On this day in 1558, Mary, Queen of Scots, married the Dauphin of France at Notre Dame de Paris. Better it was for love, because it failed to help her politically. On this day in 1885, Annie Oakley answered President Carter's call to gender equality when the sharp shooter joined Buffallo Bill's Wild West about ninety years before he was elected President for the first and last time. On this day in 1915, Turkey arrested 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders as a prelude to the genocide which would cripple their war effort. A year later, Irish separatists rose in rebellion on Easter. Two years after that, in 1918, German tanks faced off against British ones for the first time. British ones won the engagement. It is also hard to imagine that only in 1922 was wireless telegraphy first available between Oxfordshire and Cairo. Skype would have been useless as Egyptians don't speak English. As it was, it was a failure, Thutmose was already dead and Troy was lost. 1933, and Nazis began persecuting Jehova's Witnesses, shutting down the watchtower offices in Magdeburg. Twenty years later and QE2 knighted Winston Churchill.
The Soviet Union had made large strides in cosmonautics, but sadly on this day in '67 Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when his parachute failed to open. Jimmy Carter made his stamp on this day with the tragic deaths of eight US servicemen who had attempted to save Iranian hostages. Snuppy, the first cloned puppy, an Afghan, was whelped on this day in 2005. Don't tell the Greens about the dog, they'd kill him.
For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Tony Huynh. On this evening, in 1915, two of my grandfathers were sailing to shore at Gallipolli. For different armies. One lost an eye. The other did his job.
- 702 – Ja'far al-Sadiq, Arabian Imam (d. 765)
- 1581 – Vincent de Paul, French priest and saint (d. 1660)
- 1620 – John Graunt, English statistician (d. 1674)
- 1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian pianist (d. 1780)
- 1743 – Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman, invented the power loom (d. 1823)
- 1815 – Anthony Trollope, English author (d. 1882)
- 1880 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer and businessman, developed the zipper (d. 1954)
- 1906 – William Joyce, American-English politician and broadcaster (d. 1946)
- 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1936 – Jill Ireland, English-American actress and author (d. 1990)
- 1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
- 1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer and songwriter (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and Don Harrison Band)
- 1951 – Nigel Harrison, English bass player and songwriter (Blondie and Silverhead)
- 1957 – Boris Williams, French-English drummer (The Cure, Thompson Twins, and Babacar)
- 1959 – Paula Yates, English television host and author (d. 2000)
- 1973 – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
- 1982 – Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 2005 – Snuppy, world's first cloned dog
Matches
- 1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
- 1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
- 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
- 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
- 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
- 1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley was hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
- 1904 – The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after almost 40 years.
- 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
- 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
- 1916 – Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.
- 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.
- 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
- 1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
- 1923 – In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud's theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
- 1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
- 1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
- 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
- 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
- 1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
- 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
- 1970 – The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
- 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
- 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
- 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.
- 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
- 2005 – Snuppy becomes world's first cloned dog.
Despatches
- 624 – Mellitus, English archbishop
- 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660)
- 1974 – Bud Abbott, American actor and producer (b. 1895)
- 1986 – Wallis Simpson, American-French wife of Edward VIII (b. 1896)
VAN vs VAN
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 24, 2014 (2:07pm)
Q & A viewers are in for such a treat next Monday. As a preview, please enjoy upcoming guest Van Badham’s manic performance on Sky last year. Highlights include her claim that Tony Abbott “hates women. I think that’s very obvious to everybody … I think that it’s very clear that his hatred of women is palpable” and this exchange with bewildered host Peter van Onselen:
PVO: Do you give any credit to John Howard for …Van: No, I don’t.PVO: Hang on, let me finish. I haven’t even asked the question yet!
She’s perfect for the ABC. Van appears at the 10:40 mark:
ANGELA’S ONLY LISTENER
Tim Blair – Thursday, April 24, 2014 (11:48am)
SMH clothtop Peter FitzSimons’s radio ratings predictions from last month:
Kyle and Jackie O will be well down on KiisFM from the heights they knew on 2DayFM.
Result: “The Kyle & Jackie O Show has moved to the uncontested top FM show in Sydney with an audience share of 10.9 per cent, according to new radio ratings published today.” Fitzy also predicted big things for 2UE morning host (and Fairfax colleague) Angela Catterns:
There has long been criticism that commercial talkback lacks strong female voices, but she is all that and more and will break the mould. 2UE will rise this year, with her at the prow. You heard it here, first!
Catterns is now second last with an audience share of just 2.7 per cent.
Would Ormerod have defended Christ’s right to preach?
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (8:52am)
Reader TBear writes to the Australian Catholic University’s Professor Neil Ormerod wondering if he really is as hostile to free speech as he seems.
The disturbing answer is yes. Ormerod writes::
But I remember another body that shared Ormerod’s “common good” qualification of the right to free speech and have a question for this Catholic Professor of Theology.
Does Ormerod agree with the decision of the Sanhedrin to permanently silence someone else they also accused of speaking against the public good? Someone they damned for opposing another tax and for saying he knew better than the consensus of authorities?
