Important Events From This Day in History April 1st

The BBC creates a hoax Panorama program about spaghetti crops in Switzerland and shows women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry. It should be remembered in context that Spaghetti was not a widely-eaten food in the UK in 1957 and was considered by many as an exotic delicacy.

 

20 more April Fools Jokes from around the world over the last 50 years are included at the bottom of the page.

 

1918 - Great Britain - Royal Air force is Founded

1918: The Royal Air force is founded in England, this is truly an amazing piece of history as the first flight was only made 8 years before by Wilbur and Wright and for countries around the World to set up separate arms of the Forces shows how important politicians believed the aircraft would become as a part of the military.

 

The aircraft in use in 1918 when the RAF started included the Sopwith Pup, Bristol F2B Fighters, Sopwith Camels, and Royal Aircraft Factory SE5's.

 

1933 - Germany - Persecution of Jews

1933: Nazi Germany begins the persecution of German Jews by declaring a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

 

1945 - U.S.A. - US Forces Land on Okinawa

1945: The United States Tenth Army commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. landed on Okinawa, the main island of the Ryukyus, 362 miles from the Japanese home islands.

 

The Occupation of the Island of Okinawa was considered crucial if there is to be an invasion of the Japanese mainland and during the campaign, the U.S. Navy sustained greater casualties in this operation than in any other battle of the war and it was not until on about June 21st, ( 11 weeks ) that the main battles for the Island ended. ( In the event the Nuclear Bombs changed military strategy.)

 

1946 - U.S.A. - Hawaii Earthquake and Tsunami

1946: A major undersea earthquake measuring 7.4 magnitudes in the north pacific ocean caused a Tsunami that by the time it reached Hawaii some 2,400 miles away and traveling at 500 miles per hour, only 4 1/2 hours after the quake waves reaching 60ft in height hit coastal areas of Hawaii causing the deaths of 150 +. This Tsunami prompted the setting up of the U.S. to establish the Seismic SeaWave Warning System to help in evacuation but any similar occurrence today would be even more devastating as can be shown with the damage and loss of life caused by Hurricane Katrina where the warning was greater than 6 hours.

 

1970 - U.S.A. - AMC Gremlin

The AMC group introduced one of the first subcompact cars way back in 1970 before many realized gas prices would be a critical factor in future car buying, the car was called the Gremlin and cost $1879. Car imports were just starting to have an impact on the US market including the Volkswagen Beetle and the new generation of Japanese imports like the Datsun.

 

1970 - U.S.A. - Cigarette Advertising Banned

1970: President Nixon signed into law the banning of cigarette advertising on television and radio.

 

1983 - UK - CND Peace Demonstrators

1983: Tens of thousands of CND peace demonstrators form a human chain stretching 14 miles across Southern England from the American airbase at Greenham Common, via the Aldermaston nuclear research center and ending at the ordnance factory in Burghfield.

 

1990 - UK - Strangeways Prison

1990: A thousand prisoners run amok in Strangeways Prison in Manchester in a violent riot setting fire to the chapel and gymnasium, and a number of prison cells, the inmates are protesting the primitive conditions and severe overcrowding.

 

The riot at Strangeways lasted 25 days the longest in British penal history.

 

1991 - U.S.A. - Riverboat Gambling

1991: Iowa becomes one of the first states to allow riverboat gambling.

 

1999 - Europe - The Euro

1999: Eleven countries in the European Union adopted the Euro as a common currency as the dream of monetary union became reality.

 

1999 - U.S.A. - Melissa" E-mail Virus

1999: David Smith is arrested and charged with originating the "Melissa" e-mail virus, which infected more than 1 million computers worldwide and caused more than $80 million in damage.

 

Melissa is classified as a computer worm and shut down Internet mail systems that got clogged with infected e-mails propagating from the worm. Melissa was spread via the word processors Microsoft Word 97 and Word 2000 through the use of an inbuilt macro in the template and could mass-mail itself from e-mail client Microsoft Outlook 97 or Outlook 98.

 

1999 - Great Britain - Minimum Wages

1999: Britain introduces the first-ever legally binding minimum rate of pay. From This Day all adults must be paid at least £3.60 an hour and workers under the age of 22 must get no less than £3 an hour. I have created a small chart below giving an idea of some of the yearly earnings based ( Equiv in US Dollars ) on minimum wage for an Adult Working Full Time in that country in 2007. If the figures depend on the State of Province or by trade and profession we have taken the lowest figure paid. 

