Birthdays:
1979 ~ Heath Andrew Ledger (d. Jan. 22, 2008),
Australian actor. He died of a drug
overdose at age 28.
1964 ~ David Cross, American actor best known for
his role in Arrested Development.
1956 ~ David E. Kelley (né
David Edward Kelley), American screenwriter and producer.
1950 ~ Christine Ann Lahti,
American actress.
1949 ~ Shing-Tung Yau,
Chinese mathematician.
1944 ~ Craig T. Nelson (né Craig Theodore Nelson),
American actor.
1938 ~ A. Bartlett Giamatti
(né Angelo Bartlett Giamatti, d. Sept. 1, 1989), 7th Commissioner of
Major League Baseball. He is best known
for being the Commissioner during the Pete Rose gambling scandal. He died of a heart attack at age 51.
1932 ~
Anthony Perkins (d. Sept. 12, 1992), American actor best known for his
portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho.
He died at age 60.
1932 ~ Charlie
Powell (né Charles Elvin Powell, d. Sept. 1, 2014), American standout
boxer who starred on the gridiron. He died
at age 82.
1928 ~ Maya
Angelou (née Margueritte Annie Johnson, d. May 28, 2014), African-American
inspirational writer who chronicled the black experience. She died at age 86.
1926 ~
Mildred Fay Jefferson (d. Oct. 15, 2010), African-American physician and
anti-abortion activist. She died in
Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 84.
1913 ~ Muddy Waters (né
McKinley Morganfield, d. Apr. 30, 1983), American musician, considered the “father
of modern Chicago blues.” He died of
heart failure 26 days after his 70th birthday.
1906 ~
John Cameron Swayze (d. Aug. 15, 1995), American journalist. He died at age 89.
1899 ~ Hillel Oppenheimer (né
Heinz Reinhard Oppenheimer, d. 1971), German-Israeli botanist. He was born in Germany but emigrated to what
is now Israel in 1925. He died at age
72.
1895 ~ Arthur Murray (né Moses Teichman, d. Mar. 3, 1991), American
dancer and dance instructor. He was born
in Galicia but emigrated to the United States in 1897. He died a month before his 96th
birthday.
1880 ~ Georg Ludwig von Trapp (d. May 30, 1947), Austro-Hungarian
navy officer and patriarch of the von Trapp family. His family’s story inspired the movie, The
Sound of Music. He died at age 67 in
Stowe, Vermont.
1869 ~
Mary Jane Colter (d. Jan. 8, 1958), American architect. She was one of a very small group of female
architects. She died at age 88.
1868 ~
Philippa Fawcett (d. June 10, 1948), British mathematician. She was also an advocate for women’s
rights. She died at age 80.
1842 ~ Édouard Lucas (d. Oct.
3, 1891), French mathematician. He died
of septicemia at age 49.
1821 ~
Linus Yale, Jr. (d. Dec. 25, 1868), American mechanical engineer and inventor,
best known for his invention of the cylinder locks. He was the founder of the Yale Lock
Company. He died of a heart attack at
age 47.
1802 ~ Dorothea Lynde Dix (d.
July 18, 1887), American prison and asylum reformer and social activist. She was a strong advocate for mental health
issues. She was born in Hampden, Maine. She was 85 at the time of her death.
1772 ~
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (d. Oct. 16, 1810), Ukrainian Jewish religious leader
and founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.
He died of tuberculosis at age 38.
Events that Changed the World:
2010 ~ Easter Sunday.
2010 ~ A 7.0 earthquake
struck the California-Mexican border.
1975 ~ Microsoft was founded
as a partnership between Bill Gates (b. 1955) and Paul Allen (b. 1953).
1973 ~ The World Trade Center
in New York was officially dedicated.
1969 ~ Dr. Denton Cooley (1920
~ 2016) implanted the first artificial heart.
1968 ~ Martin Luther King,
Jr. (1929 ~ 1968 , was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
1949 ~ The North American Treaty
Organization (NATO) was signed. The
original countries to the Treaty were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom
and the United States.
1939 ~ Faisal II (1935 ~ 1958)
became King of Iraq. He was the last
king of Iraq and was killed at age 23 during the 14 July Revolution in 1958.
1905 ~ A massive earthquake
struck in the Kangra Valley in India killing an estimated 20,000 people.
1887 ~ Susanna M. Salter
(1860 ~ 1961) became the first female mayor elected in the United States when
she was elected as mayor of Argonia, Kansas.
1873 ~ The Kennel Club was founded. It is the world’s first official registry of
purebred dogs.
1850 ~ Los Angeles,
California became incorporated.
1841 ~ Vice President John
Tyler (1790 ~ 1862) became President of the United States upon the death of
President William Henry Harrison (1773 ~ 1841), thereby becoming the first
President to assume office on the death of his predecessor.
1818 ~ The United States
Congress adopted the Flag with 13 stripes and with 1 star for each state in the
Union. There were 20 states at the time
of the adoption of the Flag.
1796 ~ Georges Cuvier (1769 ~
1832) gave the first known paleontological lecture at the École Centrale du
Pantheon of the Muséum national d’histoire naturalle on living and fossil
remains of elephants and related species. He is considered to be the founder of
comparative anatomy and the science of Paleontology.
