April 25th is

DNA Day *

Hug  Thank a Plumber Day

Red Hat Society Day *

World Malaria Day

Zucchini Bread Day

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MORE! Kojo Houénou, Corín Tellado and Robert Noyce, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Niue, Northfolk Island and Tonga  – ANZAC Day *

Egypt – Sinai Liberation Day

Faroe Islands – Flag Day

Germany – Arbor Day

Italy – Liberation Day

North Korea – People’s Army Foundation Day

Portugal – Dia do 25 de Abril (Liberation Day)

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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

Greek Trireme

775 – Battle of Bagrevand: The forces of the Armenian princes, Smbat VII Bagratuni and Mushegh VI Mamikonian, who were rebelling against the Abbasid Caliphate are beaten decisively by the Abbasid army led by Amir ibn Isma’il

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

1849 – Montreal Riots: The Parliament buildings are burned by Tory rioters outraged by the Rebellion Losses Bill enacted by members of the Legislative Assembly and given assent by the Governor General, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin. The Province of Lower Canada (now the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the southern part of Quebec ) had suffered losses in the Lower Canada Rebellion. The Province of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) had also suffered losses in the Upper Canada Rebellion. Both rebellions were sparked by frustration over severe economic hardships, and the corruption and injustice of local non-elective governments, which were not being addressed by the distant rulers in Britain. While neither rebellion was successful, they did lead to the Act of Union in 1841, which united Upper and Lower Canada under one government as the Province of Canada. With the British North American Act of 1867, the confederation of the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia formed the sovereign dominion of Canada

1850 – Luise Adolpha Le Beau born, German composer of classical music and pianist. In 1878, she founded her “private music course for daughters of the educated classes.” These lessons were aimed at preparing women for job opportunities as piano teachers.

1853 – John F. 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

1873 – Walter de la Mare, prolific English poet, short story writer, and novelist ; best remembered for his poem, ‘The Listeners’ and his subtle psychological horror stories

1887 – Kojo Tovalou Houénou born in Porto-Novo (now part of Benin), Dahomean critic of France’s colonial empire in Africa. Through his mother, he was related to Béhanzin, the last king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, which existed from 1600 until 1894, when the French won the Second Franco-Dahomean War, and annexed Dahomey into their colonial territory of French West Africa. He was sent to France at age 13 for his education, where he studied medicine, and earned a law degree. In 1915, Houénou was one of the few Africans to be awarded French citizenship, because of his medical service in the French army during WWI. After the war, he was admitted to the bar, and became part of the intellectual community in Paris. Toward the end of 1921, he returned to Dahomey for the first time since 1900. Seeing the poverty that existed in the colony and particularly following the 1923 riots in Porto-Novo, Houénou grew increasingly critical of the French administration. He began to write and speak for gradual reform of the French colonial administration, and returned to Paris. There he became embroiled in what became an international incident. Houénou was having a drink a club in Montmartre, when he was attacked by Americans who were angered by a black man being in the club. The club owner responded to the struggle by forcibly removing Houénou and another person of African descent from the club. The French press made the incident into a scandal, and the French government denounced an American attempt to impose racial segregation on France. The press stories elevated his status, referring to Houénou as “a kind of colored Pascal.” At this point, his position hardened, and he began to speak of self-rule for African colonies instead of reforming colonial government. He also began an association with like-minded reformers like Marcus Garvey, and founded the short-lived publication Les Continents, which folded in 1924 because of a libel suit which left him bankrupt. He left Paris, but had to renounce his ties to Garvey before he was allowed back in Dahomey. Less than a year later, Houénou and a small, ill-equipped band of supporters attempted to overthrow the French colonial government, and failed spectacularly. Houénou fled to Togo, but was quickly caught and imprisoned. He was never allowed to enter Dahomey again. After his release from prison in the late 1920s, he went to Senegal and became involved in Senegalese politics. He called for the recognition of the equality of all races and the independence of all African territories from colonial rule. Houénoui died from Typhoid fever in 1936 while imprisoned in Dakar on contempt of court charges

1892 – Maud Hart Lovelace born, American author of historical novels and children’s books; best remembered for her Betsy-Tacy series, loosely based on her childhood

