links to images.
1629 Christiaan Huygens, Holland, astronomer (discovered Saturn's rings), mathematician, physicist. He died on 08 July 1695.
1588 Alessandro Varotan “il Padovanese”, Italian artist who died in 1648.
1578 Felipe III king of Spain and Portugal (1598-1621)
Holidays: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela : Pan American Day / Laos : New Years (416) / Burma : Water Festival (416) / Mauritius : Varusha Pirruppa

Religious Observances RC : St Justin, philosopher/martyr / RC : SS Tiburtius, Valerina, Maximus, martyrs / Santos Máximo, Tiburcio, Valeriano, Lamberto y Abundio.
Easter Sunday in 1895, 1963, 1968, 1974, 2047, 2058, 2069, 2115, 2120.
Good Friday in 1865, 1876, 1911, 1922, 1933, 1995, 2006, 2017, 2028, 2090.
Holy Thursday in 1881, 1892, 1927, 1938, 1949, 1960, 2022, 2033, 2044, 2101, 2112.
Palm Sunday in 1878, 1889, 1935, 1946, 1957, 2019, 2030, 2041, 2052, 2109.

Time warp: “Ten years ago I might not be sitting here today.” — cancer survivor commenting on new drugs in CBS TV interview, 14 April 2002. {That's nothing: take me for example, not just ten years ago but only yesterday I could not be writing these lines today, tomorrow, or any other day than yesterday.}

Thought for the day: “Democracy will continue as long as people have faith in the people they are going to elect next.”

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"> • Lincoln fatally shot... • Titanic hits iceberg... • US, UK, and Italian partisans attack Germans... • Guillotinés par la Révolution... • USSR withdraws from Afghanistan... • Bataan Death March's 5th day... • ENIAC computer proposed... • Helen Keller's teacher is born... • Greenbacks voted by US Congress... • First Volvo car... • First US WWI aerial dogfight... • US Cold War policy plan... • Edison's Kinetoscope... • US planes on their way to peacetime bombing of Libya... • Webster's Dictionary is printed... • US airborne troops to Vietnam... • “Baby Lift” out of Vietnam concludes...

On an April 14:
2002 The Venezuelan military, faced with defections of some of their own and mass demonstrations by the supporters of President Hugo Chávez, whom they had deposed two days earlier saying that he had resigned, reinstate him, who denies ever having resigned. Chávez accepts the resignation of the directors he had named to Petróleos de Venezuela, which action had started the opposition movement. The coup leaders are arrested and will be tried for sedition, it is announced. In the US, the Bush regime, which had rejoiced at Chávez's ouster, says that it hopes that the incident taught him a lesson, and that he will amend his ways (i.e. become compliant with the will of the Bush regime).
2000 On Wall Street, in heavy trading, the Dow Jones industrial Average closes down 617 points and the Nasdaq composite index falls 355 points, ending one of the worst weeks ever for US stocks.
2000 In Washington, manure is dumped on Pennsylvania Avenue by protesters against the meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
2000 La Duma rusa ratifica, por la vía rápida y con amplia mayoría, el tratado Start II de reducción de armas nucleares estratégicas, firmado en 1993.
1999 La OTAN admite, por segunda vez, haber bombardeado a civiles por error durante el conflicto de Kosovo.
1999 El ministro del Interior británico Jack Straw autoriza la extradición de Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte a España.
1999 Huge hail devastates Sydney.
1998 El Tribunal Superior de Salvaguarda del Patrimonio Público dicta un auto de arresto contra el ex mandatario venezolano Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez y su compañera, Cecilia Matos.
1998 Katharine Graham, editora de The Washington Post, gana el premio Premio Pulitzer a la mejor biografía por su libro Personal History.
1997 Un huelga general, convocada por la oposición para exigir la dimisión del presidente Joseph~Désiré Mobutu Sese Seko, paraliza la capital de Zaire.
1996 Israel's 4-day-old military campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas continued, with aircraft bombing guerrilla strongholds in Beirut and southern Lebanon, provoking guerrilla vows to turn northern Israel into a "fiery hell."
1994 The chiefs of the US's seven largest tobacco companies spent more than six hours being grilled by the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee about the effects of smoking.
1993 Se inicia el juicio contra los artífices del fallido golpe de Estado de agosto de 1991 en la URSS.
1992 UN imposed embargo against Libya takes effect.
1992 Tiene lugar el viaje inaugural de la Línea de Alta Velocidad española (AVE) entre Madrid y Sevilla.
1992 Un activista antinuclear ataca al ex presidente Ronald Reagan en un acto público.
1991 The final withdrawal of American combat troops from southern Iraq began, 88 days after the United States launched its massive offensive to drive Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait (but not Hussein from power in Iraq).
1989 El crítico literario Ricardo Gullón es galardonado con el premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras.

1988 Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan ^top^
      Representatives of the USSR, Afghanistan, the US, and Pakistan signed an agreement calling for the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. In exchange for the withdrawal, the US agreed to end its arms support for the Afghan anti-Soviet factions, and Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to not interfere in each other's affairs.
      In 1978, a Soviet-backed coup in Afghanistan had installed a new Communist government under Nur Mohammad Taraki. However, in 1979, a second coup toppled Taraki's government in favor of Hafizullah Amin, a Muslim leader less favorable to the Soviets. In December of the same year, Soviet tanks and troops invaded Afghanistan, but were met with unanticipated resistance from the conservative Muslim opposition. Afghan tribesmen, calling themselves "holy warriors," fought a fierce and bloody guerrilla war against the Soviets.
      In the USSR, the Red Army's failure to suppress the guerrillas, and the high cost of the war in Russian lives and resources, caused significant discord in the Communist Party and Soviet society. By 1988, the anti-Soviet factions, bolstered by military arms aid from the US and other sources, had exhausted the USSR, leading Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to except a U.N.-brokered agreement calling for a total Soviet military withdrawal. On 15 February 1989, the last exhausted Soviet soldiers left Afghanistan.

1988 El papa Juan Pablo II formula un "no" incondicional y tajante a la llamada eutanasia neonatal.
1988 Las Cortes españolas aprueban, sólo con los votos socialistas, la ley de televisión privada.

