French Protestants granted freedom of worship, 1802
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in October 1685, made Protestant worship in France illegal. This remained the case until they received limited toleration during the…
First recorded sale of friction matches, 1827
On 7th April 1827, John Walker, of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England, sells the first friction matches in his chemist shop to a local solicitor called Hixon. Walker served his…
Launch of Apollo 13, 1970
On 11th April 1970, a Saturn V rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the crew of the Apollo 13, James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and…
Emiliano Zapata assassinated, 1919
Born in August 1879, Emiliano Zapata Salazar became a mediero (sharecropper) and horse trainer in his home village of Anenecuilco in the small central Mexican state of Morelos. He campaigned…
Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, 1966
Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, had been the central figure in the Rastafarian faith since the foundation of the movement in the early 1930s. The indigent population in Jamaica…
U.S. Congress authorised two-cent coin, 1864
On 22nd April 1864 the U.S. Congress passed an Act to authorise the issuance of a two-cent coin. This Act also gave the the U.S. Treasury discretionary powers to decide…
First Volvo car produced, 1927
Eighty years ago today the Swedish vehicle manufacturer Volvo produced their first car. On 14th April, 1927, the first ÖV4 – nicknamed the ‘Jakob’ left the company’s Hisingen factory in…
Battle of Culloden, 1746
Following the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, some Britons, known as Jacobites, wanted James II restored to the throne. After James’ death in 1701, the Jacobite cause shifted to his son,…
Samuel Johnson`s Dictionary published, 1755
“Dictionary, s. a book explaining the words of any language alphabetically; a lexicon” The above definition is taken from Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, first published on…
Independence of Belgium and Luxembourg recognized, 1839
In the years following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, his vanquishers redrew the map of Europe, resulting in the creation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It incorporated modern…