Researchers at Seoul National University have announced the creation of a genetically modified, glow-in-the-dark dog. The female beagle, named Tegon, glows fluorescent under ultraviolet light. But, perhaps surprisingly, glow-in-the-dark animals aren’t all that new since we’ve seen glowing pigs and fish before. (We have... where?) What is particularly interesting about Tegon is that the glowing ability is capable of being turned on and off. (Say what?)
When ingested by the dog with food, the drug doxycycline can activate or deactivate the ability to glow. Led by Lee Byeong-chun, the researchers used the same somatic cell nuclear transfer technique to make Tegon glow that was used in 2005 to make the world’s first cloned dog, Snuppy.
A foot of the cloned fluorescent three-month-old Tegon,
glowing in the dark under ultra-violet light (L)
and under normal lighting at
Seoul National University's College of Veterinary Medicine in 2009.
Published in the journal Genesis, the research shows that it is possible to successfully insert genes into a dog that allow it to express a specific trait that can be controlled, while not altering other functions. This isn’t earth shattering as far as human biomedical research goes, but finding the right pathway to do this could have important implications for research into the effects of some of the 268 illnesses shared by humans and dogs. Lee Byeong-chun told the Yonhap news agency:
“The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases.”
But don’t expect glowing dogs to become all the rage. Creating Tegon and performing the necessary verification tests on the research cost the university $3 million (3.2 billion won). So, while the technology used to create a glowing dog may prove to be useful for biomedical research, there isn’t going to be a crazy commercial glowing dog trend. Tegon is one of a kind.
Well, I guess this is great news in terms of biomedical technology, but when or if it ever becomes the norm and therefore more affordable, I think they should also use it for other purposes other than genetics. Say for example on........ I don't know... irrate women?
In the dark, glowing men aren't necessary - like dogs, you can hear them coming a mile away. Women, on the other hand, are sneaky as hell, so any advantage a man can gain when a angry woman shows her scorn... well now that's a helpful, all-around achievement in health and well-being, sex and relationships, bio-science, chemistry, technology, peace of mind...
On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) was born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown? The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces. Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown had suffered years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. In November 1977, she underwent the then-experimental IVF procedure. A mature egg was removed from one of her ovaries and combined in a laboratory dish with her husband’s sperm to form an embryo. The embryo then was implanted into her uterus a few days later. Her IVF doctors, British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and scientist Robert Edwards, had begun their pioneering collaboration a decade earlier. Once the media learned of the pregnancy, the Browns faced intense public scrutiny. Louise’s birth made headlines around the world and raised various legal and ethical questions: Was this baby was going to be healthy? Had being outside the womb, even for just a couple of days, harmed the egg? If the baby has medical problems, did the parents and doctors have a right to play with nature and thus bring it into the world?
When does life begin? If human life begins at conception, are doctors killing potential humans when they discard fertilized eggs? (Doctors may remove several eggs from the woman and may discard some that have been fertilized.)
The process had been a success! Though some wondered if the success had been more luck than science, continued success with the process proved that Dr. Steptoe and Dr. Edwards had accomplished the first of many "test-tube" babies.
The Browns had a second daughter, Natalie, several years later, also through IVF.
First Test-tube Mother!
In another medical first, Louise's younger sister, Natalie, 27, was the first test-tube baby to have a child of her own in May 1999. Her daughter Casey is now 12, and her son Christopher is ten. Casey made medical history by ending fears that girls born through IVF treatment would not be able to have healthy children.
In December 2006, Louise Brown, the original "test tube baby," gave birth to a boy, Cameron John Mullinder, who also was conceived naturally.
She admits they lead an unremarkable life, yet because of the remarkable nature of her conception Louise will always be a part of the public consciousness. The world has followed her through every milestone of her life, from her first birthday through to her 21st, from her marriage to the birth of her first child. Cameron Joe Mullinder was due on January 2 but was actually born at 12.23pm on December 20 it was a particularly poignant moment. Interestingly when Louise went into labor at the hospital, the nursing staff were unaware of the significance of this experience. But the surgeon who administered the Cesarean section noticed her. She explains that when she had Cameron the surgeon who turned out to be an IVF specialist acknowledged the momentous nature of this incident. He came in the morning of the operation and expressed his excitement to Louise saying, "I can't believe that I'm now helping you deliver your own baby."
