Today in History

Births On This Day, April 12th 🎂

1947 David Letterman
American comedian, talk show host

1947 Tom Clancy
American author

1940 Herbie Hancock
American pianist, composer, bandleader

1871 Ioannis Metaxas
Greek general, politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece

1823 Alexander Ostrovsky
Russian playwright

Deaths On This Day, April 12th 🪦

1989 Sugar Ray Robinson
American boxer

1981 Joe Louis
American boxer

1975 Josephine Baker
American/French actress, singer, dancer

1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt
American politician, 32nd President of the United States

1555 Joanna of Castile
 

12 April 1966
Jan Berry, the younger half of Jan and Dean, was paralysed after he ran his Corvette into a parked truck on a side street in Beverly Hills. Berry suffered total physical paralysis for over a year as well as extensive brain damage which made it impossible to return to performing.
Jan's accident ended their career as hit makers, although they attempted a comeback in 1978 after the biographical movie, Dead Man's Curve, was shown on TV.
 
1934
the 2nd highest ever wind speed of 231 mph was recorded on Mt Washington, New Hampshire
1955
polio vaccine which Jonas Salk tested found to be safe &effective was fully approved by U.S. Food&Drug Adminstration
1976
author, Ann Rice's 1st book was published' Interview With a Vampire' has sold over 8 million copies world wide
1992
Euro Disney{Disneyland Paris} opens in Marne-la-Vallee France. Its the only park located on an island accessible by underwater tunnels. Its more compact than Disney World with 30,000 acres has 54 rides overall
 

April 12th Birthdays:
1917
Helen Forest- U.S big band singer with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James
1932
Tiny Tim- singer/ ukulele player who had a hit single' Tip Toe Through The Tulips'
1946
Ed O'Neill- actor best known TV role' Al Bundy' in Fox sitcom ' Married With Children'
1949
Scott Turow- attorney/ novelist' Presumed Innocent' made into movie starring Harrison Ford
1960
Ron Maclean- Canadian sportscaster best known for his work "Hockey Night In Canada'
Deaths:
1912
Clara Barton- nurse/ founder of American Red Cross 90
1975
Josephine Baker- singer/ dance revue artist/actress /civil rights activist 68
2019
Georgia Engel- actress best known TV role' Georgette' played girlfriend/then wife of 'Ted Baxter'{Ted Knight} in CBS sitcom'Mary Tyler Moore Show 70
 
13 April 2009
Phil Spector - Record Producer - was convicted of second-degree murder for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion in 2003.
The case went to the jury on March 26, 2009, and nineteen days later, on April 13, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Additionally, Spector was found guilty of using a firearm in the commission of a crime, which added four years to the sentence.
Spector was immediately taken into custody and was sentenced, on May 29, 2009, to nineteen years to life in California
Spector died of Covid related complications on January 16, 2021 aged 81 whilst still serving his sentence.
 
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On This Day In History, April 13th

1997 Tiger Woods becomes the youngest ever golfer to win the Masters Tournament
The then 21-year-old sportsman was also the first person of African heritage to win a major golf title. Tiger Woods is considered one of the most successful golfers of all time.

1970 An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, leaving the spacecraft crippled
The emergency prompted Jack Swigert's famous quote “Houston, we've had a problem”. The crew managed to return to Earth safely.

1970 Mikis Theodorakis is freed
The Greek composer and politician were interned in the concentration camp of Oropos by the right-wing military junta. The solidarity movement demanding his release included Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, and Harry Belafonte.

1960 The world's first satellite navigation system is launched
Transit 1B was primarily used by the U.S. Navy to update the navigation systems aboard their Polaris submarines.

1919 British troops massacre around 400 unarmed civilians in India
Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, in his own words “to punish the Indians for disobedience.” The Indian independence movement grew considerably after the Amritsar massacre.
 
Births On This Day, April 13th 🎂

1963 Garry Kasparov
Russian chess player

1949 Christopher Hitchens
English/American journalist, author

1924 Stanley Donen
American director, choreographer

1906 Samuel Beckett
Irish/French author, playwright, director, Nobel Prize laureate

1743 Thomas Jefferson
American politician, 3rd President of the United States

Deaths On This Day, April 13th 🪦

2009 Harry Kalas
American sportscaster

1954 Angus Lewis Macdonald
Canadian politician

1938 Grey Owl
English/Canadian environmentalist, author

1882 Bruno Bauer
German historian, philosopher

1868 Tewodros II
of Ethiopia
 
On This Day In History, April 14th

2003 The Human Genome Project is completed
The project dedicated to mapping the genes of the human genome was started in October 1990.

