Today in History

6th April
1895 - Banjo Paterson's iconic "Waltzing Matilda" was sung publicly for the first time.

1896 - The first modern Olympic Games opens in Athens, Greece.

1956 - The iconic, 13-story Capitol Records Tower opened in Hollywood at 1750 Vine St. Designed by Louis Naidorf to resemble a stack of records on a turntable, it was the world's first circular office building.

1965 - The Intelsat 1 satellite was launched, becoming the world's first commercial communications satellite to provide regular, operational service.

1974 - ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo.

1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard takes the middleweight boxing title from Marvin Hagler.

April 6th

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1199King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) died from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder, after being wounded by a crossbow bolt during a siege in France.

1580An earth tremor damaged several London churches, including the old St. Paul's Cathedral.

1812British forces, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, assaulted the fortress of Badajoz in Spain. It was the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.




…
Edward Morgan was tried and hanged at Monmouth Jail on 6th April 1835; he was a member of the Tarw Scotch or the Welsh Cattle movement.


The movement was formed in the 1820s by discontented coal miners of the Monmouthshire valleys. Their aim was to improve the pay and working conditions of local workers, with direct action being taken against any person or group who opposed their cause. They were a secret society, with members swearing allegiance under pain of death
. Each town and village had its own group, with the leader usually being a person respected and feared for his aggressiveness and physical strength, known as the 'Bull' or in Welsh 'Tarw'. Their meetings were always clandestine, being held at night in secret locations.

Victims were usually workers who refused to join strike action or workers who were prepared to work for less money. A warning would be issued, with failure to comply resulting in offenders being 'scotched'. This involved a visit by the Cattle from another area dressed in animal skins and their faces blackened. The 'Tarw' would wear a headdress bearing a bull's horns. The punishment dealt out was physical attack and the ransacking of property; however, the Cattle's code dictated that any foodstuffs found in the household would always be left intact.

Despite attempts by the authorities to penetrate the movement, their activities continued for many years mainly due to the secrecy of their organisation and the reluctance of the general population to speak against their actions. The movement declined after the hanging of Edward Morgan in 1835.





….
The Snowdon Mountain Railway (Rheilffordd yr Wyddfa) opened this day in 1896.


* The railway runs from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon.


* A railway to the summit was first proposed in 1869 when Llanberis was linked to Caernarfon by the London & North Western Railway.


* The total cost of the railway was £63,800 (£5,474,000 equivalent in 2013)


* On the official opening one of the locomotives ran out of control and fell down the mountain. A passenger died from loss of blood after jumping from the carriage.


* After the Second World War the shortage of coal led to the railway attempting to burn old army boots as fuel.


* A new visitor centre, 'Hafod Eryri', was officially opened by First Minister Rhodri Morgan on 12 June 2009.


* The journey takes an hour to reach the summit and an hour to descend again with an average speed of five miles an hour.


* Swiss engineers were employed as advisors in the planning, as they were the only ones who had significant experience in building this type of railway.

….



1968: Pink Floyd announce their founder Syd Barrett had officially left the group. The musician had been suffering from psychiatric disorders compounded by drug use and would attempt a failed solo career before dropping out from music for good in 1974. He would die of pancreatic cancer in 2006 aged 60.

1971: The Rolling Stones launch their own record label, 'Rolling Stones Records'. Its iconic 'Tongue and Lip Design' logo, designed by John Pasche, would be first seen on the Stones single "Brown Sugar" from their Sticky Fingers album.


1974Swedish pop group ABBA won the 19th annual Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, Sussex, with 'Waterloo'. The Swedish version single was coupled with 'Honey, Honey', while the English version featured 'Watch Out' as the B-side.

6th April

1975 - A plane carrying 99 Vietnamese orphans landed at Heathrow airport. The Boeing 747 was chartered by the British Daily Mail newspaper whose editor, David English, was inspired by the American Operation Babylift. The children, many of them only a few months old, were accompanied by British doctors and nurses on the 18-hour flight from Saigon.

