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 Monday, 30 April 1945, Death of Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as the Red Army approaches the Führerbunker in Berlin. Großadmiral Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany (Reichspräsident) and Joseph Goebbels succeeds as Chancellor of Germany (Reichskanzler), in accordance with Hitler’s political testament of the previous day.
On Wednesday, 30 April 1980, Automotive company Chrysler Australia Limited is taken over by Japanese company Mitsubishi after the American-based Chrysler Corporation sold its Australian subsidiary to the dynamic Japanese automobile manufacturer for $80 million. The declining fortunes of Chrysler’s North American operations forced the sale.
On Wednesday, 30 April 1980, Iranian Embassy siege: Six Iranian-born terrorists take over the Iranian embassy in London, England. SAS retakes the Embassy on May 5; one terrorist survives.
On Wednesday, 30 April 1980, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands abdicates and her daughter Beatrix accedes to the throne.
On Monday, 30 April 1990, Lebanon hostage crisis: Lebanese kidnappers release American educator Frank H. Reed, who had been held hostage since September 1986.
On Sunday, 30 April 1995, The United States government stops funding the NSFNET, making the Internet a wholly privatised system.
On Sunday, 30 April 2000, Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.
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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