Under Sunday, April 9, the book of history records, among other things:
193: Emperor Septimius Severus elevated Carnuntum to colonia, the highest possible rank of provincial capital.
1388: In the Battle of Näfels, Glarner and Schwyzer defeat an Austrian army.
1808: Austria declares war on France and its vassal state Bavaria.
1928: The Republic of Turkey (founded in 1923) under President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk completes the complete separation of state and religion.
1928: Eugene O’Neill’s drama “And Lazarus Laughed” premieres in Pasadena, California.
1933: The Austrian national football team – celebrated as a “miracle team” since 1931 – lost 1:2 to Czechoslovakia. This marks the end of an unprecedented two-year winning streak.
1938: On the occasion of the “Day of the Greater German Reich”, NSDAP leader and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler speaks in the Nordwestbahnhalle in Vienna and makes a general appeal to the voters. Hitler declares: “This city is a pearl in my eyes! I will put it in a setting worthy of a pearl.” In addition, the election campaign for the referendum under the motto “One people – one Reich – one leader” is coming to an end.
1943: The Nazi-German occupying power in Poland expanded the Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp into an extermination camp. 360,000 people, mostly Jews, are killed here.
1948: In Thailand, Field Marshal Phibun Songkram, who staged a coup in 1947, took over as head of government himself.
1978: An attempted coup against Somalia’s military dictator, General Mohammed Siad Barre, failed in Mogadishu.
1998: A stampede kills 118 Muslim pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
2003: The difficulties at Grundig Germany spread to Austria. Production is stopped at the TV factory in Vienna and the factory is closed on May 26th.
2003: Iraq War: US military declares Saddam Hussein’s rule in Baghdad over. Numerous residents stream cheering into the streets, statues of the dictator are toppled from their plinths. There is mass looting in the capital.
2008: The Austrian National Council ratifies the EU Reform Treaty. After an eight-hour debate in the presence of Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer (SPÖ) and Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik (ÖVP), the representatives of the SPÖ, ÖVP and Greens give their approval. As expected, an FPÖ motion for a referendum is rejected.
2008: Tennis player Daniela Klemenschits died of cancer at the age of 25 in the Salzburg State Hospital. Her twin sister Sandra, with whom she formed Austria’s strongest tennis doubles match up until 2006, also suffers from the same illness. After her recovery, Sandra Klemenschits competed again in a professional competition for the first time in July 2008 at the WTA tournament in Bad Gastein.
birthdays: Helene Lange, German women’s rights activist (1848-1930); Therese Neumann, gen. Konnersreuth, allegedly stigmatized (1898-1962); Julius Patzak, Austria Kammersänger (1898-1974); Paul Robeson, US singer (1898-1976); Jean-Paul Belmondo, French film actor (1933-2021); Gian-Maria Volonté, Italian actor (1933-1994); Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin, Russian politician (1938-2010).
days of death: François Rabelais, French writer (1494-1553); Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor (1908-2003); José Luis Sampedro, Spanish author (according to other information April 8) (1917-2013); Daniela Klemenschits, Austria Tennis player (1982-2008).
name days: Waltraud, Hugo, Bogislaus, Konrad, Kasilda, Demetrius, Maria, Thomas, Gundegar.