Born on this day
Tuesday, April 16, 1889. : Actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer, Charlie Chaplin, is born.
Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, was believed to be born on 16 April 1889 in either London or Fontainebleau, France, but there is some doubt as to both his birthplace and his date of birth. His parents separated soon after he was born, and his somewhat unstable mother eventually suffered a mental breakdown, living out the remainder of her years in an asylum. Chaplin performed on the stage from the age of five, and after his mother’s breakdown, he secured the role of a comic cat in the pantomime Cinderella at the London Hippodrome. In 1903 he appeared in ‘Jim, A Romance of Cockayne’, followed by his first regular job as the newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part he played into 1906. This was followed by Casey’s ‘Court Circus’ variety show and, the following year, he became a clown in Fred Karno’s ‘Fun Factory’ slapstick comedy company. He immigrated to the United States with the Karno troupe in 1912.
Ultimately, he became an actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer, whose main legacy was some 80 mostly silent films. He is best remembered for his “Little Tramp” character, with his toothbrush moustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane and his idiosyncratic walk. Chaplin’s first dialogue picture, The Great Dictator (1940), was an act of defiance against Adolf Hitler and fascism, which ridiculed Nazism and highlighted the plight of the persecuted Jews. However, after the extent of the holocaust became known, Chaplin commented that he would never have been able to make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known about the actual extent of the genocide.
Chaplin died on 25 December 1977 in Vevey, Switzerland, where he had lived for decades, and was buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery. On 1 March 1978, his body was stolen in an unsuccessful attempt to extort money from his family. The robbers, a 24-year-old Polish mechanic and his Bulgarian accomplice, were captured. Chaplin’s body was recovered in its unopened coffin, 11 weeks after it was initially taken, near Lake Geneva. After Chaplin’s coffin was returned to Vevey, it was reinterred, sealed in concrete.
Australian History
Friday, April 16, 1920. : The South Australian city of Hummock’s Hill is proclaimed Whyalla.
Whyalla is the third largest city in South Australia, with a population of about 23,000. It sits on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula, at the head of Spencer Gulf.
Whyalla was originally founded as Hummock’s Hill in 1901 by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP). Initially constituting a jetty for conveying iron ore, and a cluster of shelters around the jetty, the settlement served an important function, being the end of a tramway bringing iron ore from the Middleback Ranges to be used in the lead smelters at Port Pirie. The first Post Office was opened shortly afterwards that year, and in 1905 the Hummock Hill school opened. Although strategically positioned for the transportation and movement of iron ore, the dry location necessitated importing water in barges from Port Pirie.
On 1 November 1919, the town’s Post office was renamed as the Whyalla Post office. On 16 April 1920, the town was officially proclaimed as Whyalla.
World History
Monday, April 16, 1551. : The last outbreak of the deadly ‘sweating sickness’ occurs in England.
The ‘sweating sickness’ was a disease first seen in August 1485 among Henry VII’s followers at the Battle of Bosworth Field, although there was evidence of it prior to the battle. The disease was characterised by violent inflammation, as seen in acute stomach cramps, headache, muscle pain, lethargy and extensive foul-smelling perspiration. Survival rates for those who contracted the disease were one percent. It was not the same as the plague, as the symptom of foul perspiration was unique, and it inevitably showed a rapid and fatal course. The disease recurred in London in 1506, 1517 and 1528. The final epidemic broke out in England on 16 April 1551.
World History
Wednesday, April 16, 1947. : 600 are killed when Texas City explodes as a result of a fire aboard a freighter in the city’s port.
In the immediate post-war period, Texas City, USA, was a small industrial city with a population of about 18,000. The city was essentially sustained by a thriving chemicals and oil industry. In April 1947, the French freighter ‘Grandcamp’ was in port at Texas City. Early on the morning of 16 April 1947, a fire broke out on the Grandcamp. Initial attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful as the ship was so hot that the water from the fire hoses was vapourised.
At 9:12am, the fire caught the freighter’s stores of ammonium nitrate, a compound used to make dynamite. The resultant detonation, heard over 240km away, caused great destruction and damage to the port, triggering more explosions at nearby chemical plants and flattening houses in the city. 405 dead were identified, 63 more bodies were never identified and about 100 people were classified as missing, and never found.
The fires also ignited a neighbouring vessel, the High Flyer, which contained an additional 1000 tons of ammonium nitrate. On April 17, the High Flyer also exploded, continuing the fires that had raged during the previous day. Throughout Texas City, fires continued burning for up to a week. The Grandcamp explosion remains the most devastating industrial accident in US history.
World History
Monday, April 16, 2007. : 32 people are killed in America’s worst campus shooting.
On 16 April 2007, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, became the scene of the country’s worst mass shooting up to that date.
South Korean student, Cho Seung-Hui, who immigrated with his family to the USA when he was eight years old and grew up in Northern Virginia, had permanent residence status. He was a fourth-year English major at Virginia Tech. Cho had a history of writing morbid and gruesome stories in his English class, and had even been encouraged to seek counselling.
Cho’s first victims were killed at around 7:15 am EDT in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that housed nearly 900 students. He then mailed a package, postmarked 9:01 am, to NBC News containing various writings and recordings. Around two hours later, he walked over to Norris Hall, containing the Engineering Science and Mechanics program, and chained the main entrance doors shut. He then entered several classrooms and began shooting students and faculty members. His second attack killed 30 student and faculty victims in at least four classrooms and a second-floor hallway of the building.
Cho was later found dead, having committed suicide as the police cornered him. Whilst Cho railed against the “rich kids, debauchery and deceitful charlatans” in a note he left behind, the motive for his attack remains unclear.
World History
Friday, April 16, 2010. : A pulsating column of smoke and ash from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland reaches an altitude of 8 km.
Eyjafjallajökull, also known as E15, is a stratovolcano in Iceland, with an elevation of 1,666 m. Its name literally translates to “island-mountain glacier”, and atop the summit is an icecap which covers a simmering caldera. The volcano is one of a chain across Iceland, and volcanic activity within this chain is not uncommon.
Seismic activity began in the region in late 2009. On 20 March 2010, a small eruption occurred, with lava erupting several hundred metres into the air. A second, larger explosion occurred on 14 April 2010, spewing volcanic ash several kilometres into the air, and opening a series of vents along a 2 km long fissure. Meltwater was suddenly released, flooding nearby rivers. By 16 April 2010, a pulsating eruptive column of hot lava, rocks and fine, glass-like silica-based ash was observed from the volcano, extending some 8 km vertically, and generating lightning.
At this stage, the ash cloud had extended to mainland Europe, carried by an unusually stable jet stream. On the VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) scale of 0-8, the explosion rated 2, but the impact of the volcano was far-reaching, particularly for air travel. It posed a major hazard to aircraft, and airports across Europe were shut down for at least a month as the volcano continued to erupt with varying intensity.
Activity in Eyjafjallajökull settled down by late June.