1986 US planes on their way to peacetime bombing of Libya. ^top^
      Without any declaration of war, the US planes take off from their bases in England, on a mission to bomb Libya in retaliation for the Libyan sponsorship of terrorism against American troops and citizens. The bombing would begin the next day shortly before 02:00 (Libya time = 00:00 UT), involved more than 100 US Air Force and Navy aircraft, and was over within an hour. Five military targets and "terrorism centers" were hit, including the home tent of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi.
      During the 1970s and '80s, Qaddafi's government financed a wide variety of Muslim and anti-US and anti-British terrorist groups worldwide, from Palestinian guerrillas and Philippine Muslim rebels to the Irish Republican Army and the Black Panthers. In response, the US imposed sanctions against Libya, and relations between the two nations steadily deteriorated. In 1981, Libya fired at a US aircraft that passed into the Gulf of Sidra, which Qaddafi had claimed in 1973 as Libyan territorial waters. That year, the US uncovered evidence of Libyan-sponsored terrorist plots against the United States, including planned assassination attempts against US officials and the bombing of a US embassy-sponsored dance in Khartoum, Sudan.
      In December 1985, five American citizens were killed in simultaneous terrorist attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports. Libya was blamed, and US President Ronald Reagan ordered expanded sanctions and froze Libyan assets in the United States. On 24 March 1986, US and Libyan forces clashed in the Gulf of Sidra, and four Libyan attack boats were sunk. Then, on 05 April, terrorists bombed a West Berlin dance hall known to be frequented by US servicemen. One US serviceman and a Turkish woman were killed, and more than 200 people were wounded, including 50 other US servicemen. US intelligence reportedly intercepted radio messages sent from Libya to its diplomats in East Berlin ordering the 05 April attack on the LaBelle discotheque.
      On 15 April (Libya time, 14 April in the US), the US planes arrive on target over Tripoli and Banghazi. The attacks were mounted by 14 A-6E navy attack jets based in the Mediterranean and 18 FB-111 bombers from bases in England. Numerous other support aircraft were also involved. France refused to allow the F-111s to fly over French territory, which added 2600 total nautical miles to the journey from England and back. Three military barracks were hit, along with the military facilities at Tripoli's main airport and the Benina air base southeast of Benghazi. All targets except one were reportedly chosen because of their direct connection to terrorist activity. The Benina military airfield was hit to preempt Libyan interceptors from taking off and attacking the incoming US bombers.
      Even before the operation had ended, President Reagan went on national television to discuss the air strikes. "When our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in the world," he said, "we will respond in self-defense. Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again."
      Operation El Dorado Canyon, as it was code-named, was called a success by US officials. Qaddafi's 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed in the attack on his residence, and two of his young sons were injured. Although he has never admitted it publicly, there is speculation that Qaddafi was also wounded in the bombing. Fire from Libyan surface-to-air missiles and conventional anti-aircraft artillery was heavy during the attack, and one F-111, along with its two-member crew, were lost in unknown circumstances. Several residential buildings were inadvertently bombed during the raid, and 15 Libyan civilians were reported killed. The French embassy in Tripoli was also accidentally hit, but no one was injured.
      Later in the day, Libyan patrol boats fired missiles at a US Navy communications station on the Italian island of Lamedusa, but the missiles fell short. There was no other major terrorist attack linked to Libya until the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew of that flight were killed, and 11 people on the ground perished. In 1999, Qaddafi, seeking to lead Libya out of its long international isolation, agreed to turn over to the West two suspects wanted for the Lockerbie attack. In response, Europe lifted sanctions against Libya. The United States maintained sanctions, even after one of the Lockerbie suspects was convicted in 2001.
— Aviones de la VI Flota estadounidense bombardean la capital de Libia, Trípoli.

1982 Concluye la Guerra de las Malvinas, en la que Gran Bretaña resulta vencedora.
1981 ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) pone en libertad al industrial valenciano Luis Suñer Sanchís, secuestrado durante tres meses, tras cobrar un rescate.
1981 first Space Shuttle—Columbia 1—returns to Earth.
1978 Se constituye la junta preautonómica de Canarias.
1978 Tiene lugar el primer congreso de la CC.OO. (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras)

1975 Operation "Baby Lift" concludes. ^top^
The American airlift of Vietnamese orphans to the United States ends after 2600 children are transported to America. The operation began disastrously on 04 April when an Air Force cargo jet crashed shortly after take-off from Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. More than 138 of the passengers, mostly children, were killed. Operation Baby Lift was initiated to bring South Vietnamese orphans to the United States for adoption by American parents. Baby Lift lasted 10 days and was carried out during the final, desperate phase of the war, as North Vietnamese forces were closing in on Saigon. Although the first flight ended in tragedy, all other flights took place without incident, and Baby Lift aircraft ferried orphans across the Pacific until the mission concluded on 14 April, only 16 days before the fall of Saigon and the end of the war.

1965 US airborne troops ordered to Vietnam. ^top^
The Joint Chiefs of Staff order the deployment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade from Okinawa to South Vietnam. The 173rd arrived in Vietnam in May 1965 and was the first major US Army ground combat unit committed to the war. Headquartered at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon from May 1965 to October 1967, the brigade conducted combat operations in the region surrounding Saigon. In November 1967, the brigade fought a major battle with North Vietnamese Army forces at Dak To in the Central Highlands, winning the Presidential Union Citation for bravery in action. After more than six years in South Vietnam, the 173rd was withdrawn from Vietnam in August 1971 as part of President Richard Nixon's troop withdrawal program. During combat service in Vietnam, 12 troopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade won the Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery; 1606 were killed in action; and 8435 were wounded in action.

1962 El dirigente gaullista Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou recibe el encargo de formar un nuevo gobierno en Francia.
1959 Se desintegra al entrar en la atmósfera la cápsula instrumental del satélite científico americano Discover II.
1956 La URSS licencia a 1'400'000 soldados.
1950 Dimite el gabinete Venizelos del Gobierno de Grecia; el general Plastiras recibe el encargo de formar un nuevo gobierno.

