This Week In History
April 1, 1918 Britain’s Royal Air Force was formed by an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Force. It is the world’s oldest independent air force 1919: Germany’s Bauhaus school, combining crafts with the fine arts, was founded by Walter Gropius 1927: The first gramophone to change records automatically went on sale 2012: Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in Myanmar’s parliament, having been released after 20 years under house arrest in 2010 2016: An extensive coral reef system was discovered off the coast of French Guiana and northern Brazil
April 2, 1979 The mass graves of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia were first revealed. More than a million people are believed to have been executed from 1975-79 1992: New York Mafia boss John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering 1992: U.S. scientists discovered a huge fungus weighing over 100 tons, the world’s largest known organism 1993: The Soviet Union admitted to having systematically dumped nuclear waste in Arctic and Eastern waters 1995: Scientists announced that water in liquid form had been found on Mars
April 3, 1973 Motorola researcher Martin Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone. Costing $3,995 and weighing 1.1kg, it was nicknamed “the brick” 1948: The U.S. allocated $6 billion to the Marshall Plan to aid European recovery after World War II 1961: Leadbeater’s Possum, emblem of Australia’s state of Victoria, was rediscovered after 50 years 1996: The World Health Organisation announced it had developed a birth control injection for men 2007: France’s high-speed TGV train smashed the world record for a train on rails, reaching 574.8km/h
April 4, 1968 U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, best remembered for his “I Have a Dream” speech, was assassinated on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee 1818: The U.S. Congress decided the nation’s flag should consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star added for every new state 1932: Vitamin C was first isolated from lemon juice. This led to the prevention of scurvy
1963: The Beatles occupied the top five places on the U.S. singles charts 2017: A graphene-oxide membrane able to produce drinking water from salt water was developed in Britain
April 5, 1998 The Akashi-Kaikyo suspension bridge, the world’s longest, was opened in Japan. It crosses the busy Akashi Strait linking the city of Kobe to Awaji Island 1614: Pocahontas, the daughter of Native American chief Powahatan, married tobacco planter John Rolfe 1895: Playwright Oscar Wilde was arrested on charges of homosexuality 1910: Kissing was banned on French railways for fear it would cause delays 2008: Texas authorities took 183 women and children into protective custody from a ranch belonging to a breakaway Mormon sect April 6, 2017 Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn signed anew constitution into law, containing various democratic reforms and changes to the electoral system 1868: Emperor Meiji of Japan abolished feudalism and promised a modern democratic government 1869: Celluloid was patented as an alternative to ivory for making billiard balls 1998: The drug tamoxifen was reported to reduce the likelihood of high-risk women contracting breast cancer 2003: A British explorer became the first person to walk alone and unaided to the geomagnetic North Pole
April 7, 1968 British motor racing ace Jim Clark, F1 world champion in 1963 and 1965, was killed in a 170mph crash when his car skidded off the track at Hockenheim in Germany 1948: The constitution of the World Health Organisation came into force 1953: Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden was elected Secretary General of the United Nations 1963: The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia came into being with Josip Broz Tito named President for Life 2017: The U.S. military launched 60 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian airbase, following the suspected use of chemical weapons on civilians