Well, 2010 is almost upon us, and let’s hope it’s a jolly good year.

There’s no need for me to make any plans for the coming year because I already know exactly what I’ll be doing.

We have a new i4w2 book currently in progress – that’s our ethical publishing service where we publish other people’s books. The new book needs final editing, proofing, laying out and publishing, with the aim of a late spring launch.

Meanwhile, I’m working through all the 5,000+ ideas in our collection, rewriting and editing them and converting them into e-books. Lifetime members will be able to download these without charge, and they will also be available for non-members to buy. There will be 41 e-books – the 36 individual categories plus 5 themed collections. There’s a heck of a lot of work to do on these, but I’m hoping to have them all finished by the end of 2010 – if I work day and night and don’t sleep too much.

We’re also bringing forward the publication schedule for our very popular Date-A-Base Book series, and that means there will be 2 new editions in 2010 instead of just 1. Some people (such as film and TV companies) need the dates at least 2 years in advance. So we’re planning to have the 2012 edition on sale by July, and the 2013 edition on sale at the end of the year. We’ll then return to the usual 1-book-per-year cycle, so the 2014 edition will go on sale at the end of 2011, and so on. As each Date-A-Base Book takes 3 months to complete, and since we’ll be doing 2 of them this year, that’s half the year gone already.

That just leaves enough time (well, it doesn’t really but we’ll squeeze it in somehow) for a small (but very interesting) extra project that we’ve been working on. It’s nearly finished, so we’ll reveal all when it’s ready.

Oh, and we’ll be moving the ideas4writers office, probably in the spring.

Unfortunately there won’t be time to write any new books in the Fastest Way series (though I’ve got several planned) and I won’t have any time to write any novels (though I’ve got several planned). But 2011 is currently set aside as a book-writing year. Fingers and toes very much crossed.

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

You might like to write about the following anniversaries. Dates are given 6 months in advance to allow you time for research and writing.

The list presented here is just a fraction of that available in The Date-A-Base Book 2010. For example, there are 59 anniversaries listed here, but 147 anniversaries for the same month in the book, which also covers the whole of 2010. The Date-A-Base Book 2011 is also available. More details below.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research – just in case! Please let us know of any errors you find.

200 years ago (26 Jun 1810)
Death of Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French hot-air balloon pioneer

150 years ago (23 Jun 1860)US Congress established the Government Printing Office and the US Secret Service

100 years ago (4 Jun 1910)
Birth of Sir Christopher Cockerell, British engineer, inventor of the hovercraft

100 years ago (5 Jun 1910)
Death of O. Henry, American short story writer

100 years ago (8 Jun 1910)
Birth of John W. Campbell Jr., American science fiction writer and editor, considered the father of modern science fiction

100 years ago (10 or 20 Jun 1910)
Birth of Howlin’ Wolf, American blues singer, guitarist, harmonica player and composer

100 years ago (11 Jun 1910)
Birth of Carmine Coppola, award-winning American composer, musical director and songwriter (‘The Godfather’, ‘Apocalypse Now’, etc) Father of film director Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the same films

100 years ago (11 Jun 1910)
Birth of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French oceanographer, writer and film-maker, inventor of the Aqua-Lung

100 years ago (12 Jun 1910)
Birth of Bill Naughton, Irish-born British playwright (‘Alfie’)

100 years ago (13 Jun 1910)
Birth of Mary Whitehouse, British campaigner for broadcasting decency, founder of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (now mediawatch-uk)

100 years ago (15 Jun 1910)
Birth of David Rose, award-winning British-born American songwriter, composer and orchestra leader (‘The Stripper’)

100 years ago (19 Jun 1910)
Father’s Day was celebrated for the first time

100 years ago (22 Jun 1910)
Birth of Sir Peter Pears, British operatic tenor, particularly noted for his performances of works by Benjamin Britten

100 years ago (22 Jun 1910)
Birth of Konrad Zuse, German engineer who built the first digital computer

100 years ago (23 Jun 1910)
Birth of Jean Anouilh, French playwright

100 years ago (29 Jun 1910)
Birth of Frank Loesser, Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer and lyricist of songs for Broadway musicals, including ‘Guys and Dolls’

75 years ago (1 Jun 1935)
Compulsory driving tests were introduced in Britain (They had been voluntary since 1930)

