1
Today is Thursday, April 1, the 91st day of 1999. There are 274
days left in the year. This is April Fool's Day.
- On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World
War II.
- In 1789, the U.S House of Representatives held its first full
meeting, in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was
elected the first House Speaker.
- In 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first U.S. city to pay its
firefighters a regular salary.
- In 1873, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Novgorod
Province, Russia.
- In 1918, the Royal Air Force was established in Britain.
- In 1933, Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews with a boycott of
Jewish-owned businesses.
- In 1939, the United States recognized the Franco government in
Spain following the end of the Spanish Civil War.
- In 1946, tidal waves struck the Hawaiian islands, resulting in
more than 170 deaths.
- In 1947, Greece's King George II died.
- In 1960, the first weather satellite was launched from Cape
Canaveral.
- In 1963, the daytime drama "General Hospital" premiered.
- In 1970, President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette
advertising on radio and television.
- In 1984, recording star Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his
father, Marvin Gaye Sr., in Los Angeles. The elder Gaye pleaded
guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and received probation.
- Ten years ago: Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper announced that a
"strike force" of state officials and local fishermen were taking
over some of the cleanup operations following the massive Exxon
Valdez oil spill.
- Five years ago: The government reported the nation's
unemployment rate for March remained unchanged from February.
- One year ago: U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed
Paula Jones' lawsuit against President Clinton, saying her claims
of sexual harassment fell "far short" of being worthy of trial.
*Today's Birthdays*
- Author William Manchester is 77.
- Actor George Grizzard is 71.
- Actress Jane Powell is 70.
- Actress Grace Lee Whitney is 69.
- Actress Debbie Reynolds is 67.
- Actor Gordon Jump is 67.
- Country singer Jim Ed Brown is 65.
- Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff is 51.
- Jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron is 50.
- Actress Annette O'Toole is 46.
- Movie director Barry Sonnenfeld is 46.
- Country singer Woody Lee is 31.
- Tennis player Magdalena Maleeva is 24.
2
Today is Good Friday, April 2, the 92nd day of 1999. There are
273 days left in the year.
- On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war
against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for
democracy."
- In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
- In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized
establishment of the U.S. Mint.
- In 1805, storyteller Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense,
Denmark.
- In 1860, the first Italian Parliament met at Turin.
- In 1865, Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet
fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
- In 1872, Samuel F.B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph,
died in New York.
- In 1956, the soap operas "As the World Turns" and "The Edge
of Night" premiered on CBS television.
- In 1974, French president Georges Pompidou died in Paris.
- In 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the
disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from
Britain. Britain seized the islands back the following June.
- In 1986, four American passengers were killed when a bomb exploded
aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.
- In 1995, baseball owners accepted the players' union offer to
play without a contract, ending the longest and costliest strike in
the history of professional sports.
- Ten years ago: Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev began a visit
to Cuba amid differences with President Fidel Castro over the type
of reforms Gorbachev was instituting in the Soviet Union.
- Five years ago: President Clinton warned Americans against
"demagogues of division" in his weekly radio address, while
calling for greater personal responsibility and cooperation to
overcome the nation's problems. Consumer reporter Betty Furness
died in Hartsdale, N.Y., at age 78.
- One year ago: Shaking their fists in rage, thousands of mourners
marched in a funeral procession in the West Bank for a top Hamas
bombmaker (Mohiyedine Sharif) hailed by Palestinians as a martyr
and condemned by Israel as a terrorist.
*Today's Birthdays*
- Actor Buddy Ebsen is 91.
- Actor Sir Alec Guinness is 85.
- Actor Dabbs Greer is 82.
- Actress Sharon Acker is 64.
- Singer Leon Russell is 58.
- Jazz musician Larry Coryell is 56.
- Actress Linda Hunt is 54.
- Singer Emmylou Harris is 52.
- Actress Pamela Reed is 50.
- Rock musician Leon Wilkerson (Lynyrd Skynyrd) is 47.
- Actress Debralee Scott is 46.
- Actor Ron Palillo is 45.
- Country singer Billy Dean is 37.
- Actor Jeremy Garrett ("Legacy") is 23.
3
Saturday, April 3, is the 93rd day of 1999. There are 272 days left in the
year.
- On this date in 1776, George Washington received an honorary
doctor of law degree from Harvard College.
- In 1829, James Carrington patented the coffee mill.
- In 1860, the Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and
Sacramento, Calif.
- In 1882, notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St.
Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang.
- In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the
kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby.
- In 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated
more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries.
- In 1953, "TV Guide" was published for the first time.
- In 1965, Bob Dylan appeared on the pop music charts for the
first time when "Subterranean Homesick Blues" entered the Top 40
at No. 39.
- In 1979, Jane M. Byrne became the first woman elected mayor of
Chicago.
- In 1982, John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC
Nightly News."
- In 1996, an Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown
and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35
people aboard. Also, Theodore Kaczynski was arrested and accused of
being the Unabomber.
*Saturday's Birthdays*
- Singer Sebastian Bach is 31 (Skid Row).
- Actor Alec Baldwin is 41.
- Singer Jan Berry is 58 (Jan and Dean).
- Actor Marlon Brando is 75.
- Actress Doris Day is 75.
- Actress Jennie Garth is 27.
- Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 69.
- Musician Mick Mars is 43, guitarist (Motley Crue)
- Actress Marsha Mason is 57.
- Actor Eddie Murphy is 38.
- Singer Wayne Newton is 57.
- Singer Tony Orlando is 54.
- Actor David Hyde Pierce is 40.
- Guitarist Richard Thompson is 50.
4
Easter Sunday, April 4, is the 94th day of 1999. There are 271 days left in
the year.
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary describes Easter thusly:
"A feast that commemorates Christ's resurrection and is observed with
variations of date due to different calendars on the first Sunday
after the paschal full moon."
- On April 4, 1581, Frances Drake completed his circumnavigation
of the world.
- In 1818, Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and
white stripes representing the original 13 colonies and 20 stars,
with a new star added for every new state.
- In 1828, Casparus van Wooden patented chocolate milk powder.
- In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one
month after he was inaugurated, becoming the first president to die
while in office.
- In 1850, Los Angeles was incorporated as a city.
- In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter of Argonia, Kan., became the first
woman elected as mayor of a U.S. city.
- In 1902, British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will
to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University.
- In 1932, C.C. King isolated Vitamin C at the University of
Pittsburgh.
- In 1933, the U.S. dirigible Akron crashed off the New Jersey coast,
killing 73.
- In 1945, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in
Germany.
- In 1949, 12 nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) treaty.
- In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis,
Tenn. James Earl Ray confessed to the murder, but later recanted.
- In 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial
heart.
- In 1972, the first electric power plant fueled by garbage began
operating.
- In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed
when a U.S. Air Force plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed
shortly after take-off from Saigon.
