1896 - Emilio Jacinto, the "Brains of the Katipunan," the Philippine revolutionary movement during the struggle against the Spanish colonial times, recognizes the legacy and heroism of Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (GOMBURZA), the three martyr Filipino priests executed by the Spaniards; writing under the pseudonym DIMAS ILAW, Jacinto expresses belief that while compatriots would honor the priests' memory and continue the pursuit of justice and equality, he admits that some are not yet prepared to fight for the said noble ideals.
1948 -The Organization of American States or OAS is founded during the 9th Pan-American Mutual Assistance Treaty being held at Bogota, Columbia; the OAS is envisioned as a regional grouping under the United Nations, with the Inter-American Conference becoming its supreme authority and the Pan-American the OAS' Secretariat.
1973 - United States President Richard Nixon denies personal involvement but takes full responsibility for the Watergate scandal; three days later, the House Judiciary Committee will recommend Nixon's impeachment and removal from office on grounds of misusing the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service in the attempt to cover up the unlawful entry, burglary and bugging conducted on the headquarters of the Democratic Party.
1975 - The Vietnam War ends as the Saigon government announces its unconditional surrender to the forces of North Vietnamese; President Duong Van Minh, in office for a mere three days, calls on South Vietnam's forces to bring down their arms and appeals to Viet Cong and their army to avoid bloodshed, as he informs them of Saigon's voluntary capitulation to the Communist forces.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
29 APRIL
1897 - Procopio Bonifacio, brother of Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio during the Revolution against Spain, testifies that the soldiers of Emilio Aguinaldo's camp struck his nose with the butt-end of a gun, an act he says surprised him since he did not offer resistance during the abduction of the Bonifacio brothers and other Katipuneros in Limbon in Cavite; the testimony is part of the court martial conducted by Aguinaldo's men against Gat Andres Bonifacio who had earlier declared illegal the anomalous Tejeros Convention that elected Aguinaldo the new leader of the revolutionary government.
1901 - Hirohito, future emperor of Japan who will ascend to the throne on December 26, 1926, is born; Emperor Hirohito will be Asian nation's longest-serving monarch whose reign will cover Japan's militaristic endeavors before and during World War II, including the conquest of much of Asia, and waging war on the Allied Powers in alliance with Germany and other Axis Powers.
1978 - Afghanistan's new communist rulers announce that nearly all of the leaders of the ousted regime are dead, two days after they killed former President Mohammed Daoud and his brother for refusing to pledge allegiance to the new left-wing government; in September, the Soviet Union will intervene to prop up the fledgling Marxist government and, as well, later figure in the long and devastating war with the mujahideen until the late 1980s.
1992 - Deadly race rioting erupts in Los Angeles over the acquittal of four police officers involved in the videotaped beating of unarmed black motorist Rodney King; some 54 people will die as an estimated $1 billion worth of properties will be damaged in the rioting over the repeated playing of the videotape that has supposedly come to symbolize complaints about police brutality, racism and street violence.
1901 - Hirohito, future emperor of Japan who will ascend to the throne on December 26, 1926, is born; Emperor Hirohito will be Asian nation's longest-serving monarch whose reign will cover Japan's militaristic endeavors before and during World War II, including the conquest of much of Asia, and waging war on the Allied Powers in alliance with Germany and other Axis Powers.
1978 - Afghanistan's new communist rulers announce that nearly all of the leaders of the ousted regime are dead, two days after they killed former President Mohammed Daoud and his brother for refusing to pledge allegiance to the new left-wing government; in September, the Soviet Union will intervene to prop up the fledgling Marxist government and, as well, later figure in the long and devastating war with the mujahideen until the late 1980s.
1992 - Deadly race rioting erupts in Los Angeles over the acquittal of four police officers involved in the videotaped beating of unarmed black motorist Rodney King; some 54 people will die as an estimated $1 billion worth of properties will be damaged in the rioting over the repeated playing of the videotape that has supposedly come to symbolize complaints about police brutality, racism and street violence.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
28 APRIL
1897 - Leader of the Philippine revolutionary movement against Spanish colonial rule Gat Andres Bonifacio, along with some 20 Katipuneros, is captured by men of Capt. Emilio Aguinaldo whose camp has earlier moved to seize the Katipunan leadership from the Supremo; within two weeks after being overcome and seized in barrio Limbon, near Indang, Cavite, Bonifacio would be murdered by execution on Aguinaldo's orders in the latter's provincial turf in what future Prime Minister Apolinario Mabini would describe as "the first victory of personal ambition over true patriotism."
1945 - Benito Mussollini, dictator of Italy, is shot dead along with his mistress Clara Petacci by Italian partisans who have captured the couple while attempting to flee to Switzerland; the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci will be mutilated in what the partisans' leadership will describe as "necessary conclusion to a phase of history which has left Italy in a state of material and moral ruin".
1947 - A six-man expedition sailed from Peru on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki; the 4,000-mile drift lasting nearly 15 weeks constitutes a successful experimental expedition to test the theory of its leader, ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl, that the Pacific islands were originally settled by migrating peoples from prehistoric America.
2001 - California billionaire businessman Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist as he sets off from Kazakhstan at 1338 local time (0838 GMT) for an eight-day holiday aboard the International Space Station; the trip will be marked by misunderstanding by the United States and Russia when Mr. Tito turned to the latter after NASA turned down his hefty space trip proposal on the grounds that he is not a trained astronaut.
1945 - Benito Mussollini, dictator of Italy, is shot dead along with his mistress Clara Petacci by Italian partisans who have captured the couple while attempting to flee to Switzerland; the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci will be mutilated in what the partisans' leadership will describe as "necessary conclusion to a phase of history which has left Italy in a state of material and moral ruin".
1947 - A six-man expedition sailed from Peru on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki; the 4,000-mile drift lasting nearly 15 weeks constitutes a successful experimental expedition to test the theory of its leader, ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl, that the Pacific islands were originally settled by migrating peoples from prehistoric America.
2001 - California billionaire businessman Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist as he sets off from Kazakhstan at 1338 local time (0838 GMT) for an eight-day holiday aboard the International Space Station; the trip will be marked by misunderstanding by the United States and Russia when Mr. Tito turned to the latter after NASA turned down his hefty space trip proposal on the grounds that he is not a trained astronaut.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
27 APRIL
1883 - Graciano Lopez Jaena, member of the so-called triumvirate of Filipino propagandists during the Spanish colonial rule, declares his desire for all territories under Spain to be given equal treatment, attention and consideration under the law; Jaena expresses this call during a well.applauded speech delivered in Madrid and attended by the press and personages from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
1945 - Soviet and American troops join hands at the River Elbe in Germany as part of the affirmation of Allied powers to completely destroy the Third Reich and bring an end to World War II; the alliance effectively cut the German forces in two and in three days, Adolf Hitler will commit suicide in the underground bunker from where he has been directing operations.
1961 - Sierra Leone becomes the latest West African state to declare independence from British colonial rule, over 150 years after it was first colonized; the terms of independence include the holding of elections the following year although the opposition All People's Congress Party has presented some threat of disturbance with its insistence that independence be postponed until after elections.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is formed following the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; only two of the six member states of the former socialist Yugoslavia becomes part of the new republic--Serbia and Montenegro--while Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are effectively recognized as separate states.
1945 - Soviet and American troops join hands at the River Elbe in Germany as part of the affirmation of Allied powers to completely destroy the Third Reich and bring an end to World War II; the alliance effectively cut the German forces in two and in three days, Adolf Hitler will commit suicide in the underground bunker from where he has been directing operations.
1961 - Sierra Leone becomes the latest West African state to declare independence from British colonial rule, over 150 years after it was first colonized; the terms of independence include the holding of elections the following year although the opposition All People's Congress Party has presented some threat of disturbance with its insistence that independence be postponed until after elections.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is formed following the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; only two of the six member states of the former socialist Yugoslavia becomes part of the new republic--Serbia and Montenegro--while Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are effectively recognized as separate states.
