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Today in History

1755		English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1784		The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
1813		U.S. troops under James Wilkinson siege the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
1858		At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
1871		'Wild Bill' Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1861		President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.
1865		Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth's assassination bullet.
1912		With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
1917		British forces defeat the Germans at the battle of Arras.
1919		British troops kill 400 Indians at Amritsar, India.
1923		Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1923		The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
1940		French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
1945		President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
1948		Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
1952		President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1955		Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants.
1959		Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
1960		The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.
1971		North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops were on a rescue mission.
1986		U.S. warplanes attack Libya.

Man’s wallet returned after 14 years with more money in it than when lost

A Croatian man could not believe his eyes when he received a parcel containing a wallet he misplaced 14 years ago, containing more money than he originally lost.

"First I though that someone was joking with me so I went to check whether the money was real," Ivica Jerkovic, from a village in eastern Croatia, said. "It was the best greeting for Easter!" said Jerkovic, proudly posing in a photo with the wallet which he received last week, and 1,500 Swiss francs (£1,040, €1,440, $1,530) that were in it. The sender gave no indication of his identity.
Jerkovic recalled the day when he lost the wallet 14 years ago with some 2,000 German marks (around £725, €1,000, $1,060) inside that he had withdrawn from his bank account to repair the roof of his house. He lost the wallet either when he attended a party with friends or when he was driving one of them who had fallen sick to a hospital.
Jerkovic, in his 50s and from the village of Donja Moticina, believes that the person who found and eventually returned the wallet was someone who had financial problems. "I belive that this money saved him and for years he was calculating how much he should return to me. Otherwise, I don't know why he would keep the wallet for all those years! I call on him to contact me. He is the best personal banker in Croatia," he joked.

Woman who accidentally sent boss a text calling him a 'complete dick' loses unfair dismissal claim

A bookkeeper has been sacked for serious misconduct after she accidentally sent a text to her boss calling him a "complete dick". The text was meant for her daughter's boyfriend and now she has lost an unfair dismissal claim, failing to convince the Fair Work Commission that it was a "lighthearted insult". Before her dismissal, Louise Nesbitt worked for six years as the office administrator and bookkeeper for small mineral exploration company Dragon Mountain Gold in Perth, Australia. She and Rob Gardner, the company's chairman and managing director, were the sole employees.

As part of an office refurbishment, Ms Nesbitt arranged for plumbing work to be carried out by her daughter's boyfriend, Robert Guy. On January 12 last year, Ms Nesbitt sent a text message intended for Mr Guy to Mr Gardner describing Mr Gardner as a "complete dick" before adding "we know this already so please try your best not to tell him that regardless of how you feel the need". Realizing her mistake, Ms Nesbitt texted Mr Gardner, saying, "Rob, please delete without reading. I am so so so sorry. Xxx."
She subsequently sent another text message to Mr Gardner which read, in part, "Rob I need to explain … that message came across so wrong … that is not how I feel. My sense of humor is to exaggerate ... Yes I do feel that my ideas are all ignored but that's ok ... Please forget it and just go on as normal. I am very very sorry." Ms Nesbitt did not attend the office for several days, saying she was working from home. Mr Gardner told the commission that the text message describing him as a "complete dick" was highly offensive, derogatory and a shock given Ms Nesbitt's position as an employee and their long working relationship.
Commissioner Danny Cloghan noted that although the text message was the main reason for the dismissal, the working relationship between the duo had deteriorated in previous months. Commissioner Cloghan said he did not accept Ms Nesbitt's argument that the text was a "light-hearted insult" or that she lived with young people who put "complete" in front of every second word. "To call a person a 'dick' is a derogatory term to describe them as an idiot or fool," he said. "The word 'complete' is used to convey the message that the person is, without exception, an idiot or fool – they are nothing less than a 'dick'. He said he was satisfied that Mr Gardner believed on "reasonable grounds" that Ms Nesbitt's conduct was serious enough to justify summary dismissal and she had not been unfairly dismissed.

Father and son are extremely proud of their handmade wooden car

An innovative wooden car made by a father-son duo has been attracting visitors in Patiala, south eastern Punjab, northern India. Powered by a Maruti 800 engine, the entire body has been carved out of teak.

