On This Day in History II

46 BCE – Julius Caesar won the battle of Tapsus in Tunisia. The main forces of the Pompeians commanded by Scipio Nasica followed Caesar’s army. Caesar’s troops prepared themselves for defense – for this purpose they built fortifications across the nearby lagoon. Scipio’s troops, reinforced by the forces of the king of Numidia, Juba, surrounded the enemies building fortifications around theirs. Eventually, Caesar won a definite victory and after settling affairs in Africa, in July 46 BCE, he returned to Rome.

402 CE – Alaric, the leader of the Visigoths, was defeated at Pollentia, and later at Hast and Verona by Stilicho, who came to the rescue the emperor – Honorius. Alaric finally retreated to Illyria. The Roman poet Claudius Claudianus honored these events with the poem On the Gothic War.

1199
King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.

1453
Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which falls on May 29.

In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the next day.

In 1864, Louisiana opened a convention in New Orleans to draft a new state constitution, one that called for the abolition of slavery.

In 1909, American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits became the first men to reach the North Pole.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I as the House joined the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany that was then signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

In 1943, “Le Petit Prince” (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery was first published by Reynal & Hitchcock of New York.

In 1945, during World War II, the Japanese warship Yamato and nine other vessels sailed on a suicide mission to attack the U.S. fleet off Okinawa; the fleet was intercepted the next day.

In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., responding to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s broadside against him on “See It Now,” said in remarks filmed for the program that Murrow had, in the past, “engaged in propaganda for Communist causes.”
In 1968, 41 people were killed by two consecutive natural gas explosions at a sporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Ind.

In 1974, Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest held in Brighton, England, with a performance of the song “Waterloo.”

In 2008, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking at a private fundraiser in San Francisco, spoke of voters in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt communities who “cling to guns or religion” because of bitterness about their economic lot; Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton seized on the comment, calling it “elitist.”

In 2014, legendary Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney, 93, died in North Hollywood.

In 2020, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was transferred to the intensive care unit of a London hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19, after his condition deteriorated.

Ten years ago: Five Black people were shot, three fatally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, who admitted targeting the victims because of race, pleaded guilty to murder, and were sentenced to life in prison without parole. A Navy F18 Hornet jet whose pilots were forced to eject crashed in a spectacular fireball into a big apartment complex in Virginia Beach, Virginia; miraculously, no one died. Fang Lizhi (fahng lee-juhr), 76, who was one of China’s best-known dissidents, died in Tucson, Arizona. Painter Thomas Kinkade, 54, died in Monte Sereno, California.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) opened a two-day summit at Trump’s Florida beach resort. Don Rickles, the big-mouthed, bald-headed “Mr. Warmth” whose verbal assaults endeared him to audiences and peers and made him the acknowledged grandmaster of insult comedy, died at his Beverly Hills home at age 90.

One year ago: Moving up his deadline by about two weeks, President Joe Biden said every adult in the U.S. would be eligible for a coronavirus vaccination by April 19. Major League Baseball announced that the All-Star Game would be played at Coors Field in Denver; the game had been pulled from Atlanta because of objections to changes in Georgia’s voting laws.

@ Shilo it wasnt a surprise attack. for by 6:30 AM the pickets to a missouri regiment that was sent out at 5:30 AM were shoved in.

12th Michigan ~ ran. 

25th Missouri ~ ran.

451 CE
The Huns plundered the city of Divodurum Mediomatrici, (today’s Metz). In 450 CE the Huns started their invasion of Germania and Gaul. The cities of Colonia Agrippinensis (today’s Cologne), Magoontiacum (Mainz), Colonia Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Argentorate (Strasbourg), Durocortorum Remorum (Reims) and others were also plundered.

529
First draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

1776
Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.

1788
American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.

1827
John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.

i might add 1788 this was a site where a trading party of Mengwe natives about nine strong were butchered under the pretext of a white/injun exchange of goods. about 7 men and two women.

April 8

1783
Catherine II of Russia annexes the Crimea.

1796
Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, proves the quadratic reciprocity law (the ability to determine the solvability of any quadratic equation in modular arithmetic).

1808
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore is promoted to an archdiocese by Pope Pius VII, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville).

1820
The famous ancient Greek statue, Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.

1864
Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana.   Federals routed by General Richard Taylor.

1879
Milk is sold in glass bottles for the first time.

1904
New York City changes the name of Longacre Square to Times Square, in honor of The New York Times move to the area.

1913
The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by Congress, providing for the election of Senators by popular vote.

1943
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby and bars rate increases to common carriers and public utilities.

1947
The largest recorded sunspot ever observed at 40 times the diameter of Earth.

1952
US President Harry Truman seizes steel mills to avert a strike.

1968
Gangsters Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke commit the Air France robbery, stealing $420,000 from a cargo terminal at New York City's JFK International Airport.

1983
In front of a live audience of 20 tourists, David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear.

1984
U.S. Census Bureau estimates rank Los Angeles as the second most populated city, displacing Chicago which held the position since 1890.  New York City remains the top.

1986
Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California.  Makes his day.

2019
Actress Allison Mack pleads guilty to sex-trafficking charges for her involvement in sex cult NXIVM.

2021
Egyptian archaeologists announce their most important find since Tutankhamun's tomb.  The discovery of a lost 'golden city' the 3,000 year old ancient city of Aten near Luxor.

217 CE
On the way to the city of Carrhae, Caracalla was murdered. He was assassinated while urinating. It was initiated the praetorian prefect, Macrinus. The soldiers proclaimed him new emperor, and the Senate soon confirmed.

1820
The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

1864
American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield – Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana.

1895
In Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.

1913
The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.

1626 - Francis Bacon - queer/pedophile - death by pneumonia

37 CE
During the reign of emperor Caligula, Antioch, a city in today’s Turkey, was destroyed by an earthquake. The emperor had sent two senators to the destroyed region, who were to report to him about the damage.

193 CE
Roman legions proclaimed Septimius Severus the new emperor. After a few years of civil war, he defeated his competitors: Didius Julius, Pescennius Niger, and Clodius Albinus. He started a new Roman-Syrian dynasty (Severan).

1585
The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departs England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony.

1682
Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.

1865
American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

1867
Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

1916
World War I: The Battle of Verdun – German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.