This day in .....

26 March 1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.

Book of Mormon

Sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement

This article is about the religious text. For the 2011 musical comedy, see The Book of Mormon (musical). For the third-to-last internal book of the Book of Mormon, see Book of Mormon (Mormon's record). For other uses, see Book of Mormon (disambiguation).

The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.^[1][2]

The book is one of the earliest and most well-known unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement. The denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture (sometimes as one of four standard works) and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas.^[3] The majority of Latter Day Saints believe the book to be a record of real-world history, with Latter Day Saint denominations viewing it variously as an inspired record of scripture to the lynchpin or "keystone" of their religion.^[4][5] Some Latter Day Saint academics and apologetic organizations strive to affirm the book as historically authentic through their scholarship and research,^[6] but the wider archaeological, historical, and scientific communities have discovered no evidence to support the existence of the civilizations described therein.^[7]

The Book of Mormon has a number of doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve,^[8] the nature of the Christian atonement,^[9] eschatology, agency, priesthood authority, redemption from physical and spiritual death,^[10] the nature and conduct of baptism, the age of accountability, the purpose and practice of communion, personalized revelation, economic justice, the anthropomorphic and personal nature of God, the nature of spirits and angels, and the organization of the latter day church. The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection.^[11] Common teachings of the Latter Day Saint movement hold that the Book of Mormon fulfills numerous biblical prophecies by ending a global apostasy and signaling a restoration of Christian gospel. The book is also a critique of Western society, condemning immorality, individualism, social inequality, ethnic injustice, nationalism, and the rejection of God, revelation, and miraculous religion.^[12]

The Book of Mormon is divided into smaller books, titled after individuals named as primary authors or other caretakers of the ancient record the Book of Mormon describes itself as and, in most versions, is divided into chapters and verses.^[13] Its English text imitates the style of the King James Version of the Bible,^[13] and its grammar and word choice reflect Early Modern English.^[14] The Book of Mormon has been fully or partially translated into at least 112 languages.^[15]

1. ^ The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi (1830 edition). E. B. Grandin. 1830.
2. ^ Hardy 2010, p. 3.
3. ^ Hardy 2010, pp. xi–xiii, 6.
4. ^ Archives, Church News (17 August 2013). "'Keystone of our religion'". Church News. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
5. ^ "The Book Of Mormon is the Keystone of Our Religion", Preach My Gospel, retrieved 31 March 2024
6. ^ Bushman 2005, pp. 92–94.
7. ^ Southerton 2004, p. xv. "Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of [Book of Mormon] civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists... These [Mesoamerican] cultures lack any trace of Hebrew or Egyptian writing, metallurgy, or the Old World domesticated animals and plants described in the Book of Mormon."
8. ^ E.g. 2 Nephi 2
9. ^ E.g. 2 Nephi 9
10. ^ E.g. Alma 12
11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ Bushman 2005, pp. 104–105.
13. ^ ^{a b} Hardy 2010, pp. 5–6.
14. ^ Carmack, Stanford; Skousen, Royal (August 2016). "Finishing up the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project: An Introduction to The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon". FAIR. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
15. ^ Translations of the Book of Mormon at LDS365.com

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27 March 1809 – Peninsular War: A combined Franco-Polish force defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Ciudad Real.

Peninsular War

1808–1814 war against Napoleon in Iberia

Lisbon

Madrid

Valencia

Bailén

Tudela

Corunna

Talavera

Cádiz

Albuera

Ciudad Rodrigo

Salamanca

Burgos

Tordesillas

Vitoria

Toulouse

class=notpageimage|

1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814

The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence.^[e]

The war started when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, and it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France occupied Spain, which had been its ally. Napoleon Bonaparte forced the abdications of Ferdinand VII and his father Charles IV and then installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne and promulgated the Bayonne Constitution. Most Spaniards rejected French rule and fought a bloody war to oust them. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation. It is also significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.

In 1808, the Spanish army in Andalusia defeated the French at the Battle of Bailén, considered the first open-field defeat of the Napoleonic army on a European battlefield. Besieged by 70,000 French troops, a reconstituted national government, the Cortes—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in the secure port of Cádiz in 1810. The British army, under Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French alongside the reformed Portuguese Army and provided whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon's troops.^[f] In 1812, when Napoleon set out with a massive army on what proved to be a disastrous French invasion of Russia, a combined allied army defeated the French at Salamanca and took the capital Madrid. In the following year the Coalition scored a victory over King Joseph Bonaparte's army at the Battle of Vitoria paving the victory of the war in the Iberian Peninsula.

Pursued by the armies of Spain, Portugal and Britain, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, no longer getting sufficient support from a depleted France, led the exhausted and demoralized French forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees during the winter of 1813–1814. The years of fighting in Spain were a heavy burden on France's Grande Armée. While the French enjoyed several victories in battle, they were eventually defeated, as their communications and supplies were severely tested and their units were frequently isolated, harassed or overwhelmed by Spanish partisans fighting an intense guerrilla war of raids and ambushes. The Spanish armies were repeatedly beaten and driven to the peripheries, but they would regroup and relentlessly hound and demoralize the French troops. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had unwittingly provoked a total war, to call the conflict the "Spanish Ulcer".^[12][13]

War and revolution against Napoleon's occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz, later a cornerstone of European liberalism.^[14] Though victorious in war, the burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of both Portugal and Spain; and the following civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions ushered revolts in Latin America and the beginning of an era of social turbulence, increased political instability, and economic stagnation.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Goya 1967.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Clodfelter 2008, p. 164.
3. ^ Chartrand 2000, p. 16.
4. ^ Fraser 2008, p. 394.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Clodfelter 2008, p. 166.
6. ^ Chartrand 1999, pp. 3–5.
7. ^ Gates 2002, p. 521.
8. ^ Clodfelter 2008, p. 165.
9. ^ Fraser 2008, p. 476.
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Clodfelter 2008, p. 167.
11. ^ Fraser 2008, p. 365.
12. ^ Hindley 2010.
13. ^ Ellis 2014, p. 100.
14. ^ Payne 1973, pp. 432–433.

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28 March 1979 – A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown

Three Mile Island accident

1979 nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, US

The Three Mile Island accident was a nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, near Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania, United States. The reactor accident began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979, and released radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment.^[2][3] It is the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.^[4] On the seven-point logarithmic International Nuclear Event Scale, the TMI-2 reactor accident is rated Level 5, an "Accident with Wider Consequences".^[5][6]

The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system,^[7] followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system,^[8] which allowed large amounts of water to escape from the pressurized isolated coolant loop. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). TMI training and operating procedures left operators and management ill-prepared for the deteriorating situation caused by the LOCA. During the accident, those inadequacies were compounded by design flaws, such as poor control design, the use of multiple similar alarms, and a failure of the equipment to clearly indicate either the coolant-inventory level or the position of the stuck-open PORV.^[9]

The accident crystallized anti-nuclear safety concerns among activists and the general public and led to new regulations for the nuclear industry. It accelerated the decline of efforts to build new reactors.^[10] Anti-nuclear movement activists expressed worries about regional health effects from the accident.^[11] Some epidemiological studies analyzing the rate of cancer in and around the area since the accident did determine that there was a statistically significant increase in the rate of cancer, while other studies did not. Due to the nature of such studies, a causal connection linking the accident with cancer is difficult to prove.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]} Cleanup at TMI-2 started in August 1979 and officially ended in December 1993, with a total cost of about $1 billion (equivalent to $2 billion in 2023).^[19] TMI-1 was restarted in 1985, then retired in 2019 due to operating losses. Its decommissioning is expected to be complete in 2079 at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.^[20]

1. ^ "PHMC Historical Markers Search". Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
2. ^ Rogovin, Mitchell (January 1980). Three Mile Island: a report to the commissioners and to the public. The problem was caused from a cooling problem and caused some of the core to melt in the 2nd reactor. Volume I. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. p. 3. doi:10.2172/5395798. OSTI 5395798. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
3. ^ Rogovin, Mitchell (January 1980). Three Mile Island: a report to the commissioners and to the public. Volume II Part 2 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. p. 309. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
4. ^ "Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
5. ^ Spiegelberg-Planer, Rejane (September 2009). "A Matter of Degree" (PDF). IAEA Bulletin. 51 (1). Vienna, Austria: Division of Public Information, International Atomic Energy Agency: 46. Retrieved October 16, 2021. A revised International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) extends its reach.
6. ^ "The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale" (PDF). INES. International Atomic Energy Agency. August 1, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2021. Level 5: Accident with Wider Consequences; Three Mile Island, USA, 1979 – Severe damage to the reactor core.
7. ^ "Secondary system". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. March 9, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2021. The steam generator tubes, steam turbine, condenser, and associated pipes, pumps, and heaters used to convert the heat energy of the reactor coolant system into mechanical energy for electrical generation. Most commonly used in reference to pressurized water reactors.
8. ^ "Primary system" (PDF). Reactor Concepts Manual, Pressurized Water Reactor. USNRC Technical Training Center. p. 4-3. Retrieved October 16, 2021. The primary system (also called the Reactor Coolant System) consists of the reactor vessel, the steam generators, the reactor coolant pumps, a pressurizer, and the connecting piping. A reactor coolant loop is a reactor coolant pump, a steam generator, and the piping that connects these components to the reactor vessel. The primary function of the reactor coolant system is to transfer the heat from the fuel to the steam generators. A second function is to contain any fission products that escape the fuel.
9. ^ Walker, J. Samuel (2004). Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 211. ISBN 0-520-23940-7. Retrieved October 19, 2021. The commission concluded that Met Ed, GPU, Babcock & Wilcox, and the NRC shared responsibility for the shortcomings in operator training. Those inadequacies were compounded by design flaws that undermined the efforts of the plant staff to deal with the accident. They included the cacophony of undifferentiated alarms, the inconvenient arrangement of instruments and controls, and the absence of clear indicators either of levels of water in the pressure vessel or of the position of the stuck-open PORV.
10. ^ "Michael Levi on Nuclear Policy". The Economist. March 31, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2011 – via YouTube.^{[time needed]}
11. ^ Gofman, John W.; Tamplin, Arthur R. (1979). Poisoned Power: The Case Against Nuclear Power Plants Before and After Three Mile Island (Updated ed.). Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press. p. xvii. Retrieved October 1, 2013. ...we arrive at 333 fatal cancers or leukemias.
12. ^ Hatch, Maureen C.; et al. (1990). "Cancer near the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant: Radiation Emissions". American Journal of Epidemiology. 132 (3): 397–412. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115673. PMID 2389745.
13. ^ Levin, R.J. (2008). "Incidence of thyroid cancer in residents surrounding the Three-Mile Island nuclear facility". Laryngoscope. 118 (4): 618–628. doi:10.1097/MLG.0b013e3181613ad2. PMID 18300710. S2CID 27337295. Thyroid cancer incidence has not increased in Dauphin County, the county in which TMI is located. York County demonstrated a trend toward increasing thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1995, approximately 15 years after the TMI accident. Lancaster County showed a significant increase in thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1990. These findings, however, do not provide a causal link to the TMI accident.
14. ^ Levin, R.J.; De Simone, N.F.; Slotkin, J.F.; Henson, B.L. (August 2013). "Incidence of thyroid cancer surrounding Three Mile Island nuclear facility: the 30-year follow-up". Laryngoscope. 123 (8): 2064–2071. doi:10.1002/lary.23953. PMID 23371046. S2CID 19495983.
15. ^ Han, Y Y.; Youk, A.O.; Sasser, H.; Talbott, E.O. (November 2011). "Cancer incidence among residents of the Three Mile Island accident area: 1982–1995". Environ Res. 111 (8): 1230–1235. Bibcode:2011ER....111.1230H. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2011.08.005. PMID 21855866.
16. ^ Hatch, M.C.; Wallenstein, S.; Beyea, J.; Nieves, J. W.; Susser, M. (June 1991). "Cancer rates after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and proximity of residence to the plant". American Journal of Public Health. 81 (6): 719–724. doi:10.2105/AJPH.81.6.719. PMC 1405170. PMID 2029040.
17. ^ "Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident: Health Effects". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved January 13, 2018. The NRC conducted detailed studies of the accident's radiological consequences, as did the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services), the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Several independent groups also conducted studies. The approximately 2 million people around TMI-2 during the accident are estimated to have received an average radiation dose of only about 1 millirem above the usual background dose. To put this into context, exposure from a chest X-ray is about 6 millirem and the area's natural radioactive background dose is about 100–125 millirem per year for the area. The accident's maximum dose to a person at the site boundary would have been less than 100 millirem above background. In the months following the accident, although questions were raised about possible adverse effects from radiation on human, animal, and plant life in the TMI area, none could be directly correlated to the accident. Thousands of environmental samples of air, water, milk, vegetation, soil, and foodstuffs were collected by various government agencies monitoring the area. Very low levels of radionuclides could be attributed to releases from the accident. Comprehensive investigations and assessments by several well-respected organizations, such as Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh, have concluded that in spite of serious damage to the reactor, the actual release had negligible effects on the physical health of individuals or the environment.
18. ^ Goldenberg, D, Russo, M, Houser, K, Crist, H, Derr JB, Walter V, Warrick JI, Sheldon KE, Broach J, Bann, DV (2017). "Altered molecular profile in thyroid cancers from patients affected by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident". Laryngoscope. 127 supplement 3: S1–S9. doi:10.1002/lary.26687. PMID 28555940. S2CID 40795419. Findings were consistent with observations from other radiation-exposed populations. These data raise the possibility that radiation released from [Three Mile Island] may have altered the molecular profile of [thyroid cancer] in the population surrounding TMI.
19. ^ "14-Year Cleanup at Three Mile Island Concludes". The New York Times. August 15, 1993. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
20. ^ Phillips, Susan (April 17, 2020). "Pennsylvania Raises Alarms on Transfer of Radioactive Three Mile Island Reactor". State Impact Pennsylvania. Retrieved January 13, 2023.

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29 March 1632 – Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.

Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1632)

1632 treaty in which England returned control to France of its North American colonies

For other treaties with this name, see Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (disambiguation).

The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed on March 29, 1632. It returned New France (Quebec, Acadia and Cape Breton Island) to French control after the English had seized it in 1629,^[1] after the Anglo-French War (1627–1629) had ended.

On 19 July 1629, an English fleet under the command of David Kirke managed to cause the surrender of Quebec by intercepting its supplies, which effectively reduced Samuel de Champlain and his men to starvation.^[2] This action occurred following the signing of the Treaty of Suza and thus was considered illegitimate. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye resolved this issue, returning New France to French control. It also provided France with compensation for goods seized during the capture of New France.

1. ^ "KIRKE, SIR DAVID, adventurer, trader, colonizer, leader of the expedition that captured Quebec in 1629, and later governor of Newfoundland", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
2. ^ David Dobson, 'Seventeenth Century Scottish Communities in the Americas' in Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch (eds), Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period (Brill, Leiden, 2003)

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30 March 1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.

Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

1961 international treaty regulating narcotic drugs

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 (Single Convention, 1961 Convention, or C61) is an international treaty that controls activities (cultivation, production, supply, trade, transport) of specific narcotic drugs and lays down a system of regulations (licenses, measures for treatment, research, etc.) for their medical and scientific uses; it also establishes the International Narcotics Control Board.

The Single Convention was adopted in 1961^[1] and amended in 1972.^[2] As of 2022, the Single Convention as amended has been ratified by 186 countries.^[3] The convention has since been supplemented by the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which controls LSD, MDMA, and other psychoactive pharmaceuticals, and the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

1. ^ ^{a b} "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961; New York, 30 March 1961". United Nations Treaty Series. IV "Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances" (15). Secretary-General of the United Nations. 2022. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the Protocol amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961; New York, 8 August 1975". United Nations Treaty Series. IV "Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances" (18). Secretary-General of the United Nations. 2022. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
3. ^ ^{a b} International Narcotics Control Board (2022). Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2021 (E/INCB/2021/1) (PDF). Vienna, Austria: United Nations. p. 15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.

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31 March 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.

Eiffel Tower

Tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France

This article is about the landmark in Paris, France. For other uses, see Eiffel Tower (disambiguation).

"300-metre tower" and "Tour Eiffel" redirect here. For other tall towers, see List of tallest towers. For other uses, see Tour Eiffel (disambiguation).

The Eiffel Tower (/ˈaɪfəl/ EYE-fəl; French: Tour Eiffel [tuʁ ɛfɛl] ^ⓘ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.

Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.^[5] The tower received 5,889,000 visitors in 2022.^[6] The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world:^[7] 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. It was designated a monument historique in 1964, and was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris, Banks of the Seine") in 1991.^[8]

The tower is 330 metres (1,083 ft) tall,^[9] about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200-metre and 300-metre mark in height. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600 step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift. On this top, third level is a private apartment built for Gustave Eiffel's private use. He decorated it with furniture by Jean Lachaise and invited friends such as Thomas Edison.

1. ^ ^{a b} Bachman, Leonard R. (2019). Constructing the Architect: An Introduction to Design, Research, Planning, and Education. p. 80. ISBN 9781351665421.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Eiffel Tower". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
3. ^ "Intermediate floor of the Eiffel tower".
4. ^ "Eiffel Tower". Emporis. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016.
5. ^ SETE. "The Eiffel Tower at a glance". Official Eiffel Tower website. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
6. ^ Tourism Statistics, "Visit Paris Region" site of the Paris Ile de France Visitors Bureau, retrieved March 22, 2022.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Clayson, S. Hollis (26 February 2020), "Eiffel Tower", Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/obo/9780190922467-0014, ISBN 978-0-19-092246-7, retrieved 14 November 2021
9. ^ "Eiffel Tower grows six metres after new antenna attached". Reuters. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.

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1 April 1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.

Comet Hale–Bopp

Long-period comet

"Hale Bopp" redirects here. For the composition by Graham Waterhouse, see Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp.

Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.

Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye. It is difficult to predict the maximum brightness of new comets with any degree of certainty, but Hale–Bopp exceeded most predictions when it passed perihelion on April 1, 1997, reaching about magnitude −1.8. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, due to its massive nucleus size. This is twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811, the previous record holder. Accordingly, Hale–Bopp was dubbed the great comet of 1997.

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Cite error: The named reference jpldata was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ ^{a b} "JPL SBDB Epoch 1996". Archived from the original on July 30, 2021.
3. ^ Horizons output. "Barycentric Osculating Orbital Elements for Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)". Retrieved September 18, 2022. (Solution using the Solar System barycenter. "PR = 8.763E+05 / 365.25 days" = 2399 years)
4. ^ Syuichi Nakano (February 12, 2008). "OAA computing section circular NK 1553". OAA Computing and Minor Planet Sections. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPEC1995-P01 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marsden1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ "Solex 10 estimate for Next Perihelion of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)". Archived from the original on August 10, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2009.

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2 April 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.

John Gotti

American mobster (1940–2002)

"John Gotti Jr." redirects here. For his son, see John A. Gotti.

"Teflon Don" redirects here. For other uses, see Teflon Don (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with John Gaddi or John Gaddy.

John Joseph Gotti Jr.^{[1][note 1]} (/ˈɡɒti/ GOT-ee, Italian: [ˈɡɔtti]; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, leading what was described as America's most powerful crime syndicate.

Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Gotti quickly became one of the Gambino family's biggest earners and a protégé of Aniello Dellacroce, the family's underboss, operating out of Ozone Park, Queens. Following the FBI's indictment of members of Gotti's crew for selling narcotics, Gotti began to fear that he and his brother Gene would be killed by Castellano for dealing drugs. As this fear continued to grow, and amidst growing dissent over the leadership of the family, Gotti organized the murder of Castellano.

At his peak, Gotti was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States. While his peers generally avoided attracting attention, especially from the media, Gotti became known as "The Dapper Don" for his expensive clothes and outspoken personality in front of news cameras. He was later given the nickname "The Teflon Don" after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct and witness intimidation. Law enforcement continued gathering evidence against Gotti, who reportedly earned between $5 million and $20 million per year as Gambino boss.^[4]

Gotti's underboss, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, aided the FBI in convicting Gotti; in 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state's evidence and testified against Gotti after hearing the boss make disparaging remarks about him on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion and loansharking. He received life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion.

Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. According to Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the former underboss of the Lucchese crime family, "what John Gotti did was the beginning of the end of Cosa Nostra."^[5]

1. ^ Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26
2. ^ "Gotti Jr. on Living and Leaving a Life of Crime". 60 Minutes. CBS News. April 11, 2010. Archived from the original on March 11, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
3. ^ Ferranti, Seth (May 8, 2018). "Why We're Still So Obsessed with John Gotti". vice.com. Vice Media. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference maas452 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss, 2008. Page 134.

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

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3 April 1721 – Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title

Robert Walpole

Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1721 to 1742

For other people named Robert Walpole, see Robert Walpole (disambiguation).

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons, is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Although the exact dates of Walpole's dominance, dubbed the "Robinocracy",^[1] are a matter of scholarly debate, the period 1721–1742 is often used. He dominated the Walpole–Townshend ministry, as well as the subsequent Walpole ministry, and holds the record as the longest-serving British prime minister. W. A. Speck wrote that Walpole's uninterrupted run of 20 years as prime minister "is rightly regarded as one of the major feats of British political history. Explanations are usually offered in terms of his expert handling of the political system after 1720, [and] his unique blending of the surviving powers of the crown with the increasing influence of the Commons".^[2]

Walpole was a Whig from the gentry class who was first elected to Parliament in 1701 and held many senior positions. He was a country squire and looked to country gentlemen for his political base. Historian F. O'Gorman says his leadership in Parliament reflected his "reasonable and persuasive oratory, his ability to move both the emotions as well as the minds of men, and, above all, his extraordinary self-confidence".^[3] Hoppit says Walpole's policies sought moderation, he worked for peace, lower taxes and growing exports and allowed a little more tolerance for Protestant Dissenters. He mostly avoided controversy and high-intensity disputes as his middle way attracted moderates from both the Whig and Tory camps, but his appointment to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the South Sea Bubble stock-market crisis drew attention to perceived protection of political allies by Walpole.^[4][5]

Historian H. T. Dickinson sums up his historical role by saying that "Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession, and defending the principles of the Glorious Revolution (1688). He established stable political supremacy for the Whig party and taught succeeding ministers how best to establish an effective working relationship between Crown and Parliament".^[6] Some scholars rank him highly among British prime ministers.^[7]

1. ^ "Robinocracy". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020.
2. ^ Speck, W. A. (1977). Stability and Strife: England 1714–1760. p. 203.
3. ^ O'Gorman, Frank (1997). The Long Eighteenth Century: British political and social history 1688–1832. p. 71.
4. ^ Hoppit, Julian (2000). A Land of Liberty? England 1689–1727. p. 410.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference UK-hist-blog-2014-11-20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Dickinson, H. T. (2003). "Walpole, Sir Robert". In Loads, David (ed.). Readers' Guide to British History. p. 1338.
7. ^ Strangio, Paul; 't Hart, Paul; Walter, James (2013). Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative perspectives. Oxford U. Press. p. 225. ISBN 9780199666423.

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4 April 1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.

Schutzstaffel

Nazi paramilitary organisation (1925–1945)

"SS" redirects here. For the German letter 'ss', see ß. For other uses, see SS (disambiguation).

"ᛋᛋ" redirects here. For the archaic Greek letter, see ϟ. For the Old Italic letter, see 𐌔. For the Germanic rune, see ᛋ.

The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylised as ᛋᛋ with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Protection Squadron') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.

It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance, and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; "Death's Head Units"^[2]), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralisation of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology, and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.

The SS was the organisation most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust.^[3] Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labour. After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organisations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.

1. ^ Weale 2010, p. 26.
2. ^ McNab 2009, p. 137.
3. ^ Evans 2008, p. 318.

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4 April 1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.

Schutzstaffel

Nazi paramilitary organisation (1925–1945)

"SS" redirects here. For the German letter 'ss', see ß. For other uses, see SS (disambiguation).

"ᛋᛋ" redirects here. For the archaic Greek letter, see ϟ. For the Old Italic letter, see 𐌔. For the Germanic rune, see ᛋ.

The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylised as ᛋᛋ with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Protection Squadron') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.

It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance, and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; "Death's Head Units"^[2]), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralisation of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology, and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.

The SS was the organisation most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust.^[3] Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labour. After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organisations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.

1. ^ Weale 2010, p. 26.
2. ^ McNab 2009, p. 137.
3. ^ Evans 2008, p. 318.

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5 April 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins

Siege of Yorktown (1862)

Battle of the American Civil War

This article is about the battle during the American Civil War. For the battle during the American Revolutionary War, see Siege of Yorktown.

The Battle of Yorktown or siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Marching from Fort Monroe, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac encountered Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's small Confederate force at Yorktown behind the Warwick Line. McClellan suspended his march up the Peninsula toward Richmond and settled in for siege operations.

On April 5, the IV Corps of Brig. Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes made initial contact with Confederate defensive works at Lee's Mill, an area McClellan expected to move through without resistance. Magruder's ostentatious movement of troops back and forth convinced the Union that his works were strongly held. As the two armies fought an artillery duel, reconnaissance indicated to Keyes the strength and breadth of the Confederate fortifications, and he advised McClellan against assaulting them. McClellan ordered the construction of siege fortifications and brought his heavy siege guns to the front. In the meantime, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston brought reinforcements for Magruder.

On April 16, Union forces probed a point in the Confederate line at Dam No. 1. The Union failed to exploit the initial success of this attack, however. This lost opportunity held up McClellan for two additional weeks while he tried to convince the U.S. Navy to bypass the Confederates' big guns at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, ascend the York River to West Point and outflank the Warwick Line. McClellan planned a massive bombardment for dawn on May 5, but the Confederate army slipped away during the night of May 3 toward Williamsburg.

The battle took place near the site of the 1781 siege of Yorktown.

1. ^ ORA 11(1), 7, online and ORA 11(3), 184, online^{[incomplete short citation]}
2. ^ Newton, Joseph E. Johnston and the Defence of Richmond 1861-2, Appendix B: The Strength of Johnston's Army at Yorktown and Seven Pines, pp. 213-216
3. ^ ^{a b} Kennedy, pg. 90.

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6 April 1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

Intelsat I

American commercial communications satellite launched in 1965

"Early Bird Satellite" redirects here. For the song, see André Brasseur.

Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965.^[1][2] It was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company (later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems) for COMSAT, which activated it on June 28, 1965. It was based on the Syncom series of satellites that Hughes had previously built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible. Its booster was a Thrust Augmented Delta (Delta D). After a series of maneuvers, it reached its geosynchronous orbital position over the Atlantic Ocean at 28° West longitude, where it was put into service.^[3]

It helped provide the first live TV coverage of a spacecraft splashdown, that of Gemini 6 in December 1965. Originally slated to operate for 18 months, Early Bird was in active service for 4 years and 4 months, being deactivated in January 1969, although it was briefly activated in June of that year to serve the Apollo 11 flight when the Atlantic Intelsat satellite failed. It was deactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time (except for a brief reactivation in 1990 to commemorate its 25th launch anniversary),^[4] although it remains in orbit.

