April 30th

On this day - April 30th 1975 - The Vietnam War Came to an End 

The Vietnam War had started in November 1955 and was one of the hot conflicts which was a result of the cold war. In the US the war was seen as an important fight to keep communism from spreading in Asia (containment policy). The first step towards the end of the war was a gradual drawback and "Vietnamization" of the conflict in the end of the 1960's. In 1973 was a peace agreement, the Paris Peace Accord, signed, but fighting continued. Direct involvement from the US Army ended in August the same year as the Peace Contract. On April 30th fell the city Saigon to North Vietnam and the war came to an end after over 19 years of conflicts. The following year was Vietnam again reunited. Somewhere between 800.000 and 3 million Vietnamese died in the war and over 50.000 american soldiers.

April 29th

On this day - April 29th 1994 - The computer company "Commodore" declared bankruptcy 

Commodore International was established in 1954 and was an important contributer to the development of home computers in the 1970s and 1980s. They are probably best known for the Commodore 64 computer which was released in 1982. However, the company was also known for the way they treated their dealers and customers, which gave the firm a bad reputation. The computer Commodore released in 1987, Amiga 500, did not sell as well as their previous computer. Profit sank, but bonuses for executives stayed high and the company started to struggle. In 1992 was the A600 computer released, which was a complete failure. Even with new releases was Commodore never able to catch up to the lost market shares. In 1994 filed the company for bankruptcy and ceased to exist. A Commodore "cult" still exists today. Take a look at all the cool commodore items you can buy on Amazon such as Commodore 64, Commodore 1541 Single Floppy Disk Drive, Men's COMMODORE 64 1581 FLOPPY DISK DRIVE T-Shirt and Dragon's Lair - Amiga, 1989.

April 28th

On this day - April 28th 1947- The beginning of the Kon-Tiki expedition 

The Kon-Tiki expeditions was project by Tor Heyerdal with the aim to prove that South Americans could have settled in Polynesia. Heyerdal therefore built a raft with the materials which would have been available at the time and sat sail from Peru on this day in 1947. Heyerdal and his five man crew (+ a parrot) sailed the raft for 101 days over 6900km before it crashed into a reef on Tuamotu Island. The raft was built of 9 trunks of Balsa threes. The float carried 1040 liter fresh water which was carried in both modern plastic dunks, but also in balsa three dunks to prove that the South Americans could also have brought water.  The raft and the expedition was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca Sun God. Heyerdal made a documentary about the expedition which won an academy award in 1951 (Kon Tiki 1951). He also wrote a book about his expedition (Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft ). A modern, dramatized feature film was made about the expedition in 2012. We highly recommend this movie if you are looking for some light history-related entertainment (Kon-Tiki 2012). The raft is today on display in Oslo. Thor Heyerdal died in 2002. Knut Haugland, the last living member of the crew, died in 2009.

 

April 27th

On this day - April 27th 1810 - Beethoven composed "Für Elise" 

The Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano is one of Beethovens most famous and popular compositions. It score was published 40 years after Beethovens death, but the original script was dated April 27th 1810. The original is today lost, which have led to several debates about exactly how the original script went. It is also not known who "Elise" was, but one theory was that the original title was "Fur Therese" and that the song was written for Therese Malfatti, a friend of Beethoven. Another theory is that is was written for Elisabeth Röckel, a soprano singer Beethoven knew. You can download the song here if you want to listen to it: Fur Elise.

April 26th

On this day - April 26th 1986 - Chernobyl Nuclear Accident 

The Chernobyl Nuclear accident was a disaster that happened in Ukraine which was a part of the Soviet area. The accident started when a systems test was run on reactor number 4. A sudden power surge and the complications which followed led to several explosions and a fire. The explosions and the fire led to the release of several radioactive particles which was spread to other parts of the world, manly the Soviet Union and Europe. 31 people died in the accident itself, and several others might have suffered from long-term effects from the radioactive particles (Read Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment for a debate on long-term effects). The accident have played an important role in both debates about nuclear power plants and the environment ever since.

