TODAY IN HISTORY | April 28th

TODAY’S TOPICS

• 1881 - Billy The Kid Escapes Jail

• 1945 - Benito Mussolini Executed

  Extras

  Poison Apples🍎

  Beaver or Fish?🦫

  The First Selfie🤳

  Samurai Justice⚔️

1881 Billy The Kid Escapes Jail

In April 1881, Billy the Kid was being held at the Lincoln County Courthouse in New Mexico, awaiting execution for his crimes. He was kept under close watch by two deputies, James Bell and Bob Olinger. Bell was assigned to guard Billy upstairs in a small room where he was shackled, while Olinger often stayed across the street at the local hotel or saloon during his shifts. The town expected Billy’s execution to happen soon, and security was assumed to be sufficient for the short time left before he was to be moved.

During his confinement, Billy asked Deputy Bell to allow him to use the outhouse or move around. While Bell was escorting him down the stairs, Billy managed to slip out of one of his handcuffs. The exact method is still debated — some accounts suggest he overpowered Bell and took his revolver, while others claim he had somehow acquired a hidden firearm. In any case, Billy ended up with a gun and shot Bell as he tried to flee. Bell staggered out of the courthouse and collapsed outside, where he died from his wounds.

After shooting Bell, Billy moved quickly to secure the building. He retrieved a double-barreled shotgun that Bob Olinger had left propped against a wall upstairs. Olinger, who had been eating lunch across the street, heard the gunfire and rushed back toward the courthouse. As he neared the door, Billy fired the shotgun from a window, striking Olinger and killing him instantly. It was reported that Billy may have called out to Olinger just before shooting, but most historical sources avoid confirming that detail firmly.

With both deputies dead, Billy now controlled the courthouse. He located the jail keys, freed himself from the remaining shackles, and took time to find a horse. Some witnesses later claimed Billy lingered for a short while, gathering supplies, but he eventually exited the building without further confrontation. Billy the Kid then rode away from Lincoln, successfully escaping what had been expected to be the final days before his scheduled hanging.

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

1945 Benito Mussolini Executed

By April 1945, World War II was nearing its end in Europe, and Benito Mussolini’s power had collapsed in Italy. After being removed from leadership in 1943, Mussolini had been placed in charge of a puppet state in northern Italy under German protection, known as the Italian Social Republic. As Allied forces and Italian partisans closed in, Mussolini attempted to flee to Switzerland with a small group of loyalists. His plan was to cross the border and possibly seek refuge elsewhere, hoping to escape capture and likely execution.

On April 27, 1945, Mussolini and his companions were stopped near the town of Dongo by Italian communist partisans. Disguised in a German military uniform and traveling with a convoy of retreating German soldiers, Mussolini was nonetheless recognized. The partisans detained him and his entourage and took them into custody. After brief deliberations among the partisan leadership, it was decided that Mussolini, along with several key fascist officials traveling with him, would be executed without a formal trial.

On the afternoon of April 28, Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were taken to a small village called Giulino di Mezzegra. There, along a stone wall near a rural villa, they were shot by partisan forces. Exact details about who gave the final order and who fired the fatal shots vary slightly among sources, but it is generally agreed that Mussolini and Petacci were executed together at close range. Several other fascist leaders captured alongside Mussolini were also executed later that same day.

After the executions, Mussolini’s and Petacci’s bodies were transported to Milan. On April 29, their corpses, along with those of other executed fascists, were publicly displayed in Piazzale Loreto. Hung upside down from a metal girder at a gas station, the display was intended as a symbol of the end of fascism in Italy. Crow

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

Poison Apples🍎
When tomatoes first arrived in Europe in the 16th century, people were very suspicious of them. Many Europeans believed tomatoes were poisonous, and they even nicknamed them "poison apples." The confusion wasn’t totally random. Wealthy Europeans ate off of pewter plates, which contained a lot of lead. The high acidity of tomatoes leached lead out of the plates, causing lead poisoning — but instead of blaming their fancy dinnerware, people blamed the tomatoes. For a while, tomatoes were grown mostly as ornamental plants, admired for their looks but rarely eaten. It took centuries before they shook off their bad reputation and became the base for pizza, pasta sauce, and everything good in life.  🍅🍴💀

Beaver or Fish?🦫
In the 17th century, some Catholic scholars — eager to stick to Lent rules — argued that beavers counted as fish. Their reasoning? Beavers spent most of their lives in water and had scaly-looking tails, so... close enough, right? Based on this creative interpretation, Catholics were allowed to eat beaver meat during Lent, when the eating of land animals was forbidden but fish was still fair game. It wasn’t just beavers either — muskrats and even capybaras (in South America) got honorary "fish" status to keep the menu interesting during fasting seasons.🦫🍽️✝️

The First Selfie🤳
Way before smartphones and front-facing cameras, Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast, took what’s considered the first selfie in 1839. Using early photographic technology called a daguerreotype, Cornelius set up his camera, removed the lens cap, ran into the frame, and sat perfectly still for about 10-15 minutes (because 1839 camera speeds were painfully slow). The result? A slightly blurry but iconic black-and-white image of him staring straight into history. On the back, he even wrote: "The first light picture ever taken." 📸🧑‍🎩🎞️

⬇️The REAL First Selfie⬇️

Samurai Justice⚔️
In feudal Japan, samurai weren’t just warriors — they were walking symbols of honor, authority, and social order. And if you disrespected one, you could legally pay the ultimate price. Under a code known as kirisute gomen ("permission to cut and leave"), a samurai had the legal right to kill a commoner on the spot if they were insulted or disrespected — no trial, no jury, just a very swift, very sharp response. Of course, it wasn’t totally free-for-all murder. The samurai had to prove afterward that the killing was justified based on the offense, and excessive or dishonorable use of this right could still get them punished. Still, it meant that insulting the wrong guy with a sword wasn’t just rude — it could be deadly.⚔️💬🚫

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