The Early Bird satellite was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone, and telefacsimile transmissions. It was fairly small, measuring nearly 76 cm × 61 cm (2.5 ft × 2.0 ft) and weighing 34.5 kg (76 lb).

Early Bird was one of the satellites used in the then record-breaking broadcast of Our World.

1. ^ "Encyclopedia Astronautica - Intesat I". Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
2. ^ "Intelsat: History". Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
3. ^ "Intelsat-1".
4. ^ "This Week in NASA History — Intelsat I: The 'Early Bird' of Satellites".

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7 April 1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

Mount Vesuvius

Active stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy

"Vesuvius" redirects here. For other uses, see Vesuvius (disambiguation).

Mount Vesuvius (/vɪˈsuːviəs/ viss-OO-vee-əs)^[a] is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae, and several other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 6×10⁵ cubic metres (7.8×10⁵ cu yd) per second.^[5] More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption, though the exact toll is unknown. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.^[6]

Vesuvius has erupted many times since. It is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3,000,000 people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone. This is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world. Eruptions tend to be violent and explosive; these are known as Plinian eruptions.^[7]

1. ^ "Vesuvio nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
2. ^ Grasso, Alfonso, ed. (2007). "Il Vesuvio" [Vesuvius]. ilportaledelsud.org (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
3. ^ Castiglioni, Luigi; Mariotti, Scevola (2007). Vocabolario della lingua latina : IL : latino-italiano, italiano-latino / Luigi Castiglioni, Scevola Mariotti ; redatto con la collaborazione di Arturo Brambilla e Gaspare Campagna (in Italian) (4th ed.). Loescher. p. 1505. ISBN 978-8820166601.
4. ^ "Vesuvio o Vesevius nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
5. ^ Woods, Andrew W. (2013). "Sustained explosive activity: volcanic eruption columns and hawaiian fountains". In Fagents, Sarah A.; Gregg, Tracy K. P.; Lopes, Rosaly M. C. (eds.). Modeling Volcanic Processes: The Physics and Mathematics of Volcanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0521895439.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference epistularum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ McGuire, Bill (16 October 2003). "In the shadow of the volcano". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2010.

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8 April 1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden

Charles IX of Sweden

King of Sweden from 1604 to 1611

Charles IX, also Carl (Swedish: Karl IX; 4 October 1550 – 30 October 1611), reigned as King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I (r. 1523–1560) and of his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, the brother of King Eric XIV and of King John III, and the uncle of Sigismund, who became king both of Sweden and of Poland. By his father's will Charles received, by way of appanage, the Duchy of Södermanland, which included the provinces of Närke and Värmland; but he did not come into actual possession of them till after the fall of Eric and the succession to the throne of John in 1569.

Both Charles and one of his predecessors, Eric XIV (r. 1560–1569), took their regnal numbers according to a fictitious history of Sweden. He was actually the third Swedish king called Charles.

He came into the throne by championing the Protestant cause during the increasingly tense times of religious strife between competing sects of Christianity. Just under a decade after his death, these would re-ignite in the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648. These conflicts had already caused the dynastic squabble rooted in religious freedom that deposed Charles' nephew (Sigismund III) and brought Charles to rule as king of Sweden.

His reign marked the start of the final chapter^{[citation needed]} (dated 1648 by some) both of the Reformation and of the Counter-Reformation. With the death of his brother John III of Sweden in November 1592, the Swedish throne went to his nephew, the Habsburg ally Sigismund of Poland and Sweden. During these tense political times, Charles viewed the inheritance of the throne of Protestant Sweden by his devout Catholic nephew with alarm. Several years of religious controversy and discord followed.

While King Sigismund resided in Poland, Charles and the Swedish privy council ruled in Sigismund's name. After various preliminaries, the Riksdag of the Estates forced Sigismund to abdicate the throne to Charles IX in 1595.^{[citation needed]} This eventually kicked off nearly seven decades of sporadic warfare as the two lines of the divided House of Vasa both continued to attempt to remake the union between the Polish and Swedish thrones with opposing counter-claims and dynastic wars.

Quite likely,^{[original research?]} the dynastic outcome between the Swedish and Polish representatives of the House of Vasa exacerbated and radicalized the later actions of Europe's Catholic princes in the German states such as the Edict of Restitution of 1629. In fact, it worsened European politics to the abandonment or prevention of settling events by diplomacy and compromise during the vast bloodletting of the Thirty Years' War.^{[citation needed]}

1. ^ Orfield, Lester B. (12 February 2024). The Growth of Scandinavian Law. The Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 978-1-58477-180-7.
2. ^ Bregnsbo, Michael; Jensen, Kurt Villads (7 June 2022). The Rise and Fall of the Danish Empire. Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-91441-7.

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9 April 1957 – The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping following the Suez Crisis.

Suez Crisis

1956 British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt

Not to be confused with the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction.

The Suez Crisis^[a] or the Second Arab–Israeli War,^[8][9][10] also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression^[b] in the Arab world^[11] and as the Sinai War^[c] in Israel,^[d] was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage.^[12] After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 5 November, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had earlier nationalised by transferring administrative control from the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company to Egypt's new government-owned Suez Canal Authority.^[e] Shortly after the invasion began, the three countries came under heavy political pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as from the United Nations, eventually prompting their withdrawal from Egypt. Israel's four-month-long occupation of the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula enabled it to attain freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran, but the Suez Canal itself was closed from October 1956 to March 1957.^[14][15] The Suez Crisis led to international humiliation for the British and the French in the wake of the Cold War, which established the Americans and the Soviets as the world's superpowers. It also strengthened Nasser's standing.^[16][17][18]

Before they were defeated, Egyptian troops had blocked all ship traffic by sinking 40 ships in the Suez Canal. It later became clear that Israel, the United Kingdom, and France had conspired to invade Egypt. Though the three allies had attained a number of their military objectives, the Suez Canal itself was useless. American president Dwight D. Eisenhower had issued a strong warning to the British if they were to invade Egypt; he threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the American government's bonds of pound sterling. Historians have concluded that the Suez Crisis "signified the end of Great Britain's role as one of the world's major powers" vis-à-vis the United States and the Soviet Union.^{[19][20][21][22]}

As a result of the conflict, the United Nations established the United Nations Emergency Force to police and patrol the Egypt–Israel border, while British prime minister Anthony Eden resigned from his position. For his diplomatic efforts in resolving the conflict through United Nations initiatives, Canadian external affairs minister Lester B. Pearson received a Nobel Peace Prize. Analysts have argued that the Suez Crisis may have emboldened the Soviet Union, prompting the Soviet invasion of Hungary.^[23][24]

1. ^ A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War. 2006. p. 251.McGregor 2006, p. 251
2. ^ "Casualties of Mideast Wars". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 8 March 1991. p. A7. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
3. ^ ^{a b} Varble 2003, p. 90
4. ^ Zuljan, Ralph. "Armed Conflict Year Index". OnWar.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
5. ^ Schiff 1974, p. 70.
6. ^ Schiff 1974.
7. ^ "Invasion of Egypt!". Israel – The Suez War of 1956: U.S. newsreel footage. Event occurs at 0:30–0:40. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021.
8. ^ Ross, Stewart (2004). Causes and Consequences of the Arab–Israeli Conflict. Evans Brothers. pp. 76ff. ISBN 978-0-2375-2585-9.
9. ^ Isacoff, Jonathan B. (2006). Writing the Arab–Israeli Conflict: Pragmatism and Historical Inquiry. Lexington Books. pp. 79ff. ISBN 978-0-7391-1273-1.
10. ^ Caplan, Neil (1983). Futile Diplomacy: Operation Alpha and the Failure of Anglo-American Coercive Diplomacy in the Arab–Israeli Conflict, 1954–1956. Psychology Press. pp. 15. ISBN 978-0-7146-4757-9.
11. ^ Egypt Today staff (3 November 2019). "In 63rd ann. of Tripartite Aggression, members of popular resistance tell heroic stories". Egypt Today. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
12. ^ Mayer, Michael S. (2010). The Eisenhower Years. Infobase Publishing. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8160-5387-2.
13. ^ Copeland, Miles (1989). The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's original political operative. Aurum Press. pp. 170–171, 201.
14. ^ Pierre, Major Jean-Marc (15 August 2014). 1956 Suez Crisis And The United Nations. Tannenberg Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7828-9608-1. Still in 1950 Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran barring Israel from the waterway ( Longgood 1958, xii-xiii).
15. ^ Golani, Motti (1995). "The Historical Place of the Czech-Egyptian Arms Deal, Fall 1955". Middle Eastern Studies. 31 (4): 803–827. doi:10.1080/00263209508701081. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 4283762. 3. The blockade of the Straits of Eilat (Tiran) had actually been in effect since 1948, but was significantly aggravated on 12 September 1955, when Egypt announced that it was being tightened and extended to the aerial sphere as well. (p. 805)
16. ^ Abernathy, David (2000). The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415–1980. Yale University Press. p. CXXXIX. ISBN 978-0-3000-9314-8.
17. ^ Owen, Roger (2001). Krieger, Joel (ed.). Suez Crisis. The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.^{[page needed]}
18. ^ "An affair to remember". The Economist. 27 June 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
19. ^ Ellis, Sylvia (2009). Historical Dictionary of Anglo-American Relations. Scarecrow Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-8108-6297-5.
20. ^ Peden, G. C. (December 2012), "Suez and Britain's Decline as a World Power", The Historical Journal, 55 (4): 1073–1096, doi:10.1017/S0018246X12000246
21. ^ Mullen, Matt; Onion, Amanda; Sullivan, Missy; Zapata, Christian (14 September 2022). "Suez Crisis". History Channel. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
22. ^ Smith, Simon C., ed. (2016). Reassessing Suez 1956: New perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath. Routledge. pp. 216–218. ISBN 978-0-7546-6170-2.
23. ^ Mastny, Vojtech (March 2002). "NATO in the Beholder's Eye: Soviet Perceptions and Policies, 1949–56" (PDF). Cold War International History Project. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
24. ^ Christopher, Adam (2010). The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian and Canadian Perspectives. University of Ottawa Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7766-0705-4.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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10 April 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.

