April 1......

April 1 is the 91st (92nd in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Apathy "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." — Albert Einstein

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Hate & Intolerance "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building." — Ann Coulter, on the man who detonated the bomb outside the Oklahoma City federal office building, killing 168 people

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 374 - Halley's Comet approaches within 0.0884 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth

● 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as compassionate emperor of Byzantium.

● 705 - Greek pope John VII chosen as successor to John VI

● 1064 - Body of bishop Eleutherius of Blandain moved to Doornik

● 1184 - England - Pretending to be barmy, the wise fools of Gotham deceive King John and prevent establishment of a crown highway through Nottinghamshire.

● 1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English.

● 1340 - Niels Ebbesen kills Gerhard III of Holstein in his bedroom, ending the 1332-1340 interregnum in Denmark.

● 1504 - English guilds/corp goes under state control

● 1572 - in the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.

● 1578 - William Harvey of England discovers blood circulation

● 1581 - Portugese Cortes subjects himself on Philip II

● 1621 - The Plymouth, MA, colonists created the first treaty with Native Americans.

● 1649 - England - Diggers occupy St. Georges Hill, near Cobham, Surrey, seizing land to hold in common and to plant; other communities follow in Northants, Bucks, Kent, Herts, Middx, Leics, Beds, Glos, and Notts.

● 1663 - Gemert fines unwed motherhood (50 guilder penalty)

● 1693 - Colonial clergyman Cotton Mather's first-born son died at the age of four days. Mather suspected witchcraft as the cause, and had previously published "Wonders of the Invisible World," affirming his belief in spectral phenomena.

● 1724 - Henry Pelham becomes English minister of War

● 1748 - Ruins of Pompeii found

● 1778 - Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, creates "$" symbol

● 1789 - In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.

● 1792 - Gronings feminist Etta Palm demands women's right to divorce

● 1793 - Volcano Unsen on Japan erupts killing about 53,000

● 1803 - French law rules the use of intention

● 1826 - Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

● 1836 - Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle reaches Cocos Islands

● 1841 - Brook Farm, history's most famous utopian community, is founded near West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Its primary appeal was to young Bostonians who shrink from the materialism of American life, and the community was a refuge for dozens of transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorne.

● 1847 - Michigan becomes first state to abolish the death penalty.

● 1849 - Revolution breaks out in Genoa, Italy.

● 1850 - San Francisco County government established

● 1853 - Cincinnati becomes 1st US city to pay firefighters a regular salary

● 1862 - Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson's Battle of Woodstock VA

● 1863 - 1st wartime conscription law in US goes into effect

● 1864 - The first travel accident policy was issued to James Batterson by the Travelers Insurance Company.

● 1865 - Battle at Blakely AL

● 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

● 1866 - US Congress rejects presidential veto gives all equal rights in US

● 1867 - Blacks vote in municipal election in Tuscumbia AL

● 1867 - International Exhibition opens in Paris France

● 1867 - Singapore, Penang & Malakka become British crown colonies

● 1868 - Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia.

● 1872 - Bolshevik feminist Alexandra Kollontai born, St. Petersburg, Russia.

● 1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547.

● 1873 - Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Russia.

● 1881 - Anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem

● 1881 - Kingdom post office in Netherlands opens

● 1882 - Coalheavers strike against the Suez Canal Company in Port Said, Egypt.

● 1884 - Florence Blanchfield, an American nurse who was the first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the U.S. Army, was born.

● 1889 - 1st dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago)

● 1891 - London-Paris telephone connection opens

● 1893 - The United States Navy rank of Chief Petty Officer is created.

● 1901 - Birth of Francisco Ascaso lives, Almudevar, Spain. Anarchist militant/CNT member. Died in Spanish Civil War, in the famed 1936 assault against the barracks of Atarazanas.

● 1905 - Paris and Berlin were linked by telephone.

● 1905 - British East African Protectorate becomes colony of Kenya

● 1912 - Paul Brousse dies (1844-1912). Member of the Swiss anarchist Jura Federation. also associated with the Socialist Party, reformism.

● 1915 - Harrison Narcotic Act enacted by Congress.

● 1918 - Soviet secret police raids anarchist centers in Moscow. Approximately 40 anarchists are killed or wounded, more than 500 taken prisoner.

