Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 April 9

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France is dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members and other Canadians killed during the First World War. Designed by Walter Seymour Allward, the monument is the centrepiece of a 100-hectare (250-acre) battlefield park, overlapping the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge offensive (9 April 1917) that began the Battle of Arras. In that offensive, all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated as a cohesive battle formation for the first time, and it became a Canadian national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. France ceded the land to Canada for its memorial. Wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds, which are largely closed off for public safety. Preserved trench lines and several other memorials and cemeteries are contained within the park. King Edward VIII unveiled it in July 1936, and Queen Elizabeth II re-dedicated the restored monument on the 90th anniversary of the offensive. The site, one of only two National Historic Sites of Canada outside the country, is maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada. (Full article...)

"Honour to Agnata
Frances Ramsay"

• ... that Punch honoured Agnata Ramsay's exam success with a cartoon (pictured)?
• ... that the Catholic hymnal Kirchenlied, first published in 1938, was not immediately banned by the Nazis because it also contained Protestant songs?
• ... that Australian actress Anna Bamford made her Broadway debut in Andrew Upton's production of The Present?
• ... that the Northern Marmara and Değirmenköy (Silivri) Depleted Gas Reservoir is currently the only operational underground natural gas storage facility in Turkey?
• ... that Vijay Kumar, along with Debi Prasad Sarkar, demonstrated for the first time that HBx protein stimulated mitogen-activated signaling cascades in living animals?
• ... that 43 million unique viewers watched SK Telecom T1 defeat Samsung Galaxy in the the finals of the 2016 League of Legends World Championship?
• ... that some factions of the Hanthawaddy court undermined the authority of Princess Regent Maha Dewi by publicizing her alleged affair with her much younger nephew-in-law?
• ... that in Canada, ten dollars will get you an EMD F40PH diesel locomotive?

Tim Berners-Lee

• A stolen truck is driven through crowds and into a department store in downtown Stockholm, killing four people and injuring fifteen others.
• The United States attacks a Syrian air base in response to a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun that killed more than 70 people.
• Tim Berners-Lee (pictured) wins the Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the protocols and algorithms that allow the Web to scale.
• In college basketball, the South Carolina Gamecocks win the NCAA women's tournament and the North Carolina Tar Heels win the men's tournament.
• A bombing in the Saint Petersburg Metro kills at least 14 people and injures more than 45 others.
• The annual Boat Races are held, with Oxford winning the men's race and Cambridge winning the women's race.

April 9: Day of National Unity in Georgia (1989)

• 1860 – On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the oldest known recording of an audible human voice, when he recorded himself singing "Au clair de la lune" (audio featured).
• 1917 – First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
• 1947 – Sixteen white and black men began a two-week journey in the American South, acting in defiance of local laws that enforced segregated seating on public buses.
• 1967 – The first Boeing 737 took its maiden flight, eventually becoming the most ordered and produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.
• 2005 – Charles, Prince of Wales, married his long-time mistress Camilla Parker Bowles.

Francis Bacon (d. 1626) · Jørn Utzon (b. 1918) · Mary Jackson (b. 1921)