1950 Cold war policy plan goes to US President. ^top^
President Harry S. Truman receives National Security Council Paper Number 68 (NSC-68). The report was a group effort, created with input from the Defense Department, the State Department, the CIA, and other interested agencies; NSC-68 formed the basis for America's Cold War policy for the next two decades. In the face of US foreign policy concerns, most notably the Soviet explosion of an atomic device in September 1949 and China's fall to communism the following October, President Truman requested a complete review and re-evaluation of America's Cold War diplomacy strategy. The result was NSC-68, a report that took four months to compile and was completed in April 1950. The report began by noting that the United States was facing a completely changed world. World War II had devastated Germany and Japan, and France and Great Britain had suffered terrific losses. This situation left the United States and the Soviet Union as the only two great world powers. The Soviet Union posed a new and frightening threat to US power. Animated by "a new fanatic faith" in communism, the Soviet Union sought nothing less than the imposition of "its absolute authority over the rest of the world." Clashes with the United States were, therefore, inevitable. According to the report, the development of nuclear weapons meant, "Every individual faces the ever-present possibility of annihilation," and, as a result, "the integrity and vitality of our system is in greater jeopardy than ever before in our history."
According to the report, the United States should vigorously pursue a policy of "containing" Soviet expansion. NSC-68 recommended that the United States embark on rapid military expansion of conventional forces and the nuclear arsenal, including the development of the new hydrogen bomb. In addition, massive increases in military aid to US allies were necessary as well as more effective use of "covert" means to achieve US goals. The price of these measures was estimated to be about $50 billion; at the time the report was issued, the US was spending just $13 billion on defense. Truman was somewhat taken aback at the costs associated with the report's recommendations. As a politician, he hesitated to publicly support a program that would result in heavy tax increases for the American public, particularly since the increase would be spent on defending the United States during a time of peace. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, however, prompted action. Truman signed NSC-68 into policy in September 1950. As one State Department official noted, "Thank God Korea came along," since this act of Communist aggression was believed to be crucial in convincing the public to support increased military spending. NSC-68 remained the foundation of US Cold War policy until at least the 1970s. The document itself remained top secret until historians successfully lobbied for its declassification in 1975.

1949 El presidente búlgaro Georgi Dimitrov dimite de su cargo.
1948 La Cámara de los Comunes del Reino Unido declara abolida la pena de muerte durante cinco años.
1948 A flash of light is observed in the crater Plato on the Moon.
1947 El trasatlántico británico Queen Elizabeth se hunde frente a las costas de Southampton.

1945 US joins UK in attack on Germans in Italy. ^top^
The US Fifth Army joins its British allies in the assault on the German occupiers of Italy. The Fifth Army, now under Lucian K. Truscott (General Mark Clark, former commander of the Fifth, was made commander of the Allied armies in Italy), began pushing its way up the peninsula, capturing Massa and crossing the Frigido River. After meeting considerable German resistance in the mountains, the Fifth sent the Germans running once the battle took to open country. Bologna became the next target, falling to the Fifth one week after engaging the enemy in Italy. Ferrara, Bondeno, and Modena succumbed shortly thereafter, Genoa on the 27th, and Milan on the 29th--an agenda of assaults that mimicked Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Helping the US effort was the work of Italian guerilla partisan groups, who had successfully taken control of the area west of the Como-Milan-Genoa line. By the time of the unconditional surrender of the Germans, signed at Caserta on 29 April, almost 660'000 Axis soldiers lay dead--compared with 321'000 Allied dead.

1945 Tokyo incendiary raids, using B-29's, damage Imperial Palace

1943 ENIAC computer proposed. ^top^
John Grist Brainerd, director of research at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School, submitted a proposal for an electronic computer to colleagues at the US Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory. The proposal was written by the Moore School's John Mauchly. In May 1943, the Army contracted the Moore School to build ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Although ENIAC was not finished until after the war had ended, it nevertheless marked a major step forward in computing.

1942 Detroit radio priest, Father Charles E. Coughlin is censured for anti-Semitism. Coughlin's broadcasts had railed against "godless capitalists, the Jews, the Communists, international bankers and plutocrats."
1939 El rey de Italia, Víctor Manuel III, ostenta, después de la ocupación de Albania, el título de "rey de Italia y Albania y emperador de Abisinia".
1937 Se producen manifestaciones en los mercados de Barcelona por el alza del precio de los comestibles.
1931 Spain becomes republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII, who goes into exile. — Se proclama la Segunda República Española con un gobierno provisional presidido por Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres; Alfonso XIII huye a Francia sin abdicar oficialmente. Francesc Macià i Llusà, por su parte, proclama el Estado Catalán y se erige en presidente.

1927 First Volvo car is produced. ^top^
The first regular production Volvo, nicknamed "Jakob," leaves the assembly line, in Goteborg, Sweden. Volvo was the result of a collaboration between Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson. Gabrielsson was an economist and a businessman who began his career at SKF Manufacturing in Goteborg. As head of SKF's subsidiary in France, he discovered that, due to the comparative labor costs, it was possible to sell Swedish ball-bearings in France more cheaply than American ones. The realization planted the seed that it was also possible to supply cars to continental Europe at a lower cost than American car companies could. Enter Gustaf Larson, engineer and designer. He had been a trainee at White & Poppe in Coventry, England, where he had helped design engines for Morris. The two men met in 1923 and by the next year they already had plans to build cars. Larson gathered a team of engineers and began work on a car design in his spare time. By July of 1926 the chassis drawings were complete.
Meanwhile, Gabrielsson had aroused the interest of SKF in his project, and he obtained guarantees and credit from the parent company to build 1000 vehicles, 500 open and 500 covered. SKF provided the name, AB Volvo. Volvo is Latin for "I Roll." It wasn't until the 1930s that Volvo made a mark on the international automotive world. Volvo purchased its engine supplier, Pentaverken, and began production on a variety of car models, including the PV651, which enjoyed great success in the taxicab market. After weathering the lean years of the early '30s, Volvo released its first "streamlined car," the PV36, or "Carioca," a car heavily influenced by US designs, in 1936. Also in line with American marketing strategies was Volvo's decision to release new car models in the fall, a tradition it began in 1938. Volvo's fortunes would mirror those of the American car companies after the war. Because of Sweden's neutrality during the war, Volvo's production facilities were left undamaged, allowing the company to meet the postwar demand for cars in Sweden and Europe.