The petrol-driven car stands out because of its design. The brains behind the unique car, Amandeep Singh owes it to his carpenter father. Amandeep said he encountered a major problem when he had to fit in the engine.
But their persistence paid off and their happiness knew no bounds when it first hit the roads. The father-son duo had to put in 12 hours daily for two months to complete the car, which cost 400,000 rupees (£4,400, $6,400).

YouTube link.

But driving down the lanes of Patiala in the new car with people looking with awe makes their day. Mohinder Singh, a seasoned carpenter, gave the perfect shape to the car conceived by his son.

Quirk of backpacker culture led to German tourists becoming unintentional vehicle thieves

Three German tourists who had just arrived in New Zealand say they become unintentional vehicle thieves through a quirk of backpacker culture. The tourists said they thought they were allowed to take a van left at Christchurch Airport with the keys in the driver's door as they had been told that backpackers sometimes left vehicles they could not sell at airports for other backpackers to take. They spotted the van in what they said was a non-rental area of the airport car park and took it for a few days, but they were later arrested for unlawfully taking a rental van.

They were held in custody and appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Friday. They pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully taking the $10,000 Lucky Rentals campervan on Tuesday. The tourists were Hans Lorenz Steinfurth, 20, Friedrich Wiesbach, 21, both of Radebeul, and Isabelle Caroline Manna, 21, of Stephanskirchen. They appeared in the dock together before Judge Noel Walsh, who was told the case needed to be dealt with on Friday because the tourists were continuing their journey. The judge bailed the three at the request of duty lawyer Michael Knowles to allow them to go to a bank and get the money they owed the rental van company.
They would have to return to the courthouse with the money in two hours, they were told. Police prosecutor Sergeant Kathy Pomfrett told the court the rental van was dropped off at the airport car park by its previous hirer at 7.30am on Tuesday, and the keys were left in the driver's door. The Germans went to the car park three hours later and looked around for a vehicle they could take and eventually headed off in the van. Once they paid $602 to the court, as reparation to the rental van company, they were convicted and discharged and allowed to leave.
They had to wait at court while police informed the rental company that the money had been paid and they could retrieve their belongings, which were still in the van. The tourists apologized for the theft, and Steinfurth said outside the court that they did not know it was a rental van. They had been told by other travelers in Australia about backpackers leaving cars with the keys in them at airports when they could not sell them. They planned to use the van for a couple of days and would then have returned it to the airport and left the keys, he said. Manna said they had not realized it was a rental because it was not parked in the area for rentals. They plan to leave New Zealand on May 4.

Cop Delivers Epic Burn to Flirtatious Driver

The woman drove right through a stop sign. Perhaps she thought that she could escape a ticket by flirting with the police office. He shut her down promptly. You can see the encounter at the 1:52 mark in the video below.

(Video Link)

Intoxicated lady bereft of underwear allegedly tried to wear bag full of rubbish

Police say a woman who was wearing no pants and highly intoxicated was arrested at around 1am on Friday in Dayton, Ohio, while outside banging on an apartment door.

Ashley Sturgill, 27 is now facing public indecency and disorderly conduct charges. According to the Dayton Police report, they were called about a suspicious person complaint with possible sex acts involved.
The officers found Sturgill loudly banging on a door where, it was later determined, she was no longer welcome because of her behavior. Police tried to get the woman to put on her pants, located on the ground nearby.
Instead, the officer reports the woman picked up a white garbage bag, full of trash, and tried to put it on like pants. In the process, she reportedly cut her foot on broken glass. The wound was photographed to log her injury, then Sturgill was taken to jail, with pants on.

Teenager who stole disguise from pharmacy's display before robbing it arrested

A teenager has been arrested, accused of robbing a pharmacy in Nashville, Tennessee. Police said 19-year-old Jackson Boonstra was arrested in a church parking lot.

According to police, Boonstra went into the CVS in south Nashville on Wednesday morning and wandered up and down the aisles before finding a manager to ask where the hats and sunglasses were.
Moments later, he reportedly put on a hat and and sunglasses along with a pair of socks over his hands and went up to the pharmacy counter, where he allegedly demanded pills from the clerk.

News report from before Mr Boonstra was arrested.

YouTube link.

The clerk said Boonstra acted like he had a weapon, but it was never shown. He allegedly got away with about 500 pills. Boonstra is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Teenagers held up Mr Whippy at gunpoint

Police are hunting for two teenagers who held up a Mr Whippy ice cream truck at gunpoint in Auckland, New Zealand, on Sunday afternoon.

