Today in History

April 23rd


1016: King Aethelred II Dies
King Aethelred II dies in London, England, around the age of 50. The king of England from 978 to 1013 then again from 1014 until he died in 1016, Aethelred was dubbed Aethelred “The Unready” because of his perceived mismanagement of the Danish invasion of England. His nickname roughly means “bad counsel,” a nod to Aethelred’s name meaning “good counsel.”



On April 23, 1215, King John of England signed a crucial document known as the Magna Carta. This document was a charter of rights that limited the power of the king and established certain legal protections for the nobility and, by extension, for English subjects as a whole.



The Battle of Agincourt (1415)

April 23 is also the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, one of the most famous victories in English military history. The battle took place during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, and it is often seen as a triumph of English strategy and discipline over a much larger French force.




On April 23, 1535, Sir Thomas More, the famous English lawyer, scholar, and statesman, was executed. More’s death was a direct consequence of his refusal to acknowledge King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This event occurred during a turbulent period in English history, marked by the English Reformation and Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church.


The Morriston Orpheus Choir was formed this day 1935.
Formed by Ivor E Sims, it is one of the best-known male voice choirs in the world, receiving standing ovations in the Sydney Opera House and five standing ovations at the Carnegie Hall in New York. The choir has also performed in Germany, France, Canada, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Ireland.


1968 The first decimal coins appeared in Britain - the 5p and 10p pieces which replaced the 1 shilling and 2 shilling coins.





1982 The launch of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. The entry level model had 16 kB RAM and an external tape recorder was needed to load the majority of software. It was 'a computer for the masses' and much cheaper than its rivals - the Commodore 64 and the BBC Microcomputer.



1960Paul McCartney and John Lennon perform as "the Nerk Twins" at the Fox and Hounds pub in Reading, England. The pub is owned by McCartney's cousin and her husband. The duo play another set the next day.
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1635
The oldest U. S. public school, Boston Latin School forms. Its still open has students from grades 7-12, became co -ed in 1972
1851
Canada issues its 1st postage stamp,a Three-Pence Beaver
1932
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens at Stratford-On- Avon in England
1954
Atlanta Brave baseball player, Hank Aaron hits his 1st or 755 home runs again St. Louis pitcher, Vic Rasohi
1965
4 Tops hit single'I Cant Help Myself{Sugar Pie Honey Bunch} hits # 1 on Billboard Top 100 chart, stays there for 2 weeks. It hit #1 on Billboard's R&B chart stays there for 9 weeks
2005
You tube co founder, Jawed Karum uploads 1st You Tube video' Me At The Zoo' showing him in front of 2 elephants at the San Diego,Calif Zoo.It had 311 million views

April 24th
On This Day - 24th April1558Mary Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, married the French Dauphin at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.


1953Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.


1957English astronomer Patrick Moore presented the first broadcast of The Sky at Night, on BBC television.



1990: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. Its orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images with negligible background light. However its first images would indicate a serious problem with its optical system leading to a mission by Shuttle Endeavour in December 1993 to install corrective optics.


1982 27th Eurovision Song Contest: Nicole for Germany wins singing "Ein bißchen Frieden" in Harrogate.


Pepys

Monday 24 April 1665
Up and with Creed in Sir W. Batten’s coach to White Hall. Sir W. Batten and I to the Duke of Albemarle, where very busy. Then I to Creed’s chamber, where I received with much ado my two orders about receiving Povy’s monies and answering his credits, and it is strange how he will preserve his constant humour of delaying all business that comes before him.

Thence he and I to London to my office, and back again to my Lady Sandwich’s to dinner, where my wife by agreement.

1888
Eastman Kodak Company is formed in Rochester, NY by George Eastman,been operating for 145 yrs. It now focuses on printing, commerical film
1913
Woolworth Building in NYC opens at a cost of $13.5 million, at the time was the tallest building in the world
1953
British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1979
Georgia designates Ray Charles version of song' Georgia On My Mind' written by Hoagy Carmichael&Stuart Gorrell as state song
2005
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger become Pope Benedict XVI, he served for 8 yrs, resigns in 2013 due to health issues. He died on Dec 31,2022 age 95
2018
Suffragist, Millicent Fawcett is 1st woman to have a statue erected in Parliament Square in London

April 25th

On 25th April 1284 King Edward II of England was born to King Edward I of England (age 44) and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England (age 43) at Caernarfon Castle



The Enclosure Movement was a series of legal processes in the 18th and 19th centuries that led to the consolidation of small farms into larger, more efficient units. April 25, 1785, saw one of the final stages of the Enclosure Acts, which dramatically altered the British countryside.

