This Day In History

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 16

1457 BC - The Battle of Megiddo was fought between Egyptian forces under the command of Pharaoh Thutmose III and a large rebellious coalition of Canaanite vassal states led by the king of Kadesh. It is the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail. Megiddo is also the first recorded use of the composite bow and the first body count. All details of the battle come from Egyptian sources—primarily the hieroglyphic writings on the Hall of Annals in the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, Thebes (now Luxor), by the military scribe Tjaneni.

73 - In one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War, Romans finally breach the wall of Masada only to find the 960 Sicarii rebels occupying the fortress had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and had killed each other.

1947 - A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas. Nearly 600 people lost their lives and thousands were injured when the ship was literally blown to bits. The blast was heard 150 miles away and was so powerful that the ship’s 1.5 ton anchor was found two miles away.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 19

1012 - Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, is killed by Viking raiders after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed.

1775 - The American Revolution begins as the first shot is fired at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where the first British soldiers fell in the battles of Lexington and Concord. Shots were fired earlier that day at Lexington, Massachusetts, where eight Americans were killed and a British soldier was slightly wounded, but accounts of that event are confusing and contradictory. The North Bridge skirmish did see the first shots by Americans acting under orders, the first organized volley by Americans, the first British fatalities, and the first British retreat.

1943 - In Warsaw, Poland, Nazi forces attempting to clear out the city’s Jewish ghetto are met by gunfire from Jewish resistance fighters, and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.

1995 - A massive truck bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast collapsed the north face of the nine-story building, instantly killing more than 100 people and trapping dozens more in the rubble.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 21

753 BC - Traditional date given for the founding of the city of Rome by Romulus and Remus

1526 - The First Battle of Panipat was fought between the invading forces of Babur and the Lodi dynasty. It took place in north India and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate. This was one of the earliest battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery in the Indian subcontinent which were introduced by Mughals in this battle.

1836 - Happy San Jacinto Day! During the Texan War for Independence, the Texas militia under Sam Houston launches a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna along the San Jacinto River. The Mexicans were thoroughly defeated, and hundreds were taken prisoner, including General Santa Anna himself. It was the final battle of the Texas Revolution where Texas won its independence from Mexico.

1918 - German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", isa shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France. Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown is credited with the kill.

1975 - Under intense political pressure, Nguyen Van Thieu resigned as president of South Vietnam after losing the confidence of his closest domestic allies.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 22

1500 - Pedro Álvares Cabral, under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Portugal, becomes the first European to claim sovereignty over what is now the territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil on the continent of South America .

1889 - The Oklahoma Land Rush started at high noon with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres which the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 had authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open for settlement.

*Edit: The day and night before, several “Sooners” crossed the line and set up claims in advance of the official start time.*

1915 - German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

1889 - The Oklahoma Land Rush started at high noon with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres which the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 had authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open for settlement.

You might add that the day and night before, several “Sooners” crossed the line and set up claims in advance of the official start time.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

You might add that the day and night before, several “Sooners” crossed the line and set up claims in advance of the official start time.

Done!

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 26

1865 - John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

1986 - The world’s worst nuclear power plant accident occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union. Thirty-two people died and dozens more suffered radiation burns in the opening days of the crisis, but only after Swedish authorities reported the fallout did Soviet authorities reluctantly admit that an accident had occurred.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 28

1789 - The HMS Bounty is seized in a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his loyal supporters were set adrift in a small, open boat, and the Bounty set course for Tubuai south of Tahiti.

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.

 

[Fen]

May 2 (Thats the date where I live at the time of this post)

1611- The King James Bible is published for the first time.

1624 – Kongsberg silverworks (silver mine) in Norway is founded.

1900 – King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway declares his support for the British during the Boer Wars.

1918 – General Motors buys Chevrolet.

1933 – Adolf Hitler forbids sosialistic and independent trade unions in Germany.

1940 – Norwegian forces defeats German forces at Os during WWII.

1945 – The Soviet Union declares that Berlin has fallen, and soldiers of the Red Army raises the flag of the Soviet Union above the Reichstag.

1945 – German forces in Italy surrenders.

1945 – Milrog, a Norwegian resistance group steals tons of archive material from the police- and department of justice.

1956 – The Jarlsberg cheese is introduced.

1958 – Women gains access to the House of Lords, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

1982 – The British submarine «GMS Conqueror» fires two Tigerfish-torpedoes against the Argentine navy lightcruiser ARA «General Belgrano» and sinks it. 368 loses their life.

