On this day

1719 - Robinson Crusoe first appeared in paperback, it was based partly on the story of Alexander Selkirk who was marooned on a Pacific island for four years.

1792 - The guillotine was first used in Paris.

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

1959 - Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower officially opened the St. Lawrence Seaway to link the Atlantic with ports on the Great Lakes.

1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.

1982 - British Royal Marines recaptured South Georgia in the Falkland Islands.

1990 - The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-term space-based observatory, into a low orbit around Earth.

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

1607 - Captain John Smith landed at Cape Henry, Virginia, with the first group of colonists who established a permanent English settlement in America.

1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.

1962 - In a joint USA British venture, the first international satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

1968 - The largest underground nuclear device ever to be tested in the U.S. was exploded in Nevada.

1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

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1945: Russians and Americans link at Elbe
Russian and American troops have joined hands at the River Elbe in Germany, bringing the end of the war a step closer.
Statements have been released simultaneously in London, Moscow and Washington this evening reaffirming the determination of the three Allied powers to complete the destruction of the Third Reich.

According to a statement issued by Downing Street, the commanders of a United States division and of a Russian Guards division met at Torgau, south of Berlin on 26 April at 1600 hours local time.



Here we met the Russians who had advanced from the East. This was the first meeting of the Allied Forces

People's War memories »


In fact the first contact was made between patrols on 25 April when a first lieutenant and three men of an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon of the US division met forward elements of the Russian Guards division.
First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue of the 3rd Battalion, 273rd Infantry, 69th Infantry Division took his men in a boat across the Elbe to be greeted by Lt Col Alexander Gardiev, Commander of the 175th Rifle Regiment of the 58th Guards Division, 34th Corps.

They made arrangements for the formal handshake in front of photographers at Torgau the following day.

By joining forces at Elbe, the American and Soviet troops have successfully cut the Germany army in two. However, The Times correspondent warns of the of the possibility of "a protracted period of mountain warfare".

The American and Russian military leaders have paid tribute to their troops. In Moscow 324 guns fired a 24 salvo in honour of "victory of the freedom-loving peoples over Germany".

General Omar Bradley, commander of the US 12th Army Group, praised the Soviet troops for their determination in forcing the Germans to abandon Russia and push them back to the Elbe River.

He went on to pay tribute to the American forces: "In 10 months you have advanced 1,120km (696 miles) from the invasion beaches. All this has been attained thanks to your courage, your spirit and initiative and thanks to your comrades who died in order to achieve this."

The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, said: "We meet in true and victorious comradeship and with inflexible resolve to fulfil our purpose and our duty. Let all march forward upon the foe."

President Harry STruman welcomed the news: "This is not the hour of final victory in Europe, but the hour draws near, the hour for which all the American people, all the British people and all the Soviet people have toiled and prayed so long."

Marshal Joseph Stalin spoke of the war still ahead: "Our task and our duty are to complete the destruction of the enemy to force him to lay down his arms and surrender unconditionally.

"The Red Army will fulfil to the end this task and this duty to our people and to all freedom-loving peoples."




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Watch/Listen

Formal handshake for the cameras: American GI Lt William Robertson greets Russian soldier Lt Alexander Sylvashko



BBC reports on the events at the Elbe





In Context
Three days later (30 April) Adolf Hitler committed suicide with his wife of only a few hours, Eva Braun, in the underground bunker from where he had been directing operations.
On 4 May a representative of Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, Hitler's successor as chief of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces surrendered the Netherlands, Denmark and north-western Germany to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at Luneberg Heath, south-east of Hamburg.

The six-year European phase of history's most destructive war ended on 7 May with Germany's unconditional surrender to Eisenhower at Reims.

Victory in Europe Day was celebrated on 8 May.

However, the Soviets refused to accept the Reims agreement and insisted another peace deal was signed in Berlin on 8 May. As the Red Army was still fighting for control of Prague at the time, the ceasefire did not come into effect until 11 May.



Stories From 27 Apr
1945: Russians and Americans link at Elbe

1984: Libyan embassy siege ends

1961: Sierra Leone wins independence

1992: Betty Boothroyd is new Speaker

1971: Protest disrupts Welsh language trial

1296 - An English army, led by Edward I, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.

1521 – Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.

1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1939 - Conscription for men aged 20 - 21 was announced in Britain.

1968 - The Abortion Act legalised abortion in Britain when pregnancy could endanger the physical or mental health of a woman or child.

1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon

1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

2005 - The Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

1603 - Queen Elizabeth I's funeral took place at Westminster Abbey.

1770 - English navigator Captain James Cook and his crew, including the botanist Joseph Banks, landed in Australia, at Stingray Bay, which was later named Botany Bay.

1789 - The crew of the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied against the harsh life at sea under Captain Bligh.

1869 – Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay 10 miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.

1876 - Britain's Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India.

1932 – A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.

1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed as they attempted to flee the country.

1947 - Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia.

1994 – Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1996 – In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 21 more.

2001 - A Russian rocket took off with the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, taking him and two cosmonauts to the International Space Station.

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1996: Gunman runs amok in Tasmania
Armed police have surrounded a guest house where a gunman is holding three people hostage in the Australian island of Tasmania.
The man took the owners and a guest prisoner after shooting dead at least 32 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur.

