April 30......

April 30 is the 120th (121st in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 245 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Dissent "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." — Thomas Jefferson

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Liberal Bashing "The inevitable logic of the liberal position is to be for treason." — Ann Coulter, from her book all about liberal treachery

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 30 - Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. (Calculated)

● 311 - Emperor Galerius recognizes Christians legally in the Roman Empire

● 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule.

● 418 Roman Emperor Honorius (who ruled 395-423) issued a decree denouncing Pelagianism, which taught that humanity can take the initial and fundamental steps toward salvation by its own efforts, apart from divine grace.

● 711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).

● 1006 - Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.

● 1064 - German King Henry IV gives away Utrecht county of West Friesland

● 1250 - King Louis IX of France was ransomed for one million dollars.

● 1349 - Jewish community at Radolszell Germany, exterminated

● 1396 - Crusaders & earl of Nevers depart from Dijon

● 1483 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503.

● 1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.

● 1506 - Philip of Bourgondy & England sign trade agreement

● 1527 - Henry VIII and King Francis of France signed the treaty of Westminster.

● 1562 - 1st French colonists in US Jean Ribaut & Hugenots at Parris Island NC

● 1563 - Jews are expelled from France by order of Charles VI

● 1616 - English King Jacob I leaves Brielle/Vlissingen

● 1650 - French rebel Henri de la Tour Turenne signs treaty with Spain

● 1661 - Tsjeng Tsj'eng-Kung begins siege of Dutch fort Zeelandia, Formosa

● 1671 - Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.

● 1725 - Emperor Charles VI & King Philip IV of Spain sign Treaty of Vienna thus Spain withdrew from Quadruple Alliance.

● 1748 - Ceasefire at Aken ends

● 1748 - French troops occupy Maastricht

● 1763 - London Journalist John Wilkes confined in the Tower

● 1772 - John Clais patents 1st scale

● 1774 - Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee

● 1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.

● 1790 - Colonial troops occupy Bonni's marroon village

● 1794 - The Battle of Boulou is fought, in which French forces defeated the Spanish under General Union.

● 1798 - Department of the Navy is established

● 1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling – overnight – the size of the young nation.

● 1808 - 1st practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri

● 1812 - The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.

● 1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation

● 1841 - Birth of Orville J. Nave, the U.S. Armed Services chaplain who compiled the "Nave's Topical Bible" -- still in print!

● 1849 - The republican patriot and guerrilla leader Giuseppe Garabaldi repulsed a French attack on Rome.

● 1857 - San Jose State University forms

● 1860 - Navaho Indians attack Fort Defiance (Canby)

● 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln ordered Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory

● 1862 - Swift Run Gap WV skirmishes

● 1863 - Mexican forces attacked the French Foreign Legion in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.

● 1864 - Work began on the Dams along the Red River. The work would allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.

● 1864 - New York becomes 1st state to charge a hunting license fee

● 1864 - Battle of Jenkins' Ferry AR; General William Read Scurry is killed

● 1865 - General Shermans "Haines's Bluff" at Snyder's Mill VA

● 1867 - Death of Ithamar Conkey, 52, a popular 19th century English bass vocalist. He also composed the hymn-tune RATHBUN to which we sing today, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."

● 1871 - Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory. 144 surrendering Apaches are killed by white and Mexican adventurers.

● 1888 - Hailstones kill about 250 in Moradabad district of Delhi India

● 1889 - 1st US national holiday, on centennial of Washington's inauguration

● 1894 - Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.

● 1900 - Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor. This was done without the consent of the Hawaiians of course.

● 1900 - Train engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad died in a wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying at the controls in an effort to save the passengers. (The event was immortalized in song.)

● 1902 - Theodore Schultz, the American economist who won a Nobel Prize for his important studies of the human factor in the workplace, was born.

● 1904 - Birth of John T. Benson, Jr, religious composer and former president of Heartwarming Music in Nashville. His best-known sacred composition was the hymn, "Love Lifted Me."

● 1904 - Ice cream cone makes its debut

● 1911 - Portugal approves woman suffrage

● 1917 - American Friends Service Committee founded.

● 1919 - Germany - Troops crush the revolutionaries who have declared a Republic in Bavaria state; over the next three days they will kill over 700.

● 1920 - Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

● 1921 - Pope Benedict XV encyclical "On Dante"

● 1925 - Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for USD $146 million plus $50 million for charity.

● 1927 - The Federal Industrial Institute for Women, opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.