Statute of Anne

1710 legislation in Great Britain regulating copyright

United Kingdom legislation

The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19),^[1] was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.

Prior to the statute's enactment in 1710, copying restrictions were authorized by the Licensing of the Press Act 1662. These restrictions were enforced by the Stationers' Company, a guild of printers given the exclusive power to print—and the responsibility to censor—literary works. The censorship administered under the Licensing Act led to public protest; as the act had to be renewed at two-year intervals, authors and others sought to prevent its reauthorisation.^[2] In 1694, Parliament refused to renew the Licensing Act, ending the Stationers' monopoly and press restrictions.^[3]

Over the next 10 years the Stationers repeatedly advocated bills to re-authorize the old licensing system, but Parliament declined to enact them. Faced with this failure, the Stationers decided to emphasise the benefits of licensing to authors rather than publishers, and the Stationers succeeded in getting Parliament to consider a new bill. This bill, which after substantial amendments was granted royal assent on 5 April 1710, became known as the Statute of Anne owing to its passage during the reign of Queen Anne. The new law prescribed a copyright term of 14 years, with a provision for renewal for a similar term, during which only the author and the printers to whom they chose to license their works could publish the author's creations.^[4] Following this, the work's copyright would expire, with the material falling into the public domain. Despite a period of instability known as the Battle of the Booksellers when the initial copyright terms under the statute began to expire, the Statute of Anne remained in force until the Copyright Act 1842 replaced it.

The statute is considered a "watershed event in Anglo-American copyright history ... transforming what had been the publishers' private law copyright into a public law grant".^[5] Under the statute, copyright was for the first time vested in authors rather than publishers; it also included provisions for the public interest, such as a legal deposit scheme. The statute was an influence on copyright law in several other nations, including the United States, and even in the 21st century is "frequently invoked by modern judges and academics as embodying the utilitarian underpinnings of copyright law".^[6]

1. ^ ^{a b} The act is numbered as 8 Ann. c. 21 in The Statutes of the Realm (published 1810–25), based on the original Parliament Rolls; but as 8 Ann. c. 19 in Ruffhead's Statutes at Large (published 1763–65; and later editions), based on the copies of acts enrolled in Chancery. Both forms of citation are acceptable, and both are found in reputable secondary sources.
2. ^ Rose 2009, p. 137.
3. ^ Deazley 2004, p. 1.
4. ^ Downie, J.A. (4 December 2008). "Periodicals, The Book Trade and The 'Bourgeois Public Sphere'". Media History. 14 (3): 262. doi:10.1080/13688800802472188. S2CID 145512047.
5. ^ Patterson & Joyce 2003, p. 916.
6. ^ Alexander 2010, p. 17.

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11 April 1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.

Stone of Scone

Ancient Scottish coronation artefact

The Stone of Scone (/ˈskuːn/; Scottish Gaelic: An Lia Fàil; Scots: Stane o Scone), also known as the Stone of Destiny, is an oblong block of red sandstone that was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs until the 13th century, and thereafter in the coronation of English and later British monarchs. The Stone measures 26 by 16.7 by 10.5 inches (66 cm × 42 cm × 27 cm) and weighs approximately 335 lb (152 kg; 23.9 st). A cross is roughly incised on one surface, and an iron ring at each end aids with transport.^[1] Monarchs sat on the Stone of Scone itself until a wooden platform was added to the Coronation Chair in the 17th century.^[2]

The artefact was originally kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth. In 1296, the forces of King Edward I of England captured it during Edward's invasion of Scotland. The Stone was subsequently used in the coronation of English monarchs and British monarchs for over 500 years.

In 1996, the stone was returned to Scotland, and kept in Edinburgh Castle with the Honours of Scotland. The stone remains property of the Crown and is transported to London for use at coronations.^[3] Since March 2024 it has been on permanent public display in Perth.

1. ^ "The stone of Destiny". English Monarchs. www.englishmonarcs.co.uk. 2004–2005. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
2. ^ James Yorke (17 August 2013). "Review of The Coronation Chair by Warwick Rodwell". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016.
3. ^ "Stone of Destiny". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 280. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 3 July 1996. col. 973.

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12 April 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

Polio vaccine

Vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis

Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio).^[2][3] Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV).^[2] The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio.^[2] The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world,^[4][5] and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.^[6][7]

The inactivated polio vaccines are very safe.^[2] Mild redness or pain may occur at the site of injection.^[2] Oral polio vaccines cause about three cases of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis per million doses given.^[2] This compares with 5,000 cases per million who are paralysed following a polio infection.^[8] Both types of vaccine are generally safe to give during pregnancy and in those who have HIV/AIDS but are otherwise well.^[2] However, the emergence of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), a form of the vaccine virus that has reverted to causing poliomyelitis, has led to the development of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) which aims to make the vaccine safer and thus stop further outbreaks of cVDPV2.^[9]

The first successful demonstration of a polio vaccine was by Hilary Koprowski in 1950, with a live attenuated virus which people drank.^[10] The vaccine was not approved for use in the United States, but was used successfully elsewhere.^[10] The success of an inactivated (killed) polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, was announced in 1955.^[2][11] Another attenuated live oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin and came into commercial use in 1961.^[2][12]

Polio vaccine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.^[13][14]

1. ^ Use During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} World Health Organization (2016). "Polio vaccines: WHO position paper – March, 2016". Weekly Epidemiological Record. 91 (12): 145–68. hdl:10665/254399. PMID 27039410.
3. ^ World Health Organization (2022). "Polio vaccines: WHO position paper – June 2022". Weekly Epidemiological Record. 97 (25): 277–300. hdl:10665/357168.
4. ^ Aylward RB (2006). "Eradicating polio: today's challenges and tomorrow's legacy". Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 100 (5–6): 401–413. doi:10.1179/136485906X97354. PMID 16899145. S2CID 25327986.
5. ^ Schonberger LB, Kaplan J, Kim-Farley R, Moore M, Eddins DL, Hatch M (1984). "Control of paralytic poliomyelitis in the United States". Reviews of Infectious Diseases. 6 (Suppl 2): S424–S426. doi:10.1093/clinids/6.Supplement_2.S424. PMID 6740085.
6. ^ "Global Wild Poliovirus 2014–2019" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
7. ^ "Does polio still exist? Is it curable?". World Health Organization (WHO). Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
8. ^ "Poliomyelitis". World Health Organization (WHO). Archived from the original on 18 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
9. ^ "GPEI-nOPV2". Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
10. ^ ^{a b} Fox M (20 April 2013). "Hilary Koprowski, Who Developed First Live-Virus Polio Vaccine, Dies at 96". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
11. ^ Bazin H (2011). Vaccination: A History. John Libbey Eurotext. p. 395. ISBN 978-2742007752. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.
12. ^ Smith DR, Leggat PA (2005). "Pioneering figures in medicine: Albert Bruce Sabin – inventor of the oral polio vaccine". The Kurume Medical Journal. 52 (3): 111–116. doi:10.2739/kurumemedj.52.111. PMID 16422178.
13. ^ World Health Organization (2019). World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 21st list 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/325771. WHO/MVP/EMP/IAU/2019.06. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
14. ^ World Health Organization (2021). World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 22nd list (2021). Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/345533. WHO/MHP/HPS/EML/2021.02.

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13 April 1909 – The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

31 March incident

Political crisis in the Ottoman Empire

The 31 March incident (Turkish: 31 Mart Vakası) was a political crisis within the Ottoman Empire in April 1909, during the Second Constitutional Era. The incident broke out during the night of 30–31 Mart 1325 in Rumi calendar (GC 12–13 April 1909), thus named after 31 March where March is the equivalent to Rumi month Mart. Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) had successfully restored the Constitution and ended the absolute rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909), it is sometimes referred to as an attempted countercoup or counterrevolution. It consisted of a general uprising against the CUP within Istanbul, largely led by reactionary groups, particularly Islamists opposed to the secularising influence of the CUP and supporters of absolutism, although liberal opponents of the CUP within the Liberty Party also played a lesser role. The crisis ended after eleven days, when troops loyal to the CUP restored order in Istanbul and deposed Abdul Hamid.