1923 Etienne Oehmichen sets helicopter distance record of 358 meters.

1918 First US WW I aerial dogfight. ^top^
Six days after being assigned for the first time to the Western Front, two American pilots from the US First Aero Squadron engaged in America's first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft. In a battle fought almost directly over the Allied Squadron Aerodome at Toul, France, US flyers Douglas Campbell and Alan Winslow succeed in shooting down two German two-seaters. By the end of April, Campbell has shot down five enemy aircraft, making him the first US airman to qualify as an "ace" in World War I. The First Aero Squadron, organized in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I, undertook its first combat mission on 19 March 1917, in support of the seven thousand US troops who had invaded Mexico to capture Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Despite numerous mechanical and navigational problems, the American flyers flew hundreds of scouting missions for US Brigadier General John J. Pershing, and gained important experience that would later be used over the battlefields of Europe in World War I.

1916 Romania and Bulgaria's first day under the Gregorian calendar. Their previous day was 31 March 1916 Julian.
1914 El presidente de los Estados Unidos, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, prevé una intervención militar en México ante la respuesta negativa del presidente Victoriano Huerta Ortega al ultimátum previo.

1912 RMS Titanic hits iceberg ^top^
      One of the world's tragic sailing disasters occurs. Just before midnight, the RMS Titanic, one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built, fails to divert its course from an iceberg about six hundred kilometers from Newfoundland, Canada, and starts to sink.
      Four days earlier, the Titanic had left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. On its way out of port, the massive ship came within a meter of the steamer New York, but passed safely by, causing a general sigh of relief from the passengers massed on the ship's decks.
      The Titanic, thought to be the world's fastest ship and almost unsinkable, spanned 269 m from stern to bow. On its first journey across the highly competitive Atlantic ferry route, the ship carried some 2200 passengers and crew. After stopping at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, to pick up some final passengers, the vessel set out at full speed for New York City.
      However, just before midnight on the night of 14 April, the ship hit an iceberg and five of the Titanic's sixteen allegedly watertight compartments were ruptured along its starboard side. At about 02:20 on the morning of 15 April, the massive vessel sunk into the North Atlantic. Because of a shortage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, over 1500 persons went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters. Of the 700 or so survivors, most were women and children.
      A number of notable American and British citizens died in the tragedy, leading to outrage on both sides of the Atlantic when the circumstances of the disaster were revealed. The sinking of the Titanic did have some positive effects, however, as more stringent safety regulations were adopted on public ships and regular patrols were initiated to trace the locations of Atlantic icebergs.
David Sarnoff picks up distress call of Titanic
      David Sarnoff, 21, picks up the Titanic's distress call. Sarnoff, a telegraph operator running the world's most powerful radio telegraph station on top of Wannamaker's department store in New York, would stay at his post for 72 hours, receiving and transmitting information. Sarnoff would become a pioneer in radio and television broadcasting: He would found NBC in 1926, create an experimental television station for NBC in 1928, and eventually become president and chairman of RCA.

1908 El Parlamento danés vota el sufragio universal en el que se incluye, en igualdad de condiciones, a las mujeres.
1908 Después de varias entrevistas, el canciller alemán Karl von Bülow, el rey de Italia Vittorio Emmanuele III y su ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Tittoni, deciden estrechar las relaciones entre ambos países.
1905 El zoólogo y filósofo alemán Ernst Heinrich Haeckel hace un llamamiento en pro del pensamiento evolucionista.
1904 Se produce un mitin anarquista y antipatriota en Barcelona.

1894 Edison's Kinetoscope first appears in an arcade. ^top^
      Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope first appears in a New York City arcade. The peep-show film machines accommodated only one viewer at a time and showed short films of entertainers like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill.
      Edison had patented the Kinetoscope viewer, as well as a camera called the Kinetograph, in 1893. The camera was based on photographic principles discovered by still-photograph pioneers Joseph Nicephone Niepce and Louis Daguerre of France.
      In 1877, inventor Edward Muybridge developed a primitive form of motion pictures when invited by Leland Stanford, governor of California, to develop photo studies of animals in motion. Muybridge developed an ingenious system for photographing sequential motion, setting up 24 cameras attached to trip wires stretched across a racetrack. As the horse tripped each wire, the shutters snapped. The resulting series of photos could be projected as something resembling a motion picture.
      This breakthrough in the early 1870s inspired another student of animal motion, Etienne Jules Marey of France, in 1882 to develop a rotating camera rather like a rifle, where different pictures were taken in a rapid sequence by a rotating cartridge.
      Unlike these earlier cameras, Edison's Kinetoscope and Kinetograph used celluloid film, invented by George Eastman in 1889. In February 1893, Edison built a small movie studio that could be rotated to capture the best available sunlight and showed the first demonstration of his films — featuring three of his workers pretending to be blacksmiths — in May 1893.
      The invention inspired French inventors Louis and August Lumière to develop a movie camera and projector, the Cinématographe, that allowed a large audience to view a film. Several other cameras and projectors were also developed in the late 1800s.

1890 Pan American Day — first conference of American states (Washington DC)
1887 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure Reigate Squires

1874 US Congress authorizes greenbacks. ^top^
The increasingly heated battle over greenbacks, the paper notes first printed to support the Union during the Civil War, took another turn on this day in 1874, as Congress passed The Legal Tender Act. Derisively known in some circles as the "Inflation Bill," the legislation called for $18 million worth of greenbacks to be pumped into the economy. The Legal Tender Act also certified the hefty chunk of paper notes that had been released during the previous year. All told, the bill authorized $400 million in greenbacks as legal tender. But, like other bits of legislation associated with greenbacks, the Legal Tender Act quickly became embroiled in controversy. A mere week after Congress weighed in with its decision, President Ulysses S. Grant moved to kill the bill, arguing that it would unleash a tidal wave of inflation. But the House would not be denied: in June of 1874, pro-paper forces successfully pushed another version of the Legal Tender Act into the law books. The passage of the revised bill brought the amount of greenbacks in circulation up to $382 million.