● 1927 - Princess Juliana gets seat in Dutch Council of State

● 1928 - Cherkess Autonomous Region is established in RSFSR (until 1957)

● 1929 - Earnest Streeruwitz becomes chancellor of Austria

● 1930 - The Soviet Union proposed a military alliance with France and Great Britain.

● 1931 - The George Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opened.

● 1934 - Austria gets "Austrian fascist" constitution

● 1935 - World Congress for Women's Rights concludes in Istanbul

● 1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to appear on television. He was opening the New York World's Fair, billed as a look at "the world of tomorrow."

● 1939 - The first railroad car equipped with fluorescent lights was put into service. The train car was known as the "General Pershing Zephyr."

● 1940 - Belle Martell was licensed in California by state boxing officials. She was the first American woman, prizefight referee.

● 1941 - Spread of Judaism begins in Croatia

● 1942 - 1st submarine built on Great Lakes launched, (Peto), Manitowoc WI

● 1943 - Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews forms

● 1943 - Dutch strike against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry

● 1943 - World War II: Operation Mincemeat – The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.

● 1944 - English scholar J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in a letter: 'Evil labors with vast powers and perpetual success -- in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in. So it is in general, and so it is in our own lives.'

● 1945 - Concentration camp München-Allag freed

● 1945 - Lord Haw-Haw calls for crusade against the Bolsheviks

● 1945 - Red Army occupies Demmin

● 1945 - Red Army opens attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin

● 1945 - Russian Army frees Ravensbrück concentration camp

● 1945 - US troops attack the Elbe

● 1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. {The sex must have been really, really good or really, really bad. Suicide seems an awful drastic alternative to divorce.}

● 1947 - In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is officially renamed Hoover Dam again.

● 1948 - In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.

● 1948 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak

● 1952 - Anne Frank published in English; The British public gets the chance to read The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Anne Frank who hid from the Nazis in Holland during the war.

● 1953 - The British West Indian colonies agreed on the formation of the British Caribbean Federation that would eventually become a self-governing unit in the British Commonwealth.

● 1955 - Element 101, Mendelevium, announced

● 1955 - Imperial Bank of India nationalized

● 1955 - West German unions protest for 40-hour work week & more wages

● 1961 - 1st shuttle flights between Washington DC, Boston MA & New York NY begin (Eastern)

● 1961 - Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize

● 1962 - NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to an altitude of 75,190 meters

● 1964 - The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.

● 1966 - Havasupai tribe in Grand Canyon reject BIA proposal to "modernize" tribal town of Supai, Arizona with roads, chairlift and helicopter service.

● 1966 - The Church of Satan is founded.

● 1967 - Highest tower in the world finished, 537 meters (USSR)

● 1968 - U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.

● 1970 - Announcement of secret U.S. bombing and invasion of previously neutral Cambodia prompts demonstrations at college campuses across U.S. Four days before Kent State, National Guard troops fire shotguns on protesters at Ohio State University in Columbus, injuring seven. One thousand march in downtown Seattle; protesters trash ROTC offices at the University of Washington.

● 1972 - One thousand rally on Mercer Island to protest Soviet mistreatment of Jews.

● 1972 - The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.

● 1973 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aides H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.

● 1973 - Nixon takes rap for Watergate scandal; President Richard Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement.

● 1974 - President Richard Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tape recordings

● 1975 - Last US helicopter leaves US embassy grounds in Vietnam, Saigon surrenders

● 1975 - Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gains control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.

● 1975 - End of Vietnam War. Vietnam is reunited after 30 years of resistance to U.S. domination and 100 years of French colonial rule.

● 1976 - Royal Canadian Mint opens a branch in Winnipeg Manitoba

● 1977 - Mothers hold first rally for the disappeared at Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

● 1978 - "Rock Against Racism" march and concert, headlined by The Clash, Hackney, England. The event, spurred by the explosion of politicized punk bands, was a direct response to 1976 on-stage comments by Eric Clapton -- a man who made millions from blues-based rock and a cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" -- that black immigrants in Britain should be "sent home."

● 1980 - Queen Beatrix of Netherlands, Wilhelmina Armgard, ascends to the throne

● 1980 - Terrorists seize Iranian Embassy in London

● 1980 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, abdicates

● 1982 - Alvaro Magana chosen to succeed Jose N Duarte as President of El Salvador

● 1982 - Iranian offensive in Khusistan

● 1984 - U.S. President Reagan signed cultural and scientific agreements with China. He also signed a tax accord that would make it easier for American companies to operate in China.

● 1985 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1985 - Last edition of Brink Daily Mail/Sunday Express in South Africa

● 1986 - First use of CS gas against anti-nuclear demonstrators, Wackersdorf, West Germany.

