Browsing: April 18

A Brief History On April 18, 1518, Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano, became Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania when she became the second wife of Sigismund the Old, the reigning King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Digging Deeper In the way of convoluted European monarchies, history is replete with international marriages that put foreigners on the throne of any given country, and sometimes lack of a suitable heir to a throne caused a search for foreign candidates to rule. Not only do we see the English throne occupied by Danes, Normans,…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on April 18th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On April 18, 1518, Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano, became Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania when she became the second wife of Sigismund the Old, the reigning King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. On April 18, 1521, religious reformer Martin Luther refused to recant during his trial for heresy, but what might you not know…

A Brief History On April 18, 1996, the village of Qana in Southern Lebanon was shelled by artillery fire from the Israeli Defense Force, the official Israeli military organization.  Unfortunately, Qana was the location of a United Nations compound manned by members of the Fijian United Nations Interim Force and had been providing haven to about 800 Lebanese civilian refugees.  The attack left 4 of the Fijian soldiers wounded and killed 106 of the Lebanese civilians, injuring another 116 civilians.  The bombardment was part of an Israeli offensive operation from April 11-April 27, 1996, known as Operation Grapes of Wrath,…

A Brief History On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led one of the most famous bombing raids in aviation history when he led 16 B-25 medium bombers over Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama, Japan. After the devastating sneak attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US military in the Pacific was reeling, as was the shocked and furious American public. With one Japanese success after another, the US finally mounted an offensive action by flying 16 stripped down B-25B Mitchell twin engine medium bombers off the deck of the USS Hornet, something that had never been…

A Brief History On April 18, 1857, Frenchman Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, writing under the nom de plume Allan Kardec, published The Spirits Book, marking the beginning of the Spiritism philosophy (or religion or movement, if you prefer).  Today, the International Spiritist Council has representatives in 35 countries with its headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil. Digging Deeper The publishing of The Spirits Book is celebrated by Spiritists, and today, April 18, 2017, is National Day of Spiritism in the United States.  The total number of adherents is unknown, but said to be in the millions, with 5 million followers in Brazil…