1242
Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.
The Battle of the Ice also known as the Battle on Lake Peipus or the Battle of Lake Peipus (Russian: Ледовое побоище, German: Schlacht auf dem Peipussee, Estonian: Jlahing), took place in 1242. It was one of the more significant defeats sustained by Roman Catholic crusaders until the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. It effectively marked the end of the Northern Crusade against Orthodox Novgorod and other Russian territories in the aftermath of the conquest of Estonia.
In the spring of 1242, the Teutonic knights defeated a reconnaissance detachment of Novgorodians about 20 km south of the fortress of Dorpat, now Tartu. The knights, lead by the Prince-Bishop of Dorpat Hermann I of Buxhoeveden and auxiliary troops of local Ugaunian Estonians then met with Alexander's forces by the narrow strait that connects the northern and southern parts of Lake Peipus (Lake Peipus proper with Lake Pskovskoe) on April 5, 1242. Alexander, intending to fight in a place of his own choosing, retreated in efforts to draw the often over-confident Crusaders to the frozen lake.
The Crusader forces likely numbered somewhere in the area of 2,000 to 2,500 soldiers. Most of the Knights were German, although there also were a large number of Danes, and the army also included large numbers of Swedish and Estonian mercenaries. The Russian force in contrast numbered around 6,000 soldiers.
According to contemporary Russian chronicles, after hours of hand-to-hand fighting, Alexander ordered the left and right wings of his archers to enter the battle. The knights by this time were exhausted from the constant fighting and struggling with the slippery surface of the frozen lake. The Crusaders started to retreat in disarray deeper onto the ice, and the appearance of the fresh Russian cavalry made them run for their lives. Under the weight of their heavy armour, the thin ice started to collapse, and many knights drowned. Only "the Grand Master, some bishops, and a handful of mounted knights" managed to return back to Dorpat (Tartu) after the battle.
The Battle of the Ice has been described as an event of major significance, especially by Russian historians. The knights' defeat at the hands of Alexander's forces prevented the crusaders from retaking Pskov, the linchpin of their eastern crusade. The Novgorodians had succeeded in defending Russian territory, and the Teutonic crusaders never mounted another serious challenge eastward. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_on_Lake_Peipus
1614 Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
1792
George Washington casts the first presidential veto.
On April 5, 1792, George Washington vetoed an apportionment bill entitled: An Act for an apportionment of Representatives among the several States according to the first enumeration. An account of this event can be found at The Papers of George Washington web site (at the University of Virginia).
President Washington vetoed the amendment on constitutional grounds and given that he presided over the Constitutional Convention his opinions on this subject should be considered. Besides being historically noteworthy, President Washingtons rationale for his veto also raises questions about the constitutionality of the current apportionment scheme.
His primary objection to the proposed amendment was that there is no one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill. The relevance of this today is that the number and allotment that results from the current fixed allocation of 435 seats does not pass the test established by President Washington. In other words, there is no one proportion or divisor which would yield the current allotment of representatives.
On March 6th, 1792, the Second Congress passed An Act for an apportionment of Representatives among the several States according to the first enumeration. On March 26th this bill was presented to President Washington for his approval; he vetoed it on April 5th.
The primary objection raised by President Washington is that there be one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill.
This is a very important point as it explicitly states the intended methodology of the time with respect to how the House is to be apportioned; i.e., that there be one proportion or divisor.
Moreover, the requirement for one divisor is, quite simply, the mathematical description for achieving what is now known as the one-person-one-vote principle. http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/first_veto.htm
1843 Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.
1861
Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy issues official orders for the blockade of the entire southern coastline of the United States (which stretched to over 3,500 miles), in order to weaken the Confederacy economically. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Plan
1865 As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine's Cross Road.
1908 The Japanese Army reaches Yalu River as Russians retreat.
1919 Eamon de Valera becomes president of Ireland.
1930
Mahatma Ghandi defies British law by making salt in India instead of buying it from the British.
In an effort to amend the salt tax without breaking the law, on March 2, 1930 Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin: "If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil."
On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and approximately 78 male satyagrahis set out, on foot, for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, some 240 miles from their starting point in Sabarmati, a journey which was to last 23 days. Virtually every resident of each city along this journey watched the great procession, which was at least two miles in length. On April 6th, Gandhi raised a lump of mud and salt (some say just a pinch, some say just a grain) and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." He then boiled it in seawater to make the commodity which no Indian could legally producesalt.