1865 (Good Friday) US President Lincoln fatally shot ^top^
     At Ford's Theater in Washington DC, John Wilkes Booth [10 May 1838 – 26 April 1865], an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally wounds US President Abraham Lincoln. The attack comes only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the US Civil War.
Booth shoots Lincoln       Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on 20 March 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces.
      In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy. Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene's acclaimed performance in Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater on 14 April, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the US government into a paralyzing disarray.
      On the evening of 14 April, conspirator Lewis T. Powell burst into Secretary of State Seward's home, seriously wounding him and three others, while George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Vice President Johnson, lost his nerve and fled. Meanwhile Booth entered Lincoln's private box unnoticed, and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of his head at 22:13. Slashing an army officer who rushed at him, Booth jumped to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis! -- the South is avenged!" Although Booth had broken his left leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he succeeded in escaping Washington.
      The president, mortally wounded, was carried to a cheap lodging house opposite Ford's Theater. About 07:22 the next morning, Abraham Lincoln died, becoming the first US president to be assassinated. Booth, pursued by the army and secret service forces, was finally cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died from a possibly self-inflicted bullet wound as the barn was burned to the ground. Of the nine [8 ??] other persons eventually charged with the conspiracy, four were hanged and four were jailed.
      President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. The assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged,” as he jumped onto the stage and then fled on horseback. Lincoln died the next morning. Booth was a well-regarded actor who was particularly loved in the South before the Civil War. During the war, he stayed in the North and became increasingly bitter when audiences weren't as enamored of him as they were in Dixie. Along with friends Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, and John Surratt, Booth conspired to kidnap Lincoln and deliver him to the South.
      On 17 March, along with George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Paine, the group met in a Washington bar to plot the abduction of the president three days later. However, when the president changed his plans, the scheme was scuttled. Shortly afterward, the South surrendered to the Union and the conspirators altered their plan. They decided to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward on the same evening. When 14 April came around, Atzerodt backed out of his part to kill Johnson. Upset, Booth went to drink at a saloon near Ford's Theatre. At about 22:00 he walked into the theater and up to the president's box. Lincoln's guard, John Parker, was not there because he had gotten bored with the play, Our American Cousin, and left his post to get a beer. Booth easily slipped in and shot the president in the back of the head. The president's friend, Major Rathbone, attempted to grab Booth but was slashed by Booth's knife. Booth injured his leg badly when he jumped to the stage to escape, but he managed to hobble outside to his horse.
     Assistant Surgeon Charles A. Leale, M.D., United States Volunteers, 23, responds to calls for a doctor, leaps over chairs in the theater to reach the Presidential Box. Upon identifying himself as a United States Army Doctor (he had received his medical degree on March 1st), Dr. Leale is the first person to be admitted to the box after the shooting. Raising the President’s eyelids, Leale saw indication of brain damage. Leale found the bullet wound behind the President’s left ear and probed the wound for the bullet. Dr. Leale’s diagnosis was that the wound was mortal. Acting Assistant Surgeons Charles S. Taft, MD, and Albert F. A. King, MD, of the US Army arrived to assist. With doctor Leale, they transported Lincoln across the street. Leale stayed with Lincoln through the night until his death at 07:20 the next morning.
      Meanwhile, Lewis Paine forced his way into William Seward's house and stabbed the secretary of state several times before fleeing. Booth rode to Virginia with David Herold and stopped at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who placed splints on Booth's legs. They hid in a barn on Richard Garrett's farm as thousands of Union troops combed the area looking for them. The other conspirators were captured, except for John Surratt, who fled to Canada. When the troops finally caught up with Booth and Herold on 26 April, they gave them the option of surrendering before the barn was burned down. Herold decided to surrender, but Booth remained in the barn as it went up in flames. When the dying Booth was finally pulled from the flames, he reportedly said, "Tell my mother I died for my country." On 17 July, George Atzerodt, Lewis Paine, David Herold, and John Surratt's mother, Mary, were hanged in Washington. The execution of Mary Surratt was an egregious miscarriage of justice. Although there was no proof of her involvement in the conspiracy, she was nonetheless killed. Her son John was eventually tracked down in Egypt and brought back to trial, but he managed, with the help of clever lawyers, to win an acquittal.
— Lincoln's last full day

1865 United States flag raised over Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
1865 Mobile, Alabama is captured.
1864 Tropas españolas ocupan las islas guaneras de Chincha, en Perú, como respuesta ante el supuesto maltrato sufrido en una hacienda por dos colonos vascos.
1863 Siege of Suffolk, Virginia by Confederates continues.
1863 Engagement at Irish Bend (Fort Bisland), Louisiana.
1862 Bombardment of Fort Pillow, Tennessee begins.
1862 Siege of Yorktown, Virginia continues.
1860 First Pony Express rider arrives in SF from St Joseph, Missouri.
1834 Entra en Portugal el ejército del general José Ramón Rodil y Campillo, enviado por España para apoyar la causa de la reina María II.
1814 Se produce el desembarco de Luis XVIII en Calais para tomar posesión del trono de Francia, tras el destierro de Napoleón a la isla de Elba.
1814 Un grupo de diputados entrega a Fernando VII, en Valencia, el Manifiesto de los Persas.
1794 (25 germinal an II) GATTEY Marie Claudine, ex religieuse du couvent de St Lazare, âgée de 39 ans, née à Autun, département de la Saône et Loire domiciliée à Paris, département de la Seine, crie “Vive le roi!”, dans l'enceinte de l'audience du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris, par désespoir de ce que son cousin François Charles Gattey, libraire, vient d'être condamné à mort. Elle veut, pour lui témoigner son amitié, mourir avec lui, mais sa condamnation à mort et son exécution sont remises au lendemain.
1790 (14 et 15 avril) Lois révolutionnaires en France relatives aux biens provenants des religieux.
0073 According to Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots committed mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls were breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion. (Two women and five children survived by hiding in a cistern, and were later released unharmed by the Romans.)

