As we enter another week, we bring you memorable
events that happened on these days in history;
April 21
On 21st of April, 2002, French President Jacques Chirac faced a reelection challenge from extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting but two weeks later handily defeated him to win a second term.
On the same day in 1918, Manfred Freiherr (baron) von Richthofen Germany's top flying ace in World War I, was shot down and killed during a battle near Amiens, France.
April 22
On this day in 1994, Former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon died of stroke in New York City, 10 months after the death of his wife.
On the 23rd of April, 1993, after a long history of foreign rule and decades of war, the small East African country of Eritrea began three days of voting on a referendum to make official its independence from Ethiopia.
James Earl Ray, the man responsible for the murder of the popular Martin Luther King, Jr., died in prison in Nashville, Tennessee on the 23rd of April, 1998.
Max Planck, the great German physicist who originated the quantum theory, was born in Kiel on the 23rd of April, 1858.
April 24
On the 24th of April, 2003, officials of North Korea informed U.S. diplomats that it had nuclear weapons and was making bomb-grade plutonium.
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first man to die during a space mission when his spacecraft became entangled in its parachute during an attempted landing on this day in 1967.
On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States.
This day in 1877, war broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the Serbo-Turkish War, resulting in independence for Serbia and Montenegro.
April 25
The first guillotine was erected, on the Place de Grève in Paris, to execute a highwayman on this day in 1792.
April 26
On this day in 1986, a devastating environmental catastrophe occurred early this morning in 1986 when an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
Twelve days after assassinating U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was killed at a Virginia farm either by a Federal soldier or by his own hand.
On the 27th of April, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Condor Legion of the German air force, supporting the Nationalists, bombed the Basque city of Guernica, an event memorialized in Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica.
After several years as an autonomous republic in the French Union, the West African country of Togo became independent on the 27th of April, 1960.
A year later (1961), Sierra Leone achieved independence within the British commonwealth on the same day.
April 21
On 21st of April, 2002, French President Jacques Chirac faced a reelection challenge from extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting but two weeks later handily defeated him to win a second term.
On the same day in 1918, Manfred Freiherr (baron) von Richthofen Germany's top flying ace in World War I, was shot down and killed during a battle near Amiens, France.
April 22
On this day in 1994, Former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon died of stroke in New York City, 10 months after the death of his wife.
 |
| Richard Nixon during his resignation address |
April 23
On the 23rd of April, 1993, after a long history of foreign rule and decades of war, the small East African country of Eritrea began three days of voting on a referendum to make official its independence from Ethiopia.
James Earl Ray, the man responsible for the murder of the popular Martin Luther King, Jr., died in prison in Nashville, Tennessee on the 23rd of April, 1998.
Max Planck, the great German physicist who originated the quantum theory, was born in Kiel on the 23rd of April, 1858.
April 24
On the 24th of April, 2003, officials of North Korea informed U.S. diplomats that it had nuclear weapons and was making bomb-grade plutonium.
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first man to die during a space mission when his spacecraft became entangled in its parachute during an attempted landing on this day in 1967.
On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States.
This day in 1877, war broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the Serbo-Turkish War, resulting in independence for Serbia and Montenegro.
April 25
 |
| Hubble Space Telescope. Picture:NASA |
On the 25th of April, 1990, the Hubble
Space Telescope, a sophisticated optical observatory built in the United States
under the supervision of NASA, was placed into operation by the crew of the
space shuttle Discovery.
The first guillotine was erected, on the Place de Grève in Paris, to execute a highwayman on this day in 1792.
April 26
On this day in 1986, a devastating environmental catastrophe occurred early this morning in 1986 when an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
Twelve days after assassinating U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was killed at a Virginia farm either by a Federal soldier or by his own hand.
On the 27th of April, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Condor Legion of the German air force, supporting the Nationalists, bombed the Basque city of Guernica, an event memorialized in Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica.
After several years as an autonomous republic in the French Union, the West African country of Togo became independent on the 27th of April, 1960.
A year later (1961), Sierra Leone achieved independence within the British commonwealth on the same day.
Posts
This week in history: Max Planck, Spain, Sierra Leone,…