Scott Allsop's Blog, page 74

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 ...

19th April 1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia from HMS Endeavour

The first sighting had been of Point Hicks, but it wasn’t until the ship had travelled some distance along the coast to what is now known as Botany Bay that Cook and his crew felt they had found a suitable ...

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

Pope Julius II laid the cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica, one of Catholicism’s most sacred ...

17th April 1492: Christopher Columbus secures support for his first voyage across the Atlantic from the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand

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 on his ...

16th April 1917: Lenin arrives back in Russia in the sealed train after a decade in exile

Vladimir Lenin arrived in Russia after a decade of self-imposed ...

15th April 1755: Samuel Johnson publishes ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ in London

Johnson’s finished dictionary contained 42,773 words, each of which featured a number of notes on their specific ...

14th April 1561: The Nuremberg celestial phenomenon sees a ‘dreadful apparition’ in the sky over the German city

Modern UFO enthusiasts have used the Nuremberg celestial phenomenon as evidence of extra-terrestrial life, although scientists have also put forward their own explanations of why hundreds of people saw what was described as an aerial battle raging in front of the ...

13th April 1919: British troops commit the Amritsar Massacre

Troops from the British Indian Army committed the Amritsar Massacre when they opened fire on nonviolent protesters and pilgrims at Jallianwala ...

12th April 1945: Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States when his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, dies while having his portrait painted

Truman faced an enormous challenge simply by being the person to follow Roosevelt as President, let alone the ongoing struggles of the Second World ...

11th April 1950: Stone of Scone rediscovered four months after its disappearance

The Stone of Scone was found on the site of the High Altar at Arbroath Abbey, nearly four months after it disappeared from Westminster ...