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Deaths which occurred on an April 14:
2003 Jonathan Williams, 15, among the students sitting on the bleachers in the gymnasium of John McDonogh High School in New Orleans, as four persons, aged 15 to 19, enter and shoot at him more than 30 bullets from an AK-47 and a handgun. Three girl students suffer collateral damage: a 15-year-old shot through both legs by one bullet, and Michelle Brown, 16, and Trakeido Barracks, 16, lightly grazed by bullets..
2001 Hiroshi Teshigahara, pintor y director de cine japonés.
1999:: 75 ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees whose convoy is mistakenly bombed by NATO.
1997 Rodolfo Oroz Scheibe, escritor chileno.
1994 Manuel Andújar, escritor español.
1992 Artur Mkrtchan, presidente del Parlamento de Nagorno Karabaj.
1986 Simone de Beauvoir, escritora francesa.
1976 Luis Mariano Ospina Pérez, político colombiano.
1973 Tres de los doce obreros que quedan sepultados en las obras del metro de Madrid.1965 Estados Unidos lanza bombas de napalm contra objetivos en Vietnam, causando un número indeterminado de víctimas civiles.
1964 Rachel Carson, of cancer, US biologist and author born on 27 May 1907. Author of Under the Sea Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), The Edge of the Sea (1955), Silent Spring (1962) in which she opposed the indiscriminate use of poisonous chemical sprays to kill insects.

1942 The victims of the 5th Day of the Bataan Death March ^top^
     Four days before, one day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the seventy-five thousand US and Filipino soldiers captured on the Bataan Peninsula had begun a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During this infamous trek, known as the "Bataan Death March," the prisoners are forced to march 140 km in six days with only one meal of rice during the entire journey. By the end of the march, which was punctuated with atrocities by the Japanese guards, over five thousand US servicemen and many more Filipinos died.
      The day after Japan bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. Within a month, the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the US and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months, the combined US-Filipino army, under the command of US General Jonathan Wainwright, held out impressively despite a lack of naval and air support.
      Finally, on 07 April, with his army crippled by starvation and disease, Wainwright began withdrawing as many troops as possible to the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay. However, two days later, seventy-five thousand Allied troops were trapped by the Japanese and forced to surrender.
      The next day, 10 April 1942, the Bataan Death March began, resulting in the deaths of over a third of the prisoners. Of those who survived to reach the Japanese prison camp near Cabanatuan, few lived to celebrate US General Douglas MacArthur's liberation of the Philippines in early 1945.
      In the Philippines, homage is paid to the victims of the Bataan Death March every April on Bataan Day, a national holiday that sees large groups of Filipinos solemnly rewalking parts of the death route.

1935 Emmy Noether, mathematician.
1917 Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, Polish physician and oculist, born on 15 December 1859, who, using the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto, in 1888 published Lingvo Internacia, creating the best-known international artificial language, now known as Esperanto.
1911 Emilio Grau Sala, pintor español.

1794 (25 germinal an II) Condamnés à mort par la Révolution: ^top^
Par le tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris:
BOSSU Pierre, procureur de la commune, domicilié à Château-Renard, canton de Montargis, département du Loiret, comme fournisseur infidèle
GATTEY François Charles, âgé de 38 ans, né à Autun, département de la Saône et Loire, libraire, domicilié à Paris, département de la Seine, maison Egalité, comme contre-révolutionnaire, et pour avoir imprimé, vendu et expédié pour les Colonies des écrits contre-révolutionnaires.
LARBARBERY Jacques Augustin (dit Refluvelle), ex capitaine des gardes françaises, domicilié à Paris, département de la Seine, comme contre-révolutionnaire.
MORISSET Henri, juge du tribunal de district de Montargis, âgé de 39 ans, natif de Pereu, département de l'Yonne, domicilié à Montargis, département du Loiret, comme convaincu de fourniture infidèle en Souliers pour les défenseurs de la patrie.
par le tribunal criminel ou militaire du département des Bouches du Rhône:
GILLE Joseph Denis Antoine, marchand, domicilié à Eyragues département des Bouches du Rhône, comme fonctionnaire public fédéraliste.
PHILIPERT Thomas, cultivateur, domicilié à Château-Gombert, département des Bouches du Rhône, comme contre-révolutionnaire.
L'HERMITE Antoine Hypolite, ex conseiller au ci-devant parlement d'Aix, domicilié à Lyon, département du Rhône, comme fédéraliste, par le tribunal criminel dudit département des Bouches du Rhône [sic].
Domiciliés à Nismes, département du Gard, par le tribunal criminel dudit département :
AIGON Etienne, dit Paulet, musicien, comme contre-révolutionnaire, instigateur, chef des rebelles.
     ... comme chefs d'attroupements contre-révolutionnaires:
BILLARD Joseph fils, amidonnier — GUERIN Jean, (dit Ladéroute), fabricant de bas
     ... comme instigateurs de révoltes
BOISSON Jérémie, traiteur — LEGAND Jean, courtier — LASSABIAN Louis, instituteur — VIGNE Marc Antoine, serrurier
Domiciliés à Arras, département du Pas-de-Calais, par le tribunal révolutionnaire séant à Arras:
FRASSEN Marie Marguerite Marthe, veuve Arrachart, accoucheuse, âgée de 54 ans, comme complice de la conspiration, contre le peuple français et sa liberté, et en conservant une infinité d’écrits propres à corrompre l’esprit public et les citoyens.
BLIN Vindicien Antoine, ex noble, 31 ans, né à Arras, époux de Lejosne Marie Françoise Mélanie, et LEROY-DHURTEBIZE Antoine François, ci-devant conseiller au conseil d'Artois, âgé de 31 ans, comme complices d'une conspiration ourdie contre le peuple français et sa liberté, et en outre, comme ayant été témoins dans un mariage clandestin, reçu chez la veuve Bataille.
GAMONET Hector, liquidateur des droits de la République, âgé de 46 ans, époux de Cardon Elisabeth Augustine, natif de Lille, département du Nord, comme ennemi résistant au gouvernement révolutionnaire et comme complice de la conspiration ourdie contre le peuple français et sa liberté.
LEROY Antoine François, âgé de 51 ans, né à Arras, ci-devant d'Hurtebise, célibataire.
      ... comme complices d'une conspiration ourdie contre le peuple français et sa liberté
BACLER Pélagie, 46 ans, BACLER Renée, 63 ans, CAUDRON Marie Claire, 74 ans, LEROY Agathe, 43 ans, LEROY Amélie, 49 ans, JONCQUÈ Marie Anne Victoire, 57 ans, les six célibataires, JONCQUÈ Constance, 51 ans, épouse de Toursel N., médecin à Arras, BAUDELET Marie Rosalie, femme Bayard, 67 ans, DAMBRINES Marie Joseph Désirée, veuve Bataille, 31 ans, LEDUR Marie Marguerite Philippine, 72 ans, veuve de Thery N., les dix sans profession, BECQUET DE COCOVE Louis Alexandre, 74 ans, rentier, veuf, et LEROY-DHURTEBIZE Antoine François, ci-devant, conseiller au conseil d'Artois, 31 ans, tous nés à Arras.
LIGER Pélagie, âgée de 52 ans, de Ste Croix, veuve Desmazières François ci-devant homme de loi.
BOUQUEL François Guislain, ex noble, âgé de 67 ans, natif de Sarthon, département du Pas de Calais.
LEFEBVRE Marie Joseph Eulalie (dite de Gony), célibataire, sans profession, âgée de 44 ans, native de St Omer.
Domiciliés dans le département de la Loire Inférieure, par la commission militaire séante à Nantes, chacun nommé deux fois: (1) comme contre-révolutionnaire, (2) comme prévaricateur:.
FOUQUET Robert Jacques Charles, adjudant général d’artillerie, ci-devant magasinier, domicilié à (1) Nantes, ou (2). St Nicolas-de-Nantes.
LAMBERTY Guillaume, adjudant général d'artillerie, sans brevet, domicilié à (1) Pont-Château, ou( 2) St Nicolas-de-Nantes
Prêtres non assermentés et comme tels ayant été sujets à la déportation, arrêtés le 28 mars 1794, détenus à Brest, guillotinés au marché public de Lesneven:
Jean HABASQUE, 42 ans, né au terroir de Keraigen à Kerlouan le 25 janvier 1752, arrêté à Kerlouan.
Guillaume PETON, 41 ans, né à Plourin-Ploudalmezeau en 1753, demeurant à Saint Thégarec, commune de Kerlouan. Il a été ordonné prêtre le 28 mars 1789
Ailleurs:
CORAIRIE Julien, agent d'un ex noble, domicilié à Angers, département de Mayenne et Loire, comme brigand de la Vendée, par la commission révolutionnaire de Lyon.
HERBIN Olivier, laboureur, domicilié à St Germain-de-l’Epinay, département d’Ille-et-Vilaine, par la commission militaire séante à Laval, comme contre-révolutionnaire.
LEVOYER Marie François (dit Delasalle), ex noble, domicilié à Vannes, département du Morbihan, comme émigré, par le tribunal criminel dudit département.
MALIGNE Pierre, domicilié à Dijon, département de la Côte-d'Or, comme émigré, par la commission militaire d'Auxonne.
CONSTANT Barthélémy, gendarme national, domicilié à Sarre-Libre, département de la Moselle, comme contre-révolutionnaire, le tribunal criminel dudit département.