● 1989 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar

● 1990 - US 66th manned space mission STS 31 (Discovery 10) returns from space

● 1990 - US hostage Frank Reed freed after 4 years in hands of pro-Iranians

● 1991 - A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people.

● 1992 - A Univ. of Washington rally protesting the verdict acquitting Rodney King's assailants marches off campus and downtown via Interstate 5. Two nights of angry disturbances in Seattle result in five injuries and dozens of arrests.

● 1992 - First British Trident submarine launched, Barrow-in-Burness, Britain.

● 1993 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN.

● 1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. President to visit Northern Ireland.

● 1996 - About 120 activists arrested over the next eight days in Washington, D.C., in support of a White House fast by Sister Diana Ortiz. Ortiz was kidnapped, tortured, and raped by Guatemalan Army officers in 1989; she was fasting to demand that the U.S. government release information on her assailants.

● 1996 - Dutch/Italian Beppo-SAX launches from Cape Canaveral

● 1997 - Big Ben stops at 12:11 PM for 54 minutes

● 1997 - President Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea chooses to attend Stanford College

● 1997 - Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov wounded in assassination attempt

● 1998 - NATO was expanded to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three nations were formally admitted the following April at NATO's 50th anniversary summit.

● 1998 - United and Delta airlines announced their alliance that would give them control of 1/3 of all U.S. passenger seats.

● 1998 - In the U.S., Federal regulators fined a contractor $2.25 million for improper handling of oxygen canisters on ValuJet that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1996.

● 1999 - Dozens injured in Soho nail bomb; Two people are killed and at least 30 injured in the third nail-bomb attack in London in two weeks.

● 1999 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.

● 2001 - Chandra Levy was last seen in Washington, DC. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park on May 22, 2002. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.

● 2001 - The Mitchell Report on the Arab-Israeli conflict is published.

● 2002 - A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf for another five years.

● 2003 - Mahmoud Abbas took office as the first Palestinian prime minister. International mediators presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a "road map" to peace.

● 2003 - The U.S. Navy withdrew from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico.

● 2004 - Former NBA star Jayson Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of a limousine driver at his New Jersey mansion, but found guilty of trying to cover up the shooting.

● 2005 - Missing Georgia woman Jennifer Wilbanks turned up in Albuquerque, N.M., originally claiming to have been abducted but then admitting she was a "runaway bride."

BIRTHS

● 1623 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France (d. 1708)

● 1651 - Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French educational reformer, Catholic saint (d. 1719)

● 1662 - Queen Mary II of England (d. 1694)

● 1664 - François Louis, Prince of Conti, French general (d. 1709)

● 1710 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (d. 1795)

● 1721 - Roger Sherman, American statesman (d. 1793)

● 1723 - Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French naturalist (d. 1806)

● 1770 - David Thompson, Canadian explorer (d. 1857)

● 1777 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician (d. 1855)

● 1803 - Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (d. 1879)

● 1829 - Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist (d. 1884)

● 1857 - Eugene Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1940)

● 1864 - Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet (d. 1913)

● 1865 - Max Nettlau, German anarchist (d. 1944)

● 1869 - Hans Poelzig, German architect (d. 1936)

● 1870 - Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d. 1948)

● 1874 - Cyriel Verschaeve, Belgian clergyman (d. 1949)

● 1876 - Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist (d. 1937)

● 1877 - Alice B. Toklas, American companion of Gertrude Stein (d. 1967)

● 1883 - Jaroslav Hašek, Czech novelist (d. 1923)

● 1888 - John Crowe Ransom, American poet and critic (d. 1974)

● 1893 - Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi foreign minister (1933-45) (d. 1946)

● 1896 - Hans List, Austrian inventor (d. 1996)

● 1901 - Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born economist, Nobel laureate (d. 1985)

● 1902 - Theodore Schultz, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)

● 1908 - Eve Arden, American radio and television actress ("Our Miss Brooks") (d. 1990)

● 1908 - Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic foreign and later prime minister (d. 1970)

● 1909 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)

● 1909 - F. E. McWilliam, Northern Irish sculptor (d. 1992)

● 1914 - Vermont Royster, American journalist and editor of The Wall Street Journal (d. 1996)

● 1916 - Claude Shannon, American engineer and mathematician (d. 2001)

● 1916 - Robert Shaw, American conductor (d. 1999)

● 1921 - George Crowe, American baseball player

● 1923 - Al Lewis, American actor (d. 2006)

● 1925 - Johnny Horton, American musician (d. 1960)

● 1927 - Kenneth Kaunda, former Zambian president (1964-1991)