- In 1981, Henry Cisneros of San Antonio, Texas, became the first
Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
- In 1983, the space shuttle "Challenger" was launched into orbit
on its maiden voyage.
- In 1994, Netscape Communications was founded as Mosaic
Communications.
*Sunday's Birthdays*
- Poet and author Maya Angelou is 71.
- Composer Elmer Bernstein is 77.
- Golfer JoAnne Gunderson Carner is 60.
- Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 34.
- Biographer Kitty Kelley is 57.
- Actress Christine Lahti is 49.
- Actress Nancy McKeon is 33.
- Actor Craig T. Nelson is 53.
- Actress Eva Marie Saint is 75.
5
Today is Monday, April 5, the 95th day of 1999. There are 270 days left in the
year.
- On April 5, 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential
veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning
representatives among the states.
- In 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas married English
colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
- In 1621, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on a return
trip to England.
- In 1649, Elihu Yale, the English philanthropist for whom Yale
University is named, was born.
- In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against
the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the writer of
homosexual practices.
- In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death
following their conviction on charges of conspiring to commit
espionage for the Soviet Union.
- In 1964, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.
- In 1975, nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.
- In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at
age 72.
- In 1988, a 15-day hijacking ordeal began as gunmen forced a Kuwait
Airways jumbo jet to land in Iran.
- In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who shattered
conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New
York City at age 70.
- Ten years ago: Joseph Hazelwood, former captain of the Exxon Valdez
supertanker that leaked nearly 11 million gallons of oil into
Alaska's Prince William Sound, surrendered to authorities in New
York. The government of Poland signed an agreement restoring the
independent labor movement Solidarity after a seven-year ban.
- Five years ago: President Clinton presided over a 90-minute town
hall meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in which he called himself the
victim of "false charges" in connection with the Whitewater
controversy.
- One year ago: In Leeds, England, environment chiefs from the world's
top eight industrialized nations announced plans to curb the
smuggling of hazardous waste, endangered species and substances
that damage the ozone layer.
*Today's Birthdays*
- Actor Gregory Peck is 83.
- Novelist Arthur Hailey is 79.
- Actress Gale Storm is 77.
- Movie producer Roger Corman is 73.
- Actor Nigel Hawthorne is 70.
- Country music producer Cowboy Jack Clement is 68.
- Impressionist-actor Frank Gorshin is 66.
- Jazz musician Stanley Turrentine is 65.
- Retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, is 62.
- Country singer Tommy Cash is 59.
- Actor Michael Moriarty is 58.
- Writer-director Peter Greenaway is 57.
- Actor Max Gail is 56.
- Actress Jane Asher is 53.
- Singer Paula Cole is 31.
6
Today is Tuesday, April 6, the 96th day of 1999. There are 269 days
left in the year.
- On April 6, 1909, explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson
became the first men to reach the North Pole. The claim, disputed by
skeptics, was upheld in 1989 by the Navigation Foundation.
- In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was
organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.
- In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.
- In 1896, the first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens,
Greece.
- In 1917, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany.
- In 1945, during World War II, the Japanese warship Yamato and nine
other vessels sailed on a suicide mission to attack the U.S. fleet
off Okinawa; the fleet was intercepted the next day.
- In 1965, the U.S. launched the Early Bird communications satellite.
- In 1971, Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky died in New York
City.
- In 1985, William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart
recipient to be discharged from the hospital as he moved into an
apartment in Louisville, Ky.
- Ten years ago: Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in London, holding daylong talks
characterized as argumentative, but friendly.
- Five years ago: Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun announced
his retirement after 24 years. The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi
were killed in a mysterious plane crash near Rwanda's capital;
widespread violence erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been
shot down. A Palestinian suicide-bomber killed seven Israelis in an
attack on a bus in Afula.
- One year ago: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000
points for the first time. Energy Secretary Federico Pena announced
his resignation. Country singer Tammy Wynette died at her Nashville,
Tenn., home at age 55.
*Happy Birthday*
- Composer-conductor Andre Previn is 70.
- Actor Ivan Dixon is 68.
- Country singer Merle Haggard is 62.
- Actor Billy Dee Williams is 62.
- Actor Roy Thinnes is 61.
- Movie director Barry Levinson is 57.
- Singer Michelle Phillips is 55.
- Actor John Ratzenberger is 52.
- Actress Marilu Henner is 47.
- Figure skater Janet Lynn is 46.
- Actor Michael Rooker is 44.
- Actress Ari Meyers is 30.
- Actor Paul Rudd is 30.
- Actor Jason Hervey is 27.
- Actress Candace Cameron is 23.
7
Today is Wednesday, April 7, the 97th day of 1999. There are 268
days left in the year.
- On April 7, 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South
Pacific" opened on Broadway.
- In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the
Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
- In 1927, an audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary
Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration
of television.
- In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which offered only token resistance.
Less than a week later, Italy annexed Albania.
- In 1945, during World War II, American planes intercepted a Japanese
fleet that was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission.
- In 1947, auto pioneer Henry Ford died in Dearborn, Mich., at age 83.
- In 1948, the World Health Organization was founded.
- In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of
Sweden to be secretary-general.
- In 1957, the last of New York's electric trolleys completed its
final run from Queens to Manhattan.
- In 1969, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting
private possession of obscene material.
- Ten years ago: A week after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster,
President Bush pledged federal assistance to help in the clean-up.
A Soviet nuclear-powered submarine, the Komsomolets, caught fire and
sank in the Norwegian Sea, claiming 42 lives.
- Five years ago: Civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a
mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda
and Burundi. In the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of
minority Tutsi and Hutu intellectuals were slaughtered.
- One year ago: President Clinton held a town meeting in Kansas City,
Mo., on the future of Social Security. Mary Bono, the widow of
entertainer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, won a special election to
serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term.
*Happy Birthday+
- Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 79.
- Actor James Garner is 71.
- Country singer Cal Smith is 67.
- Actor Wayne Rogers is 66.
- Actor Ian Richardson is 65.
- Media commentator Hodding Carter is 64.
- Country singer Bobby Bare is 64.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 62.
- Jazz musician Freddie Hubbard is 61.
- The mayor of Oakland, Calif., Jerry Brown, is 61.
- Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 60.
- TV personality David Frost is 60.
- Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann is 53.
- Actor Jackie Chan is 45.
- Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 45.
8
Today is Thursday, April 8, the 98th day of 1999. There are 267 days
left in the year.
- On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th
career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking
Babe Ruth's record.
- In 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
- In 1935, the Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress.
- In 1946, the League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last
time.
- In 1950, ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London.
- In 1952, President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a
nationwide strike.
- In 1970, the Senate rejected President Nixon's nomination of G.
Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died at his home near Mougins, France,
at age 91.
- In 1981, General Omar N. Bradley died in New York at age 88.
