296
St. Gaius ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
Saint Caius or Gaius was pope from 283 until his death in 296. He was the son of Gaius, or, according to St. Susanna of Concordius, a relative of the emperor Diocletian, and became pope on December 17, 283. His tomb, with the original epitaph, was discovered in the catacombs of Calixtus and in it the ring with which he used to seal his letters (see Arringhi, Roma subterr., 1. iv. c. xlviii. p. 426).
His feast is on April 22, together with Pope Soter. Saint Caius is portrayed in art wearing the Papal Tiara with Saint Nereus. He is venerated in Dalmatia and Venice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gaius
536
St. Agapitus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
He collaborated with Cassiodorus in founding at Rome a library of ecclesiastical authors in Greek and Latin, and helped Cassiodorus with the project at Vivarium of translating the standard Greek philosophers into Latin.
His memory is kept on 20 September, the day of his deposition.
The Eastern churches commemorate him on 22 April, the day of his death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Agapetus_I
1500
Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil.
His commission was to establish permanent commercial relations and to introduce Christianity wherever he went, using force of arms when necessary to gain his point. The nature of the undertaking led rich Florentine merchants to contribute to the equipment of the ships, and priests to join the expedition. Among the captains of the fleet, which consisted of 13 ships with 1,500 men, were Bartolomeu Dias, Pro Vaz de Caminha, and Nicolau Coelho, the latter the companion of Vasco da Gama. Vasco da Gama himself gave the directions necessary for the course of the voyage.
The fleet left Lisbon on March 9, 1500, and following the course laid down, sought to avoid the calms off the coast of Gulf of Guinea. On leaving the Cape Verde Islands, where Lus Pires was forced by a storm to return to Lisbon, they sailed in a decidedly southwesterly direction. On April 22 a mountain was visible, to which the name of Monte Pascoal was given; on the April 23 Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil, and on the April 25 the entire fleet sailed into the harbor called Porto Seguro. Cabral perceived that the new country lay east of the line of demarcation made by Pope Alexander VI (see Treaty of Tordesillas), and at once sent Andr Gonalves (according to other authorities Gaspar de Lemos) to Portugal with the important tidings. Believing the newly-discovered country to be an island he gave it the name of Island of the True Cross (or Island of Vera Cruz) and took possession of it by erecting a cross and holding a religious service. The service was celebrated by the Franciscan, Father Henrique, afterwards Bishop of Ceuta.
Cabral resumed his voyage on May 3 1500. By the end of the month the fleet approached the Cape of Good Hope, where it was struck by a storm in which four vessels, including that of Bartolomeu Dias, were lost. With the ships now reduced to one-half of the original number, Cabral reached Sofala on July 16 and Mozambique on July 20. In the latter place he received a cordial greeting. On July 26 he came to Kilwa where he was unable to make an agreement with the ruler. On August 2 he reached Melinde; here he had a friendly welcome and obtained a pilot to take him to India. On August 10, the ship commanded by Diogo Dias, separated by weather, discovered an island they named after St Lawrence, later known as Madagascar.
Cabral continued to India to trade for pepper and other spices, establishing a factory at Calicut, where he arrived on September 13. In Cochin and Cananor Cabral succeeded in making advantageous treaties. After a chain of bad luck, culminating in a two-day bombardment of the city, Cabral started on the return voyage on January 16, 1501, and returned with only 4 of 13 ships to Portugal, on June 23, 1501.
Cabral was buried in a monastery in Santarm, Portugal. He has been honored on a number of postage stamps, for instance in a set of Brazilian stamps issued January 1, 1900 to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery. In Brazil, he is also in the 1 cent coin, and in a special edition of the R$10 (10 Reais) note.
1509 Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England upon the death of his father, Henry VII.
1529 Spain and Portugal divide the eastern hemisphere in the Treaty of Saragosa.
1745
The Peace of Fussen is signed.
Maximilian's son, Ferdinand Maria (1651-1679), who was a minor when he succeeded, did much indeed to repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years' War, encouraging agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the diet, which had been suspended since 1612. His good work, however, was largely undone by his son Maximilian II Emanuel (1679-1726), whose far-reaching ambition set him warring against the Ottoman Empire and, on the side of France, in the great struggle of the Spanish succession.
