April 4

Marshfield was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L" in the U.S. between 1895 and 1954. Originally part of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad, it was the westernmost station of the Metropolitan's main line. West of the station, the main line diverged into three branches; this junction, served by the station, has been described as the most complex on the entire Chicago "L" system. After 1905, the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, an interurban line, also served the station, but limited its service based on direction to avoid competing with the "L". The lines that had been constructed by the Metropolitan, including those serving Marshfield, were subject to modifications planned since the 1930s that incrementally withdrew service from the station. It fully closed on April 4, 1954, and was demolished shortly thereafter. The junction Marshfield served was rebuilt in reduced form, but with a new station on Racine Avenue to the east. (Full article...)

April 4: Hansik in Korea (2024); Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese, 2024)

Alexios I Komnenos

• 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
• 1081 – The Komnenos dynasty came to full power with the coronation of Alexios I Komnenos (pictured) as Byzantine emperor.
• 1859 – Bryant's Minstrels premiered the minstrel song "Dixie" in New York City as part of their blackface show.
• 1949 – Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, establishing NATO, an international military alliance whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.
• 1973 – A year after the completion of the second of the complex's twin towers, the World Trade Center in New York City was officially dedicated.

April 4

Al-Wakwak is an island, or possibly more than one island, in medieval Arabic geographical and imaginative literature. Sources variously identify al-Wakwak as representing Japan, Madagascar, Sumatra or Java, with others describing it as an island in the China Sea ruled by a queen with an entirely female population. This painting in watercolor and gold on paper was created in Mughal India in the early 1600s, and depicts a plant that brings forth animal life in multiple forms, derived from a conflation of medieval Persian and Quranic sources, including descriptions of al-Wakwak as inhabited by half-plant and half-animal creatures. The work is now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio. Painting credit: unknown Recently featured: Sojourner European bee-eater Nelly Martyl Archive More featured pictures

April 5

Yugoslav submarine Hrabri

The Hrabri class con­sist­ed of two sub­ma­rines built for the King­dom of Serbs, Croats and Slo­venes. The first sub­ma­rines to serve in the Royal Yugoslav Navy (KM), they arrived in Yugoslavia on 5 April 1928, and participated in cruises to Mediterranean ports prior to World War II. During the April 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Hrabri (pictured) was captured by the Italians and later scrapped. Nebojša escaped to Egypt to join the British Royal Navy (RN). She served as an anti-submarine warfare training boat and then as a battery charging station. In May 1942 her crew were removed and placed in a British military camp following a revolt by Yugoslav generals in exile, and she received an almost entirely RN crew. She was briefly utilised for training at Beirut, but was formally handed back to the KM-in-exile in mid-1943. After the war, she was transferred to the new Yugoslav Navy and renamed Tara. She was used in a training role until 1954, then scrapped. (This article is part of a featured topic: Hrabri-class submarines.)

April 5: Feast day of Saint Vincent Ferrer (Catholicism)

Pocahontas

• 919 – The Fatimid Caliphate began a second unsuccessful invasion of Egypt, then under Abbasid rule.
• 1614 – Pocahontas (pictured), a Native American woman, married English colonist John Rolfe, leading to a period of peace between the Powhatan people and the inhabitants of Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1944 – Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from Auschwitz with the aid of an SS officer who opposed the Holocaust.
• 1986 – The Libyan secret service bombed a discotheque in West Berlin, resulting in three deaths and 229 others injured.
• 2009 – The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

April 5

A great horned owl

The Canadian province of Alberta has 438 species of birds. The northern part of the province is largely boreal forest, leading into the Great Plains in the south-east. The south-west portion of the province is generally temperate coniferous forest, bordered by the Rocky Mountains. These different ecosystems, along with the border formed by the Rocky Mountains, contribute to the diversity of birds in the province. Notably, several "eastern" and "western" pairs can be seen in Alberta, such as the eastern bluebird and western bluebird. Of the 438 species, 125 are accidentals, eight were introduced to Alberta, one species is extinct, and another is possibly extinct. (Full list...)