● 1918 - England's Royal Flying Corps replaced by Royal Air Force

● 1920 - Five members of New York state legislature expelled as Socialists.

● 1920 - Church disestablished in Wales

● 1924 - Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from British South Africa Co

● 1924 - Imperial Airways is formed in Britain

● 1924 - Adolf Hitler imprisoned for involvement in the Beer-Hall Putsch, begins dictating Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess. Its original, somewhat less catchy title - Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice - Settling Accounts with the Destroyers of the National Socialist Movement.

● 1924 - One of West Virginia's most unusual strikes begins; union miners walk out at the Coal River Collieries. CSC was an investment venture of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The United Mine Workers of America, called the miners out of CRC mines because the union-owned company refused to pay the current union wage scale.

● 1924 - The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

● 1925 - 1st transmission of Danish state radio

● 1925 - On Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, British statesman Lord (Arthur James) Balfour dedicated Hebrew University.

● 1927 - Eurovision was founded in Chicago. Headquartered today in Pasadena, CA, this Protestant overseas missions agency specializes in supporting national churches through evangelistic radio, literature and relief work.

● 1927 - 1st automatic record changer introduced by His Master's Voice

● 1928 - Chiang Kai-shek's army crosses Yang-tse and began attacking communists.

● 1929 - Morehouse College, Spelman College & Atlanta University affiliate to form Atlanta University Center

● 1929 - Austrian government of Ignaz Seipel falls

● 1929 - Doorne's trailer factory in Einsdhoven Netherlands opens

● 1929 - Louie Marx introduces Yo-Yo

● 1931 - Earthquake devastates Managua Nicaragua, kills 2,000

● 1932 - Five hundred school children, most with haggard faces and in tattered clothes, parade through Chicago's downtown section to the Board of Education offices to demand that the school system provide them with food.

● 1932 - German scholar Gerhard Kittel published the first partial volume of "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament." With WWII and Kittel's death in 1948 intervening, this monumental 10-volume work was not completed until the late 1960s.

● 1933 - Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany

● 1933 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will be known as the Holocaust.

● 1934 - Bonnie and Clyde kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.

● 1935 - 1st radio tube made of metal announced, Schenectady NY

● 1936 - Orissa constitutes a province of British India

● 1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.

● 1938 - The first commercially successful fluorescent lamps were introduced.

● 1939 - Franco declares the Spanish civil war at an end. U.S. recognizes fascist Franco's government in Spain. Franco went on to systematically slaughter some 200,000 of his opponents in a carnage of genocidal proportions that was meant to physically uproot the living source of the revolution.

● 1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.

● 1941 - Navy takes over Treasure Island (San Francisco Bay)

● 1941 - Nazi's forbid Jews access to cafés

● 1941 - Pro-German Rashid Ali al-Ghailani grabs power in Iraq

● 1942 - México changes from 3 time zones to 2

● 1942 - Allied air raid on harbor city Kupang Timor

● 1944 - German Abwehr ends England spiel, after 132 killed

● 1944 - Japanese troops conquer Jessami, East-India

● 1944 - Accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost.

● 1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.

● 1945 - Ruhrgebied sealed off by US 1st & 9th army

● 1946 - Strike by 400,000 mine workers. Truman ultimately suppressed this strike wave (1945-46) by calling out the military ("workers in uniform") not only to restore social order but also to run key sectors of the economy until the more rebellious elements of this strike wave could be rebridled. The coal miner strike was ended when the U.S. government used the army to seize the mines to continue production. In part to prevent future such debacles for the bottom line, the union-busting Taft-Hartley Act was passed into law two years later.

● 1946 - Van Acker forms Belgian government (without CVP)

● 1946 - Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159 (mostly in Hilo, Hawaii).

● 1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union.

● 1947 - 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembark at Port of Eilat

● 1948 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

● 1948 - The Berlin Airlift began.

● 1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark.

● 1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China hold unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.

● 1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.

● 1952 - Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow

● 1952 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1953 - J van Bale appointed Governor of New Guinea

● 1954 - 1st army helicopter battalion is formed, Fort Bragg NC

● 1954 - 1st Dutch motorway, Amsterdam-Utrecht, opens

● 1954 - Earthquake/tsunami ravage Aleutians, 200 killed

● 1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.