Monday, April 26, 2010
26 APRIL
1525 - Spanish King Charles I issues the "Royal decree of the Fray Garcia de Loaysa, appointed governor of the Moluccas, to allow Captain Sebastian Caboto and the people of his armada to trade in the Island; Spain, which has "discovered" [read: first learned about] the nearby and future colony the Philippine archipelago (Islas de San Lazaro), has tried several times to gain control of Moluccas, the so-called “Spice Islands” (future Indonesia] beginning with the Magellan expedition of 1521 in the bid to thwart Portugal which had forged alliance with the sultan of Ternate .
1962 - The first United States space rocket, Ranger IV, lands on the far side of the moon, three years after the Soviets beat the Americans to the coveted space record; Ranger IV fails to send back lunar/space pictures owing to technical issues but in July 1964, NASA will ultimately succeed when Ranger VII is able to send back over 4,000 images before crashing into the Mare Cognitum area of the Moon.
1986 - The Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the world's worst nuclear power plant accident, kills 32 people and inflicts radiations burns in dozen others in the Soviet Union; the accident at the Chernobyl station, situated at the Pripyat settlement north of Kiev, Ukraine, was triggered by a poorly designed experiment by the plant engineers who wanted to find out if inertial power can run the reactor's turbine to power the emergency water pumps.
2005 - Syria announces that all of its military forces have left Lebanon in line with the demands of the United Nations following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; the Syrian soldiers shouted support for their president before marching off to a Lebanese army band during a parade marking the end of 29 years of deployment in the country.
1962 - The first United States space rocket, Ranger IV, lands on the far side of the moon, three years after the Soviets beat the Americans to the coveted space record; Ranger IV fails to send back lunar/space pictures owing to technical issues but in July 1964, NASA will ultimately succeed when Ranger VII is able to send back over 4,000 images before crashing into the Mare Cognitum area of the Moon.
1986 - The Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the world's worst nuclear power plant accident, kills 32 people and inflicts radiations burns in dozen others in the Soviet Union; the accident at the Chernobyl station, situated at the Pripyat settlement north of Kiev, Ukraine, was triggered by a poorly designed experiment by the plant engineers who wanted to find out if inertial power can run the reactor's turbine to power the emergency water pumps.
2005 - Syria announces that all of its military forces have left Lebanon in line with the demands of the United Nations following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; the Syrian soldiers shouted support for their president before marching off to a Lebanese army band during a parade marking the end of 29 years of deployment in the country.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
25 APRIL
1899 - The Chief of Operations of the Philippine forces informs Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo about the fierce gunbattles between Filipino troops and imperialist enemy soldiers in the province of Bulacan during the Philippine-American War; Gen. Antonio Luna reports on: the death of 200 Filipinos and 700 Americans, spirited resistance of Bagbag's defenders until the lack of ammunition forced their retreat; and the successful repulsion of imperialist forces in Calumpit followed by their strategic destruction of military bridges and abandonment of said town.
1953 - The "secret of life" is revealed with the publication of the structure of the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, in the Nature magazine article by Cambridge University scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick; the discovery of the two double-helix double strands coiling around each other will win for Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize and will lead to the development of powerful and controversial technologies such as stem cell research, genetic engineering and DNA fingerprinting.
1980 - The top-secret rescue mission attempted by the United States in the bid to free American hostages held in Tehran, Iran collapses in failure as eight soldiers die, with US President Jimmy Carter announcing the disastrous mission over broadcast media and taking full personal responsibility for the operation and cancellation; the failure of the plan, which began yesterday when six Hercules C130 transport planes embarked to meet with nine helicopters, was met with celebration by thousands of jubilant Iranians.
1983 - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Premier Yuri Andropov writes American 5th-grade student Samantha Smith, inviting her to visit his country during the waning years of the Cold War; the Soviet leader's letter comes in response to December 1982 letter of Smith (who would later accept the invitation) asking him whether his country was planning to begin a nuclear war with the United States.
1953 - The "secret of life" is revealed with the publication of the structure of the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, in the Nature magazine article by Cambridge University scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick; the discovery of the two double-helix double strands coiling around each other will win for Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize and will lead to the development of powerful and controversial technologies such as stem cell research, genetic engineering and DNA fingerprinting.
1980 - The top-secret rescue mission attempted by the United States in the bid to free American hostages held in Tehran, Iran collapses in failure as eight soldiers die, with US President Jimmy Carter announcing the disastrous mission over broadcast media and taking full personal responsibility for the operation and cancellation; the failure of the plan, which began yesterday when six Hercules C130 transport planes embarked to meet with nine helicopters, was met with celebration by thousands of jubilant Iranians.
1983 - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Premier Yuri Andropov writes American 5th-grade student Samantha Smith, inviting her to visit his country during the waning years of the Cold War; the Soviet leader's letter comes in response to December 1982 letter of Smith (who would later accept the invitation) asking him whether his country was planning to begin a nuclear war with the United States.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
24 APRIL
1897 - Katipunan leader Supremo Andres Bonifacio writes to his confidante and Commander of Manila's revolutionary forces about the detestable acts of treason/collaboration with the Spaniards engaged in by certain members of the the Magdalo faction of the revolutionary movement: "Daniel Tirona, Mtro. De Guerra, Jose del Rosario, Interior Minister, Jose Caelles, teniente Gral., almost all of Tanza residents along with the priest there; all of whom were partisans of Capt. Emilio [Aguinaldo];" Bonifacio also expresses fears that his company seems to be in danger not only from the Spanish enemy but, also, from the local (Caviteno) revolutionary leaders and in less than three weeks, Bonifacio will indeed be executed by Aguinaldo's forces.
1967 - Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies during his mission when the space vehicle Soyuz I crashes on its return entry to Earth; the strings of the parachute intended to slow the spaceship's descent apparently entangled, causing the vehicle to hurtle to the ground from four miles up although it will later be believed that Soyuz I was not yet ready for manned flight and was only rushed into operation.
1982 - The 1936 Montreux Convention is amended to permit Turkey to close the Straits at its discretion; the agreement originally provided for unrestricted international access to the Straits during peacetime and, as well, Turkey's control over and the regulation of military activity in the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits.
1993 - A massive bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) rips through the heart of London City, killing a man, wounding some 40 people, and causing damage that will cost £350m in repair; the IRA will carry out one other major attack on the financial centre of Britain's capital when, following a year of ceasefire, the revolutionary group will, in 1996, plant a bomb in the Docklands area's Canary Wharf.
1967 - Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies during his mission when the space vehicle Soyuz I crashes on its return entry to Earth; the strings of the parachute intended to slow the spaceship's descent apparently entangled, causing the vehicle to hurtle to the ground from four miles up although it will later be believed that Soyuz I was not yet ready for manned flight and was only rushed into operation.
1982 - The 1936 Montreux Convention is amended to permit Turkey to close the Straits at its discretion; the agreement originally provided for unrestricted international access to the Straits during peacetime and, as well, Turkey's control over and the regulation of military activity in the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits.
1993 - A massive bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) rips through the heart of London City, killing a man, wounding some 40 people, and causing damage that will cost £350m in repair; the IRA will carry out one other major attack on the financial centre of Britain's capital when, following a year of ceasefire, the revolutionary group will, in 1996, plant a bomb in the Docklands area's Canary Wharf.
Friday, April 23, 2010
23 APRIL
1901- The poem "Un Heroe del Pueblo - Andres Bonifacio" which pays a lofty homage to the great hero and founder of the Philippine revolutionary movement Katipunan is penned and read by Filipino poet, essayist, writer, editor and lawyer Cecilio Apostol; the poem read during the first commemoration of Supremo Andres Bonifacio's tragic execution, is published in the nationalistic newspaper El Renacimiento", along with Apostol's French translation of "Decalogue."
1895 - Japan is obliged to return the Liaodong peninsula to China in consideration of 30 million tael in indemnity under the Tripartite Intervention forged by Russia, Germany and France; the three powers expected generous repayment by China which, only six days earlier, was compelled to cede Taiwan, Pescadores, and the Liaodong peninsula to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki following their loss in the Sino-Japanese War.