1994 Rwanda presidents' plane 'shot down. The presidents of the African states of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a plane crash near the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Burundi's Cyprian Ntayamira were among 10 people on the aircraft which some reports said was brought down by rocket fire.

1997 Fault cuts short space shuttle mission. The US space agency, Nasa, aborted the space shuttle flight and ordered its crew to return to Earth because of a defective fuel cell.

1889
George Eastman begins selling Kodak flexible roll film for 1st time
1930
Hostess'Twinkies' invented by James Dewar
1938
Dupont chemist, Roy J. Plunkett invents Teflon
1973
NASA launches Pioneer II probe to study Jupiter&Saturn
1992
Microsoft announces Windows 3.1
2020
Nadia, a 4yr old tiger at the Bronx Zoo in NYC tests positive for COVID-19, 1st known case of human-cat transmission. She was infected by asymptomatic staff member,also infected her sister. They both made a full recovery and still are at the zoo

April 7th



1141: Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title "Lady of the English."




On April 7th 1230 William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny and Buellt, was found in the bedchamber of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth's (Llywelyn the Great) wife Joan. In fury, Llywelyn had de Braose hanged and placed Joan under house arrest.





1827Chemist John Walker of Stockton on Tees sold the world's first box of 'friction matches' that he had invented the previous year. He charged one shilling for a box of 50 matches. Each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He named the matches 'Congreves' in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer, Sir William Congreve.



1832Joseph Thompson, a farmer, went to Carlisle to sell his wife, both having agreed to part. A large crowd gathered as he offered her for 50 shillings. After an hour, the price was knocked down to 20 shillings, together with a Newfoundland dog as an incentive.



1890 The opening of the Lynton and Lynmouth funicular Cliff Railway - .It is the the UK's only fully water powered railway and is also the highest and the steepest totally water powered railway in the world. The cliff railway connects the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth in north Devon.




1958 Capitol Records officially abandons the sale of 78 RPM singles in the UK, choosing to issue all new releases as 45 RPM only.


1964: Panama withdraws registration for Radio Caroline's ship MV Caroline.

On April 7th 1966, The US found their missing H-bomb, it was at the bottom of The Mediterranean. On April 7th Booker T. Washington was the first African American to appear on a U.S. postage stamp and the 1974 Eurovision was won by Abba singing: "Waterloo."
Born on this day include jazz singer Billie Holiday and actor Jackie Chan.

8th April

1817 - Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) is established.

1933 - Western Australia passes a referendum to secede from the Commonwealth with 66.23% of voters in favour. The move was never ratified because the British Parliament ruled it had no power to act without the consent of the Australian Federal Government.
The Australian Constitution does not contemplate any state or territory leaving. The Preamble to the Constitution states that the Australian federation is 'indissoluble' – not able to be broken. The only legal path to secession would be by national referendum. A majority of voters in the majority of states and territories would have to agree to dissolve the union, just as they agreed to create it.

1961 - Britain's BBC Radio bans the song A Hundred Pounds of Clay by Gene McDaniels because it has a reference to women being created from building materials, which the network considered to be blasphemous.

1963 - John and Cynthia Lennon become the proud parents of a baby boy who they name Julian, after John's late mother, Julia

2020 - The High Court of Australia overturns the child sexual abuse conviction of Cardinal George Pell.

April 8th


April 8, 1328, marked the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton between England and Scotland. This treaty officially recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom and acknowledged Robert the Bruce as its rightful king. The treaty ended the First War of Scottish Independence, which had begun in 1296.




1820: The statue known as Venus de Milo is discovered by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas, inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos, the current village of Tripiti, on the island of Milos in the Aegean.




1838The day before his 32nd birthday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 236 ft steamship Great Western sailed from Bristol on her maiden voyage to New York. The journey took 15 days, half the time of the fastest sailing ship. She became the first steamship to make regular Atlantic crossings.



