A Brief History On April 17, 1912, Russian Imperial soldiers fired on a crowd of protesting goldfield workers in Siberia that were upset about the arrest of their strike committee. Perhaps 270 striking workers were killed and a similar number wounded. Such brutal treatment ultimately led to the Russian Revolution and the formation of the USSR, a self-described “workers’ paradise.” Digging Deeper Soviet authorities, especially the Cheka secret police, killed protesting and striking workers on a grand scale, both by gunning down workers and by executing arrested workers. Killings of disgruntled workers and soldiers included drowning as well as shooting!…
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on April 17th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On April 17, 1897, a UFO hit a windmill and crashed, killing its pilot! On April 17, 1905, the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to Progressives that were mobilizing across the United States to reform business practices, government, and a myriad of social and cultural institutions. On April 17, 1912, Russian Imperial soldiers fired on a crowd of protesting goldfield workers in Siberia…
A Brief History On April 17, 2014, the Kepler space telescope operated by NASA confirmed the existence of Kepler-186f, the first discovery of a planet of equivalent size to Earth within the “habitable zone” of another solar system. The newly discovered planet is in the solar system of a red dwarf star called Kepler-186, only about 582 light years away! (A light year is roughly 6 trillion miles.) Digging Deeper We know that at some point the Earth will become uninhabitable for human civilization. This eventuality may take hundreds of millions of years, or even billions of years, when our…
A Brief History On April 17, 2019, the nation celebrates National Cheese Ball Day, or at least we should. Cheese Balls are a mainstay of wine tasting parties and are a favored Hors d’oeuvre at seasonal get togethers and office parties, but apparently the delicious dairy treat needs its own day anyway. We happen to love Cheese Balls, and this gastronomical love affair causes us to wonder, “Why do people refer to something that is cheap, tawdry, or otherwise crumby as ‘Cheese Ball’?” (Note: There is another kind of “Cheese Ball,” the salty snack type that is akin to cheese…
A Brief History On April 11, 1970, NASA launched their third moon-landing mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying three astronauts. After so many preparations, and failed attempts NASA is finally ready to send Jack L. Swigert, 38, with previous experience from Apollo 7, Jim A. Lovell, 42, he had unbelievable 572 spaceflight hours of experience, and Fred W. Haise, 36, with previous experience on Apollo 8 and 11 on a lunar landing mission. They did incredible things just to train the astronauts and made simulations of every obstacle they might encounter like reduced gravity walking simulator, water landing (which came…