===The disturbing answer is yes. Ormerod writes::
I do in fact support free speech. However, like many political rights free speech is a relative right, relative to the common good to which it contributes. People may have a right to their opinions, but not necessarily a right to express those (sic) opinion in a way which does damage to the common good. If in fact climate change is real (and all the scientific evidence supports this) then those who muddy the waters with uninformed opinion with the intention of delaying action which would limit or reverse its affects, are damaging the common good.As TBear correctly notes, Ormerod’s arguments have been used by totalitarians throughout history:
So, we find that Professor Ormerod is only in favour of free speech which “supports the common good”. This is, of course, the basis for censorship in all authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and (according to Ormerod) is consistent with “Catholic social teaching”.I note Ormerod is particularly keen to restrict the right to speak of those who oppose the carbon tax and defy the so-called consensus of authorities.
But I remember another body that shared Ormerod’s “common good” qualification of the right to free speech and have a question for this Catholic Professor of Theology.
Does Ormerod agree with the decision of the Sanhedrin to permanently silence someone else they also accused of speaking against the public good? Someone they damned for opposing another tax and for saying he knew better than the consensus of authorities?
And they began to accuse Him, saying, ”We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”Where would Ormerod have stood on that fateful day? On the side of the censors or of the right to preach freely?
Refugees just need safety. So why not Cambodia?
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (8:45am)
If
they are safe in Cambodia, isn’t that mission accomplished? If they
want something more then we’re not talking about refugees:
===A deal with Cambodia to resettle asylum seekers is moving closer with Scott Morrison declaring that a country’s economic capacity is irrelevant to his expansion of a “club” of nations to take refugees…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
“It’s not about whether they are poor, it’s about whether they can be safe,” Mr Morrison said. “That’s the issue. The [refugee] convention was not designed as an economic advancement program...I would have thought the point for the UNHCR and the region is to expand the club of countries that are available...”
On punching and mooning Tim Wilson in the name of tolerance
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (8:18am)
Melbourne University multiculturalism academic Shakira Hussein
claims to be worried about “hate speech” that makes people feel unsafe
and so “hampered its targets’ ability to access public space”:
UPDATE
Do you have to be a Leftist to be an arts academic, or is it just sheer coincidence? And do you have to be aggressive with it?
===... speech that offends, insults, and humiliates (never mind intimidates) creates an atmosphere in which violence against the targets of hate-speech is seen as an acceptable course of action, even when the hate-speech itself did not directly call for it. And even when no physical violence takes place, the environment created by such speech constrains the lives of its targets in real and concrete forms.This line occurs in an article in which Hussein demonstrates the very evil she claims to condemn, indulging in abusive and violent hate-speech against Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson:
So this brown-skinned Muslim disabled single mother goes to a lecture by a libertarian socially conservative human rights commissioner… It sounds like a joke told by an Andrew Bolt fan after a long night at the pub.Like I said, Hussein is an academic.
“What’s my punch-line?” I wrote on my facebook page as I waited for Tim Wilson to appear for his in-conversation with Sally Warhaft at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne.
“Left hook,” a friend responded, before correcting herself. “Oh. You said punch-line. I just saw Tim Wilson and punch. My bad."…
I put this to Wilson during the discussion period, prefacing my remark by noting that as a brown-skinned etc I had been torn between asking a question and expressing my right to freedom of expression by flashing my arse at him…
Wilson waved his hand in a “go ahead” gesture, so (arse safely glued to chair) I told him that the hostile atmosphere fostered by racist speech hampered its targets’ ability to access public space and to participate in education and the workforce.
UPDATE
Do you have to be a Leftist to be an arts academic, or is it just sheer coincidence? And do you have to be aggressive with it?
No slippery slope?
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (8:03am)
Those who claim there is no slippery slope have ignored plenty even before this latest news:
===The world’s only ‘married’ lesbian threesome are expecting their first child.(Thanks to readers Lin and txjohn.)
Doll, Kitten and Brynn, from Massachusetts, were joined together in a marriage-style ceremony last August and are expecting a daughter in July.
Kitten, 27, is pregnant after undergoing IVF treatment using an anonymous sperm donor, and the trio eventually plan to have three children - one for each of them.
Shorten’s real plan is to survive the royal commission
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (7:51am)
IT SEEMS a mystery. Why does Opposition Leader Bill Shorten think last year’s defeat proves Labor’s rules must change?
That’s crazy. Who voted against Labor because only union members could join?
Shorten’s speech this week, claiming “we need to change our party” by loosening membership rules and union control of preselections, seemed even crazier from the questions afterwards from the audience.
These were the party faithful, the people Shorten says should get more say in Labor, and here is what they asked: What would he do to get up a republic? What would he do for boat people? How could he stop the media criticising Labor?
Lesson: give Labor members more say and its Leftists and closet totalitarians will run amok, making the party even less electable.
So why is Shorten pretending union connections are Labor’s real problem? Because Shorten, a former Australian Workers Union head, is not trying to recover from last year’s election but to survive this year’s royal commission into union corruption.
