It's time to end America's longest war" confirming his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Sept 11

Born Today ;-

1819 Charles Hallé, pianist, conductor and founder (Halle Orchestra), born in Hagen, Westphalia was also the inventor of a mechanical page-turner for pianists. The pages were preset in the device, and the player would turn each page by means of a foot-mechanism. "People would go to his concerts just to see the spectacle of leaf after leaf turning over, ghostlike, without the intervention of human hands." Was married to Madame Wilma Neruda, the distinguished violinist in her own right.

1857 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, youngest child of Queen Victoria

1876 Cecil Chubb, barrister, gifted Stonehenge to the British nation, born in Shrewton, Wilts

1904 – (Sir) John Gielgud, actor, director, and producer (Arthur, Hamlet, Ages of Man), born in London

1906 Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia (1964-75), born in Riyadh, Emirate of Nejd and Hasa (d. 1975)

1917 – Valerie Hobson, Irish actress, wife of John Profumo

1929 – Gerry Anderson,director, producer, and screenwriter Four Feather Falls, Fireball XL5, Supercar, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Space: 1999, Terrahawks, Joe 90

1932 – Loretta Lynn, singer-songwriter and musician ("Coal Miner's Daughter"; "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man"), born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky

1932 Bob Grant [Robert St Clair Grant], actor, comedian and writer (on the Buses), born in Hammersmith

1933 – Paddy Hopkirk, Northern Irish racing driver

1936 Frank Serpico, American policeman who blew whistle on NYPD corruption, born in Brooklyn

1940 or 41 Julie Christie, British actress (Darling, Doctor Zhivago), born in Chukua, Assam, India

1944 – John Sergeant, journalist, Tv & Radio broadcaster born in Oxford

1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist, conductor, and educator younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. born in London

1958 Peter Capaldi, actor (12th Doctor in Doctor Who, The Thick of It), born in Glasgow

1961 Robert Carlyle, actor (Trainspotting, The Full Monty), born in Glasgow

1983 James McFadden, Everton & Scottish footballer, born in Springburn, Glasgow gained his first Scotland cap at the age of 19 against South Africa on a Far East tour, at the end of which a night out drinking caused him to miss his flight home

Died Today ;-

1578 James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary I of Scotland

1759 George Frideric Handel, German-British baroque composer and organist (Messiah, Water Music), dies at 74

1983 Pete Farndon, English rock bassist (The Pretenders - "Brass In Pocket"), drowns in his bathtub after a drug overdose at 30

1985 Noele Gordon, actress (Crossroads) was the only member of the Crossroads cast who had a permanent contract, all other cast members were booked as and when on an ad hoc basis, dies at 65

1988 John Stonehouse, politician is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in 1974. More than twenty years after his death, it was publicly alleged that he had been an agent for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic military intelligence but never prosecuted due to lack of evidence.

1999 Anthony Newley, actor and singer-songwriter (Doctor Dolittle; Goldfinger theme; Willy Wonka score), dies at 67

2000 Wilf Mannion, England footballer

2001 Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer

2015 – Percy Sledge, American singer (When A Man Loves A Woman) dies at 73

2021 Bernard "Bernie" Madoff, American fraudster and financier who committed the largest fraud in US history, ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. dies in prison of natural causes at 82

[Alikado]

Hillsborough Disaster Memorial

Universal Day of Culture

World Art Day

1250 Pope Innoncent III refuses Jews of Cordova, Spain, request to build a synagogue

1534 Thomas Cromwell is appointed Chief Secretary to King Henry VIII of England

1729 Johann Sebastian Bach's "St Matthew Passion" premieres in Leipzig

1738 Premiere in London of "Serse", an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel

1755 Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" published

1776 Duchess of Kingston found guilty of bigamy

1793 Bank of England issues first £5 note

1802 William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".

1865 Abraham Lincoln who was shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth whilst attending the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington dies

1874 First 'Impressionist' exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot

1896 I Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece; USA wins gold medal count, 11; Greece wins total medal count, 46

1900 An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hrs

1902 Rioting and arson continue in Russia with starving peasants plundering estates to find food.

1912 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27am off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people

1921 Black Friday in Britain: leaders of transport and rail unions announce a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners; despite widespread feeling decision a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners

1923 Insulin becomes generally available for diabetics

1936 – First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.

1940 British troops land at Narvik, Norway

1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing around one thousand people.

1942 George VI awards George Cross to people of Malta

1945 British Army liberates Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen

1945 US troops liberates Colditz

1952 The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress prototype

1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1964 Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens with a length of 4.3 miles (6.9 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure

1986 Viv Richards century off 56 balls v England on home ground, Antigua

1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.

1997 Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.

2010 Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.

2013 Boston Marathon bombings: 3 people are killed and 183 injured after two explosions near the finish line

2019 Measles cases jump 300% in first three months of 2019, according to World Health Organization, largest rise in Africa (700%) with 800 deaths in Madagascar

2019 Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof

2020 Revised death count for New York taking into account assumed COVID-19 deaths makes the city's per-capita death rate higher than Italy at 10,367 at this date

2020 US's deadliest day during COVID-19 pandemic with 2,752 deaths reported

2021 "the failed response in Brazil has caused a humanitarian catastrophe" reports Dr. Christos Christou, president of Doctors Without Borders, as country records a quarter of world's COVID-19 deaths in last week

2021 India record over 200,000 (200,739) daily new cases of COVID-19 for the first time with 1,038 deaths amid massive second wave

Born Today ;-

1367 – Henry IV of England

1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, inventor and architect

1469 Guru Nanak, Founder of the religion of Sikhism and the 1st Sikh Guru, born in Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi, Punjab, Pakistan

1845 Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer (Australia's 1st Test captain), born in Fairy Meadow, New South Wales

1890 – Percy Shaw, Halifax road contractor, invented the cat's eye

1894 Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953-64), born in Kalinovka, Russia, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union

1901 – Joe Davis, snooker player (World Champion 1927-40, 1946), born in Whitwell, Derbyshire

1912 Kim Il-sung, Founder, dictator and Supreme Leader of North-Korea (1948-94), born in Mangyongdae, Japanese Korea

1930 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, 4th President of Iceland (1980-96) and the world's 1st woman democratically elected president, born in Reykjavík

1939 – Marty Wilde, singer-songwriter and actor, father of Kim Wilde born in London

1940 – Jeffrey Archer, author, playwright, and disgraced politician who was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–86), before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987, he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim.[4] He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London. He resigned his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in his 1987 libel case. He was imprisoned (2001–2003) for perjury and perverting the course of justice, his books have sold more than 320 million copies worldwide.

