The great Margaret Thatcher, the anniversary of whose death occurred this week, once said, “Of course it’s the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.” Throughout all of history, in a multiplicity of times, places, and societies, one thing is constant—truth is truth. That is why it is so tremendously important to try and learn true history. Below are some of the important deaths, births, and events that occurred this past week in history.
April 7
529 – The Justinian Code, a collation of Roman law, is first issued. The Code, in its later version, proved foundational and very influential for Western law.
1770 – Influential English Romantic poet William Wordsworth is born.
1803 – Toussaint Louverture, the former slave who led the bloody Haitian independence movement, dies while being held by the French.
1891 – Famous American showman (including of opera and circus) P.T. Barnum dies. The 2017 musical “The Greatest Showman” re-popularized Barnum for a new generation.
1947 – American Henry Ford, “an industrialist who revolutionized assembly line production for the automobile,” dies.
April 8
1767 – Reportedly the date on which the city of Ayutthaya, capital of a powerful kingdom in what is now Thailand, falls to the besieging Burmese, ending the 400+-year-old Ayutthaya Kingdom.
1886 – “[Encyclopedia.com] Liberal [British] prime minister William Gladstone …introduc[es] the Home Rule bill in April 1886 [which] was designed to persuade other politicians that Ireland deserved to be governed in accordance with ‘Irish ideas,’ and that any other course would require the persistent use of coercion, which good Liberals found abhorrent.” It was ultimately defeated.
1898 – British and Egyptian troops decisively defeat Khalif Abdullah’s Dervish army at the Battle of Atbara River during the conquest of the Sudan.
1913 – First democratically elected Chinese National Assembly convenes in Peking.
1973 – Pablo Picasso, a painter whose hideous Cubism had a major impact on art, dies.
2013 – Margaret Thatcher, the only 20th century British Prime Minister to win three consecutive terms, dies. A strong and brilliant leader, Thatcher believed in empowering the individual over the government and strongly opposed socialism and Communism; she was one of the world leaders who played a key role in bringing down the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War. Among her many witty observations was, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
April 9
1483 – Edward IV of England dies, making his son Edward V king. The latter is most famous as one of the imprisoned “Princes in the Tower,” along with his brother; the two youths vanished and Richard III, accused of murdering them, became king.
1626 – English lawyer, writer, statesman, and philosopher Francis Bacon dies.
1731 – Spanish coast guards allegedly cut off British Capt. R. Jenkins’ ear, an incident that was later used to justify and stir up war between England and Spain, the “War of Jenkins’ Ear.”
1865 – Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his army of traitors—the Army of Northern Virginia—surrender to Union commander Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. While this was not the end of the U.S. Civil War, it was undoubtedly a decisive victory for Grant and the Union, and spelled the inevitable and final defeat of the Confederacy. One of the Union officers present for part of Lee and Grant’s meeting was Abraham Lincoln’s son, Capt. Robert Todd Lincoln. The surrender terms were exceedingly generous, especially considering the heinous war crimes committed by Lee and the Confederates during the war; they included a promise that rebel soldiers who laid down their arms would not be prosecuted by the U.S. government and that Confederate officers could retain their mounts and side arms.
1963 – Winston Churchill is made an honorary U.S. citizen. President John Kennedy’s proclamation called Churchill, the British PM who was key in the Allies’ WWII victory, “a firm and steadfast friend of the American people and the American nation” whose “bravery, charity and valor, both in war and in peace, have been a flame of inspiration in freedom’s darkest hour.” Churchill (whose mother was American) responded by warmly thanking America for “this unique distinction, which will always be proudly remembered by my descendants.”
2003 – Baghdad falls to U.S. forces during America’s invasion of Iraq.
April 10
1585 – Pope Gregory XIII, most famous for commissioning the reformed Gregorian calendar we still use, dies.
1806 – Horatio Gates, a former general of the American Revolutionary Army, dies. Born in England, he was wounded fighting for the British during the French and Indian War, then later bought a Virginia plantation. He joined the Revolutionary Army and was in command of American troops for several victories against the British, most notably at the key Battle of Saratoga. But, after Saratoga, tensions mounted between George Washington and Gates. Later, Gates not only lost one of the biggest American defeats of the Revolution at the Battle of Camden, he abandoned his army to escape and save himself, which largely ended his career in the Army. After the war, Gates sold his plantation, freed his slaves, bought a New York estate, and served in the NY legislature.
1815 – Mount Tambora erupts in what is now Indonesia, the largest recorded volcanic eruption. The estimated death toll was 11,000, with another estimated 100,000+ killed by food shortages reportedly caused by temperature shifts attributed to the volcanic eruption in various spots around the world.
1998 – “[Gov.UK] The Belfast Agreement [also called the Good Friday Agreement] was signed on 10 April 1998 following three decades of conflict known as the Troubles. The Agreement created a new power-sharing arrangement, including an Executive and Assembly, and was based on a series of fundamental principles including:
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the parity of esteem of both communities
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the principle of consent underpinning Northern Ireland’s constitutional status
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the birthright of the people of Northern Ireland to identify and be accepted as British or Irish, or both, and to hold both British and Irish citizenship”
April 11
145/146 – Future Roman emperor Septimius Severus is born in what is now Libya. Britannica notes that his “military monarchy” was a key stage in transforming the imperial power into “absolute despotism.”
1512 – “[Warfare History Network] A French army under Gaston de Foix interrupted its siege of Ravenna, Italy, to give battle to Spanish forces on a soggy plain south of the city.” The French won, but Gaston was killed and, ultimately, the Holy League reversed French gains.
1783 – “On this day in history, April 11, 1783, Congress declares a permanent ceasefire with Great Britain, bringing the hostilities of the American Revolution to an end.” An army composed almost entirely of civilian volunteers under General George Washington had defeated the most powerful military in the world, and a new nation would be born, conceived in liberty and won by the blood of Patriots.
1814 – Dictatorial French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates, and is exiled to the island of Elba.
1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. Ironically, Johnson, a Democrat, was personally a raging racist who specifically aimed to undermine the black family.
1979 – Muslim Ugandan dictator and jihad-sympathizer Idi Amin flees the country at the approach of Tanzanian and Uganda National Liberation Front troops.
2013 – Maria Tallchief, the first Native American Indian ballerina (from the Osage tribe), dies.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.
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Author: Catherine Salgado
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