Today, IVF is considered a mainstream medical treatment for infertility. Hundreds of thousands of children around the world have been conceived through the procedure, in some cases with donor eggs and sperm.
also
Did You Know for the month of
back in....
July 25, 1917, Mata Hari was Sentenced to Death. On this day, in Paris, France, the exotic dancer Mata Hari was sentenced to death by a French court for spying on Germany's behalf during World War I.
Since 1903, Margueretha Gertruida Zelle, (07/08/1876 - 15/10/1917), born in a small town in northern Holland, Netherlands and formerly married to a captain in the Dutch army, had performed in Paris as a dancer. Her exotic dances soon earned her fans all over Europe, where she packed dance halls from Moscow to Berlin to Madrid, largely because of her willingness to dance almost entirely naked in public.
Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, she captivated her audiences and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet on 13 March 1905. She became the long-time mistress of the millionaire Lyon industrialist Emile Etienne Guimet, who had founded the Musée. She posed as a Java princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so.
She brought this carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which garnered wide acclaim. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled bra and some ornaments upon her arms and head. She was seldom seen without a bra as she was self-conscious about being small-breasted. Pictures taken during her performances suggest she may have worn a bodystocking for her shows, as navel and genitals are not seen even in poses where they should be visible on a nude person.
Mata Hari was also a successful courtesan, though she was known more for her sensuality and eroticism rather than for striking classical beauty. She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries, including Frederick William Victor Augustus Ernest, the German crown prince, who paid for her luxurious lifestyle. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Prior to World War I, she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian, but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress.
Double Agent During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Margaretha Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she travelled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. In 1916 she was travelling by steamer from Spain when her ship called at the English port of Falmouth. There she was arrested and brought to London where she was interrogated at length by Sir Basil Thomson, Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland Yard in charge of counter-espionage. He gave an account of this in his 1922 book Queer People, saying that she eventually admitted to working for French Intelligence. It is unclear if she lied on this occasion, believing the story made her sound more intriguing, or if French authorities were using her in such a way, but would not acknowledge her due to the embarrassment and international backlash it could cause. In January 1917, the German military attaché in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. Unusually, the messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving some historians to suspect that the messages were contrived.
On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. She was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her. Secret ink was found in her room, which was incriminating evidence in that period. She contended that it was part of her make-up. She wrote several letters to the Dutch Consul in Paris, claiming her innocence. "My international connections are due of my work as a dancer, nothing else [...]. Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself." She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917, at the age of 41.
July 31, 1917, Third Battle of Ypres Began in Flanders. On July 31, 1917, the Allies launch a renewed assault on German lines in the Flanders region of Belgium, in the much-contested region near Ypres, during World War I. The attack begins more than three months of brutal fighting, known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
July 24, 1915, The Steamer Eastland Overturned in the Chicago River, drowning between 800 and 850 of its passengers who were heading to a picnic. The disaster was caused by serious problems with the boat's design, which were known but never remedied.On July 24, employees of Western Electric Company were heading to an annual picnic. Much of the crowd—perhaps even more than the 2,500 people allowed—boarded the Eastland.
Some reports indicate that the crowd may also have all gathered on one side of the boat to pose for a photographer, thus creating an imbalance on the boat. In any case, engineer Joseph Erikson opened one of the ballast tanks, which holds water within the boat and stabilizes the ship, and the Eastland began tipping precariously.
The Eastland capsized right next to the dock, trapping hundreds of people on or underneath the large ship. Rescuers quickly attempted to cut through the hull with torches, allowing them to pull out 40 people alive. More than 800 others perished.
Most of the corpses were taken to the Second Regiment Armory, which is now home to Harpo Studios and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Some of the show's employees have claimed that the studio is haunted by ghosts of the Eastland disaster
July 31, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa Vanished. Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing in Detroit, Michigan. He was last seen alive in a parking lot outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant the previous afternoon. To this day, Hoffa's fate remains a mystery, although many believe that he was murdered by organized crime figures.
July 24, 1998, South Korea's Government Opened the Bidding for the Kia Motors Corporation, the country's third-largest car company, which went bankrupt during an economic crisis that gripped much of Asia.
Founded on the outskirts of Seoul in 1944, Kia began as a small manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts. The name of the company was derived from the Chinese characters "ki" (meaning "to arise" or "to come out of") and "a" (which stood for Asia). By the late 1950s, Kia had branched out from bicycles to motor scooters, and in the early 1970s the company launched into automobile production. Kia's Sohari plant, completed by 1973, was Korea's first fully integrated automobile production facility; it rolled out the Brisa, the country's first passenger car, in 1974.
July 25, 2000, Concorde Jet Crashed. An Air France Concorde jet crashed upon takeoff in Paris on this day in 2000, killing everyone onboard (105 people - nine crew members and 96 German tourists) as well as four people on the ground. The Concorde, the world's fastest commercial jet, had enjoyed an exemplary safety record up to that point, with no crashes in the plane's 31-year history.
July 24, 2005, Lance Armstrong Won Seventh Tour de France. Legendary American cyclist Lance Armstrong won a record-setting seventh consecutive Tour de France and retired from the sport. After surviving testicular cancer, his rise to cycling greatness inspired cancer patients and fans around the world and significantly boosted his sport’s popularity in his native United States.
Prepared and Eaten Alive - JAPAN, CHINA, TAIWAN, KOREA
A great deal of you may already know about the customs of eating live food but for the rest of you:
I must warn you that if you have a weak stomach, or you are a vegetarian or just plain disgusted of even the thought of eating anything alive - I suggest you stop reading and go find something else on this blog to read because I for one could barely make this post, lol, since I'm so used to the western way of eating, you know, making sure it's good and dead before cooking and eating it. But as usual, since I'm so darn curious and is always interested in all aspects of cultures from around the world, I just had to add this!
Now, scientists claim the live fishes served feel no pain, but I've always wondered how they tested that theory... were they a fish once and lived to tell about it? Or was it because the fish didn't squeal like a banshee as they were being eaten alive? Anyways...
Us westerners 'distance' ourselves from our food sources a great deal. So much so that most of us don't even have a clue as to how the meats that eventually end up on the shelves of our local supermarkets came to be.
In all fairness, Japanese tradition holds that we should be grateful to the animals who gives us sustenance, and to acknowledge our relationship to them. Whether I agree with this ideology or not is really irrelevant (even though I'm still not sure how eating them alive acknowleges this), but showing respect to the way certain cultures do certain things is what it's all about. After all, I'm sure some of them are just as grossed out about our 'Big Macs' and 'Whopper' burgers and mcnuggets and God only knows what else.
I don't know if I can really eat food that stares right back at me, or twitches or flaps around.. I don't know. Maybe if I try not to make eye contact or something... As long as they don't start with cows or pigs.... I think I'll be ok...
Ikizukuri (Live sashimi), JAPAN
In Japanese cuisine, ikizukuri or ikezukuri(生き作り/活け造り, “prepared alive”) is the preparation of sashimi from a living sea animal such as fish, shrimp, lobster and octopus. Ikizukuri usually begins with the customer selecting from a tank in the restaurant, the animal they wish to eat. The chef, who is often a sashimi chef takes the animal out of the tank and filets it, but without killing the animal, which is served on a plate, sliced, with the heart still beating. Other variants of ikizukuri involve temporarily returning a filleted fish to an aquarium, to swim around until recovered for a second course of soup. Ikizukuri of fish consists of thin, sheet-like slices or finger-sized pieces sometimes garnished with lemon wedges, a decoration of ginger, or nori (seaweed). Squid and small octopus are usually wrapped around a chopstick and eaten whole.
Ikizukuri is a controversial method of preparing food, both in Japan and elsewhere.
Typically ikizukuri style is used with fish like carp or snapper, octopus, squid, lobster or shrimp. This is a very old technique, at least 2000 years old, first brought to the West a decade ago by Nobu Matsuhisa.
When restaurants in the West started serving it, ikezukuri experienced an inevitable backlash from animal rights groups. After a Japanese chef demonstrated the technique on a Los Angeles television station, he received hundreds of angry calls, including death threats.
Lobster Ikizukuri
Live Squid Sashimi
Drunken Shrimp and Ying Yang Fish, CHINA and TAIWAN
Drunken shrimp is a popular dish in portions of China based on fresh-water shrimp that are often eaten alive, but stunned in a strong liquor—baijiu (白酒)—to make consumption easier. Different parts of China have different recipes for it. For example, the shrimp are sometimes made drunk and then cooked in boiling water rather than served live, and in other recipes cooked shrimp are marinated in alcohol after they are boiled.
However, in some parts of China, for example, Shanghai, drunken shrimp is not only served raw -- it's alive. A bowl of live shrimp is served “swimming” in very strong rice wine.
The point of the rice wine serves many purposes apparently: it would sanitize the shrimp, mellow out the shrimp, eventually kill the shrimp and flavor the shrimp. This dish seems simple enough: Get shrimp, add alcohol. Wait a few minutes.. then eat.
The alcohol/rice wine is suppose to relax them. I've also read that it is best to start devouring your drunken shrimps once they seem a bit.. you know, drunk. The idea being they will be less resistant (even though I don't see why WE need anymore advantage over these things). However some enthusiasts say the taste is better the more active the shrimp is. The flavor is in the fight and so on and so on.
Ying Yang fish or Yin Yang fish (also called dead-and-alive fish) is a dish (mostly Ying Yang Fish and Carps) where the fish's body is deep-fried but still has a fresh and moving head. It is popular in China, but it originated in Taiwan where chefs use it to show customers how fresh the food is. Cooking of this dish is now prohibited in Taiwan.
Drunken Shrimp in Shangahi
Drunken Shrimp in Guilin
It involves serving LIVE shrimp doused in that strong Chinese liquor, baijiu.
Annual Chinese Competition
Demonstrates how to 'semi' cook and prepare a live fish (Ying Yang Fish) and snake.... The mouth of the fish has to still be moving when you eat it or the chef fails.
Sannakji, KOREA
Sannakji or sannakji hoe is a variety of hoe, or raw dish, in Korean cuisine. It consists of live nakji (hangul: 낙지, a small octopus) that has been cut into small pieces and served immediately, usually lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. The nakji pieces are usually still squirming on the plate. It can also be served whole.
Because the suction cups on the arm pieces are still active when the dish is served, special care should be taken when eating sannakji. The active suction cups can cause swallowed pieces of arm to stick to the mouth or throat. This can also present a choking hazard for some people, particularly if they are intoxicated. One must thoroughly chew so that no piece is big enough to stick to one's throat. Some people like the feel of the pieces wriggling as swallowed, and so will not completely chew up the particles. Those who are new to eating sannakji should completely chew it up into tiny particles before swallowing.
Sannakji (live octopus) in Seoul, Korea
Try Eating a WHOLE Octopus all at once
Ok, I think I've seen enough 'live' food squirming around on a plate for one day. It's fascinating these different ways of eating... fascinating.
If any of you ever watched that show FEAR FACTOR, I'm sure you've seen episodes of westerners eating live worms.... uh, to win money of course but it shows maybe we can all do this "eating it raw and still moving" thing. Some of us also eat live oysters. So, I guess in a way, we are not so different from these cultures.
4977 B.C., Universe was created, according to Kepler. On April 27in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering.
1521, Magellan killed in the Philippines. After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
1865, Licoln assassin John Wilkes Booth died.John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
1888, Orange-sized hail reported in India. A hail storm devastates the farming town of Moradabad, India, killing 230 people and many more farm animals. Sixteen others died in nearby Bareilly. In the Central Plains region of Uttar Pradesh, March and April are the prime seasons for hail. However, the hail storm that struck on April 30, 1888, was far more intense than usual and is now the stuff of legend in India. The hail was accompanied by strong winds that toppled many structures and homes in the area.
1908, Tornado flattens towns in Louisiana and Mississippi. On April 24, A single tornado traveled 150 miles through Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving 143 dead in its wake. In total, 311 people lost their lives to twisters during the deadly month of April 1908 in the southeastern United States. Another 1,600 were seriously injured.
1913, Girl murdered in pencil factory. Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan was found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta, Georgia, pencil factory where she worked. Her murder later led to one of the most disgraceful episodes of bigotry, injustice, and mob violence in American history.
1922,Forensic evidence was introduced in Australia. Colin Ross was hanged to death in Australia for the rape and murder of 13-year-old Alma Tirtschke. Ross was one of the first criminals in Australia to be convicted based on forensic evidence. On December 30, 1921, Tirtschke was reported missing in Melbourne. The next day, a constable patrolling Gun Alley, a well-known area for prostitutes, found the young schoolgirl's body bundled up in a blanket. Strangely, despite evidence of a brutal rape, there was no trace of blood found on her body.
1927, The first federal prison for women opened. The Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women's federal prison, opens in Alderson, West Virginia. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought here.
1954, Polio vaccine trials began. On April 26, 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, began at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard part of childhood immunizations in America. In the ensuing decades, polio vaccines would all but wipe out the highly contagious disease in the Western Hemisphere.
1963, High school freshman Little Peggy March earns #1 hit with "I Will Follow Him". On April 27, 1963, Margaret Annemarie Battavio's very first single, "I Will Follow Him," reached #1 on the U.S. pop charts. With her 15th birthday only six weeks behind her, and three more years of high school ahead of her, the singer better known as Little Peggy March became the youngest female performer ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, but she'd never crack the top 10 again. After spending the better part of two decades living in Germany, Peggy March eventually returned to the United States where she continues to perform regularly and where she still holds the record for youthful chart achievement that she set on this day in 1963.
1964, Maple Leafs won third Stanley Cup in a row. On April 25, 1964, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0, and won the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup championship, four games to three. The victory marked the Maple Leafs’ third consecutive Stanley Cup victory. The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917, the same year the National Hockey League was established. At the time, the team didn’t have an official name but was known informally as the “Blueshirts.”
1969, De Gaulle resigned as leader
Stanley Cup
of France. Following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum, Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France.
1980, Hostage rescue mission ended in disaster. On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages.
1980, Air tragedy hit Canary Islands. A Dan-Air Boeing 727 carrying British tourists to the Canary Islands crashes and kills all 146 on board. This terrible crash came just three years after another even deadlier accident at the Canary Islands airport.
1983, German endurance driver killed in crash. Rolf Stommelen, a four-time 24 Hours of Daytona champ as well as a Formula One driver, is killed at the age of 39 in a crash at California's Riverside International Raceway. Stommelen was born on July 11, 1943, in Germany. In 1968, he won his first 24 Hours of Daytona.
1986, Nuclear explosion at Chernobyl. The world's worst nuclear accident to date occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large area of land may not be livable for as much as 150 years. The 18-mile radius around Chernobyl was home to almost 150,000 people who had to be permanently relocated.
1986, Maria Shriver marries Arnold Schwarzenegger. Almost a decade after they met at a celebrity tennis tournament, the television news reporter Maria Shriver marries the movie actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986.
1989, A father was exonerated after 21 years. James Richardson walked out of a Florida prison 21 years after being wrongfully convicted of killing his seven children. Special prosecutor Janet Reno agreed to the release after evidence showed that the conviction resulted from misconduct by the prosecutor. In addition, neighbor Betsy Reese had confessed to the crime to a nursing home employee.
1991, Cyclone killed 135,000 in Bangladesh. A devastating cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing more than 135,000 people. Even though there had been ample warning of the coming storm and shelter provisions had been built in the aftermath of a deadly 1970 storm, this disaster was one of the worst of the 20th century. "Cyclone" is the name given to hurricane-type storms that arise in the Indian Ocean. "Typhoons" are those that start in the Pacific Ocean and "hurricanes" are those found in the Atlantic. Cyclone 2B, as this storm was known, had been tracked for a week as it made its way north through the Bay of Bengal. It slammed into the southeastern coast of Bangladesh on April 29. Seven of the nine most deadly cyclones or hurricanes of the 20th century took place in Bangladesh. The warning and shelter systems have improved since 1991; a large cyclone in 1997 took a far lesser toll.
1994, South Africa held first multiracial elections. More than 22 million South Africans turn out to cast ballots in the country's first multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party, former President F.W. de Klerk's National Party, and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. In May, Mandela was inaugurated as president, becoming South Africa's first black head of state.
1995, Gas pipe exploded in South Korea. Gas explosion beneath a busy city street in Taegu, South Korea, kills more than 100 people on this day in 1995. Sixty children, some on their way to school, were among the victims of the blast. Taegu was a city of 2.2 million people, located about 150 miles south of Seoul. At the time of the explosion, an underground railroad was being constructed beneath the city streets. Metal sheets were put down in place of asphalt to cover holes in certain sections of downtown roads during the construction. The precise cause of the explosion remains a mystery. Some believe that the gas pipe was accidentally hit by the railroad construction, while others argue that something must have sparked an existing leak
2001, Italian Formula One driver died in crash. 44-year-old Italian race car driver Michele Alboreto is killed on a track in Germany during a test drive. Alboreto collected five Grand Prix wins on the Formula One (F1) circuit, where he competed during the 1980s and early 1990s, and also claimed victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1997. Michele Alboreto was born in Milan, Italy, on December 23, 1956, and began his racing career in the mid-1970s. He made his F1 debut in 1981 and took home his first victory at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix Las Vegas in 1982.
Lincoln dreamt about a presidential assassination..
A photograph of the President and Thomas (Tad) made by Mathew B. Brady on February 9, 1864
According to the recollection of one of his friends, Ward Hill Lamon, President Abraham Lincoln dreams on the night of April 4, 1865 of "the subdued sobs of mourners" and a corpse lying on a catafalque in the White House East Room. In the dream, Lincoln asked a soldier standing guard "Who is dead in the White House?" to which the soldier replied, "The President. He was killed by an assassin." Lincoln woke up at that point. On April 11, he told Lamon that the dream had "strangely annoyed" him ever since. Ten days after having the dream, Lincoln was shot dead by an assassin while attending the theater.
Did You Know? For the month of
back in.....
1824, Lord Byron died in Greece. George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, dies in what is now Greece, where he had traveled to support the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey. Even today, he is considered a Greek national hero.
1912. RMS Titanic hit iceberg. Just before midnight in the North Atlantic, the RMS Titanic fails to divert its course from an iceberg, ruptures its hull, and begins to sink. Because of a shortage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, more than 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters. Most of the approximately 700 survivors were women and children. A number of notable American and British citizens died in the tragedy, including the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to the Straus, Astor, and Guggenheim fortunes. The announcement of details of the disaster led to outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. The sinking of the Titanic did have some positive effects, however, as more stringent safety regulations were adopted on public ships, and regular patrols were initiated to trace the locations of deadly Atlantic icebergs.
1944, Explosion on cargo ship rocks Bombay, India. The cargo ship Fort Stikine explodes in a berth in the docks of Bombay, India, killing 1,300 people and injuring another 3,000 on this day in 1944. As it occurred during World War II, some initially claimed that the massive explosion was caused by Japanese sabotage; in fact, it was a tragic accident. The Fort Stikine was a Canadian-built steamship weighing 8,000 tons. It left Birkenhead, England, on February 24 and stopped in Karachi, Pakistan, before docking at Bombay. The ship was carrying hundreds of cotton bales, gold bullion and, most notably, 300 tons of trinitrotoluene, better known as TNT or dynamite. Inexplicably, the cotton was stored one level below the dynamite, despite the well-known fact that cotton bales were prone to combustion.
