Fun On this date in history...

April 10: (lotta violence!)

837 – Halley's Comet and Earth experienced their closest approach to one another when their separating distance equalled 0.0342 AU (3.2 million miles).
1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth's climate for the next two years.
1821 – Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.
1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Palace of Westminster had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
1864 – Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.
1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
1912 – The Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England for her first and only voyage.
1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
1940 – Katyn massacre Mass execution of 40 thousands Polish officers and intelligentsia approved and signed by USSR leader Joseph Stalin
1941 – World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustaše fascist insurgents in power.
1953 – Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film from a major American studio, entitled House of Wax.
1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
1992 – The Maraghar Massacre, killing of ethnic Armenian civil population of the village Maraghar by Azerbaijani troops during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board including President Lech Kaczyński.

Births:

1512 – James V of Scotland, Scottish king
1783 – Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen Consort of Holland, mother of Napoleon III
1794 – Matthew C. Perry, American commodore
1796 – James "Jim" Bowie, American pioneer and soldier, creator of the Bowie knife
1827 – Lew Wallace, American Civil War figure and novelist, author of Ben-Hur
1829 – William Booth, British preacher, founder of The Salvation Army
1847 – Joseph Pulitzer, American journalist and publisher
1880 – Frances Perkins, American politician and 4th United States Secretary of Labor, first woman to ever serve in the U.S. Cabinet
1915 – Harry Morgan, American actor
1929 – Max von Sydow, Swedish actor
1932 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor
1936 – John Madden, American football coach and broadcaster
1938 – Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
1954 – Juan Williams, American journalist
1959 – Brian Setzer, American musician
1980 – Sean Avery, Canadian hockey player, mega douchebag
1984 – Mandy Moore, American singer and actress
1985 – Dion Phaneuf, Canadian hockey player
1988 – Haley Joel Osment, American actor

Deaths:

1585 – Pope Gregory XIII
1599 – Gabrielle d'Estrée, French mistress of Henry IV of France
1882 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter
1904 – Isabella II of Spain
1909 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet and critic
1919 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican general
1962 – Stuart Sutcliffe, Scottish musician
1992 – Sam Kinison, American comedian
2003 – Little Eva, American singer
2005 – Al Lucas, American football player
2010 – Dixie Carter, American actress

 

Those 2 smileys, again.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 10, 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced he had purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

 

Combo breaker

 

ON THIS DAY

10th April, 2007... Sam Tyler jumps.

 

ON THIS DAY

USS Thresher (SSN 593) sank with all hands during deep diving tests, 10 April 1963. 129 died.

The second USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. Her loss at sea in the North Atlantic during deep-diving tests approximately 220 miles east of Boston, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1963 was a watershed event for the U.S. Navy, leading to the implementation of a rigorous submarine safety program known as SUBSAFE. Measured by lives lost, historic context and significance, the sinking of Thresher was then, and remains today, the world's worst submarine disaster. As the first nuclear submarine lost at sea, its disappearance generated international shock and sympathy.

 

Not a good day at all in Poland's history.

Gotta make sure I stay away from Russians today

 

April 11:

1079 – Bishop Stanislaus of Kraków is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland.
1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.
1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.
1881 – Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.
1919 – The International Labour Organization is founded.
1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
1951 – Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.
1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in Terris, the first encyclical addressed to all instead of to Catholics alone.
1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
1970 – Apollo 13 is launched.
1976 – The Apple I is created.
1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
1987 – The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.
1989 – Ron Hextall becomes the first goaltender in NHL history to score a goal in the playoffs.
2012 – A magnitude 8.2 earthquake hit Indonesia, off northern Sumatra at a depth of 16.4 km. After that there are still more continuation earthquake. Tsunami had hit the island of Nias at Indonesia.

Births:

145 – Septimius Severus, Roman Emperor
1869 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist, wife of Mohandas Gandhi
1890 – Rachele Mussolini, Italian author and wife of Benito Mussolini
1893 – Dean Acheson, American statesman
1908 – Jane Bolin, American judge, first African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School and to join the New York City Bar Association
1913 – Oleg Cassini, American fashion designer, favorite designer of Jackie Kennedy
1928 – Ethel Kennedy, American wife of Robert F. Kennedy
1930 – Anton LaVey, American writer, occultist, and musician, founder of the Church of Satan
1962 – Vincent Gallo, American actor
1970 – Trevor Linden, Canadian hockey player
1981 – Alexandre Burrows, Canadian hockey player
1987 – Joss Stone, English singer-songwriter, and actress

Deaths:

1034 – Romanos III Argyros, Byzantine emperor
1240 – Llywelyn the Great
1856 – Juan Santamaría, Costa Rican soldier and national hero
1890 – Joseph Merrick, English man with severe deformities, "The Elephant Man"
1983 – Dolores del Río, Mexican actress
1990 – Harold Ballard, Canadian hockey club owner and executive, cheap bastard
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, American author

 

April 12:

238 – Gordian II loses the Battle of Carthage against the Numidian forces loyal to Maximinus Thrax and is killed. Gordian I, his father, commits suicide.
1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.
1861 – American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1864 – American Civil War: The Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
1917 – World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
1927 – April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Communist Party of China members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.
1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.
1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
1961 – The Russian (Soviet) cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
1980 – Terry Fox begins his "Marathon of Hope" at St. John's, Newfoundland.
1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland. The resort and its park's name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.
1994 – Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
1999 – US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2002 – A female suicide bomber detonated at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing 7 and wounding 104.
2007 – A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.

Births:

599 BC – Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism
1577 – Christian IV of Denmark and Norway
1710 – Caffarelli, Italian castrato and opera singer
1777 – Henry Clay, American statesman
1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and dictator
1916 – Beverly Cleary, American writer
1932 – Tiny Tim, American singer, ukulele player, and archivist
1946 – Ed O'Neill, American actor
1947 – Alex Briley, American singer, (soldier in the Village People)
1947 – Tom Clancy, American author
1947 – Dan Lauria, American actor
1947 – David Letterman, American comedian and talk show host
1950 – David Cassidy, American actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1956 – Andy García, Cuban actor
1957 – Vince Gill, American singer-songwriter and musician
1968 – Adam Graves, Canadian hockey player
1971 – Shannen Doherty, American actress, producer, director, and author
1993 – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths:

352 – Pope Julius I
1555 – Joanna of Castile, aka "Juana la Loca", (Juana the Mad)
1912 – Clara Barton, American teacher, patent clerk, nurse, and humanitarian, founder of the American Red Cross
1945 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, American politician, 32nd President of the United States (as mentioned above)
1953 – Lionel Logue, Australian speech therapist and actor, (helped George VI to successfully overcome his stutter)
1975 – Josephine Baker, American dancer
1977 – Phil Wrigley, American manufacturer and baseball executive
1981 – Joe Louis, American boxer
1989 – Abbie Hoffman, American activist
1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer
1999 – Boxcar Willie, American singer and songwriter
2009 – Marilyn Chambers, American porn actress

 

Births - April 11, 1900. US Submarine Force​

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)

 

Yay!

 

I miss DarthTunick 's thread.

 

April 13:

1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
1613 – Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father. She is brought to Henricus as hostage.
1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
1796 – The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
1849 – Hungary becomes a republic.
1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1943 – World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

Births:

1519 – Catherine de' Medici, wife of Henry II of France
1570 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, planned the failed Gunpowder Plot
1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American politician, 3rd President of the United States
1852 – F.W. Woolworth, American businessman, founder of the F.W. Woolworth Company
1866 – Butch Cassidy, American outlaw
1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and invented Scrabble
1919 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American activist, founder of the organization American Atheists
1923 – Don Adams, American actor and comedian
1924 – Jack Chick, American evangelist
1939 – Paul Sorvino, American actor
1949 – Christopher Hitchens, English journalist, critic, and author
1950 – Ron Perlman, American actor
1962 – Hillel Slovak, Israeli-American musician
1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
1964 – Caroline Rhea, Canadian actress
1970 – Rick Schroder, American actor
1974 – Sergei Gonchar, Russian hockey player
1976 – Jonathan Brandis, American actor (my best friend had the biggest crush on him in high school!)
1976 – Patrik Eliáš, Czech hockey player
1978 – Arron Asham, Canadian hockey player

Deaths:

548 – Ly Nam De, emperor of Vietnam
814 – Krum, ruler (Khan) of Bulgaria
1605 – Boris Godunov Tsar of Russia
1971 – Michel Brière, Canadian hockey player (the only Pittsburgh Penguin other than Mario Lemieux to have his number retired)
1981 – Prince Yasuhiko Asaka of Japan

(Question -- does anyone want to see other athletes, like soccer, football, basketball, baseball, etc. Other than the Steelers and the really big names, I don't really know any of the big names, so PLEASE, tell me!)

 

Nah, it's okay, I'll check Wikipedia myself for my sport needs.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the next day.

 

Hey, if you have a problem with the way I'm doing things, you're welcome to add to this thread. Nobody's stopping you.

April 14:

43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Hirtius.
1294 – Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.
1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
1699 – Khalsa: The Sikh Religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in Northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1816 – Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.
1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
1894 – The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.
1909 – A massacre is organized by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia.
1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40pm (sinks morning of April 15th).
1931 – Spanish Cortes depose King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the 2nd Spanish Republic.
1935 – "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.
1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.
1956 – In Chicago, Illinois, videotape is first demonstrated.
1969 – At the U.S. Academy Awards there is a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.
1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
2010 – Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China.

