Membership of the Order of the Garter is highly prestigious and is often reserved for members of the English nobility and royalty. Over the centuries, the Order of the Garter has evolved into a ceremonial institution, with its members participa

22nd April 1889: Oklahoma Land Rush takes place with 2 million acres of Unassigned Lands opened to settlement

4 days ago

An estimated 50,000 hopeful settlers gathered along the borders of the Oklahoma Territory prior to the gunshot that gave the signal for them to chaotically race into the territory on foot, horseback, and in wagons to stake their ...

21st April 1967: Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, arrives in the USA after defecting from the Soviet Union

5 days ago

The sensational defection of Stalin’s only surviving child made international news and four days later, at a press conference in the Plaza Hotel, she denounced the Soviet Communist regime and her father’s ...

20th April 1792: The French Revolutionary Wars begin when the Assembly vote for war against Austria

6 days ago

The French declaration of war was part of a broader strategy by the revolutionary government to pre-empt foreign intervention and unite the French people behind the revolutionary ...

19th April 1987: The Simpsons make their first television appearance on The Tracey Ullman Show

7 days ago

An overwhelmingly positive reaction in season one meant that Simpsons shorts were featured in every episode of the next two seasons before being spun off into a standalone half-hour series in ...

18th April 1775: Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington with his message that “the Regulars are coming out!”

8 days ago

Whether Revere referred to the approaching army as ‘regulars’ or ‘Redcoats’ is unclear, but his cry had the intended consequence of signalling the march of troops towards the Massachusetts village of ...

17th April 1907: Ellis Island in New York Harbor has its busiest day, processing 11,747 immigrants

9 days ago

This surge in immigration was primarily driven by economic opportunities in the United States, which was at the height of the industrial revolution. This combined with a desire among some to escape growing political instability in Europe, while

16th April 1902: The first purpose-designed movie theater opens as Thomas Tally’s Electric Theatre

10 days ago

Tally's Electric Theatre in Los Angeles proved incredibly popular with the public, and sparked a revolution in cinema history.Visit the excellent https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2019/02/electric-theatre.html for more detailed ...

15th April 1989: 96 Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough Disaster

11 days ago

Ninety-six Liverpool Football Club fans died and hundreds more were injured in a crush at Hillsborough Stadium in ...

14th April 1935: Black Sunday dust storm sweeps across the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl era

12 days ago

The Black Sunday dust storm brought a massive wall of dust estimated to be over 2 miles high that engulfed entire communities in darkness and choking dust, reducing visibility to just a few ...

13th April 1970: Apollo 13 spacecraft rocked by an explosion from one of its oxygen tanks

13 days ago

The resulting emergency led to the calm announcement by the crew of, ‘Houston we’ve had a ...

12th April 1861: American Civil War begins with the Battle of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

14 days ago

After suffering significant damage during the battle from more than 3,000 artillery rounds over 34 hours, at 2:30 p.m the following day Major Anderson and his men formally surrendered, and the Confederate forces took control of Fort ...

11th April 1968: The Fair Housing Act of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 signed into law by President Johnson

15 days ago

The Act made it illegal to discriminate regarding the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on race, religion, or national ...

10th April 1815: The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history occurred at Mount Tambora

16 days ago

The explosion was estimated to be four times more powerful than the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, making it the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded ...

9th April 1865: Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

17 days ago

Lee’s surrender to Grant encouraged other Confederate forces across the south to do the same and marked the beginning of the end of the American Civil ...

8th April 1838: SS Great Western begins her maiden voyage to New York as the first steamship specifically built for transatlantic travel

18 days ago

Great Western’s maiden voyage crossed the Atlantic in a record time of 15 days and five ...

7th April 1954: President Eisenhower first described the ‘domino theory’ of the spread of communism during a news conference

19 days ago

Eisenhower likened the spread of communism in Southeast Asia to a row of dominoes quickly collapsing after the first one ...

6th April 1793: Committee of Public Safety established by the National Convention of France

20 days ago

The National Convention established the Committee of Public Safety with the primary objectives of maintaining public order, managing the war effort against foreign powers, and rooting out perceived enemies of the ...

5th April 1722: Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen becomes the first European to encounter Easter Island

21 days ago

The first sighting coincided with Easter Sunday, so Roggeveen and his crew agreed to name the landmass Easter ...

4th April 1925: Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of the SS

22 days ago

The Nazi Party founded a paramilitary organisation that became the Schutzstaffel, better known as the ...

3rd April 1721: Robert Walpole becomes the first de facto Prime Minister of Great Britain

23 days ago

Walpole was appointed First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. This made him the de facto Prime Minister and, while the title was not officially recognized at the time, Walpole wielded consider