1955 Dodi Fayed, Egyptian businessman who died in a car crash in Paris with Princess Diana, born in Alexandria, Egypt

1959 – Emma Thompson, actress, comedian, author, activist and screenwriter(Henry V, Howards End, Oscar 1992), born in London

1966 – Samantha Fox, Model, singer-songwriter and actress, Page 3 Girl

1990 Emma Watson, actress (Hermione Granger-Harry Potter Series), born in Paris

1997 Maisie Williams, actress (Game of Thrones), born in Bristol

Died Today ;-

1053 Godwin, Earl of Wessex

1865 Abraham Lincoln, 16th American President, dies from gunshot wounds at 56

1912 Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic, dies when the ship sinks in the Atlantic Ocean aged 62
Jack Phillips, telegraphist
Wallace Hartley, violinist and bandleader from Colne
James Paul Moody, Sixth Officer
William McMaster Murdoch
Henry Tingle Wilde, chief officer
Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder
John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman & soldier (richest passenger aboard the Titanic)
1912 William T. Stead, British newspaper editor (The Pall Mall Gazette)

1965 Sydney Chaplin, English actor, half brother of Charlie Chaplin and his business manager, dies at 80

1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and author, Nobel Prize

1982 Arthur Lowe, actor (Dad's Army, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Ruling Class, Coronation St), dies following a stroke at 66

1984 Tommy Cooper, comedian and magician, collapses and dies on stage at 61

1988 Kenneth Williams, British actor (Hancock's Half Hour, Carry On films), dies of an overdose at 61

1990 Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (Anna Karenina, Camille), dies at 84

1993 George Frederick Ives, British Canadan army veteren, last survivor of the Boer War, dies at 111

1993 Leslie Charteris (Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin), mystery writer (Saint),His father, Dr S. C. Yin (Yin Suat Chwan, 1877–1958), was a Chinese physician who claimed to be able to trace his lineage back to the emperors of the Bronze Age Shang dynasty. dies at 85

1994 John Curry OBE, British figure skater (Olympic gold, World C'ship gold, European C'ship gold 1976), dies from AIDS at 44

1998 Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (1976-79) and revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge (1963-97) who radically pushed Cambodia towards an entirely self-sufficient agrarian socialist society. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's 1975 population, dies at 72

2009 Clement Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, son of Ernst L. Freud, nephew of Anna Freud and brother of Lucian Freud, German born writer, broadcaster and former Liberal MP shared an office with fellow MP Cyril Smith, dies at 84. In 2016, seven years after his death, three women made public allegations of child sexual abuse and rape by Freud, which led to police investigations.

[Alikado]

World Circus Day

World Semicolon Day

World Voice Day

1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge

1746 Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart. After the battle many highland traditions were banned and the Highlands of Scotland were cleared of inhabitants.

1797 Spithead Mutiny begins: Royal Navy sailors protest over living, food, working conditions and pay at Portsmouth

1854 Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach NY, 311 die

1871 German Empire ends all anti-Jewish civil restrictions

1912 Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

1917 [OS Apr 3] Lenin arrives back from exile in Russia at Finland Station,issues his radical "April Theses" calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution and Petrograd joins the Russian Revolution

1918 The British House of Commons passes a new Military Service Bill, taking men up to 55 years old and extending to Ireland

1922 Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row

1943 – Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD. He intentionally takes the drug three days later on April 19.

1943 40 NZ bombers attack Haarlem, Netherlands (85 killed)

1944 – Allied forces start bombing Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.

1945 Dutch town of Arnhem, site of failed Operation Market Garden, is freed by British and Canadian forces

1945 German troops in Groningen surrender

1945 – The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.

1945 US troops enter Nuremberg

1945 – More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine.

1945 US troops land on He Shima, Okinawa

1945 Colditz Castle, the high-security prisoner of war camp in Germany, is liberated by American troops

1946 NSB mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands, FE Muller sentence to 100 years in jail

1947 Texas City, Texas, the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, devastating the town. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The explosions and resulting fires killed more than 500 people and left 200 others missing.

1948 Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris

1951 Submarine HMS Affray sank in English Channel on a training exercise, killing 75. The last ship to see her on the surface was the 'Co' Class destroyer HMS Contest returning to Portsmouth that evening. As they passed each other, both vessels piped the side. When she missed her 0800 report due the next day she was declared missing and an immediate search began. There was some urgency in the initial 48 hours of the search as it was estimated the crew would not survive much longer than this if they had survived whatever had sunk the submarine in the first place. In Britain, the missing submarine was getting a lot of publicity. Rumours abounded of mutiny, and even seizure by the Russians. During the search many strange things happened. Another strange event was that the wife of a skipper of one of Affray's sister submarines claimed to have seen a ghost in a dripping wet submarine officer's uniform telling her the location of the sunken sub (this position later turned out to be correct)— she recognised him as an officer who had died during the Second World War, not a crew member of Affray. As there were so many shipwrecks littering the English Channel (161 were found, most of them sunk during the Second World War), it was almost two months before Affray was located, it still remains on the bottom.

