THIS DAY IN HISTORY 07/04

This Day in History 07/04 APRIL 7TH

95 – France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length.

1798 – Mississippi Territory organized

1902 – Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms

1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

1934 – In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspended his campaign of civil disobedience

1940 – 1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T. Washington)

1941 – British generals O’Connor & Neame captured in North Africa

1946 – Syria’s independence from France is officially recognised.

1948 – World Health Organization forms by UN

1953 – Dag Hammarskjoeld of Sweden elected 2nd UN general-secretary

1956 – Spain relinquishes her protectorate in Morocco

1963 – Yugoslavia proclaimed a Socialistic republic

1992 – Republika Srpska (aka the Bosnian Serb Republic) announces its independence.

2012 – Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

1770 – William Wordsworth, England, poet laureate (Prelude)

1926 – Johannes Rood, Dutch immunologist (Eurotransplant)

1927 – Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer (d. 2003)

1954 – Jackie Chan, martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx)

1964 – Russell Crowe, Wellington, New Zealand, Australian/New Zealand actor (A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator)

FAMOUS DEATHS

1972 – Abeid Karume, Tanzanian sheik/president, murdered

1972 – Victor Wong, actor (Mission to Moscow, King Kong) dies at 65

FAMOUS WEDDING

1921 – French president Charles de Gaulle (30) weds Yvonne Vendroux (20)

2003 – Academy Award “Gladiator” actor Russell Crowe (39) weds singer Danielle Spencer (32) at his 560-acre cattle farm in Nana Glen, New South Wales, Australia Adejokeiyabadan’s blogblog

THIS DAY IN HISTORY 20/03

This day in #history 20/03

MARCH 20TH

1944 – Mount Vesuvius, Italy, explodes

1951 – Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded

1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France

1957 – Britain accepts NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejects it

1986 – Jacques Chirac forms French government

1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.

1994 – Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa

2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

1856 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of scientific management

1921 – Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, Senegal, director general (UNESCO)

1957 – Spike Lee [Shelton Jackson Lee], Atlanta, Florida, American film director (Mo Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X)

1963 – David Thewlis, Blackpool, Lancashire, English actor (Remus Lupin-Harry Potter series)

1972 – Ajah Wilson-Ogechukwu, soccer player (Roda JC)

1984 – Fernando Torres, Spanish footballer

FAMOUS DEATHS

1964 – Brendan Behan, Irish writer/poet, dies at 41

2010 – Liz Carpenter, American feminist writer (b. 1920)

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