1986 – Norwegian Prime Minister Kåre Willoch delivers his governments resignation, after the government issued a vote of confidence. Regarding increasing the petrol tax. Which the majority of the Parliament of Norway voted no to.

1992 – Norway signs the EEA agreement in Porto, Portugal.

2004 – More than 630 Muslim nomads are killed by Christians in Yelwa, Nigeria.

2008 – The cyclone «Nargis» hits Myanmar, over 138 000 lose their life.

2011 – SEAL Team Six of the American Navy Seals kills Osama Bin Laden in Abottabad, Pakistan.

 

[Billski]

Team Six of the American Navy Seals kills Osama Bin Laden in Abottabad, Pakistan.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 4

1471 - In a decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses in England forces loyal to the House of Lancaster were completely defeated by those of the rival House of York under their monarch, King Edward IV. The Lancastrian heir to the throne, Edward, Prince of Wales, and many prominent Lancastrian nobles were killed during the battle or executed. The Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England, who was a prisoner in the Tower of London, died or was murdered shortly after the battle.

1886 - At Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, a bomb is thrown at a squad of policemen attempting to break up what had begun as a peaceful labor rally. The police responded with wild gunfire, killing several people in the crowd and injuring dozens more.

1970 - In Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.

 

[Billski]

1970 - In Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.


It was divided all right!!!

 

[Bakker1964]

1970 - In Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming . . .

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 5

1862 - During the French-Mexican War (1861-1867), an outnumbered Mexican army defeats a powerful invading French force at Puebla. The retreat of the French troops at the Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for the people of Mexico, symbolizing the country’s ability to defend its sovereignty against a powerful foreign nation. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

1961 - Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere.

 

[Bakker1964]

May 5th is also LIBERATION DAY in the Netherlands, celebrating the liberation of the country from Nazi Occupation during WW2. Usually a day of great parties, outdoor festivals and lots (LOTS) of orange.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 5th is also LIBERATION DAY in the Netherlands, celebrating the liberation of the country from Nazi Occupation during WW2. Usually a day of great parties, outdoor festivals and lots (LOTS) of orange.

Happy Liberation Day!

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 6

878 - An army of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by the Dane Guthrum resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore. Primary sources locate the battle at "Eðandun". Until a scholarly consensus linked the battle site with the present-day town of Edington in Wiltshire, it was known as the Battle of Ethandun. After the defeat of Guthrum, Alfred's reforms to military obligations in Wessex made it increasingly difficult for the Vikings to raid successfully. By 896 the Vikings gave up with some going to East Anglia and others going to Northumbria. It was under Alfred that the Viking threat was contained.

1937 - The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crew-members. Lighter-than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenberg disaster, and no rigid airships survived World War II.

1942 - U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders the Corregidor garrison and all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 7

1429 - English siege of Orleans broken by Joan of Arc and the French army nine days after her arrival. It was the French royal army's first major military victory to follow the crushing defeat at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and also the first while Joan of Arc was with the army.

1718 - La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) is founded (May 7 has become the traditional date to mark the anniversary, but the actual day is unknown) by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time.

1915 - the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans.

1945 - The German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northeastern France. The act of military surrender was first signed at 02:41 on 7 May in SHAEF HQ at Reims, and a slightly modified document, considered the definitive German Instrument of Surrender, was signed on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin at 21:20 local time.

1954 - Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel at the conference of Geneva.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 18

1268 - The Mamluk Sultanate under Baibars finally succeeded in capturing the city of Antioch. Most historians agree in saying that fourteen thousand Christians were slaughtered and a hundred thousand dragged away into slavery. Historian Thomas Madden concludes that the events and destruction following the siege of Antioch, "was the single greatest massacre of the entire crusading era".

1863 - The siege of Vicksburg begins when Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city. After holding out for more than forty days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered on July 4. The successful ending of the Vicksburg campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort.

1917 - The Selective Service Act is enacted and authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. All males aged 21 to 30 were required to register to potentially be selected for military service. At the request of the War Department, Congress amended the law in August 1918 to expand the age range to include all men 18 to 45, and to bar further volunteering.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

May 21

1927 - American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, had lifted off from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before.

1956 - The United States conducts the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen bomb, dropping it from a plane over the tiny island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The successful test indicated that hydrogen bombs were viable airborne weapons and that the arms race had taken another giant leap forward.