1759 George Frederick Handel, 74, composer, in London.. He had made his last public appearance on 06 April 1759, at a performance of his oratorio Messiah. Handel was born on 23 February 1685 in Halle, Germany. At 18 he abandoned his law studies for a musical career. His first success was the opera Almira, in Hamburg. He spent 1706 to 1710 in Italy, where he had great success, culminating with his opera Agrippina in Venice in 1710.. In 1751 Handel became blind, but he continued to conduct oratorio performances and to work over his old scores. In all, Handel wrote the music to 46 operas during his life. He brought the oratorio to greatness. His concerti grossi, sonatas, organ concerti, and harpsichord suites are also appreciated.

Births which occurred on an April 14: ^top^
1956 First commercial videotape recorder (Ampex Corp.) demonstrated by its inventors Charles Ginsberg, Charles Anderson, and Ray Dolby simultaneously in Redwood City, California, and Chicago. CBS buys three machines for $75'000 each.
1955 Millán Salcedo, humorista español.
1944 José María Guelbenzu, escritor español.
1944 Los niños perdidos en la selva, de Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, se estrena en el teatro Infanta Isabel de Madrid.
1944 Pabellón de reposo, novela de Camilo José Cela Trulock, se publica.
1939 The Grapes of Wrath, novel by John Steinbeck, is first published.
1929 Chadli Bendjedid, Algerian FLN guerilla officer who in February 1979 succeeded Houari Boumedienne [23 Aug 1927 – 27 Dec 1978] as head of the military government and loosened government control of the economy and moved toward democracy, but had to face rising Islamic militancy. As it became clear that the Islamist FIS (Front Islamiste du Salut) would win the January 1992 elections, Bendjedid resigned and, the next day, the army canceled the elections and made Mohammed Boudiaf [23 Jan 1919 – 29 Jun 1992] president of a ruling Supreme State Council.
1928 Eugenia Viteri Segura, escritora ecuatoriana.
1926 Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo, político y presidente del Gobierno español.
1920 Josep Benet I Morell, político e historiador español.
1907 François Duvalier, Papá Doc, médico y dictador haitiano (1957-1971). Murió el 21 Apr 1971.
1902 J.C. Penney opens his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1898 Abraham Mintchine, Russian artist who died on 25 April 1931. — MORE ON DE MINTCHINE AT ART “4” APRIL with links to images.
1889 Arnold Toynbee England, historian. The first volume of his magnum opus, A Study of History, was published in 1934, and it was completed with the publication of the twelfth volume in 1961. In it he refused to be a propagandist, which upset many people. He died on 22 October 1975.
1879 James Cabell “Branch”, US novelist; author of Jurgen. He died on 05 May 1958.

