April 3

Birthdays:

1973 ~ Adam Paul Scott, American actor best known for his role as Ben Wyatt on the television sit-com, Parks and Recreation.

1971 ~ Picabo Street, American alpine skier. 

1961 ~ Eddie Murphy (né Edward Regan Murphy), American comedian.

1959 ~ David Hyde Pierce, American actor best known for his role as Nigel on Fraiser.

1958 ~ Alec Baldwin (né Alexander Rae Baldwin, III), American actor.

1953 ~ Sandra Keith Boynton, American illustrator.

1944 ~ Tony Orlando (né Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis), American musician.

1942 ~ Marsha Mason, American actress.

1942 ~ Wayne Newton (né Carson Wayne Newton), American Las Vegas singer.

1934 ~ Dame Jane Goodall (née Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall), English primatologist and anthropologist.

1930 ~ Helmut Kohl (d. June 16, 2017), German powerhouse chancellor who reunited Germany. He served as Chancellor of West Germany from October 1982 until October 1998.  He died at age 87.

1928 ~ Earl Francis Lloyd (d. Feb. 26, 2015), American NBA player who broke the color barrier.  In 1950, he became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association.  He was drafted by the Washington Capitols.  He was 86 years old.

1926 ~ Virgil “Gus” Grisson (d. Jan. 27, 1967), American astronaut and crewmember of the ill-fated Apollo 1, which caught fire during a pre-launch test of the spacecraft.  He was also one of the original astronauts in the Mercury program.  He was 40 at the time of his death.

1924 ~ Marlon Brando, Jr. (d. July 1, 2004), American actor.  He died at age 80.

1922 ~ Doris Day (née Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff), American actress and singer.

1920 ~ John Demjanjuk (né Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk, d. Mar. 17, 2012), Ukrainian-American convicted Nazi war criminal who managed to escape detection for many years.  He was convicted of murdering many Jews while a guard a concentration camps during World War II.  He was ultimately convicted of war crimes in 2011.  He died 17 days before his 92^nd birthday.

1904 ~ Sally Rand (née Hattie Helen Gould Beck, d. Aug. 31, 1979), American burlesque dancer.  She died at age 75 from congestive heart failure.

1898 ~ Henry Robinson Luce (d. Feb. 28, 1967), American publisher who launched Time and Life magazines.  He died at age 68.

1893 ~ Leslie Howard (né Leslie Howard Steiner, d. June 1, 1943), English actor, best known for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.  He died at age 50 when the plane he was in was shot down by a German fighter plane during World War II.

1858 ~ Mary Scott Harrison McKee (d. Oct. 30, 1930), American daughter of President Benjamin Harrison.  She served as First Lady during her father’s presidency after her mother, Caroline died.  She assumed the role of First Lady at age 34 and served from October 1892 until March 1893.  She died at age 72.

1823 ~ William Magear “Boss” Tweed (d. Apr. 12, 1878), American political figure.  He died of pneumonia 9 days after his 55^th birthday.

1807 ~ Mary Carpenter (d. June 14, 1877), British educational and social reformer.  She was also an advocate for women’s rights.  She died at age 70.

1783 ~ Washington Irving (d. Nov. 28, 1859), American author.  He is best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  He died at age 76.

1778 ~ Pierre Brentonneau (d. Feb. 18, 1862), French physician who performed the first successful tracheotomy.  He died at age 83.

1693 ~ John Harrison (d. Mar. 24, 1776), British carpenter and clockmaker.  He invented the Marine chronometer.  Under the Julian calendar, which was in effect when he was born, indicates he died on his 83^rd birthday, however under the Gregorian calendar, is birthday is April 3, 1776.

1529 ~ Michael Neander (d. Oct. 23, 1581), German mathematician and astronomer.  The Neander crater on the moon is named after him.  He died at age 52.

1016 ~ Emperor Xingzong of Liao (d. Aug. 28, 1055), 7^th Chinese Emperor of the Liao Dynasty.  He died at age 39.

Events that Changed the World:

2017 ~ A bomb exploded in the St. Petersburg, Russia metro system.  Fourteen people were killed and numerous others were injured.

2015 ~ Good Friday.

2015 ~ Passover began at sundown.

2013 ~ Over 50 people died in flooding that resulted from extraordinary heavy rainfalls in Buenos Aries, Argentina.

2010 ~ The first generation iPads, the Apple tablet computer, was first made available to the public.

