1429 - Joan of Arc entered the besieged city
of Orleans France, to lead a victory over the English. [H]
1522 - Emperor Charles V names Frans van Holly inquisitor-gen of Netherlands
1550 - Emperor Charles V gives inquisitors additional authority
1553 - Flemish woman introduces practice of starching linen into England
1623 - 11 Dutch ships depart for the conquest of Peru
1661 - Chinese Ming dynasty occupies Taiwan
1707 - English/Scottish parliament accept Act of Union, form Great Britain
1781 - French fleet stopped Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope
1784 - Premiere of Mozart's Sonata in B flat, K454 (Vienna)
1813 - Rubber is patented
1834 - Charles Darwin's expedition sees top of Andes from Patagonia
1852 - 1st edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published
1861 - Maryland's House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union
1862 - 100,000 federal troops prepare to march into Corinth, Miss
1862 - New Orleans falls to Union forces during Civil War [H]
1863 - Battle of Chancellordville, VA (Fredericksburg, Wilderness Tavern)
1894 - Commonweal of Christ (Coxey's Army) arrives in Wash, DC 500 strong to protest unemployment; Coxey arrested for trespassing at Capitol
1901 - 27th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on His Eminence wins in 2:07.75
1901 - Anti semitic riot in Budapest
1913 - Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, N.J., was issued a patent for the zipper.
1916 - Irish nationalists set post office on fire in Dublin during Easter Uprising
1927 - Construction of Spirit of St Louis is completed
1930 - Telephone connection England-Australia goes into service
1939 - Whitestone Bridge connecting Bronx & Queens opens
1940 - Norwegian King Haakon & government flees to England
1940 - Robert Sherwood's "There Shall be No Night," premieres in NYC
1942 - Japanese troop march into Lashio, cuts off Burma Road
1943 - Internationally prominent theologia Dietrich Bonhoffer arrested by Nazis
1943 - Noel Coward's "Present Laughter," premieres in London
1945 - US liberates 31,601 in Nazi concentration camp in Dachau Germany; [H]
that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl
Doenitz his successor.
1945 - Terms of surrender of German armies in Italy signed
1945 - Japanese army evacuates Rangoon
1945 - Venice & Mestre were captured by the Allies
1946 - 28 former Japanese leaders indicted in Tokyo as war criminals
1957 - 1st military nuclear power plant dedicated, Fort Belvoir Va
1961 - ABC's "Wide World of Sports, debuts
1962 - 16th Tony Awards: Man For All Seasons & How to Succeed win
1965 - Australian government announces it would send troops to Vietnam
1968 - "Hair" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 1750 performances
1970 - 50,000 US & South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia
1971 - Bill Graham closes down Fillmore & Fillmore East
1974 - President Nixon said he will release edited tapes made in White House
1981 - Peter Sutcliffe admits he is the Yorkshire Ripper (murdered 13 women)
1983 - Harold Washington sworn in as Chicago's 1st black mayor
1985 - Four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash stolen from the Wells
Fargo armored car company in New York.
1986 - An arson fire destroyed 800,000 books in the Los Angeles Central Library.
1988 - The first condor conceived in captivity was born at San Diego Wild Animal
Park.
1990 - Wrecking cranes began tearing down Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate
1991 - Croatia declares independence
1991 - Cyclone strikes Bangladesh, 139,000 die/10 million homeless
1991 - More than 100 people were killed when an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the
Richter scale rocked Soviet Georgia, destroying hospitals, schools, factories
and 17,000 homes.
1992 - Rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif.,
acquitted four white police officers of nearly all charges in the videotaped
beating of black motorist Rodney King. 53 people eventually died in three days
of unrest.
1992 - Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township,
N.J., home by Arthur Seale, a former Exxon security official, and Seale's wife,
Irene, and held for ransom; Reso died in captivity. (Arthur Seale is serving a
95-year prison term, while his wife is serving a 20-year sentence.)
1992 - A Sarasota, Fla., judge denied custody rights to the biological parents
of a 13-year-old girl, ruling she
should remain with the man who raised her since the 1978 hospital mix-up of
infants.
1992 - Sheena Easton collapses on stage while performing in "Man of LaMancha"
1992 - "Falsettos" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 487 performances
1993 - The publishers of a book about "Jeopardy!" contended the rules
have been bent on the popular game show to help women contestants.
1994 - Ferry boat smashes into Mombasa Harbor Kenya, kills over 300
1994 - An estimated 250,000 Rwandans fleeing the fighting crossed the border
into neighboring Tanzania in one day alone.
1994 - Israel & PLO sign economic accord
1995 - Longest sausage ever, at 2877 miles, made in Kitchener Ontario
1996 - Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned in
Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered.
1996 - "Rent," opens at Nederlander Theater NYC
1997 - An Army court-martial at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland convicted
Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson of raping six women trainees. In all, 12 instructors at Aberdeen were charged with sexual
offenses.
1997 - A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.
1997 - Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first
U.S.-Russian space walk.
1999 - The Palestinians said they would not declare statehood on May 4, as
previously announced
2001 - The International Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better
procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis that plunged
two-fifths of the world into recession.