Untaught by Maximilian II Emmanuel's experience, his son, Charles Albert (1726-1745), devoted all his energies to increasing the European prestige and power of his house. The death of the emperor Charles VI. proved his opportunity: he disputed the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction which secured the Habsburg succession to Maria Theresa, allied himself with France, conquered Upper Austria, was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague and, in 1742, emperor at Frankfurt. The price he had to pay, however, was the occupation of Bavaria itself by Austrian troops; and, though the invasion of Bohemia in 1744 by Frederick II of Prussia enabled him to return to Munich, at his death on January 20 1745 it was left to his successor to make what terms he could for the recovery of his dominions.
Maximilian III Joseph (1745 - 1777), by the peace of Fussen signed on 22 April 1745, obtained the restitution of his dominions in return for a formal acknowledgment of the Pragmatic Sanction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bavaria
1792 President George Washington proclaims American neutrality in the war in Europe.
1861 Robert E. Lee is named commander of Virginia forces.
1889
The Oklahoma land rush officially starts at noon as thousands of Americans race for new, unclaimed land.
The land concerned was a 58 mile (93 km) wide strip running for 225 miles (362 km) between southern Kansas and Oklahoma Territory, around 34,000 km. The Oklahoma Territory had been opened for settlement in the 1880s but the strip remained the possession of the Cherokee people. The strip, named the Cherokee Outlet, had been granted to them in 1828 as a route to the Indian Territories, other tribes took parts of the strip from the 1860s. After the Civil War a number of cattle trails, including the Chisholm Trail, were driven across the strip, linking Texas to the demanding eastern markets. In the 1880s the Strip itself was leased to a cattle farming association.
Widespread greed for the land led to a law banning cattle farming. The Cherokee then sold the land to the government, opening it up for homesteaders. The strip was divided into 42,000 claims, available to the first person, with a certificate, to put foot and stake a claim in them.
In the weeks leading up to September 16, up to 100,000 potential settlers began arriving on all four borders of the territory, especially the 165 mile (266 km) Kansas border.
On the appointed day, thousands of settlers lined up along the border, most on horseback, many on foot. Various rail companies had special trains stationed at the border, packed impossibly full of settlers. At noon, US Army stations blew bugles or fired cannons to start the race, and the settlers stampeded into the territory.
Many or most found their choice lots already taken; despite Army assurances to the contrary, as many as 90% of settlers had snuck across the border prior to the race and staked their claim ahead of time. These "boomers," also known as "sooners," claimed most of the available land long before the race started, and few were prosecuted for cheating.
The University of Oklahoma later took the Sooner name as its mascot, represented at athletic events by a covered wagon.
Reports of violence and recklessness abounded during the race. Settlers leaped off of moving trains to race towards their land; shootings over disputed parcels were widely rumored. Even US marshals, employed to maintain the lawful claiming of land, might have snatched hundreds of parcels for themselves.
The land rush was one of the most sudden human migrations in history. Many towns in Oklahoma, pre-planned by the government, went from a population of zero to 10,000 or more in a single afternoon. Storefronts were erected within days at the city centers.
The land rush was dramatized in films: at the climax of the Ron Howard film Far and Away, and two versions of the novel Cimarron. The original Cimarron won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1931 and the remake in 1960 starring Glenn Ford. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_land_rush
1898 In the first action of the Spanish-American War, the USS Nashville, takes on a Spanish ship.
1915
At the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans use poison gas for the first time on a large scale on the Western Front in World War I and the first time a colonial force (Canadians) forced back a major European power (Germans) on European soil, which occurred in the battle of St. Juliaan-Kitcheners' Wood.
The Second Battle of Ypres consisted of four separate battles:
* The Battle of Gravenstafel - 22 to 23 April 1915 * The Battle of St Julien - 24 April to 4 May 1915 * The Battle of Frezenberg - 8 to 13 May 1915 * The Battle of Bellewaarde - 24 to 25 May 1915
168 tons of chlorine gas were released on 22 April over a four mile front. Around 5,000 troops died within ten minutes by asphyxiation. The gas affected the lungs and the eyes causing respiration problems and blindness. Being denser than air it flowed downwards forcing the troops to climb out of trenches.