Births:

1336 – Emperor Go-Kōgon of Japan
1857 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, youngest child of Queen Victoria
1866 – Anne Sullivan, American teacher, instructor and companion of Helen Keller
1904 – Sir John Gielgud, English actor
1907 – François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Haitian dictator
1932 – Loretta Lynn, American singer-songwriter, author, and philanthropist
1936 – Frank Serpico, American police officer
1941 – Julie Christie, British actress
1941 – Pete Rose, American baseball player
1966 – David Justice, American baseball player
1966 – Greg Maddux, American baseball player
1968 – Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
1973 – Adrien Brody, American actor
1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress
1977 – Chandra Levy, American intern and murder victim
1985 – Grant Clitsome, Canadian ice hockey player (who else giggles when you hear his name?)

Deaths:

1132 – Mstislav I of Kiev
1279 – Bolesław the Pious
1578 – James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots
1759 – George Frideric Handel, German composer
1925 – John Singer Sargent, American artist
1964 – Rachel Carson, American author and environmentalist
1995 – Burl Ives, American actor, writer, and singer
2012 – Jonathan Frid, Canadian actor

 

April 15:

1395 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Terek River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Volga. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the Golden Horde throne. Tokhtamysh escapes to Lithuania.
1817 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
1861 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.
1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.
1896 – Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
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 2,227 passengers and crew on board survived.
1920 – Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
1921 – Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.
1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
1927 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, begins.
1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.
1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.

Births:

1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath
1684 – Catherine I of Russia
1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union
1894 – Bessie Smith, American singer
1924 – Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor
1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress
1940 – Willie Davis, American baseball player
1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian film producer
1959 – Emma Thompson, English actress
1974 – Tim Thomas, American hockey player, Tea Party douchebag
1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
1990 – Emma Watson, English actress

Deaths: (Titanic victims shown last)

1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex
1220 – Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne
1764 – Madame de Pompadour, French court, mistress of King Louis XV of France
1865 – Abraham Lincoln, American politician, 16th President of the United States
1969 – Queen Ena of Spain, nee Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (grandmother of Juan Carlos I)
1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate
1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress
1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator
2001 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter and musician
2002 – Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and United States Supreme Court Justice



RMS Titanic victims, 1912:
-Edward Smith, English navy officer and captain of the RMS Titanic
-William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor and first officer (b. 1873)
-Wallace Hartley, English violinist
-John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor and writer
-Thomas Andrews, Irish businessman and shipbuilder
-John Thayer, American cricket player
-William T. Stead, English author and journalist
-Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy's department store and former Congressman from New York
-Ida Straus, wife of Macy's owner Isidor
-Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman
-Major Archibald Butt, military aide to presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft
-Charles Melville Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railroad
-George Dunton Widener, American businessman
-Harry Elkins Widener, Amerian businessman, son of George Dunton Widener

 

Also, today is TAX DAY for many of us here in the US. The deadline of which most either have to file their taxes or file an extension with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

 

April 16:

1178 BC – The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus' return home from the Trojan War.
73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Great Jewish Revolt.
1346 – Dušan the Mighty is proclaimed Emperor, with the Serbian Empire occupying much of the Balkans.
1521 – Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.
1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. After the battle many highland traditions were banned and the Highlands of Scotland were cleared of inhabitants.
1862 – American Civil War: The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, becomes law.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.
1944 – Allied forces started bombing of Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
1945 – The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
1945 – The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).
1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1962 – Walter Cronkite takes over as the lead news anchor of the CBS Evening News, during which time he would become "the most trusted man in America".
1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1990 – The "Doctor of Death", Jack Kevorkian, participates in his first assisted suicide.
2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest spree shooting in modern American history. Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 and injures 23 before committing suicide.

Births:

778 – Louis the Pious
1488 – Jungjong of Joseon
1867 – Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer
1886 – Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of Woodrow Wilson
1889 – Charlie Chaplin, English actor, director, and composer
1921 – Peter Ustinov, English actor
1924 – Henry Mancini, American composer
1927 – Pope Benedict XVI
1937 – Simeon II of Bulgaria, last reigning Tsar of Bulgaria, later Prime Minister
1940 – Margrethe II of Denmark
1947 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player
1949 – Ann Romney, First Lady of Massachusetts, wife of American presidential nominee Mitt Romney
1950 – Billy West, American voice actor
1952 – Bill Belichick, American football coach
1954 – Ellen Barkin, American actress
1965 – Jon Cryer, American actor
1965 – Martin Lawrence, American actor
1971 – Selena, American singer-songwriter
1971 – Peter Billingsley, American actor
1982 – Jonathan Vilma, American football player