APRIL 8, 1812
Czar Alexander I, the Russian Emperor and the Grand Duke of Finland, officially announces the transfer of the status of the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki.



On April 8, 1870, the British Red Cross was founded. The organization was created in response to the growing need for humanitarian aid during wartime


8 Apr 1967
Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest held in Vienna representing Britain with the song 'Puppet On A String'. She became the first UK female artist to win the contest.



1961 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Britain's BBC Radio bans the song "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" by Gene McDaniels because it has a reference to women being created from building materials, which the network considered to be blasphemous

April 9th



1483The young Edward V acceded to the throne on the death of Edward IV. The boy was murdered in the Tower 75 days later, on 25th June.




On 9th April 1558 Protestant martyr William Nicholas was burnt at the stake at Haverfordwest.
Nicholas was one of the many Protestants condemned to death in the short reign of Queen Mary. This is practically all that is known of Nicholas, as no record of his trial exists and information on his early life is negligible. Indeed, the manner of his death is the only precisely known fact about him.


1747The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for high treason. He was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain, in a form of execution which had been reserved for the nobility.



1770The explorer Captain Cook arrived in Botany Bay, Australia, the first European to do so.




1860: Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice on his phonautograph machine. The device traces sound waves on smoke-blackened paper or glass, but unlike Edison's later Phonograph, cannot play them back. It would not be until 2008 before they were actually heard once reconstituted by a computer.




1969Brian Trubshaw, the first British pilot to fly Concorde, made his first flight in the British built prototype. The 22 minute flight left from a test runway at Filton near Bristol and landed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.





9 Apr 1963
The Beatlesappeared live on the ITV show Tuesday Rendezvous, miming ‘From Me to You’ and ‘Please Please Me’ (during the closing credits). In the evening The Beatles played live at the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn, London.

1872
Samuel R. Percy patents dried milk
1941
PGA{Professional Golf Assn} establishes Golf Hall of Fame in Florida.In 2024 it moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina
1973
movie' Paper Moon' starring Ryan O'Neal, and his daughter,Tatum directed by Peter Bogdanovich is released. The movie is set in the Great Depression,a con man & orphan team up together. Others in cast, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman,Randy Quaid Tatum won best supporting actress Oscar age 10,the youngest ever
1983
David Bowie's single' Lets Dance' his 1st song to be both #1 in the U.S and UK music charts. In U.S. was #1 for a week, 3 weeks in UK
2002
funeral for Queen Mother at Westminster Abbey in London, over a million people lined the streets
2018
Fleetwood Mac announce 2 new members of the band, Neil Finn&Mike Campbell after long time member, Lindsey Buckingham was fired

April 10th in History


One of the most pivotal events on April 10 occurred in 1464 when King Edward IV of England secretly married Elizabeth Woodville. The marriage took place at Grafton Regis in Northamptonshire. Elizabeth was a widow from the Lancastrian side of the Wars of the Roses. Her husband, Sir John Grey, had died fighting for Henry VI.



1633 First bananas go on sale in London in the shop window of Thomas Johnson's apothecary




1815 Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people and causing a global volcanic winter


1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Palace of Westminster, cracks during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes bellThe original bell for the Palace of Westminster, known as Big Ben, cracked under the striker’s weight during testing. The bell had been cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and weighed over 14 tons. Following the crack, the bell was recast at the same foundry to a slightly lighter weight of 13.76 tons.



1896 American athlete Thomas Burke claims the sprint double at the Athens Olympics winning the 100m final in 12.0s; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 400m




1912 Titanic sets sail from Southampton for her maiden (and final) voyage

1849
inventor, Walter Hunt patents safety pin,he sells his rights for $400
1925
F. Scott Fitgerald's book 'The Great Gatsby' is published by Scribners & Sons in NYC. It didn't sell well only 20,000 copies. Over the years it gain popularity has now sold over 25 million copies
1947
Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st black baseball player to sign a MLB{ major league baseball} contract with Brooklyn Dodger. GM, Branch Richey bought Robinson's contract from Montreal Royals
1970
Paul Mc Cartney announces the break up of The Beatles in a press release as he was promoting his solo album
1995
NYC bans smoking in all restaurants that seat 35 people or more
2019
4 tiny sweat bees are removed alive from a woman's eye in the world's 1st operation of its kind in a hospital in Taiwan

