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“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr.”
“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.”
~ Will Rogers
Wikiquote (William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) an American humorist and entertainer; known primarily as Will Rogers.)
April 15th, 769
Catholic Ecumenical Councils:
769 - The Lateran Council (769) condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic ruling.
Wikipedia Photo: Saint Peters Basilica - Peter holding the keys to the Kingdom.
April 15th, 1071
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
1071 - Siege of Bari; Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.
Wikipedia Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).
April 15th, 1395
Mongol Empire:
1395 - Tokhtamysh–Timur war, Battle of the Terek River; Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Volga. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the Golden Horde throne. Tokhtamysh escapes to Lithuania.
Wikipedia Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
April 15th, 1450
Hundred Years' War:
1450 - Battle of Formigny; the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
Wikipedia Painting: "Morning of the Battle of Agincourt, 25th October 1415", painted by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843); King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc enters Orléans (painting by J.J. Sherer, 1887); Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester. By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.
April 15th, 1632
Thirty Years' War:
1632 - Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), The victory of Gustavus Adolphus; Bautzen circa 1620, by Matthäus Merian; Battle of Lützen by Carl Wahlbom shows the death of King Gustavus Adolphus on 16 November 1632; Bautzen 1620, by Matthäus Merian; Peace of Westphalia, Ratification of the Peace of Münster.
April 15th, 1642
Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Kilrush; A Confederate Irish militia is routed when it attempts to halt the progress of the British Army.
Wikipedia Painting: "Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles" by Anthony van Dyck
April 15th, 1755
Samuel Johnson A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
Wikipedia Photo: Samuel Johnson A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words. (Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language). Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover: An Introduction. credit Brown.edu (1755 First edition of Samuel Johnson's landmark Dictionary of the English Language)
April 15th, 1783
American Revolutionary War:
1783 - Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Benjamin West's painting of the delegations at the Treaty of Paris: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.
April 15th, 1802
William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
Wikipedia Image: Portrait of William Wordsworth and daffodils.
April 15th, 1817
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
Wikipedia Photo: Thomas Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell (by Daniel Chester French, in the University of Illinois main research library. French (1850-1931), credit cohodas208c, Flickr)
April 15th, 1865
American Civil War:
1865 - Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; United States President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot at Ford's Theatre the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
April 15th, 1896
1896 - Closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics (1896) in Athens, Greece (the first modern Olympic Games in 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I).
Wikipedia Photo: 2012 Olympics in London, England.
April 15th, 1900
Philippine-American War:
1900 - Siege of Catubig; Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on American infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
Wikipedia Image: Philippine-American War; 17th U.S. Infantry boarding a train for the front in the Philippines; Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on 1 July 1898. he is pictured along with his fellow 'Rough Riders'; Photographs of dead Filipino soldiers lying in trenches were often taken by U. S. soldiers and journalists and included in commemorative albums (F. Tennyson Neely, Fighting in the Philippines: A Photographic Record of the Philippine-American War (London, 1899); Sonnichsen, quoted in Russell Roth, Muddy Glory: America’s “Indian Wars” in the Philippines, 1899-1935 (West Hanover, MA, 1981); Soldiers of the Philippine Republic (From Leon Wolff, Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippines (Garden City, NY, 1961)), photographs after p. 49); Satellite image of Philippines, NASA.
April 15th, 1912
The ill fated RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.
Wikipedia Image: RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,502 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.
April 15th, 1922
Teapot Dome scandal: United States Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
Wikipedia Image: Teapot Dome scandal; A 1924 cartoon shows Washington officials racing down an oil-slicked road to the White House, trying desperately to outpace the Teapot Dome scandal of President Warren G. Harding's administration. credit The Granger Collection, New York.
April 15th, 1923
Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
Wikipedia Computer-generated image: Insulin, credit NASA.
