Battle of Forum Gallorum 14 April

On the 14 April 43 BC at the Battle of Forum Gallorum, Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar’s assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed. This not particularly unusual event in Roman History gave William Shakespeare something to write about. Mutina (as you all no doubt know) is now called Modena and is the ancestral home of De Tomaso, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. In 1894, in order for the heaving masses to be able to appreciate Bill Shakespeares efforts, Thomas Edison demonstrated the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence. This device was a precursor to movies and the favourite device in the common-all-sea-side-piers ‘What the Butler Saw’ machines. On a more sombre note, in 1912 on April 14 at 11.40pm whilst sailing on its maiden voyage just south of the Grand Banks, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and by 2.20am the next morning, just 2 hours and 40 minutes later, sank. Of a total of 2,208 people on board that night, only 705 survived; 1,503 perished. Finally, and still on a more sombre note, on 14 April 1986 a considerable number of 2.2 lb (1kg) hailstones fell on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92 people. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.