 

Country Annual wage based on Minimum Wage In Equiv US Dollars Algeria 3,799 Angola 973 Argentina 9,266 Australia 18,382 Belarus 1,987 Belgium 17,879 Brazil 3,130 Burundi 11 Canada 10,196 Chad 1,638 China No Minimum Wage Exists Costa Rica 4,505 Czech Republic 7,168 Dominican Republic 2,305 El Salvador 1,747 Ethiopia 1,656 France 16,668 Haiti 1,497 Hungary 6,504 India No Minimum Wage Exists Indonesia 1,369 Ireland 18,842 Jamaica 2,544 Japan 10,599 Kazakhstan 1,619 Kenya 1,785 Libya 1,143 Luxembourg 21,070 Malawi 594 Mexico 1,557 Netherlands 17,015 New Zealand 15,822 Nigeria 831 Poland 5,918 Portugal 7,258 Russia 871 Slovakia 5,400 South Africa 3,794 Switzerland 15,466 Uganda 206 United Kingdom 22,368 United States 12,168 Many Many Countries including China and India who are listed above do not have minimum wages and the countries range from very westernized countries like Germany, Finland and Norway through to some of the poorest countries in the world like Bangladesh, North Korea and Rwanda.

 

The figures do not mean workers will only earn that per year but are the minimum set if there is a minimum.

 

2000 - UK - Enigma Machine Stolen

2000: The Enigma wartime coding machine used by the Germans to cipher messages during World War II is stolen from the Bletchley Park Museum in Buckinghamshire, south-east England.

 

The Enigma code created by the machine was thought by the Germans to be unbreakable but British mathematicians, scientists, and agents stationed at Bletchley Park succeeded in cracking the Enigma code - a cipher with 150 million million million possible combinations which the Germans thought was unbreakable. 

 

2001 - Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic

2001: Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been arrested and taken to prison. The charges include corruption and theft of state funds and he is also wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

 

2003 - Iraq - Jessica Lynch

2003: Jessica Lynch is rescued from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.

 

This story has created a great deal of controversy over the years with conflicting reports of what happened during her time in captivity and her rescue, so only the basic facts are included here she was injured, captured by Iraq Forces, and rescued. 

 

2006 - Great Britain - Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) is Launched

2006: Britain's agency for targeting major criminals such as drug smugglers, people traffickers, and fraudsters comes into force today. S.O.C.A. has been called Britain's equivalent of the F.B.I. and will be using work from the police, customs, and immigration services in its operations. Starting with just over four thousand officers, it will be using Britain's existing and newly formed European legal powers to fight crime. S.O.C.A. will be Britain's first non-police law-enforcement agency.

 

2008 - United States - Hillary Clinton Compares Herself to Rocky

2008: Hillary Clinton goes to Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania primary. "Let me tell you something," she told her audience. "When it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people." The Pennsylvania primary temporarily revived her campaign, and she continued by telling them that "I know what it's like to stumble. I know what it means to get knocked down. But I've never stayed down, and I never will."

 

2009 - United States - The Postal Service Announces Its Simpsons’ Stamps

2009: The U.S. Postal Service has said that it will be making stamps that feature the Simpsons characters Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart, and Lisa. The first-class stamps will be available to see at http://www.usps.com on April 9th, which is also the date on which they can be bought at the counter. 

 

2009 - NATO Albania and Croatia Join

2009: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ending of the Balkan conflict, NATO continues to grow with the addition of Albania and Croatia bringing the total states who are now members to 28. 

 

2012 - Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi Wins By-Election in Burma

2012: Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the oppositional party the National League for Democracy, won a by-election for parliament in Burma, and a key test of the country's recent democratic reforms. The party had not been able to compete in elections since 1990. Suu Kyi had been under house arrest for nearly twenty years after the military took control of the country after the 1990 elections and she refused to participate in a 2010 election because she thought it would not be democratic.

 

2013 - United States - US City of Stockton Declares Bankruptcy

2013: The US city of Stockton in California filed bankruptcy and a federal judge approved the request after a three-day trial, making the city of 290,000 the largest US city to enter bankruptcy protection. 

 

2014 - Japan - Japan Raises Sales Tax

2014: Japan raised its sales tax for the first time in seventeen years. The sales tax would be raised from five percent to eight percent and then to ten percent by October 2015. The move was thought of as a necessary step in managing public debt.

 

April Fools Jokes

1957 UK The BBC creates a hoax Panorama program about spaghetti crops in Switzerland and showed women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry. It should be remembered in context that Spaghetti was not a widely-eaten food in the UK in 1957 and was considered by many as an exotic delicacy.