75 years ago (10 Jun 1935)
Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, USA, by William ‘Bill’ Wilson and Dr Robert Smith

70 years ago (4 Jun 1940)
Evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk was completed

70 years ago (10 Jun 1940)
Italy declared war on France and Britain

70 years ago (10 Jun 1940)
The North African Campaign (also called the Desert War) began

70 years ago (11 Jun 1940)
British forces bombed Genoa and Turin in Italy

70 years ago (15 Jun 1940)
The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania

70 years ago (17 Jun 1940)
Operation Ariel – Allied troops began evacuating France

70 years ago (17 Jun 1940)
The Soviet Union occupied Estonia and Latvia

70 years ago (18 Jun 1940)
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his ‘Finest Hour’ speech to the House of Commons

70 years ago (21 Jun 1940)
France surrendered to Germany

70 years ago (27 Jun 1940)
The Soviet Union invaded Romania

60 years ago (17 Jun 1950)
The first kidney transplant was performed by Dr Richard H. Lawler at the Little Company of Mary Hospital, Evergreen Park, Chicago, USA

60 years ago (25 Jun 1950)
North Korea invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War

50 years ago (26 Jun 1960)
Madagascar gained independence from France and became an independent sovereign state

50 years ago (27 Jun 1960)
Death of Lottie Dod, versatile British sportswoman, 5 times winner of Wimbledon, women’s golf champion, Olympic medalist in archery, and founder of the England women’s field hockey team

50 years ago (28 Jun 1960)
Cuba confiscated and nationalised all US-owned oil refineries after they refused to process a shipment of Soviet crude oil

50 years ago (29 Jun 1960)
The BBC Television Centre opened in Shepherd’s Bush, west London

40 years ago (11 Jun 1970)
Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington became the first female US Army Generals

40 years ago (17 Jun 1970)
The ‘Babes in the wood’ murders. The bodies of two missing British children were found in a shallow grave in a wood at Waltham Abbey, Essex, after a massive search

40 years ago (29 Jun 1970)
Vietnam War – US troops were withdrawn from Cambodia

30 years ago (1 Jun 1980)
Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting

25 years ago (1 Jun 1985)
Death of Richard Greene, British film and television actor (‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’)

25 years ago (6 Jun 1985)
Authorities in Brazil exhumed the body of ‘Wolfgang Gerhard’, which was subsequently identified (on 21st June) as Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who conducted medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz

25 years ago (9 Jun 1985)
American academic Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad in Beirut, Lebanon. (Released 1991)

25 years ago (21 Jun 1985)
Death of Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (1946–69)

25 years ago (23 Jun 1985)
Air India Flight 182 blew up in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, killing all 329 people on board. Cause: bomb planted by terrorists

20 years ago (1 Jun 1990)
Washington Summit: US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to end the production of chemical weapons and to destroy existing stocks

20 years ago (2 Jun 1990)
Death of Sir Rex Harrison, British stage and film actor (‘My Fair Lady’)

20 years ago (3 Jun 1990)
Death of Robert Noyce, American engineer, co-inventor of the integrated circuit, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel

20 years ago (7 Jun 1990)
Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida opened to the public as a combined theme park and TV production studio. (Closed April 2005)

20 years ago (12 Jun 1990)
Russia Day – the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty

20 years ago (23 Jun 1990)
Moldavia declared its independence from the USSR, and changed its name to Moldova

15 years ago (14 Jun 1995)
Pauline Clare became the first female chief constable in Britain

15 years ago (22 Jun 1995)
British Prime Minister John Major resigned as leader of the Conservative Party after three years of attacks by critics. (He remained Prime Minister while he fought for re-election, which he won, beating John Redwood)

15 years ago (29 Jun 1995)
US space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia’s Mir space station. This was the first time the two nations’ spacecraft had docked in orbit for 20 years

15 years ago (29 Jun 1995)
Lisa Clayton became the first British woman to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world

10 years ago (3 Jun 2000)
Death of J. Presper Eckert Jr., American electrical engineer, co-inventor of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer

10 years ago (10 Jun 2000)
Death of Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria (1971–2000)

10 years ago (10 Jun 2000)
Death of Brian Statham, British cricketer

10 years ago (13 Jun 2000)
The first North-South Korean summit (also known as the Inter-Korean Summit) was held

10 years ago (24 Jun 2000)
Death of David Tomlinson, British film actor (‘Mary Poppins’, ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks ’)

10 years ago (26 Jun 2000)
Rival scientific teams announced that they had completed the first rough map of the human genome

You’ll find lots more historic anniversaries in The Date-A-Base Book 2010, which covers the whole of 2010 and lists over 1,600 forthcoming anniversaries – more than twice as many entries per month than our standard list featured above. Over the course of the year you’ll get to hear about hundreds of anniversaries that other writers just won’t know about, giving you a huge advantage!