1984 - American scientists discovers the AIDS virus, the fatal disease sweeping through and causing panic in America since it was first identified in 1981; earlier last week, French scientists discovered what would eventually be acknowledged the same virus that causes AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which weakens the immune system, leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases.
1992 - The discovery of the primordial 'seeds' of the universe, based on the mapping of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) recordings of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite; the early universe is shown to have been lumpy and its highest-density areas eventually collapsed to form the universe's large-scale structures, including glaxies and cluster galaxies.
1895 - Japan is obliged to return the Liaodong peninsula to China in consideration of 30 million tael in indemnity under the Tripartite Intervention forged by Russia, Germany and France; the three powers expected generous repayment by China which, only six days earlier, was compelled to cede Taiwan, Pescadores, and the Liaodong peninsula to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki following their loss in the Sino-Japanese War.
1984 - American scientists discovers the AIDS virus, the fatal disease sweeping through and causing panic in America since it was first identified in 1981; earlier last week, French scientists discovered what would eventually be acknowledged the same virus that causes AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which weakens the immune system, leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases.
1992 - The discovery of the primordial 'seeds' of the universe, based on the mapping of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) recordings of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite; the early universe is shown to have been lumpy and its highest-density areas eventually collapsed to form the universe's large-scale structures, including glaxies and cluster galaxies.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
22 APRIL
1529 - Spanish and Portuguese monarchs Cárlos I and João III sign the Treaty of Zaragoza that relinquishes Moluccas to Portugal as Spain retains the Philippine islands; the treaty basically continues the meridian of Tordesillas in the opposite hemisphere to settles their claims over Moluccas, with the Philippines standing on the Spanish side.
1970 - The first Earth Day is celebrated in the bid to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems; the event was first held in the United States, a product of Sen. Gaylord Nelson's advocacy to unite the grassroots environmental movement and heighten ecological awareness.
1980 - Liberia's new military regime publicly executes 13 leading officials of the ousted government of William Tolbert in what journalists will describe to be cruel and messy executions; Tolbert was assassinated 10 days ago in a coup headed by Sergeant Doe who will himself be deposed by the late 1980s when Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front that will overran much of the countryside and start 14 years of civil war in the west African state.
1997 - Peruvian forces helped by the British SAS storm the Japanese embassy in Peru to free all but one of the 72 hostages who have been held by anti-government rebels for four months; Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ordered the siege that killed all the 14 Tupac Amaru rebels whose hostages included Peruvian Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela and Japanese Ambassador, Morihita Aoki.
1970 - The first Earth Day is celebrated in the bid to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems; the event was first held in the United States, a product of Sen. Gaylord Nelson's advocacy to unite the grassroots environmental movement and heighten ecological awareness.
1980 - Liberia's new military regime publicly executes 13 leading officials of the ousted government of William Tolbert in what journalists will describe to be cruel and messy executions; Tolbert was assassinated 10 days ago in a coup headed by Sergeant Doe who will himself be deposed by the late 1980s when Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front that will overran much of the countryside and start 14 years of civil war in the west African state.
1997 - Peruvian forces helped by the British SAS storm the Japanese embassy in Peru to free all but one of the 72 hostages who have been held by anti-government rebels for four months; Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ordered the siege that killed all the 14 Tupac Amaru rebels whose hostages included Peruvian Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela and Japanese Ambassador, Morihita Aoki.
21 APRIL
1897 - Mariano R. Marcos, educator, lawyer, lawmaker and father of future Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, is born in Batac, Ilocos Norte; raised as militant follower of Gregorio Aglipay and the Philippine Independent Church, he will be elected a congressman under the Nacionalista Party but, following his lost in the 1935 elections for the National Assembly, will be accused, tried, but acquitted of killing Rep. Julio Nalundasan (his son, Ferdinand Marcos, along with his brother-in-law, will be convicted but later acquitted of the crime on appeal to the Supreme Court).
754 BC - According to legendary tradition, Rome is founded by Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, on the site where they were supposedly suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants; the foundation myth says that Romulus will later kill Remus before jointly ruling with the Sabine king Titus Tatius who will meet an early death, and will then reign for a long and peaceful period.
1975 - South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns, accusing the United States of betrayal during a scathing television and radio address; Thieu suggests that US State Secretary Henry Kissinger tricked him into signing the Paris Peace Agreement two years ago but without providing military support to fight off the North Vietnamese forces who have been able to demolish Saigon's last line of defense in Xuan Loc district a day earlier.
1987 - More than a 100 people are killed and nearly 300 wounded in a bomb that has exploded during rush hour in a major bus terminal in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital; the Tamil Tiger rebels will be blamed for the explosion, considered one of the worst mass killings in the long-running feud between the island's two main ethnic groups, the Tamils and the Sinhalese.
754 BC - According to legendary tradition, Rome is founded by Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, on the site where they were supposedly suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants; the foundation myth says that Romulus will later kill Remus before jointly ruling with the Sabine king Titus Tatius who will meet an early death, and will then reign for a long and peaceful period.
1975 - South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns, accusing the United States of betrayal during a scathing television and radio address; Thieu suggests that US State Secretary Henry Kissinger tricked him into signing the Paris Peace Agreement two years ago but without providing military support to fight off the North Vietnamese forces who have been able to demolish Saigon's last line of defense in Xuan Loc district a day earlier.
1987 - More than a 100 people are killed and nearly 300 wounded in a bomb that has exploded during rush hour in a major bus terminal in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital; the Tamil Tiger rebels will be blamed for the explosion, considered one of the worst mass killings in the long-running feud between the island's two main ethnic groups, the Tamils and the Sinhalese.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
20 APRIL
1572 - "Relation of the Conquest of the Island of Luzon," which narrates the conquest of the island of Luzon, is published in Manila in the new Spanish colony of the Philippine Islands; authored anonymously, it describes how the colonizing Spanish forces captured Manila from the Moros, discussing the campaigns that led to the subjugation of the island -- from the experiences of the Spaniards in Panay to their eventual exploration and pacification of Luzon.
1953 - The United Nations and Korea begin exchanging sick and wounded prisoners of the Korean War at Panmunjon, a mile away from the north-south border where fighting continues: 100 UN prisoners and 400 North Koreans and 100 Chinese are freed; the Korean War staged between joint Nokor and Chinese forces and US-led UN forces will end in July with the signing of armistice restoring the 38th parallel between North and South Korea.
1968 - Mount Mayon in the Philippines, an active stratovolcano with a 'perfect cone', explodes and sends 3,000-foot-high fire balls, along with lave and steam, hurtling out; around 70,000 people comprising the population within the 6-mile diameter danger zone area of the volcano located in Albay province in the Bicol region escape unscathed because the government has earlier evacuated them to safer grounds.
1971 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously upholds the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools in the bid "to dismantle the dual school systems of the South"; civil rights organizations had been dismayed by the Nixon Administration's intervention for the side of Southern school systems who wanted to be allowed to assign students to schools in their own neighborhoods even if this resulted in slowing the pace of desegregation in the South.
1953 - The United Nations and Korea begin exchanging sick and wounded prisoners of the Korean War at Panmunjon, a mile away from the north-south border where fighting continues: 100 UN prisoners and 400 North Koreans and 100 Chinese are freed; the Korean War staged between joint Nokor and Chinese forces and US-led UN forces will end in July with the signing of armistice restoring the 38th parallel between North and South Korea.
1968 - Mount Mayon in the Philippines, an active stratovolcano with a 'perfect cone', explodes and sends 3,000-foot-high fire balls, along with lave and steam, hurtling out; around 70,000 people comprising the population within the 6-mile diameter danger zone area of the volcano located in Albay province in the Bicol region escape unscathed because the government has earlier evacuated them to safer grounds.