1866 Anne Mansfield Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller's teacher. ^top^
     Ann Sullivan was born in in Feeding Hills, Mass. of Irish immigrant parents. Her mother Alice Cloesy was a caring woman who died of tuberculosis when Annie was eight. Of the three children Annie was left at home with her shiftless and ill-tempered father, while the other two were taken by relatives. Throughout her youth, Annie's eyes continued to weaken from trachoma she had contracted early in life.
[< photo: Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan, 1895]
     Of her arrival on 03 March 1887 at Helen Keller's home, she later wrote:
     “...It was 6:30 when I reached Tuscumbia. I found Mrs. Keller and Mr. James Keller waiting for me. ... My first question was, "Where is Helen?" ... I had scarcely put my foot on the steps, when she rushed toward me with such force that she would have thrown me backward if Captain Keller had not been behind me. She felt my face and dress and my bag, which she took out of my hand and tried to open. It did not open easily, and she felt carefully to see if there was a keyhole. Finding that there was, she turned to me, making the sign of turning a key and pointing to the bag. ...”
     Helen (born on 27 June 1880) was deaf and blind since the age of 19 months. Early on Annie realized that to work with Helen she would need to be the main conduct for information and discipline, so she and Helen moved into a cottage in the Keller property. Ann Sullivan taught Helen to make signs with her hand to spell words. It was some time until Helen understood those signs as concepts, the first one being "water".

     In a letter on 05 April 1887, Ann Sullivan wrote: “... something very important has happened. Helen has taken the second great step in her education. She has learned that everything has a name, and that the manual alphabet is the key to everything she wants to know. ... This morning, while she was washing, she wanted to know the name for "water." When she wants to know the name of anything, she points to it and pats my hand. I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" and thought no more about it until after breakfast. Then ... we went out to the pump-house, and I made Helen hold her mug under the spout while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" in Helen's free hand. The word coming so close upon the sensation of cold water rushing over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as one transfixed. A new light came into her face. She spelled "water" several times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked for its name and pointed to the pump ..., and suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled "Teacher." Just then the nurse brought Helen's little sister into the pump-house, and Helen spelled "baby" and pointed to the nurse. All the way back to the house she was highly excited, and learned the name of every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had added thirty new words to her vocabulary.” [on 01 April Helen knew 29 words in all]
[photo: Ann Sullivan, 1881 >]
    Helen Keller wrote about that day:
     “We walked down the path to the well-house .... Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! ... I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought.”
     As Helen progressed Annie's eyes continued to worsen. Helen began to write in 1902, and published her The Story of My Life.
     In 1927 Neela Braddy met Annie to write her biography. Annie told Neels the story of Terksbury and of her childhood, something she had kept from Helen for a long time. This biography Anne Sullivan was published in 1933.
      Ann Sullivan died on 20 October 1936 in Forest Hill NY.
      In June 1960, a fountain was dedicated at Radcliffe College in memory of Ann Sullivan. At the dedication Helen Keller said one word “Water”.
Some relevant links: Life of Helen Keller — Books by Helen Keller about education — A Starter Course on Helen Keller — Three Days to See by Helen Keller — Keller the Achiever — Keller obituary — Keller before Sullivan and at her death — Keller links at American Foundation for the Blind

1856 Georges Jules Auguste Caïn, French artist who died on 04 March 1919. — link to an image.
1852 Jacob Isaac Meyer van Haan, Dutch artist who died on 24 October 1895. — more
1831 Gerhard Rohlfs, German explorer who journeyed across deserts of North Africa. He died on 02 June 1896.
1827 Augustus Pitt-Rivers, “father of British archaeology” who died on 04 May 1900.
1818 Carl Hilgers, German artist who died on 03 December 1890.

^ 1818 Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language is printed.
Noah Webster, a Yale-educated lawyer with an avid interest in language and education, publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster's dictionary was one of the first lexicons to include distinctly US words. The dictionary, which took him more than two decades to complete, introduced more than 10'000 "Americanisms." The introduction of a standard US dictionary helped standardize English spelling, a process that had started as early as 1473, when printer William Caxton published the first book printed in English. The rapid proliferation of printing and the development of dictionaries resulted in increasingly standardized spellings by the mid-17th century. Most, but not all, spelling changes introduced by Webster were adopted as the standard in the US. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published almost exactly 63 years earlier, on 15 April 1755.

1803 Friedrich von Amerling, Austrian artist who died on 15 January 1887.
1802 Horace Bushnell, US Congregational minister and controversial theologian who died on 17 February 1876.
1800 Ange-Louis-Guillaume Lesourd-Beauregard, French artist who died in 1885.
1775 The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage holds its first meeting, in Philadelphia, called by Quaker activists Anthony Benezet [31 Jan 1703 – 03 May 1784] and attended by Thomas Paine [29 Jan 1737 – 08 Jun 1809] and eight other White Philadelphians, including six Quakers. Often referred to as the Abolition Society, the group focused on intervention in the cases of Blacks and Amerindians who claimed to have been illegally enslaved. Of the twenty-four men who attended the four meetings held before the Society disbanded, seventeen were Quakers. Six of these original members were among the largely Quaker group of eighteen Philadelphians that reorganized in February 1784 as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage (commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, or PAS). Although still occupied with litigation on behalf of blacks who were illegally enslaved under existing laws, the new name reflected the Society's growing emphasis on abolition as a goal. Within two years, the group had grown to 82 members and inspired the establishment of anti-slavery organizations in other cities. PAS reorganized once again in 1787. While previously, artisans and shopkeepers had been the core of the organization, PAS broadened its membership to include such prominent figures as Benjamin Franklin [17 Jan 1706 – 17 Apr 1790] and Benjamin Rush [04 Jan 1746 – 19 Apr 1813], who helped write the Society's new constitution.
1755 Simon-Joseph Denis den Schelen, Flemish artist who died on 01 Januaary 1813.
1724 Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, French painter, draftsman, and etcher, who died on 14 February 1780. — MORE ON DE SAINT~AUBIN AT ART “4” APRIL with links to images.
1629 Christiaan Huygens, Holland, astronomer (discovered Saturn's rings), mathematician, physicist. He died on 08 July 1695.
1588 Alessandro Varotan “il Padovanese”, Italian artist who died in 1648.
1578 Felipe III king of Spain and Portugal (1598-1621)

Holidays: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela : Pan American Day / Laos : New Years (416) / Burma : Water Festival (416) / Mauritius : Varusha Pirruppa

Thought for the day: “Democracy will continue as long as people have faith in the people they are going to elect next.”

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