April 25th

On this day - April 25th 1792 - The French national anthem "La Marseillaise" was written

The song, which was originally titled Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin was originally written after France declared war against Austria, The mayor of Strasbourg requested Rouget de Lisle to write a song on April 25th in 1792. The aim of the song was to rally soldiers against the threat of war in France. Rougert de Lisle finished the song the same evening. The song soon grew into the rallying call for the French Revolution.It was accepted as the official french national anthem on July 14th in 1795.  The song was later banned, but reinstated as the French National Anthem in 1879 and has been so ever since.

April 24th

On this day - April 24th 1915 - The start of the Armenian genocide 

The Armenian Genocide was an systematic extermination of  the Armenians by the Ottoman government. It is estimated that between 800.000 and 1.5 million people died. The Genocide started on April 24th when the authorities rounded up and deported 250 Armenian community leaders and intellectuals from Constantinople. The genocide continued during and after the first world war and Armenians were either simply killed, forced to to hard labour or sent on death marches to Syria. Assyrians and Greeks were treated in a similar manner as the Armenians. The Armenian Genocide is today by many recognized as the first systematic mass murdering (genocide) in history. However, other people deny that this was a genocide at all. Turkey, for example denies, that the term Genocide is applicable to the situation, while 29 other countries have officially recognized that it was a genocide.

April 23

On this day - April 23 2005 - The first YouTube movie was uploaded 

YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former Paypal employees. The inspiration had come from Janet Jacksons break time show during the super bowl in 2004. The first movie to ever be uploaded on YouTube was "Me at the Zoo" at 8.27 pm on this day in 2005. The movie lasted for 18 seconds and was about a zoo trip one of the founders friend had created. It is a very short movie and all that is being said is "Alright, so here we are in front of the, uh, elephants. Uh. The cool thing about these guys is that, is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks, and that's, that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

April 22

On this day - 22nd April  1970 - The first Earth Day

Earth day is celebrated on 22nd of April to support environmental protection. Now Earth Day is organized by the Earth Day Network and 193 nations participate. In 1969 John McConnell proposed a day to honour Earth and the concept of peace. However the proposed date March 21 did not stick. It was celebrated in 1970 but a month later a separate Earth Day was started by US senator Gaylord Nelson. The event for 22nd of April focused on the United States of America but one of the original coordinators of the 1970 event turned the event international in 1990. In the 1990 celebration 141 nations participated. There are several groups that celebrates Earth Week that takes the Earth Day message over en entire week instead of a single day. 

April 21st

On this day - April 21st 1926 - Queen Elizabeth II was born 

Today is Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday. She was born in London in 1926 by Queen Elizabeth and King George VI and was the oldest of two sisters. She became the Queen in 1952 and she is today Queen of  United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Head of the Commonwealth. She is the worlds oldest reign monarch and the longest-reign Queen in British history. She married prince Philip in 1948 and the couple had their first children in November the same year. They had four children altogether, and Elizabeth have five great grandchildren.

Several items have been created to commemorate the event of Queen Elizabeth IIs birthday. We recommend you to take a look on amazone yourself to see what the most "special" item you can find!  

April 20th

On this day - April 20th 1999 - The Columbine High School Massacre 

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 fellow student and one teacher in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. They injured another 12 students before the committed suicide. The massacre was a highly planned attack against their High School in Colorado, USA. Their motives were unclear, but they had been inspired by the Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19th) and other violent attacks in the US. Their original plan included bombing of the cafeteria at the busiest time, which wold have resulted in the death of hundreds of students. The bomb, thankfully, only went of partially. It was after this, at 11.19 am the two boys started shooting. Rachel Scott  who was eating lunch outside became their first victim in the Columbine School Massacre.
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The massacre sparked a debate on gun control in the US. We would like to recommend the movie "Bowling For Columbine" by Michael Moore about the massacre and the debates that followed. Several book about Rachel Scott and based on her writing has also been written. See for example  Rachel's Tears which was written by her parents.

April 19th

On this day - April 19th 1995 - 168 people died in the Oklahoma City bombing

The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist attack where 168 people died and over 600 were inured. The attack was carried out by  Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols against a federal building in downtown Oklahoma. The two had met during basic training for the US army a few years earlier. The bomb was detonated from a rental van which was parked in front of the building a few minutts after 9 am. 168 people were confirmed dead after the bombing, but the real number might have been 168 due to a leg that was found in the ruins, but its not known if the leg belonged to one more victim or one of the 168 confirmed dead. 19 of the victims were children. McVeigh was sentenced to death and was executed in 2001, while Nichols is still serving his life-sentence. He was sentenced to 161 life-sentences, which sat a new Guinness record.