The crisis began with a mutiny among elite Macedonian troops of the Istanbul garrison on the night of 12–13 April 1909 (R.C. 30–31 Mart 1325), sparked by agitation from Muslim fundamentalists, low morale and officerial mismanagement. The unrest spiralled out of control as religious students and other elements of the city's garrison joined the insurrection, converging on Ayasofya Square to demand the re-establishment of Sharia. The CUP-aligned government of Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha responded ineffectually, and by the afternoon of 13 April its authority in the capital had collapsed. The Sultan accepted Hilmi Pasha's resignation and appointed a new cabinet free from the CUP's influence under Ahmet Tevfik Pasha. Most CUP members fled the city for their power base in Salonika (modern Thessaloniki), while Mehmed Talaat escaped with 100 deputies to San Stefano (Yeşilköy),^[1] where they proclaimed the new ministry illegal and attempted to rally secularists and minorities in support of their cause. For a brief period the two rival authorities in Istanbul and Aya Stehano each claimed to represent the legitimate government. These events triggered the Adana massacre, a month-long series of anti-Armenian pogroms organised by local officials and Islamic clerics in which 20,000 to 25,000 Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians were killed.

The uprising was suppressed and the former government restored when elements of the Ottoman Army sympathetic to the CUP formed an impromptu military force known as the Action Army (Hareket Ordusu), which entered Istanbul on 24 April after failed negotiations. On 27 April, Abdul Hamid, accused by the CUP of complicity in the uprising, was deposed by the National Assembly and his brother, Mehmed V, made sultan. Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the military general who had organised and led the Action Army, became the most influential figure in the restored constitutional system until his assassination in 1913.^[2]

The precise nature of events is uncertain; differing interpretations have been offered by historians, ranging from a spontaneous revolt of discontents to a secretly planned and coordinated counter-revolution against the CUP. Most modern studies disregard claims the sultan was actively involved in plotting the uprising,^[3] emphasising the CUP's mismanagement of troops in the build up to the mutiny and the role of conservative religious groups.^[4] The crisis was an important early moment in the empire's process of disintegration, setting a pattern of political instability which continued with military coups in 1912 and 1913. The temporary loss of power led to radicalisation within the CUP, resulting in an increasing willingness among unionists to utilise violence.^[5] Some scholars have argued that the deterioration of ethnic relations and erosion of public institutions during 1908–1909 precipitated the Armenian genocide.^[6]

1. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 72.
2. ^ Shaw 1976, p. 282.
3. ^ Swenson 1970, p. 171.
4. ^ Gingeras 2016, p. 36.
5. ^ Gingeras 2016, p. 38.
6. ^ Der Matossian 2011, p. 152.

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14 April 1639 – Thirty Years' War: Forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Electorate of Saxony are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz, ending the military effectiveness of the Saxon army for the rest of the war and allowing the Swedes to advance into Bohemia

Thirty Years' War

Major war in Central Europe (1618–1648)

For other uses, see Thirty Years War (disambiguation).

The Thirty Years' War^[j] was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, or disease, while parts of present-day Germany reported population declines of over 50%.^[19] Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch-Portuguese War, and the Portuguese Restoration War.

The war was traditionally viewed as a continuation of the religious conflict initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries destabilised the settlement. However, while differences over religion and Imperial authority were important factors in causing the war, most contemporary commentators suggest its scope and extent were driven by the contest for European dominance between Habsburg-ruled Spain and Austria, and the French House of Bourbon.^[20]

Its outbreak is generally traced to 1618,^[k] when Emperor Ferdinand II was deposed as king of Bohemia and replaced by the Protestant Frederick V of the Palatinate. Although Imperial forces quickly suppressed the Bohemian Revolt, his participation expanded the fighting into the Palatinate, whose strategic importance drew in the Dutch Republic and Spain, then engaged in the Eighty Years' War. Rulers like Christian IV of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden also held territories within the Empire, giving them and other foreign powers an excuse to intervene. The result was to turn an internal dynastic dispute into a broader European conflict.

The first phase from 1618 until 1635 was primarily a civil war between German members of the Holy Roman Empire, with support from external powers. After 1635, the empire became one theatre in a wider struggle between France, supported by Sweden, and Emperor Ferdinand III, allied with Spain. This concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, whose provisions included greater autonomy within the empire for states like Bavaria and Saxony, as well as acceptance of Dutch independence by Spain. The conflict shifted the balance of power in favour of France, and set the stage for the expansionist wars of Louis XIV which dominated Europe for the next sixty years.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Croxton 2013, pp. 225–226.
2. ^ ^{a b} Heitz & Rischer 1995, p. 232.
3. ^ Parrott 2001, p. 8.
4. ^ Nicklisch et al. 2017.
5. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 484.
6. ^ Clodfelter 2008, p. 40.
7. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 387.
8. ^ Parrott 2001, pp. 164–168.
9. ^ ^{a b} Van Nimwegen 2014, p. 166.
10. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 395.
11. ^ ^{a b} Parker 2004, p. 231.
12. ^ ^{a b} Clodfelter 2008, p. 39.
13. ^ ^{a b} Wilson 2009, p. 791.
14. ^ Parker 1997, p. 173.
15. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Wilson 2009, p. 790.
16. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 787.
17. ^ Outram 2002, p. 248.
18. ^ Wilson 2009, pp. 4, 787.
19. ^ Parker 1997, p. 189.
20. ^ Sutherland 1992, pp. 589–590.

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15 April 1945 – Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Nazi concentration camp

"Bergen-Belsen" redirects here. For other uses, see Bergen-Belsen (disambiguation).

Bergen-Belsen (pronounced [ˈbɛʁɡn̩ˌbɛlsn̩]), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp,^[1] in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an "exchange camp", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas.^[2] The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps.

After 1945, the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp. From 1941 to 1945, almost 20,000 Soviet prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there.^[3] Overcrowding, lack of food and poor sanitary conditions caused outbreaks of typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and dysentery, leading to the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the first few months of 1945, shortly before and after the liberation.

The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division.^[4] The soldiers discovered approximately 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill,^[5] and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied.^[4] A memorial with an exhibition hall currently stands at the site.

1. ^ "Belsen Military Camp". Archived from the original on March 29, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
2. ^ Shephard, Ben (2006). After daybreak: the liberation of Belsen, 1945. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-1844135400.
3. ^ Oppenheimer, Paul (1996). From Belsen to Buckingham Palace. Nottingham: Quill Press. ISBN 978-0-9536280-3-2.
4. ^ ^{a b} "The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain)". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
5. ^ "Bergen-Belsen". www.ushmm.org.

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16 April 1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Apollo 16

Fifth crewed Moon landing

Apollo 16 (April 16–27, 1972) was the tenth crewed mission in the United States Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon. It was the second of Apollo's "J missions", with an extended stay on the lunar surface, a focus on science, and the use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The landing and exploration were in the Descartes Highlands, a site chosen because some scientists expected it to be an area formed by volcanic action, though this proved not to be the case.

The mission was crewed by Commander John Young, Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 16, 1972, Apollo 16 experienced a number of minor glitches en route to the Moon. These culminated with a problem with the spacecraft's main engine that resulted in a six-hour delay in the Moon landing as NASA managers contemplated having the astronauts abort the mission and return to Earth, before deciding the problem could be overcome. Although they permitted the lunar landing, NASA had the astronauts return from the mission one day earlier than planned.

After flying the lunar module to the Moon's surface on April 21, Young and Duke spent 71 hours—just under three days—on the lunar surface, during which they conducted three extravehicular activities or moonwalks, totaling 20 hours and 14 minutes. The pair drove the lunar rover, the second used on the Moon, for 26.7 kilometers (16.6 mi). On the surface, Young and Duke collected 95.8 kilograms (211 lb) of lunar samples for return to Earth, including Big Muley, the largest Moon rock collected during the Apollo missions. During this time Mattingly orbited the Moon in the command and service module (CSM), taking photos and operating scientific instruments. Mattingly, in the command module, spent 126 hours and 64 revolutions in lunar orbit.^[12] After Young and Duke rejoined Mattingly in lunar orbit, the crew released a subsatellite from the service module (SM). During the return trip to Earth, Mattingly performed a one-hour spacewalk to retrieve several film cassettes from the exterior of the service module. Apollo 16 returned safely to Earth on April 27, 1972.

1. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 547.
2. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 473.
3. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 476.
4. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 573.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 482.
6. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 472.
7. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 20.
8. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 26.
9. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 585.
10. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 499.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 503.
12. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 480.
13. ^ "Apollo 16". NASA. July 8, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
14. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 500.
15. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 502.
16. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 478.
17. ^ ^{a b c d} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 479.
18. ^ Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 498.

