Category: Today

On May 1, 1851, Queen Victoria performed the ritual function of opening the Great Exhibition in London.

On April 30, 1902, future Nobel Laureate for his work in economics, Theodore W. Schultz, was born.

On April 29, 1945, U.S. troops liberated the Dachau concentration camp.

On April 28, 1789, Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors were set adrift by the rebel crew of the HMS Bounty, which returned briefly to Tahiti and then set sail for Pitcairn Island. On the same date in 2001, millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist.

On April 26, 1710, English philosopher of “common sense” Thomas Reid was born. A highly influential figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, and well-known critic of Hume before Kant, his major works were “An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense,” “Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man,” and “Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind.” The Scottish “common sense” approach (shared by Adam Ferguson and Dugald Stewart) continued into the 19th and 20th centuries in the works of William Hamilton, Herbert Spencer, C.S. Peirce, and George Santayana.

On the same day in 1889, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was born, and in 1938, philosopher Edmund Husserl died.

On April 24, 1792, the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” was composed by Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle. Eight years later to the day, the United States Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

On April 23, 1968, students at New York City’s Columbia University held a demonstration to protest military research and the condemnation of part of the neighboring Morningside Heights section of Harlem to make way for a new student gymnasium. The protest escalated into a week-long occupation of five campus buildings before police moved in. Some 712 students were arrested, and over 100 injured during the forcible eviction. After the university-ordered police response, a student strike shut down the campus for the rest of the semester.

On April 22, 1724, German philosopher Immanuel Kant was born.

On April 21, 1787, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized a design for an official penny, later referred to as the Fugio cent because of its image of the sun shining down on a sundial with the caption, “Fugio” (Latin: I flee/fly). This coin was reportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin; as a reminder to its holders, he put at its bottom the message, “Mind Your Business.”