April 15th, 1924
Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
Wikipedia A Rand McNally map appended to the 1914 edition of The New Student's Reference Work. ● "Rand, McNally & Co.'s United States" in Rand McNally & Co.'s Business Atlas, (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1878). Newberry Library Call No.: Rand McNally Collection, Atlas Collection, Commercial Atlas 1878 ● Rand McNally makes apparent Route 66 error in atlases.
April 15th, 1927
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, begins.
Wikipedia Image: Great Mississippi Flood of 1927; Mississippi River Flood of 1927 showing flooded areas and relief operations ● Great Flood of 1927 and Record Flood of 1937, credit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers / National Archives.
April 15th, 1935
Pre World War II:
1935 - Roerich Pact signed in Washington, D.C..
1936 - Arab revolt in Palestine (1936 - 1939); First day of the Arab revolt in Palestine.
World War II:
1940 - Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
1941 - Belfast Blitz; two-hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, Northern Ireland and United Kingdom killing one thousand people.
1942 - The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" George Cross for its gallantry - given by King George VI.
1943 - An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
April 15th, 1945
World War II: Holocaust;
1945 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
April 15th, 1947
Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.
Wikipedia Photo: The 1947 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers,: Jackie Robinson knocks Phil Rizzuto into the air; Cookie Lavagetto is carried on the shoulders of his teammates after Game Four of the World Series, Ebbets Field, October 3, 1947 Bill Meurer/New York Daily News; Heroes and Bums: Hugh Casey, Pee Wee Reese, Joe Hatten, Eddie Stanky, and (seated) Dixie Walker. (National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY); On April 10, after he signed a contract to become a member of the Dodgers, Robinson played one more game with the minor-league Montreal Royals. Here, after the game, he posed for photographers as if entering the Dodger clubhouse for the first time. He was still five days away from his big-league debut, but by now the season's storyline was set. (National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY).
April 15th, 1952
The maiden flight of the B-52_Stratofortress.
Wikipedia Photo: B-52_Stratofortress, credit Free Republic
April 15th, 1955
McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Wikipedia Image: "Cruising McDonalds" - 1955 Chevy by TeeMack.
April 15th, 1970
Vietnam War:
1970 - Cambodian Civil War; massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.
1992 - The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.
April 15th, 1986
United States bombing of Libya: In retaliation for the April 5th Berlin discotheque bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya.
Wikipedia Photo: Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist ● President Reagan's Address to the Nation on U.S. Air Strike against Libya, credit Regan Presidential Library. ● Ground crew prepares a 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft for an air strike on Libya ● A 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft takes off to participate in an air strike on Libya
April 15th, 1989
Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
Wikipedia Photo: Hillsborough disaster; A banner in memory of those who died in the Hillsborough tragedy at Anfield. credit Martin Rickett/PA.
April 15th, 1989
Tiananmen Square protests: In Beijing, upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
Wikipedia Photo: Tiananmen incident April 5th, 1976 (The incident occurred on the traditional day of mourning, and removal of the displays of mourning - The Gang of Four, ordered the Square to be cleared) ● Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; The “Unknown Rebel”, taken by Jeff Widener, 1989 ● A month before the crackdown, momentum was already gathering as thousands of students swarmed in the square on May 4, 1989 to call for greater freedom of speech and democracy, credit Peter Turley, Corbis.
April 15th, 1994
World Trade Organization: Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
Wikipedia Image: NASA's “Blue Marble” Earth map; World Trade Organization logo.
April 15th, 2013
Boston Marathon bombings: Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.
Wikipedia Photo: Rolling Stone “The Bomber” / Bill Iffrig, 78-Year-Old Runner Knocked Down In Boston Explosion, Got Up And Finished Race (John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe, Getty Images) / of Charlotte, NC, sits injured at the scene of the first explosion that went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe - Getty Images) / Tamerlan (front) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as seen on security camera footage just prior to the bombing.
April 15th, 2014
Modern conflicts in the Middle East and terrorist attacks:
2014 - South Sudanese Civil War: Bentiu massacre; In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, at least 200 civilians were gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well as hospitals.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)