April 25th is

DNA Day *

Hug a Plumber Day

International Marconi Day *

Malaria Awareness Day

Zucchini Bread Day

Red Hat Society Day *

________________________________________________________________

MORE! Charles Fremantle, Astrid Varnay and Albert King, click

________________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Islam – Mabeath/Al Israa Wai Miraj, the Prophet’s Ascension

Australia and New Zealand – ANZAC Day *

Belarus – Ancestor Veneration Day

Egypt – Sinai Liberation Day

Faroe Islands – Flag Day

Italy – Liberation Day

North Korea – People’s Army Foundation Day

Portugal – Dia do 25 de Abril (liberation day)

Swaziland – Flag Day

________________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

404 BCE – When the Spartan fleet threatens to cut Athens off from its grain source, the Athenian fleet rushes after them. Through cunning strategy, Lysander defeats the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami, destroying 168 ships and capturing some three or four thousand Athenian sailors. Only 12 Athenian ships escape, several sailing to Cyprus, carrying the “strategos” (general) Conon, who wants to avoid facing the judgment of the Athenian Assembly. After months of food shortages, Athens chooses surrender over starvation on this day

1644 – The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming dynasty China, commits suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng

1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine

1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the Australia’s western coast 

1840 – Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky born, major Russian composer

1853 – John Frank Stevens born, American chief civil engineer of the Panama Canal

1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal

1873 – Howard Garis born, American author of the Uncle Wiggily children’s stories

1874 – International Marconi Day * – Guglielmo Marconi born, Italian physicist/inventor, 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics, pioneer in radio technology

1900 – Edith Gregor Halpert born in Russia, American art dealer, influential owner of The Downtown Gallery, NYC’s Greenwich Village, early supporter of Modern Art, showcasing Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Jacob Lawrence and many others

1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates

1908 – Edward R. Murrow born, influential American radio and television broadcaster during the industry’s early years

1914 – Claude Mauriac born, French novelist, journalist and critic

1916 – ANZAC Day * is commemorated on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli during WWI

1917 – Ella Fitzgerald born, American jazz singer, known as the “First Lady of Song” and the “Queen of Jazz”- 13 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of Arts

1918 – Astrid Varnay born in Sweden, dramatic soprano, one of the leading Wagnerian sopranos of her time with Birgit Nilsson and Martha Modl

1923 – Albert King born, American blues guitarist

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson born, American activist, prominent member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the only woman to serve as the SNCC executive secretary

1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated

1945 – Fifty nations gather in San Francisco to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organization

1953 – DNA Day *- Francis Crick and James Watson publish Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid describing the double helix structure of DNA

1954 – Bell Telephone Laboratories. demonstrates the first practical solar cell

1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

1961 – Robert Noyce patents an integrated circuit

1967 – The Beatles record the theme to Magical Mystery Tour at Abbey Road studios

1974 – Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” is released

1984 – Roger Miller’s musical Big River opens on Broadway

1987 – The U2 album Joshua Tree becomes #1 on the U.S. album chart; it will sell over 25 million copies, and win a Grammy for Album of the Year

1990 – Violeta Chamorro becomes the first woman President of Nicaragua

1992 – Islamic forces took control of most of the Afghan capital Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government

1999 – The Red Hat Society starts with two chapters. Sue Ellen Cooper’s impulsive purchase of an old red fedora in a thrift shop, because she had read the poem “When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple” by Jenny Joseph, makes her decide to give a dear friend a red hat for her birthday, and an international movement is born

2004 – The March for Women’s Lives brings over 800,000 pro-choice marchers to Washington D.C. to protest the so-called ‘Partial-Birth’ Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on abortion

________________________________________________________________