{"id":13441,"date":"2022-04-17T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T05:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=206429"},"modified":"2022-04-17T07:22:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T05:22:09","slug":"17-april-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/17-april-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"17 April: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 17 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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17 April 1492<\/h3>\n

Christopher Columbus and the Catholic monarchs of Spain signed the Capitulations of Santa F\u00e9 detailing the terms under which Columbus would sail in search of a new western route to the East Indies.<\/p>\n

17 April 1521:\u00a0Martin Luther stands firm at Worms<\/h3>\n

A landmark meeting heralds the opening of a great chasm in Christendom<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the spring of 1521, Europe was in ferment. A few years earlier, Martin Luther\u2019s Ninety-five Theses<\/a>, challenging what he saw as the abuses of the Catholic church, had sent a tremor through Germany. Now Luther had been summoned to Charles V\u2019s imperial assembly (the \u2018Diet\u2019) in the town of Worms, on the river Rhine, for one of the pivotal encounters in world history.<\/p>\n

On 17 April, Luther walked into the town hall, where \u201cthe emperor, the electors and the princes\u201d were waiting. A thin, pale man of medium height, he admitted later that he was \u201cphysically fearful and trembling\u201d. The presiding official, Dr Johann Eck, asked if Luther had indeed written the offending words, and invited him to retract them. \u201cIt would be rash and dangerous for me to reply to such a question,\u201d Luther insisted, until he had had time to think it over.<\/p>\n

Very well, his interrogators agreed: they would meet again the following day.\u00a0The next morning, Luther was summoned to meet Charles\u2019s bishops.\u00a0He would not, he said, retract his books attacking the abuses of the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I now recant these,\u201d he explained, \u201cI would be doing nothing but strengthening tyranny.\u201d He was not prepared to bow to the judgment of the pope; he had \u201cno other guide but the Bible, the Word of God\u201d, and could not act contrary to his conscience. \u201cMy God help me,\u201d he said firmly. \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Protestant tradition, Luther ended with the words, \u201cHere I stand, I can do no other,\u201d but this was probably a later invention. What is certain is that a few days later, Luther disappeared, probably going into hiding. This was, it seems, a wise move: on 25 May, Charles V declared him a heretic and demanded his arrest. Though few at the time could have realised it, a great chasm had opened in Christendom. | Written by Dominic Sandbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

17 April 1790<\/p>\n

American founding father Benjamin Franklin<\/a> died in Philadelphia, aged 84. An estimated 20,000 people attended his burial in Christ Church burial ground.<\/p>\n

17 April 1808<\/h3>\n

Napoleon<\/a>\u2018s Bayonne Decree orders the seizure of all American vessels in European harbours. As a result an estimated ten million dollars\u2019 worth of ships and goods are confiscated.<\/p>\n

17 April 1923<\/h3>\n

British film director Lindsay Anderson was born in Bangalore, India. His best-known film was If<\/em>, a jaundiced look at life in an english public school. The film won the Palme d\u2019Or at the 1969 Cannes film festival.<\/p>\n

17 April 1937<\/h3>\n

Daffy Duck has his screen debut in Porky\u2019s Duck Hunt.<\/p>\n

17 April 1961:\u00a0Bay of Pigs<\/a> fiasco fails to oust Castro<\/h3>\n

CIA attempt to spark popular revolt in Cuba ends in disaster<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was in the small hours that Gregorio Moreira realised something was happening. High in the darkness above the Cuban coastline, he saw a flare, \u201clike a candle in the sky\u201d. So Moreira, a fisherman, called his brothers, and they grabbed their rifles and scurried down to the beach. Then they waited. At last, at about four in the morning, they saw shapes moving ahead of them. Then they started shooting.<\/p>\n

The Bay of Pigs invasion, in which some 1,400 exiles landed on the island of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro<\/a>, had been long in the making. The plan had been hatched by the CIA, who were convinced that with just a little nudge, the Cuban people would rise up to overthrow their communist masters. In the spring of 1960, President Eisenhower gave his blessing, and the CIA began training Cuban exiles on the beaches of Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Eisenhower\u2019s successor as president, John F Kennedy, was not entirely sure about the plan. But he had promised to wage the Cold War with greater vigour, so it seemed a perfect fit. In February 1961, Kennedy gave the formal go-ahead. And shortly after midnight on Monday 17 April, at Playa Gir\u00f3n on the Bay of Pigs, the operation began.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the exiles, the whole thing was a disaster from start to finish. Rumours of the invasion had already spread to the island from Miami, and the Cuban militia were quickly on the scene. Within hours the invaders had come under heavy fire, two of their ships had been sunk and the sky was thick with fighter planes. Far from storming inland to a huge popular welcome, the exiles were bogged down on the beaches. As Castro\u2019s troops raced to the scene, where was the promised US support?<\/p>\n

Within two days it was all over. The Americans managed to rescue a handful of the exiles by sea, but the rest were killed or captured. Kennedy had been humiliated. And Castro? He stayed in power for the next 47 years. | Written by Dominic Sandbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

17 April 1969<\/h3>\n

At just 21, Bernadette Devlin becomes Britain\u2019s youngest ever female Member of Parliament. Standing as an independent unity candidate, she secures a 4,000-vote majority over Anna Forrest, widow of the previous Unionist MP, George Forrest.<\/p>\n

Browse more On this day in history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n