Hey, It Was April 15th And You Know What THAT Means, Dontcha! 2 + 2 = Ya Know!?!

 Divining is sooooooo divine?

Since it was all the rage yesterday to speculate why April 15th was chosen ('It's Tax Day!'  'It's Patriot's Day!' 'Tim McVeigh chose April 19th not because of Waco, as he said, but because Patriot's Day used to be celebrated on April 15th until 1969!'  'The right-wing extremist that did this chose April 15th because Tim McVeigh bombed Oklahoma City on April 19th!'  'The right-wing extremists behind the Boston Marathon bombing understand that Patriot's Day used to be April 19th, which is why McVeigh chose that date, but it is now April 15th so heelllloooooooo!') - for what it's worth, I'm going with 'It's Boston Marathon Day, the oldest and most elite marathon, and there will be a lot of people on the street!' ... but call me crazy or something - here is a list of historical events that happened on April 15th:

* 769 – The Lateran Council condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings.

* 1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.

* 1395 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Terek River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Volga. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the Golden Horde throne. Tokhtamysh escapes to Lithuania.

* 1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.

* 1632 – Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. 

* 1638 – Tokugawa shogunate forces put down the Shimabara Rebellion when they retake Hara Castle from the rebels. 

* 1642 – Irish Confederate Wars: A Confederate Irish militia is routed in the Battle of Kilrush when it attempts to halt the progress of the British Army.

* 1715 – The Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

* 1738 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.

* 1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.

* 1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.

* 1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

* 1817 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.

* 1861 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War

* 1865 – Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.

* 1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.

* 1896 – Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

* 1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.

* 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive. 

* 1920 – Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.

* 1921 – Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.

* 1922 – U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.

* 1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.

* 1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.

*1927 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, begins.

* 1935 – Roerich Pact signed in Washington, D.C.

* 1936 – First day of the Arab revolt in Palestine.

* 1936 – Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.

* 1940 – The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.

* 1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom killing one thousand people.

* 1942 – The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI. 

* 1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.

* 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.

* 1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress

* 1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois

* 1957 – White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.

* 1960 – At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

* 1969 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.

* 1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.

* 1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

* 1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.

* 1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.

* 1992 – The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

* 1994 – Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).

 

Here are some notable births...

* 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath (d. 1519)

* 1642 – Suleiman II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1691)

* 1684 – Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)

* 1721 – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (d. 1765)

* 1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian politician, philanthropist, and founder of the Seagram Company Ltd (d. 1919)

* 1843 – Henry James, American author (d. 1916)

* 1858 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (d. 1917)

* 1875 – James J. Jeffries, American boxer (d. 1953)

* 1883 – Stanley Bruce, Australian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)

* 1885 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (d. 1947)

* 1886 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d. 1921)

* 1888 – Maximilian Kronberger, German poet (d. 1904)

* 1889 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (d. 1975)

* 1889 – A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d. 1979)

* 1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)

* 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)

* 1896 – Robert Henry Best, South Carolina-born broadcaster of Nazi propaganda convicted of treason in 1948 (d. 1952)

* 1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)

* 1902 – Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d. 2002)

* 1908 – Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)

* 1912 – Kim Il-sung, Korean politician, Eternal President of North Korea (d. 1994)

* 1916 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American heir and businessman (d. 1982)

* 1921 – Georgi Beregovoi, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1995)

* 1922 – Harold Washington, American politician (d. 1987)

* 1923 – Robert DePugh, American anti-Communist activist (d. 2009)

* 1924 – Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor
 

* 1927 – Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)

* 1930 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Icelandic politician, President of Iceland

* 1931 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish writer, poet and translator, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature

* 1932 – Suresh Bhat, noted Marathi poet from the state of Maharashtra, India (d. 2003)

* 1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)

* 1938 – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born Italian actress

* 1940 –Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (d. 1972)

* 1940 – Robert Walker Jr., American actor
 

* 1941 – Howard Berman, American politician

* 1942 – Francis X. DiLorenzo, American bishop

* 1942 – Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)

* 1944 – Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader, first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (d. 1996)

* 1944 – Dave Edmunds, Welsh musician and producer (Love Sculpture and Rockpile)

* 1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American television producer and writer

* 1948 – Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)

* 1951 – Heloise, American columnist
 

* 1954 – Seka, American porn actress

* 1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian film producer (d. 1997)

