Today in
History ~ April 20
Events
1139 - 2nd Lateran Council (10th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
1505 - Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
1653 - Cromwell routes English parliament
1689 - Siege of Londonderry Begins [H]
1715 - Nicholas Rowe's "Tragedy of Lady Jane Gray," premieres in London
1769 - A Peorian Indian murdered Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians.
1770 - Capt Cook arrives in New South Wales
1775 - British begin siege of Boston
1777 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1792 - France declares war on Austria, Prussia & Sardinia
1799 - Friedrich von Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod," premieres in Weimar
1809 - Napoleon I defeats Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
1836 - The Territory of Wisconsin was established by Congress.
1841 - 1st detective story (Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue") published
1861 - Battle of Norfolk, VA
1865 - Chicago's Crosby Opera House opens
1871 - 3rd Enforcement Act (Ku Klux Klan Act) passed by Congress (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus)
1879 - 1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London & Cyprus
1888 - 246 reported killed by hail in Moradabad, India
1896 - 1st public film showing in US John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan," premieres in NYC
1902 - Marie & Pierre Curie isolate radioactive element radium
1904 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis
1914 - Militia slaughters
strikers at Ludlow, Colorado [H]
1916 - German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
1917 - Pravda (Lenin names Russia "Free land of world")
1919 - Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army
1920 - Balfour Declaration recognized, makes Palestine a British Mandate
1931 - British House of Commons agrees to sports play on Sunday
1935 - "You're Hit Parade" begins broadcasting (becomes #1 quickly)
1936 - Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1939 - New York World's Fair opens
1940 - 1st electron microscope demonstrated (RCA), Philadelphia, Pa
1941 - 100 German bombers attack Athens
1942 - Heavy German assault on Malta
1943 - Braves manager Casey Stengel is struck by a taxi, fractures a leg
1944 - NFL legalizes coaching from bench
1945 - Soviet troops enter Berlin
1945 - US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
1945 - During World War II, allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
1946 - 1st baseball telecast in Chicago, Cards vs Cubs
1948 - Walter P Reuther UAW pres shot & wounded at his home in Detroit
1949 - Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 1st race, in Albany, California
1961 - American Harold Graham makes 1st rocket belt flight
1962 - NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to 63,250 m
1962 - New Orleans Citizens Co gives free 1-way ride to blacks to move North
1962 - OAS-leader ex-general Salan arrested in Algier
1967 - French author Regis Debray captured CIA "advisors"-- along with Che Guevara -- in Bolivia. Guevarra is assassinated.
1967 - US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during Vietnam War
1968 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.
1970 - Bruno Kreisky becomes 1st socialist chancellor of Austria
1971 - US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in
schools.
1972 - Apollo 16's Young & Duke land on Moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2
1974 - Paul McCartney releases "Band on the Run"
1977 - Supreme Court rules "Live Free or Die" may be covered on NH license plates
1977 - Woody Allen's film "Annie Hall" premieres
1978 - An Korean Airlines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed.
1980 - The first Cubans sailing to the United States as part of the massive Mariel boatlift reached Florida.
1981 - Final performance of TV show "Soap" airs
1983 - Pres Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security
1987 - Sri Lanka: Tamils shoot 122 Singalezen dead
1987 - US deports Karl Linnas, charged with Nazi war crimes, to USSR
1990 - Pete Rose pleads guilty to hiding $300,000 in income
1991 - Raghib "Rocket" Ismael signs with Toronto Argonauts for $26.2 million
1991 - U.S. Marines landed in northern Iraq to begin building the first center for Kurdish refugees on Iraqi territory. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander of Operation Desert Storm, left Saudi Arabia for home.
1994 - Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
1996 - Russia and the leaders of the world's seven richest democracies agreed in Moscow to end nuclear tests by the fall and pledged new steps to keep nuclear materials out of the wrong hands.
1999 - The Columbine High School massacre took place in Littleton, Colo., as students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher and wounded 26 others before taking their own lives.