The Date-A-Base Book 2010 is a terrific source of ideas for all writers, journalists, film-makers, editors, researchers, producers, teachers, students, speakers and event planners.
Click here for more details and a complete sample listing for January 2010!

And the 2011 edition is now available too. Now even bigger with more than 1,900 anniversaries that will occur during 2011. Get even further ahead!
Click here for more details and a complete sample listing for January 2011!

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

Here’s another selection to inspire you – what can you do with these?

What if . . .

1. the speed of time was highly variable and fluctuated wildly?

2. you decided to save someone from themselves?

3. you could irrigate the deserts using sea water?

4. you always underestimated everything?

5. advertisers could say whatever they liked about their products?

6. ice sank?

7. oil didn’t burn?

8. you received an email from yourself?

9. you could only walk backwards?

10. you completed the wrong box on an important form?

If you like What Ifs, you’ll love The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

Instant inspiration for your short stories, novels, articles, characters, plots, settings and more! Fully categorised and alphabetical for easy reference.

256-page e-book (PDF) available now – just £7.95.

Click here for full details

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

Now bigger than ever, the 92-page 2011 edition contains more than 1,900 forthcoming historic anniversaries that will occur between January and December 2011.

It includes significant events, discoveries and inventions, and notable births and deaths.

You’ll never be short of interesting and significant things to write about. You’ll also have plenty of time for research and writing, so you’ll be able to get your work onto editors’ desks well before the publication deadline – and ahead of everyone else!

The Date-A-Base Book 2011 is available right now as an e-book.
Printed copies will be available in mid January.

e-book – PDF format
Price: £6.99 (6.99 GBP)
ideas4writers lifetime members: £5.99 (5.99 GBP)

Full details – and a complete sample chapter  – here:
http://www.ideas4writers.co.uk/books/date-a-base/index11.htm

The 2010 edition is also still available:
http://www.ideas4writers.co.uk/books/date-a-base/index10.htm

Dave Haslett, ideas4writers, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

It has just been brought to our attention that there is an error in The Date-A-Base Book 2010.

The incorrect entry is:

January, 100 years ago (6 Jan 1910)
Birth of Morris Wright, American novelist, short story writer, essayist and photographer, who wrote primarily about the Midwestern prairie

His name is in fact Wright Morris, not Morris Wright.

Oops – we’re very sorry about that. We always strive for 100% accuracy, but somehow this one slipped past us. We don’t believe there are any other errors in the 2010 edition.

***

We’re still getting tons of enquiries about when the 2011 edition will be available.  The e-book version will go on sale on 14th December, and the printed version will be available about a month later.

(I know that’s 6 weeks later than we said last time, but cross-checking for 100% accuracy has taken longer than anticipated – there’s a lot of disinformation out there, so we have to dig further to find the truth.)

As mentioned previously, we’re bringing the production schedule for the 2012 edition forward by 6 months, so it should be available from the end of June 2010. We’ll also be bringing the 2013 edition (and all subsequent editions) forward by a further 6 months, so it should be available from January 2011 – a full 2 years ahead.

(Note that we are NOT expecting the world to end on 21st December 2012.)

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

You may wish to write about the following historical events. Dates are given 6 months in advance to allow you time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research – just in case! Please let us know of any errors you find.

ATTENTION! The list presented here is just a fraction of that available in The Date-A-Base Book 2010.
There are 60 anniversaries listed here, but more than 170 anniversaries for the same month in the book, which also covers the whole of 2010.

Don’t miss out on all those extra article ideas. A single article sale will cover the cost of your copy of the book many times over.
The e-book edition is just £6.99 (approx $11.60 US dollars or 7.75 euros). Printed copies are also available. Click here to order yours now!

