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.
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