- In 1990, Ryan White, the teen-age AIDS patient whose battle for
acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age
18.
- In 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news
conference that he had AIDS. He died in Feb. 1993 of AIDS-related
pneumonia at age 49.
- Ten years ago: The Soviet Union acknowledged that one of its nuclear
submarines caught fire and sank off Norway the day before. The next
day the Soviet government said 42 lives had been lost.
- Five years ago: Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge
band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27. Japanese Prime Minister
Morihiro Hosokawa announced his intention to resign in the wake of
an ever-widening financial scandal.
- One year ago: The nation's major cigarette makers withdrew support
for a historic tobacco settlement, saying Congress had twisted their
offer to help cut teen smoking into a harsh attack on their industry
and sharp tax increases for American smokers. Thirty-six people were
killed by tornadoes that struck Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.
*Happy Birthdays*
- Former first lady Betty Ford is 81.
- Opera singer Franco Corelli is 76.
- Comedian Shecky Greene is 73.
- Actress Dorothy Tutin is 69.
- Lyricist Fred Ebb is 66.
- Actor Klaus Lowitsch is 63.
- Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh is 62.
- Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek is 59.
- Singer J.J. Jackson is 58.
- All-Star catcher Gary Carter is 45.
- Rock musician Izzy Stradlin is 37.
- Singer Julian Lennon is 36.
- Rapper Biz Markie is 35.
- Actress Robin Wright Penn is 33.
- Actress Patricia Arquette is 31.
- Rock singer Craig Honeycutt (Everything) is 29.
- Actor Taran Noah Smith is 15.
9
Today is Friday, April 9, the 99th day of 1999. There are 266 days
left in the year.
- On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his
army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in
Virginia.
- In 1682, French explorer Robert La Salle reached the Mississippi
River.
- In 1939, singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C., after she was denied the use of
Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
- In 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
- In 1942, American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulated to
Japanese forces; the surrender was followed by the notorious "Bataan
Death March," which claimed nearly 10,000 lives.
- In 1947, tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 169 lives.
- In 1959, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven
astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom,
Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
- In 1963, British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary
U.S. citizen.
- In 1965, the newly built Houston Astrodome featured its first
baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York
Yankees. The Astros won, 2-1.
- In 1992, former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in
Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges.
- In 1993, the Rev. Benjamin Chavis was chosen to head the NAACP,
succeeding Benjamin Hooks.
- Ten years ago: Hundreds of thousands of people marched in
Washington, D.C., demanding continued access to safe and legal
abortion.
- Five years ago: Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ordered U.N.
troops to use "all available means" to roll back Serb military gains
in the Muslim enclave of Gorazde. The space shuttle Endeavour
blasted off on an 11-day mission that included mapping the Earth's
surface in three dimensions.
- One year ago: The National Prisoner of War Museum opened in
Andersonville, Ga., the site of the infamous Civil War prison camp.
More than 150 Muslims died in a stampede that occurred on the last
day of the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi
Arabia.
*Happy Birthday*
- Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is 73.
- Naturalist Jim Fowler is 67.
- Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 66.
- Comedian Avery Schreiber is 64.
- Actress Michael Learned is 60.
- Country singer Margo Smith is 57.
- Country singer Hal Ketchum is 46.
- Actor Dennis Quaid is 45.
- Golfer Severiano Ballesteros is 42.
- Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 34.
- Rock singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox) is 30.
- Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 20.
10
Today is Saturday, April 10, the 100th day of 1999. There are 265
days left in the year.
- On April 10, 1912, the luxury liner RMS Titanic set sail from
Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.
- In 1847, American newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako,
Hungary.
- In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals was incorporated.
- In 1925, the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was
first published by Scribner's of New York.
- In 1932, German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected, with
Adolf Hitler coming in second.
- In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced he had
purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.
- In 1953, the three-dimensional horror movie "House of Wax," produced
by Warner Brothers and starring Vincent Price, premiered in New
York.
- In 1959, Japan's Crown Prince Akihito married a commoner, Michiko
Shoda.
- In 1963, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to
surface off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
- In 1972, the U.S. and the Soviet Union joined some 70 nations in
signing an agreement banning biological warfare.
- In 1974, Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of
Israel.
- Ten years ago: Federal drug czar William J. Bennett unveiled details
of the Bush administration's plan for fighting drug abuse and
drug-related crime in the nation's capital.
- Five years ago: Two U.S. F-16 fighters bombed Bosnian Serb targets
in Gorazde - NATO's first-ever attack on ground positions. A second
air strike took place the following day.
- One year ago: The Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as
negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter
rivalries and bloody attacks.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Harry Morgan is 84.
- Country singer Sheb Wooley is 78.
- Actor Max von Sydow is 70.
- Actor Omar Sharif is 67.
- Sportscaster John Madden is 63.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Bobbie Smith (The Spinners) is 63.
- Sportscaster Don Meredith is 61.
- Reggae artist Bunny Wailer is 52.
- Actor Steven Seagal is 48.
- Rock musician Steven Gustafson (10,000 Maniacs) is 42.
- Singer-producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds is 41.
- Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 40.
- Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 39.
- Actor Jeb Adams is 38.
- Olympic gold medal speedskater Cathy Turner is 37.
- Singer Kenny Lattimore is 29.
11
Today is Sunday, April 11, the 101st day of 1999. There are 264 days
left in the year.
- One hundred years ago, on April 11, 1899, the treaty ending the
Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
- In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was
banished to the island of Elba.
- In 1898, President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war
against Spain.
- In 1921, Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax.
- In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated
Buchenwald, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Germany.
- In 1951, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his
commands in the Far East.
- In 1968, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of
1968, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
- In 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon.
The astronauts managed to return safely.
- In 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and
exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control.
- In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued
regulations specifically prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by
supervisors.
- Ten years ago: Mexican officials unearthed the remains of 12 of 13
victims of a drug-trafficking cult near Matamoros. The dead included
University of Texas student Mark Kilroy, who had disappeared while
on spring break.
- Five years ago: The White House disclosed that President and Mrs.
Clinton had failed to report $6,498 in income that the first lady
made in commodities trading in 1980; the couple wrote checks
totaling $14,615 in back taxes and interest.
- One year ago: The executive committee of the Ulster Union Party
voted 55-23 to support the Northern Ireland peace accord and its
leader, David Trimble, who had outmaneuvered rebels in his ranks.
*Happy Birthday*
- Fashion designer Oleg Cassini is 86.
- Movie producer Howard W. Koch is 83.
- Former New York Gov. Hugh Carey is 80.
- Ethel Kennedy is 71.
- Actor Johnny Sheffield is 68.
- Actor Joel Grey is 67.
- Actress Louise Lasser is 60.
- Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman is 58.
- Movie writer-director John Milius is 55.
- Actor Peter Riegert is 52.
