April 13......

April 13 is the 103rd (104th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 262 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Children "The most insidious influence on the young is not violence, drugs, tobacco, drink, or sexual perversion, but our pursuit of the trivial and our tolerance of the third rate." — Eric Anderson

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Terrorism "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." — John "I can't dance" Ashcroft

{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

● 837 - Best view of Halley's Comet in 2000 years

● 989 - Battle at Abydos Byzantine emperor Basilius II beats Bardas Phocas

● 1055 - Bishop Gebhard van Eichstätt named Pope Victor II

● 1059 - Pope Nicholas II decreed that future popes could be elected by cardinals only.

● 1111 - Pope Paschalis II crowns Roman catholics-German king Hendrik II

● 1180 - Frederick Barbarossa issues the Gelnhausen Charter.

● 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.

● 1241 - Battle at Theiss Mongols beat Hungarian King Béla IV

● 1250 - The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured.

● 1256 - The Grand Union of the Augustinian order when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.

● 1346 - Pope Clemens VI declares German emperor Louis of Bavaria, envoy

● 1360 - Black Monday - In what surely ought to have been interpreted as a sign from God, the Army of Edward, King of England, is destroyed by a hailstorm and freezing rain.

● 1367 - Battle at Nájera Spain Castilië & England beat Aragón & France

● 1517 - Osmaanse army occupies Cairo

● 1556 - Portuguese Marranos who revert back to Judaism burned by order of Pope

● 1570 - Birth of Guy Fawkes; was instrumental in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 to blow up the English Parliament and King James I, celebrated ever since for having had a good idea.

● 1598 - The Edict of Nantes was promulgated by France's King Henry IV (of Navarre), granting his Huguenot (Protestant) subjects a large measure of religious freedom. (The Edict remained in effect for 87 years.)

● 1640 - English Short Parliament forms (- May 5)

● 1741 - Dutch people protest bad quality of bread

● 1741 - Royal Military Academy forms at Woolwich

● 1743 - Birth of Thomas Jefferson, Shadwell, Virginia. All the patriotic hoohah notwithstanding, a remarkably radical thinker for his time. At age 33, penned the following - "We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."

● 1759 - French beat European Allies in Battle of Bergen

● 1775 - Lord North extended the New England Restraining Act to South, Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act prohibited trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.

● 1782 - Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.

● 1796 - Battle at Millesimo Italy Napoleon beats Austrians

● 1828 - Birth of Josephine Butler, Glendale, Northumberland, Britain. Advocate of prostitutes' rights.

● 1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.

● 1834 - HMS Beagle {with Charles Darwin aboard} anchors at river mouth of Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia

● 1849 - Hungary becomes a republic.

● 1853 - Loyola College in Baltimore was chartered under Roman Catholic auspices.

● 1860 - 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento CA

● 1861 - After 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates

● 1863 - Battle of Irish Bend LA (Fort Bisland)

● 1864 - Confederate soldiers massacre black prisoners of war at Fort Pillow, Tenn.

● 1865 - Battle of Raleigh NC

● 1866 - Birth of Anne Sullivan Macy, teacher to Helen Keller.

● 1868 - Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala.

● 1869 - Steam power brake patented (George Westinghouse)

● 1873 - Colfax Massacre. An orgy of brutality by the White League leaves more than 200 hundred African Americans dead in Grant Parish, Louisiana.

● 1877 - Birth of Enrique Flores Magon (1877-1954), Mexican revolutionary anarchist, Teotitlan del Camino, Oaxaca.

● 1878 - One thousand U.S. troops arrive in New Mexico Territory to fight against Victorio and Mescalero, San Carlos, and Chiricahua Apache.

● 1882 - Anti-Semitic League forms in Prussia

● 1883 - Alfred Packer convicted of cannibalism

● 1892 - "Johnson County War," fought between Wyoming homesteaders and an invading army of mercenaries hired by cattle interests, came to an end as the U.S. Cavalry rescue the cowmen's troops from the settlers' "Ark of Vengeance" -- a wagon filled with dynamite.

● 1904 - Congress authorizes Lewis & Clark Expo $1 gold coin

● 1904 - Battle at Oviumbo Africa Herero's chase away German army

● 1906 - Samuel Beckett, the Irish-born author, critic, and playwright who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 , was born.

