1336

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Today in History 04/26/17

Portrait of Francesco Petrarch (© Stock Montage/Getty Images)(1336) Petrarch climbs Mont Ventoux on cusp of the Renaissance
An Italian poet and scholar ascends more than 6,000 feet to the summit of France’s Mont Ventoux and experiences an epiphany that inspires him to examine the life of the soul. Petrarch will go on to write works that usher in a more modern age, and be called “the father of humanism.”
Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was a scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, who was one of the earliest humanists. His rediscovery of Cicero’s letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance. Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch’s works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri. Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch’s sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the “Dark Ages.” This standing back from his time was possible because he straddled two worlds—the classical and his own modern day.
Lived: Jul 20, 1304 – Jul 19, 1374 (age 69)
Children: Giovanni (Son) · Francesca (Daughter)
Parents: Ser Petracco (Father) · Eletta Canigiani (Mother)
Education: University of Bologna (1320 – 1323) · University of Montpellier (1316 – 1320)
First ascent: Mont Ventoux
Siblings: Gherardo Petracco (Brother)
Highlights
  • 1309: He spent much of his early life at Avignon and nearby Carpentras, where his family moved to follow Pope Clement V who moved there in 1309 to begin the Avignon Papacy.

  • 1326: After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326, where he worked in numerous clerical offices.

  • 1341: On April 8, 1341, he became the second poet laureate since antiquity and was crowned by Roman Senatori Giordano Orsini and Orso dell’Anguillara on the holy grounds of Rome’s Capitol.

  • 1345: In 1345 he personally discovered a collection of Cicero’s letters not previously known to have existed, the collection ad Atticum.

  • 1348: Upon her death in 1348, the poet found that his grief was as difficult to live with as was his former despair.

  • 1362: In 1362, shortly after the birth of a daughter, Eletta (the same name as Petrarch’s mother), they joined Petrarch in Venice to flee the plague then ravaging parts of Europe.

wiki/Petrarch
Studio 54 in New York on Nov. 6, 1979. (© AP/Richard Drew)(1977) Studio 54 opens in New York City
Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager open a nightclub, which will become a legendary symbol of the decadent disco era and overindulgent celeb culture. Regulars would include Andy Warhol, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, and yes, Donald Trump.
Studio 54 is a former nightclub and currently a Broadway theatre, located at 254 West 54th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan. The building, originally built as the Gallo Opera House, opened in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming CBS radio and television Studio 52.
Website: www.roundabouttheatre.org
Address: 254 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 719-1300
Opened: 1977
Closed: 1986
Capacity: 1,006
Architects: Ian Schrager · Eugene De Rosa

wiki/Studio_54
Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant damaged in the explosion on April 26, 1989 (© Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)(1986) Explosion rocks the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
An unexpected power surge causes a rupture in Reactor 4 at the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear plant. The resulting explosion is the world’s worst nuclear accident, sending radioactive contamination drifting over large swathes of the Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Western Europe.
The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred on 26 April 1986 in the No.4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, in what was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union.
Date: Apr 26, 1986
Location of Chernobyl

wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
A person in Dhaka, Bangladesh, sits among the ruins left by a tornado that struck central Bangladesh on April 26, 1989 (© Pavel Rahman/AP)(1989) History’s deadliest tornado strikes Bangladesh
Roughly 1,300 perish, 12,000 are injured, and 80,000 are left homeless after the Daulatpur–Saturia tornado wreaks havoc in the central Dhaka region of Bangladesh. Estimated at a mile wide, and leaving a trail 50 miles long, the storm devastates the South Asian country.
The Daulatpur–Saturia, Bangladesh tornado was an extremely dangerous tornado that occurred in the Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It was the costliest and deadliest tornado in Bangladesh’s history. There is great uncertainty about the death toll, but estimates indicate that it killed around 1,300 people, which would make it the deadliest tornado in history. The tornado affected the cities of Daulatpur and Saturia the most, moving east through Daulatpur and eventually northeast and into Saturia. Previously, the area that the tornado hit had been in a state of drought for six months, possibly generating tornadic conditions.
Date: Apr 26, 1989
Bangladesh Tornado Map

wiki/Daulatpur–Saturia_tornado
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A Historical Day

(1336) Petrarch climbs Mont Ventoux on cusp of the Renaissance
1336 An Italian poet and scholar ascends more than 6,000 feet to the summit of France’s Mont Ventoux and experiences an epiphany that inspires him to examine the life of the soul. Petrarch will go on to write works that usher in a more modern age, and be called “the father of humanism.”.
(1937) Nazi Luftwaffe devastates Guernica, Spain
In one of the first air attacks on a civilian populace, the German Air Force bombs the Spanish town of Guernica after the Nazi’s allies, the Spanish Nationalists, requests the strike as part of their Civil War offensive. The results cause shock and horror, famously expressed in Picasso’s celebrated painting. . 1937
(1986) Explosion rocks the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
1986 An unexpected power surge causes a rupture in Reactor 4 at the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear plant. The resulting explosion is the world’s worst nuclear accident, sending radioactive contamination drifting over large swathes of the Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Western Europe..
(1989) History’s deadliest tornado strikes Bangladesh
Roughly 1,300 perish, 12,000 are injured, and 80,000 are left homeless after the Daulatpur–Saturia tornado wreaks havoc in the central Dhaka region of Bangladesh. Estimated at a mile wide, and leaving a trail 50 miles long, the storm devastates the South Asian country. . 1989