(Read full article here. Shorten’s 2GB interview with 2GB’s Ben Fordham this week here.)
UPDATE
Union-linked pollster Peter Lewis and Chris Kenny on Shorten’s reforms:
===That’s crazy. Who voted against Labor because only union members could join?
Shorten’s speech this week, claiming “we need to change our party” by loosening membership rules and union control of preselections, seemed even crazier from the questions afterwards from the audience.
These were the party faithful, the people Shorten says should get more say in Labor, and here is what they asked: What would he do to get up a republic? What would he do for boat people? How could he stop the media criticising Labor?
Lesson: give Labor members more say and its Leftists and closet totalitarians will run amok, making the party even less electable.
So why is Shorten pretending union connections are Labor’s real problem? Because Shorten, a former Australian Workers Union head, is not trying to recover from last year’s election but to survive this year’s royal commission into union corruption.
(Read full article here. Shorten’s 2GB interview with 2GB’s Ben Fordham this week here.)
UPDATE
Union-linked pollster Peter Lewis and Chris Kenny on Shorten’s reforms:
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
NSW has a premier not quite so odd
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (7:33am)
Niki Savva isn’t crying for Barry O’Farrell, and says replacement Mike Baird promises to be a change for the better:
===All the staff knew and liked Mike [Baird], so when O’Farrell finally made it [as Premier], they, like many others, were puzzled by the treatment the new premier meted out to the son of his former boss [MP Bruce Baird]. Fair enough, O’Farrell wanted Gladys Berejiklian to succeed him, but ranking the young treasurer at No 11 in his ministry while stripping him of many of his powers was a calculated emasculation…
O’Farrell was strange in other ways. He isolated himself. He would not tell staff when or where he was going. He would give his security detail the slip by telling them the wrong times to turn up, or dispense with them altogether. He stopped using advancers, the nuts-and-bolts logistical people who make sure events go smoothly and do much to prevent the boss looking like a dill on the telly.
He made obvious his disdain for Abbott — again, origins unknown — while pointedly cuddling up to Julia Gillard by backing her policies on education and disability.
According to those who have worked closely with Baird, he operates very differently. He is hands-on and works well with those around him…
Few Liberals will say it publicly, but privately there was a deep well of frustration with O’Farrell’s slow pace and eccentric behaviour, so the switch was seen as a potential blessing in disguise.
Conservatives were wicked for saying then what Hawke and Keating say now
Andrew Bolt April 24 2014 (7:14am)
A conservative is someone who said at the time that the Rudd and Gillard Governments were dysfunctional and divisive.
A Leftist is someone who admits it only after Labor loses office:
===A Leftist is someone who admits it only after Labor loses office:
BOB Hawke and Paul Keating have given a blistering assessment of Labor in power under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and warned that retrograde policies, ineffective communication, divisive class warfare and a lack of conviction will keep the party out of office if not urgently addressed.
The two former Labor prime ministers have urged the party to undertake radical reform to reduce the power of unions and factions, steer policy back to the centre ground and heed the lessons of the often chaotic and dysfunctional Rudd-Gillard governments. ..
For the first time, the two Labor elders say the party must slash the 50 per cent weighting given to unions at state conferences — a reform Bill Shorten this week ignored…
Mr Keating said the last Labor government struggled to define its purpose… “Kevin’s government was doing reasonably badly reasonably quickly,” Mr Keating said…
Mr Hawke is critical of Labor for promulgating class warfare for political gain and criticised the development of the mining tax. “That sort of class-warfare rhetoric never resonates with me,” he said…
Mr Hawke said it was inevitable Mr Rudd would be toppled by Ms Gillard in 2010 “because he just wanted to run so much of things single-handedly” and a reaction against that was inevitable.
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G’day,
How excellent is it to hear that there is actually a medium to long term, fully financed plan to bring our Air Defence Systems up to scratch. I am pleased that the ALP is onboard but really what choice do they have.
It is also very refreshing and comforting to listen to Joe Hockey’s words of wisdom tonight at the Spectator Australia Magazine dinner, regrading the “end of entitlement”. I won’t bore you with the details, they are many and easy to find but I will remind you that we as a nation definitely do have the government that we voted for and we certainly do have adults running the country now. The cuts and the reforms to be announced soon (assuming the Upper House will do the right thing) will be remembered in generations to come as the time this country finally grew up!
Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist
0414293765
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=== Posts from last year ===
Heiner Affair inquiry getting down to business
Piers Akerman – Wednesday, April 24, 2013 (12:06am)
It would seem that Prime Minister Julia Gillard is not the only Labor figure to reach for the “naïve” defence when the hard questions are asked.
Yesterday, Dean Wells, a former Labor Attorney General in the Goss government, told the Queensland Child Protection Inquiry which is looking into the Heiner Affair that the Cabinet decided to shred internal documents because they were inexperienced and wanted to protect employees from defamation.
