On the surface, it would seem that April 11 is just another day. This year, it’s even a Wednesday. Nothing good happens on a Wednesday. But oddly, even though we rarely recognize it as an important day, a lot of stuff happened on April 11. Wars were won; home rule was granted. Creatives and heroes were born and died. It's also World Parkinson's Day, acknowledging the birth of eighteenth-century doctor James Parkinson, the first recorder of the disease. It's also the start of Yom Hashoah, one of the Holocaust remembrance days. In several places across the world, from Sundown tonight until tomorrow evening, names of people killed during the Holocaust will be read. Every day is a day that things have happened and will continue to happen, but let's look at some interesting events in the history of the world:
1689: The crowning of William and Mary
1727: The premiere of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion
(New York Philharmonic on Freegal)(Stream or download for free!)
1868: The end of the Tokugawa Shogunate
1876: The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks begin
1881: Spelman College is founded
1909: Tel Aviv is established as a city in Ottoman Palestine
(Tel Aviv)
1945: American forces liberate Buchenwald
1968: President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968
(Ban on housing discrimination upheld)
1970: Apollo 13 launches
1976: The Apple I is created
1979: Dictator Idi Amin is deposed
Curious for more? Check out This Day in History!
What's going to happen today?
Guess we'll find out.
