This Day in History
Today, Tuesday, April 6, is the 96th day of 2010. There are 269 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
1909: US explorers Robert E Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole with a team of Inuit guides, making them the first modern team to ever to reach the world’s northernmost point. Henson was the first African-American to reach the North Pole.
Other Notable Events
1830: The first Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is organised by Joseph Smith in Seneca, New York.
1897: Sultan of Zanzibar abolishes slavery.
1917: The US declares war on Germany, entering World War I.
1945: Sarajevo is liberated from Nazi occupation by Tito’s partisans.
1972: Egypt breaks ties with Jordan because of Jordanian King Hussein’s proposal for new Palestine state.
1978: US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation extending the mandatory retirement age from 65 to 70.
1992: The European Community recognises Bosnia as an independent country while Serb artillery pounds Sarajevo, the capital.
1994: The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed in a plane crash in Rwanda, setting off the slaughter of 500,000 Rwandans, mostly minority Tutsis, over the next three months.
1995: The first genocide trials begin in Kigali, Rwanda, against some of the 30,000 majority Hutus accused of killing Tutsis.
1996: Thousands of Liberians flee their homes amid fierce fighting between government troops and members of an ethnic faction.
1998: After months of negotiations, a peace proposal for Northern Ireland is laid forth by American negotiator George Mitchell. It is later accepted by the parties of the 20-year conflict; Pakistan successfully tests a medium-range missile capable of striking neighbouring India.
2005: Two gunmen attack a government tourism complex in India on the eve of the first bus service across divided Kashmir in nearly six decades, but the waiting passengers escape unharmed and both India and Pakistan vow the buses will run as planned.
2007: Pasteur Bizimungu, Rwanda’s first post-genocide leader, is freed from prison after serving two years of a 15-year term as an act of clemency by President Paul Kagame to build national unity.
2008: Incumbent Filip Vujanovic claims victory in Montenegro’s first presidential elections since the tiny Balkan nation split from Serbia.
2009: Rescue workers using bare hands and buckets search frantically for students believed buried after Italy’s deadliest earthquake in nearly three decades strikes the central city of L’Aquila, killing more than 150 people, injuring 1,500 and leaving thousands homeless.
Today’s Birthdays
Gustave Moreau, French artist (1826-1898); Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft designer (1890-1939); Oscar Strauss, Austrian composer (1870-1954); Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born professional magician (1874-1936); Gregory Peck, US actor (1916-2003); Andre Previn, German-born composer/conductor/pianist (1929-); Michael Moriarty, US actor (1941-); Zach Braff, US actor (1975-); Paul Rudd, US actor (1969-).