500 years ago (17 May 1510)
Death of Sandro Botticelli, Italian artist

400 years ago (14 May 1610)
Death of King Henri IV of France (Henri de Navarre), assassinated by François Ravillac, a fanatical monk

300 years ago (14 May 1710)
Birth of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden

200 years ago (25 May 1810)
The ‘May Revolution’ took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Spanish rulers were ousted. This led to independence in July 1816

100 years ago (4 May 1910)
The Royal Canadian Navy was founded (as the Naval Service of Canada)

100 years ago (6 May 1910)
Death of King Edward VII of Great Britain, succeeded by George V

100 years ago (11 May 1910)
Glacier National Park in Montana, USA was established

100 years ago (12 May 1910)
Birth of Dorothy Hodgkin, British chemist, winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for determining the structure of penicillin and vitamin B12

100 years ago (15 May 1910)
Birth of Constance Cummings, American-born British actress

100 years ago (18 May 1910)
Death of Pauline Viardot, French operatic mezzo-soprano and composer

100 years ago (22 May 1910)
Death of Jules Renard, French writer

100 years ago (23 May 1910)
Birth of Margaret Wise Brown, American children’s author

100 years ago (23 May 1910)
Birth of Artie Shaw, American clarinetist and bandleader

100 years ago (23 May 1910)
Birth of Sir Hugh Casson, British architect, interior designer and artist

100 years ago (27 May 1910)
Death of Robert Koch, German physician and bacteriologist, one of the founders of microbiology, winner of the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on tuberculosis

100 years ago (28 May 1910)
Birth of T-Bone Walker, American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, one of the most important pioneers of the electric guitar

100 years ago (28 May 1910)
Birth of Rachel Kempson, British stage, film and TV actress, matriarch of the Redgrave/Richardson acting dynasty

100 years ago (29 May 1910)
Death of Mily Balakirev, Russian orchestral composer

100 years ago (31 May 1910)
The Union of South Africa was founded

100 years ago (31 May 1910)
Death of Elizabeth Blackwell, British-American physician, the first woman doctor of modern times

75 years ago (11 May 1935)
Birth of Doug McClure, American actor (‘The Virginian’, ‘The Land That Time Forgot’, and other roles)

75 years ago (15 May 1935)
Death of Kazimir Malevich, Russian artist, pioneer of geometric abstract art, and founder of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement

75 years ago (17 May 1935)
Birth of Dennis Potter, British dramatist (‘The Singing Detective’, ‘Brimstone and Treacle’, ‘Lipstick on Your Collar’, ‘Gorky Park’, etc)

75 years ago (19 May 1935)
Death of T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), British soldier and writer

75 years ago (21 May 1935)
Death of Jane Addams, American social reformer and pacifist, joint winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, first American woman to receive this award

75 years ago (29 May 1935)
Construction of the Hoover Dam was completed

50 years ago (1 May 1960)
The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane near the Russian city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and captured pilot Gary Powers, sparking a diplomatic crisis

50 years ago (6 May 1960)
Britain’s Princess Margaret married photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones at Westminster Abbey

50 years ago (7 May 1960)
Leonid Brezhnev became President of the Soviet Union

50 years ago (9 May 1960)
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the first birth-control pill

50 years ago (10 May 1960)
The US nuclear submarine ‘Triton’ completed the first underwater circumnavigation of the world

50 years ago (11 May 1960)
Death of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist, heir to the Rockefeller oil fortune, built the Rockefeller Centre in New York City

50 years ago (17 May 1960)
The Kariba Dam, on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, was opened by the Queen Mother. The hydroelectric dam supplies power to both countries

50 years ago (21 May 1960)
Birth of Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer

50 years ago (22 May 1960)
The Great Chilean Earthquake (also called the Valdivia earthquake). The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, hit southern Chile, killing between 2,000 and 6,000 people

50 years ago (30 May 1960)
Death of Boris Pasternak, Russian writer and poet, awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel ‘Doctor Zhivago’ but declined it due to opposition from the Soviet Union

40 years ago (17 May 1970)
Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat ‘Ra II’ in an attempt to prove that ancient mariners could have crossed the Atlantic Ocean. (Successfully arrived in Barbados on 12th July after 57 days at sea)

30 years ago (5 May 1980)
Operation Nimrod – The British SAS stormed the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege

30 years ago (18 May 1980)
Mount St Helens, a volcano in Washington state, USA, erupted, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion of damage