2008 ~ Over 500 women and children were taken into custody from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Texas.  State law officers entered the community after Texas Child Protection Services received calls of child abuse taking place in the community.

2000 ~ The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Microsoft that Microsoft’s business practices violated the US antitrust laws.

1996 ~ A United States Air Force plane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (1941 ~ 1996) crashed in Croatia, killing Brown and the other 34 crew and passengers aboard.

1996 ~ Theodore Kaczynski (b. 1942), the suspect in the Unabomber actions, was captured in Montana.

1948 ~ President Harry Truman (1884 ~ 1972) signed the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries for rebuilding after World War II.

1922 ~ Joseph Stalin (1878 ~ 1953) became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1888 ~ The first of eleven unsolved murders of women was committed in or near the Whitechapel district of East London.  These murders became known as the “Jack the Ripper” murders due to the brutal nature of the killing.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler (1834 ~ 1900) was granted a German patent for his engine design.

1865 ~ During the American Civil War, Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, which was the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1860 ~ The Pony Express service began in the United States, running horses and mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.  It ceased to operate in October 1861.

1043 ~ Edward the Confessor (1003 ~ 1066) was crowned King of England.

33 ~ The traditional date for the historical crucifixion of Jesus.

Good-byes:

2015 ~ Sarah Brady (b. Feb. 6, 1942), prominent campaigner for gun control after her husband former White House Press Secretary, James Brady, was shot along with when President Ronald Reagan was shot.  She was a tireless campaigner who pushed for gun control.  She was 73 years old.

2015 ~ Robert Rietti (né Lucio Rietti, b. Feb. 8, 1923), British voice actor who played Bond villains again and again.  He was 92 years old.

2013 ~ Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (b. May 7, 1927), German-born American novelist and screenwriter.  Her family fled to Britain in 1939 to escape the Nazism.  She wrote the screenplay for The Remains of the Day.  She died just over a month before her 86^th birthday.

2007 ~ Eddie Robinson (né Eddie Gay Robinson, Sr., b. Feb. 13, 1919), American football coach and Louisiana native.  He died at age 88.

1998 ~ Dame Mary Cartwright (b. Dec. 17, 1900), English mathematician.  She was one of the first people to study chaos theory.  She died at age 97.

1996 ~ Ron Brown (né Ronald Harmon Brown, b. Aug. 1, 1941), 30^th United States Secretary of Commerce.  He served under President Bill Clinton from January 1993 until his death 3 months later.  He was killed while in Office when the plane he was in crashed in Croatia.  He was 54 years old.  All 35 crew and passengers aboard the plane were killed.

1991 ~ Graham Greene (né Henry Graham Greene, b. Oct. 2, 1904), English writer.  He is best known for such novels at The End of the Affair and The Quiet American.  He died of leukemia at age 86.

1990 ~ Sarah Lois Vaughan (b. Mar. 27, 1924), African-American jazz singer.  She died of lung cancer a week after her 66^th birthday.

1950 ~ Kurt Julian Weill (b. Mar. 2, 1900), German composer best known for The Threepenny Opera.  He grew up in a religious Jewish family.  He fled Nazi Germany in 1933.  He died of a heart attack about a month after his 50^th birthday.

1950 ~ Carter Godwin Woodson (b. Dec. 19, 1875), African-American historian, author and journalist.  He died at age 74.

1936 ~ Bruno Hauptmann (b. Nov. 26, 1899), German convicted kidnapper and killer of the son of Charles Lindbergh.  He was executed for his crime although there has been some question as to whether or not he was actually guilty.  He was 36 years old.

1902 ~ Esther Hobart Morris (b. Aug. 8, 1814), American attorney and judge.  She was the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States.  She was appointed to that office in 1870.  She died at age 87.

1897 ~ Johannes Brahms (b. May 7, 1833), German composer.  He died about a month before his 64^th birthday.

1882 ~ Jesse James (b. Sept. 5, 1847), American outlaw in the Wild American West.  He was killed at age 34 by Robert Ford, another outlaw.

1862 ~ Sir James Clark Ross (b. Apr. 15, 1800), British captain and explorer.  He is best known for exploration of the Antarctic.  He died 12 days before his 62^nd birthday.

1717 ~ Jacques Ozanam (b. June 16, 1640), French mathematician.  He died at age 77.

1287 ~ Pope Honorius IV (né Giacomo Savelli, b. 1210).  He was Pope from April 1285 until his death 2 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 77 years old at the time of his death.