Birthdays
Today
1584 - Melchior Teschner, composer
1636 - Esaias Reusner, composer
1667 - John Arbuthnot, Scottish writer (Alexander Pope)
1727 - Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer/choreographer (ballet d'action)
1783 - David Cox, English painter (Treatise on landscape painting)
1818 - Alexander II N Romanov, Tsar of Russia (1855-81)
1842 - Karl Millocker, Austria conductor/composer (Beggar Student)
1854 - Henri Poincare, France, mathematician/astronomer/philosopher
1855 - Anatol K Liadov, Russian composer (Bewitched Lake) [OS]
1860 - Lorado Taft, US, sculptor (Black Hawk)
1863 - William Randolph Hearst (publisher: San Francisco Examiner, Baltimore Sun and some twenty other papers; influenced the establishment of comic strips; built San Simeon estate; subject of biography, Citizen Kane; grandfather of Patricia Hearst)
1879 - Thomas Beecham, England, composer (found London Philharmonic)
1893 - Harold C Urey, Ind, physicist (Deuterium, Nobel 1934)
1895 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (Promenade Concerts)
1899 - Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington (bandleader: one of the founders of big band jazz, pianist, creator of over 1,000 musical pieces: Mood Indigo, Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me, Sophisticated Lady, Reminiscin' in
Tempo)
1901 - Hirohito (Japan's longest reigning emperor [1926-89])
1907 - Fred Zinneman, Austria, director (From Here to Eternity, Julia)
1909 - Tom Ewell (Samuel Yewell Tompkins) (Tony Award-winning actor: The Seven Year Itch [1953]; The Tom Ewell Show, Easy Money)
1912 - Richard Carlson (actor: I Led Three Lives, MacKenzie's Raiders, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Doomsday Flight, Tormented)
1915 - Donald Mills (singer: group: The Mills Brothers: Tiger Rag, Nobody's Sweetheart, Dinah, Paper Doll, Glow Worm, You Always Hurt the One You Love, Cab Driver)
1919 - Celeste Holm (Academy Award-winning actress: Gentlemen's Agreement [1947]; All About Eve, High Society, The Tender Trap, Three Men and a Baby)
1922 - George Allen (football: head coach: Washington Redskins; sportscaster)
1925 - Danny Davis (George Nowland) (Grammy Award-winning bandleader: group: Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass: Best Country Instrumental Performance [1969]; Country Music Awards Instrumental Group of the Year [1969 - 1974])
1933 - Rod McKuen (singer: If You Go Away; poet-song writer)
1934 - Luis Aparicio (Baseball Hall of Famer: Chicago White Sox short stop: American League Rookie of the Year [1956])
1934 - Luis Aparicio (Baseball Hall of Famer:)
1936 - April Stevens (Carol Lo Tempio) (singer: Deep Purple, Whispering, Stardust)
1936 - Zubin Mehta, Bombay India, conductor (NY Philharmoni 1976, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Orchestra)
1937 - Jean Gauthier (hockey)
1944 - Jim Hart (football)
1947 - Jim Ryun (runner)
1947 - Johnny Miller (golf champion: U.S. Open [1973], British Open [1976]; shares record for lowest 18-hole total [63])
1947 - Tommy James (Jackson) (singer: group: Tommy James and The Shondells: I Think We're Alone Now, Hanky Panky, Mony Mony, Crimson and Clover, Sweet Cherry Wine, Crystal Blue Persuasion; solo: Draggin' the Line, I'm Comin' Home, Three Times in Love)
1951 - Auto racer Dale Earnhardt "The Intimidator"
1955 - Jerry Seinfeld (Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: Seinfeld [1993], American Express commercials)
1955 - Kate Mulgrew (actress: Columbo, Ryan's Hope, Roots, Daddy, Throw Momma from the
Train, Capt. Janeway "Star Trek: Voyager")
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis (Academy Award-winning actor: My Left Foot [1989]; The Unbearable Lightness of Being, In the Name of the Father,
Last of the Mohicans, Age of Innocence, Gandhi, A Room with a View)
1957 - Michelle Pfeiffer (actress: Dangerous Liaisons, Batman Returns, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Grease 2, Ladyhawke, Scarface, The Witches of Eastwicke, The Age of Innocence)
1958 - Eve Plumb ("The Brady Bunch")
1970 - Andre Agassi (tennis champion: Wimbledon [1992], U.S. Open
[1994]Oly-gold-[1996]
1970 - Uma Thurman, Boston Mass, actress (Baron Munchausen, Pulp Fiction)
Famous
deaths
1535 - John Houghton, English, executed
1676 - Michiel A de Ruyter, Dutch rear-admiral, (Newport), killed at 69
1918 - Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian murderer of arch duke Ferdinand, dies at 22
1943 - Karl Adrian Wohlfart, composer, dies at 68
1966 - Radio pioneer William Eccles dies
1975 - William Craig Nystul, USMC capt, 1 of last US soldiers killed in Viet Nam
1980 - Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, British director (Psycho, Birds), dies at 80
1986 - Seamus McElwaine, Irish IRA-terrorist, killed at 25
1997 - Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Mike Royko died
in Chicago at age 64.