1971 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously upholds the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools in the bid "to dismantle the dual school systems of the South"; civil rights organizations had been dismayed by the Nixon Administration's intervention for the side of Southern school systems who wanted to be allowed to assign students to schools in their own neighborhoods even if this resulted in slowing the pace of desegregation in the South.
Monday, April 19, 2010
19 APRIL
1897 - The Naic Military Agreement declaring the act of treason committed against the nation and the revolution by several Filipino revolutionaries who have forced a peace pact with the Spanish colonial forces is signed by Filipino Katipunan head Supremo Andres Bonifacio and other revolutionary members; the signatories resolve that they are no longer bound to recognize the authority of the traitors and that all revolutionary forces shall be unified under the command of Gen. Pio del Pilar who, ironically, will later betray Bonifacio and advise the latter's nemesis, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, to have the Supremo executed.
1986 - Cuba's Fidel Castro announces a partial return to the moral incentives of the late 1960s after the prices of oil, sugar, and nickle began plummeting and the economy showed signs of deep trouble; seven months later during the PPC Congress of the Peoples Press, Castor will announce major economic reforms aimed at rectifying the blunders caused by economic liberalization.
1995 - The Oklahoma Bombing kills a total of 168 people and injures over 500 others as a car bomb explodes at a government building housing a nursery on the second floor in Oklahoma City, United States; Gulf War veteran Timonthy McVeigh will be found guilty and convicted to death for carrying out the attack, apparently done in retaliation against the US Government for the bloody end to a Texas siege against the Branch Davidian sect.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected as the Pope - the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics to succeed the late Pope John Paul II; taking the name of Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger was a very close friend of his predecessor and shared opposition to birth control and the ordination of women while supporting the vow of celibacy by the priests.
1986 - Cuba's Fidel Castro announces a partial return to the moral incentives of the late 1960s after the prices of oil, sugar, and nickle began plummeting and the economy showed signs of deep trouble; seven months later during the PPC Congress of the Peoples Press, Castor will announce major economic reforms aimed at rectifying the blunders caused by economic liberalization.
1995 - The Oklahoma Bombing kills a total of 168 people and injures over 500 others as a car bomb explodes at a government building housing a nursery on the second floor in Oklahoma City, United States; Gulf War veteran Timonthy McVeigh will be found guilty and convicted to death for carrying out the attack, apparently done in retaliation against the US Government for the bloody end to a Texas siege against the Branch Davidian sect.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected as the Pope - the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics to succeed the late Pope John Paul II; taking the name of Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger was a very close friend of his predecessor and shared opposition to birth control and the ordination of women while supporting the vow of celibacy by the priests.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
18 APRIL
1947 - The Treaty of Amity between the Philippines and China is signed at Manila by Vice-President Elpidio Quirino and Minister Plenipotentiary Chen Chih-Ping in the bid to maintain and strengthen the good relations between them; the treaty renounces the use of force in settling disputes and referring them instead to the International Court of Justice.
1906 - The Great San Francisco Earthquake strikes, killing hundreds of people while toppling many buildings and sending shock waves as far as southern Oregon to Los Angeles; estimated at an intensity of close to 8.0 on the Richter scale, the earthquake that has given rise to several raging fires was due to the San Andreas Fault's slippage over a segment some 275 miles long.
1960- Tens of thousands of people from all over the globe protest against the H-bomb during the Aldermaston "ban the bomb" march rally that culminates at Trafalgar Square, London; the largest demonstration seen in London during the 20th century, it constitutes the third annual Easter march organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
1994 - The ethnic violence that has killed tens of thousands of Rwandas spreads from the capital city of Kigali to much of the African country; the violence that began following the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana will lead to the massacre of some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus, rendering it one of the 20th century's worst human rights atrocities.
1906 - The Great San Francisco Earthquake strikes, killing hundreds of people while toppling many buildings and sending shock waves as far as southern Oregon to Los Angeles; estimated at an intensity of close to 8.0 on the Richter scale, the earthquake that has given rise to several raging fires was due to the San Andreas Fault's slippage over a segment some 275 miles long.
1960- Tens of thousands of people from all over the globe protest against the H-bomb during the Aldermaston "ban the bomb" march rally that culminates at Trafalgar Square, London; the largest demonstration seen in London during the 20th century, it constitutes the third annual Easter march organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
1994 - The ethnic violence that has killed tens of thousands of Rwandas spreads from the capital city of Kigali to much of the African country; the violence that began following the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana will lead to the massacre of some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus, rendering it one of the 20th century's worst human rights atrocities.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
17 APRIL
1897 - Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo, following his controversial, if not fraudulent election as President of a new revolutionary body, names his all-Caviteno cabinet members; three weeks earlier, Katipunan Supremo Andres Bonifacio had nullified the Tejeros Convention that elected Aguinaldo on grounds that it was marked by fraud, even as the "brains" of Katipunan, Emilio Jacinto, had reiterated that Bonifacio is still the leader of the Philippine revolution in a letter dated April 11, 1897.
1895 - The Treaty of Shimonosek wherein China recognizes the full "independence" of Korea is signed by Japan and China and includes the following points: the ceding of Pescadores, Taiwan and the Liaodong peninsula to Japan, payment of 200 million taels in indemnity, among others; the pact came following the Sino-Japanese War over control of Korea that began July of last year and which was impressively won by Japan.
1961 - The disastrous Bay of Pigs is launched by some 1,500 Cuban exiles trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the bid to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro; the rebel forces, which have landed before dawn yesterday and supported from both the sea and air will initially claim successes but being heavily outnumbered and unable to attract mass defections, will shortly be defeated.
1970 - Apollo 13, the American manned lunar spacecraft that has met a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth; the mission was aborted when two days after take-off, the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water had been disrupted and the space crew and controllers on Earth tried to come up with emergency procedures.
1895 - The Treaty of Shimonosek wherein China recognizes the full "independence" of Korea is signed by Japan and China and includes the following points: the ceding of Pescadores, Taiwan and the Liaodong peninsula to Japan, payment of 200 million taels in indemnity, among others; the pact came following the Sino-Japanese War over control of Korea that began July of last year and which was impressively won by Japan.
1961 - The disastrous Bay of Pigs is launched by some 1,500 Cuban exiles trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the bid to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro; the rebel forces, which have landed before dawn yesterday and supported from both the sea and air will initially claim successes but being heavily outnumbered and unable to attract mass defections, will shortly be defeated.
1970 - Apollo 13, the American manned lunar spacecraft that has met a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth; the mission was aborted when two days after take-off, the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water had been disrupted and the space crew and controllers on Earth tried to come up with emergency procedures.
Friday, April 16, 2010
16 APRIL
1897 - Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio ascribes the failure of the Katipunan forces in defending Cavite against Spanish troops to factionalism within the movement; in a letter to Emilio Jacinto, he relates how the Magdalo faction has negotiated with the Spaniards to abandon the Philippine Revolution and explains that he needed to nullify all the resolutions adopted in the Tejeros Convention due to Magdalo's dirty tactics to discredit him and the Katipunan.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution; a month earlier, Czar Nicholas II was removed from power when Russian troops joined workers' revolt in the capital city and in about seven months, the Bolsheviks will triumph in the Great October Socialist Revolution.
1943 - The hallucinogenic effects of LSD are discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in Basel, Switzerland after he accidentally consumes the LSD-25, a synthetic drug he had created; the drug is part of his research into the medicinal value of lysergic acid compounds
1993 - The United Nations votes to make Srebrenica, Bosnia a safe haven, as the town teeters on the brink of falling to Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War; the decision will have disastrous results, leading to the murder of some 7,000 Muslim boys and men as the small contingency of Dutch forces assigned by their government will stand no chance against the Serbs.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution; a month earlier, Czar Nicholas II was removed from power when Russian troops joined workers' revolt in the capital city and in about seven months, the Bolsheviks will triumph in the Great October Socialist Revolution.
