Today in History

1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act came into force as Eire (Southern Ireland) became a Republic and left the British Commonwealth.

1968 - London Bridge was sold for £1m to American oil tycoon Robert McCullough. He decided to knock it down, brick by brick, and have it re-built at Lake Havasu in the United States.

1980 - Rhodesia became Zimbabwe at midnight and independent from Britain. Canaan Banana was the President and Robert Mugabe the Prime Minister.
 

April 19th
1775
The American Revolution began as fighting broke out in Lexington,Mass
1897
The 1st Boston Marathon debuts,its the oldest annual marathon.John J.McDermott was 1st winner
 
April 20th
1912
Fenway Park in Boston,Mass opened as the home of MLB's Boston Red Sox
1977
U.S. Supreme Court rules'Live Free and Die' maybe covered on New Hampshire license plates
 

Please take a moment today to remember the 168 people killed 25 years ago today in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.
 
21st April

1918 - Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the legendary German ace pilot who had destroyed 80 Allied aircraft, was shot down by an RAF fighter and died from the crash behind British lines. He was known as the ‘Red Baron’ because of his distinctive red Fokker tri-plane.

1926 - Queen Elizabeth II was born. On 23rd Janury 2015, (following the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz), the Queen became the oldest reigning monarch in the world and on 21st April 2016 she became the first 90 year old head of state of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

1934 - The 'Surgeon's Photograph', the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, was published in the Daily Mail. In 1999, it was revealed to be a hoax.
 
April 22
1970
The 1st Earth Day is celebrated founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson{Wisc}
2005
An annoymous bidder purchased the microphone that sat on Johnny Carson's desk for $50,787
 
1778 - John Paul Jones leads American raid on Whitehaven, England. The USS Ranger stood about 2 miles off the unsuspecting town of Whitehaven on a clear but cold and frosty night. Two boats were let down into the water and filled with about 30 men armed with pistols and cutlasses. John Paul Jones took charge of one with his Swedish second in command, one of the few he felt he could trust, Lieutenant Meijer.

http://www.whitehavenandwesternlakeland.co.uk/johnpauljones/raid.htm
 
April 23rd
1985
Coca Cola announced it was changing their secret flavor formula,now to be called'New Coke'.It turned out to be a major marketing blunder,long time Coke consumers were outraged.74 days later it was cancelled
 
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April 24th
1833
Jacob Evert&George Dulty patented 1st soda fountain
1990
Hubble space telescope was launched on board space shuttle Discovery
30 yrs later continues to send back incredible pictures of space
 
1731 - The death of Daniel Defoe, English novelist and author of Robinson Crusoe, his most famous novel. Robinson Crusoe is second only to the Bible in its number of translations.

1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
 
April 25th
1792 Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier
1990 Hubble space telescope is placed into orbit by shuttle Discovery
 
1607 - Captain John Smith landed at Cape Henry, in Virginia with the first group of colonists who established a permanent English settlement in America.

1923 - The marriage of Prince Albert, Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon took place in Westminster Abbey. The Duke of York would succeed to the throne in 1936 after the abdication of his elder brother, King Edward VIII.

2014 - The only surviving letter thought to have been written on the ill-fated Titanic, was sold at auction for £119,000.
 
28th April

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.

1910 - Frenchman Louis Paulhan won the London to Manchester air race and the £10,000 prize. It was the first long-distance aeroplane race in England and was first proposed by the Daily Mail newspaper in 1906.
 
29th April

1945 - Adolf Hitler married his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designated Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun committed suicide the next day.

1986 - The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, was laid to rest at Frogmore in Windsor, alongside her husband, the abdicated King Edward VIII.

2011 - The marriage of Prince William, 2nd in line to the throne, and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey. The day was declared a bank holiday in celebration.
 
1852
The 1st edition of Roget's Thesaurus was published
1961
ABC's 'Wide World of Sports' debuts
1990
cranes start to tear down the Berlin Wall
 
April 29 1945..

The 45th infantry Thunderbird & Rainbow divisions, of Patton's 3rd Army liberated the Dachau prison camp in Germany.
 
Last edited:
Forgot to post it yesterday....

April 30 1945.......The Russian army moved into Berlin, capturing the city.......effectively ending the Nazi aggression & WWII in Europe itself.
 
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1st May

1707 - The Act of Union joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1840 - The first British Penny Black stamp went on sale. Invented by Rowland Hill, it was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp and it became valid for postage on 6th May.

1851 - Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London. Over 10,000 exhibitors set up eight miles of tables.
 
May 3rd
2003
New Hampshire's 'Old Man in the Mountain' collapses
In 1805,it was 'discovered' by 2 surveyors Luke Brooks and Francis Whitcomb from Franconia,NH
 

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