Birthdays:
1965~ Jon Cryer (néJonathan Niven Cryer), American actor.
1956~ David Brown (né David McDowell Brown; d. Feb. 1, 2003), American astronaut who was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia. He died at age 46.
1954~ Ellen Barkin (née Ellen Rona Barkin), American actress.
1947~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (né Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.), American basketball player.
1940~ Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. She became Queen in January 1972.
1939~ Dusty Springfield (née Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien; d. Mar. 2, 1999), English singer. She died of breast cancer at age 59.
1933~ Ike Pappas (né Icarus Nestor Pappas; d. Aug. 31, 2008), American journalist. He died of congestive heart failure at age 75.
1930~ Herbie Mann (né Herbert Jay Solomon; d. July 1, 2003), American flutist and composer. He died of prostate cancer at age 73.
1927~ Edie Adams (née Elizabeth Edith Enke; d. Oct. 15, 2008), American sultry singer who pitched Muriel cigars. She died at age 81.
1927~ Pope Benedict XVI (né Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger). He served as Pope from April 2005 until February 2013. He stepped down from the Papacy in 2013, becoming only the second Pope in history to do so.
1924~ Henry Mancini (né Enrico Nicola Mancini; d. June 14, 1994), American composer. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 70.
1921~ Sir Peter Ustinov (né Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov; d. Mar. 28, 2004), British actor. He died 19 days before his 83rd birthday.
1919~ Merce Cunningham (né Mercier Philip Cunningham, d. July 26, 2009), the maverick American dancer who celebrated the body. He died at age 90.
1912~ Garth Williams (né Garth Montgomery Williams; d. May 8, 1996), American illustrator. He illustrated such children’s books as Charlotte’s Web and Laura Ingall’s Little House series. He died about 3 weeks after his 84th birthday.
1907~ Joseph-Armand Bombardier (d. Feb. 18, 1964), Canadian inventor of the snowmobile. He died at age 56.
1889~ Sir Charlie Chaplin (né Charles Spencer Chaplin, d. Dec. 25, 1977), English film star. He died at age 88.
1886~ Margaret Woodrow Wilson (d. Feb. 12, 1944), American daughter of President Woodrow Wilson. She served as First Lady during her father’s presidency after her mother, Ellen Wilson, died and before he married Edith Wilson. She died of uremia at age 57.
1867~ Wilber Wright (d. May 30, 1912) American inventor, pioneer in aviation and airplane designer. He, along with his brother, Orville, invented the airplane and founded the Wright Company. He died of typhoid fever at age 45.
1864~ Rose Bullard (née Rose Talbot; d. Dec. 22, 1915), American medical doctor and medical school professor. She taught gynecology at the University of Southern California. She died suddenly of complications following surgery from a dental infection. She was 51 years old.
1844~ Anatole France (néFrançois-Anatole Thibault, d. Oct. 12, 1924), French writer and recipient of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 80.
1823~ Gotthold Eisenstein (d. Oct. 11, 1852), German mathematician. He died of tuberculosis at age 29.
1808~ Caleb Smith (né Caleb Blood Smith; d. Jan. 7, 1864), 6th United States Secretary of the Interior. He served under President Abraham Lincoln from March 1861 through December 1862. He then became a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Indiana. He suffered from ill health and died at age 55.
1693~ Anne Sophie Reventlow (d. Jan. 7, 1743), Danish wife of King Frederick IV of Denmark. She was his third wife. She died at age 49.
1682~ John Hadley (d. Feb. 14, 1744), English mathematician and inventor of the octant, an instrument used in navigation. He died at age 61.
1495~ Petrus Apianus (d. Apr. 21, 1552), German mathematician. He died a week after his 62nd birthday.
Events that Changed the World:
2017~ Easter Sunday.
2016~ A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Ecuador. Nearly 700 people were killed and thousands others were injured.
2013~ A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Iran, killing at least 35 people.
2007~ On the Virginia Tech campus, Seung-Hui Cho (1984 ~ 2007) opened fire in a shooting spree, killing 32 and injuring 23 others before committing suicide.
1990~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (1928 ~ 2011) participated in his first assisted suicide. He became known as the Doctor of Death.
1962~ Walter Cronkite (1916 ~ 2009) took over as the lead anchor of the CBS Evening News.
1947~ Bernard Baruch (1870 ~ 1965), a political consultant, coined the term Cold War in a speech to the South Carolina House of Representatives to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1947~ An explosion on a freighter in the port of Texas City, Texas, cause a massive fire in the city that killed 600 people.
