April 11th
 

1814 ~ Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to Elba.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dean Acheson, former U.S. Secretary of State.

1932 ~ Birthday of Joel Grey, American singer and actor.

1945 ~ U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.

1951 ~ President Truman replaced General MacArthur with Lieutenant-General Ridgway.

1961 ~ Bob Dylan made his singing début in New York City.

1961 ~ Start of war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann.

1979 ~ Idi Amin deposed as president of Uganda.

1986 ~ Birthday of Roman Heart, American Porn actor.

2007 ~ Death of Kurt Vonnegut, American author.

April 12th
 

65 ~ Death of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Philosopher, Dramatist & Statesman.

1861 ~ The American Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

1895 ~ Birthday of Lily Pons, Opera Soprano.

1937 ~ Frank Whittle ground-tested the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft.

1940 ~ Birthday of Herbie Hancock, Musician.

1945 ~ President Franklin Roosevelt died.

1961 ~ Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1.

1984 ~ Arthur Scargill, the man who led the destruction of the National Union of Mineworkers ruled out a national ballot of miners on whether to continue their strike.

1999 ~ President Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

2009 ~ Death of Marilyn Chambers, Porn actress, best known for her performance in "Behind the Green Door".

April 13th
 

1598 ~ Henry IV of France granted freedom of religion to Hguenots.

1742 ~ George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland.

1829 ~ The British Parliament granted freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.

1892 ~ Birthday of Arthur Harris, commander of RAF's Bomber Command in World War II.

1963 ~ Birthday of Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player.

1964 ~ Sidney Poitier broke the color barrier when he was awarded the “Best Actor” Oscar.

1970 ~ Apollo 13 was almost lost when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.

1980 ~ Birthday of Jana Cova, Czech Porn actress.

1990 ~ The Soviet Union admitted committing the Katyn Massacre.

2008 ~ Death of John Wheeler, American physicist, inventor of the terms "black hole", "quantum foam" and "wormhole".

April 14th
 

1629 ~ Birthday of Christiaan Huygens, Mathematician.

1759 ~ Death of Georg Friedrich Handel, Composer.

1865 ~ President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

1904 ~ Birthday of Sir John Gielgud, Actor.

1935 ~ Death of Emmy Noether, Mathematician.

1939 ~ ''The Grapes of Wrath'' by John Steinbeck was published.

1964 ~ Death of Rachel Carson, Writer & Ecologist.

1988 ~ The USSR pledged to leave Afghanistan.

1999 ~ A hailstorm in Sydney, Australia caused at least A$1.7 billion damages.

2003 ~ The Human Genome Project was completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced.

April 15th
 

1452 ~ Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci.

1912 ~ The RMS Titanic sank.

1924 ~ Birthday of Sir Neville Marriner, Conductor.

1945 ~ British & Canadian troops liberate Bergen-Belsen

1955 ~ The first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1959 ~ Birthday of Emma Thompson, English actress.

1985 ~ Birthday of Amy Reid, Porn actress.

1989 ~ The Tiananmen Square protests began.

1994 ~ Representatives of 124 countries signed the Marrakesh Agreements which replaced the GATT with the WTO.

1998 ~ Death of Pol Pot, Cambodian Dictator.

April 16th
 

1867 ~ Birthday of Wilbur Wright, Pioneer Pilot.

1889 ~ Birthday of Charlie Chaplin, Actor, Writer & Film Producer.

1912 ~ Harriett Quimby became the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1918 ~ Birthday of Spike Milligan, Comedian.

1927 ~ Birthday of Joseph Ratzinger, German Shepard.

1943 ~ Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.

1947 ~ The explosive nature of ammonium nitrate fertilizer first tested in the wild.

1947 ~ Bernard Baruch coined the term Cold War to describe the relationship between the U.S. and the USSR.

1963 ~ Dr. Martin Luther King wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail.

1993 ~ The UN voted to make Srebrenica a 'safe haven'.

April 17th
 

1521 ~ Martin Luther appeared before the Holy Roman Emperor at Worms, Germany, and was cross-examined about his thoughts on religious reform.

1741 ~ Birthday of Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1790 ~ Death of Benjamin Franklin, Politician, Inventor, Diplomat, & Printer.