● 1954 - "Great Cheese Scandal." Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, disregarding the fact that Wisconsin cheese distributors had contracted to sell the government 90 million pounds of cheese at 37 cents per pound, drops the price support level on dairy products from 90 to 75 percent parity. The cheese distributors promptly repurchased the title to their product at 34 cents per pound, realizing a $2.2 million profit on cheese that never left their warehouse.

● 1955 - Boycott of segregated schools begins, South Africa.

● 1955 - The EOKA rebellion starts in Cyprus, aiming at the island's independence from the United Kingdom.

● 1955 - Armed military action taken against bureaucratic strike in Amsterdam

● 1956 - Death of William R. Newell, 88, American Congregational pastor and Bible teacher. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "At Calvary" ("Years I Spent in Vanity and Pride").

● 1956 - Violent clashes in Algeria, at least 380 killed

● 1957 - BBC fools the nation; The BBC receives a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary about spaghetti crops in Switzerland.

● 1957 - Trial begins in Budapest against participants October uprising

● 1957 - World's biggest glass oven used

● 1958 - Marshal Boelganin becomes director of Russian Staatsbank

● 1960 - U Nu elected premier of Burma

● 1960 - France exploded 2 atom bombs in the Sahara Desert.

● 1960 - RCA TIROS (TV & Infra-Red Observation 'weather' Satellite) I launched

● 1961 - Local 101 begins six-week strike against Brooklyn Union Gas Company.

● 1963 - Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962.

● 1964 - 10ºF lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland OH in April

● 1965 - Syncom 3, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, passes from civilian to military control

● 1965 - South Africa worker's union leader Henry Fazzie sentenced to 10 years

● 1966 - China premier Tsjoe en-Lai starts "Cultural revolution"

● 1967 - 1st British ombudsman sir Edward Compton begins work

● 1967 - The United States Department of Transportation begins operation.

● 1969 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.

● 1969 - Royal Canadian Mint formally forms as a Crown Corp

● 1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring surgeon general's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States starting on January 1, 1971.
● 1970 - The U.S. Army charged Captain Ernest Medina in the My Lai massacre.

● 1971 - United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership

● 1971 - US/Canada ISIS 2 launched to study ionosphere

● 1972 - North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops renewed their offensive in South Vietnam.

● 1973 - North Vietnam releases last 591 acknowledged American POWs.

● 1973 - Japan allows its citizens to own gold

● 1973 - Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.

● 1974 - North Vietnam - "Hanoi" Jane Fonda arrives on her second visit; the American right wing is still livid. {F**k them.}

● 1974 - In the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties come into being.

● 1974 - Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an Islamic Republic in Iran

● 1975 - Cambodia President Lon Nol flees for Red Khmer

● 1976 - Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

● 1976 - Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S..

● 1977 - Attempt for Moslem state in Chad fails

● 1979 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.

● 1980 - New York City's Transit Worker Union 100 goes on strike, lasting 11 days.

● 1980 - Failed assassination attempt on Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz

● 1980 - France performs nuclear test

● 1981 - CNN airs a videotape that shows that Tamara Rand predicts that Reagan is in danger from someone named Jack Humley (a hoax)

● 1981 - Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR.

● 1982 - US formally transfers Canal Zone to Panamá

● 1982 - Anguilla (dependent territory of UK) adopts constitution

● 1982 - Pacific Peacemaker damaged by French police boats during nuclear weapons testing protest, Muroroa Atoll, South Pacific.

● 1983 - Human chain links nuclear sites; Tens of thousands of peace demonstrators have formed a human chain stretching 14 miles (22.5 kilometres) across a southern English county.

● 1984 - Marvin Gaye, 44, is killed by a gunshot wound in Los Angeles in an argument with his father. Gaye's father received probation after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

● 1985 - Environmental Protection Agency orders end to dumping of sludge off the New Jersey coast.

● 1986 - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors votes to lobby the US Congress to rename the Angeles National Forest the "Reagan National Forest." Says Sierra Club spokesman Bob Hattoy, "Naming a national forest after Ronnie Reagan is like naming a day care center after W C Fields."

● 1986 - US sub Nathaniel Green runs aground in the Irish Sea

● 1986 - World oil prices dip below $10 a barrel

● 1987 - Steve Newman became the first man to walk around the world. The walk was 22,000 miles and took 4 years.

● 1987 - U.S. President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, "We've declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1."

● 1989 - Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Poll tax, was introduced in Scotland.

● 1990 - Rioting inmates take over Strangeways; Up to 1,000 prisoners run amok at Strangeways Prison in Manchester in a violent protest against overcrowding.

● 1990 - It becomes illegal in Salem OR to be within 2' of nude dancers

● 1991 - US minimum wage goes from $3.80 to $4.25 per hour

● 1991 - Warsaw Pact officially dissolves

● 1991 - Iran releases British hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years

● 1991 - Supreme Court rules jurors can't be barred from serving due to race

● 1992 - Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) decommissioned

● 1992 - Last defendant in St John sex assault case sentenced to 3 years probation

● 1992 - World's 7 wealthiest nations agree on $24 billion aid for former USSR

● 1996 - Baseball umpire John McSherry died after collapsing during a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos.

● 1996 - The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia was created .

● 1997 - Comet Hale-Bopp Perihelion (0.914 AU)

● 1998 - A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell "far short" of being worthy of a trial.

● 1999 - Britain gets first minimum wage; A legally-binding minimum rate of pay has been introduced in Britain for the first time.

● 1999 - A New Jersey man was arrested and charged with originating the "Melissa" e-mail virus, which infected more than 1 million computers worldwide and caused more than $80 million in damage. (David Smith served just 20 months in federal prison in exchange for helping the FBI track down the authors of other computer viruses.)

● 1999 - In Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Anatoliy Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men, women and children. 43 of the killings occurred in a 6-month period.

● 1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

● 2000 - Wartime coding machine stolen; The Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages in the Second World War, is stolen from Bletchley Park.

● 2001 - China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.

● 2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.

● 2002 - The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.

● 2003 - American troops rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.

● 2003 - North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its west coast.

● 2003 - Jason Mewes was ordered to complete drug rehabilitation or face five years in jail stemming from a drug conviction in 1999.

● 2004 - George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes an attack that leads to the death of a mother and her unborn child two criminal charges.

● 2006 - The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the United Kingdom.

BIRTHS

● 1220 - Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (d. 1272)

● 1543 - François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, Constable of France (d. 1626)

● 1578 - William Harvey, English physician (d. 1657)

● 1610 - Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier (d. 1703)

● 1640 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d. 1697)

● 1647 - John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (d. 1680)

● 1697 - Antoine François Prévost, French author and novelist (d. 1763)

● 1746 - Jean-Etienne Portalis, French lawyer; helped draft Napoleonic Code (d. 1807)

● 1753 - Joseph de Maistre, French diplomat and writer (d. 1821)

● 1765 - Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (d. 1810)

● 1776 - Sophie Germain, French mathematician (d. 1831)

● 1815 - Otto von Bismarck, 1st Chancellor of Germany (1871-90) (d. 1898)

● 1815 - Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (d. 1880)

● 1834 - Big Jim Fisk, American entrepreneur (d. 1872)

● 1837 - Jorge Isaacs, Colombian poet and novelist (d. 1895)

● 1852 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American-English painter and illustrator (d. 1911)

● 1854 - Bill Traylor, American artist (d. 1949)

● 1856 - Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Indian physician (d. 1933)

● 1865 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929)

● 1866 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1924)

● 1868 - Edmond Rostand, French dramatist (d. 1918)

● 1873 (N.S.) - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor (d. 1943)

● 1875 - Edgar Wallace, English writer (d. 1932)

● 1880 - Agha Petros, Assyrian general (d. 1932)

● 1883 - Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (d. 1930)

● 1884 - Florence Blanchfield, American nurse and army officer (d. 1971)

● 1885 - Wallace Beery, American actor (d. 1949)

● 1895 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)

● 1897 - Nita Naldi, American actress (d. 1961)

● 1898 - William James Sidis, American genius (d. 1944)

● 1899 - Gustavs Celmins, Latvian politician (d. 1968)

