Today in History: April 7-10
The Codex Justinianeus is completed, the Đại Việt win the Battle of the Bạch Đằng River, and more
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April 7, 529: The Codex Justinianeus, the first section of Roman Emperor Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis, is completed. The Corpus Juris Civilis was meant to standardize and codify imperial law, which had fragmented into multiple codices and laws that didn’t necessarily cohere with one another. Justinian ordered a review and modernization of these law codes upon his accession as emperor. The Codex is the product of that effort. Subsequent sections included the Digesta, a compendium of legal writings; the Institutiones, a training manual for jurists; and the Novellae, a compilation of new laws promulgated after the Codex was written. The Corpus Juris Civilis has influenced everything from canon law in the Catholic Church to the legal codes of the Ottoman Balkans and modern Greece to contemporary international law.
April 7, 1994: One day after Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were assassinated when their aircraft was shot down before landing in Kigali (either by Hutu extremists or by the then-rebel Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front militia), Hutu génocidaires begin slaughtering Tutsi Rwandans en masse. The ensuing genocide left hundreds of thousands dead, including Twa Rwandans and some Hutu along with the Tutsi, with highest estimates putting the death toll at over one million. It finally ended in July, with the military takeover of Rwanda by the RPF under current President Paul Kagame.
April 8, 876: An Abbasid army manages to defeat the rapidly expanding Saffarid empire at the Battle of Dayr al-ʿAqul, possibly saving the caliphate and definitely sending the Saffarids into a decline from which they never recovered.
April 8, 1904: France and the United Kingdom sign a package of agreements collectively known as the “Entente Cordiale,” resetting their relationship and ending over 800 years of on again/off again hostility, dating back to the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century. The agreements included mutual recognition of colonial prerogatives and gave both countries an ally in the face of Germany’s growing prominence. The Entente, expanded to include Russia, was the counterpart to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and thus helped draw the battle lines (Italy aside) ahead of World War I.
April 9, 1241: A small Mongolian army under the command of Orda, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, defeats a Polish force under the command of Grand Duke Henry II at the Battle of Legnica.
April 9, 1288: The Đại Việt navy defeats what was undoubtedly a much larger Yuan Dynasty fleet on the Bạch Đằng River in what is today northern Vietnam. The Đại Việt forces used the terrain to lay a trap for the Mongols that depended on knowledge of the river’s water levels at high and low tide. The defeat ended Kublai Khan’s third and final invasion of Đại Việt (he planned another that fizzled out upon his death in 1294), and while Đại Việt ruler Trần Nhân Tông continued his kingdom’s tributary relationship with the Yuan that relationship was less onerous than it might have been had the Yuan been able to conquer the region.
April 9, 1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee, along with his Army of Northern Virginia, surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Court House. Though there were still other Confederate armies in the field, Lee’s surrender is generally considered to mark the end of the US Civil War.

April 10, 1710: The “Statute of Anne” takes effect, establishing a publicly enforced copyright standard. The statute is considered something of a legal milestone (at least in the Anglophone world) in that it made copyright protection a public, rather than private, matter and established certain privileges for authors over publishers. In the US, the statute influenced the copyright provision in the US Constitution as well as the Copyright Act of 1790. Initially applying only to books, it was expanded over succeeding decades to cover other types of intellectual property. The statute was repealed as part of the Copyright Act 1842.
April 10, 1815: Indonesia’s Mount Tambora volcano begins the largest eruption in human history with an explosion that was heard 1200 miles away and knocked roughly a full mile off of the volcano’s elevation. The subsequent year, 1816, is known as “The Year Without a Summer” because of the ensuing volcanic winter. The climate effects caused worldwide famine and may have, among other things, contributed to westward migration in the United States and the invention of the bicycle.
April 10, 1821: Ottoman authorities seize and execute Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V following Easter mass in Constantinople (or Istanbul if you prefer). The Ottomans held Gregory, as the leader of the Greek Orthodox Millet, responsible for the recently-begun Greek Revolution, even though Gregory had been nothing but critical of the revolutionaries. His execution was presumably meant to demoralize the rebels but as you might expect it had precisely the opposite effect, invigorating the rebels and generating a swell of support for the Greek cause throughout Europe. It also prompted rebel attacks on Jewish communities in Greece, due to reports that the authorities had turned Gregory’s body over to Constantinople’s Jewish community to be mutilated. It’s not entirely clear whether that event actually took place and, if it did, whether the Jewish participants were involved of their own accord or because they were pressed into service by the Ottomans. Although Gregory’s execution occurred on April 22 per the modern Gregorian calendar, it took place on April 10 according to the “Old Style” Julian calendar, so his annual feast day is April 10.
April 10, 1998: The governments of the UK and Ireland as well as Republican and Unionist forces in Northern Ireland sign the Good Friday Agreement, ending the Northern Ireland conflict, AKA “The Troubles.” The agreement recognizes Northern Ireland as part of the UK but also left open the possibility of Irish reunification if majorities in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were ever in favor. It also allowed the people of Northern Ireland to claim British or Irish citizenship, or both if they preferred. The deal’s survival has relied to a great extent on the soft Irish border, owing to the fact that both Ireland and the UK were in the European Union. It very much remains to be seen whether it can survive Brexit.