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Let's face it... we're living in strange times. Life is uncertain, prices are rising, and climates are doing unusual things. We can't see into the future, but we can look into the past. And you know what? When we do, we see that this isn't the first time the world has experienced a wild and unexpected April. Aprils past have been the time of Chernobyl, Watergate, the sinking of the Titanic and the infamous San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Way back in April of 1360, a freak hailstorm killed a thousand British soldiers. The historical list goes on and on with turmoil after turmoil. But let's not dwell on the dark times, because for every sombre event there's something brightly odd and quirky. Case in point: On 13 April 1796, the first elephant arrived in the United States. We can't say how much the elephant enjoyed the sea voyage or the experience of becoming an American citizen. But it must have created quite a spectacle. Had social media been invented in the 18th Century, this incident would no doubt have gone viral. Also, the first American dictionary was published in April of 1828. Just think about it... Without an American dictionary, there would be no record of words like “acclimated” and “deplaned” (as in: “We got off the aeroplane.”) Not to make fun of the US or anything, because other nations make up words too. (Looking at you, Australia.) William Shakespeare was born in April too, and look what he did for literature and the generations to come. (Although it must be noted that he also made up a word or two, methinks...) In other positive developments, the Olympics came back in April of 1896, having taken a short break of 1500 years. Apollo 13 was launched in April 1970 - which didn't go well at first but it all worked out in the end. (Sorry - spoiler alert.) And then, in April of 1981, the first space shuttle flight occurred with the launching of the Columbia. Turmoil may have been rife on earth, but April is apparently great for celestial travel. And how's this for unusual? On 30 April 1930, the BBC reported that there would be no news broadcast because there was no significant news to report. Imagine that... a world with no news to report. Instead the station played piano music for 15 minutes straight. As a final thought, April could have been even stranger than it is now - except that certain April traditions have died out. Just think... we could've still been celebrating the macaroni and cheese feast of Hocktide, or the Roman festival of Cerealia honouring (yip, you guessed it) cereals and grains. (By the way, if you're not into Cerealia, there's always Gluten-Free Day celebrated in January.) As we head into another April, who knows what awaits? History has shown that it's a month of uncertainty. But then again, which month isn't? And maybe that's the lesson here. So if anyone's up for cancelling the news and listening to piano music for 15 minutes, you know where to find me. |