Today In The Past
Events
491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.
672 – Deusdedit III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1079 – Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland.
1471 – King Edward IV of England conquers London from Henry VI
1512 – Battle at Ravenna: France under Gaston de Foix beat Spanish Army
1551 – English premier John Dudley appointed duke of Northumberland
1564 – England & France sign Peace of Troyes
1564 – Liege prince-bishop Robert van Bergen resigns
1677 – Battle at Montcassel, French troops beat Prince William III
1689 – William III & Mary II crowned as joint rulers of Britain
1713 – Peace of Utrecht; France cedes Maritime provinces to Britain – English, Prussian, Savoois, Portuguese & French peace treaty
1775 – The last execution for witchcraft in Germany takes place.
1856 – Battle of Rivas; Costa Rica beats Wm Walker’s invading Nicaraguans
1862 – Rebels surrender Ft Pulaski, Georgia-Rebels surrender
1863 – Battle of Suffolk, VA (Norfleet House)
1865 – Battle of Mobile, AL – evacuated by Confederates
1868 – The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1876 – Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks organizes
1876 – Sir Charles Gordon ends religious tolerance in Sudan
1881 – Spelman College founded
1898 – President McKinley asks for Spanish-American War declaration
1899 – Treaty of Paris ratifies ends war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US
1900 – US Navy’s 1st submarine made its debut
1906 – Einstein introduces his Theory of Relativity
1907 – NY Giant Roger Bresnahan becomes 1st catcher to wear shin guards
1921 – Iowa imposed 1st state cigarette tax
1921 – First sports broadcast on the radio takes place.
1921 – The Emirate of Transjordan is created.
1941 – Germany blitzes Conventry, England
1942 – Distinguished Service Medal for Merchant Marines authorized
1943 – Frank Piasecki, Vertol founder, flies his 1st (single-rotor) craft
1945 – SS burns & shoots 1,100 at Gardelegen
1945 – US captures Tsugen Shima
1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes 1st black in modern major-league baseball
1950 – Prince Rainier III becomes ruler of Monaco
1950 – US B-29 bomber shot down above Latvia
1951 – Pres Harry Truman fires Gen Douglas McArthur
1952 – The Battle of Nanri island takes place.
1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
1956 – Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater by whites
1957 – Pablo Neruda arrested in Buenos Aires
1957 – Ryan X-13 Vertijet becomes 1st jet to take-off & land vertically
1961 – Adolf Eichmann trial begins in Israel
1962 – New York Mets make a losing debut
1963 – Warren Spahn beats Mets 6-1 for his 328th win (most by a lefty)
1965 – 40 tornadoes strike US midwest killing 272 & injuring 5,000
1966 – 30th Golf Masters Championship: Jack Nicklaus wins, shooting a 288
1967 – Harlem (NYC) voters defy Congress & reelect Adam Clayton Powell Jr
1970 – Apollo 13 launched to Moon; unable to land, returns in 6 days
1970 – Beatles’ “Let It Be,” single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
1972 – Benjamin L Hooks, named to FCC
1976 – The Apple I is created.
1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin overthrown; Tanzania takes Kampala
1981 – Larry Holmes beats Trevor Holmes in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1981 – Race riot in London area of Brixton
1981 – Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him
1983 – NASA launches RCA-F
1986 – Dodge Morgan sailed solo nonstop around world in 150 days
1986 – Halley’s Comet makes closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 M km
1990 – Customs officers in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
1992 – Euro-Disney opens near Paris
1992 – Irish Republican Army bombs London financial district, killing 3
1993 – 450 prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs. It was Easter Sunday.
2001 – The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People’s Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter is released.
2006 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.
2007 – 2007 Algiers bombings: Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others.
2011 – Minsk Metro bombing
2012 – 8.6 magnitude earth quack and 8.2 aftershock occurs off the coast of Indonesia
2012 – 2011 London riot looter is jailed for 11 years after starting a fire at a furniture retailer
Births
146 – Septimius Severus (d. 211)
1370 – Frederick I the Warlike, elector of Saxony
1374 – Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (d. 1398)
1492 – Marguerite of Navarre, wife of Henry II of Navarre (d. 1549)
1586 – Pietro Della Valle, composer
1661 – Antoine Coypel, French painter/poet
1755 – James Parkinson, English physician (d. 1824)
1770 – George Canning, (C) British PM (1827)
1798 – Macedonio Melloni, Italian physicist (d. 1854)
1810 – Henry Rawlinson, English scholar (d. 1895)
1837 – Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, Col (Union Army), died in 1861
1852 – Cap Anson, American baseball player (d. 1922)
1854 – Hugh Massie, cricketer (Australian batsman of the 1880’s)
1862 – Charles Evans Hughs, 11th Chief Justice of Supreme Court (1930-41)
1862 – William W Campbell, US astronomer/director Lick Observatory
1869 – Kasturba Gandhi, Wife of Mohandas Gandhi (d. 1944)
1873 – Edward Lawson, Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 1955)
1893 – Dean G Acheson, statesman/US Secretary of State (1949-53)
1901 – Adriano Olivetti, Italian engineer/manufacturer (typewriter)
1906 – Dale Messick, American cartoonist (d. 2005)
1908 – Leo Rosten, writer/humourist
1908 – Masura Ibuka, industrialist
1910 – Anna Magnani, Ital’s actress (Awakening, Roma)
1913 – Oleg Cassini, Paris France, fashion designer (Jackie Kennedy)
1916 – Howard Koch, producer/director (Frankenstein, Airplane II)
1917 – Danny Gallivan, Canadian radio and television sportscaster (d. 1993)
1919 – Hugh Carey, (Gov-D-NY)
1925 – Ethel Kennedy, wife of Bobby
1930 – Joseph Burnett-Stuart, CEO (Robert Fleming Holdings)
1930 – Nicholas F Brady, US Secretary of Treasury (1988-93)
1932 – F Gregory Neubeck, USAF pilot
1932 – Joel Grey, [Joe Katz], actor (Cabaret, Remo Williams, 7% Solution)
1935 – Richard Kuklinski, American mafia hitman (d. 2006)
1939 – Louise Lasser, NYC, actress (Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman!)
