Under Saturday, April 1st, the book of history records, among other things:
1803: The “Banque de France” is founded as the French central bank in Paris.
1833: General Antonio López de Santa Ana takes power in Mexico. It relies on the military and the conservative clergy.
1893: Central European Time is introduced in Germany (until then there were ten different local times).
1918: Airmail service on the Vienna/Aspern – Kraków – Lemberg – Kiev line begins. It is the world’s first international air mail line.
1923: The first Austrian radio station “Hekaphon” goes into operation in Vienna.
1933: In Nazi Germany, the general boycott campaign once morest Jewish doctors, lawyers and business owners begins. In many cities there are riots once morest Jewish fellow citizens.
1938: After the “Anschluss” the first transport of arrested Austrians goes to the Dachau concentration camp (Bavaria). The Vienna State Police Headquarters called the list of 150 people “1st transport of Austrians to Dachau (celebrities)”. Among them are the later Federal Chancellors Leopold Figl and Alfons Gorbach and the later ÖGB boss and Minister of the Interior Franz Olah.
1938: Two American companies put fluorescent tubes on the market for the first time.
1938: The Swiss Nestlé Group put the first soluble coffee on the table for the Swiss.
1948: The European Recovery Program (ERP), known as the Marshall Plan, begins work.
1948: In Czechoslovakia it is announced that people’s courts will be set up to try anti-communists who have been removed from the civil service.
1948: The occupied Saarland is economically connected to France.
1988: The Constitutional Court declares the applicable suspension provisions for civil servants to be unconstitutional.
1998: The first women join the Austrian army. 21 applicants passed the aptitude test, nine of them are starting their training in the Styrian barracks in Strass.
1998: Due to the Schengen Agreement, there are no controls at the border crossings between Austria, Germany and Italy.
2003: Iraq War: US soldiers shoot dead seven women and children at a checkpoint near Najaf. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) raises serious allegations once morest the American and British invading troops.
2008: BZÖ boss Peter Westenthaler has to answer in court for false testimony. The Ministry of Justice approves a corresponding project report by the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office.
2008: The Festival of Austrian Film Diagonale is showing 323 films until April 6th and attracts 26,000 visitors. The big Diagonale Prize for the best feature film goes to Götz Spielmann for “Revanche”, while Marko Doringer’s “Half Life” is chosen as the best documentary film.
birthdays: Edmond Rostand, Fr. Playwright (1868-1918); Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian. Composer (1873-1943); Carl Sternheim, dt. Playwright (1878-1942); Dan Flavin, US object artist (1933-1996); Mario Botta, black. Architect (1943); Barry Sonnenfeld, US film director (1953).
days of death: Viktor Matejka, Austria publicist (1901-1993); Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (according to other sources March 31) (1907-1993); Lev Davidovich Landau, Soviet physicist; Nobel Prize 1962 (1908-1968); Vera Svoboda-Macku, Austria operetta singer (1919-2013); Efraín Rios Montt, Guatemala. politician (1926-2018); Leslie Cheung, Chinese. Actor (1956-2003).
name days: Hugo, Irene, Theodora, Gilbert, Walarich, Valerie, Agape, Viktor, Stefan, Maria.
