April 21, 753 BC (traditional date) Rome, Italy Romulus founds the city of Rome, kills his twin brother for making fun of it, then names the city after himself According to tradition, Romulus and his twin brother Remus were born to a Vestal Virgin/daughter of a king and the war god Mars. Her brother, fearing…
Fictional History: The Fog
Fictional History The Fog April 21, 100 years ago Antonio Bay, California The Elizabeth Dane sinks, killing those on board As Mr. Machen explains in the opening sequence of The Fog: “100 years ago on the 21st of April, out in the waters around Spivey Point, a small clipper ship drew toward land. Suddenly, out…
Bathtub suicide
April 21, 1937 Los Angeles, California Joe Martin commits suicide by drowning in a bathtub The date on the photo reads April 21, but Martin’s Find A Grave record states he drowned on April 19. I attempted to find some sort of additional sources to determine the date of his death as well as any…
8 year old suspected of being killed by neighbor who scared her to death
April 21, 1934 Aberdeen, Scotland The body of missing 8-year-old Helen Priestly is found in a sack under stairs in her tenement Popular theory holds a neighbor, Jeanie Donald, tired of the child ringing her doorbell and disappearing, jumped out at the child to scare her. The fright startled Helen to the point the child…
The Lisbon Massacre
April 21, 1506 Lisbon, Portugal The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end Nine years before the massacre, the Jews in the area were forced to convert to Catholicism. The recently converted Jews were called New Christians, showing that though they were among the Catholic faith, they were still separate. The massacre is said to…