Birthdays:
1979 ~ Heath Ledger (né Heath Andrew Ledger; d. Jan. 22, 2008), Australian actor. He died of a drug overdose at age 28.
1964 ~ David Cross, American comedian and actor best known for his role in Arrested Development. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
1956 ~ David E. Kelley (né David Edward Kelley), American screenwriter and producer. He was born in Waterville, Maine. He is married to actress Michelle Pfeiffer.
1950 ~ Christine Lahti (née Christine Ann Lahti), American actress. She was born in Birmingham, Michigan.
1949 ~ Shing-Tung Yau, Chinese mathematician. He was born in Shantou, China.
1944 ~ Craig T. Nelson (né Craig Theodore Nelson), American actor. He was born in Spokane, Washington.
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), African-American standout boxer who starred on the gridiron. He was born in Dallas, Texas. He died in San Diego, California at age 82.
1932 ~ Richard Lugar (né Richard Green Lugar; d. Apr. 28, 2019), American Hoosier Senator who shaped world affairs. He served in the United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 until 2013. He died 24 days after his 87thbirthday.
1928 ~ Maya Angelou (née Margueritte Annie Johnson; d. May 28, 2014), African-American inspirational writer who chronicled the black experience. She was born in St. Louis, Minnesota. She died at age 86.
1928 ~ Estelle Harris (née Estelle Nussbaum), American actress best known for her role as Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld. She was born in Manhattan, New York.
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. June 15, 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 ~ Baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp (né Georg Johannes Ludwig Ritter 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 was born in Zadar, Croatia. He died of lung cancer at age 67 in Stowe, Vermont.
1869 ~ Mary Jane Colter (née Mary Elizabeth 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 (née Philippa Garrett 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. He had attended a banquet when a waiter dropped a plate, cutting his cheek, thereby causing a fatal infection.
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 Dix (née Dorothea Lynde Dix; d. July 17, 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 (1953 ~ 2018).
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 ~ The city of 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 Ebert (né 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 M. Hardin (né 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 Butts (né 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), African-American politician and civil rights leader. He was the first African-American to serve in the United States Congress from New York State. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. 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 abdication in September 1940. He died at age 59.
1933 ~ Elizabeth Bacon Custer (née Elizabeth Clift Bacon; 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 Michelin (né 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 (né Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant; 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 (né 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 replaced Robert Trimble on the High Court. He had previously served as the 6th United States Postmaster General under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, from June 1823 until March 1829. He was born in Morris County, New Jersey. He died less that a month after his 76th birthday.
1846 ~ Solomon Sibley (b. Oct. 7, 1769), 1st Mayor of Detroit, Michigan. He served as Mayor in 1806. He was born in Sutton, Massachusetts. He died at age 76.
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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