● 1900 - Robert McDowell, Mayor of Maryborough, Queensland (d. 1988)

● 1901 - Whittaker Chambers, American writer, editor, and defector (d. 1961)

● 1902 - Maria Polydouri, Greek poet (d. 1930)

● 1906 - Aleksandr Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)

● 1908 - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)

● 1909 - Eddy Duchin, American popular pianist & bandleader (d. 1951)

● 1914 - Lor Tok, Thai comedian and actor (d. 2002)

● 1915 - Otto Wilhelm Fischer, Austrian actor (d. 2004)

● 1919 - Joseph Murray, American surgeon, Nobel laureate

● 1920 - Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (d. 1997)

● 1921 - Ken Reardon, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1922 - William Manchester, American historian (d. 2004)

● 1924 - Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey

● 1926 - Charles Bressler, American tenor

● 1926 - Anne McCaffrey, American author

● 1928 - George Grizzard, American actor

● 1929 - Milan Kundera, Czech-born writer

● 1929 - Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator

● 1929 - Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer

● 1929 - Bo Schembechler, American football coach (d. 2006)

● 1930 - Grace Lee Whitney, American actress

● 1931 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer

● 1932 - Gordon Jump, American actor (d. 2003)

● 1932 - Debbie Reynolds, American actress

● 1933 - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist, Nobel laureate

● 1934 - Jim Ed Brown, Country singer

● 1934 - Don Hastings, American actor ("As The World Turns")

● 1934 - Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (d. 2004)

● 1935 - Larry McDonald, American politician (d. 1983)

● 1936 - Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Swiss politician, president of the Confederation in 1989 and 1996 (d. 1998)

● 1938 - Eddie King, Blues singer

● 1938 - Ali MacGraw, American actress

● 1938 - John Quade, American actor

● 1939 - Phil Niekro, American baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1939 - Rudolph Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers)

● 1940 - Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

● 1942 - Samuel R. Delany, American author

● 1942 - Annie Nightingale, British disc jockey

● 1944 - Rusty Staub, American baseball player

● 1945 - John Barbata, American drummer

● 1946 - Ronnie Lane, English musician (The Small Faces and The Faces) (d. 1997)

● 1947 - David Eisenhower, Grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower

● 1947 - Alain Connes, French mathematician

● 1947 - M, English singer

● 1947 - Norm Van Lier, American basketball player

● 1948 - Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican musician

● 1949 - Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman

● 1949 - Sammy Nelson, Northern Irish footballer

● 1949 - Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer

● 1950 - Billy Currie, Rock musician (Ultravox)

● 1950 - Samuel Alito, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

● 1952 - Annette O'Toole, American actress

● 1952 - Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher

● 1953 - Barry Sonnenfeld, producer and director

● 1954 - Jeff Porcaro, American drummer (Toto) (d. 1992)

● 1960 - Michael Praed, British actor

● 1964 - Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager

● 1964 - Scott Stevens, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1965 - Mark Jackson, American basketball player

● 1965 - Robert Steadman, English composer

● 1966 - Chris Evans, English disc jockey

● 1968 - Woody Lee, Country singer

● 1970 - Sung Hi Lee, Korean-born model

● 1971 - Method Man, American rapper

● 1971 - Shinji Nakano, Japanese race car driver

● 1972 - Allen and Albert Hughes, American film directors

● 1972 - Jesse Tobias, American musician

● 1972 - Darren McCarty, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1973 - Christian Finnegan, American comedian

● 1973 - Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricketer

● 1974 - Richard Christy, American drummer

● 1974 - Sandra Völker, German swimmer

● 1975 - George Bastl, Swiss tennis player

● 1976 - Clarence Seedorf, Surinamese-born Dutch footballer

● 1977 - Haimar Zubeldia, Spanish cyclist

● 1978 - Miroslava Vavrinec, Swiss tennis player

● 1978 - Jean-Pierre Dumont, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1979 - Ivano Balić, Croatian handballer

● 1980 - Bijou Phillips, American actress

● 1980 - Randy Orton, American professional wrestler

● 1980 - Yūko Takeuchi, Japanese actress

● 1981 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)