25 years ago (8 May 1985)
Death of Theodore Sturgeon, American science fiction writer

25 years ago (11 May 1985)
A flash fire swept through Bradford City football stadium, England, killing more than 50 people

25 years ago (12 May 1985)
Death of Jean Dubuffet, French painter, sculptor and printmaker who developed art brut (‘raw art’)

25 years ago (24 May 1985)
Bangladesh was hit by a tropical cyclone that killed over 10,000 people

25 years ago (29 May 1985)
39 football fans were crushed to death during rioting at the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels, Belgium. All English football clubs were subsequently banned from playing in Europe

20 years ago (4 May 1990)
Latvia declared independence from the USSR

20 years ago (16 May 1990)
Death of Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, dancer and entertainer

20 years ago (16 May 1990)
Death of Jim Henson, American puppeteer, creator of the ‘Muppets’

20 years ago (18 May 1990)
Death of Jill Ireland, British film and television actress

20 years ago (22 May 1990)
Death of Rocky Graziano, American boxing champion

20 years ago (29 May 1990)
Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia

20 years ago (30 May 1990)
France banned the importation of British beef and live cattle because of fears over BSE (‘mad cow disease’)

10 years ago (4 May 2000)
Ken Livingstone was elected mayor of London

10 years ago (7 May 2000)
Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as President of Russia

10 years ago (7 May 2000)
Death of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American film actor and producer (‘The Mark of Zorro’, ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘The Thief of Bagdad’, etc)

10 years ago (12 May 2000)
The Tate Modern art gallery opened in London

10 years ago (14 May 2000)
Death of Obuchi Keizo, Prime Minister of Japan (1998–2000)

10 years ago (17 May 2000)
Death of Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (1974–80)

10 years ago (20 May 2000)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie celebrated the birth of their fourth child, Leo

10 years ago (21 May 2000)
Death of Sir John Gielgud, British actor, producer and director, noted as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his generation

10 years ago (21 May 2000)
Death of Dame Barbara Cartland, British author of over 700 romance novels

You’ll find lots more historic anniversaries in The Date-A-Base Book 2010, which covers the whole of 2010 and lists over 1,600 forthcoming anniversaries – more than twice as many entries per month than our standard lists featured above. Over the course of the year you’ll get to hear about hundreds of anniversaries that other writers just won’t know about – giving you a huge advantage!

The Date-A-Base Book 2010 is a great source of ideas for all writers, journalists, film-makers, editors, researchers, producers, teachers, students, speakers and event planners. Click here to order yours now!

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

Inspired by some of the things that people have been getting up to recently, we created this new section of the blog on the spur of the moment.

Our first ever member of the month is Carole Mooney who posted the following message in the Chat forum at ideas4writers.co.uk:

“I work in a college library where we used to receive the top ten fiction books regardless of the quality of the writing. Hence we have been sent Katie Price’s ghost written offerings. I have been known to refuse to lend them out (much to the mirth of my colleagues) and have directed the students to something I consider more suitable – usually a Celia Aherne or a Marian Keyes which are at least written by the people whose name is on the cover and the books are enjoyable and accessible. Of course I’m not going to direct a Katie Price fan to Dostoevsky!

“We no longer have the top ten books sent in and I will be the person who will go to Waterstones to buy the college fiction books (yes I will be paid to shop in a bookshop!). As far as I can help it there will be no more celebrity authors in the library!”

Carole – we salute you! Well done for taking a stand and supporting real writers. We hope this will encourage others to do the same.

Our non-member of the month award goes to former ITN political reporter John Sergeant, who returned his advance (reportedly worth tens of thousands of pounds) to his publisher after refusing to write yet another memoir.

John said: “What I was really expecting to do when I left ITN was to write books, because I had a two-book contract with Macmillan. Had I been less well-known, I could have written a book on the history of the police, or something that would have interested me hugely, but all they really wanted was my memoirs.”

“You can’t go on writing the same book – not only is it boring, it’s a terrific strain too.”

After paying the money back, John said that he felt “incredibly free”.

What a nice man!

If you’ve done something that you think deserves recognition from your fellow writers, or you spot a news item about someone else who has taken a stand, please pass the details on to us, and we’ll be pleased to help circulate the story a little more widely.