April 5

Oligodon, commonly known as the kukri snakes, form a genus of colubrid snakes that was first described by Austrian zoologist Leopold Fitzinger in 1826. This genus is widespread throughout central and tropical Asia. This photograph shows a Hua Hin kukri snake (Oligodon huahin), in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Photograph credit: Rushen Recently featured: Al-Wakwak Sojourner European bee-eater Archive More featured pictures

April 6

Martha Graham, choreographer

Appalachian Spring is an American ballet created by the composer Aaron Copland and the choreographer Martha Graham, later arranged as an orchestral work. Copland composed the ballet for Graham upon a commission from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Set in a 19th-century settlement in Pennsylvania, the ballet follows the Bride and the Husbandman as they get married and celebrate with the community. The original choreography was by Graham, with costumes by Edythe Gilfond and sets by Isamu Noguchi. The ballet was well-received at the 1944 premiere, earning Copland the Pulitzer Prize for Music during its 1945 United States tour. The orchestral suite composed in 1945 was played that year by many symphony orchestras; the suite is among Copland's best-known works, and the ballet remains essential in the Martha Graham Dance Company repertoire. A film version of the original production was released in 1958 with Graham as the Bride; a similar recording was released in 1976 with Yuriko. (Full article...)

April 6: Tartan Day

Jalal Talabani

• 1652 – Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck landed at Table Bay in Southern Africa, establishing a settlement that later became known as Cape Town.
• 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: British forces captured the French frigate Niémen in the Bay of Biscay.
• 1945 – Second World War: The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville Island concluded with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade against the Imperial Japanese Army's 6th Division.
• 2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani (pictured) was elected by the National Assembly as the first non-Arab president of Iraq.
• 2009 – An earthquake measuring 6.3 M_w struck near L'Aquila in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, killing 308 people and leaving more than 66,000 homeless.

April 6

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard. Though victorious, the Union army had more casualties than the Confederates, and with an overall total of almost 24,000 injuries and fatalities, it was one of the bloodiest battles in the entire war. This chromolithograph of the Battle of Shiloh was produced by American illustrator Thure de Thulstrup in 1888. Print credit: Thure de Thulstrup; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Oligodon Al-Wakwak Sojourner Archive More featured pictures

April 7

Edward Jones (7 April 1824 – c. 1895), also known as "the boy Jones", became notorious for breaking into Buckingham Palace in London several times between 1838 and 1841. He was first caught doing so when he was 14; although he was found with items he had stolen, he escaped a prison sentence. He broke into the palace again in December 1840, and was caught and sentenced to three months' hard labour. He was released in March 1841 and returned to the palace two weeks later, was arrested and served another three months. He was coerced into the Royal Navy by the Thames Police and served between 1842 and 1847. He was caught burgling houses in August 1849 and was transported to an Australian penal colony. He returned to England, was arrested for burglary in 1856 and served six months of hard labour. He probably died in Australia, either in Bairnsdale, Victoria, on Boxing Day 1893 or in Perth in 1896. (Full article...)

April 7: National Beer Day in the United States

Pope Alexander VII

• 1655 – After a conclave lasting eighty days, the College of Cardinals elected Fabio Chigi as Pope Alexander VII (pictured).
• 1926 – Italian dictator Benito Mussolini survived an assassination attempt by Irishwoman Violet Gibson.
• 1945 – World War II: U.S. forces sank the Japanese battleship Yamato during Operation Ten-Go in the East China Sea.
• 1979 – Uganda–Tanzania War: Tanzanian forces defeated Ugandan troops and their Libyan allies at the Battle of Entebbe, opening the way for an advance on the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
• 2017 – A hijacker deliberately drove a truck into crowds along Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people.