He said the 1990 order to destroy documents from an investigation into a youth-detention centre was the Cabinet’s baptism of fire as the first “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” decision.
He is the third Cabinet minister to be summonsed to the inquiry - the first under newly expanded terms of reference - that is investigating the long-running Heiner Affair disgrace.
“We had been out of office for 32 years,” Wells said.
“We did not know what was normal and within the area of the Cabinet’s concern.
“What we did know that a minister had a problem that an inquiry that had been established by her predecessor had been pulled up.”
The Heiner Affair centres on the destruction of documents from retired magistrate Noel Heiner’s investigation into allegations of mismanagement at the John Oxley Youth Centre.
It later emerged a girl, 14, was raped at the centre in 1988 and claims grew of a coverup of sexual abuse allegations.
The girl, now a woman, at the heart of this matter, still wants justice.
She was awarded approximately $140,000 in a hush-hush ex gratia payment or possibly compensation in June, 2010, by the Bligh Labor government.
Commissioner Tim Carmody asked why the government would offer to indemnify a man, then destroy the documents which might be produced in a court in a case against that same man.
“That suggests no one thought about those two colliding facts,’’ he said.
Wells said the government believed it wrong to keep documents which he believed contained untested allegations of misconduct which did not involve criminal behavior.
But Carmody said the Cabinet knew it was dong something quite “risky” which required serious thought.
“It was such a serious decision it was deferred twice,’’ he said.
Yet the Cabinet did not appear to apply careful consideration before green-lighting the shredding.
“It (the consideration given) seems to have been less than might have been expected,’’ Carmody said.
“The questions that seems to have been obvious don’t seem to have been asked.’’
Carmody suggested the documents contained not so much allegations of child sexual abuse but accusations related to industrial strife inside the John Oxley centre.
But he also suggested there were two competing sides in the equation - one side wanted to keep the material and one side wanted it destroyed.
He suggested the Labor Cabinet had taken one side, and allowed the destruction of the documents.
The inquiry continues and the commissioner is due to decide on the criminality of the shredding of the documents on May 6.
In as much as a number of the most senior judges from across the nation have in the past decided that the shredding of documents foreshadowed to be needed as evidence was prima facie a crime, Carmody’s decision will be eagerly waited.
The Heiner Affair has never been properly investigated despite 11 reviews and it has cast a shadow over the Goss Cabinet and a number of senior public servants including the former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who was Premier Wayne Goss’s chief of staff and later director-general of his Cabinet office.
It may be that the Newman government will finally see justice done in this long-running scandal.
4 her, so she can see how I see her
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The TARDIS has crashed, Clara is lost inside, and the Doctor has 30 minutes before his ship explodes... Don't miss the action in 'Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS' this weekend!
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Beautiful handmade 6 claw Round Brilliant Cut Diamond Engagement Ring with channel set band
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Photography by Rania Abbott
Copyright © 2012 Thoradox Creations & Team 9Lives
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We wish everyone a safe ANZAC Day tomorrow. Please respect the occasion in remembering the brave men and women who fought for Australia – don't get involved in alcohol-fuelled violence or antisocial behaviour.
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A judge has awarded the family of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby more than $50,000 in damages for family photos published without consent in a 2011 book titled Sins of the Father by journalist Eamonn Duff.
They alleged that five photos, including shots of Corby with friends at Brisbane airport and as a child on Santa's knee, were family pictures published without permission. Read more here:http://ninem.sn/SlYSqcB
Confirmation that the book Sins of the Father is factual and has only transgressed a technicality of copyright from images? ed
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- 1479 BC – Thutmose III became the sixth Pharaohof the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, although during the first 22 years of the reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut.
- 1547 – Schmalkaldic War: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, led Imperial troops to a decisive victory in the Battle of Mühlberg over the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of Protestantprinces.
- 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar in the development ofquantum mechanics, was presented to the German Physical Society.
- 1922 – The first portion of the Imperial Wireless Chain, a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network created to link the countries of the British Empire, opened.
- 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope (pictured) was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in mission STS-31.
Events[edit]
- 1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
- 1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
- 1547 – Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League.
- 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
- 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
- 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
- 1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
- 1904 – The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after almost 40 years.
- 1907 – Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
- 1913 – The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.
- 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
- 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
- 1916 – Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.
- 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.
- 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
- 1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
- 1923 – In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud's theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
- 1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
- 1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
- 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
- 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
- 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
- 1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
- 1963 – Marriage of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent to the Hon Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état againstJuan Bosch.
- 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
- 1968 – Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
- 1970 – The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
- 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.
- 1971 – Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
- 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
- 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
- 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.
- 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
- 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
- 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
- 2005 – Snuppy becomes world's first cloned dog.
- 2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.
