{"id":13497,"date":"2022-04-25T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T04:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=206697"},"modified":"2022-04-25T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T04:26:09","slug":"25-april-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/25-april-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"25 April: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Freya Parr\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 25 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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25 April 404 BC:\u00a0Athens surrenders to Sparta<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The brutal Peloponnesian War comes to a poignant end<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Peloponnesian War<\/a>, pitting Athens against Sparta, is one of the best-chronicled events in ancient history. For more than 20 years they and their respective allies were locked in bitter conflict, devastating large swathes of the Greek countryside. But at last, in 405 BC, the Spartan commander Lysander virtually annihilated the Athenian fleet.<\/p>\n

When news of the defeat reached the city, wrote the historian Xenophon: \u201cThe sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept, all mourning, not for the lost alone, but far more for their own selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a few months the Athenians tried to hold out. But \u201cwithout ships, without allies, without provisions, the belief gained hold upon them that there was no way of escape. They must now, in their turn, suffer what they had themselves inflicted upon others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, on a date traditionally given as 25 April 404, the Athenians recognised the war was lost. They accepted Lysander\u2019s terms that their walls should be demolished and acquiesced to an oligarchic pro-Spartan regime. According to the biographer Plutarch, Lysander then \u201csent for a number of flute-women out of the city, and collected together all that were in the camp, and pulled down the walls, and burnt the ships to the sound of the flute, the Spartans\u2019 allies being crowned with garlands, and making merry together\u201d. At long last, it was over.<\/p>\n

25 April 1461<\/h3>\n

In order to secure their support for her husband Henry VI<\/a> against Edward IV\u2019s Yorkists, Margaret of Anjou<\/a> handed the crucial border town of Berwick over to the Scots.<\/p>\n

25 April 1792: The guillotine claims its first victim<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Having witnessed a landmark execution, Parisians are appalled by the lack of entertainment<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Even as he was led towards the scaffold, Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier can never have imagined that his name would go down in history. A violent criminal in his early thirties, he had been arrested in October 1791 for a brutal attack on a man in the streets of Paris. At the end of the year he was sentenced to death. But for months, nothing happened. Unknown to Pelletier, he had been chosen to become a guinea pig for France\u2019s latest invention \u2013 the guillotine.<\/p>\n

On a warm afternoon in April, Pelletier was led into the square outside the H\u00f4tel de Ville in Paris, where for hours a large crowd had been waiting for the fun to begin. Dressed in a blood-red shirt, Pelletier was palpably shocked by the sight of the scaffold and reportedly fainted at least once as the guards dragged him up the steps.<\/p>\n

At the top, beside the strange contraption, stood Charles-Henri Sanson, the veteran executioner, who had argued passionately for the new machine on the grounds of efficiency and reliability. No longer did he need to swing a sword; all he had to do was press a lever.<\/p>\n

Around 3.30pm, all was ready. Sanson released the blade, and in the blink of an eye Pelletier\u2019s life was over. The first execution by guillotine had been a triumph, yet there were groans of discontent from the crowd. Where was the spectacle, the entertainment, the blood? Up went the chant: \u201cBring us back our wooden gallows!\u201d<\/p>\n