Here in Australia (and next door in my home country of New Zealand) the 25th of April is and likely always will be the commemoration of ANZAC Day. ANZAC Day is the antipodean version of Veterans Day in the US and it is a day to pause and remember the service of all those who have defending our countries in the armed forces over the last one hundred years or so.
The reason the 25th of April is chosen because it marks the anniversary of the start of the battle of Gallipoli in 1915 in which New Zealand and Australian troops fought together for the first time during the allied invasion of Turkey (this was during World War One).
Every year in both countries there are dawn services held (because the ANZAC soldiers came ashore at Gallipoli at dawn), parades and remembrance services.
It is a very solemn day in this part of the world.
But of course… ANZAC Day isn’t the only thing the 25th of April is remembered for. So I thought I might be interesting to look at what else happened on this day…
Let’s finish with something more positive. Many many famous people were born on the 25th of April but I thought I’d highlight three.
Birthdays
Albert Uderzo (1927) French cartoonist and co-creator of the Asterix comics (my favourite when I was a kid)
Al Pacino (1940) Brilliant American actor and movie star.
Bjorn Ulvaeus(1945) Swedish singer, songwriter, producer and founding member of ABBA!
So what else happened on the 25th of April? Well.. a lot actually.
For example in the year 1792 a French highwayman (robber) called Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the very first person to be sentenced to death and executed using a brand new execution method just invented and commissioned by the French government.
The method? A machine called the guillotine which was designed to decapitate people in a split second and was guaranteed to work every single time.
Reports from the time state that the guillotine used for this very first execution was painted red (for reasons I won’t point out) and that the crowd who had gathered to watch (executions were public in those days – no Netflix you see) complained afterwards that it had been too quick and efficient!
Guess you can’t please everyone…
What else?
Well in 1953 two super-smart scientists published a paper together on this day called the Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.
Try saying that with a mouth full of marshmallows!
Why was that so important? Well because it detailed for the very first time this new discovery that they had made called DNA which would go onto revolutionise medical science, healthcare, and dinosaur generation efforts!
Lastly – in 1983 an American school girl named Samantha Smith was invited to visit the Soviet Union (that’s what Russia and its neighbours used to be called) by the leader – Yuri Andropov. This was at the height of the Cold War when many people in the west were very fearful of nuclear war breaking out between the two countries. Samantha Smith was a ten year American girl who decided to do something about it – so she wrote a letter to the Soviet Premier Andropov.
Dear Mr. Andropov,
My name is Samantha Smith. I am 10 years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like it if you would. Why do you want to conquer the world or at least our country? God made the world for us to share and take care of. Not to fight over or have one group of people own it all. Please let’s do what he wanted and have everybody be happy too.
Samantha Smith
To her and her parents surprise, the letter was published in an official newspaper in the Soviet Union and very soon she received a response from the Soviet Premier himself!
Premier Andropov wrote: (I’ll not quote the whole letter here but it’s easy enough to find online)
Dear Samantha,
I received your letter, which is like many others that have reached me recently from your country and from other countries around the world.
It seems to me – I can tell by your letter – that you are a courageous and honest girl.
You write that you are anxious about whether there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask are we doing anything so that war will not break out.
Your question is the most important of those that every thinking man can pose. I will reply to you seriously and honestly.
Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything so that there will not be war on Earth. This is what every Soviet man wants. This is what the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin taught us.
In America and in our country, there are nuclear weapons—terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them to be ever used.
It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: 'Why do you want to wage war against the whole world or at least the United States?' We want nothing of the kind. No one in our country–neither workers, peasants, writers nor doctors, neither grown-ups nor children, nor members of the government–want either a big or 'little' war.
We want peace—there is something that we are occupied with: growing wheat, building and inventing, writing books and flying into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.
I invite you, if your parents will let you, to come to our country, the best time being this summer. You will find out about our country, meet with your contemporaries, visit an international children's camp – Arkek– on the sea. And see for yourself: in the Soviet Union, everyone is for peace and friendship among peoples.
Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best in your young life.
Y. Andropov
And of course, Samantha and her parents went – and by all accounts had a lovely time.
Such a small gesture which is nice to read about when… much like forty years ago… things are tense between the western powers and the people of Russia.
But I won’t leave you on such a sombre note. Instead let’s celebrate Bjorn Ulvaeus’s birthday with one of his band’s most enduring hits!
Enjoy…
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