- Actor Bill Irwin is 49.
- Country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 42.
- Country singer Steve Azar is 35.
12
Today is Monday, April 12, the 102nd day of 1999. There are 263 days
left in the year.
- On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate
forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- In 1934, "Tender Is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first
published.
- In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral
hemorrhage at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S.
Truman.
- In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and
effective.
- In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly
in space, orbiting the Earth once before making a safe landing.
- In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral
on its first test flight.
- In 1983, Chicagoans went to the polls to elect Harold Washington the
city's first black mayor.
- In 1985, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in
space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.
- In 1992, Euro Disneyland opened in France.
- Ten years ago: Radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his
home in New Hope, Penn., at age 52; former middleweight boxing
champion Sugar Ray Robinson died in Culver City, Calif., at age 67.
- Five years ago: Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell declined to
be nominated to the Supreme Court. Playwright Edward Albee won his
third Pulitzer prize for "Three Tall Women;" the Pulitzer prize for
fiction went to E. Annie Proulx for "The Shipping News;" the
gold-medal award for public service journalism went to the Akron
Beacon-Journal of Ohio.
- One year ago: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams appealed to IRA
supporters to accept Northern Ireland's compromise peace accord.
Golfer Mark O'Meara won the Masters title in Augusta, Ga.
*Happy Birthday*
- Bandleader Lionel Hampton is 91.
- Actress-dancer Ann Miller is 76.
- Country singer Ned Miller is 74.
- Actress Jane Withers is 73.
- Opera singer Montserrat Caballe is 66.
- Actor Charles Napier is 63.
- Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 59.
- Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 55.
- Actor Ed O'Neill is 53.
- Actor Dan Lauria is 52.
- Talk show host David Letterman is 52.
- Author Scott Turow is 50.
- Singer David Cassidy is 49.
- Actor Andy Garcia is 43.
- Country singer Vince Gill is 42.
- Country singer Deryl Dodd is 35.
- Folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) is 35.
- Actress Shannen Doherty is 28.
- Actress Claire Danes is 20.
13
Today is Tuesday, April 13, the 103rd day of 1999. There are 262
days left in the year.
- On April 13, 1743, the third president of the U.S., Thomas
Jefferson, was born in present-day Albemarle County, Va.
- In 1742, Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin,
Ireland.
- In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York.
- In 1943, President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.
- In 1958, Van Cliburn became the first American to win the
Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.
- In 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled
when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.
- In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue in the first
recorded papal visit of its kind.
- In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's
century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water
from the Chicago River.
- In 1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters
Tournament and the first player of at least partly African heritage
to claim a major golf title.
- Ten years ago: House Speaker Jim Wright delivered an emotional
defense of his conduct against ethics charges, declaring he would
"fight to the last ounce of conviction and energy" he possessed.
- Five years ago: Islamic militants bombed an Israeli bus, killing six
people and wounding 28.
- One year ago: NationsBank and BankAmerica announced a $62.5 billion
merger, creating the country's first coast-to-coast bank. A
500-pound steel joint fell from the upper level of New York's Yankee
Stadium, crashing onto seats below. No fans were inside the park at
the time.
*Happy Birthday*
- Former Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen is 92.
- Author Eudora Welty is 90.
- Actor Howard Keel is 80.
- Movie director Stanley Donen is 75.
- Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) is 66.
- Actor Lyle Waggoner is 64.
- Actor Edward Fox is 62.
- Playwright Lanford Wilson is 62.
- Actor Paul Sorvino is 60.
- Movie and TV composer Bill Conti is 57.
- Rock musician Jack Casady is 55.
- Actor Tony Dow is 54.
- Singer Al Green is 53.
- Actor Ron Perlman is 49.
- Singer Peabo Bryson is 48.
- Rock musician Max Weinberg is 48.
14
Today is Wednesday, April 14, the 104th day of 1999. There are 261
days left in the year.
- 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. Lincoln died the following
morning.
- In 1759, composer George Frideric Handel died in London.
- In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of
the English Language" was published.
- In 1902, J.C. Penney opened his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyo.
- In 1912, the British liner Titanic collided with an iceberg in the
North Atlantic and began sinking.
- In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first
published.
- In 1939, the motion picture "Wuthering Heights" starring Merle
Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premiered in New York.
- In 1981, the first test flight of America's first operational space
shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards
Air Force Base in California.
- Ten years ago: Testimony concluded in the Iran-Contra trial of
former National Security Council staff member Oliver L. North.
Former winery worker Ramon Salcido went on a rampage in Sonoma
County, Calif., killing seven people, including his wife and
daughters.
- Five years ago: Two American F-15 warplanes inadvertently shot down
two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people,
including 15 Americans. The chiefs of the nation's seven largest
tobacco companies spent more than six hours being grilled by the
House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee about the effects of
smoking.
- One year ago: Despite international pleas for leniency, the state of
Virginia executed Angel Francisco Breard, a Paraguayan convicted of
murder. President Clinton moderated a town meeting on race with an
all-star panel of sports figures. The Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald won
the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service; author Philip Roth
received the Pulitzer fiction award, his first, for "American
Pastoral."
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Sir John Gielgud is 95.
- Actor Rod Steiger is 74.
- Actor Bradford Dillman is 69.
- Actor Jay Robinson ("The Robe") is 69.
- Country singer Loretta Lynn is 64.
- Actress Julie Christie is 59.
- Baseball's all-time hit leader, Pete Rose, is 58.
- Actor John Shea is 50.
- Actor Brad Garrett is 39.
- Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 37.
- Rock musician Barrett Martin is 32.
- Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 31.
- Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar is 22.
15
Today is Thursday, April 15, the 105th day of 1999. There are 260
days left in the year.
- In the early hours of April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner
Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three
hours after striking an iceberg. About 1,500 people died.
- In 1817, the first American school for the deaf opened in Hartford,
Conn.
- In 1850, the city of San Francisco was incorporated.
- In 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter,
President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out
Union troops.
- In 1865, President Lincoln died, several hours after he was shot at
Ford's Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson
became the nation's 17th president.
- In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated
the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
- In 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball's first black major league
player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening
day.
- In 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived in Washington to begin a
goodwill tour of the U.S.
- In 1986, the U.S. launched an air raid against Libya in response to
the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya says 37
people, mostly civilians, were killed.
- In 1980, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris
at the age of 74.
- In 1990, actress Greta Garbo died in New York at age 84.
- Ten years ago: Students in Beijing launched a series of
pro-democracy protests upon the death of former Communist Party
leader Hu Yaobang; the protests culminated in the Tiananmen Square
massacre. Ninety-five people died in a crush of soccer fans at
Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.
- Five years ago: Ministers from 109 countries signed a 26,000-page
world trade agreement known as the "Uruguay Round" accords in
Marrakesh, Morocco.
