It seems that the 15th of April is a day that historically has not been the greatest for humankind. So in keeping with the bad track record on this day, yesterday we had another sad day that will be remembered for the wrong things, the 850 year old building, the Notre Dame, caught fire and was pretty much gutted by the fire over the course of the day.
This happens to be one of Frances greatest landmarks, so it truly is a terrible disaster for them.
There were extensive renovations happening at the time, so there was a lot of scaffolding in the building at the time of the fire....perhaps the renovations were to blame for it? For now the cause is unknown.
Some facts about the place: Credit
- The church receives almost 13 million visitors each year, more than the Eiffel Tower
- A Unesco World Heritage site, it was built in the 12th and 13th centuries
- Several statues of the facade of the Catholic cathedral were removed for renovation
- The roof, which has been destroyed by the blaze, was made mostly of wood
There were gasps as the spire fell
Thankfully the teams were able to save most of the art in the building.
The world hopes they are quickly able to restore the building to it's glory again.
Other historical events on the day:
1912 - The Titanic sinks
Most of us know this history....terrible tragedy involving the then biggest and "unsinkable' cruise ship.
Just before midnight on the 14th of April the ship, travelling at full speed at the time, struck an iceberg, sending all 2200 people into the water and way to few emergency rafts.
In 2 and a half hours the ship had completely sunk, taking 1500 passengers and crew along with it.
1989 - England Hillsborough Stadium Disaster
FA Cup semi final time, matchup is Liverpool and Nottingham forest, and this is to date the worst sporting incident in British history where 97 people lost their lives and over 700 people were injured.
It happened in the Leppings lane stand, which was allocated to Liverpool standing only fans, which was already full before the match had started.
In order to appease the crowds that were outside, the police opened the gates to more people. The people in front were slowly being crushed against the fencing between themselves and the pitch.
Unaware at the back of the crowds, people continued filing in, adding to the pressure.
Liverpool goalkeeper speaks of being asked to help and make the police aware of the situation by people that were dying. Many of the deaths and injuries were of young men and children.
Pictures are tragic
2013 - Boston marathon bombing
The the 2013 marathon, 2 home made pressure cooker bombs were set off 190m apart at around 14h49 near the finish line.
3 people lost their lives, 16 people lost limbs and several hundred people were injured.
After an intense manhunt 2 brothers were identified and found, Chechen Kyrgyzstani-American brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev who were extremist Islamists and planning to do NY Times Square next.
During an intense shootout and chase at one stage another 2 policemen were injured, and one of them passed away as well.
Tamerian was also shot a few times and his brother ran over him in an attempt to escape...he died shortly after that.
The police eventually caught up with Dzhokhar and he was sentenced to death 2 months later.
Pressure cookers were filled with nails and bearings. Some of the images on this are shocking to say the least. Seeing in one picture 50 people against a fence and te next image is almost nobody around that bomb area.
2014 - Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping
276 mainly Christian girls were kidnapped from their Government school in Nigeria. Boko Haram another extremist group claim responsibility for the kidnapping. They believe they were taken to negotiate for their prisoners being held.
Whats happened to the girls since then:
- 57 girls managed to escape over the next few months and some have appeared to discuss what happened
- 20 month old baby was released. One of the girls had the child while in custody of the terrorists
- May 2016 Amina Ali was found along with a 4 month old child and 'her husband' who was part of the Boko Haram
- Amina confirmed that 6 girls had died
- October 2016 another 22 girls are freed
- Between January and May 2017 another 83 girls were rescued
- January 2018 another girl was rescued
The non-Muslim girls were forced to convert, and the girls were forced into marriage with the Boko Haram 'men' (more like savages).
All in all, this is a horror that makes me mad to my core.
[Wikipedia]
There are other events that have happened over the many years on that date, but with the disaster happening in France at the moment, I thought it interesting that there were so many major events on the same date.
i hope I haven't depressed you too much and these events are terrible, but they are part of the world's history, and happened to happen on the same date.
Keep well all