1945~ More than 7000 people died when the German refugee ship Goyawas sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo. There less than 200 survivors.
1944~ During World War II, allied forced began bombing Belgrade. Over 1,000 people were killed in the bombing, which fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
1943~ Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman (1908 ~ 2008) accidently discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD.
1927~ The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 began. The flood was deemed the most destructive river flood in United States history. Fifteen inches of rain fell in New Orleans, Louisiana in 18 hours. The first levee broke in Illinois. The history of the flooding was recounted in John Berry’s book, Rising Tide.
1912~ Harriet Quimby (1875 ~ 1912) became the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel. Less than three months later she would be killed in a plane accident.
1910~ The Boston Arena first opened. The arena was renamed in 1982 as the Matthews Arena in honor of George Matthews who helped fund a major renovation. It is the oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still in use in the 21st Century.
1908~ Natural Bridges National Monument was established in Utah.
1863~ The Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi began during the American Civil War when Union ships, led by Admiral David Dixon Porter (1813 ~ 1891) moved through heavy Confederate fire as he made his way towards Vicksburg.
1818~ The United States Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot Treaty, thereby establishing the border between the United States and Canada along the Great Lakes.
73~ Masada, the Jewish fortress on the Dead Sea, fell to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt. The Jews at Masada died by suicide rather than be taken by the Romans.
1457 BCE~ The traditional date of the Battle of Megiddo, between Thutmous III and the Canaanite King Kadesh. This is the first battle that has been recorded and which historical evidence indicates actually occurred.
Good-Byes:
2018~ Harry Anderson (né Harry Laverne Anderson; b. Oct. 14, 1952), American actor, comedian and magician. He is best known for his role as Judge Harry Stone on the television sit-com, Night Court. He died of a stroke complicated by influenza at age 65.
2013~ Pat Summerall (né George Allen Summerall, b. May 10, 1930), American former football player who became the voice of the NFL. He died 24 days before his 83rd birthday.
2010~ Daryl Gates (né Darrel Francis Gates; b. Aug. 30, 1926), American police chief of the City of Los Angeles. He was the co-founder of the D.A.R.E. Program (Drugs Abuse Resistance Education). He is best known for having been the Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles during the Rodney King beatings and subsequent riots. He died of cancer at age 83.
2008~ Edward Norton Lorenz (b. May 23, 1917), American mathematician and meteorologist who formulated chaos theory. He is best known for coining the term “Butterfly Effect.” He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 90.
2002~ Robert Urich (né Robert Michael Urich; b. Dec. 19, 1946), American actor. He died of cancer at age 55.
2002 ~ Ruth Fertel (née Ruth Ann Udstad Fertel; b. Feb. 5, 1927), founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. She was a Louisiana businesswoman, born and raised in New Orleans. She died at age 75.
1998~ Alberto Calderón (né Alberto Pedro Calderón; b. Sept. 14, 1920), Argentine mathematician. He died at age 77.
1994~ Ralph Ellison (né Ralph Waldo Ellison; b. Mar. 1, 1913), African-American writer best known for his book, The Invisible Man. He began writing this book while recovering from a kidney infection. He was the grandson of slaves. He died at age 81.
1991~ Sir David Lean (b. Mar. 25, 1908) English movie director. He is best known for his movies Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago. He died 22 days after his 83rd birthday.
1972~ Yasunari Kawabata (b. June 11, 1899), Japanese writer and recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 72. His death may have been a suicide.
1968~ Edna Ferber (b. Aug. 15, 1885), American author. She is best known for her novels, Showboat and Giant. She died at age 82.
1958~ Rosalind Franklin (née Rosalind Elsie Franklin; b. July 25, 1920), British chemist whose research made it possible for Watson and Crick to discover the molecular structure of DNA. She died of ovarian cancer at age 37.
1914~ George William Hill (b. Mar. 3, 1838), American mathematician and astronomer. He died at age 76.
1859~ Alexis de Toqueville (b. July 29, 1805), French historian and political scientist. He is best known for his work, Democracy in America. He died at age 53 of tuberculosis.
1850~ Marie Tussaud (née Anna Marie Grosholtz; b. Dec. 1, 1761), French-born artist best known for her wax sculptures of famous people. She was the founder of the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London, England. She died at age 88
1828~ Francisco Goya (b. Mar. 30, 1746), Spanish painter. He died just over 2 weeks after his 82nd birthday.
1788~ Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (b. Sept. 7, 1707), French mathematician. He died at age 80.
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