Before the Enclosure Movement, much of the land was common property. Farmers had shared access to common land for grazing animals and growing crops. However, the Enclosure Acts divided up the land into privately owned plots, leading to a more organized and profitable system of agriculture. While this increased productivity, it also displaced many poor farmers who had relied on the common land.



1792 Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier.



On April 25, 1829, the first public transport system in London, using horse-drawn omnibuses, was introduced. This service was a precursor to the London bus network that we are familiar with today. The omnibuses were introduced to alleviate the congestion on the roads and provide an efficient form of transport for the growing population in the capital.




1846 Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War





1915 The Battle of Gallipoli begins during World War I, marking a significant campaign for Allied forces.



1859 Construction of the Suez Canal begins, creating a vital waterway connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas.




1953 Francis Crick and James
Watson publish their groundbreaking discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA in Nature.


1945 U.S. and Russian armies meet at Torgau, Germany, signaling the imminent defeat of Nazi Germany.


1955

April 25
John Walker, the British delegate on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs announces that there is a "definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as Bebop and Rebop."


1968 April 25
A survey by the Confederation of British Industry showed that listening on the job to Radio 1, the major Pop and Rock station of the BBC, made workers less productive.

1879
Royal National Park is established,south of Sydney, Australia, its the 2nd oldest world national park. The 1st is Yellowstone National Park located in N. Wyoming,extends into parts of Montana&Idaho
1920
Ice Hockey makes its debut at the Anterp Winter Olympic games. Canada routs Sweden 12-1 in the gold medal game
1956
the 1st modern container ship,the Ideal X leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston,Texas
1976
Pan Am begins non stop flights between NYC-Tokyo,took 13 hrs, 40 min,price of ticket $1,000
1986
world's worse nuclear disaster happen when 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear station in Russia explodes.It killed 31 people, spread nuclear contamination thru most of Western Europe
2011
U.S. singing competition' The Voice' debuts on NBC with judges, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera& Cee Lo Green. Its still going strong

April 27th

1521

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was killed during a fight with inhabitants of Mactan Island in the Philippines.


1296 King Edward I of England invaded Scotland, which led to the removal the coronation stone of Scone to Westminster Abbey in England. His actions inaugurated 250 years of bitter hatred, savage warfare, and bloody border forays.



1828 The London Zoo opened in Regent's Park.


The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, one of the most important museums of art and design in the world, officially opened its doors on April 27, 1857. Established in response to the Great Exhibition of 1851, the museum was intended to promote and encourage the arts of the United Kingdom.



On this day in 1930 Dylan Thomas made the first entry into his poetry notebooks while he was still a pupil at Swansea Grammar School. The first poem, dated 27 April, is entitled 'Osiris, come to Isis.'




1966: Radio Caroline South returns to the air from the re-fitted Mi Amigo boasting a new 50kW transmitter operating on 1187 kHz, announced as “259 metres”.

April 28th



1772 The death, in London, of the world's most travelled goat. She had circumnavigated the world twice, first on Dolphin under Captain Wallis, then on Cook's Endeavour. The Lord of the Admiralty even signed a document acknowledging her age and adventures.


1789 The crew of the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied against the harsh life at sea under Captain Bligh. They were on the return journey from Tahiti where they had spent six months gathering breadfruit trees. Bligh and 17 others were cast adrift in a small boat without a chart. While the mutineers eventually colonized Pitcairn Island, Bligh managed to sail the small craft 3,618 miles to Timor, near Java, arriving there on 14th June.



On April 28, 1890, the Forth Railway Bridge was officially opened. This iconic bridge, which spans the Firth of Forth in Scotland, was an engineering marvel of its time. Designed by the Scottish engineer Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, the bridge was one of the earliest examples of large-scale use of steel in construction, and its design was considered groundbreaking in terms of both functionality and aesthetics.




Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator during World War II, was captured ( and executed the next day) on this day in 1945. The fascist leader became hugely unpopular with his own supporters as well as those who found his regime atrocious. He was trying to escape the country when he was caught.




The general election held on April 28, 1929, was an important political event in British history, leading to significant shifts in the nation’s political landscape. The election resulted in a hung Parliament, with the Labour Party under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald becoming the largest party. However, no single party had an overall majority, which led to the formation of a minority Labour government.