- One year ago: Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge, died
at age 73.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Michael Ansara is 77.
- Country singer Roy Clark is 66.
- Bluesman Frank Frost is 63.
- Actress Claudia Cardinale is 60.
- Rock singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 55.
- TV producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is 51.
- Actor Michael Tucci is 49.
- Actress Amy Wright is 49.
- Columnist Heloise is 48.
- Actress-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 40.
- Singer Samantha Fox is 33.
- Rock musician Ed O'Brien (Radiohead) is 31.
- Actor Flex is 29.
16
Today is Friday, April 16, the 106th day of 1999. There are 259 days
left in the year.
- On April 16, 1947, America's worst harbor explosion occurred in
Texas City, Texas, when the French ship "Grandcamp" blew up; another
ship, the "Highflyer," exploded the following day. The blasts and
resulting fires killed 576 people.
- In 1789, President-elect Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for his
inauguration in New York.
- In 1862, a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became
law.
- In 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the
English Channel.
- In 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia after years of
exile.
- In 1945, in his first speech to Congress, President Truman pledged
to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor,
President Roosevelt.
- In 1945 U.S. troops reached Nuremberg, Germany, during World War II.
- In 1947, financier and presidential confidant Bernard M. Baruch said
in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse, "Let us not be
deceived. We are today in the midst of a cold war."
- In 1962, Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of
"The CBS Evening News."
- In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.
- Ten years ago: Spain's ambassador to Lebanon (Pedro Manuel de
Aristegui) was killed by shellfire that broke out between Christian
militiamen and an alliance of Syrian and Muslim gunners.
- Five years ago: Bosnian Serbs downed a British Sea Harrier jet near
Gorazde; the pilot ejected and was rescued by Bosnian government
troops. Ralph Ellison, author of "Invisible Man," died in New York
at age 80.
- One year ago: Paula Jones announced she would ask an appeals court
to reinstate her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton
after it was thrown out by a federal judge. Tornadoes claimed 11
lives in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor-comedian Spike Milligan is 81.
- Actor Barry Nelson is 79.
- Actor-director-author Peter Ustinov is 78.
- Actor Peter Mark Richman is 72.
- Actress-singer Edie Adams is 70.
- Jazz musician Herbie Mann is 69.
- Singer Bobby Vinton is 64.
- Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is 59.
- Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 52.
- Singer Gerry Rafferty is 52.
- Actor David Graf is 49.
- Actor Jay O. Sanders is 46.
- Actress Ellen Barkin is 45.
- Singer Jimmy Osmond is 36.
- Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum) is 35.
- Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 34.
- Actor Jon Cryer is 34.
- Rock musician Dan Rieser (Marcy Playground) is 33.
17
Today is Saturday, April 17, the 107th day of 1999. There are 258
days left in the year.
- On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the
disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to
overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
- In 1492, a contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a
representative of Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving
Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
- In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano reached present-day New York harbor.
- In 1790, American statesman Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia
at age 84.
- In 1861, the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the
Union.
- In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II.
- In 1964, Ford Motor Company unveiled its new "Mustang" model.
- In 1964, Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to
complete a solo airplane flight around the world.
- In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of
assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
- In 1969, Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek was
deposed.
- In 1970, the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the
Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their
spacecraft.
- In 1975, Phnom Penh fell to Communist insurgents, ending Cambodia's
five-year war.
- In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police
officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney
King; two other officers were acquitted.
- Ten years ago: The House Ethics Committee released its report
accusing Speaker Jim Wright of violating House rules on acceptance
of gifts and outside income - charges denied by the Texas Democrat.
- Five years ago: Bosnian Serb tanks entered the Muslim enclave of
Gorazde; the UN Security Council issued a nonbinding statement that
condemned the Serbs' escalating military activities, but made no
threat of force to back its condemnation.
- One year ago: A Thai military team collected evidence from the body
of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to
confirm that one of the century's worst tyrants was truly dead.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Lon McCallister is 76.
- Rock promoter Don Kirshner is 65.
- Composer-musician Jan Hammer is 51.
- Actress Olivia Hussey is 48.
- Rock singer-musician Pete Shelley is 44.
- Actress Teri Austin is 40.
- Actress Lela Rochon 35.
- Singer Liz Phair is 32.
18
Today is Sunday, April 18, the 108th day of 1999. There are 257 days
left in the year.
- On April 18, 1949, the Irish republic was proclaimed.
- In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to
Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were
coming.
- In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by
raging fires. About 700 people died.
- In 1942, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James
H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
- In 1945, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed
by Japanese gunfire on a Pacific island off Okinawa.
- In 1946, the League of Nations went out of business.
- In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, N.J.
- In 1978, the U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over
to Panamanian control Dec. 31, 1999.
- In 1983, 62 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S.
Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
- Ten years ago: Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy
tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
- Five years ago: Former President Richard Nixon suffered a stroke at
his home in Park Ridge, N.J., and was taken to New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center; he died four days later.
- One year ago: Despite fierce internal dissent, Northern Ireland's
main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, approved a peace
agreement. The remains of Pol Pot were cremated, three days after
the Khmer Rouge leader blamed for the killings of up to 2 million
Cambodians died at age 73. Former North Carolina governor and U.S.
Sen. Terry Sanford died in Durham at age 80.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actress Barbara Hale is 77.
- Blues singer Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is 75.
- Actor Clive Revill is 69.
- Actor James Drury is 65.
- Actor Robert Hooks is 62.
- Actress Hayley Mills is 53.
- Actor James Woods is 52.
- Actress-director Dorothy Lyman is 52.
- Actress Cindy Pickett is 52.
- Country musician Walt Richmond (The Tractors) is 52.
- Actor Rick Moranis is 45.
- Actress Melody Thomas Scott is 43.
- Actor Eric Roberts is 43.
- Actor John James is 43.
- Talk show host Conan O'Brien is 36.
- Rock musician Greg Eklund (Everclear) is 29.
19
Today is Monday, April 19, the 109th day of 1999. There are 256 days
left in the year.
- On April 19, 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command
by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a
ballad, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
- In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of
Lexington and Concord.
- In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was run from Ashland, Mass., to
Boston.
- In 1898, Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independence
and demanding that Spain relinquish its authority over Cuba.
- In 1933, the U.S. went off the gold standard.
- In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in
the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi
forces.
- In 1945, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" opened on
Broadway.
- In 1982, astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became
the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S.
space missions.
- In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco,
Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents
began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including David
Koresh, were killed.
- In 1995, a truck bomb devastated the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols were later convicted of charges related to the
bombing.
- Ten years ago: Forty-seven sailors were killed when a gun turret
exploded aboard the USS Iowa. A female jogger in New York's Central
Park was brutally beaten and raped. Six teen-agers were later
charged in the near-fatal attack; five were convicted, one pleaded
guilty to a lesser charge.