1943 - The hallucinogenic effects of LSD are discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in Basel, Switzerland after he accidentally consumes the LSD-25, a synthetic drug he had created; the drug is part of his research into the medicinal value of lysergic acid compounds
1993 - The United Nations votes to make Srebrenica, Bosnia a safe haven, as the town teeters on the brink of falling to Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War; the decision will have disastrous results, leading to the murder of some 7,000 Muslim boys and men as the small contingency of Dutch forces assigned by their government will stand no chance against the Serbs.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
15 April
1912 - The British luxury liner Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg, and some four days after it began its maiden voyage; Some 1,500 people will perish in the disaster that struck what was thought to an unsinkable ship--the subject of the record-breaking Hollywood film "Titanic" nearly 90 years later.
1998 - Pol Pot, former Cambodian dictator responsible for the death of millions of his people either by execution or by starvation and disease in the 1970s, is dead; Pot, who led the overthrow of the United States-backed Cambodian government in 1975, forcibly tried to implement his Marxist vision of an agrarian utopia, when he abolished private property, money, and religion and forcing city folks to migrate and set up rural collectives with disastrous results.
2000 - A white farmer/farmland owner is shot dead by black squatters in Zimbabwe, apparently signalling the beginning of President Robert Mugabe's radical plan to remove his country's farms from white ownership; Nine other white farmers will be murdered by 'war veterans' who demand that Zimbabwe's land that was unfairly appropriated by white settlers in the days of white rule be returned to the indigeneous blacks.
Photo scan credit: Dnvzs Zjzllg
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
14 APRIL
1900 - Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo congratulates Capt. Galicano Calvo, a guerrilla force commander in Ilocos province, for victories scored against the imperialist American forces and the patriotic stance of the Ilocanos; the congratulation came amidst Aguinaldo's feeling of dejection when two Filipino generals surrendered to the enemy during the Philippine-American War.
1865 - United States President Abraham Lincoln is shot dead by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth during a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln, the 16th US President, led the nation during the American Civil War fought over the Union states and the Confederates who wanted to secede over the issue of the black slavery.
1979 - Yusufu Lule is sworn in as new President of Uganda, a month after military ruler and dictator Idi Amin was forced to flee by the combined forces of anti-Amin Ugandans and Tanzanians; the next few years will witness an unstable period marked by the army's ouster of two presidents although some stability will be achieved during the administration of Yoweri Museveni.
1988 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in a United Nations ceremony in Geneva following negotiations with the US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; the pact ends nine years of Soviet occupation that began in 1979 in the bid to prop up a fledgling communist government.
1865 - United States President Abraham Lincoln is shot dead by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth during a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln, the 16th US President, led the nation during the American Civil War fought over the Union states and the Confederates who wanted to secede over the issue of the black slavery.
1979 - Yusufu Lule is sworn in as new President of Uganda, a month after military ruler and dictator Idi Amin was forced to flee by the combined forces of anti-Amin Ugandans and Tanzanians; the next few years will witness an unstable period marked by the army's ouster of two presidents although some stability will be achieved during the administration of Yoweri Museveni.
1988 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in a United Nations ceremony in Geneva following negotiations with the US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; the pact ends nine years of Soviet occupation that began in 1979 in the bid to prop up a fledgling communist government.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
13 APRIL
1899 - Two months after the breakout of the Philippine-American War, the victories of the Philippine Army in intense gunbattles in Malolos, Marilao, Polo, Novaliches and Mariquinaa and the great losses suffered by the imperialist American invaders are communicated to the local chief of Gerona, Tarlac; the communique mentions about the Filipinos' positive expectations of their triumph in the war based on the analysis of the war defense by Gen. Antonio Luna, two months before President Emilio Aguinaldo will have him assassinated.
1945 - Vienna, Australia falls to the Soviet Red Army following the end of the so-called Vienna Offensive during World War II as the forces of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front has victoriously surrounded, besieged, and attacked the city, facilitated by Austrians who has sabotaged German defenses in order to prevent further destruction of Vienna; the war's end left Austrians with a ruined land, with 247,000 soldiers either killed or missing or dead, 29,000 civilian casualties, food and fuel exhausted, and transportation broken down everywhere.
1975 - Twenty-six people are killed and 30 wounded in an ambush by right-wing Lebanese forces on a bus carrying Palestinians in Beirut; the incident will mark the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War, with the Maronite Christian groups being led by Israel-backed Shaikh Pierre Gemayel's Phalangists, as Syria supported the Muslim militias.
1997 - Tiger Woods wins his major victory, the prestigious Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes, in what is regarded as the greatest performance by a professional golfer in more than a century; In June 2000, he will win his first U.S. Open title, shooting a record 12-under-par 272 to finish 15 strokes ahead of his nearest competitors--the greatest professional golf performance in history, surpassing even his 1997 Masters' triumph and Old Tom Morris' 1862 British Open showing.
1945 - Vienna, Australia falls to the Soviet Red Army following the end of the so-called Vienna Offensive during World War II as the forces of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front has victoriously surrounded, besieged, and attacked the city, facilitated by Austrians who has sabotaged German defenses in order to prevent further destruction of Vienna; the war's end left Austrians with a ruined land, with 247,000 soldiers either killed or missing or dead, 29,000 civilian casualties, food and fuel exhausted, and transportation broken down everywhere.
1975 - Twenty-six people are killed and 30 wounded in an ambush by right-wing Lebanese forces on a bus carrying Palestinians in Beirut; the incident will mark the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War, with the Maronite Christian groups being led by Israel-backed Shaikh Pierre Gemayel's Phalangists, as Syria supported the Muslim militias.
1997 - Tiger Woods wins his major victory, the prestigious Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes, in what is regarded as the greatest performance by a professional golfer in more than a century; In June 2000, he will win his first U.S. Open title, shooting a record 12-under-par 272 to finish 15 strokes ahead of his nearest competitors--the greatest professional golf performance in history, surpassing even his 1997 Masters' triumph and Old Tom Morris' 1862 British Open showing.
Monday, April 12, 2010
12 APRIL
1899 - During the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), Gen. Licerio Geronimo appoints a foreigner, Arthur Howard, as a Captain of Infantry of the Philippine army and orders his forces, as well as civil and military authorities, to accord him the respect due his rank; Geronimo's division, his Tiradores de la Muerte troop in particular, will be responsible for felling American Gen. Henry Ware Lawton eight months later during a historic battle in San Mateo, then wholly part of Rizal province.
1861 - The American Civil War begins--the only war fought on United States soil, not counting the military operations staged against the Native American Indians in the bid of the white government to further push its frontier; the War that broke out over the issue of black slavery commenced when pro-slavery Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay.
1877 - Britain annexes South Africa after convincing the Transvaal government to accept the annexation; the Transvaal Boers (African of Dutch descent) will later claim the annexation violates the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions of 1852 and 1854, and after the British defeat at Majuba Hill by Boers in 1881, Transvaal autonomy will be restored.
1961 - The Soviet Union wins the space race as it sends the first man, Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, into space aboard the space craft Vostok (East); during the height of the Cold War, the United Stated has hoped to be the first to send a human into space, although some eight years later, the US will be the first to send humans to the moon.
1861 - The American Civil War begins--the only war fought on United States soil, not counting the military operations staged against the Native American Indians in the bid of the white government to further push its frontier; the War that broke out over the issue of black slavery commenced when pro-slavery Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay.
1877 - Britain annexes South Africa after convincing the Transvaal government to accept the annexation; the Transvaal Boers (African of Dutch descent) will later claim the annexation violates the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions of 1852 and 1854, and after the British defeat at Majuba Hill by Boers in 1881, Transvaal autonomy will be restored.
1961 - The Soviet Union wins the space race as it sends the first man, Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, into space aboard the space craft Vostok (East); during the height of the Cold War, the United Stated has hoped to be the first to send a human into space, although some eight years later, the US will be the first to send humans to the moon.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
11 APRIL
1899 - Two months after the Philippines-American War began, the Treaty of Paris by which Spain supposedly 'cedes' its former colony, the Philippines to the United States is ratified by the US Senate; months earlier, the combination of Filipino revolutionary soldiers and American navy power had effectively driven out the Spanish colonizers but the Republican administration of William McKinley has begun steering the US towards an imperialist course that would victimize not only the Philippines but, as well, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Northen Mariana Islands, American Samoa and, for a time, Cuba, during the early part of the 20th century.