April 12 th


Admiral Sir Thomas Foley (1757 – 9 January 1833) from Narberth was a 'Hero of the Battle of the Nile' and one of Nelson's 'Band of Brothers'.
On 12th April 1782 in the Battle of the Saintes during the American War of Independence, the British fleet defeated the French after a campaign in which Foley played a major part, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica.




1831Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester caused it to collapse, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops marching over the bridge in step. Forty of the soldiers were thrown into the river. As a result of the incident the British Military issued an order that troops should 'break step' when crossing a bridge.




On 12th April 1842, a Chartist Convention met in London to arrange the submission of a petition to parliament. Delegates included Morgan Williams who brought with him a petition signed by 36,000 people from South Wales.




In 1892, the first U.S. patent for a portable typewriter, the Blickensderfer, was issued to George Blickensderfer of Stamford, Connecticut (No. 472,692).



On April 12, 1951, the first full episode of The Goon Show was broadcast by the BBC. This radio comedy program became one of the most influential British comedy productions of the 20th century.


In 1968, a sudden outbreak of startling sheep deaths in Skull Valley, Utah, was attributed to a nerve gas sprayed earlier by the Army on the nearby Dugway Proving Grounds.


1954: Bill Haley and his Comets record their version of 'Rock Around The Clock' at Pythian Temple studios in New York City. Often seen as the song that kick-started rock and roll, it went on to be a world-wide No.1 with sales of over 25 million.

1990: The Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre announce that Asteroids 4147 to 4150, would be named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr in honour of the Fab-four.

April 13th

• 1598: Dutch mathematician and astronomer, Simon Stevin, demonstrates that the force of gravity extends beyond Earth.

• 1829: English chemist, William Austin, discovers the compound known as quinine, which later becomes an important treatment for malaria
• 1919: British actor and comedian, Charlie Chaplin , stars in his first full-length film, “The Kid,” which he also wrote and directed.

1967 Police in Poland use tear gas and batons to control several thousand teenagers who turned out to see The Rolling Stones first concert behind the Iron Curtain






1970 Apollo 13 Oxygen Tank ExplodesAn oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded en route to the Moon, crippling the spacecraft. The crew of Lovell, Swigert, and Haise safely returned to Earth in a legendary rescue mission.

1828
Noah Webster registers copyright for publication of 1st American dictionary'An American Dictionary of English Language'
1902
dept store founder, James Cash Penney opens his 1st store in Kemmerer, Wyoming,still in operation today
1920
1st Volvo car is produced in Gothenburg, Sweden
1945
WWII: U.S. 7th Army & Allied forces capture Nuremberg&Stuttgart in Germany
1960
U.S. record company, 'Motown' founded by Berry Gordy,Jr in Detroit,Michigan
1986
Desmond Tutu is selected as Capetown, South Africa's Anglican Archbishop
2021
Coinbase becomes the 1st major cryptocurrency company to trade shares on NY Stock Exchange

1874
1st Impressionist art exhibition opens in Paris featuring painters, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissaro,&Berthe Morisot
1924
Rand McNally publishes 1st road atlas
1955
Ray Kloc opens 1st MacDonalds fast food restaurant in Des PLaines, Ill. It was torn down in 2018 due to flooding& maintentance issues
1967
Frank Sinatra& his daughter, Nancy's single' Something Stupid' hits #1 on music charts, stays there for 4 weeks. On the adult Contempary charts stayed #1 for 13 weeks
1992
businesswoman/hotelier,Leona Helmsley aka' Queen of Mean' goes to prison for federal income tax evasion. She served 18-21 months in federal prison was released in 1994
2019
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris catches fire,destroys the roof, spire,severely damaged cathedral's upper walls,valuated ceiling. It reopened on Dec 7,2024

April 16th

1746: The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. The resulting Hanoverian victory decisively halts the Jacobite intent to overthrow the House of Hanover and restore the House of Stuart to the British throne.