April 7

The bell miner (Manorina melanophrys), also known as the bellbird, is a colonial honeyeater, endemic to southeastern Australia. The name miner is derived from an old alternative spelling of myna, and is shared with other members of the genus Manorina. The birds feed almost exclusively on the dome-like coverings, referred to as 'bell lerps', of certain psyllid bugs that feed on eucalyptus sap from the leaves. The psyllids make these bell lerps from their own honeydew secretions in order to protect themselves from predators and the environment. This bell miner was photographed on the Nepean River in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. Photograph credit: J. J. Harrison Recently featured: Battle of Shiloh Oligodon Al-Wakwak Archive More featured pictures

April 8

Mann's 1950 Bowman football card

Bob Mann (April 8, 1924 – October 21, 2006) was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) who broke the color barrier for both the Detroit Lions (alongside Mel Groomes) and the Green Bay Packers. He played college football at Hampton Institute in 1942 and 1943 and at the University of Michigan in 1944, 1946 and 1947. Playing the end position, he broke the Big Ten Conference record for receiving yards in 1946 and 1947. In 1948 Mann signed a professional contract with the Lions, where he stayed for two seasons. He led the NFL in receiving yards in 1949. After a brief stint with the New York Yanks he signed with the Packers, where he was the team's leading receiver in 1951. He remained with the Packers partway through the 1954 season. Mann later became a lawyer and practiced in Detroit. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. (Full article...)

April 8

• 1271 – Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baibars.
• 1904 – France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.
• 1911 – American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.
• 1933 – The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.
• 1973 – The Norwegian Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo.

April 8

Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major has been credited with inspiring a significant number of pop songs since the 1960s. After the mid-Baroque era piece was revived from obscurity in the 1960s, its chord progression, bassline, and melodic structure were reproduced in a number of contemporary pop songs, a phenomenon attributed to the memorability and simplicity of the work as well as renewed interest in it. While Pachelbel's Canon itself is not a staple of pop music, it shares common roots with other, more significant chord progressions that lay the foundations of modern pop music. Its perceived ubiquity is itself an object of cultural discussion. (Full list...)

April 8

Lichfield Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Lichfield, in the English county of Staffordshire. A cathedral was first built on the site in 700, by Bishop Headda, to house the bones of St Chad. The original wooden building was replaced by a Norman cathedral made from stone, which in turn was replaced by the present Gothic structure, begun in 1195. The fabric of the cathedral suffered in the English Civil War, when it was used as a defensive structure. In the 18th century the interior was extensively remodelled, with major structural work organised by James Wyatt; this involved removing the high altar to make a single worship area consisting of the choir and lady chapel, and adding a massive stone screen at the entrance to the choir. This photograph shows the choir, which was built in around 1200. Photograph credit: David Iliff Recently featured: Bell miner Battle of Shiloh Oligodon Archive More featured pictures

April 9

The Mercury Seven were a group of American astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. Announced by NASA on April 9, 1959, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton created a new profession. The group piloted all the spaceflights of the Mercury program that had an astronaut on board from May 1961 to May 1963, and some flew in the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs. Shepard became the first American to enter space in 1961, and walked on the Moon in 1971. Grissom, after flying Mercury and Gemini missions, died in 1967 in the Apollo 1 fire; the others survived past retirement from service. Schirra commanded Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight. Slayton, grounded with atrial fibrillation, ultimately flew on the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Glenn became the first American in orbit in 1962, and flew on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 to become, at age 77, the oldest person to fly in space at the time. (Full article...)

April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada (1917)

Marian Anderson performing at the Lincoln Memorial

• 193 – During the Year of the Five Emperors Septimius Severus was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops at Carnuntum in modern-day Austria.
• 1388 – Despite being vastly outnumbered, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Näfels.
• 1939 – After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African-American singer Marian Anderson gave an open-air concert (pictured) on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• 1959 – NASA announced the selection of the Mercury Seven, the first astronauts in Project Mercury.

