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.
On Thursday, 12 April 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States and is sworn in this evening in the White House.
On Thursday, 12 April 1945, WWII: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg and reaches Tangermünde — only 50 miles from Berlin.
On Tuesday, 12 April 1960, Eric Peugeot, the youngest son of the founder of the Peugeot Corporation, is kidnapped in Paris. Then, he is released on April 15 in exchange for $300,000 in ransom.
On Saturday, 12 April 1980, Samuel Kanyon Doe takes over Liberia in a coup d’état, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country.
On Saturday, 12 April 1980, Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
On Thursday, 12 April 1990, Lothar de Maizière becomes prime minister of East Germany, heading a conservative coalition that favors German reunification.
On Monday, 12 April 2010, The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, announces a taskforce has been established to investigate allegations of rorting in the Government’s $16b Building the Education Revolution program aimed at upgrading facilities at Australian schools.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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