Births[edit]
- 702 – Ja'far al-Sadiq, Arabian Imam (d. 765)
- 1533 – William the Silent, German son of William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (d. 1584)
- 1581 – Vincent de Paul, French priest and saint (d. 1660)
- 1620 – John Graunt, English statistician (d. 1674)
- 1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian pianist (d. 1780)
- 1718 – Nathaniel Hone the Elder, Irish-English painter (d. 1784)
- 1743 – Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman, invented the power loom (d. 1823)
- 1784 – Peter Vivian Daniel, American jurist (d. 1860)
- 1815 – Anthony Trollope, English author (d. 1882)
- 1845 – Carl Spitteler, Swiss poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
- 1856 – Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (d. 1951)
- 1876 – Erich Raeder, German admiral (d. 1960)
- 1878 – Jean Crotti, Swiss painter (d. 1958)
- 1879 – Susanna Bokoyni, Hungarian centenarian (d. 1984)
- 1880 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer and businessman, developed the zipper (d. 1954)
- 1882 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish air marshal (d. 1970)
- 1885 – Con Walsh, Irish-Canadian athlete (d. 1961)
- 1887 – Denys Finch Hatton, English hunter (d. 1931)
- 1889 – Stafford Cripps, English politician (d. 1952)
- 1889 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (d. 1924)
- 1897 – Manuel Ávila Camacho, Mexican politician, 45th President of Mexico (d. 1955)
- 1897 – Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist (d. 1941)
- 1899 – Oscar Zariski, Russian-American mathematician (d. 1986)
- 1900 – Elizabeth Goudge, English author (d. 1984)
- 1903 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician, founded the Falange (d. 1936)
- 1904 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter (d. 1997)
- 1905 – Al Bates, American long jumper (d. 1999)
- 1905 – Robert Penn Warren, American author and poet (d. 1989)
- 1906 – William Joyce, American-English politician and broadcaster (d. 1946)
- 1906 – Mimi Smith, English nurse and secretary (d. 1991)
- 1907 – William Sargant, English psychiatrist (d. 1988)
- 1908 – Marceline Day, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1908 – Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor (d. 1963)
- 1914 – William Castle, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1977)
- 1914 – Phil Watson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1991)
- 1914 – Justin Wilson, American chef and comedian (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Larry J. Blake, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1916 – Lou Thesz, American wrestler (d. 2002)
- 1919 – David Blackwell, American mathematician (d. 2010)
- 1919 – Glafcos Clerides, Cypriot lawyer and politician, 4th President of Cyprus (d. 2013)
- 1922 – J. D. Cannon, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Canadian anthropologist
- 1923 – Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2005)
- 1923 – Doris Burn, American author and illustrator (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Clement Freud, German-English radio host and politician (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Ruth Kobart, American actress and singer (d. 2002)
- 1926 – Thorbjörn Fälldin, Swedish politician, 27th Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1927 – Josy Barthel, Luxembourgish middle-distance runner (d. 1992)
- 1928 – Ralph Brown, British sculptor
- 1928 – Tommy Docherty, Scottish football player and manager
- 1929 – Rajkumar, Indian actor and singer (d. 2006)
- 1930 – Jerome Callet, American instrument designer, educator, and author
- 1930 – Richard Donner, American director, producer, and actor
- 1930 – José Sarney, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 25th President of Brazil
- 1931 – Abdelhamid Kermali, Algerian footballer and manager (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Bridget Riley, British artist
- 1933 – Patricia Bosworth, American actress, journalist, and author
- 1933 – Claire Davenport, English actress (d. 2002)
- 1933 – Alan Eagleson, Canadian lawyer and politician
- 1933 – Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor and director
- 1933 – Freddie Scott, American singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
- 1934 – John Cameron, British judge
- 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1935 – Tucker Smith, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1988)
- 1936 – David Crombie, Canadian educator and politician, 56th Mayor of Toronto
- 1936 – Glen Hobbie, American baseball player
- 1936 – Jill Ireland, English-American actress and author (d. 1990)
- 1937 – Joe Henderson, American saxophonist (d. 2001)
- 1940 – Sue Grafton, American author
- 1940 – Chris Kelly, English television presenter
- 1940 – Trevor Kent, Australian actor (d. 1989)
- 1941 – Richard Holbrooke, American journalist, banker, and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2010)
- 1941 – John Williams, Australian-English guitarist
- 1942 – Richard M. Daley, American politician, 54th Mayor of Chicago
- 1942 – Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and academic
- 1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
- 1943 – Hew Pike, British army officer
- 1943 – Richard Sterban, American singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
- 1943 – Gordon West, English footballer (d. 2012)
- 1944 – Peter Cresswell, British high court judge
- 1944 – St. Clair Lee, American singer (The Hues Corporation) (d. 2011)
- 1944 – Maarja Nummert, Estonian architect
- 1944 – Tony Visconti, American record producer
- 1945 – Graeme Catto, British president of the General Medical Council
- 1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer and songwriter (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and Don Harrison Band)
- 1945 – Robert Knight, American singer
- 1945 – Doug Riley, Canadian keyboard player and producer (Dr. Music) (d. 2007)
- 1945 – Dick Rivers, French singer and actor (Les Chats Sauvages)
