Today in
History ~ April 16
Events
1346 - King Stefanus IX of Serbia proclaims himself czar of Greece
1521 - Martin Luther arrives at Diet of Worms
1632 - Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed supreme commander
1705 - Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College
1746 - Battle at Culloden: English troops defeat Charles ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") Stuart
1777 - Battle of Bennington-New England's Green Mountain Boys rout Brits
1789 - President-elect Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for his inauguration in New York.
1818 - Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)
1849 - Giacomo Meyerbeer's Opera "Le Prophete," premieres in Paris
1854 - Franz Liszt's "Mazeppa," premieres
1854 - Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach NY, 311 die
1861 - US president Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states
1862 - US Confederate Congress calls for, and Pres Davis approves conscription act for white males between 18-35
1862 - A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.
1866 - Karakozov attempts to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia
1871 - German Empire ends all anti-Jewish civil restrictions
1874 - Dr David Livingstone's corpse arrives in Southampton
1881 - Bat Masterson participates in his last shootout [H]
1883 - Frederick Douglass addressed the Congregational Church in Washington, D.C.
1883 - Paul Kruger chosen president of Transvaal
1888 - Drentse & Friese peat cutters go on strike
1900 - US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps
1912 - Harriet Quimby became the first woman to pilot a plane across the English Channel.
1917 - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia after years of exile to start Bolshevik Revolution.
[H]
1922 - Annie Oakley shot 100 clay targets in a row, a women's record
1922 - German-Russia treaty signed in Italy, Soviet Union recognized
1926 - Book of the Month Club sends out its 1st selections "Lolly Willowes" & "Loving Huntsman" by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1935 - The radio comedy "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered on the NBC Blue Network.
1939 - Stalin requests British, French & Russian anti-Nazi pact
1940 - 1st televised baseball game, WGN-TV, (White Sox vs Cubs exhibition)
1942 - Japanese occupying army on Java installs film censorship
1945 - Red Army begins Battle of Berlin
1945 - US troops land on He Shima Okinawa
1945 - In his first speech to Congress, President Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1945 - U.S. troops reached Nuremberg, Germany, during the World War II.
1946 - 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket, White Sands, NM; 8 km alt
1947 - Lens to provide zoom effects demonstrated (NYC)
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."
1947 - The French ship Grandcamp blew up at the harbor in Texas City, Texas; another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The blasts and resulting fires killed
600 people. [H]
1961 - 15th Tony Awards: Becket & Bye Bye Birdie win
1962 - Brazil nationalizes US businesses
1962 - Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."
1966 - Rhodesian PM Ian Smith breaks diplomatic relations with Britain
1972 - 2 giants pandas arrive in US, from China
1972 - Apollo-16 blasted off on an 11-day moon mission with three American astronauts aboard.
1975 - The government of Cambodia asked the communist insurgents for a cease-fire and offered to turn power over to them.
1977 - Alex Haley finds his Roots in Juffure, Gambia
1980 - Arthur Ashe retires from professional tennis
1987 - August Wilson's "Fences" wins 1987 Pulitzer Prize for drama
1990 - Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977
1991 - The first Jewish settlement under the Israeli government opened in the occupied territories, defying a U.S. request to stop such settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1992 - The House ethics committee listed 303 current and former lawmakers who had overdrawn their House bank
accounts, ending an inquiry into the House bank scandal that rocked Congress and raised havoc in election campaigns.
1994 - Bosnian Serbs shot down a British fighter jet as it attempted to fire on a Serbian tank. The pilot parachuted to safety.
1997 - Police in Israel recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for breach of trust in an influence-trading scandal. (Prosecutors later decided not to pursue charges against Netanyahu, citing a lack of proof.)
1998 - Tornadoes killed 10 people in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.
1999 - Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years.
2000 - The International Monetary Fund concluded a protest-marred
opening session in Washington with a statement repeating past pledges to seek
greater debt relief for the poorest countries and reform the IMF so it could
better prevent financial crises.
2001 - Israel launched an air strike against a strategic Syrian radar station in Lebanon, killing three Syrian soldiers.
2001 - Lee Bong-ju of South Korea won the 105th Boston Marathon. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won the women's race for the second consecutive year.