- Five years ago: A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten
motorist Rodney King. The Supreme Court outlawed the practice of
excluding people from juries because of their gender.
- One year ago: Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
pro-democracy protests, arrived in the U.S. after being freed by
China. It was announced that Linda McCartney, the wife of Paul
McCartney, had died two days earlier at age 56. Mexican
poet-philosopher Octavio Paz died at age 84.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Hugh O'Brian is 74.
- Actor Don Adams is 73.
- Actor-comedian Dudley Moore is 64.
- Actress Elinor Donahue is 62.
- Actor Tim Curry is 53.
- Pop singer Mark "Flo" Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 52.
- Tennis player Sue Barker is 43.
- Actress Ashley Judd is 31.
- Pop singer Bekka Bramlett is 31.
20
Today is Tuesday, April 20, the 110th day of 1999. There are 255
days left in the year.
- On April 20, 1949, scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced they had
succeeded in synthesizing a hormone found to be useful in treating
rheumatoid arthritis; the substance was named "cortisone."
- In 1812, the fourth vice president of the U.S., George Clinton, died
in Washington at age 73, becoming the first vice president to die
while in office.
- In 1836, the Territory of Wisconsin was established by Congress.
- In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria.
- In 1902, scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive
element radium.
- In 1940, RCA publicly demonstrated its new and powerful electron
microscope.
- In 1945, during World War II, allied forces took control of the
German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
- In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of
Canada.
- In 1971, the Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve
racial desegregation in schools.
- In 1972, the manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
- In 1978, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern
Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering
Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed.
- Ten years ago: Ramon Salcido, a California winery worker later
convicted of killing six relatives and a co-worker, was deported
from Mexico to the U.S. The case of Oliver North went to the jury in
his Iran-Contra trial.
- Five years ago: Israeli and PLO negotiators wrapped up an agreement
transferring civilian government powers to Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip and Jericho.
- One year ago: In an unusual use of a racketeering law designed to
fight the mob, a federal jury in Chicago ruled that anti-abortion
protest organizers had used threats and violence to shut down
clinics. A Boeing 727 leased to Air France crashed in Bogota,
Colombia, killing all 53 people aboard.
*Happy Birthday*
- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 79.
- Bandleader Tito Puente is 76.
- Actress Nina Foch is 75.
- Singer Johnny Tillotson is 60.
- Actor George Takei is 59.
- Actor Ryan O'Neal is 58.
- Rock musician Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger's Silver Bullet
Band) is 51.
- Actress Jessica Lange is 50.
- Singer Luther Vandross is 48.
- Actor Denis Leary is 41.
- Actor Clint Howard is 40.
- Country singer Wade Hayes is 30.
- Actress Carmen Electra is 27.
- Actor Joey Lawrence is 23.
21
Today is Wednesday, April 21, the 111th day of 1999. There are 254
days left in the year.
- On April 21, 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice
president of the U.S.
- In 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of
worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.
- In 1816, Charlotte Bronte, author of "Jane Eyre," was born in
Thornton, England.
- In 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans
at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.
- In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark
Twain, died in Redding, Conn.
- In 1918, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the
"Red Baron," was killed in action during World War I.
- In 1955, the Jerome Lawrence-Robert Lee play "Inherit the Wind,"
loosely based on the Scopes trial of 1925, opened at the National
Theatre in New York.
- In 1960, Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring
the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.
- In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored
the surface of the moon.
- In 1975, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after
10 years in office.
- In 1977, the musical play "Annie" opened on Broadway.
- Ten years ago: Tens of thousands of people crowded into Beijing's
Tiananmen Square, cheering students who waved banners demanding
greater political freedoms.
- Five years ago: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $28
billion get-tough-on-crime bill.
- One year ago: Astronomers announced in Washington they had
discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star
220 light-years away, the clearest evidence yet of worlds forming
beyond our solar system.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Anthony Quinn is 84.
- Ice skater Werner Groebli ("Mr. Frick") is 84.
- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is 73.
- Actress-comedian-writer Elaine May is 67.
- Actor-turned-talk show host Charles Grodin is 64.
- Singer-musician Iggy Pop is 52.
- Singer-songwriter Paul Davis is 51.
- Actress Patti LuPone is 50.
- Actor Tony Danza is 48.
- Actress Andie MacDowell is 41.
- Rock singer Robert Smith (The Cure) is 40.
- Rock musician Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 40.
- Actor John Cameron Mitchell ("Party Girl") is 36.
22
Today is Thursday, April 22, the 112th day of 1999. There are 253
days left in the year.
- On April 22, 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God
We Trust" on U.S. coins.
- In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of
homesteaders staked claims.
- In 1930, the U.S., Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty,
which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding.
- In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces began invading
Japanese-held New Guinea with amphibious landings near Hollandia.
- In 1952, an atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear
explosion shown on live network television.
- In 1954, the televised Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.
- In 1964, President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair.
- In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment
observed the first "Earth Day."
- In 1993, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in
Washington, D.C., to honor the victims of Nazi extermination.
- In 1997, in Peru, government commandos stormed the Japanese
ambassador's residence, ending a 126-day hostage crisis; all 14
Tupac Amaru rebels were killed, 71 hostages were rescued.
- Ten years ago: The Xinhua News Agency reported the first outbreak of
violence stemming from China's pro-democracy protests, in the
provincial capital of Xian.
- Five years ago: Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the U.S.,
died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke. He
was 81.
- One year ago: A young woman charged along with her high school
sweetheart with murdering their newborn at a Delaware motel pleaded
guilty to manslaughter.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Eddie Albert is 91.
- Television producer Aaron Spelling is 76.
- Actor George Cole is 74.
- Actress Charlotte Rae is 73.
- Singer Glen Campbell is 63.
- Actor Jack Nicholson is 62.
- Songwriter-musician Jack Nitzsche is 62.
- Actor-writer Jason Miller is 60.
- Singer Mel Carter is 56.
- Country singer Cleve Francis is 54.
- Movie director John Waters is 53.
- Singer Peter Frampton is 49.
- Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze)
is 48.
- Actor Joseph Bottoms is 45.
- Actor Ryan Stiles ("The Drew Carey Show") is 40.
- Comedian Byron Allen is 38.
- Actor Chris Makepeace is 35.
- Actress Sheryl Lee is 32.
23
Today is Friday, April 23, the 113th day of 1999. There are 252 days
left in the year.
- On April 23, 1899, Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov was born
in St. Petersburg.
- In 1564, English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare is believed
to have been born; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.
- In 1789, President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the
first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.
- In 1791, the 15th president of the U.S., James Buchanan, was born in
Franklin County, Pa.
- In 1896, the "Vitascope" system for projecting movies onto a screen
was demonstrated in New York City.
- In 1940, about 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez,
Miss.