1814 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in accord with the the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba; almost a year later in 1815, he would be able to escape and return to Paris and reclaim the title Napoleon I for a period referred to a Hundred Days, only to end in French defeat in the Battle of Waterloo.
1961 - Nazi war crimes trial for Adolf Eichman, accused of aiding Adolf Hitler in the extermination of Jews during World War II, starts in Israel; Eichmann, who was able to avoid the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, will be found guilty on all 15 charges of crimes against humanity, etc.. eight months later and will subsequently be hanged in a prison near Tel Aviv.
1979 - Idi Amin Dada, military dictator and President of Uganda for eight years, is deposed by a combined force of Tanzanian and Uganda soldiers despite the the backing provided by Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi; Amin's reign has been marked by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement.
1814 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in accord with the the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba; almost a year later in 1815, he would be able to escape and return to Paris and reclaim the title Napoleon I for a period referred to a Hundred Days, only to end in French defeat in the Battle of Waterloo.
1961 - Nazi war crimes trial for Adolf Eichman, accused of aiding Adolf Hitler in the extermination of Jews during World War II, starts in Israel; Eichmann, who was able to avoid the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, will be found guilty on all 15 charges of crimes against humanity, etc.. eight months later and will subsequently be hanged in a prison near Tel Aviv.
1979 - Idi Amin Dada, military dictator and President of Uganda for eight years, is deposed by a combined force of Tanzanian and Uganda soldiers despite the the backing provided by Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi; Amin's reign has been marked by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
10 April
1915 - The Independent, a weekly periodical and the last of five major pro-Philippine Independence journalistic efforts by Vicente Yap Sotto, sees its maiden printing during the American colonial period; future senator Sotto was earlier arrested in 1899 by the imperialist American military governor during the height of the Philippine American War over his publication of La Justicia, the Cebuano publication dedicated to espousing Philippine Independence but accepting "the fact of American military control."
1936 - Spanish President Alcala Zamora is removed from office by the newly elected Cortes based on his earlier dissolutions of the legislature, which supposedly constitute exceeding the bounds of his power; left-wing Manuel Azana, detested by the right, will be narrowly elected as President in regular elections and in about two months, the Spanish Civil War will ensue
1972 - Over 5,300 people are killed in a massive earthquake that hits southern Iran, centering on the town of Ghir; the governor-general of the area reports that "The earthquake was so devastating and has leveled so many homes in as many as 30 villages that it will take days to find out the death toll."
2001 - Netherlands legalizes assisted suicide and euthanasia by lethal injections or pills to cogent, terminally ill patients in "lasting, unendurable pain" and who opt for quick death over agonizing battle; Netherlands is said to become the first country to decriminalize mercy killing and a year later, Belgium will follow suit.
1936 - Spanish President Alcala Zamora is removed from office by the newly elected Cortes based on his earlier dissolutions of the legislature, which supposedly constitute exceeding the bounds of his power; left-wing Manuel Azana, detested by the right, will be narrowly elected as President in regular elections and in about two months, the Spanish Civil War will ensue
1972 - Over 5,300 people are killed in a massive earthquake that hits southern Iran, centering on the town of Ghir; the governor-general of the area reports that "The earthquake was so devastating and has leveled so many homes in as many as 30 villages that it will take days to find out the death toll."
2001 - Netherlands legalizes assisted suicide and euthanasia by lethal injections or pills to cogent, terminally ill patients in "lasting, unendurable pain" and who opt for quick death over agonizing battle; Netherlands is said to become the first country to decriminalize mercy killing and a year later, Belgium will follow suit.
Friday, April 9, 2010
9 APRIL
1961 - Original text of the Philippine law proclaiming April 9 as "Bataan Day": Section 1. The ninth day of April is hereby proclaimed as Bataan Day, and all public officials and citizens of the Philippines are enjoined to observe such day with a one-minute silence at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon, and to hold appropriate rites in honor of the heroic defenders of Bataan and their parents, wives and/or widows; Republic Act No. 3022 was approved to commemorate the start of the Bataan Death March, the World War II atrocity in which some 75,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war were forcibly and often fatally made to march from Bataan peninsula to prison camps.
1865 - United States Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War; Grant will thereafter remark that "The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again," as the Civil War that broke out partly over the issue of slavery is effectively ended by the surrender.
1973 - In Denmark, a new two-year collective wage agreement is accepted by workers and employers alike, putting an end to a labor crisis involving over a quarter of a million workers since March 21; the labor agreement gives reduced working hours, a 7.5 percent wage increase, equal pay to female and male industrial workers, as well as automatic adjustments to the cost of living benefits.
1999 - Niger's President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara is shot dead in what diplomats will describe as an ambush assasination staged by mutinous troops while the leader attempted to flee the country; only a few days following Mainassara's assasination, a military junta headed by Major Daouda Wanke will take over the reigns of power and by August, the new government of the West African state will adopt a new constitution.
1865 - United States Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War; Grant will thereafter remark that "The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again," as the Civil War that broke out partly over the issue of slavery is effectively ended by the surrender.
1973 - In Denmark, a new two-year collective wage agreement is accepted by workers and employers alike, putting an end to a labor crisis involving over a quarter of a million workers since March 21; the labor agreement gives reduced working hours, a 7.5 percent wage increase, equal pay to female and male industrial workers, as well as automatic adjustments to the cost of living benefits.
1999 - Niger's President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara is shot dead in what diplomats will describe as an ambush assasination staged by mutinous troops while the leader attempted to flee the country; only a few days following Mainassara's assasination, a military junta headed by Major Daouda Wanke will take over the reigns of power and by August, the new government of the West African state will adopt a new constitution.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
8 APRIL
1899 - Apolinario Mabini, Prime Minister of the fledgling Philippine Republic, writes to President Emilio Aguinaldo informing him that the latter's first cousin, Don Baldomero Aguinaldo, is willing to be relieved from the Department of War to avoid trouble with General Antonio Luna, Chief of Operations; While the Philippine-American War rages, President Aguinaldo will have Gen. Luna, his looming rival in the military hierarchy, assassinated within two months.
1924 - Turkish decree dismantles Islamic law courts amidst the host of secularization measures adopted by the former Ottoman Empire over a period of several years, which will apparently culminate with a constitutional amendment dropping Islam as the state religion in 1928; On October 29 the previous year the Ottoman Empire was officially ended as the Turkish Republic was declared.
1953 - Jomo Kenyatta, the head of the Kenyan Independence movement, is convicted by the African nation's British rulers of leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government; Kenyatta, a nonviolent and conservative nationalist leader, will be imprisoned for 9 years but will later lead negotiations with the British on the issue of Kenya's self-rule
1964 - "Lion of Kashmir" Sheik Muhammad Abdullah is released from prison and promptly denounces the policy of India towards Kashmir which, along with Jammu, he had led as Prime Minister; Abdullah, leader of the National Conference, Kashmir's largest political party, will nevertheless meet with Indian President Nehru in a discussion on the future of Kashmir state.
1924 - Turkish decree dismantles Islamic law courts amidst the host of secularization measures adopted by the former Ottoman Empire over a period of several years, which will apparently culminate with a constitutional amendment dropping Islam as the state religion in 1928; On October 29 the previous year the Ottoman Empire was officially ended as the Turkish Republic was declared.
