#TodayInHistory – March 26
3 min read
March 26 – Some Important Events on this day
127 👉🏼 Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy begins his observations of the heavens (until 141 AD) ✨
1027 👉🏼 Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the Salian dynasty.
1726 👉🏼 one the most grisly murder cases in the annals of English criminal history.
✔️ Read the article!
1812 👉🏼 Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale destroys 90% of Caracas, Venezuela and kills an estimated 15,000–20,000 people.
The Caracas earthquake occurred at 4:37 p.m. Two major shocks struck the city and that of La Guaira, Barquisimeto, San Felipe, and Mérida.
The damage was so widespread it was suggested that the capital Caracas be re-located at one point. The quake occurred in the midst of the Republican Revolution war and deep in Patriot territory. It was also Holy Sunday and thousands died inside churches as they collapsed around them.
1871 👉🏼 Municipal elections bring revolutionaries to power in Paris to form Commune government.
1886 👉🏼 1st cremation in England 🏴
1909 👉🏼 In support of Mohammed Ali Shah’s coup d’etat against the constitutional government in Persia, a Russian military force invades northern Persia to relieve the siege of Tabriz.
1942 👉🏼 First “Eichmann transport” to Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps.
Toward the end of World War II, SS officer Adolf Eichmann said “I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction”.
Eichmann was one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust. Tasked by Reinhard Heydrich with managing the logistics of the Final Solution, Eichmann was a participant in the infamous Wannsee Conference where the decision exterminate the Jews was made. He and his staff were responsible for organizing the deportations to death camps.
After Germany’s defeat Eichmann fled to Argentina. One of the most wanted Nazis, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad located him in 1960. After extensive surveillance, on 11 May 1960 a team of Mossad agents launched a successful and audacious operation to abduct him and fly him to Israel to stand trial.
During his trial, reporter Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe Eichmann, who appeared stiff and lackluster in comparison to the enormity of his crimes. Sentenced to death, Eichmann was executed by hanging two years later, on 1 June 1962.
1953 👉🏼 Dr Jonas Salk announces vaccine to prevent polio 💉
1958 👉🏼 30th Academy Awards-“The Bridge on the River Kwai” wins Best Picture, Joanne Woodward & Alec Guinness win Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively.
Winner of seven Academy Awards including ‘Best Picture’, the 1957 film was a joint British American film set in a prisoner of war camp in Burma during WWII. It was based on the novel “Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï” written in 1952 by Pierre Boulle.
The film was directed by British director David Lean and starred William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, and Sessue Hayakawa. Alec Guinness won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson. The film’s reputation has endured and it is often included on British and American best film lists.
1966 👉🏼 Large-scale anti-Vietnam War protests take place in the United States, including in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago
1971 👉🏼 Bangladesh (East Pakistan) under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declares its independence from Pakistan 🇧🇩
1985 👉🏼 Pope John Paul II proclaims first ever World Youth Day
1989 👉🏼 1st free elections in USSR. 190 million votes cast and Boris Yeltsin wins
2015 👉🏼 Richard III of England (1452-1485) is reburied at Leicester Cathedral in England, after being discovered under a carpark in Leicester in 2012.