The youths approached the truck at 3.10pm while it was parked in Orakei.
Inspector Kerry Watson told the Herald the pair approached the truck and, brandishing a small firearm, demanded money from a woman. They fled on foot with a bag full of cash and credit cards.
Mr Watson said the two offenders were described as Maori youths aged between 15 and 18. Both were wearing light grey hoodies and one also had a green rain jacket on.

Robber had swag bag with drawn-on dollar sign

When David Eli Lingafelter was arrested on Wednesday for the robbery of a Subway restaurant in Olympia, Washington, he was carrying a white canvas bag with a handwritten dollar sign on it.

The bag was tied to the front of Lingafelter’s trousers when police caught the 20-year-old shortly after the sandwich shop heist.Police allege that Lingafelter entered the Subway wearing a white hat and a red bandana over his face, adding that he “reached into his pocket as if he had a weapon.”
After directing a female employee to open the cash register and place her hands on her head, Lingafelter swiped $100 and the worker’s cell phone. While committing the robbery, Lingafelter warned the Subway employee not to “do anything funny,” police reported. Lingafelter was later apprehended hiding behind a dumpster at a nearby shopping center.
A police search of the suspect turned up a knife, $100 in cash, and a phone matching the description of the one stolen from the Subway worker. Additionally, investigators noted, Lingafelter “also had a white canvas bag tied to the front of his pants that had a dollar sign printed on it.” Lingafelter was booked on robbery and obstruction charges. He is being held in the Thurston County jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.

Woman poured barbecue sauce on her husband before chasing after him with knives

Police in Florida say a woman poured barbecue sauce on her husband and chased after him with a knife in each hand on Tuesday, according to an arrest report. Viven Palmer, 30, faces charges of battery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and resisting an officer. She was later released from the Palm Beach County Jail on $5,000 bail.

On Tuesday morning, police were called to an address in Riviera Beach where a 30-year-old man was waving and yelling from his front door, “Help, police!” Officers say they heard a woman, later identified as Palmer, yelling from the home, but when she came outside, she refused to speak with them. Instead, she just put items into a parked car outside the home.
Police said two children, ages 4 and 9, were seen in a car, according to the report. Though she refused to speak with police and told them to leave her home, her husband said the two were arguing about getting a divorce. He said things turned violent and his wife came after him, damaging property along the way.
Police noted the home appeared to be ransacked. He said his wife ripped off his shirt, poured barbecue sauce on him and hit him. When he fought back, he realized she had grabbed butcher's knives from the kitchen, so he ran outside. Palmer has no previous criminal history, according to county records.

Smell of bacon led police to pork thieves

A late night fry-up proved too tempting for a pair of meat thieves who inadvertently lured police straight to their front door with the smell of sizzling bacon. Damian Barry Lewis faced magistrates in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, last week to answer for the night he and a young accomplice went on a failed mission for greasy food in Pialba.

The court heard 33-year-old Lewis and a "spaced out" teenager were found rifling through a stranger's shed in December. When the owner yelled out and asked what they were doing, Lewis apparently pointed to the younger male who was "walking around in circles" with bacon and sausages in hand and said "he told me to". The man told the pair police were on their way and they jumped his fence and fled.
Following footprints in the grass, police arrived at Lewis' address where they detected the smell of cooking bacon coming from the home. Lewis was later identified on a photo board and charged. While he insisted he "wasn't actually the one taking the food", Lewis admitted to being in the man's yard when the bacon was stolen and that he should have known better. He pleaded for another chance on the grounds his dog was waiting at home to be fed and he needed to clean his home so he didn't fail an upcoming rental inspection.
He also told the court he had previously completed more than 100 hours community service and was so popular he had been asked to return as a volunteer. Magistrate Graeme Tatnell said: "I've told you a number of times you need to start behaving yourself". He ordered Lewis to serve a further 80 hours of community service, warning him if he continued to re-offend, he would lose both the dog and his home and end up in jail.

Man faces jail for changing course of river

A jury in Mason County, Washington state, have found a Tahuya man guilty of redirecting the Tahuya River behind his home. William Cayo, Sr. was charged after an incident in 2013, when officers witnessed him using a bulldozer to fill in 1.5 acres of river bed. The Tahuya River is a fragile ecosystem. It empties into the Hood Canal, where salmon are known to swim up its waters to spawn. It's a habitat wildlife officials believe Cayo severely damaged. "All he was trying to do was save his house and his family," Matt Just said.