You can email us at: mail@ideas4writers.co.uk

Dave Haslett, ideas4writers.co.uk

Here’s another selection to inspire you – what can you do with these?

What if . . .

1. London was somewhere else?

2. the speed of light was a billion times faster?

3. the speed of light was much slower?

4. sound travelled slower than you could walk?

5. countries and continents drifted about rapidly and unpredictably, and you never knew where you might be when you woke up each morning?

6. it was the day of the revolution?

7. it was time to meet your maker?

8. your child beat you at something for the first time?

9. you forgot to go to bed?

10. you hadn’t done enough to prepare yourself?

If you like What Ifs, you’ll love The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

Instant inspiration for your short stories, novels, articles, characters, plots, settings and more! Fully categorised and alphabetical for easy reference.

256-page e-book (PDF) available now – just £7.95.
Immediate download after payment.

Click here for full details

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk

You may wish to write about the following historical events. Dates are given 6 months in advance to allow you time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research – just in case! Please let us know of any errors you find.

A greatly expanded list of anniversaries for this month (more than twice as many as listed here) is available in  The Date-A-Base Book 2010, which covers the whole of 2010. More details below.

400 years ago (22 Apr 1610)
Birth of Pope Alexander VIII

300 years ago (26 Apr 1710)
Birth of Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher who espoused common sense

300 years ago (28 Apr 1710)
Death of Thomas Betterton, British actor and writer, the leading English actor of the Restoration period

200 years ago (11 Apr 1810)
Birth of Henry Rawlinson, British soldier, linguist and diplomat who deciphered Mesopotamian cuneiform and greatly expanded knowledge of the ancient Middle East

200 years ago (19 Apr 1810)
Venezuela declared its independence from Spain and ejected its Spanish Colonial leaders from power

150 years ago (3 Apr 1860)
The Pony Express began operating between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, USA

150 years ago (6 Apr 1860)
Birth of René Lalique, French jeweller and glassmaker

150 years ago (7 Apr 1860)
Birth of W.K. Kellogg, American breakfast cereal manufacturer

100 years ago (19 Apr 1910)
German medical scientist Paul Ehrlich announced the discovery of a cure for syphilis (a drug later called Salvarsan) at the Congress for Internal Medicine, Wiesbaden

100 years ago (21 Apr 1910)
Death of Mark Twain, American writer, humorist and journalist (‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’)

100 years ago (23 Apr 1910)
Birth of Simone Simon, French film actress

100 years ago (26 Apr 1910)
Death of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian poet, writer, journalist and theatre director, winner of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote the words of the Norwegian national anthem

90 years ago (23 Apr 1920)
The Turkish Grand National Assembly was established in Ankara, founding modern Turkey and divorcing it from its Ottoman past

80 years ago (21 Apr 1930)
Death of Robert Bridges, British poet laureate (1913–30)

75 years ago (6 Apr 1935)
Death of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet

75 years ago (8 Apr 1935)
US Congress approved the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to relieve the economic hardship of the Great Depression

75 years ago (14 Apr 1935)
‘Black Sunday’ – the worst dust storm of the Dust Bowl occurred in Kansas, USA

75 years ago (19 Apr 1935)
Birth of Dudley Moore, British actor, comedian, musician and composer

75 years ago (23 Apr 1935)
A new Polish Constitution (the ‘April Constitution’) was passed

70 years ago (9 Apr 1940)
World War II: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway

70 years ago (20 Apr 1940)
RCA gave the first public demonstration of a scanning electron microscope, in Philadelphia, USA

60 years ago (3 Apr 1950)
Death of Kurt Weill, German-born American composer

60 years ago (8 Apr 1950)
Death of Vaslav Nijinsky, legendary Russian ballet dancer

60 years ago (27 Apr 1950)
Apartheid in South Africa. The Group Areas Act was passed, formally segregating races and barring people from living, operating businesses or owning land outside the areas designated for their race

50 years ago (1 Apr 1960)
The USA launched the world’s first weather satellite, Tiros I

50 years ago (11 Apr 1960)
Death of Sir Archibald McIndoe, pioneering New Zealand-born plastic surgeon who greatly improved the treatment and rehabilitation of badly burned aircrew in World War II

50 years ago (17 Apr 1960)
Death of Eddie Cochran, American rock and roll musician (‘C’mon Everybody’, ‘Summertime Blues’, ‘Three Steps to Heaven’)