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2000 - Littleton, Colo., paused to remember the victims on the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.,
Birthdays
Today
1442 - Edward IV, King (England, 1461-83)
1494 - John Agricola, [Schneider], German theologian/prime minister
1745 - Philippe Pinel, physician, founder of psychiatry
1761 - Johann Gottlieb Karl Spazier, composer
1808 - Louis-Napoleon (Napoleon III), emperor of France (1852-71 1881
1827 - John Gibbon, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1896
1850 - Daniel Chester, French/American sculptor (Minute Man)
1889 - Adolf Hitler (Leader of Nazi Germany)
1889 - Harold Lloyd (comedian, actor: For Heaven's Sake, Feet First)
1893 - Joan Miro (artist)
1900 - Norman Norell (Levinson) (fashion designer)
1910 - Robert F Wagner, (Mayor-D-NYC, 1954-65)
1920 - John Paul Stevens, Illinois, 103rd Supreme Court Justice (1975-)
1924 - Nina Foch (actress: Scaramouche, Spartacus, The Ten Commandments, An American in Paris, Mahogany)
1925 - Henri Renaud (pianist)
1925 - Tito (Ernest) Puente (jazz musician, bandleader: Abanaquito, Para Los Rumberos, Jumpin' with Symphony Sid, Fancy Feet)
1926 - Elena Verdugo (actress: Little Giant, House of Frankenstein, Meet Millie, Marcus Welby, M.D.)
1927 - Phil Hill (race driver: one of only two Americans to win the Formula One title [1961])
1936 - Beaver (William) Harris (drummer: co-led 360 Degree Music Experience)
1939 - Bob Braun (singer: 'Til Death Do Us Part)
1939 - Johnny Tillotson (singer: Poetry In Motion, It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin', Without You, Talk Back Trembling Lips; appeared in film: Just For Fun)
1941 - Joni Evans, NYC, publisher (Simon & Schuster, Random House)
1941 - Ryan O'Neal (actor: Love Story, Paper Moon, What's Up Doc?)
1945 - Michael Brandon (actor: Lovers and Other Strangers, Red Alert, Rich and Famous, Promises in the Dark)
1945 - Steve Spurrier (football: Heisman Trophy winner: Florida [1966])
1946 - Tommy Hutton (baseball)
1947 - Brian Lavender (hockey)
1948 - Craig Frost (musician: keyboard: group: Grand Funk: We're an American Band, The Loco-Motion, Some Kind of Wonderful, Bad Time)
1948 - Joe Bonner (pianist, composer)
1949 - Jessica Lange (Academy Award-winning actress: Tootsie [1982], Blue Skies [1994]; Frances, King Kong, All That Jazz, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Sweet Dreams)
1949 - Wilbur Young (football)
1951 - Luther Vandross (singer, songwriter: Never Too Much, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye)
1959 - Clint Howard (actor: Backdraft, Cocoon, Ice Cream Man)
Famous
deaths
1164 - Victor IV, [Ottaviano Montecello], Italian antipope (1159-64), dies
1314 - Clement V, [Bertrand Got], pope (1305-14) who moved papacy to Avignon, dies
1317 - Agnes van Montepulciano, Italian mystic/saint, dies
1534 - Elizabeth Barton, [St Magd van Kent], British prophet, dies
1632 - Nicolas Antione, converted to Judiasm, burned at the stake
1643 - Christoph Demantius, composer, dies at 75
1662 - Gerard Terborch, the elder, painter, dies
1695 - Georg Caspar Weckler, composer, dies at 63
1759 - Georg Friedrich Handel, buried in Westminster Abbey
1768 - Giovanni AC Canaletto, Italian painter/cartoonist (Rialto), die at 70
1769 - Pontiac, Indian chief to Ottawa, murdered
1786 - John Goodricke, English deaf & dumb astronomer, dies at 21
1812 - George Clinton, 4th US VP, dies at 73 1st VP to, die in office
1820 - Arthur Young, author (Annals of Agriculture), dies
1821 - Franz K Achard, German physicist/chemist, dies at 67
1836 - Johan I Jozef, monarch of Liechtenstein/fieldmarshal, dies at 75
1839 - Giuseppe Rossini, father of Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, dies
1869 - Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, composer, dies at 72
1906 - Australian wombat; oldest known marsupial, dies in London Zoo at 26
1912 - Bram Stoker, Irish theater manager/writer (Dracula), dies
1987 - Antony Tudor, dancer/choreographer (Amer Ballet Theater) dies at 78
1993 - Cantinflas, [Mario Moreno], Mexican actor (Pepe), dies at 81
1999 - Students at Columbine HS, Litton CO, Cassie Bernall, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez and teacher William "Dave" Sanders, and their killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
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