 

1965 UK BBC conducts a trial of a new technology ( Smell-o-vision ) which allows the transmission of smell over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success.

 

1976 UK BBC Radio British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners that the unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation." Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.

 

1977 UK The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 celebrating the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodoni), and its leader (General Pica). ( San Serriffe is a typeface used in computers.

 

1978 Australia Australia a barge appeared in Sydney Harbor towing a giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local adventurer, and millionaire businessman had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Now he had apparently succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. Local radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was it's secret revealed. It started to rain, and the fire-fighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.

 

1980 UK BBC Radio announces that Big Ben would be replaced with a digital readout to bring it into the modern era and the BBC was inundated with angry listeners protesting the change.

 

1982 Hong Kong The Hong Kong South China Morning Post announced that a solution to Hong Kong's water shortage was at hand. Packets of powdered water imported from China would be distributed to all the residents of Hong Kong. A single pint of water added to this powdered water would magically transform into ten pints of drinkable water.

 

1985 U.S.A. Sports Illustrated writes an article about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph (270 km/h) fastball with pinpoint accuracy, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. ( the highest speed recorded for a FASTBALL is officially 100.9 mph )

 

1989 UK Richard Branson the owner of Virgin lands a hot-air balloon that had been specially built to look like a UFO land in a field on the outskirts of London where local residents immediately called the police to warn them of an alien invasion. A Local Policeman approached the UFO with a truncheon in hand but as the doors opened and a small, silver-suited figure emerged, the policeman ran in the opposite direction.

 

1992 U.S.A. National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again.". The radio station received many calls from outraged citizens who could not believe after being impeached he should run again for President.
1995 U.S.A. Discover Magazine runs an article about the Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer that caught its food by a group of these animals would burrow into the ice underneath suitable prey, and use their heads to melt through the ice. The animal was discovered by Aprile Pazzo ("April Fool" in Italian) but still, thousands believed it and the magazine received more mail about this article than about any other article it had ever published, including multiple Zoos asking where they could acquire specimens of the creature.

 

1996 U.S.A. Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell."

 

1996 Canada Canada introduces the Two Dollar Coin to replace the Two Dollar Note in February of 1996 and DJ's on Chez FM fooled listeners into believing that April 1st, 1996 would be the last day the Treasury would honor the Two Dollar Note. Thousands of Citizens contacted local banks and the Royal Canadian Mint outraged that they would lose their money.

 

1997 World Wide An e-mail is sent round the world stating the Internet would be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from March 31st until April 2nd and was necessary to clear out the "electronic flotsam and jetsam" that had accumulated in the network. No Internet access would be available worldwide on the day.

 

1998 U.S.A. Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side.

 

2000 U.S.A. Google announces a new "MentalPlex" search technology that supposedly reads the user's mind to determine what the user wants to search for, thus eliminating the step of actually typing in the search query.

 

2004 UK BBC Radio The Jeremy Vine Show reported that Germany had pulled out of the Euro but, as the German Mark was no longer in existence, they were in negotiations to join the British pound.

 

2005 Australia 97.3FM Radio Station in Brisbane, Australia told listeners that the Brisbane River is shining blue which is caused by a rare movement of the moon, causing high tides and the seawater to run upstream to the river to give it clean blue water.

 

2006 U.S.A. A Cheyenne radio station reported to listeners that during the previous night, a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was stolen from Holliday Park. Although the locomotive weighed more than 550 tons (500 tonnes) and had no tracks connecting it to any nearby railroad, thus making its theft near-impossible, several listeners fell for the joke and went to investigate. 

 

Born This Day in History 1st April

Celebrating Birthday's Today

 

Susan Boyle

Born: 1st April 1961 Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland

Known For: Susan Boyle came to prominence in just the last two years, catching the public imagination due to her powerful singing voice after appearing on the British show Britain's Got Talent. When you first see this singer before starting to sing, it is much too easy to judge her on looks, but when you hear them singing your view will change because of her powerful voice. She is one of the best examples of the old saying "You Should Never Judge A Book By Its Cover". She has since recorded her first album I Dreamed a Dream which was released on 23 November 2009 becoming Amazon's best-selling album in pre-sales. In spite of worldwide media attention, she still lives at her family home, a four-bedroom council house, with her 10-year-old cat, Pebbles. The media attention following her performance included appearing on CBS's Early Show, Good Morning America, NBC's Today, FOX's America's Newsroom, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.