1968 Featuring the hippie anthem "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," the musical Hair opens on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre. The show is made into a movie in 1979.

April 29th



1696 Therewere many attempts on the life of William III, King of England, who attracted opposition, in part because he was a foreigner. On This Day, three would-be assassins, Rookwood, Lowick and Cranbourne, were executed for an attempt that failed.



The “Elektromote,” created by German inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens, was the world’s first trolleybus tested on April 29, 1882. This experimental vehicle was connected to overhead electrical wires and ran along a 540-meter track in Berlin.



1884 Oxford University agreed to admit female students to examinations. However, woman were not to be awarded degrees


On 29th April 1941 the village of Cwmparc in the Rhondda Valley was subjected to a bombing raid from the Luftwaffe which killed 28 people.
It is believed that anti-aircraft fire had forced the German pilots to divert from their planned target at Swansea and had dropped their bombs randomly. Among the fatalities were three evacuees from London, the Jameson family, two boys and two girls, who had been staying at 14 Treharne Street which was one of the houses hit.

1852
Its edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus is published in England, has never been out of print
1927
construction of monoplane, 'Spirit of St. Louis' which Charles Lindberg was to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. It took 60 days to build
1945
Desmond Dross, a conscientious objector saved 75 wounded soldiers in Battle of Okinawa at Hacksaw Ridge without using a weapon,was there for 12 hrs. He was awarded by Pres Harry Truman the Medal of Honor.The movie version was released in 2016
1990
wrecking cranes begin to tear down the Berlin Wall at Brandenberg Gate
2004
Oldsmobile builds its final car'Alero' at the Lansing, Michigan assembly plant. It ended 107 yrs of production
2020
According to World Meteorlogical Org, a world record single lighting flash of 477 miles{768km} across Texas, Louisana& Mississippi

April 30th

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The Treaty of Woodstock;
On 30th April 1247, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and his brother Owain Goch ap Gruffydd came to terms with King Henry III of England at his royal residence of Woodstock Pace in Oxfordshire. Gwynedd was divided, with Llywelyn and Owain gaining joint control of Gwynedd Uwch Conwy, the part of Gwynedd west of the River Conwy and Henry himself taking control of Gwynedd Is Conwy, east of the river.

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On 30th April 1417, Owain Glyndŵr's son, Maredudd, declined the offer of a pardon from King Henry V for both himself and his father. In the later stages of the uprising, Maredudd had increasingly been seen as its leader by the English and in 1416 he appears to have been in North Wales, attempting to rally support with a force of Scots.
In 1416 Maredudd had refused a pardon for himself suggesting that Owain was still alive, however, he did accept a Royal Pardon in 1421 and subsequently served with Henry in France.


…
Llanidloes' 'Five Days of Freedom'
On 30th April 1839, three Chartist members were arrested by constables drafted in from London and imprisoned at the Trewythen Arms in Llanidloes prior to a meeting at the Long Bridge. This prompted the crowd to head to the hotel to release the imprisoned men only to find it protected by special constables of tenants of a local landowner, TE Marsh, armed with wooden staves. The Chartists then stormed the hotel and released the imprisoned men, during which time, the interior of the hotel was wrecked and a policeman severely beaten. For the following five days, Llanidloes remained under the control of the Chartists.

The authorities put up "wanted" posters offering rewards for the capture of the Chartist ringleaders and called upon the Lord Lieutenant at Powis Castle for assistance to control the situation, resulting in a force of 200 Yeoman Cavalry and Infantrymen from Brecon arriving in the town on 4th May. The military encountered no resistance and the town was sealed off with over thirty Chartists arrested and sent to Montgomery jail.
Following their trial, three Llanidloes men, Abraham Owen, Lewis Humphreys, and James Morris, a nineteen year old weaver, were transported to Australia and others were imprisoned at Montgomery for up to one year. A military garrison was maintained in the town until the summer of 1840.

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1513Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
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1821The first iron steamship, Aaron Manby, named after the proprietor of the Staffordshire ironworks at which she had been made, was completed. She weighed 116 tons and after trials on the River Thames made her maiden voyage across the Channel.



…. 2008: Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia, are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, one of his sisters.
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1965 The Kinks began their first headlining tour of the British Isles, with The Yardbirds serving as their opening act. Neither band had enjoyed a hit record yet, but would reach the UK chart later in the year.

