The Nazi-like anti-Semitic idiocy increasingly exposed on US college campuses as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues clearly highlights just how disastrous it can be not to teach any true history to young people. If you do not understand the past, you cannot understand the present. Below are some of the important deaths, births, and events that occurred this past week in history.
April 12
1204 – Troops of the Fourth Crusade begin the infamous sacking of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.
1777 – The great American politician Henry Clay is born. Clay was a lawyer, Kentucky senator, speaker of the House of Representatives, and Secretary of State for President John Quincy Adams.
1861 – Confederate rebels attack Fort Sumter in South Carolina, launching the Civil War, the bloodiest war in America’s history. Confederates had been outraged by anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency.
1945 – Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only U.S. president to be elected to four terms, dies. His “New Deal” harmed instead of helping millions of Americans and he greatly expanded federal government power, in blatant violation of the Constitution.
1981 – The first reusable spacecraft, America’s space shuttle Columbia, successfully launches.
April 13
1743 – Founding Father Thomas Jefferson is born. A “Founding Father of the United States who wrote the Declaration of Independence. As [the third] U.S. president, he completed the Louisiana Purchase.” His famous plantation was Monticello, and he served as a delegate to the Confederation Congress and then as U.S. minister to France before the Constitution was ratified. Jefferson was the first U.S. Secretary of State, serving under George Washington, before his later political divergence from Washington’s party and his own presidency. Read more here.
1868 – The Abyssinian War ends with a British victory and Christian King Theodore of Abyssinia committing suicide.
1970 – Apollo 13 tells Mission Control, “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Despite the oxygen tank failure, and the abrupt end of the mission, the crew survived.
April 14
43 BC – Estimated date of the Battle of Forum Gallorum (some sources say April 15) between the forces of Julius Caesar’s friend Marc Antony and the forces of Caesar’s assassin Brutus. The latter won the battle.
966 – The Christianization of Poland happens with the baptism of Mieszko I and his entire court.
1471 – Battle of Barnet occurs during the English Wars of the Roses, a decisive victory for the Yorkists over the Lancastrians.
1759 – German-born English composer George Frideric Handel, famous for such works as “Messiah” and “Water Music,” dies.
1860 – The Pony Express sets a new record for speedy mail delivery, taking a mail pouch from Missouri to California in under 12 days.
1865 – In one of the greatest and most far-reaching tragedies of American history, rabid racist and Confederate empathizer John Wilkes Booth assassinates US President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Booth had been enraged by Lincoln’s support for black civil rights. Read more in my previous piece.
1931 – With the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, a socialist “republic” is established.
April 15
73 – The majority of surviving Jewish defenders of the fort of Masada, the last major holdout against the Roman army that destroyed Jerusalem, kill themselves rather than fall into Roman hands.
1452 – Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci is born. The ultimate Renaissance man, Leonardo’s genius shone in such diverse fields as art, music, biology, military invention, aviation, machines, and poetry. Read my piece for more details on his remarkable achievements.
1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for 75,000 state militiamen to take on the Democrat/Confederate rebellion originally triggered by the election of Lincoln.
1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln tragically dies from the wound inflicted the night before by John Wilkes Booth. It was a severe blow to hopes for a peaceful and charitable reconstruction of the Union.
1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who implemented “de-Stalinization,” is born.
1912 – British ocean liner Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, with over 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew going down with her. There were not enough lifeboats or safety measures. The Titanic is considered the world’s most famous shipwreck.
1998 – Former Communist dictator of Cambodia, Pol Pot, dies. One of history’s worst mass murderers, his genocidal regime was responsible for the deaths of up to 3 million Cambodians (out of a population of 7 million).
April 16
1457 BC – Estimated date on which “the Battle of Megiddo took place during a rebellion against Pharaoh Thutmose III.” A Canaanite coalition lost the battle against their Egyptian overlords.
778 – Louis the Pious, who would go on to succeed his father Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, is born.
1346 – Reported date on which Dušan the Mighty is crowned emperor, marking the start of the Serbian Empire.
1746 – The Battle of Culloden occurs in Scotland, as Catholic Stuart prince Charles Edward, also known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” and his Jacobite forces are tragically defeated by the Protestant English under the Duke of Cumberland. The Jacobite forces were brutally massacred and Charles’s hopes of the throne were dashed.
1862 – “[National Archives] President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this law came 8 1/2 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation…It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration.”
1867 – Wilbur Wright, who invented the first airplane with his brother Orville, is born. Wilbur took the first successful plane flight in 1903.
1889 – Charlie Chaplin, a very famous and influential actor, comedian, and early screen star, is born.
1927 – Joseph Ratzinger, later the reforming and traditionalist Pope Benedict XVI, is born in Germany.
April 17
1492 – Reported date of Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus signing an agreement with the Spanish monarchs to find a new sea route to the Indies, and to spread the Catholic faith to peoples he might encounter.
1790 – Benjamin Franklin dies. One of the most famous and influential of the American Founding Fathers, a “statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat,” he helped draft the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolution, and was also a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
1865 – Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Union Gen. William T. Sherman meet for the start of negotiations that would result in the largest Confederate surrender and the end of the U.S. Civil War.
1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan ends the first Sino-Japanese War.
1918 – William Holden, later an Academy Award-winning actor, is born in Illinois. He grave memorable performances in movies including “Golden Boy,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Stalag 17,” “Sabrina,” and “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”
1961 – “[JFKLibrary] 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.”
1975 – The Communist Khmer Rouge take over Phnom Penh, Cambodia, marking the beginning of a period of dictatorship and genocide in the country. Read exclusive stories of survivors of the genocide on PJ Media.
April 18
1025 – Reportedly the date on which Duke Bolesław the Brave of Poland “succeeded in obtaining the papal permission to crown himself, and thus became the first King of Poland.”
1506 – Pope Julius II lays the cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica.
1775 – Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott set off on a now-famous ride to warn their fellow Patriots that British troops were coming to Concord and Lexington to seize military supplies and arrest Patriot leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. Dawes and Prescott evaded capture but Revere was caught by the British twice. The next day the American Revolution began on Lexington Green. Read my piece for more details.
1783 – George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, issues a Proclamation for the Cessation of Hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The beginning of Washington’s proclamation says:
“The Commander in Chief, orders the cessation of Hostilities, between the United States of America, and the King of Great Britain, to be publickly proclaimed, to morrow at the Newbuilding … the Chaplains with the several Brigades will render thanks to the Almighty God, for all his mercies, particularly, for his over-ruling the wra[th] of man, to his own glory, and causing the rage of War, to cease amongst the Nations.”
1906 – “[ABC] a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.”
1909 – Joan of Arc, the French national heroine murdered by the English with the help of Church officials, is beatified by Pope Pius X.
1923 – The first baseball game happens in Yankees Stadium. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1, with Babe Ruth hitting a memorable home run.
1942 – Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his Army Air Corps men carry out the famous Doolittle Raid against Japan during WWII. It “forced the Japanese to recall combat forces for home defense, raised fears among the Japanese civilians, and boosted morale among Americans and our Allies abroad.”
1954 – “[ABC] Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.”
1955 – Albert Einstein dies at Princeton. A German mathematician, physicist, and Nobel Prize winner, he was one of the most impactful scientists in history.
1983 – A deadly Islamic Jihad car suicide bombing happens at the U.S. embassy in West Beirut, Lebanon, killing 17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 others.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.
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Author: Catherine Salgado
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