April 24 - Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

 

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust, Armenian Massacres, or the "Great Crime", was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland in the territory that would become the Republic of Turkey. Occurring during and after World War I, this Genocide was implemented in 2 phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and forced labour, and the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and inform on death marches to the Syrian Desert. An estimated 1.5 million were killed. The Assyrians, the Greeks, and other minority groups were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government, and their treatment is considered by many historians to be part of the same genocidal policy.

Seen above: Armenian intellectuals and political leaders led on a "Death March".

 

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is observed annually by Armenians in dispersed communities around the world to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, hundreds of thousands of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame. Eternal flames are most often used to commemorate a person or event of national significance, or to serve as a reminder of commitment to a common goal such as international peace.

Today is also Administrative Professionals Day!

- The Greeks entered Troy under the guise of the Trojan Horse in 1184 BC (traditional date)
- Halley's Comet sparked an English monk to predict his country would be destroyed in 1066
- The North West Company was formed in Montreal in 1779
- Fire alarm & police telegraph system were put into operation in San Francisco in 1865
- Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1872
- General Middleton engaged Gabriel Dumont's Métis at Fish Creek, NWT in 1885; the battle was a stalemate.
- Sherlock Holmes began his "Final Problem" in 1891
- Nova Scotia-born Joshua Slocum set out in his small boat Spray from Boston, Massachusetts, on his voyage around the world, which he completed in 27 June 1898. He was the first man to sail around the world alone.
- Andrew Halliday, cable car pioneer, passed away in 1900
- Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, was opened in 1907.
- Composer Violet Archer was born in Montreal in 1913
- In the Persons Case if 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided women were not "persons" who could hold public office as Canadian senators. In 1929 the British Privy Council reversed the decision.
- United Negro College Fund incorporated in 1944
- Canadian troops defended the Kap 'Yong Valley in Korea against a Chinese attack in 1951, at the cost of 10 dead and 23 wounded.
- The first shipment of oil from Alberta arrived in Ontario via pipeline and freighter in 1952
- Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953
- The last streetcar ran in Vancouver in 1955, ending 65 years of street-rail service in the city.
- The first convention of the Fédération des femmes du Québec opened in 1966, with Thérèse Casgrain as president. The group’s mission was to gain equal pay for women and an increase in family allowance.
- In 1969 Paul McCartney informed the public there were no truth to the rumors that he was dead.
- The federal government banned fishing off the New Brunswick coast and the area around Port aux Basques, Newfoundland in 1972, to conserve dwindling fish stocks.
- Eric Kripke, American television writer (Supernatural), director and producer was born in 1974
- In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada found that the Lord's Day Act was contrary to the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Charter of Rights.

Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History"!