Moments in Time – April 12, 2023

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• On April 28, 1789, the HMS Bounty was taken over in a mutiny led by master’s mate Fletcher Christian. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his faithful supporters were set adrift in a small boat but managed to navigate a journey of 4,000 miles over 42 days to safety without a single loss of life.
• On April 25, 1792, French highwayman Nicholas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by guillotine after stealing a man’s wallet and killing him. The anticipated large crowd that witnessed his death was dissatisfied with the process, feeling it was too swift, even calling out, “Bring back our wood gallows!”
• On April 24, 1895, merchant captain Joshua Slocum, the first person to solo circumnavigate the globe, began his groundbreaking voyage out of Boston on the sloop Spray. His return to the States three years later went almost unnoticed, due to the earlier outbreak of the Spanish-American War, but the trip was immortalized in his 1900 book “Sailing Alone Around the World.”
• On April 30, 1927, Hollywood couple Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the first celebrities to officially leave their hand prints and footprints in concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
• On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Some of the soldiers were so horrified by conditions there that they gunned down at least two groups of captured German guards.
• On April 27, 1992, Baroness Betty Boothroyd became the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history. At the time, there were just 60 women in the 651-member House. A former professional dancer, she earned a reputation for fairness and impartiality over the course of her career, even issuing reprimands “with good humor and charm.”
• On April 26, 2010, “Boobquake,” a rally inspired by blogger Jennifer McCreight that aimed to protest news reports of controversial beliefs blaming “immodestly dressed” women for causing earthquakes, took place with an estimated 200,000 people participating worldwide.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.