- 1946 – Doug Christie, Canadian lawyer and activist (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Piers Gough, British architect
- 1947 – Josep Borrell, Spanish politician, 22nd President of the European Parliament
- 1947 – João Braz de Aviz, Brazilian cardinal
- 1947 – Claude Dubois, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Denise Kingsmill, New Zealand-born British politician
- 1947 – Roger D. Kornberg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1948 – Paul Cellucci, American politician, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2013)
- 1948 – David Ingram, American keyboard player and songwriter (AnExchange and Love Song) (d. 2005)
- 1949 – Eddie Hart, American sprinter
- 1949 – James Paice, British politician
- 1949 – Véronique Sanson, French singer-songwriter and producer
- 1951 – Ron Arad, Israeli industrial designer, architect and artist
- 1951 – Christian Bobin, French author and poet
- 1951 – Nigel Harrison, English bass player and songwriter (Blondie and Silverhead)
- 1951 – Enda Kenny, Irish politician, 13th Taoiseach of Ireland
- 1952 – Jean Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer
- 1952 – Ralph Winter, American film producer
- 1953 – Eric Bogosian, American actor, playwright, and author
- 1954 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist and murderer
- 1954 – Jack Blades, American bass player and songwriter (Night Ranger, Rubicon, Damn Yankees, and Tak Matsumoto Group)
- 1954 – Captain Sensible, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Damned and Dead Men Walking)
- 1955 – Marion Caspers-Merk, German politician
- 1955 – John de Mol, Dutch businessman, co-founded Endemol
- 1955 – Eamon Gilmore, Irish politician, 25th Tánaiste of Ireland
- 1955 – Michael O'Keefe, American actor
- 1955 – Guy Nève, Belgian racing driver (d. 1992)
- 1956 – Richard Sambrook, British professor of journalism
- 1956 – James A. Winnefeld, Jr., American admiral
- 1957 – Nazir Ahmed, British politician
- 1957 – David J, English bass player (Bauhaus and Love and Rockets)
- 1957 – Boris Williams, French-English drummer (The Cure, Thompson Twins, and Babacar)
- 1958 – Valery Lantratov, Russian ballet dancer
- 1958 – Brian Paddick, English police officer and politician
- 1959 – Eren Keskin, Turkish lawyer and activist
- 1959 – Glenn Morshower, American actor
- 1959 – Malcolm Oastler, Australian-English engineer
- 1959 – Dave Ridgway, English-Canadian football player
- 1959 – Paula Yates, English television host and author (d. 2000)
- 1961 – Andrew Murrison, English politician
- 1962 – Clemens Binninger, German politician
- 1962 – Stuart Pearce, English footballer, coach, and manager
- 1962 – Steve Roach, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1963 – Paula Frazer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Tarnation, Faith No More, and Frightwig)
- 1963 – Billy Gould, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Faith No More, Harmful, Fear and the Nervous System, and Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine)
- 1963 – Mano Solo, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2010)
- 1963 – Tõnu Trubetsky, Estonian singer-songwriter (Vennaskond)
- 1963 – Joey Vera,American heavy metal bassist
- 1964 – Helga Arendt, German sprinter (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Djimon Hounsou, Beninese-American actor
- 1964 – Witold Smorawiński, Polish guitarist, composer, and educator
- 1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian, actor, and producer
- 1965 – Son Chang-min, South Korean actor
- 1965 – Jeff Jackson, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
- 1966 – Pierre Brassard, Canadian comedian and actor
- 1966 – Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer, coach, and manager
- 1966 – David Usher, English-Canadian singer-songwriter (Moist)
- 1967 – Dino Rađa, Croatian basketball player
- 1967 – Omar Vizquel, Venezuelan-American baseball player and coach
- 1968 – Aidan Gillen, Irish actor
- 1968 – Stacy Haiduk, American actress
- 1968 – Todd Jones, American baseball player
- 1968 – Yuji Nagata, Japanese wrestler
- 1968 – Roxanna Panufnik, English composer
- 1968 – Hashim Thaçi, Kosovan politician, 5th Prime Minister of Kosovo
- 1968 – Mark Vanderloo, Dutch model
- 1969 – Elias Atmatsidis, Greek footballer
- 1969 – Melinda Clarke, American actress
- 1969 – Viveca Paulin, Swedish-American actress
- 1969 – Rory McCann, Scottish actor
- 1969 – Eilidh Whiteford, Scottish politician
- 1970 – Damien Fleming, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
- 1971 – Alejandro Fernández, Mexican singer
- 1971 – Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Evil Superstars and Deus)
- 1972 – Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer
- 1972 – Nicolas Gill, Canadian martial artist
- 1972 – Chipper Jones, American baseball player
- 1972 – Jure Košir, Slovenian skier
- 1973 – Gabby Logan, English gymnast and radio host
- 1973 – Damon Lindelof, American screenwriter and producer
- 1973 – Brian Marshall, American bass player and songwriter (Creed and Alter Bridge)
- 1973 – Eric Snow, American basketball player and coach
- 1973 – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
- 1973 – Toomas Tohver, Estonian footballer
- 1973 – Lee Westwood, English-American golfer
- 1974 – Comedy Dave, Hong Kong-English radio host
- 1974 – Eric Kripke, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1974 – Derek Luke, American actor
- 1974 – Stephen Wiltshire, English illustrator
- 1975 – Sam Doumit, American actress
- 1975 – Thad Luckinbill, American actor
- 1976 – Steve Finnan, Irish footballer
- 1976 – Frédéric Niemeyer, Canadian tennis player
- 1977 – Siarhey Balakhonau, Belarusian author
- 1977 – Carlos Beltrán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
- 1977 – Kim Hyun-joo, Korean actress
- 1978 – Eric Balfour, American actor and singer
- 1978 – Stella Damasus-Aboderin, Nigerian actress and singer
- 1979 – Laurentia Tan, Singaporean-English horse rider
- 1980 – Fernando Arce, Mexican footballer
- 1980 – Karen Asrian, Armenian chess player (d. 2008)
