Under Thursday, April 6, the book of history records, among other things:
1748: The Neapolitan officer Alcubierre comes across the remains of Pompeii during excavations. Founded in the sixth century BC, the city with more than ten thousand inhabitants was buried by the Vesuvius eruption on August 24, 79 (AD).
1793: With the establishment of the “Committee of Welfare” the reign of terror of the Jacobins begins during the French Revolution.
1868: In an edict, Japan’s Emperor Mutsuhito, who ascended the throne in 1867 under the motto Meiji (“Enlightened Government”), announced the modernization of his empire after the abolition of the shogunate, which in 1889 received a constitution based on the Prussian model.
1908: Liberal former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Herbert Henry Asquith becomes British Prime Minister.
1908: The new German association law allows women to organize themselves in political associations.
1918: In Finland, the German auxiliary corps retakes the city of Tampere from the Red Guards.
1948: The Soviet Union and Finland sign a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual aid.
1953: Gustav Mahler’s Xth Symphony is premiered in its final version by the Wiener Symphoniker.
1958: “Radio Luxembourg” broadcasts the first hit parade in the German language program. Presenter is Camillo Rims.
1958: The Iranian ruler Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi cast out his second wife, Empress Soraya Esfandiary, after seven years of marriage because of childlessness. Soraya’s fate moved the readers of the European tabloid press for decades.
1968: Liberal Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canadian Prime Minister. He replaces Lester Pearson.
1968: The German Democratic Republic receives a new “Socialist Constitution” under state and party leader Walter Ulbricht, which is accepted by referendum.
1973: In the 15th round of voting, the Turkish parliament elected the non-party ex-Admiral Fahri Korutürk as president after General Faruk Gürler, who was favored by the army leadership, was rejected by the major parties and failed to secure a majority.
1988: A Saab 105 OE of the federal army crashes during a training flight near Eggelsberg in Upper Austria. The pilot dies.
1998: Great Britain and France are the first nuclear powers to ratify the total nuclear test ban treaty.
1998: A new banking giant is emerging in the USA: the second largest bank, Citicorp, and the Travelers Group are merging.
2003: US troops are fighting in the Baghdad suburbs. However, the government of President Saddam Hussein still appears to be in control of large parts of the capital. British units advance into the center of Basra.
2008: The crisis of the small US airlines has worsened again: The low-cost airline Skybus is the fourth airline to announce the cessation of operations within a week.
birthdays: Raphael (aka Raffaello Santi) (1483-1520); Georg Reutter, Austria composer (1708-1772); Erich Mühsam, German writer (1878-1934); Hans Richter, German painter/film avant-gardist (1888-1976); James D. Watson, US biologist; Nobel Prize 1962 (1928); Friederike Roth, German writer (1948); Thomas Spitzer, Austria Songwriter, composer, singer, guitarist and graphic artist; “First General Uncertainty” (EAV) (1953); Rafael Correa Delgado, Ecuador. Politician and Economist (1963).
Date of death: Albrecht Dürer. German painter and draftsman (1471-1528).
name days: Wilhelm, Sixtus, Notker, Peter, Irenaeus, Cölestin, Ruthilde, Michael, Paul, Zacharias.