This picture by Chris Fields won the Pulitzer prize

April 18th

On this day - April 18th 1971 - Scottish Actor David Tennant was born 

David Tennant is an Scottish Actor who was born in Bathgate on this day in 1971. His most famous roles include the 10th Doctor in Doctor Who, Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, Barty Crouch, Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Alec Hardy in Broadchurch. He has also worked as an voice actor and on stage for several plays. His acting debut was for a anti-smoking film in Glasgow at the age of 16. He was offered the role as Doctor Who in 2005, and Tennant has describe this role as his childhood dream. Tennant is married to Georgia Moffett (Actress from the Doctors daughter) and they have four children together. David Tennant was awarded the Special Recognition award at the British National Television Award in January 2015. He is currently filming "Mad to be Normal" and the filming for the third season of Tennant as Alec Hardy in "Broadchurch" will start this summer.

"I’ve been an obsessive Doctor Who fan since I was a child and it persists to this very day."
"When someone brings you a cup of tea, you say ‘thank you’ rather than ‘it’s not warm enough’"

Here are some of the movies/ Tv shows / Stage shows David Tennant have played in. We have seen several of them and would highly recommend the ones we have seen. There is even a David Tennant as Doctor Who bundle for the Doctor Who fans out there! 

 

 Or perhaps you would want a life size cardboard version of David Tennant?

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAVID TENNANT! 

April 17th

On this day - April 17th 1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion 

The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed military invasion undertaken by the CSI / the US on Cuba. The aim of the invasion as to overthrow the communist regime of Fidel Castro. Castro had gained power when the US friendly dictator Batista had been overthrown in the Cuban revolution between 1952 to 1959. Due to secret intelligens knew the government in Cuba that the invasion was coming. The invasion was defeated after three days by the Cuban revolutionary army. 4 american airmen was killed, together with 6 Cuban airmen and 10 Cuban exiles.  The invasion contributed to a closer relationship between Castro and the Soviet Union, which again contributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

April 16th

On this day - 16 April 1972 - Apollo 16 launched

On April 16th 1972 Apollo 16 launched from Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the Apollo space program and the fifth to land on the moon. The mission was crewed by commander John W. Young, commander Thomas K. Mattingly II and pilot Charles M. Duke, Jr. Mattingly was supposed to join the Apollo 13 launch, but he contracted measles and was replaced three days before the launch. Young and Duke spent 71 hours on the moon. The mission returned with almost a 100 kg of lunar samples. Apollo 16 returned to earth on April 27th spending a total of 11 days and almost two hours in space. 

April 15th

On this day - April 15th 1989 - The Hillsborough disaster 

96 Liverpool fans died and 766 were inured in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Liverpool was playing the FA cup semi final against Nottingham Forrest when the disaster happened. Due to lack of police control and the opening of an extra entrance became some of the areas allocated to Liverpool fans overcrowded. Just moments after the kick off a crush barrier broke down and fans were crushed to their death on top of each other. The accident was first blamed on the fans, but investigation conduced in 2012 proved that the fans were not to blame for the accident. The Hillsborough disaster is still one of the worlds worst fotball related accidents. 38 of the people who died in the accident was only teenagers and all the people killed were under the age of 50.

April 14th

On this day - April 14th 1912 - RMS Titanic hit the iceberg and sank 

Titanic was on it maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean when it hit an iceberg at 23:40 on April 14th and sank at 2:20 on April 15th. The ship had reportedly been warn about icebergs in the area, but due to the ships size was it too slow to turn when an iceberg was spottet. Around 2200 passengers were on the boat and somewhere between 1490 and 1635 people died. The safety boats on board wasn't meant for keeping al the passengers for longer periods of times, and several of the boats was put on the water before they were full. Most of the people who jumped or fall in the water died of hypothermia just minutts after landing in the cold water. The accident led to much stronger regulations for safety on passenger ships. Titanic still stand as one of the deadliest passenger ship accidents in peace time.

