Important Events From This day in History April 17th

 1964 - U.S.A. Ford Mustang Unveiled

1964 : The Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World's Fair on This Day 1964. The Mustang was championed by Ford Division general manager Lee Iacocca, with a suggested retail price of $2,368. The car was a great success and sold over one million cars in its first 18 months. Find More What happened in 1964

 

 

1927 - Airship Race From New York to Paris

1927 : An airship race scheduled today from New York to Paris has been forced to reschedule due to injuries and problems with an engine on one of the airships.

 

 

1932 - U.S.A. Lynching

1932 : A mob of western Kansas Farmers today went back to old fashioned justice when they lynched a man who admitted killing an 8 year old girl by overpowering the sheriff and hanging the man from a tree in Kansas.

 

 

1940 - U.S.A. World War II

1940 : Anglo-French purchasing mission announced the purchase of huge quantities of the latest aircraft including Douglas Bombers and Curtiss Pursuit Ships from American Companies.

 

 

 

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1950 - Soviet Union Shoot Down US Plane

1950 : America accuses the Reds of shooting down a US Plane over the Baltic Sea in an unprovoked attack.

 

 

1951 - England Submarine Lost

1951 : The crew of the British submarine "Affray" is feared dead after going missing off the south coast of England. Two months later, the Affray was found in 300 ft of water 46 miles south of Portland.

 

 

1961 - Cuba Bay of Pigs

1961 : A group of 1,500 Cuban exiles supported by the US government invaded the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The invasion failed miserably and by April 21st all had been killed or captured. One year earlier the CIA had recommended to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration to recruit, support, equip and train Cuban exiles for action against the new government of Fidel Castro. Following the change to the new U.S. President John F. Kennedy in February who was also advised the operation would be a success, the operation was continued. Cuba was tipped off by senior KGB agents and intelligence forces arrested more than 100,000 Cubans who they suspected would be allies of the expected invading force, ensuring that the invading forces would be cut off from support.

 

 

1962 - Worldwide Oral Polio Vaccine

1962 : Around the world after the approval by Governments of the Oral Polio Vaccine developed by Albert Sabin. Schools, Health Clinics and Doctors were preparing to administer the Polio Vaccine to children who had not received the injected Salk vaccine . Polio had been increasing at an alarming rate prior to the development of the Salk vaccine and in 1952 alone over 58,000 cases of Polio occurred in the United States.

 

 

1969 - U.S.A. Robert Kennedy Assassin

1969 : The assassin of Robert Kennedy Sirhan B. Sirhan was found guilty of first degree murder for assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of slain President John F. Kennedy.

 

 

1969 - Northern Ireland Bernadette Devlin

1969 : Bernadette Devlin, becomes Britain's youngest ever female MP and the third youngest MP ever.

 

 

 

1970 - U.S.A. Apollo 13

1970 : Apollo 13, the U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered oxygen tank No. 2 blowing up in the spacecraft on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth landing in the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

1973 - Egypt Syria / Israel War

1973 : Egypt has warned it may get involved in the Syria Israel War and warned it may fight alongside the Syrians if the Golan Heights becomes threatened.

 

 

1984 - UK WPC Yvonne Fletcher

1984 : WPC Yvonne Fletcher a London police officer is shot and killed while helping control a small demonstration outside the Libyan People's Bureau Embassy in central London. The police can not enter The Libyan building as it has diplomatic immunity but the building is surrounded by armed police officers. Meanwhile Libyan soldiers have now surrounded Britain's embassy in Tripoli trapping the 18 diplomats inside. Following the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries British Diplomats leave Libya and the Libyan diplomats leave England including the person who had killed Yvonne Fletcher. Diplomatic relations with Libya are restored after 15 years in 1999 after the Libyan Government admitted it bore "general responsibility" for WPC Fletcher's death. ( It is also believed that when the killer returned to Libya he was immediately executed but this can not be confirmed ).

 

 

1985 - U.S.A. Organ Donation

1985 : The US Government has announced a campaign to increase awareness of Organ Donation hoping to make the donation of organs as widespread as the giving of blood this follows similar campaigns from other countries around the world as organ transplants become more common.

 

 

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/april18th.html

 

1986 - Lebanon John McCarthy

1986 : John McCarthy, a British TV journalist, is abducted on his way to the airport in the war-torn capital of Lebanon, Beirut. On August 8th 1991 having spent more than five years held captive by militant group Islamic Jihad, John McCarthy is released making him Britain's longest-held hostage in Lebanon.

 

 

1991 - U.S.A. Dow Jones

1991 : The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time.

 

 

1993 - U.S.A. Rodney King Beating

1993 : Two former police officers are convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King.

 

 

1999 - England Nail Bomb

1999 : A nail bomb outside a busy supermarket in Brixton, south London, has injured dozens. This was the fist in a series of bombs planted by a right-wing extremist David Copeland, 22, who was captured after a nail bomb in a central London pub killed three people.

 

 

2006 - Israel Suicide Bomber

2006 : A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes a Tel Aviv restaurant during Passover, killing nine people.

 

 

2007 - World A new Tolkien book released

2007 : The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien has been released in North America and Europe. The book has been developed by Christopher Tolkien over twelve years, and is taken from the unfinished material written by his father. It includes new color plates and black and white illustrations. Houghton Mifflin has acquired U.S. rights to publish the book, which is Tolkien's first work since 1977's posthumous Silmarillion. HarperCollins U.K. had acquired the project from The Tolkien Estate in a world rights deal. The Children of Húrin was started in 1918.

 

 

2010 - George Washington Library Fee

2010 : George Washington is said to have racked up $300,000 in late fees for failing to return two books to a Manhattan library. The first President had borrowed them from the New York Society Library on E. 79th St. in 1789 and never returned them. "We're not actively pursuing the overdue fines," the head librarian said. "But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back." Washington's deed had gone unnoticed for almost 150 years, and only discovered in 1934, when an old and dusty ledger was discovered in the library's basement.

 

 

2010 - Suicide Bombers Attack Kacha Pukha Camp

2010 : Suicide Bombers Attack Kacha Pukha camp a center for those displaced during the war, leaves 50 dead and many more injured the suicide bombers were members of the Sunni militant organisation, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

 

 

2012 - Tokyo Governor to Buy Disputed Islands

2012 : Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, has stated that he plans to use public funds to buy a group of disputed islands. The Senkaku islands are also claimed by China and Taiwan and are rich in resources. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that any action by Japan to buy the islands would be "illegal and invalid" as China had "indisputable sovereignty" over them.

 

 

2013 - Gay Marriage Legalized in New Zealand

2013 : New Zealand's parliament voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in the country, the first in the Asia-Pacific region to do so. Same-sex civil unions had already been legal in the country since 2005.

 

 

2013 - Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

2013 : A huge explosion of ammonium nitrate occurred at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas near Waco, killing at least fifteen people and injuring another one-hundred and sixty people. Over one-hundred buildings were damaged or destroyed.

 

 

2014 - Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez Dies

2014 : Gabriel Garcia Marquez a Spanish-language author from Colombia died at the age of 87 in Mexico. Marquez had won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 and had penned such famous novels as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera."