On This Day...

[Skyfire77]

On April 1st:

It's April Fool's Day

• 33 – According to one historian's account, Jesus Christ's Last Supper is held.
• 1873 – The White Star steamer RMS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547 in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.
• 1918 – The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
• 1924 – The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.
• 1937 – The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service.
• 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco (who is still dead) of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
• 1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• 1960 – The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space. An electrical failure cut the mission short after only 75 days, but the satellite remains in orbit.
  
• 1969 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force.
• 1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.
• 1977 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
• 1979 – Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
• 2001 – An United States Navy EP-3E surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained.
• 2004 – Google launches its Email service Gmail.

This date marks the birth of:

• 1815 – Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (d. 1898)
• 1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1943)
• 1883 – Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1930)
• 1906 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer, founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau (d. 1989)
• 1917 – Sydney Newman, Canadian screenwriter and producer, co-created Doctor Who (d. 1997)
• 1932 – Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2016)
  
• 1961 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer
• 1992 @MidEngine's daughter Ashley

As well as the death of:

• 1917 – Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (b. 1868)
• 1984 – Marvin Gaye, American singer-songwriter (b. 1939)
• 2010 – John Forsythe, American actor (b. 1918)
• 2018 – Steven Bochco, American television writer and producer (b. 1943)

[MidEngine]

My daughter Ashley was born on this day in 1992

[ttyymmnn]

@Skyfire77

33 – According to one historian's account, Jesus Christ's Last Supper is held

Wouldn’t that be year 34? He was (theoretically) born in the year 1, not the year 0.

[Skyfire77]

@ttyymmnn There's still some argument on when exactly Jesus could have been born, and the range is currently somewhere between 6-4 BC. 1 April 33 BC is one of a number of possible dates suggested by the (somewhat contradictory) accounts of the Last Supper in the Bible.

[ttyymmnn]

@Skyfire77

Jesus was supposedly 33 when he died (interesting numerology there, don't ya think?). So whoever picked the year 33 for his death must have counted his birth as the switch over from BC(E) to AD.