HISTORY
On this day April 1-7, 2018 (week 14)
April 1, 2018 - April 7, 2018 - Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the world’s oldest independent air force, the Khmer Rouge, the first hand-held mobile phone, Martin Luther King, the Akashi-Kaikyo suspension bridge, Thailand’s constitution, and Motor racing champion Jim Clark.
April 1, 1918: Britain’s Royal Air Force was formed by an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Force. It is the world’s oldest independent air force
April 2, 1979: The mass graves of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia were first revealed. More than a million people are believed to have been executed from 1975-79
April 3, 1973: Motorola researcher Martin Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone. Costing $3,995 and weighing 1.1kg, it was nicknamed “the brick”
April 4, 1968: U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, best remembered for his “I Have a Dream” speech, was assassinated on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee
April 5, 1998: The Akashi-Kaikyo suspension bridge, the world’s longest, was opened in Japan. It crosses the busy Akashi Strait linking the city of Kobe to Awaji Island
April 6, 2017: Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn signed a new constitution into law, containing various democratic reforms and changes to the electoral system
April 7, 1968: British motor racing ace Jim Clark, F1 world champion in 1963 and 1965, was killed in a 170mph crash when his car skidded off the track at Hockenheim in Germany