1953 Royal Yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II

1956 1st solar powered radios go on sale

1962 Bob Dylan debuted his song "Blowin' in the Wind" at Gerde's Folk City in New York.

1964 9 men sentenced 25-30 years for Britain's 1963 "Great Train Robbery"

1986 West Indies complete 5-0 demolition of England

1987 Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with three acts of gross indecency with one male and one act of gross indecency with another - both teenagers. Lurid allegations surrounding Mr Proctor's sex life surfaced the previous September when allegations appeared in a Sunday newspaper claiming he had organised gay spanking sessions with boys in his London flat.

1996 Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were getting a divorce.

2004 The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first Transatlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.

2007 Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide.

2014 South Korean ferry MV Sewol sinks on route Incheon to Jeju, 304 drown, mostly students. National controversy erupts over rescue efforts and actions of crew and owner.

2020 Nationwide State of Emergency declared in Japan till 6 May due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak

2020 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in 4 weeks (5.2 million in the last week), wiping out 9 1/2 years of job gains

Born Today ;-

1800 George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, British army officer (Charge of the Light Brigade)

1867 Wilbur Wright, American aviator (Wright Brothers), born in Millville, Indiana

1878 – R. E. 'Tip' Foster, England cricketer and footballeronly man to have captained England at both sport, (287 on debut England v Aust SCG 1903), one of seven brothers who played for Worcestershire, 4 other close reletives also played.

1889 – Charlie Chaplin, London born actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and composer

1897 Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, KStJ, KPM , known as Glubb Pasha, was a British soldier, scholar and author, who led and trained Transjordan's Arab Legion between 1939 and 1956 as its commanding general. Major General Sir Frederic Manley Glubb KCMG CB DSO was his father,He was a brother of the WWI Ambulance Driver, Motor Cyclist & Racing Driver who held several speed records, Gwenda Hawkes. Born in Preston

1911 Guy Burgess, Soviet spy, born in Devonport

1918 Spike Milligan, actor and comedian (The Goon Show, 3 Musketeers), born in Ahmednagar, India

1921 – Peter Ustinov, English born actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

1922 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist, poet, and critic (Lucky Jim, James Bond Dossier), born in London

1924 – John Harvey-Jones, academic and businessman, Chairman of ICI, - 'The Troubleshooter'

1924 Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (Pink Panther), born in Cleveland, Ohio

1927 Pope Benedict XVI [Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger], Catholic Pope (2005-2013), born in Marktl, Bavaria

1933 – Joan Bakewell, journalist and author, born in Stockport

1939 Dusty Springfield [Mary O'Brien], Singer (Growing Pains), born in London

1942 – Sir Frank Williams, English businessman, founded the Williams F1 Racing Team), born in South Shields

1943 Ruth Madoc, singer and actress (Hi Di Hi), born in Norwich

1947 – Gerry Rafferty (Stealers Wheel - "Stuck In The Middle With You"; solo -"Baker Street"), Scottish singer-songwriter born in Paisley

1960 Rafael Benítez, Liverpool, Everton Spanish football manager, born in Madrid

1963 – Jimmy Osmond, American singer (The Osmonds)

1963 Nick Berry, actor (Heartbeat, EastEnders), born in Woodford, Essex

1971 Max Beesley, musician and actor, born in Burnage, Manchester

1984 – Claire Foy, actress, born in Stockport

1987 – Aaron Lennon, Burnley, Everton & England footballer

Died Today ;-

1850 Marie Tussaud, French founder of Madame Tussaud's wax museum, dies at 88

1879 Saint Bernadette Soubirous (allegedly saw Virgin Mary at Lourdes), dies in Nevers France

1938 Bertram Wagstaff Mills, circus proprietor

1947 Rudolf Höss, German commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, hanged at Oswiecim (Auschwitz)

1958 Rosalind Franklin, English chemist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, dies of ovarian cancer at 37

1958 Rosalind Franklin, English chemist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, dies of ovarian cancer at 37

1965 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor, comedian, brother / manager of Charlie Chaplin

1967 Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist who helped identify the Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, dies at 86

1981 Eric Hollies, English cricket spin bowler (13 Tests, 44 wickets; dismissed Donald Bradman for 0 in his final Test innings), dies at 68

1995 Arthur English,comedian and actor (Malachi's Cove, Are You Being Served?), dies of complications from emphysema at 75

1998 Fred Davis, English 8-time World Snooker Champion (1948-49, 51), Brother of Joe Davis, dies at 84

2002 – Billy Ayre, footballer and former Southport manager, died Ormskirk

2021 Helen McCrory, English actress (The Queen, Peaky Blinders), dies of cancer at 52

2021 John Dawes, Welsh rugby union centre (22 caps Wales, 4 caps British & Irish Lions; London Welsh; Barbarians), dies at 80

[Alikado]

World Hemophilia Day

1397 Geoffrey Chaucer tells the "Canterbury Tales" for the first time at the court of English King Richard II

1534 Sir Thomas More confined in the Tower of London

1860 The first “World Championship” boxing match took place at Farnborough in an open field between 25-year-old John Carmel Heenan, the all-American champion, and England’s “Titch” Sayers, 34, Weighing 149lb, Sayers was just 5ft 8in tall, while 6ft 2in Heenan tipped the scales at 195lb. This was a bare-knuckle fight, which was illegal. But that didn’t stop a huge crowd gathering at the field just outside the village of Farnborough in Hampshire, many of the spectators having arrived by special trains from London. They were said to include the writers Charles Dickens and William Thackeray as well as the Prime Minister, Henry John Temple, and even the 18-year-old Prince of Wales, destined to become King Edward VII.The contest began at precisely 7.29am and the two men fought on for an astonishing and brutal two hours and 27 minutes. Battered and bloodied, they were preparing to come out for the 43rd round when police stormed the ring and brought proceedings to an end, with the crowd – and the pugilists – fleeing to escape arrest. The fight was declared a draw and the men were each paid £200 for their pains. Neither fought again and both died while still in their thirties.

