On Sunday, April 14th, the book of history records, among other things:
754: In the Treaty of Quierzy, King Pippin promises Pope Stephen II a donation of land. The Papal States emerge from it.
1494: Munich’s Frauenkirche, completed in 1488, is consecrated.
1759: George Frideric Handel dies in London. He worked primarily in England, where he was appointed head of the Royal Academy of Music.
1849: Lajos Kossuth causes the Hungarian rump parliament, which has fled to Debrecen, to declare independence.
1894: Thomas A. Edison publicly demonstrates his “Kinetoscope”, the forerunner of the “Cinematograph”, for the first time.
1919: Ex-Emperor Karl and ex-Empress Zita go into exile in Switzerland.
1919: US President Woodrow Wilson declares that South Tyrol should become part of Italy.
1939: Through the so-called “Ostmark Law”, the federal states are converted into “Reichsgaue”, Burgenland is divided between “Lower Danube” and Styria, East Tyrol is connected to Carinthia and Vorarlberg is connected to Tyrol.
1939: Albania is united in personal union with Italy, Viktor Emmanuel takes the title of King of Albania.
1949: The last of the trials before the US military tribunal, the so-called “Wilhelmstrasse Trial,” comes to an end in Nuremberg. The former head of the presidential office, Otto Meissner, and the former ministerial director Otto von Erdmannsdorff were acquitted. The remaining defendants, including former State Secretary and diplomat Ernst von Weizsäcker, are sentenced to between four and 25 years.
1949: The smoking card will be abolished. The “Austria 3” cigarettes that previously required points, as well as all types of cigars, smoking and chewing tobacco, are now freely available in tobacco shops. Smoking cards were introduced in 1942 and could be requested by men aged 18 and over and women between 25 and 55 years old. Women over 55 could only apply for a smoking card if their husband or an unmarried son was in the Wehrmacht. Initially six cigarettes were issued daily, and from 1943 onwards three cigarettes.
1969: The first heart transplant in Switzerland is carried out in the cantonal hospital in Zurich.
2004: In the third free parliamentary election in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) under President Thabo Mbeki won almost 70 percent of the vote.
2009: SPÖ and ÖVP agree to continue government cooperation in Salzburg. Gabi Burgstaller (SPÖ) remains state governor, Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP) as her deputy.
Birthdays: Christiaan Huygens, Dutch. naturalist (1629-1695); Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian (1889-1975); John Gielgud, British actor (1904-2000); Shorty Rogers (aka Milton M. Rajonski), US jazz musician (1924-1994); Bendjedid Chadli, Alger. politician (1924-2012); Theodor Guschlbauer, Austrian composer (1939); Dominik Paris, Italian ski racer (1989).
Days of death: Georg Friedrich Handel, German composer (1685-1759); Ignaz Bösendorfer, Eastern. piano maker (1796-1859); Rachel Louise Carson, US biologist/writer (1907-1964); Argeo Quadri, Italian conductor (1911-2004); Bernt Engelmann, German writer/publicist (1921-1994); Nicola Trussardi, Italian fashion designer (1942-1999).
Name days: Valerian, Hadwig, Tiburtius, Lidwina, Maximus, Ernestine, Hedda, Lambert.