This is how April 22 played out over the centuries.
Image: ChatGPT
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. – Henry David Thoreau
Curiosity actually improves memory because dopamine increases learning efficiency.
1529 – The Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal.
1817 – Curaçao prohibits the use of white paint owing to fierce sunlight; in reality, the governor who made the rule was a shareholder in the island’s only paint store. The tradition endured, and the brightly coloured buildings remain one of the Caribbean’s most striking sights.
1819 – Ndlambe, regent of the AmaRarabe, attacks Grahamstown in broad daylight, believing that the bullets of the white defenders would turn to water.
1873 – The three villages clustered around the mouth of the Buffalo River – East London West Bank, East London East Bank, and Panmure – merge into a single municipality, East London.
1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands of the American Wild West; within hours, Oklahoma City and Guthrie emerge with populations of at least 10,000.
1911 – At least 28 people die when a train from Port Alfred plunges off the Blaauwkrantz Bridge in the Eastern Cape.
1915 – Chlorine gas is deployed as a chemical weapon during the Second Battle of Ypres.
1945 – After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat and states that suicide is his only recourse.
1969 – The first eye transplant is performed.
1969 – British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world in 312 days.
1992 – Explosions caused by a leak in an oil and gas pipeline destroy about 8km of street blocks in Guadalajara, Mexico; hundreds are killed.
1994 – About 7,000 Tutsis are slaughtered by Hutu forces in a stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda.
1998 – Kitch Christie (58), coach of South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning team, dies of cancer in Pretoria.
2004 – Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
2016 – The Paris Agreement, aimed at combating global warming, is signed.
2020 – Sudan bans female genital mutilation, making it a criminal offence.
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