● 1981 - Antonis Fotsis, Greek basketball player

● 1982 - Sam Huntington, American actor

● 1982 - Gemma Hunt, British children's television presenter (CBBC-Xchange)

● 1982 - Taran Killam, American comedian and actor

● 1983 - Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer

● 1983 - Sean Taylor, American football player

● 1983 - Franck Ribery, French footballer

● 1984 - Olga Rei, Russian television personality

● 1985 - Josh Zuckerman, Actor

● 1986 - Ireen Wüst, Dutch speed skater

● 1987 - Ding Junhui, Chinese snooker player

● 1988 - Courtney McCool, American gymnast

DEATHS

● 1085 - Emperor Shenzong of China (b. 1048)

● 1132 - St-Hugues, Bishop of Guenette (b. 1053)

● 1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England

● 1205 - King Amalric II of Jerusalem (b. 1145)

● 1528 - Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer

● 1580 - Alonso Mudarra, Spanish composer

● 1621 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (b. 1577)

● 1637 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (b. 1571)

● 1682 - Franz Egon of Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg (b. 1625)

● 1684 - Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (b. 1603)

● 1787 - Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar (b. 1710)

● 1791 - Richard Butler American soldier (b. 1743)

● 1839 - Benjamin Pierce, Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1757)

● 1872 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b. 1805)

● 1872 - William Frederick Horry, executed by William Marwood (b. 1843)

● 1878 - John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (b. 1796)

● 1914 - Rube Waddell, American baseball player (b. 1876)

● 1917 - Scott Joplin, American musician and composer (b. 1868)

● 1922 - Emperor Karl I of Austria (b. 1887)

● 1930 - Cosima Wagner, daughter of Franz Liszt and wife of Richard Wagner (b. 1837)

● 1946 - Noah Beery, American actor (b. 1882)

● 1947 - King George II of Greece (b. 1890)

● 1950 - Charles R. Drew, American physician (b. 1904)

● 1965 - Helena Rubinstein, cosmetic manufacturer (b. 1870)

● 1966 - Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (b. 1911)

● 1968 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)

● 1976 - Max Ernst, German artist (b. 1891)

● 1979 - Bruno Coquatrix, French music impresario (b. 1910)

● 1979 - Barbara Luddy, American actress (b. 1908)

● 1981 - Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai composer and bandleader (b. 1910)

● 1984 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (b. 1939)

● 1986 - Erik Bruhn, Danish ballet dancer, choreographer (b. 1928)

● 1988 - Jim Jordan, American actor (Fibber McGee) (b. 1896)

● 1991 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1894)

● 1993 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (b. 1954)

● 1994 - Robert Doisneau, French photographer (b. 1912)

● 1996 - Florence Buchsbaum, theater director and musician (b. 1926)

● 1996 - John McSherry, American baseball umpire (b. 1944)

● 1998 - Gene Evans, American actor (b. 1922)

● 1998 - Rozz Williams, American musician (Christian Death) (b. 1963)

● 1999 - Jesse Stone, American record producer (b. 1901)

● 2000 - Alexander Mackenzie Stuart, Baron Mackenzie-Stuart, president of the European Court of Justice (b. 1924)

● 2001 - Olivia Barclay, British astrologer (b. 1919)

● 2001 - Jo-Jo Moore, American baseball player (b. 1908)

● 2001 - Trinh Cong Son, Vietnamese composer (b. 1939)

● 2002 - Simo Hayha, Finnish marksman (b. 1905)

● 2003 - Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer (b. 1956)

● 2004 - Carrie Snodgress, American actress (b. 1946)

● 2005 - Alexander Brott, Canadian violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1915)

● 2005 - Harald Juhnke, German entertainer (b. 1929)

● 2005 - Jack Keller, American songwriter (b. 1936)

● 2005 - Ioannis Kyrastas, Greek footballer and manager (b. 1952)

● 2005 - Robert Coldwell Wood, American university president and political appointee (b. 1923)

● 2006 - In Tam, Cambodian politician (b. 1916)

