1689: William III (Prince of Orange and champion of Protestants) and Mary II were crowned joint monarchs by the Bishop of London. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to officiate.
1755: Parkinson, the English physician who discovered Parkinson’s disease was born. His observations were so detailed and complete that they laid the foundation for all subsequent research.
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1814: On this day in 1814, during the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon was facing an invasion of France by forces bent on his overthrow and, pressed by his officers, abdicated unconditionally at Fontainebleau.
1921: KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcasts the first live sporting event on the radio, a boxing match between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee. Pittsburgh Daily Post sports editor Florent Gibson calls the event, about four months before KDKA’s Harold Arlin announces the first Major League Baseball game broadcast on radio.
1952: Queen Elizabeth II announced that her children and descendents would bear the surname of Windsor.
1961: The trial of Adolf Eichmann began in Jerusalem. One of the major organisers of the Holocaust, Eichmann had been kidnapped by Israeli agents in Argentina and brought back to Israel to stand trial. Found guilty, he was hanged in 1962.
1970: Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The spacecraft’s destination was the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, where the astronauts were to explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments. After an oxygen tank exploded on the evening of April 13, however, the new mission objective became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive.
1979: Ugandan dictator Idi Amin flees the Ugandan capital of Kampala as Tanzanian troops and forces of the Uganda National Liberation Front close in. Two days later, Kampala fell and a coalition government of former exiles took power.
Amin, chief of the Ugandan army and air force from 1966, seized control of the African nation in 1971. A tyrant and extreme nationalist, he launched a genocidal program to purge Uganda of its Lango and Acholi ethnic groups. In 1972, he ordered all Asians who had not taken Ugandan nationality to leave the country, and some 60,000 Indians and Pakistanis fled. These Asians comprised an important portion of the workforce, and the Ugandan economy collapsed after their departure.
1996: Forty-three African nations signed the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty which came into effect with the 28th ratification on 15 July 2009….
The African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba (named after South Africa’s main Nuclear Research Centre, is run by The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation.
2006: Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is arrested. Provenzano was one of Cosa Nostra’s central figures. The mafioso was arrested near Corleone, Sicily after 40 years on the run.
2015: For the first time in over 50 years, the presidents of the United States and Cuba meet on April 11, 2015. Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, President of Cuba and brother of Fidel Castro, with whom the United States broke off diplomatic contact in 1961, shook hands and expressed a willingness to put one of the world’s highest-profile diplomatic feuds in the past.
Births on This Day, April 11
Jeremy Clarkson, 64
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English television presenter, journalist, and writer. He was born in 1960 in Doncaster, UK. He is best known for the motoring programmes Top Gear and The Grand Tour alongside Richard Hammond and James May. He also currently writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun.
1987 Joss Stone, 37
Joscelyn Eve Stoker, known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist.
Bobby Benson (11 April 1922 -: 14 May 1983)
Bernard Olabinjo “Bobby” Benson was an entertainer and musician who was born in Ikorodu, Lagos, in 1922. He had considerable influence on the Nigerian music scene, introducing big band and Caribbean idioms to the Highlife style of popular West African music. He was highly proficient in Saxophone, guitar, and piano. He died at the age of 61.
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