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17 April 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Failed landing operation of Cuba in 1961

"Invasion of Cuba" redirects here. For the War of Jenkins' Ear battles, see Invasion of Cuba (1741). For the United States intervention in Cuba in 1898, see Spanish–American War.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (Spanish: Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos, sometimes called Invasión de Playa Girón or Batalla de Playa Girón after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF), consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, clandestinely financed and directed by the U.S. government. The operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure influenced relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

In 1952, the American-allied dictator General Fulgencio Batista led a coup against President Carlos Prío and forced Prío into exile in Miami, Florida. Prío's exile inspired Castro's 26th of July Movement against Batista. The movement succeeded in overthrowing Batista during the Cuban Revolution in January 1959. Castro nationalized American businesses, including banks, oil refineries, and sugar and coffee plantations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began planning the overthrow of Castro, which U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved in March 1960, and the U.S. began its embargo of the island. This led Castro to reach out to its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, after which the US severed diplomatic relations. Cuban exiles who had moved to the U.S. following Castro's takeover had formed the counter-revolutionary military unit, Brigade 2506, which was the armed wing of the DRF. The CIA funded the brigade, which also included approximately 60 members of the Alabama Air National Guard,^[6] and trained the unit in Guatemala.

Over 1,400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion, assembled and launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua by boat on 17 April 1961. Two days earlier, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers had attacked Cuban airfields and then returned to the U.S. On the night of 17 April, the main invasion force landed on the beach at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs, where it overwhelmed a local revolutionary militia. Initially, José Ramón Fernández led the Cuban Revolutionary Army counter-offensive; later, Castro took personal control. As the invasion force lost the strategic initiative, the international community found out about the invasion, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy decided to withhold further air support.^[7] The plan, devised during Eisenhower's presidency, had required the involvement of U.S. air and naval forces. Without further air support, the invasion was being conducted with fewer forces than the CIA had deemed necessary. The invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias – FAR) and surrendered on 20 April. Most of the surrendered counter-revolutionary troops were publicly interrogated and put into Cuban prisons.

The invasion was a U.S. foreign policy failure. The Cuban government's victory solidified Castro's role as a national hero and widened the political division between the two formerly allied countries, as well as embolden other Latin American groups to undermine US influence in the region. It also pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference fernandez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference szulc1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ ^{a b} FRUS X, documents 19, 24, 35, 245, 271.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference triay was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ ^{a b} Quesada 2009, p. 46.
6. ^ "Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Alabama Air National Guard". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
7. ^ Voss, Michael (14 April 2011). "The 'perfect failure' of Cuba invasion". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2016.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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18 April 1897 – The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

Greco-Turkish War (1897)

Conflict over the status of Crete

For other uses, see Greco-Turkish War (disambiguation).

The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 or the Ottoman-Greek War of 1897 (Turkish: 1897 Osmanlı-Yunan Savaşı or 1897 Türk-Yunan Savaşı), also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97 (Greek: Μαύρο '97, Mauro '97) or the Unfortunate War (Greek: Ατυχής πόλεμος, romanized: Atychis polemos), was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause involved the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek-majority population had long desired union with Greece. Despite the Ottoman victory on the field, an autonomous Cretan State under Ottoman suzerainty was established the following year (as a result of the intervention of the Great Powers after the war), with Prince George of Greece and Denmark as its first High Commissioner.

The war put the military and political personnel of Greece to test in an official open war for the first time since the Greek War of Independence in 1821. For the Ottoman Empire, this was also the first war-effort to test a re-organized military system. The Ottoman army operated under the guidance of a German military mission led (1883–1895) by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who had reorganized the Ottoman military after its defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

The conflict proved that Greece was wholly unprepared for war. Plans, fortifications and weapons were non-existent, the mass of the officer corps was unsuited to its tasks, and training was inadequate. As a result, the numerically superior, better-organized, -equipped and -led Ottoman forces, heavily composed of Albanian warriors with combat experience, pushed the Greek forces south out of Thessaly and threatened Athens,^[8] only to cease fire when the Great Powers persuaded the Sultan to agree to an armistice.^{[9][need quotation to verify][10][11]} The war is notable in that it was the first to be filmed on camera, though the footage has since been lost.^[12]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Mehmet Uğur Ekinci: The Origins of the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War: A Diplomatic History. University Bilkent, Ankara 2006, p. 80.
2. ^ ^{a b} Kokkinos, P. (1965). Կոկինոս Պ., Հունահայ գաղութի պատմությունից (1918–1927) (in Armenian). Yerevan: National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. pp. 14, 208–209. ISBN 9789609952002. Cited in Vardanyan, Gevorg (12 November 2012). Հայ-հունական համագործակցության փորձերը Հայոց ցեղասպանության տարիներին (1915–1923 թթ.) [The attempts of the Greek-Armenian Co-operation during the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923)]]. akunq.net (in Armenian). Research Center on Western Armenian Studies. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
3. ^ Gyula Andrássy, Bismarck, Andrássy, and Their Successors, Houghton Mifflin, 1927, p. 273.
4. ^ Mehmed'in kanı ile kazandığını, değişmez kaderimiz !-barış masasında yine kaybetmiştik..., Cemal Kutay, Etniki Eterya'dan Günümüze Ege'nin Türk Kalma Savaşı, Boğaziçi Yayınları, 1980, p. 141. (in Turkish)
5. ^ Yunanistan'ın savaş meydanındaki yenilgisi ise Büyük Devletler sayesinde barış masasında zafere dönüşmüş, ilk defa Lozan müzakerelerinde aksi yaşanacak olan, Yunanistan'ın mağlubiyetlerle gelişme ve büyümesi bu savaş sonunda bir kez daha görülmüştür., M. Metin Hülagü, "1897 Osmanlı-Yunan Savaşı'nın Sosyal Siyasal ve Kültürel Sonuçları", in Güler Eren, Kemal Çiçek, Halil İnalcık, Cem Oğuz (ed.), Osmanlı, Cilt 2, Yeni Türkiye Yayınları, 1999, ISBN 975-6782-05-6, pp. 315–316. (in Turkish)
6. ^ ^{a b c} Clodfelter 2017, p. 197.
7. ^ ^{a b} Dumas, Samuel; Vedel-Petersen, K. O. Losses of life caused by war. Clarendon Press. p. 57.
8. ^ Uyar, Mesut; Erickson, Edward J. (2009). A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Ataturk: From Osman to Ataturk. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 210. ISBN 9780313056031. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The three pitched battles (Velestin, Catalca, and Domeke) in front of the last Greek defensive line turned out to be decisive. The Greek defenders were beaten in detail and lost any chance to safeguard the road to Athens.
9. ^ Erickson (2003), pp. 14–15
10. ^ Pikros, Ioannis (1977). "Ο Ελληνοτουρκικός Πόλεμος του 1897" [The Greco-Turkish War of 1897]. Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΔ′: Νεώτερος Ελληνισμός από το 1881 ως το 1913 [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XIV: Modern Hellenism from 1881 to 1913] (in Greek). Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 125–160.
11. ^ Phillipson, Coleman (1916). Termination of War and Treaties of Peace (reprint ed.). Clark, New Jersey: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. (published 2008). p. 69. ISBN 9781584778608. Retrieved 19 April 2021. In the Greco-Turkish War, 1897, the Powers intervened, and asked the Sultan to suspend his offensive operations. After some delay [...] [h]ostilities went on, and the Turks soon became masters of Thessaly. The Czar or Russia having mde an appeal to the Sultan (as has already been mentioned), an armistice convention was concluded on May 19 for Epirus, and on May 20 for Thessaly.
12. ^ "First filming of war".

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19 April 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

Mae West

American actress (1893–1980)

This article is about the actress. For other uses, see Mae West (disambiguation).

Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned over seven decades.^[1] Considered a sex symbol, she was known for her breezy sexual independence and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice.^[2] She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to begin a career in the film industry.

West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered problems especially with censorship. She once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."^[3][4] She bucked the studio system by making comedy out of conventional beliefs, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, continued to perform in Las Vegas and London and on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. In 1999, the American Film Institute posthumously voted her the 15th-greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema.

1. ^ "Mae West Biography, Plays, Movies, & Facts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
2. ^ Doherty, Thomas (2009). Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14359-2.
3. ^ "Actress Mae West Sentenced for 'Sex'". History Channel. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
4. ^ Weekes, Karen (2011). Women Know Everything!. Quirk Books. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-59474-545-4.

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20 April 1902 – Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

Radium chloride

Chemical compound

Radium chloride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula RaCl₂. It is a radium salt of hydrogen chloride. It was the first radium compound isolated in a pure state. Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne used it in their original separation of radium from barium.^[3] The first preparation of radium metal was by the electrolysis of a solution of this salt using a mercury cathode.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Kirby, p. 5
2. ^ Kirby, p. 6
3. ^ Curie, M.; Debierne, A. (1910). C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. Paris 151:523–25.
4. ^ Kirby, p. 3

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21 April 1962 – The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.

