Apr 21 in History
753BC — Rome is founded by Romulus after killing his twin brother Remus. The brothers — who, according to mythology, were left on the bank of
Tiber River as infants to die, rescued and suckled by a she-wolf in a cave (the Lupercal) — returned to Alba Longa as young adults where they discovered their identity as the grandsons of King Numitor and helped him regain his throne. The twins set out to build their own city, but in a dispute over its location on the seven hills (Romulus preferred Palatine, above the Lupercal; Remus preferred Aventine) Romulus kills Remus and goes on to rule over Rome for many years. The date is celebrated annually as Natale di Roma. 1526 — The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty (an Afghan dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1451), Ibrahim Lodi, is defeated and killed by Zahir ud-Din Muhammad Babur (a direct descendant of Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire) in the First Battle of Panipat. Babur establishes the Mughal dynasty, which lasts until 1858.
1729 — Catherine II, the Great, empress of Russia (1762-96), is born in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia.
1849 — Oskar Hertwig, embryologist who defines fertilisation, is born in Friedberg, Germany. By studying sea urchins, he discovers that only one spermatozoon is necessary to fertilise an egg and that, once one spermatozoon enters the egg, the latter forms a vitelline membrane blocking other spermatozoa from entering.
1856 — Stonemasons and building workers on sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eighthour day in an action initiated by the Australian labour movement. They are among the first organised workers in the world to strike an eight-hour-day deal. 1865 — The funeral train carrying the coffins of assassinated (on the 14th) US president Abraham Lincoln and his son Willie, who died of typhoid in 1862 at age 11 and was disinterred, leaves Washington,
D.C. After a journey of 2,662km to Lincoln’s home town of Springfield, Illinois, father and son are buried side by side in the Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 4. 1915 — Anthony Quinn,actor (“Zorba the Greek”), is born in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1926 — Elizabeth II, queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms (since February 6 1952), is born in Mayfair, London.
1934 — The “Surgeon’s Photograph”, the most famous photo (supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist) allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail. 1966 — Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie visits Jamaica. It is celebrated as Grounation Day, a Rastafari holy day.