This Day in History
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23th April 1564
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BORN
According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. Shakespeare's date of death is conclusively known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old and had retired to Stratford three years before.
(interesting fact: Shakespeare died on the day he was born, 23th April) -
24th April 1953
CHURCHILL KNIGHTED
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. -
25th April 1953
Genetic code cracked
James Watson and Francis Crick
British scientist Francis Crick and US biologist James Watson announced that they have cracked the genetic code in a paper on the function and structure of DNA. 25th April 1970
Sprint champion
Singapore sprint champion Canagasabai Kunalan, a 27 years old teacher, becaomes one of the fastest men in Asia when he clocks 9.5 sec for the 100 yards (91m) commonwealth Games trails. -
26th April 1954
Geneva Conference begins
In an effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina, representatives from the world's powers meet in Geneva. The conference marked a turning point in the United States' involvement in Vietnam. -
27th April 1791
Morse inventor born
Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is born. He is known for developing the Morse Code, a system of representing letters, numbers and punctuation marks by means of a code signal sent intermittently. -
28th April 1969
De Gaulle resigns as leader of France
Following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum, Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France. -
29th April 1429
Joan of Arc relieves Orleans
During the Hundred Years' War, the 17-year-old French peasant Joan of Arc leads a French force in relieving the city of Orleans, besieged by the English since October. -
30th April 1945
Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his underground bunker
Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his "1,000-year" Reich collapses above him.
The body of Hitler was cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer's orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. -
1st May 1967
Elvis marries Priscilla
Elvis Presley marries 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. The couple met in West Germany in 1959, where Presley was serving his time in the army and Priscilla's father was serving in the air force.
When Elvis finished his army stint, he invited Priscilla to spend Christmas at Graceland in 1960. In 1961, Elvis asked her father's permission for her to finish high school in Memphis, living at Graceland, supervised by Elvis' father.
Priscilla moved to Graceland, attended Immaculate Conception High School, and the couple married in Las Vegas in 1967. Their only daughter, Lisa Marie, was born in February 1968. Priscilla and Elvis divorced in 1973, four years before Elvis' death. Elvis left his estate to his daughter. -
2nd May 1945
German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies
On this day in 1945, approximately 1 million German soldiers lay down their arms as the terms of the German unconditional surrender, signed at Caserta on April 29, come into effect. -
3rd May 1947
NEW JAPANESE CONSTITUTION ENACTED
On May 3, 1947, Japan's postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished peerage, and outlawed Japan's right to make war. The document was largely the work of Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur and his occupation staff, who had prepared the draft in February 1946 after a Japanese attempt was deemed unacceptable. -
4th May 1979
MARGARET THATCHER SWORN IN
Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, is sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister. The Oxford-educated chemist and lawyer was sworn in the day after the Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in general parliamentary elections. -
5th May 1821
Napoleon dies in exile
Napoleon Bonaparte, the former French ruler who once ruled an empire that stretched across Europe, dies as a British prisoner on the remote island of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean. -
6th May 1994
English Channel tunnel opens
In a ceremony presided over by England's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand, a rail tunnel under the English Channel is officially opened, connecting Britain and the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age. The channel tunnel, or "Chunnel," connects Folkestone, England, with Sangatte, France, 31 miles away. -
7th May 1960
Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR
Leonid Brezhnev, one of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's most trusted proteges, is selected as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet--the Soviet equivalent to the presidency. This was another important step in Brezhnev's rise to power in Russia, a rise that he later capped by taking control of the Soviet Union in 1964. -
8th May 1984
Soviets announce boycott of 1984 Olympics
Citing fears for the safety of its athletes in what it considered a hostile and anti-communist environment, the Soviet government announces a boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles, California.
Despite the Soviet statement, it was obvious that the boycott was a response to the decision of the United States to boycott the 1980 games that were held in Moscow. -
9th May 1955
West Germany joins NATO
Ten years after the Nazis were defeated in World War II, West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense group aimed at containing Soviet expansion in Europe. This action marked the final step of West Germany's integration into the Western European defense system. -
10th May 1940
Churchill becomes prime minister
Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter's resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. 10th May 1994
Nelson Mandela becomes prime minister
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. -
11th May 1997
Deep Blue beats Kasparov
IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue makes chess history by defeating Gary Kasparov, the chess champion widely regarded as the greatest who has ever lived. The Russian master conceded defeat after 19 moves in the sixth game of the tournament, losing the match 2.5 to 3.5. It was the first defeat of a reigning world champion by a machine in tournament play.
Big Blue, which can analyze 200 million chess moves a second, had met Kasparov once before, but the human had been able to hold his own against the computer. Before their second meeting, Kasparov had never lost a professional chess match. -
12th May 1937
George VI crowned at Westminster
At London's Westminster Abbey, George VI and his consort, Lady Elizabeth, are crowned king and queen of the United Kingdom as part of a coronation ceremony that dates back more than a millennium. -
13th May 1981
Pope John Paul II shot
Near the start of his weekly general audience in Rome's St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded while passing through the square in an open car. The assailant, 23-year-old escaped Turkish murderer Mehmet Ali Agca, fired four shots, one of which hit the pontiff in the abdomen, narrowly missing vital organs, and another that hit the pope's left hand.
The pope was rushed by ambulance to Rome's Gemelli Hospital, where he underwent more than five hours of surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition. -
14th May 1944
George Lucas is born
Director, Screenwriter and Producer, George Walton Lucas Jr. creator of the phenomenally successful Star Wars saga and Indiana Jones series and the Chairman of the Board of Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC., Lucas Licensing Ltd. and Lucas Learning Ltd is born in Modesto, California, USA.
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15th May 1756
The Seven Years War begins
The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France. However, fighting and skirmishes between England and France had been going on in North America for years. -
16th May 1975
Japanese woman scales Everest
Via the southeast ridge route, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. -
17th May 1970
Heyerdahl sails papyrus boat
On May 17, 1970, Norwegian ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl and a multinational crew set out from Morocco across the Atlantic Ocean in Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after ancient Egyptian sailing vessels. Heyerdahl was attempting to prove his theory that Mediterranean civilizations sailed to America in ancient times and exchanged cultures with the people of Central and South America. The Ra II crossed the 4,000 miles of ocean to Barbados in 57 days.