26 APRIL 121: Birth of Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor who was trained as a philosopher. He proved a noble, civilized emperor despite ruling through difficult times. He found time to write his Meditations, revealing his loneliness, and founded chairs of philosophy. 1607: English colonists land at Cape Henry, Virginia. 1711: Birth of David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian who wrote the Treatise of Human Nature. As an atheist, he was barred from a professorship at Edinburgh, so he taught a mentally deranged nobleman until he became the keeper of a library in the city. 1812: Birth of Alfred Krupp, German armaments manufacturer who succeeded to the business begun by his father, making the firm the biggest supplier of arms to the world. The firm later supported Hitler’s rise to power. 1875: Birth of Syngman Rhee, the founder of South Korea in 1948, when he was elected President. 1876: The town of Deadwood, Arizona was officially laid out. The locals included ‘Wild Bill’ Hickock, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp and later, ‘Doc’ Holliday. 1882: Naturalist Charles Darwin is buried in London's Westminster Abbey. 1894: Birth of (Walther Richard) Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader, who was imprisoned with Hitler in the 20s, when Hitler dictated Mein Kampf to him. When the Nazis came to power, he was made deputy to the Führer, but early in the War he flew to Scotland to try to arrange a peace treaty and was imprisoned in Britain. At Nuremberg, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He hanged himself in Spandau Prison. 1900: Birth of Charles Richter - scentist, invented Richter scale of seismic movement 1900: A huge fire in Ottawa and Hull, Canada, destroyed vast areas, making 12,000 homeless in just 12 hours. 1921: The first motorcycle police patrols went on duty in London. 1923: The Duke of York (the future King George VI) and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon were married at Westminster Abbey. 1931: The first (private) performance was given by the Camargo Society, London, of the ballet Façade by Frederick Ashton, with music by William Walton, based on poems by Edith Sitwell. The first public performance was on 4 May, staged by the Ballet Rambert, London. 1933: A new 32lb gun, put in use at the Merseyside Mid-Day Signal. 1937: German bombers, under the command of Franco’s forces, made the first raid on a civilian population during the Spanish Civil War when they attacked Guernica, the spiritual home of the Basques. This atrocity was later captured on canvas by Picasso. 1947: Suspicious death of 4th wife of Dr. Robert Clements', Southport. He committed suicide. 1964: The new African nation Tanzania is formed by the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. 1975: Portugal held its first free elections for 50 years, with a victory for Mario Soares. 1986: The world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at Chernobyl. The area around the power station near Kiev, USSR, was evacuated, but radioactive levels increased over a huge area, even affecting Welsh sheep. It was four days before the Soviets admitted the disaster. 1988: Mick Jagger was cleared of pirating a song by an unknown reggae musician and recording it as ‘Just Another Night’. The judgement came after a two-day hearing in the US. 1989: Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland held their first annual pig race watched by over 7,000 people. One punter won £200 on the favourite, Porky’s Revenge, and the bookies handed the remainder of their money to the charity People in Need. The organizers plan to invite competitors from as far afield as the US and USSR. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.351 / Virus Database: 197 - Release Date: 19/04/02