Century 21 Exposition

World's fair held in Seattle, Washington

The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, United States.^[1][2] Nearly 10 million people attended the fair during its six-month run.^[3]

As planned, the exposition left behind a fairground and numerous public buildings and public works; some credit it with revitalizing Seattle's economic and cultural life (see History of Seattle since 1940).^[4] The fair saw the construction of the Space Needle and Alweg monorail, as well as several sports venues (Washington State Coliseum, now Climate Pledge Arena) and performing arts buildings (the Playhouse, now the Cornish Playhouse), most of which have since been replaced or heavily remodeled. Unlike some other world's fairs of its era, Century 21 made a profit.^[3]

The site, slightly expanded since the fair, is now called Seattle Center; the United States Science Pavilion is now the Pacific Science Center. Another notable Seattle Center building, the Museum of Pop Culture (earlier called EMP Museum), was built nearly 40 years later and designed to fit in with the fairground atmosphere.

1. ^ Official Guide Book, cover and passim.
2. ^ Guide to the Seattle Center Grounds Photograph Collection: April, 1963 Archived March 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Accessed online October 18, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b} Joel Connelly, Century 21 introduced Seattle to its future Archived September 14, 2012, at archive.today, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 16, 2002. Accessed online October 18, 2007.
4. ^ Regina Hackett, City's arts history began a new chapter in '62 Archived May 27, 2012, at archive.today, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 29, 2002. Accessed online October 18, 2007.

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22 April 1906 – The 1906 Intercalated Games open in Athens.

1906 Intercalated Games

International multi-sport event in Greece

The 1906 Intercalated Games or 1906 Olympic Games (Greek: Μεσολυμπιάδα, romanized: Mesolympiada, lit. 'Mesolympics') was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated in Athens, Greece.^[1] They were at the time considered to be Olympic Games and were referred to as the "Second International Olympic Games in Athens" by the International Olympic Committee.^[2] However, the medals that were distributed to the participants during these games are not officially recognised by the Olympic Committee^[3] and are not displayed with the collection of Olympic medals at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

1. ^ "1906 Athina Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
2. ^ Journal of Olympic History, Volume 10, December 2001/January 2002, The 2nd International Olympic Games in Athens 1906, by Karl Lennartz Archived 15 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ What Events are Olympic? Olympics at SportsReference.com. Accessed 7 Sep 2008.

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23 April 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.

April Constitution of Poland

2nd constitution of the Second Polish Republic, adopted in 1935

The April Constitution of Poland (Polish: Ustawa konstytucyjna 23 IV 1935 or Konstytucja kwietniowa) was the general law passed by the act of the Polish Sejm on 23 April 1935. It introduced in the Second Polish Republic a presidential system with certain elements of authoritarianism.

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24 April 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.

1993 Bishopsgate bombing

Provisional IRA bombing in London

This article is about the City of London bomb in 1993. For the bombing in 1992, see Baltic Exchange bombing.

The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to it occurring on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga's church and wrecked Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower.^[2][3]

As a result of the bombing, which happened just over a year after the bombing of the nearby Baltic Exchange, a "ring of steel" was implemented to protect the City, and many firms introduced disaster recovery plans in case of further attacks or similar disasters. £350 million (equivalent to £590 million in 2019) was spent on repairing damage. In 1994 detectives believed they knew the identities of the IRA bombers, but lacked sufficient evidence to arrest them.^[4]

1. ^ "Bishopsgate bomb: Photos issued on 25th anniversary". BBC News. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
2. ^ "BBC ON THIS DAY | 24 | 1993: IRA bomb devastates City of London". BBC News. 24 April 1993. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
3. ^ "Bomb disposal hero breaks silence on anniversary of Bishopsgate blast | London Evening Standard". Standard.co.uk. 25 April 2013. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
4. ^ Kirby, Terry (5 April 1994). "Police 'know who planted Bishopsgate bomb': Men seen on video may be in Irish Republic. Terry Kirby reports". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.

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25 April 1792 – "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

La Marseillaise

National anthem of France

For other uses, see La Marseillaise (disambiguation).

"National anthem of New Caledonia" redirects here. For officially recognized anthem of New Caledonia, see Soyons unis, devenons frères.

"La Marseillaise"^[a] is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin"^[b] ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine").

The French National Convention adopted it as the First Republic's anthem in 1795. The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital. The song is the first example of the "European march"^{[clarification needed]} anthemic style. The anthem's evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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26 April 1915 – World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.

Treaty of London (1915)

World War I treaty between Italy and the Triple Entente

Multiple geographical names mentioned below changed in the discussed period. The article uses modern English or local names.

The Treaty of London (Italian: Trattato di Londra) or the Pact of London (Patto di Londra) was a secret agreement concluded on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom, France, and Russia on the one part, and Italy on the other, in order to entice the latter to enter World War I on the side of the Triple Entente. The agreement involved promises of Italian territorial expansion against Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and in Africa where it was promised enlargement of its colonies. The Entente countries hoped to force the Central Powers – particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary – to divert some of their forces away from existing battlefields. The Entente also hoped that Romania and Bulgaria would be encouraged to join them after Italy did the same.

In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary but waited a year before declaring war on Germany – leading France and the UK to resent the delay. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the United States of America applied pressure to void the treaty as contrary to the principle of self-determination. A new agreement produced at the conference reduced the territorial gains promised by the treaty: Italy received Trentino and the Julian March in addition to occupation of the city of Vlorë and the Dodecanese Islands. Italy was compelled to settle its eastern border with the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes through the bilateral Treaty of Rapallo. Italy thus received Istria and the city of Zadar as an enclave in Dalmatia, along with several islands along the eastern Adriatic Sea shore. The Entente went back on its promises to provide Italy with expanded colonies and a part of Asia Minor.

The results of the Paris Peace Conference transformed wartime national fervour in Italy into nationalistic resentment championed by Gabriele D'Annunzio by declaring that the outcome of Italy's war was a mutilated victory. He led a successful march of veterans and disgruntled soldiers to capture the port of Rijeka – claimed by Italy and denied by the Entente powers. The move became known as the Impresa di Fiume, and D'Annunzio proclaimed the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city – before being forced out by the Italian military so that the Free State of Fiume could be established instead. The Regency of Carnaro was significant in the development of Italian fascism.

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27 April 2005 – Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight.

Airbus A380

Wide-body double deck aircraft

"A380" redirects here. For other uses, see A380 (disambiguation).

"A388" redirects here. For the road, see A388 road.

The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was announced in 1990 to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the long-haul market. The then-designated A3XX project was presented in 1994; Airbus launched the €9.5–billion ($10.7–billion) A380 programme on 19 December 2000. The first prototype was unveiled in Toulouse on 18 January 2005, with its first flight on 27 April 2005. It then obtained its type certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 12 December 2006.

Due to difficulties with the electrical wiring, the initial production was delayed by two years and the development costs almost doubled. It was first delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered service on 25 October. Production peaked at 30 per year in 2012 and 2014. However, after the largest customer, Emirates, reduced its last order in February 2019, Airbus announced that A380 production would end in 2021. On 16 December 2021, Emirates received its 123rd A380, which was the 251st and last delivered by Airbus. The A380's estimated $25 billion development cost was not recouped by the time Airbus ended production.

The full-length double-deck aircraft has a typical seating for 525 passengers, with a maximum certified capacity for 853 passengers. The quadjet is powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 or Rolls-Royce Trent 900 turbofans providing a range of 8,000 nmi (14,800 km; 9,200 mi). As of December 2021^[update], the global A380 fleet had completed more than 800,000 flights over 7.3 million block hours with no fatalities and no hull losses. As of December 2022^[update], there were 237 aircraft in service with 16 operators worldwide.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ "Airbus unveils first A380 centre wingbox". Airbus. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
2. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference A380_123rdEmirates was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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28 April 1923 – Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium.

Wembley Stadium (1923)

Former stadium in Wembley Park, London

This article is about the original stadium. For the current stadium that was opened in 2007, see Wembley Stadium.

The original Wembley Stadium (/ˈwɛmbli/; originally known as the Empire Stadium) was a football stadium in Wembley, London, best known for hosting important football matches. It stood on the same site now occupied by its successor and by its predecessor, Watkin's Tower.

Wembley hosted the FA Cup final annually, the first in 1923, which was the stadium's inaugural event, the League Cup final annually, five European Cup finals, the 1966 World Cup final, and the final of Euro 1996. Brazilian footballer Pelé once said of the stadium: "Wembley is the cathedral of football. It is the capital of football and it is the heart of football",^[3] in recognition of its status as the world's most famous football stadium.

The stadium also hosted many other sports events, including the 1948 Summer Olympics, rugby league's Challenge Cup final, and the 1992 and 1995 Rugby League World Cup finals. It was also the venue for numerous music events, including the 1985 Live Aid charity concert. In what was the first major WWF (now WWE) pay-per-view to take place outside North America, it hosted the 1992 SummerSlam.

1. ^ United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
2. ^ Twydell, Dave (5 November 2001). Denied F.C.: The Football League Election Struggles. Harefield: Yore Publications. pp. 30–31. ISBN 1-85983-512-0.
3. ^ "Mayor of London – Case for Wembley Stadium". Archived from the original on 30 March 2006.

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