1941 – Frederick “Rick” Hauck, Long Beach Ca, astr (STS-7, STS 51-A, STS-26)
1941 – Ellen Goodman, American political columnist
1944 – John Milius, writer, director (Red Dawn, 1941, Big Wednesday)
1947 – Peter Riegert, NYC, actor (Animal House, Crossing Delancey)
1947 – Meshach Taylor, American actor
1947 – Lev Bulat, Russian physicist
1951 – Robbie House, rocker (Snuff)
1951 – Doris McGowen Beck Angleton, American socialite (d. 1997)
1951 – Paul Fox, English guitarist (The Ruts) (d. 2007)
1952 – Peter Windsor, English motor racing journalist and reporter
1955 – Piers J Sellers, Sussex England, PhD/astronaut
1958 – Sally Clark, Feilding NZ, equestrian 3 day event (Olympics-silver-96)
1958 – William Stuart Adamson, Manchester, rock guitarist (Big Country)
1958 – Brynn Hartman, American murderer (d. 1998)
1961 – Lucky Vanous, Lincoln Nebraska, model (GQ, Diet Coke)
1962 – Vincent Gallo, American actor
1964 – Steve Azar, American singer-songwriter
1964 – Bret Saberhagen, American baseball player
1966 – Lisa Stansfield, English pop singer (Around the World)
1966 – Mason Reese, American actor
1967 – Wendel Suckow, Marquette Mich, luger (Olympics-1994)
1969 – J Nick Adamson, Freeport Bahamas, US laser yachter (Olymp-21st-1996)
1970 – Johnny Messner, American actor
1971 – Oliver Riedel, German musician (Rammstein)
1972 – Balls Mahoney, American professional wrestler
1973 – Jennifer Esposito, American television actor
1974 – Tricia Helfer, Canadian model and actor
1980 – Mark Teixeira, American baseball player
1981 – Alessandra Ambrosio, Brazilian model
1983 – Nicky Pastorelli, Dutch racing driver
1987 – Joss Stone, English singer
1994 – Dakota Blue Richards, English actress
Deaths
678 – Donus, Italian Pope (676-78), dies
1034 – Romanus III Argyrus, Byzantine emperor (1028-34), assasinated by wife
1240 – Llywelyn ab Iorwerth the Great, monarch of Wales (1194-1240), dies
1500 – Michael T Marullus, Greeks poet, drowns
1512 – Gaston de Foix, French pretender to Navarra throne, dies in battle
1554 – Thomas Wyatt the younger, English rebel (b. 1521)
1626 – Marin Getaldić, Croatian mathematician (b. 1568)
1712 – Richard Simon, French Biblical critic (b. 1638)
1723 – John Robinson, English diplomat (b. 1650)
1839 – John Galt, Scottish writer (Last of the Lairds), dies at 59
1842 – John England, bishop of Charleston Carolina, dies
1856 – Juan Santamaría, national hero of Costa Rica (b. 1831)
1873 – Edward Canby, U.S. general (b. 1817)
1906 – James A Bailey, circus showman (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 58
1926 – Luther Burbank, American botanist (b. 1849)
1945 – Kamiel van Baelen, Flemish resistance fighter (in Dachau), dies at 29
1947 – Louise Peete, American murderess (b. 1880)
1983 – Dolores Del Rio, actress (Cheyenne Autumn), dies at 78
1985 – Enver Hoxha, party leader/premier of Albania, dies at 76
1985 – Bunny Ahearne, British ice hockey promoter (b. 1900)
1987 – Erskine Caldwell, novelist (Tobacco Road), dies at 83
1987 – Primo Levi, Italy, chemist/writer (Survival in Auschwitz), dies at 67
1994 – Johan Block, Dutch aviation pioneer (Martinair/Transavia), dies at 64
1996 – Jessica Dubroff, hoped to be youngest to fly across US, crashed at 7
2003 – Cecil Howard Green, British geophysicist and businessman (b. 1900)
2006 – June Pointer, American singer (Pointer Sisters) (b. 1953)
2006 – Proof, American rapper (D12) (b. 1973)
2007 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor (b. 1925)
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, American author (b. 1922)
2007 – Ronald Speirs, American Army officer(CO of Easy Company) (b. 1920)
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