30/04/10

Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appeared in the constellation Lupus in 1006.  George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall in New York in 1789.  The 1938 FA Cup Final between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End was the first ever to be televised.  Queen Beatrix ascended the throne of the Netherlands in 1980.

Born today:  Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967), Jane Campion (1954) and Lars von Trier (1957).

It is Queen's Day in the Netherlands and Walpurgis Night wherever Walpurgis Night is celebrated (Valborgsmässoafton in Sweden -- lovely way to spend an evening).

29/04/10

The first Moorish forces to arrive on the Iberian peninsula, led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad, landed at Gibraltar in 711. Joan of Arc arrived to relieve the Siege of Orleans in 1429.  James Cook arrived at Botany Bay in 1770.  A cyclone with winds as high as 155 mph slammed the Chittagong region of Bangladesh in 1992, killing more than 138,000 people and leaving 10 million homeless.

Born today:  Duke Ellington (1899-1974), Zubin Mehta (1936), Tommy James (1947) and Daniel Day-Lewis (1957).

It is Showa Day in Japan.

28/04/10

Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors were set adrift from the HMS Bounty in 1789.  The USSR annexed Azerbaijan in 1920.  Australia's worst mass murder happened in 1996 when a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killed 35 people and injured 21 others.

Born today:  Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954), Kurt Gödel (1906-1978), Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), Feruccio Lamborghini (1916-1993), Alistair MacLean (1922-1987), Blossom Dearie (1926-2009), Harper Lee (1926), Ann-Margaret (1941), Terry Pratchett (1948), Bruno Kirby (1949-2006), Walter Zenga (1960) and Penélope Cruz (1974).

It is National Heroes' Day in Barbados.

27/04/10

An impoverished John Milton sold the copyright to Paradise Lost for £10 in 1667.  Beethoven composed Für Elise in 1810.  The foundation stone was laid for the Palace of Westminster in 1840.  The riverboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River in 1865, killing 1700.  Most of the dead were Union soldiers, survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba prisoner of war camps.  Expo 67 opened in Montreal.  Betty Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of the House of Commons in 1992.  Zambia's national football team was killed in an airplane crash on its way to Senegal for a World Cup qualifying match in 1993.

Born today: Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872), Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Anouk Aimée (1932), Kate Pierson (1948), Sheena Easton (1959), Russell T. Davies (1963) and Darcy Bussell (1969).

It is National War Veterans' Day in Finland.