1875 Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India

1907 Ellis Island, New York records 11,745 immigrants

1912 1st (unofficial) Gold Record - Al Jolson's "Ragging The Baby To Sleep"

1930 DuPont scientist Elmer K. Bolton invents neoprene using Julius Nieuwland's divinyl acetylene

1941 British troop land in Iraq

1942 12 Lancasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg

1942 Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp

1942 POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein

1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden

1945 German occupiers flood Wieringermeer, Netherlands

1945 Benito Mussolini flees from Salò to Milan

1945 US troops land in central Mindanao, Philippines during Battle of Mindanao

1949 – At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.

1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.

1956 Premium Savings Bonds introduced in Great Britain

1956 Willie Mosconi sinks 150 consecutive balls in a billiard tournament

1961 1,400 Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA land in Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro

1964 Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2,368 base)

1964 Jerrie Mock becomes 1st woman to fly solo around the world

1969 Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy

1969 People's Democracy activist Bernadette Devlin becomes the youngest woman Member of Parliament ever elected to Westminster at 21 years old

1978 63,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)

1984 During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, police officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead

1991 Dow Jones closes above 3,000 for 1st time

1993 Two Los Angeles police officers convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King's civil rights and sentenced to prison, while two others are acquitted,

1997 John Bell aged 115 receives a new pacemaker

2002 Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War

2012 The 8th century St. Cuthbert Gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, is purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds

2015 Lancashire bowler James Anderson becomes the highest wicket-taking bowler in England's test cricket history

2018 Protests across India at the rape and murder of an 8-year old Muslim girl in Kathua, Bengalu

2020 WHO warns Africa could be next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 300,000 deaths, pushing 30 million into poverty as it records nearly 1000 deaths and 19,000 cases to date

2021 Global COVID-19 death toll passes three million (Johns Hopkins University figures)

2021 Canada registers more new daily COVID-19 cases than the US for the first time as infections surge in Ontario

2021 Funeral of Prince Philip, consort to Queen Elizabeth II, held under strict COVID-19 restrictions at Windsor Palace

Born Today ;-

1837 – J. P. Morgan [John Pierpont], American banker and financier, founded J.P. Morgan & Co

1876 Ian Hay [John Hay Beith], British novelist and playwright (Pip, Carrying On), born in Rusholme

1929 – James (Hans) Last, Germanborn bassist, composer, and bandleader born in Bremen

1930 Chris Barber, English jazz trombonist ("Petite Fleur"), born in Welwyn Garden City

1937 Daffy Duck, Warner Bros. cartoon character created by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series), first debuts in "Porky's Duck Hunt"

1940 Billy Fury [Ronald Wycherley], English singer (When Will You Say I Love You), born in Liverpool

1940 – John McCririck, journalist & racing pundit born in Surbiton

1946 – Clare Francis, sailor and author (Come Hell or High Water), born in Thames Ditton, Surrey

1957 – Nick Hornby, novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter born in Redhill, Surrey

1959 (Shaun) "Sean" Bean, English actor (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy; Game of Thrones), born in Handsworth, West Riding of Yorkshire

1972 Claire Sweeney, English actress (Brookside), born in Walton, Liverpool

1972 – Muttiah Muralitharan, Lancashire & Sri Lankan cricketer born in Kandy, Ceylon

1974 Victoria Beckham [Adams], singer (Posh Spice in the Spice Girls), born in Harlow, Essex

Died Today ;-

1790 Benjamin Franklin, US Founding Father, inventor, ambassador and writer (Poor Richards Almanac), dies at 84

1882 – George Jennings, English engineer and plumber, invented the Flush toilet

1946 John 'Jack' Iddon, Lancashire & England cricketer (car accident), born Mawdesley

1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1998 Linda McCartney, American-born photographer and wife of Paul McCartney, dies of breast cancer at 56

2003 – Robert Atkins, American physician and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet

2003 John Paul Getty Jr., American-born British oil magnate and billionaire (Getty Oil), dies of a chest infection at 70

2020 Norman Hunter, England sfootballer (28 caps; Leeds United, Bristol City, Barnsley; FIFA World Cup 1966), dies from COVID-19 at 76

[Alikado]

International Day For Monuments and Sites

International Amateur Radio Day

796 – King Æthelred I of Northumbria is murdered in Corbridge by a group led by his ealdormen, Ealdred and Wada. The patrician Osbald is crowned, but abdicates within 27 days.

1775 Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the "regulars are coming!"

1783 – Three-Fifths Compromise: the first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three fifths of persons (for the purpose of taxation), in a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation. This was later adopted in the 1787 Constitution.

1809 First run of 2,000 guineas horse race at Newmarket

1835 William Lamb (Lord Melbourne) becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Robert Peel resigns

1881 Natural History Museum opens in South Kensington

1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000 while destroying 75% of the city

1912 Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York

1915 French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1924 1st crossword puzzle book published by Simon & Schuster

1930 BBC news announcer announces "there is no news" at 20:45 news bulletin, plays music instead

1945 – Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland

1946 League of Nations dissolves

1948 International Court of Justice opens at The Hague

1949 Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth

1951 France, West Germany & Benelux form European Steel & Coal Community

1968 London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona)

1972 The Widgery Report on 'Bloody Sunday' in Northern Ireland is published, causing outrage among the people of Derry who call it the "Widgery Whitewash"

1986 IBM produces 1st megabit-chip

1994 Cricketer Brian Lara hits 375 runs on 1 day for WI vs England to beat Gary Sobers' world record

1994 Former President Nixon suffers a stroke & will die 4 days later

1996 In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces accidentally shell the UN compound at Quana

2014 12 Nepalese climbers are killed by an avalanche on Mt Everest

2017 Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League with a hat-trick in Real Madrid's 4-2 win over Bayern Munich

