Start date: Apr 19, 1775
End date: Sep 03, 1783

First occurred: Apr 19, 1897

Start date: Apr 19, 1943
End date: May 16, 1943

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Downtown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995. Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing destroyed one-third of the building, killed 168 people, and injured more than 680 others. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, and destroyed or burned 86 cars, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. This was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the September 11 attacks six years later, and it still remains as the deadliest domestic terrorism incident in United States history.

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for illegal weapons possession. Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested, and within days, both were charged. Michael and Lori Fortier were later identified as accomplices. McVeigh, who was a U.S. militia movement sympathizer and a veteran in the Gulf War, had detonated a Ryder rental truck full of explosives parked in front of the building. His co-conspirator, Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. Motivated by his dislike for the U.S. federal government and angry about its handling of the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992 and the Waco Siege in 1993, McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

The official investigation, known as “OKBOMB”, saw FBI agents conduct 28,000 interviews, amass 3.5 short tons (3.2 tonnes) of evidence, and collect nearly one billion pieces of information. The bombers were tried and convicted in 1997. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004. Michael and Lori Fortier testified against McVeigh and Nichols; Michael was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the United States government, and Lori received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.

As a result of the bombing, the U.S. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which tightened the standards for habeas corpus in the United States, as well as legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Annual remembrance services are held at the same time of day as the explosion occurred.

Date: Apr 19, 1995
Fatalities: 168

Born: Jan 01, 1735 · North End, MA
Died: May 10, 1818 · Boston, MA
Spouse: Rachel Walker (m. 1773 – 1813) · Sarah Orne (m. 1757 – 1773)
Children: Joseph Warren Revere (Son) · Harriet Revere (Daughter) · Joshua Revere (Son) · Mary Revere (Daughter) · Isanna Revere (Daughter) · Paul Revere Jr. (Son) · John Revere (Son) · Lucy Revere (Daughter)
Parents: Apollos Rivoire (Father) · Deborah Hitchborn (Mother)

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Highlights

• 1757: On August 4, 1757, he married Sarah Orne (1736–1773); their first child was born eight months later.


• 1775: When British Army activity on April 7, 1775 suggested the possibility of troop movements, Joseph Warren sent Revere to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then sitting in Concord, the site of one of the larger caches of Patriot military supplies.


• 1792: Beginning in 1792 he became one of America’s best-known bell casters, working with sons Paul Jr. and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons.


• 1800: Finally in 1800 he became the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets for use as sheathing on naval vessels.


• 1801: The copper works founded in 1801 continues today as the Revere Copper Company, with manufacturing divisions in Rome, New York and New Bedford, Massachusetts.


• 1818: Revere died on May 10, 1818, at the age of 83, at his home on Charter Street in Boston.

Fatalities: 3,000
Date: Apr 18, 1906

The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (No. 22 of 1948) is an Act of the Oireachtas (parliament) which declared that Ireland may be officially described as the Republic of Ireland, and vested in the President of Ireland the power to exercise the executive authority of the state in its external relations, on the advice of the Government of Ireland. The Act was signed into law on 21 December 1948 and came into force on 18 April 1949, Easter Monday, the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the Easter Rising.

The Act ended the remaining statutory role of the British monarchy in relation to the state, by repealing the 1936 External Relations Act, which had vested in George VI and his successors those functions which the Act now transferred to the President.

Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who became Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III, in April 1956. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at age 20, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in the film Mogambo, which won her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination in 1954. Subsequently, she had leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which her deglamorized performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Other films include High Noon with Gary Cooper, Dial M for Murder with Ray Milland, Rear Window with James Stewart, To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant, and High Society with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Lived: Nov 12, 1929 – Sep 14, 1982 (age 52)
Height: 5′ 7″ (1.69 m)
Spouse: Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (m. 1956 – 1982)
Children: Princess Stéphanie of Monaco (Daughter) · Caroline, Princess of Hanover (Daughter) · Albert II, Prince of Monaco (Son)
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actress (1955) · Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (1954) · Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (1955) · National Board of Review Award for Best Actress

Rainier III ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest ruling monarchs in European history. Though internationally known for his marriage to the American actress Grace Kelly, he was also responsible for reforms to Monaco’s constitution and for expanding the principality’s economy beyond its traditional casino gambling base. Gambling accounts for only approximately three percent of the nation’s annual revenue today; when Rainier ascended the throne in 1949, it accounted for more than 95 percent.

