Milestones: April 10, 2024

April 10, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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ASPCA FOUNDED — PHILANTHROPIST AND DIPLOMAT HENRY BERGH, 54, FOUNDED the American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals (ASPCA) on April 10, 1866, in New York City. During a diplomatic mission to the Russian court of Czar Alexander II (to which President Abraham Lincoln had appointed him), Bergh discovered with horror that peasants were beating their workhorses. Upon his return from Russia two years later, Bergh decided to secure a charter that would incorporate the ASPCA and also exercise the power to arrest and prosecute violators of the law. Bergh passionately reported to the New York State Legislature the animal cruelty he had witnessed in Russia, and within nine days, on April 10, 1866, the lawmakers passed the charter, making it the first effective anti-cruelty law in the United States. It gave the ASPCA the power to investigate reports of animal cruelty and to make arrests. Bergh didn’t merely delegate the work but remained personally involved, inspecting slaughterhouses, working with police to close down dog- and rat-fighting pits and lecturing in schools.

The ASPCA, which in 1867 established and operated the nation’s first ambulance for horses, would applaud current efforts to pass Ryder’s Law, which would ban horse carriages in Central Park in the wake of reports the horses having to work in dangerous heat and collapsing.

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TITO EMERGES AS RESISTANCE LEADER — THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA was established during World War II, on April 10, 1941, when German and Italian invaders of Yugoslavia set up a puppet Axis regime and placed in power Ante Pavelic’s pro-fascist group, the Ustase. This Independent State of Croatia, which did not have its own autonomy, also included the regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Ustase then set to persecuting anyone not on their side: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and anti-fascist Croats, leading to a genocide of more than 400,000 victims. The massacre also led to a resistance movement that would catapult Josip Broz Tito, himself a Croat, into leadership against the fascists. He would later become dictator of Yugoslavia, rejecting alliances from both the West and Russia and seeking total autonomy from these powers.

After most of Croatia was liberated from the Axis in 1944, some of the Croats who had been involved with the Ustase sought refugee status with the Allies. But the British commanders dealt with them harshly as well.

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‘PING-PONG DIPLOMACY’ — CHINA’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT INVITED THE U.S. TABLE TENNIS TEAM to a weeklong visit, which began on April 10, 1971. This was a well-publicized trip in the PRC’s attempt to build closer diplomatic relations with the United States, after more than two decades of enmity between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China dating back to 1949. Motivating factors for renewing diplomacy were establishing a counterweight against the Soviet Union and building trade between China and the U.S. This invitation was sardonically referred to as “ping-pong diplomacy,” but it worked. President Richard Nixon made a historic visit to China in 1972 to begin talks about reestablishing diplomatic relations. His trip might have contributed to his landslide reelection victory that November.

The Chinese table tennis team also toured America, making ping-pong the latest craze. And Nixon’s unprecedented visit spawned an opera, “Nixon in China,” by American composer John Coolidge Adams. The three-act opera premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987.

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HORROR IN 3-D — THE HORROR FILM “THE HOUSE OF WAX,” STARRING VINCENT PRICE, OPENED ON APRIL 10, 1953, AT NEW YORK’S PARAMOUNT THEATER, the first from a major studio to be shot in 3-D. Warner Brothers produced the film — one of the first of its genre to be shot in color — that used three-dimensional, or stereoscopic, film process. Andre De Toth directed “The House of Wax” — a remake of 1933’s “Mystery in the Wax Museum.” “The House of Wax” unfolds the story of Henry Jarrod, a sculptor who goes insane after his partner burns their wax museum to the ground in order to collect the insurance payout. The movie launched Vincent Price in his horror film genre; although some critics consider an earlier (1943) film, “The Song of Bernadette,” to be a horror film as well. Vincent Price played the Imperial Prosecutor in that movie.

The 3-D filming process involved in “The House of Wax” used two cameras or a single twin-lensed camera, to represent both the right and the left eye of the human viewer. Images from the two cameras were then projected simultaneously onto the screen. Moviegoers had to view “The House of Wax” through specially-tinted stereoscopic glasses to experience its full 3-D effect.

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MCCARTNEY GOES SOLO — PAUL MCCARTNEY MADE HIS FAMOUS ANNOUNCEMENT ON APRIL 10, 1970, THAT HE WAS ‘Taking a break’ from The Beatles, although during an interview he said he had no plans to resume his songwriting relationship with John Lennon. The occasion of his announcement was the upcoming release of his debut solo album, “McCartney.” This breakup was actually a slowly fracturing relationship. John Lennon and Yoko Ono had gotten married the previous year, but it later came out that McCartney did not blame her for the breakup. McCartney also married Linda in March 1969 — the same month as John and Yoko.

McCartney had a successful run with his band ‘Wings,” founded in 1971, with Linda McCartney on keyboards. George Harrison and Ringo Starr also had successful solo careers, as did John Lennon before he was assassinated on Dec. 8, 1980, at age 40.

See previous milestones, here.