In 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel. She left England in a 50-hp monoplane lent to her by Louis Blériot. She headed for France in a plane she had never flown before and a compass she had just learned how to use. Despite poor visibility and fog, Quimby landed 59 minutes later near Hardelot, France.

Upon landing, she was greeted by the local residents, but the Titanic sinking limited reporting of Quimby's achievement in the world press.

She died the same year, on 1 Jul 1912, when she lost control of her plane at a flying exhibition near Quincy, Mass.

She was the first American woman to become a licensed pilot, but her career as a pilot lasted a mere 11 months.

1919Gandhi organized a day of 'prayer and fasting' in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by the British. Official Government of India sources estimated the fatalities at 379, with 1,100 wounded, many of them women and children.





1945: The United States Army liberates Colditz Castle in Saxony which is being used as a Nazi high security prisoner-of-war camp. Among its more notable inmates are British fighter ace Douglas Bader and Pat Reid, who would bring Colditz to public attention in his post war books





1953Queen Elizabeth II launched the Royal Yacht Britannia at Clydeside. She was used by the British Royal Family for state visits and diplomatic missions for the next 45 years and is now permanently moored as an exhibition ship at Ocean Terminal, Leith - Edinburgh.





In 1956, a radio made to run either on batteries or solar-cell power was first sold in the U.S. The Sun Power Pak was made by the Admiral Corporation, Chicago, Ill. By using six transistors instead of vacuum tubes, the radio needed so little electricity that with six ordinary flashlight batteries it could give 700 to 1,000 hours of use. The $60 radio was small (about 3 x 9 x 10 in.) and weighed only 5.25 pounds. The $185 auxillary Sun Power Pak provided electrical power from sunlight using a silicon "solar cell element




.Music1964: The Rolling Stones release their self-titled debut album. Recorded at Regent Sound Studios in London over the course of five days, it would top the UK album charts two weeks later and stay on the chart for 40 weeks.








On 16th April 2006 the first Welsh International Harp Festival opened at Caernarfon, featuring a wide range of music played on different types of harp, including Triple harps, Celtic harps, African Kora and Ku-cheng from China.
The harp originated in Mesopotamia and the instrument has been adopted by cultures throughout the world in a variety of forms, but in Wales there are more harps per head of population than anywhere else and it is considered to be our national instrument.

April 18th


796

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Ethelred (age 34), king of the Northumbrians, was slain by his own people, on the thirteenth day before the calends of May; in consequence of which, Bishops Ceolwulf and Eadbald retired from the land.



1521 – Martin Luther’s trial begins at the Diet of Worms

Martin Luther, the German monk whose writings sparked the Protestant Reformation, was called to the Diet of Worms to face charges of heresy.

This assembly, presided over by Emperor Charles V, was pivotal. Luther was ordered to recant his teachings against the Roman Catholic Church.




The Battle of St. Fagans (1648)

On April 18, 1648, the Battle of St. Fagans took place during the Second English Civil War. This battle was fought in Wales between the Royalist supporters of Charles I and the Parliamentarian forces. The Royalists, led by Colonel John Poyer, sought to reclaim power after the execution of Charles I was proposed. However, the Parliamentarians, commanded by Colonel Thomas Horton, launched a decisive attack near Cardiff. The Royalists suffered heavy losses, and many were taken prisoner. This battle marked the decline of Royalist resistance in Wales, solidifying Parliament’s control over the region




1775 Silversmith and folk hero Paul Revere made a dramatic ride on horseback to warn Boston-area residents of an imminent attack by British troops, a day before the American Revolution began with a battle at Lexington.







1902 – Denmark becomes the first country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals

Denmark became the first country to adopt fingerprinting as a method for identifying criminals, setting a precedent that would soon be adopted worldwide.