2019 Irish Journalist Lyra McKee shot to death covering riots in Derry, Northern Ireland with dissident republican group the New IRA claiming responsibility

2020 French flagship aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle reports over 1,000 cases of COVID-19, prompting an investigation

2020 Canada's worst modern mass shooting as a gunman kills 18 people, including a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, across Nova Scotia

2021 12-team European Super League is announced to widespread condemnation amongst governments, non-involved clubs, press and fans; amidst the furore all 6 EPL clubs withdraw within 3 days

Born Today ;-

1480 Lucrezia Borgia, Italian noblewoman, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI, born in Subiaco, Lazio, Italy. The family's dreadful reputation rubbed off on Lucrezia who was depicted as a femme fatale — a seductive woman who poisoned people that she could not manipulate, attended orgies and committed incest with both her brother Cesare and her father. When she was just eleven years old her father gave her in marriage to 27-year-old Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. But her standing still suffers from rumours of incest, the birth of that mysterious baby, the murder of her second husband and her attendance at the Banquet of Chestnuts – an orgy hosted by Cesare involving 50 prostitutes and a large number of clergy.

1908 Eric Spear, British film and TV composer (Coronation Street theme), born in Croydon

1920 Walter Clegg, politician (C), MP for Fylde badly injured in Brighton bombing, born in Bury

1946 – Hayley Mills, actress, born in London

1961 Pamella Bordes, parliament escort, former Miss India and photographer, worked in a brothel which had provided one of publicist Max Clifford's clients with various services. Clifford asked the madam to reveal details of her girls and clients, and found that one prostitute, Pamella Bordes, was simultaneously dating Andrew Neil (then editor of The Sunday Times), Donald Trelford (then editor of The Observer), Conservative minister for sport Colin Moynihan, and billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. The story was published in March 1989 under the headline "Call Girl Works in Commons", since it was discovered she had a House of Commons security pass arranged by MPs David Shaw and Henry Bellingham. born in New Delhi

1971 David Tennant [McDonald], actor (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), born in Bathgate, Scotland

1979 Kourtney Kardashian, American reality television star, born in Los Angeles

1995 – Divock Origi, Liverpool & Belgian footballer

Died Today ;-

796 – Æthelred I, king of Northumbria

1689 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, Welsh judge and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, also known as "the Hanging Judge"

1943 Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese WWII Marshall Admiral & Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese fleet who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, killed in action at 59 by a US ambush after the "Magic" code-breaking team intercepted and decoded his flight plan

1949 Will Hay [William Thomson Hay], comedian, actor and amateur astronomer, dies from a stroke at 60

1955 Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate (theory of relativity), dies of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at 76

2002 Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian anthropologist and explorer (Kon Tiki, Aku-Aku), dies of a brain tumor at 87

2013 – Anne Williams, was a campaigner for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool football fans died at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield including her son Kevin.

2018 – Dale Winton, television presenter

[Alikado]

Bicycle Day

1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding

1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.”

1775 American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott are captured by British troops riding from Lexington to Concord, Prescott escapes to warn Concord

1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

1904 Much of Toronto destroyed by fire

1909 Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church

1911 George Bernard Shaw's play "Fanny's First Play" premieres in London

1927 Actress Mae West found guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” in a New York stage play entitled "Sex". She is sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $500, the resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career.

1932 Bonnie Parker is captured in a failed hardware store burglary, and subsequently jailed. A grand jury fails to indict her, however, and she is released a few months later

1936 First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine, anti-Jewish riots break out

1943 Jews refuse to surrender the Warsaw Ghetto to SS officer Jürgen Stroop, who then orders its destruction, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

1943 Bicycle Day - Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time, three days after having discovered its effects. Within an hour, Hofmann began to notice changes in his perception and senses. He decided that he should go home, so he hopped on his bicycle and began riding. Because the drug was already greatly affecting him, he had his laboratory assistant help guide him to his house. At times during his bicycle ride, he thought he was going insane, thought his neighbor was a witch and thought the LSD had poisoned him. He later wrote in LSD: My Problem Child, "On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me that we had traveled very rapidly." Needless to say, his bicycle ride was quite a trip.

1948 Chiang Kai-shek elected President of Nationalist China

1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

1962 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 46,900m -over 150,000 feet

1963 Johnny Cash releases his single "Ring Of Fire" written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore

1971 Charles Manson sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison for the murder of Sharon Tate

1980 25th Eurovision Song Contest: Johnny Logan for Ireland wins singing "What's Another Year"

1987 Last wild condor captured on California wildlife reserve

1994 Rodney King awarded $3,800,000 compensation by the Los Angeles County for his police beating

1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh sets a truck bomb at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 and injuring 500

1999 The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

1999 German Reichstag reopens with new glass dome by architect Norman Foster

2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI

2011 Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years

2015 Boat carrying approx. 850 migrants is shipwrecked in the Mediterranean between Italian and Libya, with only 27 migrants rescued.