1861 ~ The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

1894 ~ Birthday of Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician & Premier 1958-1964.

1903 ~ Birthday of Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist.

1961 ~ Cuba was invaded at the “Bay of Pigs” by a U.S. supported invasion force of 1,500 Cuban exiles, who were defeated by Fidel Castro's forces.

1964 ~ Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock became the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.

1984 ~ Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed by gunfire coming from the Libyan People's Bureau in central London.

2003 ~ Death of Dr. Robert Atkins, noted for the Atkin's Diet.

April 18th
 

1772 ~ Birthday of David Ricardo, Economist.

1775 ~ Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons.

1819 ~ Birthday of Franz von Suppé, Croatian /Austrian composer.

1955 ~ Death of Albert Einstein, Physicist.

1958 ~ A federal court ruled that poet Ezra Pound should be released from an insane asylum.

1980 ~ Independence Day in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).

1978 ~ The U.S. Senate narrowly backed President Carter's controversial Panama Canal treaty.

1983 ~ A suicide bomber destroyed the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

1999 ~ Wayne Gretzky played his last National Hockey League game, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

2002 ~ Death of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer.

Here lies the body

of Ezra Pound

who was lost at sea

and never was found.


I heard that as a kid and found it so funny I never forgot it.

For a little extra reading:-

http://www.jacanaent.com/Library/Humour/Epitaphs.htm

April 19th
 

1881 ~ Death of Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the U.K.

1882 ~ Death of Charles Darwin, Biologist & Author.

1912 ~ Birthday of Glenn Seaborg, Chemist and Nobel Prize winner.

1956 ~ Actress Grace Kelly married Rainier III of Monaco.

1975 ~ India launched its first satellite: Aryabhata.

1989 ~ Death of Daphne du Maurier, Author.

1993 ~ A siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in.

1995 ~ Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was bombed, killing 168.

2005 ~ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI.

2011 ~ Fidel Castro resigned from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years.

April 20th
 

1657 ~ The Jews of New York City (then New Amsterdam) were granted freedom of religion.

1862 ~ The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur.

1889 ~ Birthday of Adolf Hitler, German dictator, "Der Führer".

1912 ~ Death of Bram Stoker, Author (Dracula).

1918 ~ Manfred von Richthofen shot down his 79th and 80th victims - his final victories.

1937 ~ Birthday of George Takei, American actor.

1968 ~ English politician Enoch Powell made his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.

1971 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.

1999 ~ The Columbine High School Massacre

2010 ~ The Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

April 21st
 

1649 ~ The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.

1836 ~ Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat Mexican troops under General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Muir, Environmentalist.

1910 ~ Death of Mark Twain, author.

1912 ~ The New York Giants and New York Yankees played an exhibition game to benefit survivors of the RMS Titanic.

1926 ~ Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

1944 ~ Women in France were enfranchised.

1960 ~ Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.

1991 ~ Death of Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor.

1992 ~ The first extrasolar planets were announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

"1992 ~ The first extrasolar planets were announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan."

Reminds me of a bit from the book "Fly for your Life" where a seacaptain said to the young Bob Tuck, "If they're flyshit, we're OK, if they're rocks, we're fucked."

Momentary visions of dust on the telescope, LOL.

They use a bizarre method of measuring variations of light during planetary transit and the incredibly tiny wobble in the sun created by the mass of the orbiting planet.

Yessir! It is all in how one interprets the data, and what one considers data!

April 22nd
 

1724 ~ Birthday of Immanuel Kant, Philosopher.

1870 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary.

1889 ~ The Oklahoma Land Rush began.

1904 ~ Birthday of Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist.

1943 ~ Albert Hofmann wrote his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

1970 ~ First Earth Day celebrated.

1984 ~ Death of Ansel Adams, Photographer.

1997 ~ A four-month siege of the Japanese embassy in Peru ended when commandos stormed and captured the building, rescuing 71 hostages. Interestingly, all 14 rebels died.

2000 ~ In a pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami; the 6-year-old boy was reunited with his father.

2002 ~ Death of Linda Lovelace, Porn actress.


Feastdays & Holidays

Earth Day : Canada, U.S.