1988 The Soviet Union agrees to withdraw from Afghanistan
Soviet troops invaded the country in 1979 to support the communist rulers. They were defeated primarily by the Mujahideen, who were groups of militant Islamists sponsored by the CIA.

1986 The heaviest hailstones ever recorded hit Bangladesh
The lumps of ice weighed about 1 kg (2.2 lb). A total of 92 people reportedly died as a result.

1912 Doomed passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic
The subsequent sinking of the world's largest ocean liner of the time resulted in more than 1500 deaths. It was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history.

1865 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot
The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, wanted to revive the Confederate cause, mere days after their surrender to the Union Army, bringing the American Civil War to an end. Lincoln died the next day.
 
Births On This Day, April 14th 🎂

1977 Sarah Michelle Gellar
American actress, producer

1904 John Gielgud
English actor, director, producer

1892 V. Gordon Childe
Australian archaeologist, philologist

1891 B. R. Ambedkar
Indian jurist, politician

1629 Christiaan Huygens
Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist

Deaths On This Day, April 14th 🪦

1964 Rachel Carson
American biologist, author

1950 Ramana Maharshi
Indian philosopher

1935 Amalie Emmy Noether
German mathematician

1925 John Singer Sargent
American painter

1759 George Frideric Handel
German/English composer
 
14 April 1981
The space shuttle orbiter Columbia touched down on Rogers dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base.
The mission marked the first NASA flight to end with a wheeled landing and represented the beginning of a new age of spaceflight that would employ the same hardware repeatedly.
 
1828
lexiographer, Noah Webster registers copyright publication of the 1st American Dictionary
1865
Pres Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington,DC,he dies the next day
1914
Stacy G.Carkhuff, head of Firestone Tire&Rubber Company patents non-skid tire pattern
1960
Motown Records is incorporated by founder, record producer, Barry Gordy, Jr in Detroit, MI
1969
Academy Award Winners:
musical' Oliver' wins 5 Oscars inc best picture, best actress 1st time with a tie, Katherine Hepburn for' The Lion In Winter, Barbra Streisand'Funny GIrl, actor' Cliff Robertson' Charly' best supp actor' Jack Albertson' The Subject Was Roses', supp actress- Ruth Gordon' Rosemary's Baby'. The 1st time there was no program host
2015
archeologists in Kenya found 3.3 million yr old stone tools,oldest ever discovered which pre-date earliest humans
 
April 14th Birthdays:
1866
Anne Sullivan- Helen Keller's teacher
1904
John Guilgud- British actor stage/screen Arthur, Hamlet, Ages of Man
1925
Rod Steiger- actor' In The Heat of The Night, Pawnbrokers
1941
Julie Christie- British actress Dr Zhivago, Darling
1960
Brad Garrett- comic actor best known TV role' Robert' on CBS sitcom' Everybody Loves Raymond'
Deaths:
1759
George Fredric Handel- German composer, 'Messiah, Water Music 74
1964
Rachel Carson- U.S. Marine biologist/ author' Silent Spring 56
1995
Burl Ives- folk singer' A Little Tiny Tear/actor' Cat On a Hot Tin Roof 85
1999
Anthony Newly- singer/ film songwriter' Dr Doolittle, Goldfinger score, Willy Wonka 67
2015
Percy Sledge- soul singer' When a Man Loves a Woman 73
 
On This Day In History, April 15th

1994 The World Trade Organization is founded
The WTO coordinates and strives to liberalize international trade. It has been criticized for ignoring and escalating the negative social and environmental side effects of globalization.

1989 A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing
The death of reformer Hu Yaobang triggered the demonstrations, which grew in size and were brutally dispersed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4.

1986 The United States launches retaliatory air strikes against Libya
Around 40 Libyans died in Operation El Dorado Canyon, including an infant girl. The attack was the United States' response to the bombing of a Berlin discotheque on April 5, in which 3 people died.

1945 The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated
British and Canadian troops found about 53,000 prisoners inside the camp. Tens of thousands died before and after the liberation.

1935 The Eastman Kodak Company launches Kodachrome
The photographic film was one of the most popular media used by professional and hobby photographers around the world. The product was discontinued in 2009 because of the advent of digital photography.
 
