Under Saturday, April 8, the book of history records, among other things:
1378: After the death of Pope Gregory XI. the Archbishop of Bari, Bartolomeo Prignano, as Urban VI. as his successor, but on September 20 Robert of Geneva was elected anti-pope as Clemens VII in Avignon. This double election initiates the Occidental Schism (until 1418).
1548: The Spanish conqueror and adventurer Gonzalo Pizarro is defeated by a Spanish army led by Pedro de la Gasca at Sacsayhuamán. This gives the Spanish crown complete control over the Viceroyalty of Peru, with its capital in Lima.
1783: As a result of the Russian victory over the Turks, Catherine the Great annexed Crimea as part of the Russian Empire.
1838: The first steamship used in transatlantic scheduled services, the “Great Western”, leaves Bristol and reaches New York following 15 days and five hours.
1908: Premiere of the drama “Swan White” by August Strindberg at the Swedish Theater in Helsinki.
1933: The painter Otto Dix loses his teaching post at the Dresden Art Academy.
1943: Bolivia declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
1948: The Czechoslovak Communist Party government under Prime Minister Klement Gottwald expands its nationalization program and puts it into effect retrospectively as of January 1, 1948.
1953: The founder of the Mau Mau movement, Kenya’s later independence leader and first President Jomo Kenyatta, is sentenced to seven years of hard labor by the British colonial power as a conspirator.
1968: In the GDR, the new (second) constitution comes into force, which is adopted in a referendum on April 6.
1988: EC Commissioner for External Relations and Trade Policy Willy de Clercq opens a bilateral EC embassy in Vienna, the first in a non-EC country.
1993: Macedonia is admitted to the UN under the name “FYROM” (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
2003: Iraq War: Fierce fighting rages in several districts of Baghdad. US President George W. Bush declares that Saddam Hussein’s rule is nearing its end.
2013: Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies at the age of 87 following suffering a stroke. Known as the “Iron Lady”, the conservative politician ruled from 1979 to 1990 and made a name for herself above all through the Falklands War once morest Argentina and her tough stance on the EU.
birthdays: Christian IX, Danish King (1818-1906); Mary Pickford, US silent film actress (1893-1979); Walter Hitzinger, Austria industrialist (1908-1975); Heidemarie Hatheyer, Austria Actress (1918-1990); Betty Ford, former US First Lady (1918-2011); Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (1923-1997); Fred Ebb, US songwriter (1928-2004); Kofi (Atta) Annan, Ghanaian diplomat (1938-2018); Julian Lennon (actually John Charles JL), British singer and composer (1963); Patricia T. Arquette, US actress (1968).
days of death: Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (1797-1848); Ludwig Wilhelm Mauthner from Mauthstein, Austria. philanthropist and physician (1806-1858); Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (1881-1973); “King” Oliver, US jazz musician (1885-1938); Marian Anderson, US opera singer (1902-1993); Victor de Kowa, German actor (1904-1973); Peter Igelhoff, Austria composer (1904-1978); Joseph S. Moser, Aust. newspaper publisher (1918-1993); Margaret Thatcher, British politician (1925-2013); Maki Ishii, Japan. Composer (1936-2003).
name days: Walter, Notker, Beate, Liberius, Albert, Apollonia, Manegold, Rose-Marie.
