On This Day April 8

Prince George (the future George IV) originally agreed to marry his first cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick in return for payment of his gambling debts. On seeing the ugly, obese and vulgar Princess Caroline for the first time the day before their wedding and kissing her George  asked for a glass of brandy." They married at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace on April 8, 1795. The German bride wore a elaborate dress of silver tissue and lace and a velvet robe lined with ermine.

Marriage of Prince George & Princess Caroline of Brunswick

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On This Day April 7

The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Anderson's delightful account of the mermaid who wanted to be a whole human, was first published on April 7, 1837. Critics hated Hans Christian Andersen's early fairy tales, so he delayed publishing The Little Mermaid for a year. Anderson wrote 168 fairy tales all of them written with simplicity and wisdom. Many of their moral meanings were intended for adults. The great Dane himself did not rate his fairy tales very highly.

The Little Mermaid is found by the Prince illustration by Edmund Dulac

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On This Day April 6

The Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town in 1652 as a port of call on the way from the Netherlands to the East Indies. The first colonial administrator was Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck who arrived in Cape Town on April 6, 1652 and was Commander of the Cape until 1662. As there were very few native people living in the Cape, slaves were brought from Indonesia, Madagascar and India to work at the colony.

Charles Davidson Bell's painting of Jan van Riebeeck arriving in Table Bay

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On This Day April 5

After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James VI of Scotland was proclaimed king of England. On April 5, 1603 James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise he did not keep). Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects. When he entered London just over a month later, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.

Portrait after John de Critz, c. 1606

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On This Day April 4

On April 4, 1968, 39-year-old civil rights campaigner Dr Martin Luther King Jr was shot and killed by James Earl Ray, when leaving his room at Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee, to attend a dinner at the home of the Reverend Samuel (Billy) Kyles. On the night before he was assassinated, he had prophetically said in a speech at Memphis "I've been to the mountain top.... I've looked over and seen the Promised Land." He was alluding to Moses who just before his death had seen the Promised Land from a mountaintop.

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On This Day April 3

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and his lifelong business partner Wilhelm Maybach developed in 1885 a precursor of the modern petrol (gasoline) engine. They were granted a German patent for their engine design on April 3, 1885. Daimler and Maybach subsequently fitted their engine to a bicycle to create the first internal combustion motorcycle. The design was patented five months later.

Replica of the Daimler-Maybach Reitwagen. Wikipedia Commons

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On This Day April 2

Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited by Europeans. Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León first sighted Florida on April 2, 1513, before setting foot on the land on Easter Sunday 1513. In de León's Spanish tongue, the Easter festival was known as “Pascua Florida”, meaning the Passover of Flowers after the many flowers decorating the church on that day. Thus the newly discovered land was named “Florida”.

17th century Spanish engraving (colored) of Juan Ponce de León

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