2020 US COVID-19 death toll passes 40,000, with 742,442 cases recorded according to Johns Hopkins

2020 UK COVID-19 death toll reaches 16,060 (hospitals only), as "The Sunday Times" criticizes Boris Johnson's government's response, saying they "sleepwalked into disaster"

2020 Turkey passes Iran to become the Middle Eastern country with the most COVID-19 cases with 86,306 infections, Iran continues to have the most deaths

Born Today ;-

1873 – Sydney Barnes, Enigmatic Warwickshire, Lancashire & England cricketer and probably England's greatest bowler, born in Smethwick

1903 Eliot Ness, US Federal agent "The Untouchables" (put away Al Capone), born in Chicago

1922 Erich Hartmann, German WW II pilot (downed 352 Russian aircrafts), born in Weissach, Württemberg, Weimar Republic

1933 Jayne Mansfield [Vera Jane Palmer], American actress (The Girl Can't Help It), born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

1933 – Harold 'Dickie' Bird, cricketer and umpire (66 Tests, 69 ODI), born in Barnsley

1935 Dudley Moore, actor and comedian (10, Arthur, Bedazzled), born in London

1937 – Antonio Carluccio, Italian-English chef and author

1939 Ali Khamenei [Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei], 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran (1989-) and the 3rd President of Iran (1981-89), born in Mashhad, Khorasan, Iran

1941 Michel Roux, French chef and restaurateur (opened Le Gavroche, 1st three Michelin starred restaurant in Britain), born in Charolles, Saône-et-Loire, Vichy France

1942 Alan Price, English rock keyboardist (Animals-House of the Rising Sun), born in Fatfield, Washington, Co Durham

1944 Margo MacDonald, Scottish national broadcaster and SNP Leader (MP for Glasgow Govan 1973-74), born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire

1953 Ruby Wax, actress (Girls on Top), born in Evanston, Illinois

1954 – Trevor Francis, England footballer, the first £1m footballer, born in Plymouth

1956 – Sue Barker, tennis player and journalist, Tv host, born in Paignton

1970 – Kelly Holmes, Multi Olympic , World, European & Commonwealth medal winning runner. Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, She also became British Army judo champion and at an athletics event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3,000 metres and a relay race in a single day. She also won the heptathlon. Born in Hildenborough

1987 – Joe Hart, England footballer, goalkeeper (75 caps; Manchester City 266 games), born in Shrewsbury


Died Today ;-

1390 King Robert II of Scotland, first monach of the House of Stewart (1371-90), dies at 74

1733 Elizabeth Villiers Countess of Orkney, mistress of William III of England

1824 Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron], British romantic poet (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage) , dies at 36

1881 Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister (Tory: 1868, 1874-80) and writer, dies of bronchitis at 76

1882 Charles Darwin, English naturalist (Origin of the Species) who conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection, dies of heart failure at 73

1906 Pierre Curie, French physicist (Nobel 1903) and husband of Marie Curie, dies in a cart accident at 46

1906 Spencer Gore, British tennis player (1st Wimbledon singles champion 1877), dies at 56

1956 Lionel K P "Buster" Crabb, British diver (WWII), dies at 47

1975 Percy Lavon Julian, African American chemist who received 130 patents, pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants, dies at 76

1989 Daphne Du Maurier, English writer (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn), dies at 82

1992 Frankie Howerd, actor (Carry on Doctor, Up the Front), dies at 70

1996 1996 Norman 'Buddy' Oldfield, Lancashire, Northants & England cricketer (scored 99 runs in his only Test for England days before WWII broke out), dies at 84,

2004 Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records with his twin brother

2013 Mike Denness, Scottish England cricket batsman and captain (28 Tests, top score 188), dies from cancer at 72

[Alikado]

420 (cannabis culture)

UN Chinese Language Day

1505 Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg

1611 First known performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth at the Globe Theatre

1657 – Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City)

1689 The deposed King James II of England, lays siege to Derry

1759 George Frideric Handel is buried in Westminster Abbey

1770 Captain James Cook arrives in New South Wales

1862 First pasteurization test completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard

1879 1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London & Cyprus

1887 Georges Bouton wins the world’s 1st motor race on a steam-powered quadricycle, a 'test' organised by French newspaper Le Velocipede

1902 Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride

1918 Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day

1919 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army

1920 Balfour Declaration recognized, makes Palestine a British Mandate

1931 House of Commons agrees for sports play on Sunday

1941 100 German bombers attack Athens

1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin

1945 German occupiers flood Beemster & Fencer

1945 – U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

1945 US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg

1945 – Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

1945 – Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

1961 – Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 63,250 m 207,500'

1968 Politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech

1969 Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh

1970 74th Boston Marathon: Englishman Ron Hill wins in 2:10:30 (US record)

1974 'The Troubles', the Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim

1982 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode bombs in Belfast, Derry, Armagh, Ballymena, Bessbrook and Magherafelt; 2 civilians are killed and 12 injured

2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster

2013 193 people are killed and 11,826 are injured after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Lushan County, China

2013 5 snowboarders are killed by an avalanche in Loveland Pass, Colorado

2018 Arsène Wenger announces he will leave London EPL club Arsenal after 22 years

2020 Price of US oil turns negative for the 1st time in history - West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls

2020 The last three cruise ships still sailing amid Covid pandemic, finally dock at the ports of Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles California

2021 All six EPL clubs withdraw from the controversial European Super League just 3 days after it was announced - Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham

2021 Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis

2021 Record number of new COVID-19 cases reported (5.24 million) in one week around the world according to WHO, with a third in India

Born Today ;-

1851 Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (British Open 1868-70, 72), born in St Andrews, Fife. Young Tom's first Open Championship win – in 1868 at age 17 – made him the youngest major champion in the PGA, a record which still stands. He won four consecutive titles in the Open Championship, an unmatched feat, and did this by the age of 21.

1889 Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German dictator and Führer of Nazi Germany (1936-45), born in Gasthof zum Pommer, Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary

1924 Leslie Phillips, actor (Carry On; sorting hat- Harry Potter series), born in Tottenham

1938 – Peter Snow, Tv Newscaster, Presenter, historian and journalist

1941 – Ryan O'Neal, American actor

1949 – Jessica Lange, American actress

1951 – Louise Jameson, actress - EastEnders, Doctor Who, Bergerac, and Tenko.

1951 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer ("Endless Love"; "Dance With My Father")

1957 Graeme Fowler, Lancashire and England cricketer (England left-handed opener early 80s), born in Accrington, First Englishman to score a double Centuary in India and he was never picked again.

