Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
| 21 April 1896 | Ralph Hungerford born, 33rd Governor of American Samoa (d. 1977) |
| 21 April 1896 | Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer born, Dutch war hero, resistance fighter and humanitarian (d. 1978) |
| Thursday, 21 April 1921 | Tom O’Brien died, American Major League Baseball player (b. 1860) |
| Sunday, 21 April 1946 | John Maynard Keynes died, British economist (b. 1883) |
| Friday, 21 April 1961 | Cathy Cavadini born, American voice actress |
| Friday, 21 April 1961 | James Melton died, American tenor (b. 1904) |
| Wednesday, 21 April 1971 | Siaka Stevens is elected the first president of Sierra Leone. |
| Wednesday, 21 April 1971 | François Duvalier, president of Haiti, dies; his son Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life. |
| Wednesday, 21 April 1971 | François Duvalier died, 32nd President of Haiti (b. 1907) |
| Wednesday, 21 April 1971 | Edmund Lowe died, American actor (b. 1890) |
| Tuesday, 21 April 1981 | Mike Christie born, English musician |
| Tuesday, 21 April 1981 | Stephanie Larimore born, American model |
| Sunday, 21 April 1991 | French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio discovers the wreckage of the Spanish Galleon San Diego off the coast of Fortune Island (Philippines). |
| Sunday, 21 April 1991 | Frank Dillane born, English actor |
| Sunday, 21 April 1991 | Kenza Zouiten born, Swedish fashion model |
| Sunday, 21 April 1996 | Dzhokhar Dudayev died, Chechen politician and President of Ichkeria (b. 1944) |
| Sunday, 21 April 1996 | A general election in Italy proclaims a new center-left government headed by Romano Prodi, replacing Silvio Berlusconi. |
| Sunday, 21 April 1996 | Tavi Gevinson born, American fashion blogger |
| Saturday, 21 April 2001 | Jack Haley Jr. died, American film director and producer (b. 1933) |
| Thursday, 21 April 2016 | Prince died, American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (b. 1958) |
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
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Neville Buch
Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
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