1768 ~ The first modern
circus was staged in London, England.
1721 ~ Robert Walpole, 1st
Earl of Oxford (1676 ~ 1745) became the first Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom. He served under King George I. He was in office from 1721 until February
1742.
1581 ~ Sir Francis Drake
(1540 ~ 1596) was knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
1147 ~ The first historical
record of Moscow, Russia. The city is
believed to have been founded by Yuri I Vladimirovich (1099 ~ 1157), a Rurikid
prince.
Good-byes:
2015 ~ Jenny
Wallenda (b. Oct. 8, 1927), German-born matriarch of the Wallenda family. She was the high-wire walker who followed
family tradition, despite seeing her father and husband killed from high-wire
accidents. She died of cancer at age 87.
2013 ~ Roger Joseph Ebert (b. June 18, 1942), American
journalist and movie critic who gave cinema a big thumbs-up. He died at age 70 following a long battle
with cancer.
2013 ~ Arthur James “The Bulldog” Donovan, Jr. (b. June 5, 1924),
Hall of Fame tackle for the Baltimore Colts.
He died at age 89.
2010 ~ Clifford Morris Hardin
(b. Oct. 9, 1915), 17th United States Secretary of Agriculture. He served during the Richard Nixon
administration from January 1969 until November 1971. He died at age 94.
1997 ~ Leo Picard (b. June 3, 1900), German-Israeli geologist. He died at age 96.
1993 ~ Alfred Mosher Butts (b. Apr. 13, 1899), American architect
and inventor of the game of Scrabble. He
died 9 days before his 94th birthday.
1983 ~
Gloria Swanson (née Gloria May Josephine Swanson, b. Mar. 27, 1899), American
actress. She is best known for her role
as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
She died about a week after her 84th birthday.
1979 ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
(b. Jan. 5, 1928) 4th President of Pakistan. He was executed at age 51 following a coup.
1972 ~
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (b. Nov. 29, 1908), American politician and civil
rights leader. He died at age 63.
1968 ~
Martin Luther King, Jr. (né Michael King, Jr., b. Jan. 15, 1929),
African-American Civil Rights activist and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace
Prize. He was assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee at age 39.
1961 ~ Simion Stoilow (b. Sept. 14, 1873), Romanian
mathematician. He died at age 87 of a
brain stroke.
1953 ~
Carol II of Romania (b. Oct. 15, 1893).
He was King from June 1930 until his abduction in September 1940. He died at age 59.
1933 ~ Elizabeth Bacon Custer (b. Apr. 8, 1842), American author and
educator. She was the wife and widow of
General George Custer. She died 4 days
before her 91st birthday.
1932 ~
Wilhelm Ostwald (né Friedrich Wilhlem Ostwald, b. Sept.
2, 1853), German chemist and recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities. He is sometime known as being the father of
modern physical chemistry. He died at
age 78.
1931 ~
André Jules Michelin (b. Jan. 16, 1953), French industrialist. He co-founded, along with his brother, the
Michelin Tire Company. He published the
first Michelin Guide, which was designed to promote his tire company. He died at age 78.
1929 ~
Karl Benz (b. Nov. 25, 1844), German engineer and businessman. He is generally considered to be the inventor
of the gas-powered automobile. Along
with his wife, Bertha (1849 ~ 1944), they founded the Mercedes-Benz car
manufacturing company. He died at age
84.
1923 ~
John Venn (b. Aug. 4, 1834), English mathematician. He is best known for introducing the Venn
diagram into the field of mathematics.
He died at age 88
1912 ~
Isaac Kaufmann Funk (b. Sept. 10, 1839), American lexicographer and
publisher. He was a co-founder of Funk
and Wagnalls. He died at age 72.
1861 ~
John McLean (b. Mar. 11, 1785), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court. He was nominated to the High
Court by President Andrew Jackson. He
served on the Court until his death 32 years later in April 1861. He was one of two Justices who dissented in
the Dred Scott case. He had previously served as the 6th
US Postmaster General under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, from
June 1823 until March 1829. He died less
that a month before his 77th birthday.
1841 ~
William Henry Harrison, Sr. (b. Feb. 9, 1773), 9th President of the
United States. He caught pneumonia
during his inauguration speech and died a month after taking Office. He was the
first President to die in office and he served for the shortest term in
American history. He died at age 68.
1774 ~
Oliver Goldsmith (b. Nov. 10, 1728), Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright. He is best known for his play She Stoops
to Conquer. He died at age 45.
1617 ~ John Napier (b. 1550),
Scottish mathematician. He is best known
for as the inventor of logarithms. The
exact date of his birth is not known; he is believed to be 66 or 67 at the time
of his death.
1588 ~ Frederick II of
Denmark and Norway. (b. July 1, 1534). He died at age 53.
1406 ~ Robert III, King of Scotland (né Robert Stuart, b. 1337). The exact date of his birth is not known.
1292 ~
Pope Nicholas IV (né Girolamo Masci, b. Sept. 30, 1227). He was Pope from February 1288 until his
death 4 years later. He was 64 at the
time of his death.
896 ~ Pope Formosus (b. 816). He reigned as Pope from October 6, 891 until
his death on this date in 896. The exact
date of his birth is unknown.
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