1961 – Nicholas Lyndhurst, actor - (Only Fools and Horses, Goodnight Sweetheart), born in Emsworth

Died Today ;-

1534 Elizabeth Barton [St Magd van Kent], nun, The Holy Maid of Kent, She was executed as a result of her prophecies against the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn, only women whose head was on a spike on London Bridge, hanged for treason

1812 George Clinton, American soldier and 4th Vice President (1805-12), dies at 73 and 1st Vice President to die in office

1912 Bram Stoker, Irish theatre manager/writer (Dracula), dies at 64

1982 Andy Sandham, English cricket batsman (14 Tests; 1st test triple centurion 325 v WI 1930), dies at 91

1992 Benny Hill [Alfred Hawthorn Hill], comedian (The Benny Hill Show), dies of a heart attack at 68

1995 Tessie O'Shea, Welsh stage and screen entertainer,she capitalised on her size by adopting "Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee" as her theme song. dies at 81

2012 Bert Weedon, guitar player, dies at 91

2016 Victoria Wood,comedian and actress, dies of cancer at 62

2021 Leslie McKeown, Scottish pop vocalist (Bay City Rollers - "Saturday Night"), dies at 65

[Alikado]

Irish Constabulary

1916 The Aud, carrying a cargo of 20,000 rifles to assist Irish republicans in staging what would become the 1916 Rising, is captured by the British Navy and forced to sail towards Cork Harbour

1918 German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France, Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown credited with the kill although it is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by a machine gunner firing from the ground.

1930 Fire at Ohio State Penitentiary kills 322

1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).

1935 King Boris of Bulgaria forbids all political parties

1945 – Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.

1945 US 7th Army reaches Nuremberg

1945 Allied troops occupy German nuclear laboratory

1945 Soviet army arrives at outskirts of Berlin

1952 BOAC begins 1st passenger service with jets (London-Rome route)

1954 Georgi Malenkov becomes premier of USSR

1956 Elvis Presley's 1st hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel", becomes #1

1959 Alf Dean using a rod & reel hooks a 2,664lb, 16' 10" great white shark off the coast of Ceduna, Australia

1967 Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana arrives in New York City after defecting to the US

1969 The Ministry of Defence in London announces that British troops would be used in Northern Ireland to guard key public installations following a series of bombings

1976 Swine Flu vaccine, for non-epidemic, enters testing

1981 US furnish $1 billion in arms to Saudi-Arabia

1983 £1 pound coin introduced

1984 After 37 weeks Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" is knocked off as top album by "Footloose"

1987 Dow Jones Average soared 664.7; 2nd biggest one-day gain in history

1988 1st four-day games in County Cricket Championship commence

1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

1989 – Nintendo launched the original Game Boy in Japan. The portable video game system had four Japanese launch titlesl; Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, and Yakuma

2019 Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a Extinction Rebellion protest in London amid city-wide climate protests where Waterloo Bridge was occupied over four days

2019 Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky wins the country's presidential election in a landslide

2020 At least 25,000 extra people across 11 countries have died during COVID-19 pandemic that were not previously counted according to new mortality figures

2020 South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa announces $26 billion aid package and plans for gradual reopening of economy as cases reach 3,465 with 58 deaths

2020 Health Secretary Matt Hancock and UK government come under criticism for lack of personal protective equipment and testing for COVID-19 (despite pledge to test 100,000 a day only 19,000 done April 20th)

2020 Mexico says it is entering stage three of its COVID-19 outbreak, with rapid spread and hospitalizations from 8,772 infections and 712 deaths


2021 Russian President Vladimir Putin warns the West not to cross a "red line" in his state of the union address, amid massing of 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine border

Born Today ;-

1729 Catherine the Great [Catherine II], German-born Empress of Russia (1762-96) who expanded the Russian empire, born in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia

1816 – Charlotte Brontë, novelist (Jane Eyre) and poet, eldest of the sisters, born in Thornton, West Yorkshire

1913 Norman Parkinson, English fashion photographer (Harper's Bazaar) born in London

1915 Antonio "Anthony" Quinn, Mexican actor (Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia, Lust for Life), born in Chihuahua

1923 John Mortimer, English barrister and writer

1926 – Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor II, Queen

1926 Arthur Rowley, English soccer forward (most goals in English league football, 434 from 619 games; Leicester City, Shrewsbury Town), born in Wolverhampton

1945 Diana Darvey [Rollof], British actress, singer and dancer (The Benny Hill Show), born in Cheadle

1947 Iggy Pop [James Osterberg], American singer and lyricist known as "The Godfather of Punk" (The Stooges - "I Wanna Be Your Dog"; solo - "Lust For Life"), born in Muskegon, Michigan

1973 – Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter

Died Today ;-

1509 Henry VII, 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509), dies at 52, Henry VIII succeeds him aged 17

1910 Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens], American author (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), dies at 74

1918 Manfred von Richthofen [The Red Baron], dies at 25

1946 John Maynard Keynes, English economist whose ideas changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, dies of a heart attack at 62

1952 Stafford Cripps, Labour politician held several Cabinet positions, dies at 62

1971 François Duvalier "Papa Doc", Dictator of Haiti (1957-71), dies at 64

1977 Milton "Gummo" Marx, American comic (Marx Brothers), dies at 84

1995 Stafford Heginbotham, toymaker (Tebro Toys) and Bradford City Football Club Chairman at the time of the fire, unluckily several other of his businesses also suffered fires, dies at 61

2003 Nina Simone [Eunice Waymon], American jazz pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and civil rights activist (“Mississippi Goddam”; “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”, “Feeling Good”; “Wild Is The Wind”), dies of breast cancer at 70

2013 Shakuntala Devi, Indian writer and mental calculator known as the "Human Computer", stops calculating at 83 due to complications from severe respiratory problems

2016 Prince [Rogers Nelson], American singer-songwriter and musician (1999, Purple Rain), dies from an accidental overdose of painkillers at 57

[Alikado]

International Mother Earth Day

1509 Henry VIII became King of England at age 17 following the death of his father, Henry VII.

1692 Edward Bishop is jailed for proposing flogging as a cure for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts

1804 Gioacchino Rossini (12) performs in Imola

1817 Curacao prohibits use of white paint due to fierce sunlight

1838 English steamship "Sirius" docks in NYC after crossing the Atlantic, first transatlantic steam passenger service

1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completes his ballet "Swan Lake"

1915 The Second Battle of Ypres begins on the Western Front n WW I

1915 – The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.

1943 German counter attack in North-Tunisia

1943 RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea

1944 Allies land near Hollandia, New-Guinea

1945 Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated

1945 – Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape.

1945 Battle of Berlin: Upon being informed that a planned counter-attack never happened, Adolf Hitler flies into a rage, denounces the German Army and concedes World War II is lost and states that suicide is his only recourse.

1945 SS chief Heinrich Himmler secretly meets with Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, asking him to act as an intermediary for a surrender offer to the Western Allies. The Allies do not take the offer seriously.

1969 1st human eye transplant performed

1969 – Yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world

1969 Bernadette Devlin, the youngest woman ever to be elected to Westminster, makes a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons concerning the situation in Northern Ireland

1991 Intel releases 486SX chip

1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated

1972 An 11-year-old boy killed by a rubber bullet fired by the British Army in Belfast; he was the first to die from a rubber bullet impact

1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

1981 10,000 copper workers in Chile strike

1981 Almost 1 million West German metal workers go on strike

1983 – The German magazine Stern claims the "Hitler Diaries" had been found in wreckage in East Germany; the diaries are subsequently revealed to be forgeries.

1991 Intel releases 486SX chip

1993 – Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham.

1994 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda

1994 Borge Ousland is the 1st person on a solo and unsupported journey to reach the North Pole

1997 Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria - 93 villagers killed.

1999 Luis Garavito [The Beast, Tribilín], Colombian serial killer described as "the world's worst serial killer" (138-300+ victims) apprehended

2006 Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War

2014 David Moyes is sacked as manager of Manchester United

2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming.

2016 Paris Agreement on climate change signed in New York binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C

2018 Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills more than 20 at a wedding in northwestern Yemen

2018 Liverpool's Egyptian soccer forward Mohamed Salah is named Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year

2020 Sudan bans female genital mutation and makes it a criminal offense

2021 India sets a world record for daily COVID-19 cases recording 314,835 new cases with 2,104 deaths

2021 US President Joe Biden pledges to cut US carbon emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030 at a virtual climate summit

Born Today ;-

570 Muhammad, Arabic prophet and founder of Islam (Quran), born in Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia (d. 632 AD) (approximate dates)

1444 – Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk, a sister of King Edward IV and of King Richard III

1870 Vladimir Lenin [Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov], Marxist Revolutionary and Soviet Leader, born in Simbirsk, Russia

1899 Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-American novelist (Lolita, Ada), born in St Petersburg

1902 Megan Lloyd George, politician (1st female MP in Wales - Carmarthen), born in Criccieth

1904 Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist known as the father of the atomic bomb (Manhattan Project), born in NYC, New York

1916 – Yehudi Menuhin, violinist (Béla Bartók's Sonata), conductor and teacher, born in NYC, New York

1917 Leo Abse, Welsh politician and biographer, born in Cardiff, noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws. During his parliamentary career, Abse introduced more private member's bills than any other parliamentarian in the 20th century.

1925 George Cole, actor (Minder, Vampire Lovers), born in London

1936 – Glen Campbell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist ("By The Time I Get to Phoenix"; "Wichita Lineman"; "Rhinestone Cowboy"), and actor (True Grit) born in Delight, Arkansas

1937 Jack Nicholson, American actor (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining), born in Neptune City, New Jersey

1944 – Steve Fossett, American businessman, pilot, and sailor, the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft, set more than one hundred records in five different sports. born in Jackson, Tennessee (disappeared 2007)

1948 Carol Drinkwater, Anglo-Irish actress (Father, All Creatures Great & Small) and author (The Haunted School, Provence), born in London

1950 Jancis Robinson, wine writer / broadcaster also provides advice for the wine cellar of Queen Elizabeth II., born in Carlisle

1957 – Donald Tusk, Polish journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Poland, President of the European Council 2014-), born in Gdansk, Poland

1960 Gary Rhodes, British restaurateur and television chef born in London

1986 Amber Heard, American actress (Aquaman), born in Austin, Texas

1987 David Luiz Moreira Marinho, Brazilian football player (Chelsea, Brazil national team), born in Diadema, Brazil

Died Today ;-

1355 Eleonora Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward II, dies at 36

1616 Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, Spanish author (Don Quixote), dies of a cirrhosis at 68

1778 James Hargreaves, inventor (spinning jenny),

1782 Anne Bonny, Irish pirate, dies in prison

1833 Richard Trevithick, English inventor (steam locomotive), dies at 62

1908 Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister (Liberal: 1905-08), dies at 71 he had resigned as Prime Minister in April 1908 due to ill-health and was replaced by his Chancellor, H. H. Asquith. He died 19 days later – the only prime minister to die in the official residence, 10 Downing Street

1933 Henry Royce, industrialist and automobile founder (Rolls-Royce), dies at 70

1994 Richard Nixon, 37th President (1969-75), dies of a stroke at 81

2002 – Linda Lovelace (Linda Susan Boreman) , porn actress (nicknamed "Miss Holy Holy" in high school) made her theater debut in Pajama Tops at the Locust Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The production suffered disappointing box office performance, which led it to close early, and Boreman's performance was panned, starred in films Dogarama,P!$$ Orgy and Deep Throat which grossed over $600 million, however she was paid only $1250.