TODAY IN HISTORY | April 25th

TODAY’S TOPICS

• 1792 - The Guillotine Makes It’s Debut

• 2014 - Flint’s Water Supply Poisoned

  Extras

  Stalin’s Son Sent To Gulag❄️

  Cuban “UFO” Crisis🛸
  A Special Delivery📦
  Original Greek Statues🏛️

1792 The Guillotine Makes It’s Debut

On April 25, 1792, a man named Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by guillotine in France. He was a common criminal — convicted of robbery and murder — but his death marked the beginning of something far bigger. This wasn’t just another execution. This was a test run for a brand-new machine, one designed to kill quickly, efficiently, and “humanely.” The French Revolution had found its signature weapon.

The guillotine was the brainchild of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who didn’t invent it — he just pushed for its use. He believed all executions, whether for kings or thieves, should be equal and painless. The machine was simple: a heavy angled blade, raised and dropped at lightning speed. No swordsman, no errors — just clean, fast death. Pelletier’s execution took place in public, with a massive crowd watching. When the blade fell, the reaction was mixed. Some people were shocked at how fast it happened. Others were disappointed — it wasn’t as dramatic as a hanging or beheading by axe.

But the point wasn't drama — it was mass use. Within months, the guillotine became the revolution’s preferred method of justice. And once the Reign of Terror kicked off, it didn’t stop. Nobles, priests, revolutionaries, and eventually even King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette met the same blade. One machine, countless heads.

The guillotine stayed in use in France until 1977, and it wasn’t officially outlawed until the death penalty was abolished in 1981. It started with a single execution on a spring morning in 1792 — and became a chilling symbol of equality, power, and the thin line between justice and slaughter.

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

2014 Flints Water Supply Poisoned

On April 25, 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan, flipped a switch and changed its water source from the Detroit system to the Flint River — a move meant to save money. What followed wasn’t just a misstep. It was a full-blown public health disaster. The river water, which was known to be highly corrosive, wasn’t properly treated. Within weeks, residents noticed the water smelled awful, tasted metallic, and came out of their faucets brown.

City and state officials kept telling people everything was fine. But it wasn’t. That untreated water began corroding old lead pipes, causing toxic levels of lead to leach into the drinking supply. People got sick. Kids started showing signs of lead poisoning. Complaints piled up. And still, the government insisted the water was safe.

It took 18 months of protests, research, whistleblowing scientists, and national attention before the government admitted the truth. The water was poisoned. Thousands of residents, including children, had been exposed to lead — a toxin that causes permanent damage to the brain and body. Officials were charged, lawsuits followed, and the city was left to clean up a mess it didn’t cause.

Flint’s water crisis became a symbol of what happens when leadership fails its people — especially in poor, majority-Black communities. Even now, years later, residents are still dealing with the effects. It started as a cost-cutting move, but April 25 is remembered as the day a government decision turned into one of the worst public health betrayals in modern U.S. history.

🤖 Ai Depiction of Event

Stalin Sent Son to Gulag❄️
Joseph Stalin didn’t just rule the Soviet Union with an iron fist — he used it at home, too. His oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, ended up a tragic example of just how cold Stalin could be. Yakov was captured by the Nazis during World War II, and when they offered to trade him for a German general, Stalin reportedly refused, saying: “I will not trade a soldier for a general.” Brutal. But before that, their relationship was already rocky. At one point, Stalin was so angry at Yakov’s behavior that he had him sent to a gulag — the very same prison system Stalin used to crush dissent across the USSR. Yakov’s life ended in a Nazi concentration camp, either by suicide or execution — the details are murky. What’s clear is that being Stalin’s son didn’t come with much protection... just a lot of pressure, and no mercy. Father of a nation? Sure. Father of the year? Absolutely not. 🧊🪓🇷🇺

Cuban “UFO” Crisis🛸
During the Cold War, the CIA brainstormed some wild ways to mess with Fidel Castro’s Cuba — and one of the strangest ideas? Faking an alien invasion. That’s right. As part of the agency’s long list of “let’s mess with Castro” schemes, there was a plan to stage UFO sightings and create panic among Cuban troops. The idea was that, amid the confusion, the U.S. could swoop in or encourage uprisings while everyone was too busy looking for flying saucers to notice. The plan never got past the idea phase (thankfully), but it fits right in with the CIA’s other Castro-related hits, like: exploding cigars, hallucinogenic broadcasts, and even beard-destroying chemicals, because nothing says regime change like aliens and facial hair sabotage. 🛸🎯🇨🇺

A Special Delivery📦
In Victorian-era England (and even early 20th-century America), it was technically legal to send a human being through the mail — and yes, that sometimes included actual babies. How? Postal rules were a little... flexible. After parcel post was introduced, people realized it was often cheaper to “mail” a child (usually to a nearby relative) than to buy a train ticket. A few parents slapped stamps on a kid’s coat, handed them over to a mail carrier, and boom — postal baby delivery. The kids were usually accompanied by the carrier and treated with care — it wasn’t like they were stuffed in a box. But still, the fact that it happened at all? Wild. The post office quickly caught on and banned mailing humans (as you’d hope). But for a brief, bizarre moment in history, your toddler could arrive with the morning letters. 📬👶📦

Original Greek Statues🏛️
Those elegant, white marble statues from Ancient Greece? They weren’t supposed to look like that. Originally, Greek statues were painted in bright, bold colors — skin tones, hair, eyes, robes, even gold jewelry details. The practice is called polychromy, and to the ancient eye, these statues would’ve looked more like life-sized, technicolor people than serene, ghostly marble. Over time, the paint faded or was scrubbed off during cleaning and restoration, especially in the Renaissance when “pure white marble” became the aesthetic ideal. That’s how we ended up with the myth that Greek art was all clean lines and monochrome perfection. But the reality? Ancient statues were vibrant, flashy, and totally un-subtle. 🏛️🎨🏺

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