Deaths:

665 – Fructuosus of Braga
744 – Al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph
924 – Berengar of Friuli
1828 – Francisco Goya, Spanish painter
1850 – Marie Tussaud, French-English artist, founded the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
1859 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian
1879 – Bernadette Soubirous, French mystic and Saint
1946 – Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss race car driver and automobile designer
1991 – David Lean, English director
2007 - Liviu Librescu, American-Romanian professor of engineering science and mechanics and holocaust survivor (killed in the Virginia Tech massacre)

 

Ah geez, seeing all this Boston footage combined with today being six years to the day of Va. Tech (doesn't help that a few of the Tech victims was from the general area of Va. where I live), and I can already see that today is just going to be a throughly depressing day.

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 16, 1947, America's worst harbor explosion occurred in Texas City, Texas, when the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, devastating the town. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The explosions and resulting fires killed more than 500 people and left 200 others missing.

 

April 17:

69 – After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.
1080 – King of Denmark Harald III dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized.
1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as the start of the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury.
1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.
1897 – The Aurora, Texas UFO incident.
1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
1949 – At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.
1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
1964 – Ford Mustang is introduced to the North American market.
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1973 – George Lucas begins writing the treatment for The Star Wars.
1975 – The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
2006 – Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

Births:

1277 – Michael IX Palaeologus, co-ruling Eastern Roman Emperor
1741 – Samuel Chase, American justice of the Supreme Court
1820 – Alexander Cartwright, American inventor of Baseball
1837 – J. P. Morgan, American financier
1884 – Leo Frank, American factory superintendent, victim of lynching
1918 – William Holden, American actor
1951 – Olivia Hussey, Argentine actress
1954 – Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler
1959 – Sean Bean, English actor
1961 – Boomer Esiason, American football player and commentator
1964 – Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Liz Phair, American singer-songwriter and musician
1972 – Ruffian, American race horse
1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress
1973 – Brett Maher, Australian basketball player
1973 – Theo Ratliff, American basketball player
1973 – Kaihō Ryōji, Japanese sumo wrestler
1974 – Victoria Beckham, English singer
1981 – Ryan Raburn, American baseball player
1985 – Rooney Mara, American actress

Deaths:

326 – Pope Alexander of Alexandria
617 – Donnán of Eigg, Irish priest, patron saint of Eigg
1680 – Kateri Tekakwitha, American-Indian religious figure, first native American to receive beatification
1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American politician, inventor, diplomat, and printer
1882 – George Jennings Sanitary engineer, inventor of the first public flush toilets
1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and musician
1998 – Linda McCartney, American designer and photographer
2003 – Robert Atkins, American nutritionist, physician, and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet

Today is also World Hemophilia Day

 

Dead Americans: The thread.

 

April 18:

1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.
1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
1923 – Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
1924 – Simon & Schuster publishes the first crossword puzzle book.
1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed.
1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
1954 – Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1981 – The longest professional baseball game is begun in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game is suspended at 4:00 the next morning and finally completed on June 23.
2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.

Births:

1480 – Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI
1590 – Ahmed I, Ottoman emperor
1857 – Clarence Darrow, American attorney
1917 – Frederika of Hanover, Queen Consort of Greece (mother of Queen Sophie of Spain)
1941 – Michael D. Higgins, Irish politician, 9th President of Ireland
1942 – Steve Blass, American baseball player
1946 – Hayley Mills, English actress
1946 – Skip Spence, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician
1947 – Herbert Mullin, American serial killer
1947 – James Woods, American actor
1953 – Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian
1959 – Susan Faludi, American journalist
1961 – Jane Leeves, British actress
1962 – Jeff Dunham, American comedian
1963 – Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
1963 – Conan O'Brien, American comedian
1967 – Maria Bello, American actress
1969 – Princess Sayako of Japan
1971 – David Tennant, Scottish actor
1973 – Derrick Brooks, American football player
1973 – Brady Clark, American baseball player
1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American model, actress, and businesswoman
1982 – Scott Hartnell, Canadian ice hockey player, douchebag who likes to bite people
1990 – Henderson Alvarez, Venezuelan baseball player
2007 – Hayah bint Hamzah, Princess of Jordan

Deaths:

1161 – Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
1558 – Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
1763 – Marie-Josephte Corriveau, Canadian convicted murderer
1936 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer
1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (as mentioned above)
1955 – Albert Einstein, German physicist
2012 – Dick Clark, American television host and businessman

(All the more remarkable, because I am drunk)