Millions of Christians around the world will begin the final leg of their metaphysical journey to Calvary this week starting with the liturgical celebration of Passion or Palm Sunday. In this post we travel to Holy or Spy Wednesday. As Christians take time in this jubilee year to reflect on the core of our faith millions of others will not. They won’t go to church services or think deeply about Jesus’s passion. They will continue to release movies, books and music to the wider world as if nothing special is going on. They will add sins to Jesus cross by killing others and starting wars. But people of all races and creeds will achieve great things in which the cross has set them free. Some of these events are recorded in the history books. Normal secular life walks along the road of cavalry with pious faith filled Christians.
What events big and small happen as folks went to Palm Sunday and other Holy Week services?
Listed below are some of those memorable events.
I have listed the current liturgical feast and date.
Followed by an event that happen on the same date, but different year.
And finally an event that happen on the same liturgical date but a different date and year.
What is confusing about Lent and Easter is that an event that happen on one day one year may not happen on the same day next year. It’s tricky but for the lover of history its fun to unravel and wrap your mind around.
We start out Holy Week two days before with two movies opening in cinemas that our perfect to start out the journey to Jerusalem.
Please Note That Historical Data is comprised and quoted from Wikipedia.
Friday Before Palm Sunday April 11, 2025
The Chosen Part 3, Episodes 6-8 Premiers in Theaters
The King of Kings Premiers in Theaters
April 11, 1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.
117. We therefore consider it Our duty as the vicar on earth of Jesus Christ—the Saviour of the world, the Author of peace—and as interpreter of the most ardent wishes of the whole human family, in the fatherly love We bear all mankind, to beg and beseech mankind, and above all the rulers of States, to be unsparing of their labor and efforts to ensure that human affairs follow a rational and dignified course.
165. The world will never be the dwelling place of peace, till peace has found a home in the heart of each and every man, till every man preserves in himself the order ordained by God to be preserved. That is why St. Augustine asks the question: “Does your mind desire the strength to gain the mastery over your passions? Let it submit to a greater power, and it will conquer all beneath it. And peace will be in you—true, sure, most ordered peace. What is that order? God as ruler of the mind; the mind as ruler of the body. Nothing could be more orderly.” (69)
Friday Before Palm Sunday April 5, 1963
Luna 4, the first successful spacecraft of the USSR’s “second generation” Luna program, missed the Moon by 8,336.2 kilometres (5,179.9 mi) at 13:25 UT and entered a barycentric Earth orbit.
The Soviet Union accepted an American proposal to establish a Moscow–Washington hotline so that the leaders of the two nations could communicate directly with each other in order to avoid war. Originally, the hot line was a teletype system rather than a direct voice line.
Saturday Before Palm Sunday April 12, 2025
April 12, 1977 – Six weeks before the debut of the film Star Wars, Marvel Comics Group published the first issue of a comic book of the same name with the tag line, “Marvel’s Epic Official Adaptation of the Monumental 20th Century Fox Movie!”. Although George Lucas authorized the publication (on November 12, 1976) of a paperback book that introduced the characters, the comic book was the first to provide a preview to fans of what the film would look like.
Saturday Before Palm Sunday April 2nd, 1977
US Top 40 Singles Week Ending:
#2 DANCING QUEEN by Abba
# 8 HOTEL CALIFORNIA by The Eagles
10 MAYBE I’M AMAZED by Wings
# 11 1 CARRY ON WAYWARD SON by Kansas
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
Palm Sunday opens Holy Week of the Lord’s Passion, of which it already bears within itself the deepest dimension.
At a certain moment, the Pharisees approach him and can no longer bear the exclamations of the crowd in honour of Christ, who is entering Jerusalem – and say: “Master, rebuke your disciples”.
Jesus answers: “I tell you, if they are silent, the stones will cry out” (Lk 19:39-40).
Today we begin Holy Week of the Lord’s Passion in Rome. In this city there is no shortage of stones that speak of how the cross of Christ came here and how it took root in this capital of the ancient world.
Let the stones not make men blush.
May our hearts and consciences cry out louder than they!
-John Paul II , Palm Sunday (March 30, 1980)
April 13, 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
Palm Sunday April 12, 1829
Fanny Stenhouse (April 12, 1829 – April 19, 1904) is born. She was an early Mormon pioneer who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was most famous for her 1872 publication Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons, a record of personal experience as one of the wives of a Mormon elder during a period of more than twenty years in the mid-1800s.
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1861 – American Civil War: The American Civil War began the day before with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina. On this day Union forces surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces.