● 1926 - Cloris Leachman, American actress

● 1930 - Lawton Chiles, American politician (d. 1998)

● 1933 - Willie Nelson, American musician

● 1938 - Gary Collins, Talk show host

● 1938 - Larry Niven, American author

● 1940 - Burt Young, American actor

● 1941 - Johnny Farina, American musician (Santo and Johnny)

● 1943 - Bobby Vee, American singer

● 1943 - Frederick Chiluba, former Zambian president (1991-2001)

● 1944 - Jill Clayburgh, American actress

● 1945 - Annie Dillard, American writer

● 1945 - Michael Smith, American astronaut (d. 1986)

● 1946 - King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

● 1946 - Don Schollander, American swimmer

● 1947 - Finn Kalvik, Norwegian singer

● 1947 - Mats Odell, Swedish politician

● 1948 - Allan Arkush, Director

● 1948 - Perry King, American actor

● 1949 - Phil Garner, baseball manager

● 1949 - Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister of Portugal

● 1953 - Merrill Osmond, Singer (The Osmonds)

● 1954 - Jane Campion, New Zealand film director

● 1955 - Nicolas Hulot, French journalist

● 1956 - Jorge Chaminé, Portuguese baritone

● 1956 - Lars von Trier, Danish film director

● 1959 - Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

● 1959 - Paul Gross, Actor

● 1959 - W. Thomas Smith Jr., American author and columnist

● 1960 - Kerry Healey, American politician

● 1961 - Isiah Thomas, American basketball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1962 - Robert Reynolds, Country musician (The Mavericks)

● 1963 - Michael Waltrip, American race car driver

● 1964 - Barrington Levy, Jamaican musician

● 1964 - Ian Healy, Australian cricketer

● 1965 - Adrian Pasdar, American actor ("Heroes")

● 1967 - Turbo B, Rapper (Snap)

● 1969 - Paulo Jr., Brazilian musician (Sepultura)

● 1969 - Clark Vogeler, American musician (The Toadies)

● 1971 - Darren Emerson, English DJ (Underworld)

● 1971 - John Boyne, Irish novelist

● 1971 - Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Country singer

● 1971 - Chris Henderson, Rock musician (3 Doors Down)

● 1971 - Clark Vogeler, Rock musician

● 1971 - Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple, R&B singer (Soul for Real)

● 1972 - Lisa Dean Ryan, Actress

● 1972 - J.R. Richards, Rock singer (Dishwalla)

● 1973 - Jeff Timmons, R&B singer (98 Degrees)

● 1973 - Akon, R&B singer

● 1974 - Mikey Chan, Australian musician

● 1975 - Johnny Galecki, Actor

● 1975 - Elliott Sadler, American race car driver

● 1975 - Mike Chat, American actor

● 1976 - Amanda Palmer, American musician (The Dresden Dolls)

● 1981 - John O'Shea, Irish footballer

● 1982 - Kirsten Dunst, American actress ("Spiderman" movies)

● 1982 - Lloyd Banks, American rapper

● 1982 - Andrew Seeley, Canadian actor and singer

● 1983 - Jae Millz, Dominican African American Rapper

● 1983 - Troy Williamson, American football player

● 1984 - Shawn Daivari, Persian-American professional wrestler and manager

● 1984 - Tyler Wilkinson, Country singer (The Wilkinsons)

● 1985 - Miss Alex White, American musician

● 1987 - Nikki Webster, Australian entertainer

● 2002 - Miguel Urdangarín y de Borbón, Spanish royal

DEATHS

● 65 - Lucan, Roman poet (b. 39)

● 1063 - Emperor Renzong of China (b. 1010)

● 1341 - John III, Duke of Brittany (b. 1285)

● 1439 - Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, English military leader (b. 1382)

● 1524 - Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, French soldier (b. 1473)

● 1544 - Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor of England

● 1555 - Pope Marcellus II (b. 1501)

● 1632 - Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly, Bavarian general (b. 1559)

● 1642 - Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince (b. 1578)

● 1660 - Petrus Scriverius, Dutch writer (b. 1576)

● 1655 - Eustache Le Sueur, French painter (b. 1617)

● 1696 - Robert Plot, British naturalist (b. 1640)

● 1712 - Philipp van Limborch, Dutch Protestant theologian (b. 1633)

● 1736 - Johann Albert Fabricius, German classical scholar and bibliographer (b. 1668)

● 1758 - François d'Agincourt, French composer (b. 1684)

● 1792 - John Montagu, supposed inventor of the sandwich (b. 1718)

● 1795 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (b. 1716)