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

1906 – Sally Salminen born, Åland-Finnish author and novelist; her best-known work, Katrina, was written in Swedish

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, along with Birgit Nilsson and Martha Modl

1923 – Albert King born, American blues guitarist

1923 – Melissa Hayden born, Canadian prima ballerina; after 2 years at the American Ballet Theatre (1945-1947), she joined the New York City Ballet in 1948. She became prima ballerina at NYCB from 1955 until her retirement in 1973, and was frequently partner with American danseur Jacques d’Amboise. She taught at Skidmore College and at the School of the Pacific Northwest Ballet before she opened her own school in New York City. She wrote several books, including  Melissa Hayden, Offstage and On and Dancer to Dancer: Advice for Today’s Dancer 

1926 – Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner born, Austrian Social Democratic politician and teacher; Viennese Municipal Council member for the 6th District (1959-1984?); Deputy Mayor (1969-1984); President of the Vienna Festival, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Tourist Board; Federal Minister for Family, Youth and Consumer Protection (1984-1987)

1927 – Corín Tellado born as María del Socorro Tellado López, prolific best-selling Spanish author; she published over 5,000 titles. In 1962, UNESCO declared Tellado the most-read Spanish author after Miguel de Cervantes

1939 – Dame Veronica Sutherland born, British career diplomat, Ambassador to Ireland (1995-1999); appointed as President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge (2001-2008)

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson born, American civil rights 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, American engineer, patents an integrated circuit; later co-founds Fairchild Semiconductor (1957) and Intel Corporation (1968)

1963 – Joy Covey born, American business executive; she began as an accountant, but after graduating from Harvard’s MBA program, she worked briefly as an investment banker before joining Digidesign, a technology company, which she helped take public and assisted brokering its sale to a larger company. In 1996, Covey joined Amazon, became the company’s CFO, followed by promotion to Chief Strategy Officer, where she raise $500 million for Amazon. In 1999, she was #28 on the Fortune magazine list of “Most Powerful Women in Business.”  In 2000, when she resigned voluntarily from Amazon, it was rumored she was “tired of the frenetic internet life.” She was serving as treasure of the Natural Resources Defense Council when she died in 2013 at age 50, struck by a delivery van while riding a bicycle

1966 – Femke Halsema born, Dutch Groenlinks (GreenLeft)politician; in 2018, she became the first woman Mayor of Amsterdam; Leader of GroenLinks in the House of Representatives (2002-2010); Member of the House of Representatives (1998-2011). Between 2011 and 2018, she wrote articles and columns for De Volkskrant, and De Correspondent, taught at Tilburg University and the University of Utrecht, and led an inquiry into the behavior of school board administrators at the Amarantis Education group, which operated over 60 schools in the Netherlands. The inquiry found that the board had operated within the law, but their behavior was not desirable. She then led a committee on governance rules for the semi-public sector at the request of Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp. The final report of the committee concluded that a governance code would not lead to the desired culture change in the semi-public sector, citing the “old boys network” and political influence as major factors

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

1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords

1986 – Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II

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

Sue Ellen Cooper in a red hat

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

2005 – The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937

2015 – After a week of protests in Baltimore because of the death of Freddie Gray from neck and spinal injuries during his arrest and transport by police, a march from city hall to Baltimore’s inner harbor turns violent, as cars and windows are smashed, and police pelted with rocks. At least 34 people are arrested, 6 police officers are injured, and two photojournalists wearing their press credentials are roughed up by police, one being arrested, but later released

2019 – U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian issued a nationwide injunction, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from imposing new anti-abortion restrictions on the use of federal family planning funds designed to assist 4 million low-income women. “Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women,” said Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson, representing his state, one of the plaintiffs in the case challenging the proposed restrictions to the Title X program, the only federal program to assist low-income women to pay for family planning needs.  The rule, promulgated in March by the Department of Health and Human Services, bars programs receiving the federal money from referring pregnant patients for abortions, and prohibits health care providers to “perform, promote, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” When the order later did go into effect, Planned Parenthood, the largest recipient of Title X funding, pulled out of the program rather than comply with the gag order

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