● 2007 - Herb Carneal, Major League Baseball radio broadcaster (b. 1923)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Abundius
● St. Agia
● St. Allerius
● St. Alphege
● St. Anicetus
● St. Antipas
● St. Apollonius
● St. Apollonius the Apologist
● St. Ardalion
● St. Barsanuphius
● St. Benedict Joseph Labré
● St. Beocca
● St. Bernadette
● St. Bernadette Soubirous
● Sts. Caidoc & Fricor
● St. Cellach
● Sts. Callistus & Charisius
● St. Calocerus
● St. Caradoc
● St. Carpus
● St. Cogitosus
● St. Contardo
● St. Corebus
● St. Crescentius
● St. Damian
● St. Dodolinus
● St. Domnio
● St. Domnina
● St. Donan
● St. Drogo
● Sts. Eleutherius & Anthia
● St. Elias
● St. Encratia
● St. Erkemboden
● St. Eutychius
● Sts. Fortunatus & Marcian
● St. Fulbert
● St. Galdinus
● St. Gebuinus
● St. Gemma Galgani
● St. Gerold
● St. Godebertha
● St. Gunioc
● St. Hermengild
● St. Hermogenes
● St. Herve
● St. Hugh of Grenoble
● St. Hunna
● St. Jacoba
● St. James Duckett, Blessed
● St. Julius
● St. Lambert of Lyon
● St. Lambert of Saragossa
● St. Landericus
● St. Laserian
● St. Lydwine
● St. Macarius the Ghent
● St. Macarius the Wonder-Worker
● St. Machai
● St. Maedhog
● St. Malchus
● St. Mappalicus
● St. Maro
● St. Martin I, Pope
● St. Martius
● St. Mary Margaret d'Youville
● St. Maximus
● Sts. Maximus & Olympiades
● St. Melitina
● St. Michael of the Saints
● St. Mundus
● St. Palladius
● St. Paphnutius
● St. Paternus
● St. Pavoni, Anthony
● St. Perfectus
● Sts. Peter and Hermogenes
● St. Peter Gonzalez
● St. Philip of Gortyna
● Sts. Quintian and Irenaeus
● St. Robert of Chaise Dieu
● St. Ruadan
● St. Sabas
● St. Stanislaus
● St. Tassach
● St. Terence
● St. Tetricus
● St. Theodora
● St. Thomais
● St. Tiburtius
● St. Timon
● St. Turibius of Astorga
● St. Turibius of Palencia
● St. Ursmar
● St. Vasius
● St. Venantius
● St. Victor
● Sts. Victor and Stephen
● St. Villicus
● St. Vincent of Collioure
● St. Vissia
● St. Walericus
● St. Wicterp
● St. Wigbert
● St. Zeno
● Bl. Anthony Neyrot
● Bl. Edward Catheriek
● Bl. John Lockwood
● Bl. Wando

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 19 (Civil Date: April 1)
● Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, and those with them at Rome: Claudius, Hilaria, Jason, Maurus, Diodorus presbyter, and Marianus deacon.
● Martyr Pancharius at Nicomedia.
● St. Innocent of Komel (Vologda), disciple of St. Nilus of Sora.
● St. Bassa, nun of Pskov.
● New-Martyr Demetrius at Constantinople.

● Christian:
● St. Lasarus, patron of girls

● Anglican:
● Frederick Denison Maurice, priest

● Last day of the Assyrian New Year Celebration

● Roman Empire - Veneralia celebrated to honor Venus.

● April 1 is known as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day in many countries.

● Japan - The official start of school years in most universities and schools. Also, the official first day of work at companies and offices for new university graduates hires, marked by welcoming ceremonies and speeches.

● Canada - Beginning of government's fiscal year.

● India - Start of financial year.

● Orissa - a state in eastern India celebrates "Utkal Divas", its statehood day.

● Brielle celebrates victory of 1572 over Spaniards.

● In San Marino, two Captains Regent, elected by Parliament, take office for six months.

● Former New Year celebration day.

● In England and Wales, local government reorganizations traditionally happen on April 1.

● Some of universities in Russia (e.g. Omsk State University) celebrate mathematician day on April 1.

● Burma : Bank Holiday

● Sri Lanka : Sinhal/Tamil New Year

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Switzerland: Glarius Festival (1388) - (Thursday)
● Massachusetts: Student Government Day - (Friday)


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Quotes of the Day taken from "The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right" Compiled by William P. Martin 2004

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