Lived: May 31, 1923 – Apr 06, 2005 (age 81)
Spouse: Grace Kelly (m. 1956 – 1982)
Children: Princess Stéphanie of Monaco (Daughter) · Albert II, Prince of Monaco (Son) · Caroline, Princess of Hanover (Daughter)
Siblings: Princess Antoinette, Baroness of Massy (Sister)
Parents: Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois (Father) · Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (Mother)

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Highlights

• 1944: In 1944, upon his 21st birthday, Rainier’s mother renounced her right to the Monegasque throne and Rainier became Prince Louis’s direct heir.


• 1944: In World War II Rainier joined the Free French Army in September 1944, and serving under General de Monsabert as a second lieutenant, and seeing action during the German counter-offensive in Alsace.


• 1949: Rainier became the Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the death of Louis II on 9 May 1949.


• 1950: Rainier established a postal museum in 1950: the Museum of Stamps and Coins, in Monaco’s Fontvieille district by using the collections of the Monegasque princes Albert I and Louis II.


• 1956: Rainier III, Prince of Monaco married Grace Kelly on April 18, 1956; their marriage lasted 26 years till September 14, 1982.


• 1962: As Prince of Monaco, Rainier was also responsible for the principality’s new constitution in 1962 which significantly reduced the power of the sovereign.

Start date: May 14, 1804
End date: Sep 23, 1806

Italian Fascism (Italian: Fascismo Italiano), also known simply as Fascism (Italian: Fascismo), is the original fascist ideology, as developed in Italy. The ideology is associated with the Fascist Revolutionary Party (PFR), founded in 1915, and the succeeding National Fascist Party (PNF) in 1921, which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party that ruled the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, the post-war Italian Social Movement and subsequent Italian neo-fascist movements.

Italian Fascism was rooted in Italian nationalism and the desire to restore and expand Italian territories, which Italian Fascists deemed necessary for a nation to assert its superiority and strength and to avoid succumbing to decay. Italian Fascists claimed that modern Italy is the heir to ancient Rome and its legacy, and historically supported the creation of an Italian Empire to provide spazio vitale (“living space”) for colonization by Italian settlers and to establish control over the Mediterranean Sea.

Italian Fascism promoted a corporatist economic system whereby employer and employee syndicates are linked together in associations to collectively represent the nation’s economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy. This economic system intended to resolve class conflict through collaboration between the classes.

Italian Fascism opposed liberalism, especially “classical liberalism” that Mussolini and Fascist leaders denounced as “the debacle of individualism”, but rather than seeking a reactionary restoration of the pre-French Revolutionary world, which it considered to have been flawed, it had a forward-looking direction. It was opposed to Marxist socialism because of its typical opposition to nationalism, but was also opposed to the reactionary conservatism developed by Joseph de Maistre. It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for tradition and a clear sense of a shared past among the Italian people, alongside a commitment to a modernised Italy.

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). The system, which was to combine ground-based units and orbital deployment platforms, was first publicly announced by President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Reagan was a vocal critic of MAD doctrine. SDI was an important part of his defense policy intended to end MAD as a nuclear deterrence strategy, as well as a strategic initiative to neutralize the military component of the Soviet Union’s nuclear defenses.

The ambitious initiative was criticized for allegedly threatening to destabilize the MAD-approach and to possibly re-ignite “an offensive arms race”. SDI was nicknamed largely in the mainstream media as “Star Wars”, after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas. In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that a global shield such as “Star Wars” was extremely ambitious and with existing technology not directly feasible for operational status, and that about ten more years of research was needed to learn about such a comprehensive and complex system to set up and make it fully operational.

Under the SDIO’s Innovative Sciences and Technology Office, headed by physicist and engineer Dr. James Ionson, the investment was predominantly made in basic research at national laboratories, universities, and in industry; these programs have continued to be key sources of funding for top research scientists in the fields of high-energy physics, supercomputing/computation, advanced materials, and many other critical science and engineering disciplines—funding which indirectly supports other research work by top scientists, and which was most politically viable to fund within the budget environment.

Laser research funded by the SDI office was disclosed at laser conferences that also included panel discussions on the subject with the participation of James Ionson, Edward Teller, and other prominent advocates of SDI.

During the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1993, the SDIO’s name was changed to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and its focus shifted from national missile defense to theater missile defense; and its scope from global to more regional coverage.[citation needed] It was never truly developed or deployed, though certain aspects of SDI research and technologies paved the way for some anti-ballistic missile systems of today.[citation needed] BMDO was renamed to the Missile Defense Agency in 2002. This article covers defense efforts under the SDIO.

Today, the United States holds a significant advantage in the field of comprehensive advanced missile defense systems through years of extensive research and testing. The US and the UK also have both laser weapons and 360 degree laser shields in development, which are expected to be ready for military use as early as 2020. Many of the obtained technological insights were transferred to subsequent programs and would find use in follow-up programs.