- 1980 – Danny Gokey, American singer
- 1980 – Austin Nichols, American actor and director
- 1981 – Taylor Dent, American tennis player
- 1981 – Yuko Nakanishi, Japanese swimmer
- 1982 – Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1982 – Laura Hamilton, English television host
- 1982 – David Oliver, American hurdler
- 1982 – Simon Tischer, American volleyball player
- 1983 – Princess Iman bint Al Hussein of Jordan
- 1983 – Hanna Melnychenko, Ukrainian heptathlete
- 1984 – Tyson Ritter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (The All-American Rejects)
- 1985 – Mike Rodgers, American sprinter
- 1986 – Aaron Cunningham, American baseball player
- 1987 – Varun Dhawan, Indian actor
- 1987 – Ben Howard, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1987 – Kristopher Letang, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Rein Taaramäe, Estonian cyclist
- 1987 – Jan Vertonghen, Belgian footballer
- 1989 – Elīna Babkina, Latvian basketball player
- 1989 – David Boudia, American diver
- 1989 – Taja Mohorčič, Slovenian tennis player
- 1991 – Sigrid Agren, French-Swedish model
- 1992 – Doc Shaw, American actor
- 1992 – Laura Trott, English track and road cyclist, World, European and Olympic Champion
- 1994 – Austin Rogers, American actor
- 1997 – Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer
- 1997 – Veronika Kudermetova, Russian tennis player
- 1998 – Ryan Newman, American actress and singer
- 2005 – Snuppy, South Korean world's first cloned dog
Deaths[edit]
- 624 – Mellitus, English archbishop
- 1338 – Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (b. 1291)
- 1617 – Concino Concini, Italian-French politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1575)
- 1622 – Fidelis of Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (b. 1577)
- 1656 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
- 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660)
- 1748 – Anton thor Helle, German-Estonian clergyman and translator (b. 1683)
- 1779 – Eleazar Wheelock, American minister and academic, founded Dartmouth College (b. 1711)
- 1794 – Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish soldier and politician (b. 1719)
- 1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)
- 1891 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (b. 1800)
- 1924 – G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and educator (b. 1844)
- 1931 – David Kldiashvili, Georgian author and playwright (b. 1862)
- 1938 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)
- 1939 – Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881)
- 1941 – Karin Boye, Swedish author and poet (b. 1900)
- 1942 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)
- 1944 – Charles Jordan, American magician (b. 1888)
- 1945 – Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician (b. 1899)
- 1947 – Hans Biebow, German SS officer (b. 1902)
- 1947 – Willa Cather, American author (b. 1873)
- 1957 – Harry McClintock, American singer (b. 1882)
- 1960 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- 1962 – Milt Franklyn, American composer (b. 1897)
- 1964 – Gerhard Domagk, German pathologist and bacteriologist (b. 1895)
- 1965 – Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)
- 1966 – Simon Chikovani, Georgian poet (b. 1902)
- 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)
- 1968 – Walter Tewksbury, American runner (b. 1876)
- 1970 – Otis Spann, American singer and pianist (b. 1930)
- 1972 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
- 1974 – Bud Abbott, American actor and producer (b. 1895)
- 1975 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (Badfinger) (b. 1947)
- 1980 – Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban author (b. 1904)
- 1982 – Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (b. 1896)
- 1983 – Rolf Stommelen, German race car driver (b. 1943)
- 1986 – Wallis Simpson, American-French wife of Edward VIII (b. 1896)
- 1993 – Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
- 1993 – Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher (b. 1917)
- 1997 – Allan Francovich, American director and producer (b. 1941)
- 1997 – Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927)
- 1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (b. 1922)
- 2000 – William Moore, English actor (b. 1916)
- 2001 – Al Hibbler, American singer (b. 1915)
- 2001 – Leon Sullivan, American minister and activist (b. 1922)
- 2002 – Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgian sculptor (b. 1908)
- 2004 – José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and producer (b. 1923)
- 2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906)
- 2004 – Robert McBain, English actor, photographer and artist (b. 1932)
- 2005 – Ezer Weizman, Israeli politician, 7th President of Israel (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist (b. 1910)
- 2006 – Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)
- 2006 – Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman (b. 1927)
- 2006 – Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi (b. 1914)
- 2007 – Roy Jenson, Canadian-American actor (b. 1927)
- 2009 – John Michell, English author (b. 1933)
- 2011 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru, mystic, philanthropist, and educator (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Marie-France Pisier, Vietnamese-French actress, director, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Fred Bradley, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Erast Parmasto, Estonian botanist (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Eusebio Razo, Jr., Mexican-American jockey (b. 1966)
- 2012 – Ambrose Weekes, English bishop (b. 1919)
- 2013 – D. K. Audikesavulu, Indian politician (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Alfred Bieler, Swiss ice hockey player (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Teodoro Buontempo, Italian politician (b. 1946)
- 2013 – Storm Cat, American race horse (b. 1983)
