1896: First modern Olympic Games. The Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition.
1906: World’s 1st animated cartoon is released, “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” by J. Stuart Blackton.
1909: Robert Peary allegedly becomes the first person to reach the North Pole
Peary’s claim has never been verified and is widely contested. The first undisputed journey to the North Pole was the 1948 Soviet Sever-2 expedition.
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1917: The United States officially enters World War I. Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50. As a result, America formally enters World War I.
1924: A team of aviators begins the first round-the-world flight in history
Four aircraft left Seattle on a westbound route around the globe. 157 days later, two of them reached the same location.
1965: The first commercial communications satellite is launched. Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird, facilitated the first live TV broadcast of a spacecraft splashdown when Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
1973: NASA launched the Pioneer 11 space probe to study the asteroid belt & the environment around Jupiter and Saturn.
The Pioneer 11 became the first probe to encounter Saturn and the second to fly through the asteroid belt.
1974: Swedish Europop group ABBA had their international breakthrough as they captured the top prize at the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in Brighton, England.
1984: The 17-year-old South African barefooted, long and middle-distance runner, Zola Budd, was granted British citizenship by Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, after only a matter of weeks, enabling her to compete as a British citizen in the Olympic games. The decision provoked considerable controversy.
1992: Russian-born American author and biochemist Isaac Asimov, a highly successful and prolific writer of science fiction and science books for the layperson, died at age 72.
1994: A plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by surface-to-air missiles, abruptly ending peace negotiations and sparking the Rwandan Genocide that affected up to 1 million victims.
2012: A ban on tobacco displays was announced in England, with other parts of the UK planning similar action to drive down smoking rates. Cigarettes and other products are to be kept below the counter in large shops and supermarkets, while small outlets are exempt until 2015.
2022: 35 years after the assassination of Burkina Faso’s Pan-Africanist visionary leader, Thomas Sankara, his killer and power usurper, Blaise Compaore in found guilty in Ouagadougou court after a month trial. He was given a life sentence.
Births on This Day, April 6
Rafael Correa, 60
Ecuadorian politician, 54th President of Ecuador
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 54th President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 and was born in 1963. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Correa is a democratic socialist and his administration focused on the implementation of left-wing policies.
Gbenga Daniel, 68
Gbenga Daniel was born in Ibadan in 1956. He is a Nigerian politician who served as Senator for Ogun East since 2023. He previously served as governor of Ogun State from 2003 to 2011. He is the owner of Kresta Laurel, an Electro-mechanical Engineering company, he started in 1990.
John Pepper Clark ((6 April 1935 – 13 October 2020)
Born in Kiagbodo, Nigeria, to an Ijaw father and Urhobo mother, Clark received his education at the prestigious Government College in Ughelli, and his BA degree in English at the University of Ibadan, where he edited various magazines, including the Beacon and The Horn. His memorable poems pursued the themes of colonialism in Africa, the splendor of nature, Government corruption, and other ills in the society. He died at the age of 85.
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