The deputy police commissioner, Richard McCreadie, said the gunman has been firing on police from the house with two military-style rifles.

The traumatic scenes in Port Arthur have horrified Australia. It is thought to be the country's worst mass killing of recent times.

Packed with tourists

Witnesses say the gunman drove into Port Arthur in a car with a surfboard on the roof at about lunchtime, when the town was packed with tourists. He is described as having blond hair and a "surfy appearance".

After chatting for a while, he pulled out a rifle concealed in a tennis-racket cover and then walked into the Broad Arrow Café, where he opened fire.

As tourists ran screaming into the street he moved on to the car park where he turned on two coaches, killing several people in each one.

"He left the site shooting as he went, shooting everybody he could see," said Wendy Scurr, who was working at the front desk.

The gunman then drove to the nearby Fox and Hounds Hotel, which was crowded with Sunday diners, and continued firing.

Hostages

Eyewitnesses spoke of him killing deliberately, sometimes lining up his victims before opening fire.

Confirmed victims include 30 Australians and two Canadian tourists, including several children.

He then got back in his car and drove to the guest-house where he is believed to have taken the owner and his wife hostage, as well as one of their guests.

Little has been revealed about the gunman's identity. Police say he has a history of mental problems and comes from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. He is 28 years old, but his name has not yet been released.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, led the horrified reactions, saying he was "shocked and appalled". The Queen has sent a message of sympathy, as did British Prime Minister John Major.

The massacre comes just weeks after 16 children and their teacher were gunned down in Dunblane, Scotland.

Moves in Britain to tighten gun laws following the Dunblane tragedy have now been echoed in Australia following today's bloodshed.

State laws on gun ownership vary, but Tasmania is known to have some of the most relaxed legislation in the country.


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The Broad Arrow Café was the scene of the worst of the massacre




In Context
The gunman was later identified as Martin Bryant. He was arrested the following day after a 16-hour siege at the guest house.
He was caught after he set fire to the house, burning himself badly in the process. All three of his hostages were killed, bringing the final death toll to 35.

Bryant's victims ranged in age from three to 72. Many more were injured.

There was a public outcry when he was taken to the same hospital as many of his victims, and he was moved to a top-security prison hospital.

Bryant was found guilty of murder in November 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. His motive remains unknown.

The Broad Arrow Café, where 20 of Bryant's victims died, has now been demolished and a memorial erected in its place.

On 10 May 1996, Australia brought in one of the world's toughest sets of rules on gun ownership.

All pump-action and semi-automatic weapons were banned under the new law, and other gun ownership legislation was tightened.



Stories From 28 Apr
1986: Soviets admit nuclear accident

1996: Gunman runs amok in Tasmania

1945: Italian partisans kill Mussolini

1969: President Charles de Gaulle resigns

1994: CIA double agent jailed for life

2001: First space tourist blasts off





On This Day
13 March 1996 - Massacre in Dunblane school gym


16 October 1996
Handguns to be banned in the UK

(25-04-2011 10:56 )skully Wrote:  1792 - The guillotine was first used in Paris.

Mention of the guillotine always brings to mind images of French aristocrats in silly wigs but many will be surprised to learn that except for military trials (when a firing squad was used) the guillotine remained as the preferred means of execution in France for almost 200 years, and the last beheading took place as recently as 1977.

France was the last of the Western democracies to abolish the death penalty, although the last three Presidents before abolition were all generally anti-capital punishment, notably Georges Pompidou, who commuted 12 of the 15 death sentences passed during his term of office and as a result only 16 executions in total were carried out in its last 18 years (and two of these related to treason charges from the Algerian situation).

The blade fell for the final time on September 10th 1977, when 28-year-old Tunisian immigrant Hamida Djandoubi was executed for the torture and murder of his former girlfriend, overseen by Chief Executioner Marcel Chevalier.

Francois Mitterand brought in the abolition law when he succeeded to the presidency in 1981. He also commuted the death sentence of Phillippe Maurice, the one remaining prisoner on death row.

As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, France could not restore the death penalty without abrogating International Treaties, but although the National Front supports restoration there is not overwhelming support amongst the French people. Recent opinion polls put the number in favour at around 45%.

This compares with a support level of around 69% in the US and 53% in the UK (one UK poll last year actually put support at less than 50% for the first time ever). If this figure surprises you, it should be noted that the high percentages for UK restoration claimed in some newspapers always come in the wake of a high profile case (eg Soham, when it reached 74%), but the reality is that support levels in the UK have been steadily falling over the past 30 years, whereas the USA has gone the other way (in 1966 only 44% of Americans were in favour...or should I say favor!).

(28-04-2011 15:06 )mr williams Wrote:  Mention of the guillotine always brings to mind images of French aristocrats in silly wigs....

Next you'll be telling me that Carry On Don't Lose Your Head is not a true documentary representation of the French Revolution. Killjoy!

(28-04-2011 15:15 )Captain Vimes Wrote:  Next you'll be telling me that Carry On Don't Lose Your Head is not a true documentary representation of the French Revolution. Killjoy!

OOOOOOH, MATRON. NO!!!!!!

emmm the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton