Important Events From This day in History April 17th

 

2007 USA Virginia Tech

2007: Student Cho Seung Hui killed 32 students and injured 17 others before taking his own life at Virginia Tech. What happened in 2007

1964 UK Great Train Robbery

1964: At the old Bailey in London the great train robbers were sentenced to up to 30 years for their part in the Great Train Robbery. Seven of the defendants - Ronald Biggs, Charles Wilson, Douglas Goody, Thomas Wisbey, Robert Welch, James Hussey and Roy James each received sentences of 30 years. The robbery was from a mail train carrying 3.8 million pounds between Glasgow and London when 15 masked robbers stopped the train at by changing the signals to red and boarding the train armed with weapons.

1947 USA Freighter Blast

1947: A French freighter "Grandcamp," loaded with ammonium nitrate (fertilizer), exploded at a port in Texas. The blast caused other explosions at a nearby chemical plant, spreading fires across oil refineries along the port. An estimated 500 People were killed by the blast and the ensuing fires which swept the port and the surrounding town.

1922 USA Prohibition

1922: The Prohibition Department is to enforce the law making it illegal to manufacture beer or wine in the home for home use, this follows the supreme court that home brewing is illegal.

1935 USA Work Fund to Create Jobs

1935: President Roosevelt unveils plans to allocate a work fund and more than $900,000,000 in funds for work based projects has been received so far , this will help with the mass unemployment and misery caused by the severe depression.

1943 Switzerland LSD

1943: Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist accidentally consumes LSD-25. After taking the drug, formally known as lysergic acid diethylamide, Dr. Hoffman was disturbed by unusual sensations and hallucinations.

1944 World War II

1944: Allied Bombers hit Budapest and Belgrade as continued attacks on enemies lines of communications and Rail Lines were carried out overnight.

1953 UK Royal Yacht Britannia

1953: The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia in at a ceremony at the Clydebank yard of John Brown and Co. The Royal Yacht had a 250 strong crew who ensure Britannia is always immaculate for its foreign trips. The Royal Yacht Britannia after travelling more than one million miles is decommissioned in 1997 and is now a tourist attraction at the port of Leith, in Edinburgh.

1963 USA Birmingham, Alabama

1963: Police break up walk to city hall to register to vote in Birmingham Alabama and arrested the first 15 Negroes in the walk to the county courthouse.

1964 UK The Rolling Stones

1964: The Rolling Stones band's debut album, "The Rolling Stones" issued in the US as "England's Newest Hit Makers" was released. The band consisted of Jagger, Jones, Richards, Wyman, and Watts.

1970 Northern Ireland Reverend Ian Paisley

1970: The Protestant hard liner the Reverend Ian Paisley has won a seat in parliament. The Reverend Ian Paisley is opposed any form of power sharing in Northern Ireland.

1972 USA Apollo 16

1972: NASA launched the Apollo 16 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

2009 Obama Unveils National Rail Plan

2009: President Obama has unveiled his plans for a network of high-speed passenger rail lines. His reasons for supporting this are to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and to improve the environment. The plan has identified ten potential high-speed intercity corridors for federal funding, including ones in California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, the Gulf Coast, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and New England. Chicago will be the hub of the Midwest Regional Rail System, which would stretch to Madison, Wisconsin, in the Northwest, to St. Louis, Missouri, in the South and Detroit, Michigan in the East. Obama had pledged to support a national network of faster passenger trains in his Presidential campaign. The administration has given $1.3 billion in federal funding to Amtrak.

2009 US Governmental Agents Not Prosecuted for Torture

2009: Barack Obama has released four top secret memos that permitted the C.I.A. to torture the al-Qaeda suspects they were holding at the Guantánamo Bay and other secret detention centers. In an accompanying statement Obama has ruled out prosecutions against those that participated in these actions. The memos can provide a look at the techniques that were used by the C.I.A. and the legal basis by which the previous administration approved it.

2010 SEC Charges Goldman Sachs with Fraud

2010: Goldman Sachs has been accused of defrauding investors by America's financial regulator. The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) has alleged that Goldmans have failed to disclose conflicts of interest, and charged the investment bank and one of its vice-presidents for defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to subprime mortgages. The S.E.C. says that Goldmans had structured and marketed the synthetic collateralized debt obligation (C.D.O.) that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. The failure to disclose to investors vital information about the C.D.O. and the fact that a hedge fund had taken a short position against the C.D.O.

2011 Cuba Marks Bay of Pigs Anniversary

2011: Cuba celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion with a military parade and gathering of citizens. The anniversary marked Castro and the communists' triumph over US-backed exile groups who had invaded in an attempt to oust Fidel Castro. The celebration came at the same time as the Cuban congress was meeting to discuss major reforms.

2012 Anders Breivik Pleads Not Guilty at Murder Trial

2012: Alleged mass murderer and man responsible for a bombing and shooting spree that killed 77 people in Norway officially pleaded not guilty at the start of his trail in the country. Breivik told the court that he "acknowledged" the acts he committed but did not take criminal responsibility for them. If the court decides that he was sane he could be sentenced to twenty-one years in prison, a term which could be extended indefinitely.

2013 Large Earthquake Hits Iran

2013: Iran experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the city of Khash, the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in over fifty years. The quake was also felt in Pakistan where thirty deaths were reported.

2014 Abortion Law in North Dakota Overturned

2014: A US Federal judge overturned a law in North Dakota that would ban early abortions in the state as soon as a heartbeat could be detected. The law was thought to be one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country and the judge said that it was unconstitutional.

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