- In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his
record 755 major-league home runs, in a game against the St. Louis
Cardinals.
- In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New
York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life
imprisonment.
- In 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret
flavor formula for Coke Negative public reaction forced the company
to resume selling the original version.
- Ten years ago: Troy Aikman of UCLA became the first player chosen in
the NFL draft in New York City as he was selected by the Dallas
Cowboys.
- Five years ago: Mourners left red roses, burning candles and cards
at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif.,
in memory of the 37th president of the U.S., who had died the day
before at age 81.
- One year ago: James Earl Ray, the ex-convict who confessed to
assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then
insisted he was framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actress Janet Blair is 78.
- Actress-turned-diplomat Shirley Temple Black is 71.
- Actor Alan Oppenheimer is 69.
- Actor David Birney is 60.
- Actor Lee Majors is 59.
- Actress Sandra Dee is 57.
- Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is 52.
- Actress Blair Brown is 51.
- Writer-director Paul Brickman is 50.
- Actress Joyce DeWitt is 50.
- Actor James Russo is 46.
- Actress Judy Davis is 44.
- Actress Jan Hooks is 42.
- Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 39.
- Actor Craig Sheffer ("A River Runs Through It") is 39.
- Rock musician Gen (Jesus Jones) is 35.
- U.S. Olympic gold medal skier Donna Weinbrecht is 34.
24
Today is Saturday, April 24, the 114th day of 1999. There are 251
days left in the year.
- On this date in 1980, the U.S. launched a failed attempt to free
American hostages in Iran.
- In 1792, Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La
Marseillaise," the national anthem of France.
- In 1800, Congress established the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C.
- In 1833, Jacob Evert and George Dulty patented the soda fountain.
- In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after receiving an
ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
- In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began deporting Armenians during
World War I.
- In 1916, Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising, seizing key
points in Dublin, including the post office, and proclaiming an
Irish Republic.
- In 1945, American forces liberated Dachau concentration camp.
- In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Winston Churchill.
- In 1961, Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18
batters in one game, becoming the first major league pitcher to
do so on two different occasions.
- In 1967, Vladimir Komarov, the first Russian to fly in the Soyuz
craft, was killed when he crash-landed in Russia after his 17th
orbit of Earth.
- In 1968, Students at Columbia University began a week-long
occupation of several campus buildings.
- In 1986, The Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Warfield) died at age 89. As
Wallis Simpson, her romance with King Edward VIII led to his
abdication in 1936.
*Today's Birthday*
- Actor/playwright Eric Bogosian is 45.
- Actor J.D. Cannon is 76.
- Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 56.
- Author Sue Grafton is 58.
- Actress Shirley MacLaine is 64.
- Actor Michael O'Keefe (Caddyshack) is 43.
- Singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 55.
- Actress/singer Barbra Streisand is 56.
25
Today is Sunday, April 25, the 115th day of 1999. There are 250 days
left in the year.
- On this date in 1988, A judge in Jerusalem sentenced John Demjanjuk
to death after he was convicted of being "Ivan the Terrible," a Nazi
death camp guard who had killed tens of thousands of people.
- In 1792, Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a highwayman, became the first
person guillotined in France.
- In 1859, work began on the construction of the Suez Canal under the
direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps.
- In 1898, the United States formally declared war on Spain.
- In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile
license plates.
- In 1915, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an
unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of the
war.
- In 1928, Buddy, a German Shepherd, became the first guide dog for
the blind.
- In 1945, the San Francisco Conference, sponsored by China, Britain,
the Soviet Union and the United States, opened to set up a world
body to succeed the defunct League of Nations.
- In 1959, The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the
Great Lakes, opened.
- In 1983, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov invited Samantha Smith to visit
his country after receiving a letter in which the Manchester,
Maine, schoolgirl expressed fears about nuclear war.
- In 1990, Violeta Chamorro was sworn in as president of Nicaragua,
having defeated Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Hank Azaria is 35.
- Country musician Vassar Clements is 71.
- Songwriter Jerry Leiber is 66.
- Former Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon is 67.
- Actor/director Paul Mazursky is 69.
- Actor Al Pacino is 59.
- Actress Talia Shire is 53.
- Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) is 54.
- Actress Renee Zellweger is 30.
26
Today is Monday, April 26, the 116th day of 1999. There are 249 days
left in the year.
- On April 26, 1607, an expedition of English colonists, including
Capt. John Smith, went ashore in Virginia to establish the first
permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
- In 1785, American naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born
in Haiti.
- In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was
surrounded by federal troops and killed.
- In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica
during the Spanish Civil War.
- In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy
government during World War II, was arrested.
- In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit the first of a
record 61 home runs in a single season; the homer was off Detroit's
Paul Foytack at Tiger Stadium.
- In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to
form Tanzania.
- In 1968, the U.S. exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton
nuclear device called Boxcar.
- In 1970, the Broadway musical "Company" opened at the Alvin Theatre
in New York.
- In 1980, following an unsuccessful attempt by the U.S. to rescue the
U.S. Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced the
captives were being scattered to thwart any future rescue effort.
- In 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the
Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire killed at
least 31 people and sent radioactivity into the atmosphere.
- Ten years ago: Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 77.
- Five years ago: Voting began in South Africa's first all-race
elections. A Taiwanese jetliner crashed in Nagoya, Japan, killing
264 people. Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, who admitted shooting and
wounding an abortion provider outside his clinic, was sentenced in
Wichita, Kan., to nearly 11 years in prison.
- One year ago: Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading
human rights activist in Guatemala, was bludgeoned to death two days
after a report he'd compiled on atrocities during Guatemala's
36-year civil war was made public.
*Happy Birthday*
- Actress-comedian Carol Burnett is 66.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Maurice Williams is 61.
- Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 61.
- Singer Bobby Rydell is 57.
- Actress Claudine Auger ("Thunderball") is 57.
- Rock musician Gary Wright is 56.
- Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 41.
- Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 39.
- Rock musician Chris Mars is 38.
- Actor-singer Michael Damian ("The Young and the Restless") is 37.
- Actor-comedian Kevin James ("King of Queens") is 34.
- Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 29.
27
Today is Tuesday, April 27, the 117th day of 1999. There are 248
days left in the year.
- On April 27, 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed
by natives in the Philippines.
- In 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.
- In 1805, a force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on
the shores of Tripoli.
- In 1822, the 18th president of the U.S., Ulysses S. Grant, was born
in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
- In 1865, the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near
Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war.
- In 1932, American poet Hart Crane drowned after jumping from a
steamer while en route to New York; he was 32.
- In 1937, the nation's first Social Security checks were distributed.
- In 1967, Expo '67 was officially opened in Montreal by Canadian
Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
- In 1973, during the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L.
Patrick Gray resigned.
- In 1978, convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was
released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.
- In 1978, 51 construction workers plunged to their deaths when a
scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site
in West Virginia fell 168 feet to the ground.
