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| William Bligh 1814 |
The 28th April seems to be a day crowded with incident. On this day in 1789 whilst in the Pacific Ocean, some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on HMS Bounty. From all accounts, Fletcher Christian and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked, awakened him, and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet. When Bligh entreated Christian to be reasonable, Christian would only reply, "I am in hell, I am in hell!" Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 18 joined the mutiny, two were passive, and 22 remained loyal to Bligh.
The mutineers ordered Bligh, the ship's master, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward) and the ship's clerk into Bounty's launch. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remaining aboard, as they knew that those who remained on board would be considered de jure mutineers under the Articles of War.
Fletcher Christian, Aged 24 years, 5ft 9 inches high, Dark Swarthy complexion - Complexion - Dark and very swarthy Hair blackish or very dark brown - Make-strong- Marks -? Tattoo on the left breast... His knees stand a little out and may be called a little bow legged. He is subject to violent perspirations and particularly his hands, that he soils anything he handles.
Bligh was still only 34 himself, with the rank of Lieutenant Commanding. After being placed in the launch, Bligh, with a crew of 18, navigated the 23-foot (7 m) open launch on a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies. Equipped with a quadrant and a pocket watch and with no charts or compass, he recorded the distance as 3,618 nautical miles (6,710 km). Quite a remarkable bit of seamanship. Of the mutineers who did finally returned to England, it transpires that 3 were tried and eventually hanged on HMS Brunswick on 29th October 1792.
In Italy on the 28th April, 1945, Benito Mussolini and his companion Clara Petacci were shot by members of the Italian Resistance Movement. He was discovered and captured on the 27th April, in a truck that was part of a convoy of retreating German troops making for the Swiss border. There had apparently been an arrangement with the Partisans, of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade, that the convoy would be given safe passage providing no Italians were being concealed among the German soldiers. Mussolini and Clara Petacci were found out by Urban Lazzaro. The official version is that Mussolini and Petacci were killed on the 28th April at 4:10 pm a the gates of a villa at Giulino de Mezzegra, overlooking the lake. Lazzaro has stated they were killed the same day the 27th at 12.30pm when Petacci tried to grab a gun from one of the resistance fighters who were escorting them to Milan for a public execution. Shots were fired and Mussolini was hit "they finished him off on the spot and then shot Clara Petacci for causing the accident". There bodies were later hung in the square.
Just two years after the Italian Partisans revolted against their fascist leadership and 158 years after the Bounty expedition to the South Pacific, another expedition (which did not result in mutiny, revolt or hanging) set off to the same waters in April of 1947, Kon-Tiki was a raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. The trip began on 28 April, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.
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