Palm Sunday March 24, 1861
“For the first time in the history of the country, abolitionism pure and simple has found an honorable recognition at the hands of the administration. The abolitionists of the North – the enemies of the country and the advocates of disunion – have, for the first time, been elevated to places of honor and station … there are two or three of the ultra stripe whose services to the dominant party should not be forgotten. There is Garrison, who has cursed the Union a thousand and one times, at least, and who, moreover has furnished no small share of the ideas upon which the republican party was built up …”
“Honor to Abolitionism Pure and Simple,” New York Herald, March 24, 1861, p. 4: 4. (link)
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
Palm Sunday April 10, 1870
A sermon on the operations of Divine Providence: as seen in the abolition of slavery, and in the enactment and ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the federal Constitution. Preached at Joy Street church, April 10, 1870 by Ellis, Alexander
God had already determined to destroy Slavery, and so before he did so. He first infatuated the Slaveholders. Had South Carolina not declared the civil war, had Grant not taken command of the Union Army, and had Sumner not worried the very life of Lincoln out of him, it is a question whether the sons of Ham today, would be able to sing,
” My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing,” &c.But God has brought order out of confusion. Freedom has succeeded slavery; and now, not only are four millions of men and women—who once were down-trodden and op
pressed under the iron foot of the monster, who were forced to fields of unrequited tasks, like beasts of burden, and flogged” and tortured with relentless cruelty, on the most frivolous pretences—but the whole world have to gaze with wonder, at the operations of Divine Providence.But ten years ago, the Negro had no rights which a white man was bound to respect; to-day our Government can say, as Cowper said of England
” Slaves cannot breathe in England—if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free ;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.”Magnitude of the Work accomplished. Not only is the Abolition of Slavery a cause for wonder, but the change which has since that time come over society,
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1925 -The Larry Semon-directed version of the film The Wizard of Oz was released, with Semon as the Scarecrow, Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy, and comedian Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man.
Palm Sunday April 5, 1925
Voting was held in Belgium for the 187 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and the 93 seats in the Belgian Senate. The Catholic Party and the Belgian Labour Party each won 78 seats in the Chamber and formed a coalition government headed by Aloys Van de Vyvere of the Catholic Party. In the Senate, the Catholic Party won 34 seats and the Labour Party won 33.
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1937 – British engineer Frank Whittle and his team successfully tested a prototype jet engine, the Power Jets W.1, at his factory in Rugby, Warwickshire.
Palm Sunday March 21, 1937
Mit brennender Sorge, the encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI, was read out from the pulpits of German Catholic churches. Copies of the encyclical had to be secretly smuggled into the country.
43. He who searches the hearts and reins (Psalm vii. 10) is Our witness that We have no greater desire than to see in Germany the restoration of a true peace between Church and State. But if, without any fault of Ours, this peace is not to come, then the Church of God will defend her rights and her freedom in the name of the Almighty whose arm has not shortened. Trusting in Him, “We cease not to pray and to beg” (Col. i. 9) for you, children of the Church, that the days of tribulation may end and that you may be found faithful in the day of judgment; for the persecutors and oppressors, that the Father of light and mercy may enlighten them as He enlightened Saul on the road of Damascus. With this prayer in Our heart and on Our lips We grant to you, as a pledge of Divine help, as a support in your difficult resolutions, as a comfort in the struggle, as a consolation in all trials, to You, Bishops and Pastors of the Faithful, priests, Religious, lay apostles of Catholic Action, to all your diocesans, and specially to the sick and the prisoners, in paternal love, Our Apostolic Benediction
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
Palm Sunday March 22, 1964
Venus de Milo, the famed 2000-year-old Greek statue, was found to be slightly damaged as it arrived in Yokohama for transfer to the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo on loan from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Already missing both of its arms, the statue was found to have sustained four chips “from the folds of her robe below the hip on the left side”. Venus de Milo had been shipped from Marseilles on February 18 on board the French ocean liner Vietnam.
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed “Odyssey“) while en route to the Moon.
Palm Sunday March 22, 1970
The United States first used the BLU-82 bomb in combat, dropping the most powerful conventional weapon up to that time on North Vietnamese Army and Pathet Lao guerrilla troops in Long Tieng in Laos. The 15,000 lb (6,800 kg) bomb, nicknamed the “Daisy Cutter”, had originally been designed to clear jungles to create landing zones for helicopters because it could clear an area within a radius of 300 feet (91 m) without leaving a bomb crater.