1953 - Jomo Kenyatta, the head of the Kenyan Independence movement, is convicted by the African nation's British rulers of leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government; Kenyatta, a nonviolent and conservative nationalist leader, will be imprisoned for 9 years but will later lead negotiations with the British on the issue of Kenya's self-rule
1964 - "Lion of Kashmir" Sheik Muhammad Abdullah is released from prison and promptly denounces the policy of India towards Kashmir which, along with Jammu, he had led as Prime Minister; Abdullah, leader of the National Conference, Kashmir's largest political party, will nevertheless meet with Indian President Nehru in a discussion on the future of Kashmir state.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
7 APRIL
1900 - During the height of the Philippine-American War, United States President William McKinley instructs the colonial body "Philippine Commission" to reiterate US intention to establish and organize government – essentially popular in form – in the municipal and provincial administrative divisions of the Philippine Islands; the instructions given to the Philippine Commission, a body aiming at imposing American imperialistic rule through the establishment of a colonial administration teaching local-level governance patterned after that of Washington, comes as a long battle breaks out between Filipino and American forces in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental on the very same day.
1934 - The Soviet-Finnish nonaggression treaty is renewed but five years later, the Soviet Union will denounce the pact and subsequently invade Finland in an action to be castigated by the League of Nations; the Soviet-Finnish War (Nov. 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940) will end when Finland yields territory and concessions to the USSR.
1978 - The production of the N-bomb (neutron bomb) is put on hold by United States President Jimmy Carter following the controversy generated in Europe by his earlier plan to install neutron warheads on the Lance missile and artillery shells scheduled for deployment in Europe; the N-bomb, designed to produce huge amounts of lethal radiation but minimal damage to property, has been dubbed by activists as 'capitalist' bomb and countries such as Belgium, Norway and Holland have refused to host N-bomb on their soil.
1994 - Civil war breaks out in the African nation of Rwanda, a day after President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprian Ntayamira are killed in a plane crash perpetrated either by the Tutsi's Rwandan Patriotic Front or extremist Hutus; within hours after Habyarimana's killing, the genocide of Tutus began and on this day, Rwandan armed forces kill 10 Belgian peacekeeping officers in a successful effort to discourage international intervention.
1934 - The Soviet-Finnish nonaggression treaty is renewed but five years later, the Soviet Union will denounce the pact and subsequently invade Finland in an action to be castigated by the League of Nations; the Soviet-Finnish War (Nov. 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940) will end when Finland yields territory and concessions to the USSR.
1978 - The production of the N-bomb (neutron bomb) is put on hold by United States President Jimmy Carter following the controversy generated in Europe by his earlier plan to install neutron warheads on the Lance missile and artillery shells scheduled for deployment in Europe; the N-bomb, designed to produce huge amounts of lethal radiation but minimal damage to property, has been dubbed by activists as 'capitalist' bomb and countries such as Belgium, Norway and Holland have refused to host N-bomb on their soil.
1994 - Civil war breaks out in the African nation of Rwanda, a day after President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprian Ntayamira are killed in a plane crash perpetrated either by the Tutsi's Rwandan Patriotic Front or extremist Hutus; within hours after Habyarimana's killing, the genocide of Tutus began and on this day, Rwandan armed forces kill 10 Belgian peacekeeping officers in a successful effort to discourage international intervention.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
6 April
1896 - Orders aimed at strengthening the internal organization and the financial capacity of the Katipunan, the secret revolutionary organization aimed at liberating the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule, are issued by the Supreme Assembly and Supreme Council; during the same meeting, Katipunan (Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan or KKK) founder and Supremo Andres Bonifacio reminds all members to strictly follow said orders as the council also announces the immediate expulsion of all erring Katipunan members.
1917 - The United States enters the First World War as it declares war against Germany; WW I, the deadliest and most destructive war the world will see until WW II, will be an international conflict fought by the Allied powers consisting of France, Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and the US against the Central powers composed of Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary.
1994- The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed in a plane crash near the Rwandan capital, Kigali as they were on their way back following a meeting in Tanzania among leaders of east and central Africa, with some reports saying the president's plane was shot down; The deaths of Rwanda's Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's Cyprian Ntayamira who are both Hutus will lead to greater ethnic violence particularly in Rwanda where at least 8000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus will be massacred by the middle of the year.
1998 - South Africa's Gen. Georg Meiring resigns as head of the army when accusations of conspiracy arose concerning a report he provided President Nelson Mandela; the report was supposedly a hoax that falsely named a number of various party leaders of the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC), including Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, as conspirators in a planned coup to overthrow the Mandela government.
1917 - The United States enters the First World War as it declares war against Germany; WW I, the deadliest and most destructive war the world will see until WW II, will be an international conflict fought by the Allied powers consisting of France, Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and the US against the Central powers composed of Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary.
1994- The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed in a plane crash near the Rwandan capital, Kigali as they were on their way back following a meeting in Tanzania among leaders of east and central Africa, with some reports saying the president's plane was shot down; The deaths of Rwanda's Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's Cyprian Ntayamira who are both Hutus will lead to greater ethnic violence particularly in Rwanda where at least 8000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus will be massacred by the middle of the year.
1998 - South Africa's Gen. Georg Meiring resigns as head of the army when accusations of conspiracy arose concerning a report he provided President Nelson Mandela; the report was supposedly a hoax that falsely named a number of various party leaders of the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC), including Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, as conspirators in a planned coup to overthrow the Mandela government.
Monday, April 5, 2010
5 APRIL
1896 - The Supreme Council of the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), the secret revolutionary government in the Philippines, informs its members about a huge fire that destroyed the houses of several Katipuneros in Manila, expressing belief that the enemies (colonial Spaniards) caused the fire and so agrees on publishing a pamphlet denouncing this act of arson; the KKK council that has met at the house of the Physician General Pio Valenzuela in Manila also decides to produce a fund-raising stage show at the Teatro Colon on May 2-3 for the benefit of the members of the Katipunan affected by the fire.
1614 - Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy, marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Virginia, thus ensuring peace between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years during colonial America; Pocahontas will die of small pox the day the couple were about to return to Virginia after having been presented before English King James I.
1963 - During the height of the Cold War, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics accepts the United States proposal to set up an emergency communications hot line to lessen the risk of accidental war; a formal agreement will soon be signed and later in August of the same year, the two countries along with Great Britain will agree on the ban of nuclear weapons testing on the sea and in air.
1986 - A bomb explodes and kills at least 120 people in a crowded discotheque in Berlin, Germany, killing over 40 Americans and around 80 others and injuring more than 200; Libyan connection will be found and the United States will retaliate with an air strike at Libya that would kill the adopted daughter of their leader Muhamar Gaddafi and around 60 others.
1614 - Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy, marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Virginia, thus ensuring peace between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years during colonial America; Pocahontas will die of small pox the day the couple were about to return to Virginia after having been presented before English King James I.
1963 - During the height of the Cold War, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics accepts the United States proposal to set up an emergency communications hot line to lessen the risk of accidental war; a formal agreement will soon be signed and later in August of the same year, the two countries along with Great Britain will agree on the ban of nuclear weapons testing on the sea and in air.
1986 - A bomb explodes and kills at least 120 people in a crowded discotheque in Berlin, Germany, killing over 40 Americans and around 80 others and injuring more than 200; Libyan connection will be found and the United States will retaliate with an air strike at Libya that would kill the adopted daughter of their leader Muhamar Gaddafi and around 60 others.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
4 APRIL
1899 - During the height of the Philippine-American War, the presumptuous administration of United States President William McKinley through the Schurman Commission issues a proclamation promising self-government to Filipinos; the Schurman Commission, formed by McKinley as a fact-finding civilian mission “to facilitate the most humane, pacific, and effective extension of authority" throughout the Southeast Asian archipelago on January 30, 1899 5 days before the Phil-Am War commenced serves as proof that the US all along had imperialistic design on the Philippines.
1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, American black civil rights leader, is shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee just before he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions; King's assassination will result to rioting in over 100 United States cities and the supposed assassin, James Earl Ray, will confess and be convicted but will later retract and will claim a conspiracy.
1976 - A mass demonstration erupts in Beijing aiming to pay final tribute to Zhou Enlai, first Premier of the People's Republic of China and key figure in the development of the Chinese Communist economy, who died on weeks earlier on January 8; the demonstration to be later called the Tiananmen Incident, is the culmination of public movement against Enlai's political enemies, the "Gang of Four" which had tried to outlaw all public demonstrations of mourning, as well as blocked the media coverage of the eulogy for the late leader.