Births On This Day, April 15th 🎂

1894 Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union

1858 Émile Durkheim
French sociologist

1843 Henry James
American/English author

1832 Wilhelm Busch
German poet, painter, illustrator

1452 Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, sculptor, architect

Deaths On This Day, April 15th 🪦

1998 Pol Pot
Cambodian politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia

1990 Greta Garbo
Swedish actress

1980 Jean-Paul Sartre
French philosopher, writer

1889 Father Damien
Flemish missionary, priest

1865 Abraham Lincoln
American lawyer, politician, 16th President of the United States
 
15 April 1989
The Hillsborough tragedy took place during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and is the worst stadium-related disaster in British sport history.
A human crush due to overcrowding occurred in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand, allocated to Liverpool supporters, killed 96 fans and injured 766.
Prior to the start of the game, there was a heavy influx of match-goers. In an effort to ease the overcrowding that was leading to the entrance turnstiles to become blocked, the police – led by match commander David Duckenfield - ordered one of the exit gates to be opened, leading to a disastrous flooding in of even more supporters that eventually led to a crush.
Following the disaster, police and British tabloid The Sun had blamed the Liverpool supporters for being responsible for the crush when the real problems had to deal with insufficient organisation and fatal decisions made by the South Yorkshire police.
It was only 28 years after the tragedy, however, that an inquest ruled that the victims had been unlawfully killed and ruled accidental, and that the blame was ultimately left with the Police.
 
15th April

1755 Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary 'A Dictionary of the English Language' was first published, in London. It contained explanations and meanings for 40,000 different words and had taken him almost 9 years to compile, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He was paid the sum of 1,500 guineas, equivalent to about ÂŁ230,000 in today's money.

1793 The Bank of England issued the first ÂŁ5 notes.

1942 The people of the British colony of Malta were awarded the George Cross in recognition of their heroic war time struggle against enemy attack.

1953 Reis Leming, a 22-year-old US airman stationed in Britain was presented with the George Medal. He had rescued 27 people in East Anglia during winter floods. The award was the first given to a foreigner during peacetime.

1964 Footballer George Best made his debut for Northern Ireland against Wales.

2010 All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries were suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moved south. The cloud triggered the UK's worst airspace restriction in living memory and brought much of Europe to a standstill.
 
1850
city of San Francisco was incorporated
1892 General Electric Co was formed by merger of Thomas Edison's General Electric Co with Thomas-Houston Electric Co. It was arranged by businessman, J.P. Morgan in NYC
1947
Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st African American to play in MLB with the Brooklyn Dodgers
1961
original Broadway production of Meredith Wilson's musical'The Music Man' closes after 1,375 performances, It starred Robert Preston, Barbara Cook. The show won 5 Tony Awards,Preston would reprise his role of' Prof Harold Hill' in the movie version '62 opposite Shirley Jones
1992
business woman, Leona Hemsley is sentenced to jail for tax evasion, served 18/21 months in jail
2019
Notre Dame Catherdal in Paris catches fire, roof was destroyed,toppled spire. The cause was short circuit in electrical system
 
April 15th Birthdays:
1894
Nikita Khrushchev- 1st Sec of Communist Party in Soviet Union 1953-1964
1924
Neville Marriner- British violinst/ conductor of Academy of St Martin In the Fields 1958-2011
1933
Elizabeth Montgomery- actress best known TV role' Samantha' on ABC sitcom' Betwitched'
1947
Linda Bloodsworth- Thomason- TV producer of 2 CBS hit sitcoms' Designing Women, Murphy Brown'
1959
Emma Thompson- British actress- Howards End{best actress Oscar}, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, The Remains of the Day,Sense&Sensibility{won Oscar for best adapted screenplay} Dead Again
1982
Seth Rogen- Canadian actor/ writer 'The 40 Yr old Virgin, Knocked Up, The Neighbors, The Interview
Deaths:
1912
Edward Smith- British Naval Capt aboard RMS Titantic 62
1990
Greta Garbo- Swedish actress Anna Karenina, Camille 84
1994
John Curry- British Men's Figure Skater 44
2020
Brian Dennehy- actor First Blood, Rambo, Cocoon, Presumed Innocent, Silverado,won 2 Tony awards lead actor in a play- "Death of a Salesman' '99, Long Day Journey's Into Night'03 81{heart failure}
 
On This Day In History, April 16th

2012 The trial of Anders Behring Breivik begins in Oslo
The right-wing extremist had killed 77 people, mostly teenagers, in Oslo with a car bomb and at a youth camp on Utøya island. After doubts about his mental health emerged before the trial, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

2003 Ten new member states are admitted to the European Union
The Treaty of Accession admitted countries including Poland, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic to the EU. Its original title contains 99 words.

