page_title: April 1966
section_title: April 16, 1966 (Saturday)
hierarchical_section_title: April 1966 / April 16, 1966 (Saturday)
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving after the fresco in Bargello Chapel, painted by Giotto di Bondone in the 14th century. Detail on Dante's eye was originally never filled in, but in 1840 a painter named Marini did a touch-up job on Giotto's painting of Dante, filling in the eyeball. Refer to page 59 of Michael Caesar's Dante, the Critical Heritage, 1314(?)-1870.
context_page_description: The following events occurred in April 1966:
context_section_description: The millennium of the founding of the nation of Poland, and the 1,000th anniversary of the date that its rulers first endorsed the Christian faither, was celebrated by both church and state in separate ceremonies at the city of Gniezno. Poland's first ruler, Mieszko the First, had received Christian baptism on Easter Sunday, April 15, 996, at the age of 26. Church ceremonies at St. Adalbert's Cathedral ended in time for Communist Party leaders to assemble at the town square for public addresses.
  After 83 years at West 39th Street and Broadway, New York City's original Metropolitan Opera House conducted its final performance before closing its doors. A standing-room-only crowd watched a five-hour performance of operatic arias by 60 different singers at "The Met". To introduce the program, the Met's general manager, Sir Rudolf Bing, summed up the move to the new location at the Lincoln Center on West 63rd Street, saying "The company goes on and will do all we can to deserve your continued support.  The queen is dead.  Long live the queen!"  
  Italian poet Dante Alighieri was cleared of charges of conspiracy against the city of Florence, and of corruption in public office, following an eight-hour hearing convened in Arezzo by a court headed by former Court of Cassations  President Ernesto Eula, and that included former Prime Minister Giovanni Leone.  Dante had been sentenced to death in both 1303 and 1315 after trials in Florence, but was subsequently exiled and had passed away on September 13, 1321.  The hearing was the last event in a series of celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth.
  Chinese intellectual, poet and journalist Deng Tuo was publicly chastised by the government newspaper Beijing Daily, which revealed that he had written literary and political works that were now judged as counterrevolutionary, and listed the various pen names that he had used. More denunciations followed and on May 17, he committed suicide.
  Died: Nandalal Bose, 83, Indian painter
caption: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321
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