50 years ago (21 Apr 1960)
Brasilia became the capital of Brazil, replacing Rio do Janeiro

50 years ago (27 Apr 1960)
French Togoland became independent as the Republic of Togo

40 years ago (1 Apr 1970)
US President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring health warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on TV and radio from 1st January 1971

40 years ago (10 Apr 1970)
British rock musician Paul McCartney announced that he had left The Beatles and the band would never perform together again

40 years ago (13 Apr 1970)
An oxygen tank exploded onboard Apollo 13 as it neared the Moon, crippling the spacecraft and putting the lives of the crew at risk. The mission was abandoned and the crew returned safely on 17th April

40 years ago (22 Apr 1970)
The first Earth Day was observed

40 years ago (24 Apr 1970)
Gambia became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth

40 years ago (24 Apr 1970)
China launched its first satellite – Dong Fang Hong I (also called China 1)

40 years ago (30 Apr 1970)
Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announced that the USA was sending troops into Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong, sparking widespread protests

30 years ago (7 Apr 1980)
US President Jimmy Carter announced that the USA had severed diplomatic relations with Iran and blocked all US exports to Iran, following the taking of American hostages on 4th November 1979

30 years ago (12 Apr 1980)
Military coup in Liberia – President William R. Tolbert, Jr. was shot dead and the government ousted. Thirteen other senior government officials were publicly executed on 22nd April

30 years ago (15 Apr 1980)
Death of Jean-Paul Sartre, French novelist, playwright and philosopher, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature, but he declined it

30 years ago (18 Apr 1980)
Southern Rhodesia became the independent nation of Zimbabwe

30 years ago (24 Apr 1980)
‘Operation Eagle Claw’, a top-secret attempt by the USA to free 52 American hostages in Iran, ended in failure. 8 soldiers were killed. US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the mission, resigned on 28th April

30 years ago (26 Apr 1980)
Death of Dame Cicely Courtneidge, British actress and comedienne

30 years ago (29 Apr 1980)
Death of Alfred Hitchcock, British-born American film producer (‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’, ‘Vertigo’, ‘Dial M for Murder’ and many others)

30 years ago (30 Apr 1980)
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands abdicated and was succeeded by her daughter, Beatrix

25 years ago (11 Apr 1985)
Death of Enver Hoxha, Albanian Communist dictator

25 years ago (23 Apr 1985)
The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing the secret formula for Coke. Negative public reaction forced it to resume selling the original version in July 1985

20 years ago (11 Apr 1990)
British Customs officers announced that they had seized what they believed to be the barrel of a massive ’supergun’ on a ship bound for Iraq

20 years ago (19 Apr 1990)
The Nicaraguan civil war ended when the Contra guerrillas, leftist Sandinistas, and the government called a truce

20 years ago (24 Apr 1990)
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched, aboard space shuttle Discovery

15 years ago (19 Apr 1995)
Oklahoma City bombing: a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, killing 168 people and injuring 500.

10 years ago (1 Apr 2000)
A rare Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages in WWII, was stolen from Bletchley Park, UK. (Returned October 2000)

10 years ago (5 Apr 2000)
Death of Lee Petty, American NASCAR racing driver

10 years ago (10 Apr 2000)
Death of Peter Jones, British actor, playwright and broadcaster, best known as the narrator and voice of The Book in ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, and for his lead role in the TV series ‘The Rag Trade’

10 years ago (15 Apr 2000)
Death of Edward Gorey, American writer, illustrator and designer, noted for his macabre illustrated books

10 years ago (25 Apr 2000)
Death of David Merrick, American theatrical producer

10 years ago (28 Apr 2000)
Death of Penelope Fitzgerald, British novelist and biographer

For more historic anniversaries see The Date-A-Base Book 2010, which covers the whole of 2010 and contains over 1,600 forthcoming anniversaries – more than twice as many entries per month than our standard lists featured above. Over the course of the year you’ll get to hear about hundreds of significant forthcoming anniversaries that other writers just won’t know about – giving you a huge advantage!

The Date-A-Base Book 2010 is an excellent source of ideas for all writers, journalists, film-makers, editors, researchers, producers, teachers, students, speakers and event planners. Just one article sale will pay for your copy many (many!) times over.

Dave Haslett, www.ideas4writers.co.uk