● 1847 - Archduke Charles of Austria, Austrian general (b. 1771)

● 1865 - Robert Fitzroy, English admiral and meteorologist (b. 1805)

● 1875 - Jean Frederic Waldeck, French explorer, lithographer, and cartographer (b. 1766)

● 1883 - Édouard Manet, French painter (b. 1832)

● 1900 - Casey Jones, American train engineer (b. 1863)

● 1903 - Emily Stowe, Canadian physician and suffragist (b.1831)

● 1936 - Alfred Edward Housman, English poet (b. 1859)

● 1943 - Otto Jespersen, Danish philologist (b. 1860)

● 1943 - Beatrice Webb, British economist (b. 1858)

● 1945 - Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's new wife (suicide) (b. 1912)

● 1945 - Adolf Hitler, Austrian Nazi dictator of Germany (suicide) (b. 1889)

● 1956 - Alben W. Barkley, Vice President of the United States (b. 1877)

● 1970 - Inger Stevens, Swedish actress (b. 1934)

● 1973 – Václav Renč, Czech poet, dramatist and translator (b. 1911)

● 1974 - Agnes Moorehead, American actress (b. 1900)

● 1980 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician (b. 1898)

● 1982 - Lester Bangs, American music journalist, author, and musician (b. 1949)

● 1983 - George Balanchine, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (b. 1904)

● 1983 - Muddy Waters, American musician (b. 1915)

● 1985 - George Pravda, Czechoslovakian actor (b. 1918)

● 1985 - Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist (b. 1900)

● 1989 - Yi, Bang-ja, Crown Princess of Korea (b. 1901)

● 1989 - Sergio Leone, Italian filmmaker (b. 1929)

● 1994 - Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (b. 1960)

● 1994 - Richard Scarry, American author (b. 1919)

● 1995 - Maung Maung Kha, Prime minister of Burma (b. 1920)

● 1998 - Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet (b. 1926)

● 2002 - Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, founder of the Gründerzeit Museum in Berlin-Mahlsdorf. (b. 1928)

● 2003 - Peter 'Possum' Bourne, New Zealand race car driver (b. 1956)

● 2003 - Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (b. 1923)

● 2003 - Mark Berger, University of Kentucky professor

● 2005 - Ron Todd, TGWU General Secretary (1985 - 1992) (b. 1927)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Adjutor
● St. Aimo
● St. Ajuture
● St. Aphrodisius
● St. Ciarán of Clonsost
● St. Cynwl
● St. Desideratus
● St. Donatus
● St. Eutropius
● St. Forannan
● St. Gerard Miles
● St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo
● St. Lawrence of Novara
● St. Louis von Bruck
● Sts. Marianus and James, martyrs in Numidia in 259
● St. Maximus, 3rd century martyr
● St. Pius V, Pope (1566-72)
● St. Pomponius
● St. Suitbert the Younger (d. 807)
● Bl. Francis Dickenson
● Bl. Hildegard
● Bl. Miles Gerard
● Bl. Radolf of Affligem
● Bl. Rosemonde

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for April 17 (Civil Date: April 30)
● Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop in Persia, and those with him: Martyrs Abdechalas and Ananias, presbyters, Usthazanes, Fusicus (Pusicius), Ascitrea, and Azat the eunuch.
● Martyr Adrian of Corinth.
● St. Acacius, Bishop of Melitene.
● St. Zosimas, abbot of Solovki.
● St. Agapitus, pope of Rome.
● Opening of the Relics of St. Alexander, abbot of Svir.
● St. Macarius of Corinth.
● Repose of Blessed Paisius, fool-for-Christ of the Kiev Caves (1893).

● Lutheran:
● St. Catherine of Siena, virgin/doctor

● Roman Empire - third day of the Floralia in honor of Flora.

● Bealtaine Eve (From either Irish Bealtaine or Scottish Gaelic). Originally a Celtic Druid holiday.

● Wicca : Walpurgis Night or Bealtaine, sabbat

● Admission to the United States:
● Louisiana 18th state (1812)

● Scandinavia - The arrival of spring, Walpurgis Night.

● Sweden - Birthday of King Carl XVI Gustav, an official flag day.

● Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Surinam : Queen Juliana's Birthday

● Vietnam - Liberation Day.

● Mexico - Children's Day.

● Czech Republic - Carodejnice - witches' night

● Switzerland : May Day Eve/Maitag Vorabend

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Alabama, Florida, Mississippi: Confederate Memorial Day (1868) - (Monday)
● US-Utah: Arbor Day-Plant a tree (1872) - (Friday)


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

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