Initially French Colonial and Algerian troops of the 45th and 78th French Divisions were attacked with gas; the survivors abandoning their positions en masse, leaving a 4 mile gap in the front line. However, the German High Command had not foreseen the effectiveness of their new weapon, and so had not sent any reinforcements to the area. German forces were unable to take advantage of this gap, and the Canadian Division (as the First Contingent of the CEF was now known, later to become the 1st Canadian Division) reinforced the gap and held that part of the line against further gas attacks until 3 May.
The winds were blowing in favour of the Germans; this meant that anything short of a full retreat would leave Allied forces in contaminated areas. The Canadians, initially held in reserve, realized the only place with fresh air would be near the German lines, as the winds would blow the gas away from there, (following the basic principles of gas warfare: infantry can only quickly occupy clean areas; therefore, the occupied areas would have to be uncontaminated.) The Canadians fought through using urine-soaked handkerchiefs as primitive gas masks, (for the ammonia in the urine would react with the chlorine, neutralizing it and the water would dissolve the chlorine allowing the soldiers to breathe.) Although the battle was considered a stalemate, the act of reestablishing the front lines in such harsh conditions earned the Canadians much respect and foreshadowed their use later in the war as assault troops, though 6,000 of these "originals" were killed or wounded from a strength of 10,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Ypres
1918 British naval forces attempt to sink block-ships in the German U-boat bases at the Battle of Zeeburgge.
1931 Egypt signs treaty of friendship with Iraq.
1944 Allies launch major attack against the Japanese in Hollandia, New Guinea.
1954
The Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin.
Early in 1954, the U.S. Army accused Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin), and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to former McCarthy aide and friend of Cohn's, G. David Schine. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Brigadier General Ralph W. Zwicker the previous year. A special committee, under the chairmanship of Senator Karl Mundt, was appointed to adjudicate these conflicting charges, and the hearings opened on April 22, 1954. The hearings were televised, and many believe that they contributed significantly to McCarthy's subsequent decline in popularity.
A month before the hearings began, TIME featured a cover story March 22, 1954, with Cohn & Schine pictured and subtitled, "The Army got its orders." Ten years after the hearings, in 1964, the documentary film Point of Order! was released, which consists of 93 minutes of footage selected from the 187 hours of kinescope that covered the hearings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army-McCarthy_Hearings
1955
Congress orders all U.S. coins to bear the motto "In God We Trust."
Today, the motto is a source of some heated contention. One side argues that the First Amendment and a need for a "separation of church and state" requires that the motto be removed from all public use, including on coins and paper money. They argue that religious freedom includes the right to believe in the non-existence of God and that the gratuitous use of the motto infringes upon the religious rights of the unreligious. They argue that any endorsement of God by the government is unconstitutional. Many also argue that the motto, along with the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, was made official simply because of US opposition to the atheistic Soviet Union, the main adversary of the United States at the time.
The other side of the argument states that the separation of church and state means that Congress shall not impose a state religion on the populace, and that the separation of church and state is a legislative invention not intended by the founding fathers. They argue that religious language is used in the founding documents, such as "Nature and Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence; although opponents point out that the Declaration is simply a historical, rather than official, document of the US Governmentmoreover the emphasis on "Nature" indicates a naturalistic Deist, rather than Christian, philosophy. The Constitution lacks such references.
Likewise, the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the Senate and signed by John Adams, has become the subject of controversy because of this section:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquillity of Musselmen - and as the said states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Interestingly, Theodore Roosevelt argued against the requirement of the motto on coinage, not because of a lack of faith in God, but because he thought it sacrilegious to put the name of the Deity on something so common as money. This argument is rarely used by either side today.
Whichever side of the argument is ultimately victorious will be determined at some point in the future, either by judicial decision, legislation or constitutional amendment; but at this point use of the motto on circulating coinage is required by law. Some activists have been known to cross out the motto on paper money as a form of protest. While several laws come into play, the act of May 18, 1908 is most often cited as requiring the motto (even though the cent and nickel were excluded from that law, and the nickel did not have the motto added until 1938). Since 1938, all coins have borne the motto. The use of the motto was permitted, but not required, by an 1873 law. The motto was added to paper money over a period from 1957 to 1966.
1995
In Africa, Rwandan troops kill thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho.
On April 6, 1994, the French Mystre-Falcon jet carrying the Rwandan President Juvnal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. Both presidents were killed when the plane crashed.