April 13th

On this day - April 13th 1919 - Over 300 Indians were killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, was a massacre of over 300 peaceful protesters in Punjab, India. The people was gathered in an large open area to celebrate the Baisakhi festival. The protesters were fired on for 10 minutts by the British army, and the main fire was directed at the protesters who were trying to escape. At least 379 people died and 1100 people were inured in the incident, but the number might have been much higher. The incident led to the Non-cooperation Movement of 1920–22 in India.

The area a few months after the massacre 

April 12th

On this day - April 12th 1992 - Disneyland Paris opened 

Disneyland Paris is a theme park 32 km outside of Paris in France. The plans for a European theme parked emerged in 1972. Construction started in 1988 and it took four years to finish the park. It was the fourth Disney park to be built after California, Florida and Tokyo. When the park opened in 1992 was the name "Euro Disney Resort", but Disneyland soon discovered that "Euro" didn't sound as exciting for Europeans as for Americans, and the name was changed. As many people as 90 thousand was expected to visit the par on the first day of its opening. Only 25 thousand actually did and the park struggled financially in the beginning. It was able to adjust to the European market in the next few years after its opening and the park is one of Europe's most visited theme park today.

April 11th

On this day - April 11th 1979 - Idi Amin is deposed in Uganda

Idi Amin was the third president of Uganda in the years from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment in 1946 and served in both Kenya and Uganda. He climbed to rank of major general in the Ugandan army before he took over as commander. In 1971 he led the military coup deposing Milton Obote. Under his regime the population suppressed and breaches of human rights were common. His political adversaries were being killed, people were prosecuted for their ethnicity and the officials were corrupt. The number of people who disappeared or were killed is reported from 100,000 to 500,000 by different observeres. In the end disagreements within Uganda and the failed attempt to annex Kagera (province of Tanzania) led to Amins fall and his escape to Libya. Eventually he settled in Saudi-Arabia where i died in 2003.  The story has been depicted in several books, documentaries, songs, and movies. The most recent was "The Last King of Scotland"

April 10th

On this day – April 10 – 1944 escaped the authors of the Auschwitz notebook from the camp

The Auschwitz notebook, also known as the Vrba–Wetzler report, was 40-page report on the mass killings in Auschwitz. The authors, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler were two Slovak Jews who escaped the camp on the 10th of April in 1943. Their notes from Auschwitz together with notes from prisoners from three other camps helped convince the allies that the mass killing rumours were in fact true. The notes from Auschwitz were the most detailed notes on the mass killings to be published at the time. Vrba and Wetzler escaped the camp together by hiding in a pile of wood between the inner and outer fence in the prison. They scattered tobacco infused with gasoline around their hiding place to fool the dogs and stayed hidden there for the next three days. They left their hiding place on the 10th of April in 1944.

Their whole notebook can be read on: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschproto.html

Alfred Wetzler

Rudolf Vrba 

April 9th

On this day - April 9th 1940 - Vidkun Quisling and Nazi-Germany occupied Norway

Norway was occupied by Germany in the early morning of April 9th 1940. The Germany attack happened both by air and sea and since Norway's military defense was rather poor at the time was the occupation an easy quest for the much stronger German army. The Norwegian army and resistance managed to sink the German ship Blücher and the government managed to get escape. The occupying German forces had expected Norway to surrender, but after much discussion decided the government that they would not give into German demands. Germany and Quisling decided thereafter to start a military coup and Quisling announced himself as the new Prime Minister over Norwegian radio. Norway was occupied until the end of the war, when Quisling was sentenced to death for his betrayal. You can read about his death sentence on October 24th here.

If you want to know mor about the events during the occupation and the resistance against Germany recommend we the movie "Max Manus: Man of War (English Subtitled)". The movie tells the story of one of the most important resistance fighters in Norway, Max Manus , and his fight against the German occupation.