He implored his thousands of followers to begin to make salt wherever, along the seashore, "was most convenient and comfortable" to them. A "war" on the salt tax was to be continued during the National Week, that is, up to the thirteenth of April. There was also a simultaneous boycott of British made cloth/goods. Salt was sold, "illegally", all over the seacoast of India. A pinch of salt from Gandhi himself sold for 1,600 rupees, perhaps $750 dollars at the time. In reaction to this, the British government had incarcerated over sixty thousand people at the end of the month.
In Peshawar the satyagraha was led by a Muslim Pashto disciple of Gandhi's, Ghaffar Khan. Ghaffar Khan had trained an army of non-violent activists, called Khudai Khitmatgar. On April 23, 1930, Ghaffar Khan was arrested. A crowd of Khudai Khitmatgar gathered in Peshawar's Kissa Khani [Storytellers] Bazaar. The British opened fire on the unarmed crowd and shot hundreds of Khudai Khitmatgar and other demonstrators. One British Indian Army regiment refused to fire at the crowds. According to some accounts, the crowd acted in accord with their training in non-violence. As people in the front fell, those behind came forward to expose themselves to the firing. The shooting continued from 11 AM until 5 PM.
On the night of May 4th, Gandhi was sleeping in a cot under a mango tree, at a village near Dandi. Several ashramites slept near him. Soon after midnight the District Magistrate of Surat drove up with two Indian officers and thirty heavily-armed constables. He woke Gandhi by shining a torch in his face, and arrested him under a regulation of 1827.
The effects of the salt march were felt across India. Thousands of people made salt, or bought illegal salt. As the march mobilized many new followers from all of Indian society, it came to the world's attention. Thus, tens of thousands of Indians were arrested for buying and selling salt illegally; however, the Viceroy ordered his troops to arrest Gandhi last. After Gandhi's release from prison, he continued to work towards Indian independence, which was achieved in August, 1947. Dandi was a key turning point in that struggle.
1941 German commandos secure docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany's invasion of the Balkans.
1943 The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit.
1951
Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage.
The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951, and sentenced to death under section 2 of the Espionage Act, 50 U.S. Code 32 (now 18 U.S. Code 794), which prohibits transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government information "relating to the national defense", by judge Irving Kaufman on April 5. The conviction helped to fuel Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into "anti-American activities" by US citizens. While their devotion to the Communist cause was well documented, they denied the spying charges even as they faced the electric chair.
The couple were the only two American civilians to be executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War. In imposing the death penalty, Judge Kaufman noted that he held them responsible not only for espionage but also for the deaths of the Korean War:
I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb [...] has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.
Their case has been at the center of the controversy over communism in the United States ever since, with supporters steadfastly maintaining that their conviction was an egregious example of persecution typical of the "hysteria" of those times (see Red Scare, McCarthyism) and likening it to the witch hunts that marred Salem and medieval Europe (a comparison that provided the inspiration for Arthur Miller's critically acclaimed play, The Crucible).
At the time, some Americans believed both Rosenbergs were innocent or received too harsh a punishment, and a grass-roots campaign was started to try to stop the couple's execution. Other Americans felt that the couple got what they deserved. Pope Pius XII appealed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spare the couple, but he refused on February 11, 1953, and all other appeals were also unsuccessful.
The couple were executed in the electric chair on June 19, 1953. Reports of the execution state that Julius died after the first application of electricity, but Ethel did not succumb immediately, and was subjected to two more electrical charges before being pronounced dead. The chair was designed for a man, and Ethel Rosenberg was a petite woman; this discrepancy resulted, it is claimed, in the electrodes fitting poorly. Eyewitness testimony describes smoke rising from her head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_and_Julius_Rosenburg
1955 Winston Churchill resigns as British prime minister.
1986 A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.
Born on April 5
1588 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (Leviathan). 1827 Joseph Lister, English physician, founded the idea of using antiseptics during surgery. 1839 Robert Smalls, black congressman from South Carolina, 1875-87. 1856 Booker T. Washington, former slave, educator, founded the Tuskegee Institute. 1858 Washington Atlee Burpee, founded the world's largest mail-order seed company. 1900 Spencer Tracy, actor (Adam's Rib, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner). 1908 Bette Davis, film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve). 1916 Gregory Peck, film actor (To Kill a Mockingbird). 1917 Robert Bloch, novelist (Psycho). 1920 Arthur Hailey, (Hotel, Airport). 1923 Nguyen Van Thieu, president of South Vietnam.
http://www.historynet.com/tih/tih0405/
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