The exact responsibility for this act is not known. At the time, Juvnal Habyarimana was involved in talks that aimed at sharing power with the Rwandese Patriotic Front. U.N. investigators initially suspected that Hutu extremists within Habyarimana's family circle had killed him, fearing he would concede too much power to the RPF in talks.
However, some recent testimony claims that blame lies with members of the RPF, possibly with the help of foreign mercenaries. In January 2000 three Tutsi informants told the United Nations that they were part of an elite strike team that carried out the assassination of the Hutu president. They told UN investigators in 1997 that the killing of Juvnal Habyarimana was carried out "with the assistance of a foreign government" under the overall command of Paul Kagame. They claimed that the RPF members had opted to kill Habyarimana out of dissatisfaction with the slow pace of the talks[citation needed].
Specific allegations were made in a November 2005 book by Lieutenant Abdul Ruzibiza [5], in which Kagame is accused of directly planning Habyarimana's assassination in a meeting at RPF headquarters in Mulindi (Byumba, northern Rwanda) on March 31, 1994.
Regardless of the identity of its perpetrators, the dramatic airplane attack was an unambiguous signal to all Rwandans. Those who were going to kill knew what they had to do; and the Tutsi and the moderate Hutu understood at once that they would be attacked.
On the nights of April 6 and 7 the staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and Colonel Bagosora clashed verbally with the UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda) Force Commander General Romo Dallaire, who pointed out the legal authority of the Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, to take the control of the situation as outlined in Arusha Accords. Colonel Bagosora disputed the authority. General Dallaire decided to give an escort of UNAMIR personnel to Mrs. Uwilingiyimana to protect her overnight and to allow her to send a calming message on the radio the next morning. By then, the presidential guard occupied the radio station and Mrs. Uwilingiyimana had to cancel her speech. In the middle of the day, she was assassinated by the presidential guard. The ten Belgian UNAMIR soldiers sent to protect her were later found killed (they had been captured and tortured to death).
Other moderate officials favourable to the Arusha Accords were quickly assassinated. Faustin Twagiramungu escaped execution as he was passed to the safety of UNAMIR.
As though the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana was a signal, military and militia groups began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture as well as the political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. (The movie Hotel Rwanda dramatizes this as a coded radio broadcast instructing Hutus to "cut the tall trees"). Large numbers of opposition politicians were also murdered. Many nations evacuated their nationals from Kigali and closed their embassies as violence escalated. National radio urged people to stay in their homes, and the government-funded station RTLM broadcast vitriolic attacks against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Hundreds of roadblocks were set up by the militia in the capital Kigali and around the country. Lieutenant-General Dallaire and UNAMIR, escorting Tutsis in Kigali, were unable to do anything as Hutus kept escalating the violence and even started targeting, via RTLM, UNAMIR personnel and Lieutenant-General Dallaire.
The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country; between April 6 and the beginning of July, a genocide of unprecedented swiftness officially left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus (some estimates pin the number at or a little over 1,000,000) dead at the hands of organized bands of militias. One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye. Even ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbours and those who refused to kill were often killed themselves. "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself," said one Hutu who was forced to take part. The president's MRND party was implicated in organizing many aspects of the genocide.
Most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by their neighbours and fellow villagers. The militia members mostly killed their victims by chopping them up with machetes, although some army units shot and killed the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In some towns the victims were forcibly crammed into churches and school buildings, where Hutu extremist gangs then massacred them. In June 1994 about 3000 Tutsis sought refuge in a Catholic church in Kivumu. Local Interahamwe then used bulldozers supplied by the local police to knock down the church building. People who tried to escape were hacked down with machetes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide
Born on April 22
1451 Isabella I of Castile, Queen of Spain, patron of Christopher Columbus. 1707 Henry Fielding, English novelist (Tom Jones). 1724 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher. 1870 Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov), leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and first head of the U.S.S.R. 1873 Ellen Glassgow, American novelist. 1876 O.E. Rolvaag, novelist (Giants in the Earth). 1899 Vladimir Nabokov, Russian novelist (Lolita). 1904 J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, director of the Manhattan Project. 1916 Yehudi Menuhin, violinist. 1918 Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man (8'11.1"). 1922 Charles Mingus, jazz bassist. 1943 Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
http://www.historynet.com/tih/tih0422/
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