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Today (April 25)
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April 25 _(TFA_cropped).JPG) Vance Drummond (1927–1967) was a New Zealand–born Australian pilot who fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Posted to No. 77 Squadron in Korea, he flew Gloster Meteor jet fighters and earned the US Air Medal for his combat skills. He was shot down in 1951 and imprisoned for almost two years. He was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1965 after leading the Black Diamonds aerobatic team of No. 75 Squadron. Drummond was promoted to acting wing commander in 1965 and posted to South Vietnam on staff duties with the US Air Force. He joined their 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron, operating Cessna Bird Dog aircraft, as a forward air controller in July 1966. That month he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his part in rescuing a company of soldiers surrounded by Viet Cong forces. Returning to Australia, he took command of No. 3 Squadron in February 1967. His Dassault Mirage IIIO crashed into the sea during a training exercise in May; neither Drummond nor the aircraft was found. (Full article...)
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April 25: Liberation Day in Italy (1945)  USS Triton
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April 25
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Tomorrow (April 26)
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April 26  Kristin Chenoweth, who starred in the film Into Temptation is an independent drama film written and directed by Patrick Coyle. It tells the story of a prostitute—played by Kristin Chenoweth (pictured)—who confesses to a Catholic priest (Jeremy Sisto) that she plans to kill herself. The priest attempts to find her, and in doing so involves himself in the darker side of society. Partially inspired by Coyle's impressions of his father, the film's themes include temptation, sin, good and evil, redemption and celibacy, and the boundaries between providing counsel and getting personally involved in events. It was filmed and set in Coyle's hometown of Minneapolis. Into Temptation was optioned, but talks fell through due to complications from the 2008 global recession. It officially premiered on April 26, 2009, at the Newport Beach Film Festival, where Sisto won the "Outstanding Achievement in Acting" award. The film received generally positive reviews. (Full article...)
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 Lorenzo de' Medici
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April 26  Josh Brolin Avengers: Infinity War, a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, won twenty-two awards from seventy-eight nominations, with particular recognition for its acting (mainly that of Josh Brolin – pictured) and visual effects. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards. The film received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production at the 46th Annie Awards. At the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, Avengers: Infinity War was nominated for Best Special Visual Effects. It received two nominations at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards. Composer Alan Silvestri received a nomination for Best Instrumental Composition at the Grammy Awards' 61st ceremony. The film won one of two nominations at the 45th Saturn Awards. (Full list...) | |||
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In two days (April 27)
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April 27  After the Deluge is an oil painting by English artist George Frederic Watts. Completed in 1891, it shows a scene from the story of Noah's Flood, in which Noah opens the window of his Ark to see that after 40 days the rain has stopped. The Symbolist painting is a stylised seascape, dominated by a bright sunburst breaking through clouds. Watts intended to evoke a monotheistic God in the act of creation, without depicting the Creator directly. The unfinished painting was exhibited at a church in Whitechapel in 1886, under the intentionally simplified title of The Sun. The completed version was shown for the first time at the New Gallery in 1891 and was admired by Watts's fellow artists. It influenced many painters who worked in the two decades following. Between 1902 and 1906 the painting was exhibited around the United Kingdom. It is now in the collection of the Watts Gallery in Compton, Guildford, Surrey. (Full article...)
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April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands  Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn
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April 27
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In three days (April 28)
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April 28  Eric Clapton (right) in the band Cream "Cross Road Blues" is a song written by the American blues artist Robert Johnson. He sang it as a solo piece with acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues style. The lyrics describe Johnson's grief at being unable to catch a ride at an intersection before the sun sets. Some have attached a supernatural significance to the song. One of Johnson's two recorded performances was released in 1937 as a single, heard mainly in the Mississippi Delta area. The second, which reached a wider audience, was included on King of the Delta Blues Singers, a compilation album of some of Johnson's songs released in 1961 during the American folk music revival. Elmore James recorded a version of the song in 1954, and another in either 1960 or 1961. In the late 1960s, guitarist Eric Clapton and his bandmates in the British rock group Cream (pictured) popularized it as "Crossroads". Their blues rock interpretation became one of their best-known songs, inspiring many cover versions. (Full article...)
