(1897) Mark Twain is still very much aliveAccomplished man of American letters, and possessor of an impressively arid wit, Mark Twain recounts for the New York Journal a visit from a journalist who mistakenly believed the author might be deceased. “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” Twain tells the reporter.Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often called “The Great American Novel”.
Lived: Nov 30, 1835 – Apr 21, 1910 (age 74) Height: 5′ 9″ (1.74 m) Spouse: Olivia Langdon Clemens (m. 1870 – 1904) Children: Langdon Clemens (Son) · Clara Clemens (Daughter) · Jean Clemens (Daughter) · Susy Clemens (Daughter) Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery Siblings: Orion Clemens (Brother) · Henry Clemens (Brother) · Benjamin Clemens (Brother) · Pamela Clemens (Sister) · Margaret Clemens (Sister) · Pleasant Clemens (Brother)
Highlights
1864: Twain moved to San Francisco in 1864, still as a journalist, and met writers such as Bret Harte and Artemus Ward.
1865: His humorous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California where he had spent some time as a miner.
1870: She rejected his first marriage proposal, but they were married in Elmira, New York in February 1870, where he courted her and managed to overcome her father’s initial reluctance.
1861: He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure the rights for The Prince and the Pauper in 1881, in conjunction with his Montreal trip.
1901: A subsequent article, “To My Missionary Critics” published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
1910: Twain’s prediction was accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth.
wiki/Mark_Twain(1919) Anarchist bombs explode in eight US citiesOperatives of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani detonate package bombs in eight cities, causing property destruction and two deaths. The future US president and his wife, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, narrowly escape a blast, having walked by a package moments before it detonated.The 1919 United States anarchist bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani from April through June 1919. These bombings led to the Red Scare of 1919–20.
wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings(1953) A young queen is crowned in Westminster Abbey In the first major event to be televised internationally, Elizabeth Windsor, 25, is crowned Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Sixteen months in preparation, the coronation hosts 8,000 guests to witness the ceremony from inside London’s Westminster Abbey, while millions across Europe watch on live TV.The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth ascended the throne at the age of 25, upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952, and was proclaimed queen by her various privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation took place more than a year later because of the tradition that holding such a festival is inappropriate during the period of mourning that follows the death of a monarch. During the service, she took and subscribed an oath to, among other things, govern the peoples according to their respective laws and customs, was anointed with holy oil, presented and invested with regalia, and crowned.
Date: Jun 02, 1953
wiki/Coronation_of_Queen_Elizabeth_II(2004) Ken Jennings begins ‘Jeopardy!’ streakContestant Ken Jennings wins on ‘Jeopardy!,’ beginning a 74-game streak that will net him about $2.5 million. He will finally lose nearly six months later, with an incorrect response to the Final Jeopardy! answer, ‘Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.’Kenneth Wayne “Ken” Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the second highest-earning contestant in game show history. In 2004, Jennings won 74 Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg on his 75th appearance. His total earnings on Jeopardy! are $3,196,300, consisting of $2,520,700 over his 74 wins, a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance, a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, a $100,000 win for second-place prize in the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades, as well as half of a $300,000 prize in the IBM Challenge, when he competed against Watson.
Born: May 23, 1974 (age 43) · Edmonds, WA Net worth: $4 million USD (2017) Spouse: Mindy Jennings Education: Brigham Young University · University of Washington · Seoul Foreign School Children: Dylan Jennings (Son)
(1698) April fools flock to the Tower of London Several gullible people are sent to the Tower of London to see the “washing of the lions” (a nonexistent practice), as will be reported April 2 by a London newspaper. The prank will endure for centuries, making clear that the tradition of tricking dupes on April 1 is becoming increasingly popular.April Fools’ Day is celebrated every year on April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting April Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in small letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country. wiki/April_Fools’_Day(1918) Britain’s Royal Air Force is formedCombing the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service, the RAF is the world’s largest air force. Formed at the tail end of World War I, the force will find its greatest glory 22 years later during the Battle of Britain.The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom’s aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world. Following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history, in particular, playing a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.
Website: www.raf.mod.uk Founded: Apr 01, 1918 Founder: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard Subsidiary: Royal Air Force Air Cadets
wiki/Royal_Air_Force(1919) Walter Gropius founds the Bauhaus schoolArchitect Walter Gropius opens the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany, to teach modernist art and design. Ideas that spring from the school will revolutionize the world’s aesthetic sense, from painting to textiles to architecture.Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught.
