Scott Allsop's Blog, page 225

26th April 1478: The Pazzi family launch their failed plot against the Medici family

The Pazzi family in Florence launched their unsuccessful plot to overthrow the Medici family with an assassination attempt against the brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. The Pazzis had been a powerful and influential family since the 13th century. Yet by the early 1400s their successful banking network, and the status that came with it, had been overshadowed by that of the Medici family who had grown to dominate Florentine political and economic life. The Pazzi Conspiracy saw family me...

25th April 1792: First execution using the guillotine

The 25th April 1792 saw the world’s first use of the guillotine as a method of execution.  Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a French highwayman found guilty of killing a man during one of his robberies, was the guillotine’s first – but by no means last – victim. Pelletier’s status as a common criminal was significant.  Prior to the French Revolution, beheading as a form of execution had been reserved for the nobility.  Commoners were usually subjected to longer and arguably more painful deaths thro...

24th April 1916: The Easter Rising begins in Dublin

The Easter Rising began in Dublin, with the aim of securing an independent Irish Republic. The armed insurrection by Irish Republicans began on Easter Monday 1916, meaning that the date of the annual commemoration changes each year due to Easter being based on the lunar calendar. Organised by the seven members of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising brought together over 1,200 men and women from the Irish Volunteers and other organisations to overthrow British...

23rd April 1985: Coca Cola replace formula with ‘New Coke’

On the 23rd April 1985 the Coca-Cola Company introduced "the new taste of Coca-Cola", when they replaced the original Coca-Cola formula with a new version.  Marking the first major formula change in 99 years, ‘new Coke’ is widely heralded as one of the biggest marketing failures in history.  However, the short-term problems arising from its introduction were far outweighed by the sales boost achieved when the company reintroduced the old formula as ‘Coca-Cola Classic’. The new formula was int...

22nd April 1884: Thomas Stevens begins the first round-the-world cycle ride

Thomas Stevens departed San Francisco on a large-wheeled Ordinary, also known as a penny-farthing, to become the first person to cycle around the world. Stevens was born in England and emigrated to the USA when he was seventeen years old. A contemporary magazine describes him as having worked a railroad mill in Wyoming before securing a job at a Colorado mine where he had the idea of cycling across the United States. Having already developed a love of cycling, Stevens bought a 50-inch Columbi...

21st April 753 BC: Traditional date of the founding of Rome

On the 21st April 753 BC, the ancient city of Rome was founded.  You may already be familiar with the Italian myth of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who were suckled by a she-wolf.  The story goes that, as adults, they decided to establish a new city but disagreed on the location.  After a quarrel about the walls, Remus was killed by his brother and so Romulus named the city after himself. The foundation myth became quite commonly accepted by ancient historians, although modern scholars...

20th April 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie prove the existence of radium

Marie and Pierre Curie proved the existence of the new element radium when they chemically isolated one-tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride. Marie and Pierre Curie were both pioneering scientists in their own right, but as a research partnership they are most famous for their work on radioactivity. Inspired by the work of the French physicist Henri Becquerel who had been the first person to discover radioactivity, the Curies’ work won them the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics which they shared...

19th April 1770: Captain Cook’s voyage sights Australia

On the 19th April 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook first caught sight of Australia.  Or at least that’s what the log of HMS Endeavour said.  The problem was, Cook and his crew had been at sea for nearly 2 years, having sailed west from Britain across the Atlantic to South America, and then onwards across the southern Pacific.  By the time they arrived on the south-east coast of Australia, they had – in a calendar – skipped a day.  According to some sources, therefore, Cook arrive...

18th April 1506: Construction begins on Saint Peter’s Basilica

Pope Julius II laid the cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica, one of Catholicism’s most sacred buildings. St. Peter’s Basilica, whose enormous Michelangelo-designed dome makes it one of the most dominant features on the Rome skyline, is located on what Catholics believe is the burial site of Saint Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Emperor Constantine the Great had built an earlier basilica on the site of a shrine that was reputed to mark St. Peter’s burial place in...

17th April 1492: Christopher Columbus given funding by Spain to explore across the Atlantic

On the 17th April 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand – signed an agreement to support Christopher Columbus’ voyage in which he crossed the Atlantic and discovered the Americas. The Capitulations of Santa Fe granted a number of official titles to Columbus as well as ten per cent of any treasure he was able to secure.  The Capitulations mention the possibility of pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and – just in case he found anything else – “oth...