1964 The Rolling Stones release their debut album
The album The Rolling Stones, released in the United States with the added title “England's Newest Hit Makers”, topped the UK charts for twelve weeks.

1917 Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia from exile
The communist revolutionary became the leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) later that year. From 1922, he was the first Premier of the Soviet Union.

1912 Harriet Quimby flies across the English Channel
The U.S. aviator was the first woman who achieved this feat. She died at the age of 37 when her plane crashed in Massachusetts.
 
Births On This Day, April 16th 🎂

1939 Dusty Springfield
English singer, producer

1927 Pope Benedict XVI
1918 Spike Milligan
Indian/Irish actor, singer, screenwriter, author

1896 Tristan Tzara
Romanian/French poet, critic

1889 Charlie Chaplin
English actor, director, producer, screenwriter, composer

Deaths On This Day, April 16th 🪦

1958 Rosalind Franklin
English scientist

1879 Bernadette Soubirous
French mystic, saint

1859 Alexis de Tocqueville
French historian, scientist

1850 Marie Tussaud
French sculptor founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

1828 Francisco Goya
Spanish painter
 
1705
Queen Anne Stuart of England knights physicist/mathematican, Isaac Newton
1900
U.S. Post Office issues 1st books of U.S. postage stamps- cost 2 cents. A book now costs $12
1932
' The Music Box' starring comedy duo, Stan Laurel&Oliver Hardy is released in the U.S. It won Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film
1943
Swiss scientist, Dr Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedlic effects of LSD -time,movement,color & sound can appear different to a person on a acid' trip'
1962
TV journalist/ reporter Walter Cronkite begins anchoring CBS Evening News
2021
Raul Castro resigns as Cuba's President, which ends his family's 6th decade of leadership
 
April 16th Birthdays:
1867
Wilbur Wright- U.S. aviator
1924
Henry Mancini- film composer/ conductor'Breakfast at Tiffanys, Days of Wine&Roses, The Pink Panther, Charade,Victor/Victoria. He composed TV theme scores' Peter Gunn, Mr Lucky, Remington Steele, Newhart, Hotel, mini series' The Thornbirds'
1930
Herbie Mann- jazz flutist 'Hijack, Push, Push'
1935
Bobby Vinton - pop singer Roses Are Red My Love, Blue Velvet,My Melody of Love
1947
Gerry Rafferty- Scottish singer/guitarist with band' Stealers Wheel' Stuck in the middle With You,Baker's St'
1965
Jon Cryer- actor,best known TV role' 'Alan Harper' in CBS sitcom' Two and a Half Men'
Deaths:
1958
Rosalind Franklin- British chemist, co-discoverer of DNA structure 37
1991
David Lean- British film director, Dr Zhivago, Ryan;s Daughter, Lawrence of Arabia 83
2013
Pat Summerall- retired NFL player with NYGiants/ CBS sportscaster 82{heart attack}
2018
Harry Anderson- actor/ comedian/magician, best known TV role' Judge Harry Stone' in original NBC sitcom' Night Court' 65{cancer}
 
On This Day In History, April 17th

1986 The world's longest war ends without a single shot having been fired
The state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly had been extended for a total of 335 years by the lack of a peace treaty. Some historians doubt that war had ever been declared.

1978 Mir Akbar Khyber's assassination triggers a communist coup in Afghanistan
The Communists introduced a series of reforms, such as equal rights for women and universal education. These achievements were undone soon after by the outbreak of several wars.

1975 Phnom Penh falls to the Khmer Rouge
The regime under “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot tortured and killed several million people. Amongst the communists' perceived enemies were intellectuals, anyone with a connection to the former government, and several ethnic minorities.

1961 A CIA-sponsored paramilitary group attempts to invade Cuba
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. The United States government had ordered the CIA to plan Fidel Castro's overthrow.

1521 Martin Luther faces charges for his revolutionary religious writings
The German monk was a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation. As a result of the hearing before the Diet of Worms, he was excommunicated and declared an outlaw.
 
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