Founded: 1919 Ceased operation: 1933 Founder: Walter Gropius
wiki/Bauhaus(1939) Spanish Civil War endsAlmost three years after a coup against Spain’s elected leftist government sparked a bloody battle of ideologies, the country’s civil war is over and the right-leaning Nationalists, headed by General Francisco Franco, have won.The Spanish Civil War, widely known in Spain simply as The Civil War or The War, took place from 1936 to 1939 and was fought between the Republicans, who were loyal to the democratic, left-leaning and relatively urban Second Spanish Republic in an alliance of convenience with the Anarchists, versus the Nationalists, a falangist, Carlist, and a largely aristocratic conservative group led by General Francisco Franco. Although the war is often portrayed as a struggle between democracy and fascism, some historians consider it more accurately described as a struggle between leftist revolution and rightist counter-revolution. Ultimately, the Nationalists won, and Franco then ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from April 1939 until his death in November 1975.
(1775) Patrick Henry makes a fiery bid for freedomAmerican lawyer Patrick Henry serves up rousing rhetoric at the House of Burgesses in Richmond, Virginia, as he makes his case for supporting military action against the British. Henry’s words “give me liberty or give me death” will resonate through the centuries.“Give me liberty, or give me death!” is a quotation attributed to Patrick Henry from a speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. He is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops for the Revolutionary War. Among the delegates to the convention were future U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. wiki/Give_me_liberty,_or_give_me_death!(1806) American explorers Lewis & Clark head for homeHaving reached the Pacific Ocean the previous November, the expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departs Fort Clatsop, in the Oregon Country near the mouth of the Columbia River, to begin the formidable journey back to St. Louis, where they began two years earlier.The Lewis and Clark Expedition from May 1804 to September 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. It began near St. Louis, made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to reach the Pacific coast. It comprised a selected group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, Second Lieutenant William Clark.
Start date: May 14, 1804 End date: Sep 23, 1806
wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition(1919) Mussolini establishes the Italian fascist movement Breaking with socialism, WWI vet Benito Mussolini merges two organizations to found his own nationalist ideological movement, the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, which will become the National Fascist Party. Now known as “Il Duce” (the leader), he will go on to align with Hitler as an Axis power in World War II.
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.
wiki/Italian_Fascism(1983) Reagan proposes ‘Star Wars’ missile defense US President Ronald Reagan lays out plans for defensive orbiting lasers capable of intercepting and destroying incoming nuclear weapons. Derided by opponents as ‘Star Wars,’ the Strategic Defense Initiative will cost the US $30 billion, but it will never be fully developed or deployed.
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.
(1631) Religious pluralist Roger Williams lands in AmericaRoger Williams arrives in Boston from England, and will become a proponent of the separation between church and state. He’ll also found the state of Rhode Island and America’s first Baptist church.Roger Williams was a Puritan, an English Reformed theologian, and later a Reformed Baptist who was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because they thought that he was spreading “new and dangerous ideas” to his congregants. Williams fled the Massachusetts colony under the threat of impending arrest and shipment to an English prison; he began the settlement of Providence Plantation in 1636 as a refuge offering freedom of conscience.
Lived: 1603 – Mar 1683 Spouse: Mary Barnard (m. 1629 – 1676) Children: Freeborn Williams (Daughter) · Daniel Williams (Son) · Joseph Williams (Son) · Mercy Williams (Daughter) · Mary Williams (Daughter) · Providence Williams Education: University of Cambridge · Pembroke College, Cambridge Parents: James Williams · Alice Williams Nominations: British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series (2002)
Highlights
1629: Williams also married Mary Barnard (1609–76) on December 15, 1629 at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England.
1634: In August 1634, Williams became acting pastor of the Salem church, the Rev. Skelton having died, and continued to be embroiled in controversies.
1635: Finally, in October 1635, the General Court tried Williams and convicted him of sedition and heresy.
1636: He was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because they thought that he was spreading “new and dangerous ideas”, so he began the colony of Providence Plantation in 1636 which provided a refuge for religious minorities.
1644: Williams secured his precious charter from Parliament for “Providence Plantations” in July 1644, then published his most famous book The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience.
1647: Because of William Coddington’s opposition on Rhode Island, it took Williams until 1647 to get the four towns around Narragansett Bay to unite under a single government.
wiki/Roger_Williams(1909) Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic, is announcedLeo Baekeland, a Belgian-born chemist working in New York, announces his invention of the world’s first manmade plastic material, naming it Bakelite. It will help launch the plastics revolution.Bakelite, or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, is an early plastic. It is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. It was developed by the Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York, in 1907.
Inventor: Leo Baekeland
wiki/Bakelite(1919) A powerhouse Hollywood quartet forms United Artists Seeking artistic freedom and greater monetary rewards, director D.W. Griffith and actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks form their own production studio, United Artists.United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks with the intention of controlling their own interests rather than depending upon commercial studios. The studio was repeatedly bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century.
Website: www.unitedartists.com Founded: Feb 05, 1919 CEO: Mark Burnett Founders: Charlie Chaplin · Mary Pickford · Douglas Fairbanks · D.W. Griffith Headquarters: Beverly Hills, CA Awards: Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year (1979) · Razzie Award for Worst Picture (1996) · Razzie Award for Worst Picture of the Decade (2000) · Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominations: Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year · Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel · Razzie Award for Worst Picture · Razzie Award for Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years
wiki/United_Artists(1953) Britain’s sweets rationing comes to an endIn place since the start of WWII, sweets rationing limited the amount of sugary goods the public could buy. The first day of unrationed sweets sees a run on toffee apples, nougat sticks, and licorice strips.Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war. At the start of the Second World War in 1939, the United Kingdom imported 20 million long tons of food per year, including about 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The U.K. also imported more than 50% of its meat and relied heavily on imported feed to support its domestic meat production. The civilian population of the country was about 50 million. It was one of the principal strategies of the Germans to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission. To deal with sometimes extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. To buy most rationed items, each person had to register at chosen shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was provided with enough food for registered customers. Purchasers had to take ration books with them when shopping, so the relevant coupon or coupons could be cancelled. wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom3.2.j17
(27 BCE) The Roman Empire beginsThe Roman Senate grants to Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, the title Augustus, giving him imperial powers, thus marking the end of the republic and the birth of an empire. Over the next five centuries, this world-shaking power will rise and fall in spectacular fashion.The Roman Empire was the post-Roman Republic period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterized by government headed by emperors and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Africa and Asia. The city of Rome was the largest city in the world c. 100 BC – c. 400 AD, with Constantinople becoming the largest around 500 AD, and the Empire’s populace grew to an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants. The 500-year-old republic which preceded it was severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflict, during which Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and then assassinated in 44 BC. Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavian’s power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power and the new title Augustus, effectively marking the end of the Roman Republic.
Founded: 27 BC Dissolved: 1453 Population: 56.80 million (1 AD) Area: 1.06 million sq miles (2.75 million km²) Capitals: Rome · Constantinople · Ravenna Official language: Latin
wiki/Roman_Empire(1547) Ivan the Terrible crowned czar of RussiaSixteen-year-old Ivan Vasilyevich begins a 37-year reign over Russia that will see him popular with common folk, feared by the nobility, prone to bouts of mental illness, and earning the infamous nickname.Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then “Tsar of All the Russias” until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors.
Lived: Aug 25, 1530 – Mar 28, 1584 (age 53) Spouse: Maria Nagaya (m. 1581 – 1584) · Maria Dolgorukaya (m. 1580 – 1580) · Vasilisa Melentyeva (m. 1579 – 1579) · Anna Vasilchikova (m. 1575) · Anna Koltovskaya (m. 1572 – 1574) · Marfa Sobakina Children: Feodor I of Russia (Son) · Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich of Russia (Son) · Dmitry of Uglich (Son) · Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia (Son) · Tsarevna Maria Ivanovna (Daughter) · Tsarevich Vasili Ivanovich Parents: Vasili III of Russia (Father) · Elena Glinskaya (Mother) Buried: Cathedral of the Archangel Siblings: Kudeyar
Highlights
1547: Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Romanovna on February 03, 1547; their marriage lasted 13 years till August 07, 1560.
1550: The German merchant companies ignored the new port built by Ivan on the River Narva in 1550 and continued to deliver goods in the Baltic ports owned by Livonia.
1551: In 1551 the wooden fort of Sviyazhsk was transported down the Volga from Uglich all the way to Kazan.
1552: On 16 June 1552 Ivan IV led a 150,000-strong Russian army towards Kazan.
1556: In 1556, the khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible, who had a new fortress built on a steep hill overlooking the Volga.
1566: In 1566 Ivan extended the oprichnina to eight central districts.
wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible(1919) Alcohol Prohibition ratified in USBanning the making, selling, or transport of “intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” the 18th Amendment is ratified by the US after a strong push by a loose coalition of “dry crusaders.” Prohibition won’t go into effect for another year, but will be repealed in 1933.Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by the “dry” crusaders, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic, and Republican parties. It gained a national grass roots base through the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. After 1900 it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Prohibition was mandated in state after state, then finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas, local laws were stricter, with some states banning possession outright. In the 1920s the laws were widely disregarded, and tax revenues were lost. Their opposition mobilized and nationwide, Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933. Some states continued statewide prohibition.
Start date: 1920 End date: 1933
wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States(1938) Jazz comes to Carnegie HallA full house greets Benny Goodman and his band, Count Basie’s band, and members of Duke Ellington’s orchestra, as the first jazz and swing music concert is held at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert by Benny Goodman, Columbia Records catalogue item SL-160, is a two-disc LP of Swing music first issued in 1950. The program it captured has been described as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz’s “coming out” party to the world of “respectable” music.
(1897) Mark Twain is still very much alive
(1919) Anarchist bombs explode in eight US cities
(1953) A young queen is crowned in Westminster Abbey 
(2004) Ken Jennings begins ‘Jeopardy!’ streak