- 2013 – Richard Everett Dorr, American judge (b. 1943)
- 2013 – Larry Felser, American journalist (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Dave Kocourek, American football player (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Azuma Konno, Japanese politician (b. 1947)
- 2013 – Gary L. Lancaster, American lawyer and judge (b. 1949)
- 2013 – Pedro Romualdo, Filipino politician (b. 1935)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Christian Feast Day:
- Ecgberht of Ripon
- Fidelis of Sigmaringen
- Johann Walter (Lutheran)
- Mellitus
- Wilfrid (pre-1969 Catholic or Church of England)
- April 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Concord Day (Niger)
- Democracy Day (Nepal)
- Earliest day on which National Arbor Day can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Friday in April. (United States)
- Earliest day on which Turkmen Racing Horse Festival can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in April. (Turkmenistan)
- Genocide Remembrance Day(Armenia, Episcopal Church (USA))
- Kapyong Day (Australia)
- Republic Day (The Gambia)
- World Day for Laboratory Animals
“It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”” - Romans 14:11
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
Romans 8:37
Romans 8:37
We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration--you want to overcome an angry temper; how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way. It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust thee to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell him, "Lord, I have trusted thee, and thy name is Jesus, for thou dost save thy people from their sins: Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears--the whole of them put together--are worth nothing apart from him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane.
Evening
"Lo, in the midst of the throne ... stood a Lamb as it had been slain."
Revelation 5:6
Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in his wounds in glory? The wounds of Jesus are his glories, his jewels, his sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because he is "white and ruddy:" white with innocence, and ruddy with his own blood. We see him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with his own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross. There we beheld all his beauties in perfection, all his attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that he bears not now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as his court dress in which he wooed our souls, and redeemed them by his complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of his love and of his victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of his sufferings for his people, how precious should his wounds be to us!
"Behold how every wound of his
A precious balm distils,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
"Those wounds are mouths that preach his grace;
The ensigns of his love;
The seals of our expected bliss
In paradise above."
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 16-18, Luke 17:20-37 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 16-18
David and Ziba
1 When David had gone a short distance beyond the summit, there was Ziba, the steward of Mephibosheth, waiting to meet him. He had a string of donkeys saddled and loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred cakes of raisins, a hundred cakes of figs and a skin of wine.
2 The king asked Ziba, "Why have you brought these?"
Ziba answered, "The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who become exhausted in the wilderness."
3 The king then asked, "Where is your master's grandson?"
Ziba said to him, "He is staying in Jerusalem, because he thinks, 'Today the Israelites will restore to me my grandfather's kingdom.'"
4 Then the king said to Ziba, "All that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours."
"I humbly bow," Ziba said. "May I find favor in your eyes, my lord the king...."
Today's New Testament reading: Luke 17:20-37
The Coming of the Kingdom of God
20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst."
22 Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23People will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation....
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WAITING FOR GOD
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:38-42)
A small act of mercy on the part of Joseph of Arimathea meant that Jesus’ limp and lifeless body would not be thrown into a pit of a grave, but laid carefully in a rock-hewn garden tomb. Joseph was probably a man with significant conflicts. Wealthy, a prominent member of the Jewish council, he represented the very establishment that was committed to Jesus’ demise. Yet he believed in Jesus, secretly. To believe in Jesus does put one on the spot. Being a committed disciple of Jesus always upsets the status quo.
Nicodemus, also fearful but compelled, came to the tomb too. So there two men, both of whose associations put them at odds with Jesus, both of whom really wanted to believe, are the ones who respectfully wrap the body of Jesus in cloths and seventy-five pounds of spices. Yet the only thing that can really take away the stench of death and its empty stare is resurrection.
These and the other disciples were still stuck in that no-man’s-land between life and death. All that Jesus’ followers had to hold onto were Jesus’ vague words about rising from death. Could such words be taken seriously at all? What would they do in these days? Would they be arrested next? And so they waited behind locked doors because there was nothing else to do.
Ponder This: Is there some way in which you are waiting to see what will happen next? How will you find faith in the waiting place?
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Today's Lent reading: 1 Corinthians 15 (NIV)
View today's Lent reading on Bible GatewayThe Resurrection of Christ
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
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