Men are More Likely Than Women to Travel Back in Time to Kill Hitler

NPR lays out the scenario:

You find a time machine and travel to 1920. A young Austrian artist and war veteran named Adolf Hitler is staying in the hotel room next to yours. The doors aren't locked, so you could easily stroll next door and smother him. World War II would never happen.
But Hitler hasn't done anything wrong yet. Is it acceptable to kill him to prevent World War II?

Leaving aside the highly dubious notion that World War II could be prevented with such a simple act or that the results would be more favorable than World War II as it unfolded in real history, you have a moral dilemma.
Rebecca Friesdorf, a graduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario examined how people respond to this and other moral dilemmas and their reasoning for their choices. She surveyed 6,100 people from the USA, Canada, and Germany. Friesdorf published the results of her study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Friesdorf found that women were less likely to kill Hitler when given the chance. Ben Tufft writes in The Independent:

While men and women both calculated the consequences of their decision and computed how many lives might be saved, females found it harder to commit murder and were more likely to let Hitler live.

Flaming cannonball set fire to historic boathouse

A historic thatched boathouse at Warwick Castle went up in flames after it was hit by a flaming cannonball launched from a wooden trebuchet.

The launch.

YouTube link.

Sparks from the cannonball, which was fired from the huge 22-tonne wooden trebuchet, ignited the roof of the 119-year-old boathouse. Rescue crews, including 30 firefighters, dashed to the scene of the blaze which broke out shortly after 5.45pm on Thursday.
Families watched in disbelief as the thatched roof caught fire after the final launch of the trebuchet. Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that they sent three fire engines to tackle the blaze.

The aftermath.

YouTube link.

The boathouse in happier times.

It is not believed anyone was injured in the blaze and the castle was unaffected by the fire. The historic boathouse which was destroyed in the blaze dates back to 1896.

The Mystery of the Green Children of Woolpit

In the 12th century. a strange pair of children appeared in the village of Woolpit, England. They were unaccompanied, spoke a language no one in the village knew, and strangest of all, they were green.

The green children’s story began when they emerged from one of the wolf-trapping pits for which the town is named. The pits—designed to lure and ensnare dangerous wolves—were likely at least twice as tall as the children and a couple hundred square feet in area. A reaper discovered the pair and took them into town, where Sir Richard de Calne gave them a home. In time, they lost their iridescent pallor and diversified their diets, though the boy became increasingly depressed and sickly before succumbing to illness and dying.

The girl eventually learned English and told her caretakers that the boy was her brother. She related the tale of how they wandered into the pit, but could not explain where they came from. The story survives thanks to two different accounts, although neither writer actually met the children. We don’t know where the children originated, or what made them appear to be green, but mental_floss offers several possible explanations. None involve aliens from another planet.

200 Years After Tambora, Some Unusual Effects Linger

The biggest volcanic eruption in 10,000 years happened when Mount Tambora exploded on April 10, 1815. The eruption killed thousands of Indonesian villagers immediately, and the effects of disaster went global and lasted for years. Some 36 cubic miles of ash and rock were flung into the air, and a lot of remained there as particles that encircled the earth.

Tambora was “a tragedy of nations masquerading as a spectacular sunset,” Gillen D’Arcy Wood of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, writes in Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World. Those aerosol particles stayed in the stratosphere for two years, blocking sunlight and causing havoc on Earth’s climate. The year 1816 was so cold that it snowed in New England in June, and the period became known as “the year without a summer.” Grain shortages and famine occurred across the globe, and Tambora’s far-reaching death toll would eventually claim more than 100,000 according to some estimates.

Our world would be different today if the Tambora disaster had never happened. Smithsonian has a list of seven of the effects Tambora had on history, including weather patterns, disease, human migration, food, and even art and literature.

Protective Puppy Refuses to Fall Asleep While Guarding Infan...zzz

YouTube Link

A puppy stands guard next to his tiny, sleeping human, seemingly averse to falling asleep during guard duty. Yet his eyelids grow droopy. The warmth and comfort of the room and the deep breathing of the little being next to him are slowly lulling him to sleep. The pup holds out as long as he can, but acquiesces in the end. Sweet dreams, cuties.

Animal Pictures