April 9

Maison carrée (French for square house) is an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, southern France. It is a mid-sized Augustan provincial temple of the Imperial cult, and one of the best-preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the former Roman Empire. It was built in early part of the 1st century AD, and dedicated or rededicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, grandsons and adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young. The Maison carrée is similar to a Tuscan style Roman temple as described in the writings of Vitruvius, a contemporary Roman writer on architecture. It has undergone several restorations over the centuries. Photograph credit: Krzysztof Golik Recently featured: Lichfield Cathedral Bell miner Battle of Shiloh Archive More featured pictures

April 10

The New South Wales waratah (Telopea speciosissima) is a large shrub in the Proteaceae family. Endemic to New South Wales, Australia, it is the floral emblem of that state. It grows as a shrub to 3–4 m (10–13 ft) high and 2 m (7 ft) wide, with dark green leaves and several stems rising from a pronounced woody base known as a lignotuber. During the spring it has striking large red flowerheads, each made up of hundreds of individual flowers. These are visited by the eastern pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus), birds such as honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and insects. T. speciosissima has featured prominently in art, architecture and advertising. Cultivars with various shades of red, pink and white flowers are commercially grown in several countries as a cut flower. The shrub can be difficult to cultivate in home gardens, requiring good drainage and being vulnerable to fungal disease and pests. (Full article...)

April 10: Day of Valor in the Philippines (1942)

M87* imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope

• 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition began with the Austrian invasion of Bavaria, then a client state of France.
• 1925 – The novel The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published by Scribner's.
• 1970 – In the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles.
• 1973 – In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board.
• 2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image of a black hole (depicted), located at the center of the galaxy M87.

April 10

The gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) is a species of butterfly in the Nymphalidae family, which is found across Europe.It is typically orange with two large brown spots on its wings and a brown pattern on the edge of its wings, although a large number of aberrant forms are known. The eyespots on the fore wings most likely reduce bird attacks, therefore the gatekeeper is often seen resting with its wings open. Colonies vary in size depending on the available habitat, and can range from a few dozen to several thousand butterflies. This gatekeeper was photographed in Botley, Oxfordshire, England. Photograph credit: Charles J Sharp Recently featured: Maison carrée Lichfield Cathedral Bell miner Archive More featured pictures

April 11

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels and three short story collections; further works were published after his death. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Vonnegut enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. Deployed to Europe to fight in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and interned in Dresden, where he survived the Allied bombing of the city in a slaughterhouse. Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. Two of his novels, The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Cat's Cradle (1963), were nominated for the Hugo Award. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), a best-seller that resonated with its readers for its anti-war sentiment amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, thrust Vonnegut into fame as an important contemporary writer and a dark humor commentator on American society. Numerous scholarly works have examined Vonnegut's writing and humor. (Full article...)

April 11

Mary II (left) and William III

• 1689 – William III and Mary II (both pictured) were crowned joint sovereigns of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
• 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: A hastily assembled Royal Navy fleet launched an assault against the main strength of the French Atlantic Fleet; an incomplete victory led to political turmoil in Britain.
• 1951 – U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements about the Korean War that contradicted the administration's policies.
• 1973 – Future Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il's treatise On the Art of the Cinema, a justification for film propaganda in support of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, was published.
• 2001 – In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated American Samoa by a score of 31–0, the largest margin of victory ever in an international football match.

April 11

Andasol solar power station is a 150-megawatt concentrated solar power station and Europe's first commercial plant to use parabolic troughs. It is located near Guadix in Andalusia, Spain. The Andasol plant uses tanks of molten salt as thermal energy storage to continue generating electricity, irrespective of whether the sun is shining or not. Andasol consists of 3 projects, completed in 2008, 2009 and 2011, occupying a total area of about 200 ha. Because of the high altitude (1,100 m) and the semi-arid climate, the site has exceptionally high annual direct insolation. Photograph credit: kallerna Recently featured: Gatekeeper Maison carrée Lichfield Cathedral Archive More featured pictures