1880
Metropolitan Museum of Arts opens in NYC
1939
NY Yankee, ball player, Lou Gehrig sets a MLB record playing in his 2,130th consecutive& final game. His record was broken in 1995, by Baltimore Oriole player, Cal Ripkin,Jr who extended the record to 2,632 games. He ended it on Sept 20,1998 when he voluntarily took the day off
1952
Mr 'Potato Head' becomes the 1st toy to advertised on TV, main audience was young kids cost was 98 cents. The kit included all the facial features except for the potato
1974
Pres. Richard Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tapes. In August he officially resigns as U.S. President, the only one to do so
1997
Big Ben in London stops working at 12:11pm for 54 min. The cause was a failure in the mechanism that controls the clocks hands
2007
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel officially gives the Waldseemuller Map,the oldest document to name America to U.S. Library of Congress

I was at the game in Baltimore when Ripken broke the most consecutive games played record. The highlight was that there was a 22 minute standing ovation for Cal. Cal was probably the most popular Oriole player, but Brooks Robinson may have been tied with Cal for popularity.

Cal did a lot for the city of Baltimore and the youth programs, including building a miniature Camden Yards with his brother, Billy in Aberdeen, Maryland, the Ripkens’ hometown. Cal and Billy played together while on the Orioles. They were managed by their dad, Cal, Sr.
It was always a good day at the ballpark when the Orioles were home and Cal was in the lineup, which was just about always.

Gehrig most likely would have played longer, except he became ill with ALS. (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
No, I am not an Orioles fan, but my dad was.

The 2nd of May marks the anniversary of one of the last major battles in Italy during WW2. The Yugoslav Partisan Army and the New Zealand 2nd Division pushed the Nazis out of Trieste.

Oorah …I am reminded of an old army story. In 1945 the New Zealand Division fought a costly street-by-street battle against the retreating German army to take the city of Trieste in northern Italy. Once the city was secured, the Americans decided a victory parade was in order, to be headed by the elite US Marines. It was pointed out that the Americans had arrived after the battle had finished and that the fighting had been done by the New Zealanders. The Italian campaign was nevertheless being run by US Army command and the parade went ahead as planned. In front came the US Marines, with a large banner bearing their emblem and the words ‘US Marines. Second to None’. Behind them marched the New Zealanders carrying a large sheet upon which was written the word ‘None’.

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May 2nd


1194 King Richard I gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was

On 2nd May 1230 William de Braose was publicly hanged on the orders of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, after it was suspected that he had committed adultery with Llywelyn's wife Joan (Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon).

William de Braose (c. 1197 – 2 May 1230) was born in Brecon, the son of Reginald de Braose who he succeeded in various lordships in 1227, including Abergavenny and Builth. The Welsh detested him and called him Gwilym Ddu (Black William). He was captured in 1228 by the forces of Llywelyn in the commote of Ceri near Montgomery and ransomed for £2,000. de Braose later made an alliance with Llywelyn, and his daughter Isabella married Llywelyn's only legitimate son Dafydd ap Llywelyn.

At Easter 1230 William was discovered in Llywelyn's bedchamber with Joan, resulting in Joan being placed under house arrest for twelve months and de Braose being hanged on 2 May 1230.



1497 John Cabot's expedition departs Bristol searching for new lands across the Atlantic.



1869 The Folies Trévise (later cabaret hall Folies Bergère) opens as an opera house in Paris, France



On May 2nd, 1863, General Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own Confederate troops during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. He lost his left arm to amputation but died from pneumonia eight days later.



1933www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born when a sighting made local news. Several London newspapers sent correspondents to Scotland, and a circus offered a £20,000 reward for capture of the beast.



1997 – Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister, finally ending 18 years of Conservative Party reign.
Furry was very pleased about this.
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1980 - ClassicBands.com

May 2
Pink Floyd's hit single "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", with its chorus of kids chanting "We Don't Need No Education", is banned by the South African government. Black children, upset about inferior education, adopt the song as their anthem. The government says the song is "prejudicial to the safety of the state."

1991 - ClassicBands.com

May 2
The Rolling Stones are cited for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the 36th Ivor Novello Awards in London. The honor is named after the Cardiff, Wales born entertainer Ivor Novello and has been presented annually by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors since 1955.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

May 2
Eric Clapton joined former Cream members, drummer Ginger Baker and bass player Jack Bruce, for the first of four nights at London's Royal Albert Hall, thirty-six years after the band had split up