Birthdays
Today
1635 - Frans van Mieris, the
Elder, Dutch painter
1648 - John Luyken, poet/etcher (Duytse Lyre)
1660 - Hans Sloane, England, physician/naturalist/founder (British Museum)
1696 - Giovanni Battista Tupolo, Italian painter
1697 - Johann Gottlieb Gorner, composer
1867 - Wilbur Wright of aeroplane fame (one of the Wright Brothers)
1871 - John Millington Synge, Ireland, dramatist/poet (Riders to the Sea)
1885 - Leo Weiner, Hungary, composer (Fasching)
1889 - Sir Charlie Chaplin (comedy actor: "Little Tramp": The Gold
Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Limelight) /IBM salesman
1904 - Lily Pons, Draguignan France, soprano diva (Hitting a New High
1913 - Les Tremayne (Henning) (actor: The War of the Worlds, Francis Goes to
West Point, The Slime People, I Love Melvin)
1914 - John Hodiak (actor: The Miniver Story, Conquest of Cochise)
1919 - Merce Cunningham, choreographer (Acrobat in Every Soul is a Circus)
1920 - Barry Nelson (Nielsen) (actor: Airport, The Shining, Pete 'n' Tillie, The
Human Comedy, Island Claw, Shadow of the Thin Man)
1921 - Peter Ustinov (Academy Award-winning actor: Spartacus [1960], Topkapi
[1964], Quo Vadis, Death on the Nile, Beau Brummel, Billy Budd)
1922 - Kingsley Amis, London, novelist ( The Crime of the Century, Lucky Jim,
James Bond Dossier)
1923 - Bennie Green (trombonist, lyricist: The Diamond and the Goose;
journalist)
1924 - Henry Mancini (Oscar-winning composer, musician: Moon River, Days of Wine
and Roses, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Victor/Victoria; composed themes for The Pink
Panther, Mr. Lucky, Peter Gunn, Charade, NBC Mystery Movie, NBC Nightly News,
Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet; 20 Grammy Awards)
1929 - Edie Adams (Enke) (actress: The Apartment, The Oscar, Love with the
Proper Stranger, The Ernie Kovacs Show; spokesperson for Muriel Cigars:
"Hey big spender, spend a little time with me.")
1929 - Roy Hamilton (singer: You'll Never Walk Alone, If I Loved You, Ebb Tide,
Unchained Melody, Don't Let Go, You Can Have Her)
1930 - Herbie Mann (Soloman) (jazz musician, flautist: Hijack, Superman, Comin'
Home Baby, Bang! Bang!, Violets Don't be Blue)
1933 - Ike Pappas (newsman: CBS News)
1935 - Bobby Vinton (Stanley Vintulla) (singer: Roses are Red (My Love), Blue on
Blue, Blue Velvet, Mr. Lonely, There! I've Said It Again, My Melody of Love)
1939 - Dusty Springfield (Mary O'Brien) (singer: Wishin' and Hopin', You Don't
Have to Say You Love Me, The Look of Love, Son-of-a-Preacher Man, The Windmills
of Your Mind, A Brand New Me; group: The Springfields: Silver
Threads and Golden Needles)
1942 - Jim Lonborg (baseball: Cy Young Award winner: Boston Red Sox [1967];
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher)
1944 - Dennis Russell Davies, composer
1947 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) (basketball: LA Lakers, Milwaukee
Bucks: NBA career record: games played [1.560], points [38,387], field goals
[15,387], blocked shots [3,189] cameo role: Airplane!)
1950 - John Hill (football)
1952 - Bob McCaffrey (football)
1955 - Ellen Barkin (actress: Diner, Tender Mercies, Wild Bill, Bad Company,
Daniel, Sea of Love, Eddie and the Cruisers)
1961 - Selena, Texas, spanish singer (Grammy-1994)
1963 - Jimmy Osmond (singer: group: The Osmonds: the youngest Osmond)
Famous
deaths
1446 - Filippo Brunelleschi,
architect, dies
1529 - Louis de Berquin, French humanist/reformer/heretic, burned at stake
1619 - Denijs Calvaert/Caluwaert, [Dionisio Fiamingo], Flemish painter, dies
1760 - Laurence, 4th Earl Ferrers, executed for murder of his steward
1828 - Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Spanish painter/cartoonist, dies at 82
1846 - Domenico Dragonetti, composer, dies at 83
1850 - Marie [Gresholtz] Tussaud, maker of wax figures, dies at 8
1948 - Babe Ruth, baseball legend, dies
1955 - Abdullah Seif el-Islam, brother of Yemenite king Ahmed, beheaded
1968 - Edna Ferber, author (American Beauty), dies at 78
1973 - Istvan Kertesc, Hung/German conductor (London Symphony), drowns at 43
1978 - Lucius D Clay, gen/gov US zone W-Germany (airlift), dies at 80
1980 - Jean Paul Sartre, writer, dies at 74
1987 - Milton J Cross, NYC, TV announcer (Met Opera )
1988 - Abu Jihad, [Khalil al-Wazzir], PLO-leader, murdered
1991 - Sir David Lean, director (28 academy awards), "The
Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago," died
of pneumonia in
London at age 83.
1992 - Neville Brand, actor (Stalag 17), dies of emphysema
1995 - Iqbal Masih, a 12-year-old Pakistani boy who spoke out against Pakistan's
child labor laws, was shot to death.
1996 - Stavros Spyros Niarchos, Greek shipowner, dies at 86
2002 - Robert Urich, Emmy-winning actor , "Vega$","Spenser: For Hire," has died
at 55, after a long battle with cancer.
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