From today's featured article
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On 28 April 1789, a mutiny on HMS Bounty in the south Pacific was led by Fletcher Christian. Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti. During a five-month layover there, many of the men were in relationships with native Polynesians. Lieutenant William Bligh handed out increasingly harsh punishments and abuse, especially to Christian, and morale plummeted. After three weeks back at sea, Bligh and 18 of his crew were forced into the ship's small uncovered launch, and had to row and sail more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to reach safety. In 1791, 14 of the Bounty crew were arrested in Tahiti; four of these died when their ship ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, four were acquitted at a court martial, three were pardoned and three were hanged. On Pitcairn Island, just one surviving mutineer, John Adams, was discovered in 1808; Christian and most of the rest had been killed, by each other and by the mistreated Tahitians they brought with them. Their descendants would continue to inhabit Pitcairn into the 21st century. The view of Bligh as an overbearing monster has in recent years been challenged by historians. (Full article...)
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Did you know...
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Walt McDougall
- ... that when Pennsylvania legislators pushed a bill banning caricatures of politicians as animals, cartoonist Walt McDougall (pictured) drew them as a tree, a beer mug, and assorted vegetables?
- ... that Kashf al-Asrar (The Unveiling of Secrets) was written by Ruhollah Khomeini to answer the criticisms of Shia Islam published in a pamphlet titled The Thousand-Year Secrets?
- ... that Norwegian terrorist Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow took part in killing 63 people at a shopping mall in Kenya?
- ... that the upcoming film Allied, scripted by Steven Knight, is based on a true story personally told to Knight at the age of 21?
- ... that Jessie Rose started her career playing a variety of soprano roles, but later became the principal mezzo-soprano of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company?
- ... that the 12th-century baptismal font of St Mary's Church, Llanfair-yn-Neubwll, was moved away for safekeeping when the church was closed?
- ... that Tom Bass was born a slave but trained horses for Theodore Roosevelt, Will Rogers, and Buffalo Bill Cody?
- ... that despite mentioning her in five of his speeches, Demosthenes never spoke his mother's name?
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In the news
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Hillsborough memorial
- The National Museum of Natural History, in New Delhi, India, and its entire collection, are destroyed by fire.
- In the UK, following a second inquest, the jury reaches a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster (memorial pictured) in 1989.
- Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Jemima Sumgong win the men's and women's London Marathon, respectively.
- Scientists announce the discovery of an extensive reef system near the Amazon River, covering an estimated 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2).
- Idriss Déby is elected to a fifth term as President of Chad.
- American singer and songwriter Prince dies at the age of 57.
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On this day...
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April 28: International Workers' Memorial Day; Maundy Thursday (Eastern Christianity, 2016)
Aurora Quezon
- 1253 – Nichiren, a Japanese monk, expounded Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the first time and declared it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
- 1887 – A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé was released on order of German Emperor William I, defusing a possible war.
- 1949 – Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon (pictured), her daughter, and ten others were assassinated by the military arm of the Philippine Communist Party.
- 1965 – Four days after the Dominican Civil War began, the United States invaded the country, aiming to prevent the development of what Lyndon Johnson saw as a possible second Cuban Revolution.
- 2001 – Dennis Tito became the world's first fee-paying space tourist, riding the Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space Station.
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