1979 - Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is hanged in spite of international calls for clemency after being deposed in a military coup 18 months earlier; a court trial widely seen as unfair under the military regime of Gen. zia ul-Haq has found Bhutto guilty for the murder of a political opponent.
1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, American black civil rights leader, is shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee just before he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions; King's assassination will result to rioting in over 100 United States cities and the supposed assassin, James Earl Ray, will confess and be convicted but will later retract and will claim a conspiracy.
1976 - A mass demonstration erupts in Beijing aiming to pay final tribute to Zhou Enlai, first Premier of the People's Republic of China and key figure in the development of the Chinese Communist economy, who died on weeks earlier on January 8; the demonstration to be later called the Tiananmen Incident, is the culmination of public movement against Enlai's political enemies, the "Gang of Four" which had tried to outlaw all public demonstrations of mourning, as well as blocked the media coverage of the eulogy for the late leader.
1979 - Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is hanged in spite of international calls for clemency after being deposed in a military coup 18 months earlier; a court trial widely seen as unfair under the military regime of Gen. zia ul-Haq has found Bhutto guilty for the murder of a political opponent.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
3 APRIL
1896 - The Magdalo branch of the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), the secret Philippine revolutionary aimed at liberating the country from the yoke of Spanish colonial bondage, is established during a meeting by the KKK Supreme Council; in the same meeting, KKK Supreme President Andres Bonifacio also explains the duties and responsibilities of the newly elected officers, including his future nemesis Emilio Aguinaldo who takes the position of Magdalo branch president.
1922 - Joseph Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, three years before Vladimir Lenin's death and around 7 years before he would be able to consolidate his hold as supreme dictator of the USSR; Stalin would leave a legacy of being one of the most ruthless dictators of modern times.
1948 - United States President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which allocates more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries, supposedly as "America's answer to the challenge facing the free world"; the U.S. administration has considered the stability of the existing governments in Western Europe vital to its own interests, and although the Communist countries were formally invited to participate in the Plan, they have declined the aid that required forging a trade agreement with the US.
2000 - Asylum seekers in the United Kingdom starts receiving vouchers instead of cash to buy food and clothes as part of the changes introduced under the controversial Immigration and Asylum Act; criticized for supposedly stigmatizing and demeaning asylum seekers, the vouchers will eventually be scrapped in 2002 but new regulations such, as smart cards containing their photographs and fingerprints will, be introduced.
1922 - Joseph Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, three years before Vladimir Lenin's death and around 7 years before he would be able to consolidate his hold as supreme dictator of the USSR; Stalin would leave a legacy of being one of the most ruthless dictators of modern times.
1948 - United States President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which allocates more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries, supposedly as "America's answer to the challenge facing the free world"; the U.S. administration has considered the stability of the existing governments in Western Europe vital to its own interests, and although the Communist countries were formally invited to participate in the Plan, they have declined the aid that required forging a trade agreement with the US.
2000 - Asylum seekers in the United Kingdom starts receiving vouchers instead of cash to buy food and clothes as part of the changes introduced under the controversial Immigration and Asylum Act; criticized for supposedly stigmatizing and demeaning asylum seekers, the vouchers will eventually be scrapped in 2002 but new regulations such, as smart cards containing their photographs and fingerprints will, be introduced.
Friday, April 2, 2010
2 APRIL
1788 - Francisco Balagtas, prince of Tagalog poets during the Spanish colonial rule of the Philippines is born in Bo. Panginay, Bigaa, Bulacan; his masterpiece 'Florante at Laura' is a love story set in Albania with underlying nationalistic tones that escaped the eyes of the Spanish censorship permitting it to be shown in theatres and plays.
1976 - Portugal adopts a new constitution to replace the 1933 Constitution, with the vision of constructing a 'socialist society'; in 1974, a military coup established a junta and, later, a leftist military government that soon nationalized banks and insurance companies.
1998 - Former French cabinet minister Maurice Papon is given a maximum of 10 years in jail for his part in deporting over 1,600 Jews to their deaths in Germany's Nazi concentration camps during World War II; his trial defense had revolved around the argument that he was only following order and that he actually did his best trying to protect those in the deportation list.
2005 - On this day in 2005, John Paul II, history's most well-travelled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century, dies at his home in the Vatican; born Karol Jose Wojtyle in Wadowice, Poland, he was chosen after seven rounds of balloting by the Sacred College of Cardinals to replace Pope John Paul I who died in 1978.
1976 - Portugal adopts a new constitution to replace the 1933 Constitution, with the vision of constructing a 'socialist society'; in 1974, a military coup established a junta and, later, a leftist military government that soon nationalized banks and insurance companies.
1998 - Former French cabinet minister Maurice Papon is given a maximum of 10 years in jail for his part in deporting over 1,600 Jews to their deaths in Germany's Nazi concentration camps during World War II; his trial defense had revolved around the argument that he was only following order and that he actually did his best trying to protect those in the deportation list.
2005 - On this day in 2005, John Paul II, history's most well-travelled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century, dies at his home in the Vatican; born Karol Jose Wojtyle in Wadowice, Poland, he was chosen after seven rounds of balloting by the Sacred College of Cardinals to replace Pope John Paul I who died in 1978.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
1 April
1901 - Philippine President on-the-run Emilio Aguinaldo takes the oath of allegiance to the imperialist United States flag, only a few days after his capture in Palanan, Isabela by enemy forces pretending to be captives of traitorous Filipino mercenaries; the operation was led by Gen. Frederick Funston and which promptly merited condemnation by the Anti-Imperialist League, including American writer Mark Twain who will describe the US volunteer army officer as "the man who captured Aguinaldo by methods which would disgrace the lowest blatherskite that is doing time in any penitentiary."
1748 - Digging begins on the buried city of Pompeii, some 47 years after an Italian historian identified it based partly on the description of Roman scholar Pliny the Younger, whose records of the event mark the beginning of modern volcanology; Pompeii was buried 1600 years earlier following the deadly eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which killed hundreds and eventually also buried the nearby town of Herculaneum in 20 feet of black ooze as rain helped turned the volcanic ash into mud.
1947 - The Bulgarian government announces a two-year plan, to be followed by nationalization of banks and industries, which would go into effect at year's end after Bulgaria and Yugoslavia sign a treaty of mutual aid and friendship and Soviet troops leave the country; earlier in September 1946, Bulgaria was proclaimed a republic and the former monarchical ruler, Tsar Simeon II, went into exile.
1983 - Tens of thousands of peace demonstrators have formed a human chain stretching 22.5 kilometres across a southern English county, the climax of a week of anti-nuclear activities; the rallyists who started linking at at the American airbase at Greenham Common and ending at the ordinance factory in Burghfield, are members of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament organized in the 1970s but was revitalized following the siting of the American Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe in the 1980s.
1748 - Digging begins on the buried city of Pompeii, some 47 years after an Italian historian identified it based partly on the description of Roman scholar Pliny the Younger, whose records of the event mark the beginning of modern volcanology; Pompeii was buried 1600 years earlier following the deadly eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which killed hundreds and eventually also buried the nearby town of Herculaneum in 20 feet of black ooze as rain helped turned the volcanic ash into mud.
1947 - The Bulgarian government announces a two-year plan, to be followed by nationalization of banks and industries, which would go into effect at year's end after Bulgaria and Yugoslavia sign a treaty of mutual aid and friendship and Soviet troops leave the country; earlier in September 1946, Bulgaria was proclaimed a republic and the former monarchical ruler, Tsar Simeon II, went into exile.
1983 - Tens of thousands of peace demonstrators have formed a human chain stretching 22.5 kilometres across a southern English county, the climax of a week of anti-nuclear activities; the rallyists who started linking at at the American airbase at Greenham Common and ending at the ordinance factory in Burghfield, are members of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament organized in the 1970s but was revitalized following the siting of the American Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe in the 1980s.
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