April 11^th is

National Equal Pay Day *

Cheese Fondue Day

Education and Sharing Day *

National Library Workers Day

U.S. Submarine Day *

World Parkinson’s Disease Day *

International “Louie Louie” Day *
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MORE! Christopher Smart, Jane Bolin and Richard Berry, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Costa Rica – Juan Santamaria Day
(national hero, died at Battle of Rivas)

India – Hyderabad: Hanuman Jayanti
(birth of Hindu god Hanuman)

Iran – Imam Ali’s Birthday

Israel – Pesach (Passover) Holiday
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On This Day in HISTORY

1564 – English involvement in France’s First War Religion ends with the Peace of Troyes; the French pay 120,000 gold crowns in exchange for the British ending their claim to Le Havre, and the two countries agree to freedom of commerce between them

1689 – Coronation of William III and Mary II as joint sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland

1713 – The Treaty of Utrecht is signed, ending the War of Spanish Succession

1722 – Christopher Smart born, English actor, playwright and poet

1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig

1755 – James Parkinson born, English surgeon, apothecary and political activist; writes An Essay on the Shaking Palsy describing “paralysis agitans” which is later named for him

1803 – Jon Stevens patents a twin-screw propeller steamboat

1814 – Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates as emperor of France and is exiled to Elba

1857 – John Davidson born, Scottish poet and playwright

1862 – Charles Evans Hughes born, 11^th U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice

1865 – Mary White Ovington born, American suffragist, journalist: NAACP co-founder

1868 – Former Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate

1876 – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized

1881 – Spelman College is founded in Atlanta GA as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women

1888 – The Concertgebouw (concert hall) in Amsterdam is inaugurated

1893 – Dean Acheson born, U.S. Secretary of State 1949-1953, key player in the development of the Truman Doctrine and the creation of NATO

1900 – U.S. Submarine Day * – the U.S. Navy purchases a submarine, renaming it the USS Holland, its first commissioned submarine

1908 – Jane Bolin born, American lawyer and judge, first African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School, to join the NYC Bar Association and the NYC Law Department, as well as first African-American woman judge in the U.S.

1908 – Leo Rosten born in Poland, American author and social scientist

1909 – The city of Tel Aviv is founded

1913 – The pavilion at Nevill Ground, a cricket venue in Kent, England, is burned down by militant suffragettes, who leave behind suffragette literature to claim responsibility, the ground was chosen as a target because of their no-admittance to women policy

1916 – Annie Besant, British activist, Fabian Society member, establishes the Home Rule League in India, campaigning for democracy and British Empire dominion status

1921 – Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralized government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan; he becomes King of Jordan in 1946

1921 – Iowa becomes the first U.S. state to impose a cigarette tax

1935 – Richard Berry born, American singer-songwriter; fans will launch International “Louie Louie” Day * in honor of his song on Berry’s birthday in 2003

1945 – American soldiers liberate Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany

1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar at the ruins of Arbroath Abbey; it was taken by Scottish nationalist students from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1950. It had been at Westminster since 1296, taken by Edward I as spoils of war, and kept in spite of the Treaty of Northampton in 1328, in which England agreed to return it to Scotland. In 1996, it was transported to Edinburgh Castle, arriving on St. Andrew’s Day, and is now in the Crown Room alongside the crown jewels of  Scotland. It will be briefly returned for future coronation ceremonies to Westminster Abbey

1951 – President Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur “with deep regret” of all his Far East commands, after he publicly challenged the President’s foreign policies

1957 – Singapore is granted internal self-rule by Britain

1961 – Adolf Eichmann’s trial for WWII war crimes begins in Jerusalem

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing

1970 – NASA’s Apollo 13 is launched

1978 – Education and Sharing Day * is proclaimed by President Carter at the request of Congress on 11 Nissan (Jewish calendar), in honor of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson on his 80^th birthday

1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed

1996 – The National Committee on Pay Equity launches National Equal Pay Day * which is set on the day in the year when a woman’s pay would finally catch up with a man’s wages from the previous year – in other words, she has to work almost 15 ½ months to earn what he does in 12 months. For a woman of color, the gap is even wider; it will take her until August to earn what a man does

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Visuals

• Cheese Fondue
• National Library Workers Day poster
• International flags
• William III and Mary II
• Parkinson’s Disease poster
• John Davidson, imagination quote
• Charles Evans Hughes, different quote
• Dean Acheson, controversy quote
• Leo Rosten, life’s purpose quote
• Annie Besant, Christian saints quotes
• Pay Equity poster

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