1906
The Great San Francisco Earthquake topples buildings, killing thousands




1949 – The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force

The Republic of Ireland Act officially severed Ireland’s remaining constitutional ties with Britain on this historic date. The legislation transformed Éire from a dominion into a fully independent republic.


On 18th April 2013, the Pontfadog Oak was blown down by storm force winds.
The sessile oak, which was estimated to be over 1200 years old was situated on Cilcochwyn farm in Pontfadog, near Chirk and with a girth of over 53ft (16 metres) was Wales' largest as well as the oldest known oak tree. It was reputedly the meeting point of Owain Gwynedd's army in prior to the Battle of Crogen in 1165 in which the English army of Henry II was defeated and forced into a humiliating retreat.



1975 John Lennon gives what becomes his final public performance at a gala salute to British media mogul Lew Grade at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, NYC; he performed 3 songs - Little Richard’s “Slippin’ and Slidin’”, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”, and closed with his own “Imagine”

1906
A 7.9 magnitude earthquake& fire hits San Francisco killing 4,000 destroys 25,000 buildings,leaving 200,000 homeless, fire lasted 4 days destroyed 75% of the city
1924
Simon& Schuster publish 1st crossword puzzle book
1946
International Court of Justice opens at The Hague in Netherlands
1986
IBM introduces 1st megabit chip
2013
28th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees:
Heart, Public Enemy, Rush, Donna Summer, Quincy Jones, Randy Newman,Lou Adler

April 19th



1012 – Martyrdom of St. Alphege in Greenwich, England

St. Alphege (also spelled Aelfheah) was the Archbishop of Canterbury who was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 during one of their many assaults on England.

Held captive for several months, Alphege refused to allow a large ransom to be paid for his release, not wishing to impose such a financial burden on his poor parishioners.



His captors, frustrated by his refusal and perhaps drunk during a feast, murdered him by pelting him with bones and ox heads. He was canonized as a martyr, and his death is remembered for its example of self-sacrifice and piety.




On April 19, 1440, King Henry VI established Eton College, one of Britain’s most prestigious schools. Founded with the purpose of educating poor boys who would later attend King’s College, Cambridge, Eton has since become synonymous with elite British education. Over the centuries, the school has produced many British Prime Ministers, royalty, and influential figures in various fields.





1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia and writes in his logbook 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”.





1883 British banker Thomas Agnew and others found the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC), based on Agnew's observation of a similar group in NYC; its success leads to a national organization



The Welsh of Patagonia and the native Tehuelche people.
On 19th April 1866, the Welsh settlers in Patagonia made their first recorded contact with the Tehuelche people of the southern pampas regions of Argentina and Chile. They were a hunter-gatherer nomadic people who had inhabited the area for the previous 14,00 years. They spent the winters in the lowlands hunting whale and catching fish and during the remainder of the year, they migrated to the higher grounds where they hunted game. According to reports they were unusually tall (up to 6' 10") clean-shaven and often painted their bodies for protection from the sun.



On this day in 1943, a few days after he had accidentally discovered LSD's effects, Albert Hofmann intentionally ingested the drug at his laboratory in Switzerland. About 40 minutes later, feeling restless and unable to speak clearly, he called it a day and rode his bike home. What proved to be the world's first “acid trip” came to be celebrated, beginning in the 1980s, as Bicycle Day.




1971 The Soviet Union successfully launched Salyut 1, humanity’s first space station, into Earth orbit. This groundbreaking achievement marked the beginning of permanent human presence in space.



1968

April 19
John Lennon and George Harrison leave the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India two weeks before their study is complete. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney have already left. All four Beatles would later renounced their association with the Maharishi because of his alleged sexual advances made towards Mia Farrow. Over the years The Beatles would retract their criticism, with George Harrison apologizing for the way the Maharishi had been treated. Paul McCartney took his daughter, Stella, to visit the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007, which renewed their friendship.