Milestones: April 11, 2024

April 11, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NAPOLEON ABDICATES/PART I — NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, ONE OF HISTORY’S GREATEST MILITARY LEADERS who became emperor of France, abdicated the throne on April 11, 1814. His abdication was brought on by an ill-conceived invasion of Russia that alienated him from much of Europe. The soldier who fought and rose through the military ranks during the French Revolution of 1789 had started believing that Russia and England were plotting an alliance, prompting him to invade Russia in 1812. However, harsh winters and other factors led his troops to retreat from Moscow. His forces broken, he volunteered to step down so his son could run but this was rejected, and he was exiled to Elba.

However, Napoleon was able to regain power and reprise his emperor rule in 1815 when he escaped exile and returned to Paris. Regaining his supporters, he reigned for a period referred to as the Hundred Days, before facing defeat for good during the fierce Battle of Waterloo.

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IDI AMIN TOPPLED — UGANDAN DICTATOR IDI AMIN FLED THE UGANDAN CAPITAL OF KAMPALA on April 11, 1979, following a brutal and bloody eight-year rule as dictator of that landlocked eastern African nation. Amin, who starting in 1966 had become chief of the Ugandan army and air force, seized power and ruled as a tyrant, expelling Asians who didn’t have Ugandan nationality, plus a large group of people from India and Pakistan, who comprised a large percentage of Uganda’s workforce. More than 300,000 Ugandans died under his dictatorship. When the Ugandan economy collapsed, his rule became more chaotic. He unsuccessfully attacked neighboring Tanzania in 1978, leading that nation’s forces, along with Ugandans opposing his rule, to invade and topple him.

Idi Amin escaped to Libya, before settling in Saudi Arabia, where he died in August 2003.

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TRUMAN FIRES MACARTHUR — PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN, ON APRIL 11, 1951, FIRED GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, relieving him of command of the U.S. forces in Korea, in what was the most famous confrontation of a high-ranking military leader and the Commander in Chief. The issue was a disagreement in strategy over limiting and containing the Korean conflict. MacArthur, wanting to use Taiwanese forces to invade mainland China, persuaded Truman that the chances of Chinese intervention in North Korea were slim. He was proven wrong. Truman held his ground against MacArthur and then told the American public why extending the war was “tragically wrong… Our aim is to avoid the spread of the conflict. Truman said he fired General MacArthur “so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy.”

Nevertheless, MacArthur returned to the United States to a hero’s welcome, with parades organized and held in his honor, and an invitation to address Congress (with which the power to declare war sits.)

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SCARY MISSION — APOLLO 13, AN ILL-FATED SPACE MISSION TO THE MOON THAT wound up in a miraculously safe return, launched on April 11, 1970, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. However, the geological mission was jeopardized when an oxygen tank exploded two days later in the Command Module and the three astronauts had to improve life-sustaining conditions aboard the more limited lunar module. They managed to use it to repressurize the Command Module in preparation for a premature return to Earth. The spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere, but it wasn’t until parachutes were sighted in the Pacific Ocean that Mission Control knew that the three astronauts had splashed down safely.

The astronauts were James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise.

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BEST ACTRESS FOR “MOONSTRUCK” — THE ACTRESS AND SINGER CHER WON THE ACADEMY AWARD for Best Actress in the popular movie, “Moonstruck,” which took place in Brooklyn and Carroll Gardens. Cher, who had gained fame as the taller, female but lower-voiced half of the Sonny & Cher duo, appeared in three movies in 1987, including “Moonstruck,” for which co-star Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress. Norman Jewison directed this opera within an opera about an Italian widow who falls for her fiancé’s brother, all the while her philandering father (Vincent Gardenia) is ordered to “Go to Confession!” by Dukakis in the climactic scene.

In 1987, Cher also starred in “The Witches of Eastwick,” co-starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer; “Suspect,” co-starring Dennis Quaid.

See previous milestones, here.