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April 28: Workers' Memorial Day  Mounted police maintaining order at the 1923 FA Cup final
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April 28
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In four days (April 29)
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April 29  Union gunboats bombarding Confederate defenses The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army forces commanded by Ulysses S. Grant had failed several times to bypass or capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant decided to move his army south of Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on the city. A Confederate division under John S. Bowen prepared defenses—Forts Wade and Cobun—at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. To clear the way for a Union crossing, seven ironclad warships from the Mississippi Squadron of the Union Navy commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded the Confederate defenses at Grand Gulf. Union fire silenced Fort Wade, but the overall Confederate position held. Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere. The next day, Union forces crossed the river at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. The position at Grand Gulf was abandoned and became a Union supply point. The Grand Gulf battlefield is preserved in Grand Gulf Military State Park. (Full article...)
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 HMS Endeavour
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April 29 .jpg) Arsenal won the 2018–19 league title. Arsenal Women Football Club is an English professional women's football club based in London; it is the most successful club in English women's football. Since forming in 1987, 100 years after the inception of the men's team, they have played 36 domestic league seasons and have remained in the English top flight since joining in 1992. Arsenal was an amateur side for over a decade until the team became semi-professional in 2002. During the 1990s and 2000s under the management of Vic Akers and other successive coaches, Arsenal experienced an unprecedented period of success dominating English competitions with no sustained opposition. Domestically, Arsenal have won 15 league titles, 14 FA Cups, 17 league cups and five FA Community Shields; the club holds the most titles of each individual domestic competition. Arsenal are the only English side to have won Europe's continental women's football competition, the UEFA Women's Champions League (formally the UEFA Women's Cup), after the club defeated Swedish side Umeå in the 2007 final. (Full list...) | |||
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April 29
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In five days (April 30)
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April 30  The Inaccessible Island rail (Laterallus rogersi) is a bird found only on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Tristan archipelago. This rail, the smallest extant flightless bird, was described by physician Percy Lowe in 1923. The adult has brown plumage, a black bill, black feet, and red eyes. It occupies most habitats on the island, from the beaches to the central plateau, feeding on a variety of small invertebrates and some plant matter. Pairs are territorial and monogamous; both parents incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. The rail's adaptations to living on a tiny island at high densities include a low basal metabolic rate, small clutch sizes, and flightlessness. Unlike many other oceanic islands, Inaccessible Island has remained free from introduced predators, allowing this species to flourish while many other flightless rails have gone extinct. The species is nevertheless considered vulnerable, due to the danger of a single catastrophe wiping out the small, isolated population. (Full article...)
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 Evacuees on the USS Midway
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April 30
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In six days (May 1)
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May 1  Handbook cover La Salute è in voi! ("Health/Salvation is in you!") was an early 1900s bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, particularly in the United States. The anonymously written, Italian-language handbook repackaged technical content from encyclopedias and applied chemistry books into plain directions for non-technical amateurs to build explosives. It wrapped this content in a political manifesto advocating for impoverished workers to overcome their despair and commit to individual, revolutionary acts. American police and historians used the handbook to profile anarchists and imply guilt by possession. It figured prominently in the prosecution of the Bresci Circle, a case that revolved around the anarchists' right to read. Successful political bombers of this era ultimately had career backgrounds in explosives and were not the self-taught amateurs the handbook sought to create. (Full article...)
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May 1: Beltane and Samhain in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Maharashtra Day in Maharashtra, India (1960); Loyalty Day in the United States .jpg) Empire State Building
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May 1
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In seven days (May 2)
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May 2  Western Chalukya Empire, 1121 CE The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in the modern Bidar District of Karnataka state, and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical relationship to the sixth-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami. Prior to the rise of the Western and Eastern Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta controlled most of the Deccan and Central India for over two centuries. In 973, seeing confusion in the Rashtrakuta Empire after a successful invasion of their capital by the ruler of the Paramara dynasty of Malwa, Tailapa II, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta dynasty ruling from Bijapur region, defeated his overlords and made Manyakheta his capital. The dynasty quickly rose to power and grew into an empire under Someshvara I who moved the capital to Kalyani. (Full article...)
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May 2: National Day of Prayer in the United States (2024)  Aerial view of Old Portsmouth
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May 2
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- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.