- Ten years ago: More than 150,000 students and workers calling for
democracy marched, cheered and sang through central Beijing.
- Five years ago: Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at
an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at
the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif.
- One year ago: A Pentagon panel said remains of the Vietnam veteran
in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery should be
exhumed to determine whether they belonged to Air Force First Lt.
Michael J. Blassie, as his family believed. (The remains were later
positively identified as those of Blassie.)
*Happy Birthday*
- Actor Jack Klugman is 77.
- Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King is 72.
- Actress Anouk Aimee is 67.
- Announcer Casey Kasem is 67.
- Broadcast journalist Phil Jones is 62.
- Actress Judy Carne is 60.
- Opera singer Judith Blegen is 58.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Cuba Gooding is 55.
- Singer Ann Peebles is 52.
- Rock singer Kate Pierson (The B-52's) is 51.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics) is 50.
- Actor Douglas Sheehan ("Knots Landing") is 50.
- Rock musician Ace Frehley (KISS) is 48.
- Pop singer Sheena Easton is 40.
- Singer Mica Paris is 30.
- Rock singer-musician Travis Meeks (Days of the New) is 20.
28
Today is Wednesday, April 28, the 118th day of 1999. There are 247
days left in the year.
- On April 28, 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his
mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they
attempted to flee the country.
- In 1758, the fifth president of the U.S., James Monroe, was born.
- In 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the
Constitution.
- In 1789, there was a mutiny on the Bounty as the crew of the British
ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in
the South Pacific.
- In 1947, a six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood
raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey to Polynesia.
- In 1958, Vice President Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill
tour of Latin America that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru,
and Caracas, Venezuela.
- In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be
inducted into the Army, the same day Gen. William C. Westmoreland
told Congress the U.S. would "prevail in Vietnam."
- In 1969, French President Charles de Gaulle resigned his office.
- In 1974, a federal jury in New York acquitted former Attorney
General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans
of charges in connection with a secret $200,000 contribution to
President Nixon's re-election campaign from financier Robert Vesco.
- Ten years ago: President Bush announced the U.S. and Japan had
concluded a deal on joint development of a new Japanese jet fighter,
the FSX, despite concerns U.S. technology secrets would be given
away.
- Five years ago: Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had betrayed
U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to
espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison
without parole.
- One year ago: In a breakthrough for the government's tobacco
investigation, cigarette maker Liggett & Myers agreed to tell
prosecutors whether the industry had hidden evidence of health
damage from smoking. The Senate opened a new round of hearings on
alleged abuse and mismanagement at the Internal Revenue Service.
*Happy Birthday*
- Syndicated columnist Rowland Evans is 78.
- Author Harper Lee ("To Kill a Mockingbird") is 73.
- Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is 69.
- The president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is 62.
- Actress-singer Ann-Margret is 58.
- Actress Marcia Strassman is 51.
- Actor Bruno Kirby is 50.
- "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is 49.
- Actress Mary McDonnell is 46.
- Rock singer-musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) is 46.
- Rapper Too Short is 33.
- Actress Simbi Khali ("3rd Rock from the Sun") is 28.
29
Today is Thursday, April 29, the 119th day of 1999. There are 246
days left in the year.
- One hundred years ago, on April 29, 1899, jazz legend Duke Ellington
was born in Washington D.C.
- In 1861, Maryland's House of Delegates voted against seceding from
the Union.
- In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.
- In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists
surrendered to British authorities.
- In 1945, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp;
that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral
Karl Doenitz his successor.
- In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals.
- In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited
transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings
related to Watergate.
- In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of
Chicago.
- In 1992, deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi
Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost
all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
- Ten years ago: In a sign that student demonstrators in Beijing had
gained influence, China's government conducted informal talks with
leaders of the democracy protests, and then televised the
discussions.
- Five years ago: Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the terror
of ethnic massacres in Rwanda were pouring into Tanzania. Israel and
the PLO signed an agreement in Paris granting Palestinians broad
authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under
self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
- One year ago: The U.S., Canada, and Mexico agreed to eliminate
tariffs on items accounting for $1 billion in trade at a meeting in
Paris of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Israelis began
marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of their country.
*Happy Birthdays*
- Singer Don Mills (The Mills Brothers) is 84.
- Actress Celeste Holm is 80.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 71.
- Singer-musician Lonnie Donegan is 68.
- Poet Rod McKuen is 66.
- Actor Keith Baxter is 66.
- Bluesman Otis Rush is 65.
- Conductor Zubin Mehta is 63.
- Actor Lane Smith is 63.
- Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 56.
- Singer Tommy James is 52.
- Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 45.
- Actress Kate Mulgrew is 44.
- Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 42.
- Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 42.
- Actress Eve Plumb is 41.
- Rock musician Phil King is 39.
30
Today is Friday, April 30, the 120th day of 1999. There are 245 days
left in the year.
- On April 30, 1939, the New York World's Fair officially opened.
- In 1789, George Washington took office in New York as the first
president of the U.S.
- In 1803, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France.
- In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.
- In 1900, Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.
- In 1900, engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois Central
Railroad was killed in a wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying at
the controls in an effort to save the passengers.
- In 1945, as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf
Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.
- In 1970, President Nixon announced the U.S. was sending troops into
Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest.
- In 1973, Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman
and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G.
Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.
- In 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist
forces.
- In 1991, an estimated 125,000 people died as a cyclone struck
Bangladesh.
- Ten years ago: President Bush attended a parade in New York City
celebrating the bicentennial of the American presidency.
- Five years ago: The counting of ballots began in South Africa's
first all-race elections. Some 100,000 men, women and children
fleeing ethnic slaughter in Rwanda crossed into neighboring
Tanzania.
- One year ago: President Clinton questioned the conduct of Whitewater
prosecutor Kenneth Starr and dismissed Republican challenges to his
own character as "high-level static" during a news conference.
United and Delta airlines formed an alliance that would control
one-third of all U.S. passenger seats. A man set himself on fire and
shot himself to death on a Los Angeles area freeway in a scene
captured on live TV.
*Happy Birthday*
- Princess Juliana of the Netherlands is 90.
- Actor Al Lewis is 89.
- Actress Cloris Leachman is 73.
- Singer Willie Nelson is 66.
- Talk show host Gary Collins is 61.
- Actor Burt Young is 59.
- Singer Bobby Vee is 56.
- Actress Jill Clayburgh is 55.
- Actor Perry King is 51.
- Singer Merrill Osmond is 46.
- Movie director Jane Campion is 45.
- Actor Paul Gross ("Due South") is 40.
- Country musician Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks) is 37.
- Rapper Turbo B (Snap) is 32.
- Rock musician Clark Vogeler (Toadies) is 30.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is
28.
- Rock singer J.R. Richards (Dishwalla) is 27.