>On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.
Tag Archive: NY Times
>On April 25, 1945, United States and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, in central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany.
On April 25, 1908, Edward R. Murrow, the influential American radio and television broadcaster during the industry’s early years, was born. Following his death on April 27, 1965, his obituary appeared in The Times.
>On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
>On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
On April 21, 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn.
>On April 20, 1999 two students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
I had a feeling this was going to be the on this day for today. It seems April is a bad month, a month that a lot of evil things happen. This is one teachers comments about this tragedy.
The Turner Report
>~ QUOTATION OF THE DAY ~
“I didn’t buy the horse for business or to make a profit. You do not sell dreams.”
– ZOLTAN MIKOCZY, the owner of Overdose, a 4-year-old thoroughbred that is becoming a Hungarian national hero.
Hungary’s Spirits Are Back Up, on a Horse
~ ON THIS DAY ~
On April 20, 1971, the United States Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
On April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany who led his country into World War II and was responsible for persecuting millions of Jews , was born.
>On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)
Is it just me, or does it seem that lately all the ~ On this Day ~ have been newsworthy but depressing? I decided that I would go to the NY Times website and read them all and find one that was not depressing. Here is what I found:
1775: The American Revolutionary War began, (war depresses me),
1897: The first Boston Marathon was run.
1933: The United States went off the gold standard (I admit, I don’t know if this is good or bad, I don’t even know what it means).
1943: Tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against Nazi forces (I suppose this is good, but it makes me think of all the horrible things happening at the time, and that makes me sad).
1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Harry S. Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”
1989: A white female jogger in New York’s Central Park was brutally beaten and raped. (Five black and Hispanic teenagers were imprisoned, but the convictions were overturned in 2003 when a serial rapist confessed and DNA evidence tied him to the crime.)(Doubly sad, for the crime and incorrect convictions)
1993: A 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in. Dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.(Really sad)
1994: A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King. (This is sad, not because of the award, but the reason he got it, he got beaten)
1997: Flooding from the Red River forced more than 50,000 residents to abandon Grand Forks, N.D. (This is an exercise in futility)
1999: The German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its prewar capital. (Not sad, not happy, just news)
2001: The Mel Brooks musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway.(Finally!)
2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI. (Something else I am clueless about.)
So some good, or at least not depressing things happened on this day, but the majority? I’m going back to bed.
>On April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and set off raging fires. More than 3,000 people died.
>On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 