April 8th

On this day - April 8th 1912 - Figure Skater and actress Sonja Henie was born

Sonja Henie was a Norwegian born figure skater and actress. She was born in Norway in 1912 to wealthy parents who helped her achieve her fame. She won the Olympic gold in figure skating 1928, 1932 and 1936 and became a world champion 10 consecutive times, which is the female figure skater record even today. She was also one of Hollywoods best paid actresses at the height of her career. The first movie she played in was "One in a million" in 1936 and thereafter followed several other movies with and without ice skating segments. Although Henie is considered to be one of the most famous Norwegians of all time, is she also viewed with skepticism in Norway. This is due to her friendship with Adolf Hitler previously to his occupation of Norway during to the Second World War (there is, however, no proof that she was a nazi and she supported the american involvement in the war).  Henie died of Leukemia in 1969 at the age of 57 while flying from Paris to Oslo. She is buried in Oslo on a hilltop overlooking the art-museum she and her husband Onstad created after they had retired. Her hand and skate prints can be found on the ground outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

April 7th

On this day - April 7th 1994 - The Rwanda Genocide 

The Genocide in Rwanda was a conflict where the Tutsi and some moderate Hutu were killed by the Hutu in Rwanda. The background for the conflict was the division created between the two group of peoples during the Belgian colonial rule and the Civil war which had started in 1990.The Genocide lasted for about 100 days, and somewhere between 50.000 and 1.000.000 people were killed in the conflict. This constituted about 70 percent of the Tutsi population, and 20 percent of the total population in Rwanda. On April 6th was the plane with the Rwandan president shot down. The systematic killing started the day after. Neighbors turned on each other and UN which was present in the country chose to do nothing to protect the victims. Several of the victims was killed with machetes and died a painful death. The genocide cam to an end after about 100 days because most of the Tutsi's had either escaped the country or was already dead. The genocide have had long lasting impact on Rwanda. For example experienced Rwanda a surge in HIV due to the war related rapes during the 100 days of the genocide, a destroyed transportation system and a huge lack of people.

April 6

On this day - April 6th 1974 - ABBA wins Eurovision Song Contest 

ABBA were a Swedish pop group from Stockholm and they won the competition with their song "Waterloo". Their win in Eurovision was the first time a Swedish act won the competition. The name came from the member names Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. From their success in Eurovision Song Contest they became one of the biggest commercial acts. Their act and songs top charts all over the world from 1974 to 1982. All inn all ABBA has sold 380 million albums and singles all over the world. ABBA was one of the first groups that had success coming from a country that does not speak English. 

Image by Beeld en Geluidwiki

April 5th

On this day - April 5th 1879 - The beginning of the War of the Pacific

The war of the Pacific was a conflict between Chile on one side and Bolivia and Peru on the other. The conflict started in 1879 and lasted until 1883/84. The background for the conflict was an tax the Bolivian government tried to impose on a Chilean mining company which Chile argued broke the two countries "Boundary Treaty" from 1874. Peru got dragged inn to the conflict because of an secret treaty between Peru and Bolivia from 1873. Bolivia declared war against Chile on March 1st and requested Peru to do the same. On April 5th declared Chile war against both the two countries and the war was officially started. Chile started their naval blockade of Peru on the same day. Chile ended as the victors of the conflict and gained huge amount of lands from both Bolivia and Peru, which made Bolivia into a land-locked country.

April 4th

On this day - April 4th 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated

Martin Luther King is best known for his role in the civil rights movement for African-Americans. He got involved in this movement in the early 1950s and in 1963 he held his famous "I have a dream" speech. He received the Nobels Peace Prize in 1964 for his non-violent approach to the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Tennessee in 1968 and died on the same day at the young age of 39. He was in Tennessee to support a strike among African-american city sanitation workers. He was assassinated by a single bullet while standing on the balcony of his motell room. James Earl Ray was caught in London two months later and pleaded guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

April 3

On this day - April 3 1948 - The Marshall Plan was signed into law

The Marshall plan, or European Recovery Program as the name officially is, was an plan for aid to Europe after the second world war. The U.S donated about 13 billion dollar (which would be around 130 billion dollars today) to aid Europe in its recovery. The aid was given as both grants and loans. The aim behind the plan was to help European economics to recover after the war, and to keep them from turning communist. The plan also included lessening of trade regulations and restrictions in the receiving countries. The UK received the highest amount, thereafter followed France and west Germany. 18 countries received some sort of help from the Marshall Plan, but the Soviet Union refused the aid and blocked the East European countries from accepting as well. Instead, the Soviet Union established the COMCON aid as a replicate of the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was signed into law by American President Harry S. Truman in 1948. The plan is named after Secretary of State George Marshall who were a firm believer in that economic stability would provide political stability in Europe.