What do Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr. have in common? Both share an important anniversary on April 16th.
- 1457 BC – Likely date of the famous Battle of Megiddo between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh, the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail. Some Bible scholars claim Megiddo will also be the sight of the final battle between good and evil on earth. Megiddo is the basis for the word Armageddon, the anticipated apocalyptic end times battle.
- 1178 BC – The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus' return home from the Trojan War.
- 73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress and site of one of many of King Herod's palaces, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending what is known as the Great Jewish Revolt. Jewish rebels and their families chose to commit mass suicide rather than become slaves and chattel to Rome. An aerial cable car transports visitors up to the site, which includes remnants of ritual and thermal baths with mosaic floors, as well as a spectacular view of the ever-shrinking Dead Sea.
- 1521 – Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms where he is examined by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and representatives of the other estates of the empire.
- 1919 – Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by the British.
- 1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.
- 1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- 1962 – Walter Cronkite takes over as the lead news anchor of the CBS Evening News. His journalistic integrity would lead Cronkite to become "the most trusted man in America".
- 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
- 1990 – The "Doctor of Death", Jack Kevorkian, participates in his first assisted suicide.
Images courtesy of www.pixabay.com and www.wikipedia.org.
Thanks for reading "10 Odd But True Facts From April 16".
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