Palm Sunday April 13, 2025
April 13, 1977– Elvis flew to Las Vegas with Alicia Kerwin and Billy and Jo Smith. Later they went on to Palm Springs, where Elvis bought Alicia a car. Then Elvis experienced trouble breathing again and Dr. Ghanem flew in from Las Vegas to attend to Elvis. – ElvisNews.com
Palm Sunday, April 3, 1977
Clear the Temple Monday April 14, 2025
Good Friday, April 14, 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln dies the following day.
Clear the Temple Monday, April 10, 1865
Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued his Farewell Address, also known as General Order No. 9, to his Army of Northern Virginia the day after he surrendered to Union Army Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee’s surrender was instrumental in bringing about the end of the American Civil War.
Clear the Temple Monday April 14, 2025
April 14, 1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
Clear the Temple Monday April 11, 1881
Spelman College is established in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a private, historically black, women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is a founding member of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium. It was founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901 and is the oldest private historically black liberal arts institution for women.
Clear the Temple Monday April 14, 2025
April 14, 1950 – Archbishop Stefan Wyszyński and the other bishops of the Polish Episcopal Conference (Adam Stefan Sapieha and Zygmunt Choromański) signed an accord with the Government of Poland, independently of the Vatican, with church and state pledging not to interfere with the other.
Clear the Temple Monday April 2, 1950
Jack Benny Radio Show with Guest Al Jolson
Fig Tuesday April 15, 2025
April 15, 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.
Fig Tuesday April 2, 1912
The Titanic began sea trials.
Fig Tuesday April 15, 2025
April 15, 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.
Fig Tuesday April 1, 1947
Jackie Robinson, the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“The S.P.C.A. reported at noon today that their phone had been ringing steadily all morning, keeping one person busy just answering it, and all the callers were individuals who were victims of April Fool.
The majority of the calls this morning were from men, it was reported, who asked for ‘Mrs. Kat’ or ‘Is Miss Kitty there?’
It seems that someone leaves word that an intended victim is to call the number and ask for either of the above characters.”
[The Hagerstown Daily Mail – Apr 1, 1947] Is Miss Kitty There? (April Fool, 1947)Fig Tuesday April 15, 2025
April 15, 1955 – McDonald’s restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Fig Tuesday April 5, 1955
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the age of 80, after suffering several strokes.
Moonraker, the third James Bond novel, is published by Jonathan Cape.
Spy Wednesday April 16, 2025
Fig Tuesday April 16, 1889 -Silent Film Comedian Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977) is born.
Spy Wednesday April 17, 1889
3 Days from Today on April 20 the future architect and infamous mass murderer and dictator Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) is born.
2 Days ago on April 15, Saint Damien of Molokai died in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi after years of serving in ministry to people with leprosy (Hansen’s disease), who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.
WORDS OF DYING ONES.
The testimony of the djing prove the nearness of heaven to earth, souls standing on the line between time and eternity, seem to have quickened faculties and see into the beyond. Thus Jacob of old, when dying, had his boys gather around him, and talked of the future, as though it lay open at his feet. Men in this age have seen heaven in a
dying hour.Alfred Cookman exclaimed; ‘I am •weeping through the gates; washed in the blood of the Lamb.’
Mrs. Fletcher said : ‘I am drawing near to glory.’
A young friend said to me: I have come to the stream, and I see Jesus on the other side waiting for me.
Miss McPerson, the adopted daughter of a Methodist Protestant minister said :
The crossing must be near* for I hear the rush of the endless stream, the celestial odors touch my senses, and a strange sweet music out of a purer world is in all the air; with me it is the dawn of a new day, the immortal, and 1 long to breathe its air, and gather its fruits, to see Jesus as he is.’Heaven can not be faraway when every hour is made fragrant with such testimony. The eyes that shut In a dying hour, Will open the next in blisa; The welcome will sound in the heavenly world Ere the fare well is hushed in this. We pass from the clasp of mourning friends – To the arms of the loved and lost, And those smiling faces will Greet us there Which on earth we valued most.’
THE BRETHREN EVANGELIST.-April 17, 1889.
Spy Wednesday April 16, 2025
April 16, 1963 – U.S. civil rights campaigner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his open letter from Birmingham Jail, sometimes known as “The Negro Is Your Brother”, while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting against segregation.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.
If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.
Spy Wednesday April 10, 1963
An unknown gunman narrowly missed killing former U.S. Army General Edwin A. Walker, who had been working on his taxes at his home in Dallas, Texas. The would-be killer would later be claimed to have been Lee Harvey Oswald, who would allegedly use the same rifle to assassinate U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November.
Spy Wednesday April 16, 2025
April 16, 1988 –My Neighbor Totoro is released in theaters.
Spy Wednesday March 30, 1988
Beetlejuice is released in theaters.