1946, Arthur Chevrolet committed suicide. Arthur Chevrolet, an auto racer and the brother of Chevrolet auto namesake Louis Chevrolet, commits suicide in Slidell, Louisiana. Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland in 1878, while Arthur's birth year has been listed as 1884 and 1886. By the early 1900s, Louis and Arthur, along with their younger brother Gaston, had left Europe and moved to America, where they became involved in auto racing. In 1905, Louis defeated racing legend Barney Oldfield at an event in New York. Louis Chevrolet's racing prowess eventually caught the attention of William C. Durant, who in 1908, founded General Motors (GM). Chevrolet began competing and designing cars for GM's Buick racing team. In 1911, Chevrolet teamed up with William Durant to produce the first Chevrolet car. The two men clashed about what type of car they wanted, with Durant arguing for a low-cost vehicle to compete with Henry Ford's Model T and Chevrolet pushing for something more high-end. In 1915, Chevrolet sold his interest in the company to Durant and the following year the Chevrolet Motor Company became part of General Motors.
1967, GM celebrated its 100 millionth U.S.-made car. On April 21, 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrates the manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car. At the time, GM was the world's largest automaker. General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan, by horse-drawn carriage mogul William Durant. In 1904, Durant invested in the Buick Motor Company, which was started in 1903 by Scottish-born inventor David Dunbar Buick. Within a few years of forming his company, Buick lost control of it and sold his stock, which would later be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. (In 1929, Buick died at age 74 in relative obscurity and modest circumstances). Durant made Buick Motors the cornerstone of his new holding company, General Motors, then acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Reliance Motor Company, among other auto and truck makers.
1973, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" topped the U.S. pop charts and created a cultural phenomenon.The yellow ribbon— has long been a symbol of support for absent or missing loved ones. There are some who believe that the tradition of the yellow ribbon dates back as far as the Civil War era, when a yellow ribbon in a woman's hair indicated that she was "taken" by a man who was absent due to service in the United States Army Cavalry. But research by professional folklorists has found no evidence to support that story. The Library of Congress itself traces the cultural ubiquity of this powerful symbol to the well-known song by Tony Orlando and Dawn: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree," which topped the U.S. pop charts on April 21,1973.
1993, Branch Davidian compound burned. At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launches a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending a tense 51-day standoff between the federal government and an armed religious cult. By the end of the day, the compound was burned to the ground, and some 80 Branch Davidians, including 22 children, had perished in the inferno.
1995, Truck bomb exploded in Oklahoma City. Just after 9 a.m., a massive truck bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast collapsed the north face of the nine-story building, instantly killing more than 100 people and trapping dozens more in the rubble. Emergency crews raced to Oklahoma City from across the country, and when the rescue effort finally ended two weeks later the death toll stood at 168 people killed, including 19 young children who were in the building's day-care center at the time of the blast. On April 21, the massive manhunt for suspects in the worst terrorist attack ever committed on U.S. soil by an American resulted in the capture of Timothy McVeigh, a 27-year-old former U.S. Army soldier.
1999, A massacre at Columbine High School. Two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, south of Denver. At approximately 11:19 a.m., Dylan Klebold, 18, and Eric Harris, 17, dressed in trench coats, began shooting students outside the school before moving inside to continue their rampage. By 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded another 23 people. Shortly after noon, the two teens turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide.
The crime was the worst school shooting in U.S. history (until 33 people, including the gunman, were killed in the Virginia Tech shooting on April 16, 2007) and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the teen gunmen.
2007, Massacre at Virginia Tech left 32 dead. On April 16, 2007, in one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history, 32 students and teachers die after being gunned down on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University by Seung Hui Cho, a student at the school who later dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In the aftermath of the massacre, authorities found no evidence that Cho, who was born in South Korea and moved to America with his family in 1992, had specifically targeted any of his victims. The public soon learned that Cho, described by ex-classmates as a loner who rarely spoke to anyone, had a history of mental-health problems. It was also revealed that angry, violent writings Cho made for certain class assignments had raised concern among some of his former professors and fellow students well before the events of April 16.