* 1959 – Emma Thompson, English actress

* 1960 – Pierre Aubry, Canadian hockey player

* 1960 – Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist

* 1960 – Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant

* 1962 – Surjit Bindrakhia, Punjabi singer

* 1967 – Dara Torres, American swimmer

* 1968 – Ed O'Brien, British musician and songwriter (Radiohead)

* 1971 – Jason Sehorn, American football player

* 1972 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)

* 1974 – Mike Quinn, American football player

* 1975 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (d. 2006)

* 1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player

* 1978 – Luis Fonsi, Puerto Rican singer and composer

* 1980 – Michelle L'amour, American burlesque performer

* 1980 – Aida Mollenkamp, American chef and writer

* 1980 – Victor Núñez, Costa Rican footballer

* 1981 – Andrés D'Alessandro, Argentine football player

* 1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
 

* 1983 – Bronson La'Cassie, Australian golfer

* 1984 – Cam Janssen, American hockey player

* 1985 – Chris Cates, American baseball player

* 1985 – John Danks, American baseball player

* 1985 – Amy Reid, American porn actress

* 1986 – Tom Heaton, English footballer

* 1986 – Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Ghanaian footballer

* 1988 – Eliza Doolittle, English singer-songwriter

* 1990 – Emma Watson, English actress

* 1991 – Daiki Arioka, Japanese actor and singer (Hey! Say! JUMP)

Some notable deaths... 

* 1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex (b. 1001)

* 1220 – Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne (b. 1157)

* 1415 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist and grammarian (b. 1355)

* 1621 – John Carver, English merchant, first governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1576)

* 1632 – George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician and colonizer (b. 1580)

* 1652 – Patriarch Joseph, Russian religious leader

* 1659 – Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)

* 1704 – Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (b. 1628)

* 1719 – Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, second wife of Louis XIV of France (b. 1635)

* 1761 – Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1682)

* 1764 – Madame de Pompadour, French court, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)

* 1804 – Charles Pichegru, French general (b. 1761)

* 1854 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist, and writer (b. 1773)

* 1865 – Abraham Lincoln, American politician, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)

* 1889 – Father Damien, Flemish missionary (b. 1840)

* 1898 – Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader

* 1912 – Victims of the RMS Titanic disaster

* 1927 – Gaston Leroux, French writer (b. 1868)

* 1938 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)

* 1943 – Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (b. 1882)

 * 1944 – Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Soviet general (b. 1901)

* 1945 – Hermann Florstedt, German Nazi leader (b. 1895)

* 1948 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (b. 1892)

* 1949 – Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)

* 1967 – Totò, Italian comedian, actor, writer, singer, and songwriter (b. 1898)

* 1969 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (b. 1887)

* 1970 – Ripper Collins, American baseball player (b. 1904)

* 1971 – Dan Reeves, American football team owner (b. 1912)

* 1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1905)

* 1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)

* 1983 – John Engstead, American photographer (b. 1909)

* 1986 – Jean Genet, French author (b. 1910)

* 1989 – Nesuhi  Ertegün, American record executive (b. 1917)

* 1989 – Hu Yaobang, Chinese politician (b. 1915)

* 1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)

* 1992 – Otis Barton, American diver (b. 1899)

* 1994 – John Curry, English figure skater (b. 1949)

* 1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)

* 1999 – Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and race car designer (b. 1944)

* 2001 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Ramones and Sniper) (b. 1951)

* 2002 – Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)

* 2003 – Reg Bundy, British drag queen, actor, and dancer (b. 1941)

* 2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (b. 1920)

* 2008 – Krister Stendahl, Swedish theologian and bishop (b. 1921)

* 2009 – Ed Blake, American baseball player (b. 1925)

* 2009 – Clement Freud, British writer and broadcaster (b. 1924)

* 2009 – László Tisza, Hungarian-American physicist (b. 1907)

* 2010 – Jack Herer, American author and cannabis activist (b. 1939)

* 2012 – Dwayne Schintzius, American basketball player (b. 1968)

Some holidays and observances...

* Abbo II of Metz Christian Feast Day

* Father Damien Day (Hawaii) Christian Feast Day

* Hunna

* Paternus of Avranches

* April 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

* Earliest day on which Sechseläuten can fall, while April 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in April. (Zurich)

* Fordicidia (Roman Empire)

* Hillsborough Disaster Memorial (Anfield at Liverpool)

* Jackie Robinson Day (Major League Baseball)

* Latest day on which New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures can fall. (see April 14)

* Tax Day, the official deadline for filing an individual tax return (or requesting an extension). (United States, Philippines)

http://tinyurl.com/cganhwy