● 1906 - Mutiny on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos & Vasco da Gama

● 1912 - Royal Flying Corps forms (later RAF)

● 1913 - Belgium - General Strike demanding universal suffrage.

● 1916 - The first hybrid, seed corn was purchased for 15-cents a bushel by Samuel Ramsay.

● 1918 - Electrical fire kills 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital

● 1919 - Socialist, pacifist, and labor leader Eugene Debs imprisoned for opposing U.S. entry into World War I. While in prison he received over one million votes for President in 1920.

● 1919 - Massacre of Armitsar - British troops open fire on demonstrators, Armitsar, India, killing an estimated 379 and injuring 1200.

● 1919 - The Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.

● 1919 - Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American atheist and huckster, born.

● 1920 - General strike by half million workers in Italy.

● 1920 - 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed

● 1921 - Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party.

● 1924 - Greek plebiscite for a republic

● 1926 - Bicyclists without bicycle-tax-stamp rounded up in Amsterdam

● 1928 - 1st trans atlantic flight Europe-US (Fitzmaurice-von Hünefeld-Köhl)

● 1933 - 1st flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)

● 1934 - Twenty thousand U.S. students in one day strike against all wars.

● 1934 - 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments

● 1934 - US Congress passes Johnson Debt Default Act

● 1936 - Metaxas proclaims himself dictator of Greece

● 1939 - In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.

● 1939 - Delegates from independent Baptist churches in Shafter, Oildale, Lamont and Taft organized the first association of Southern Baptists in California.

● 1940 - 2nd battle of Narvik-8 German destroyers, destroyed

● 1941 - Heavy German assault on Tobruk

● 1941 - Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.

● 1941 - German troops captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

● 1943 - World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners-of-war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced in Germany, driving a wedge between the Western Allies, the Polish government-in-exile in London, and the Soviet Union.

● 1943 - James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton take part in Alcatraz escape attempt.

● 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

● 1944 - South Carolina rejects black suffrage

● 1944 - Transport number 71 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany

● 1945 - Germany - Belsen and Buchenwald Nazi concentration camps liberated.

● 1945 - Allies occupy Wien (Vienna)

● 1945 - Canadian army liberates Teuge & Assen Netherlands from Nazi's

● 1945 - US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa

● 1945 - German troops massacre more than 1000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen Germany. The atrocity is discovered two days later by American forces.

● 1946 - Belgian premier Acker proclaims wage & price freeze over

● 1948 - At the Antioch Baptist Church of Portland, representatives of 15 local congregations organized the Baptist General Convention of Oregon-Washington, the first organization of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

● 1948 - 75 scientists ambushed on way to Mount Scopus

● 1949 - Philip S. Hench and associates announced that cortisone was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

● 1950 - France - Hoche Arthur Meurant, French anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, antimilitarist, dies.

● 1953 - CIA starts MK-ULTRA, drug "investigation" program.

● 1954 - Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist

● 1955 - 20.33" (51.64 cm) of rainfall, Axis AL (state record)

● 1957 - Due to lack of funds, Saturday mail delivery in the US is temporarily halted

● 1959 - Vanguard SLV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)

● 1959 - Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists

● 1959 - USAF launches Discoverer II into polar orbit

● 1960 - France becomes the 4th nuclear nation exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara

● 1960 - Transit 1B, 1st navigational satellite, placed in Earth orbit

● 1961 - UN General Assembly condemns South Africa for apartheid

● 1962 - Rachel Carson's book indicting the pesticide industry, "Silent Spring," is published. The impact of Silent Spring will prove so seminal to a new ecological awareness that, even 30 years later, Carson would be denounced for (quote) "preservationist hysteria" and "bad science."

● 1962 - In the U.S., major steel companies rescinded announced price increases. The John F. Kennedy administration had been applying pressure against the price increases.

● 1964 - Ian D Smith becomes premier of Rhodesia

● 1965 - 1st US Senate black page, Lawrence W Bradford Jr, 16, appointed by New York Senator Jacob Javits

● 1969 - Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.

● 1970 - Apollo 13 announces "Houston, we've got a problem!" as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon, preventing a planned moon landing and putting the crew into deadly peril.

● 1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.

● 1974 - Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the USA's first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

● 1975 - Chad military coup by General Odingar

● 1975 - Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war

● 1975 - 'Cambridge rapist' strikes again; Police believe a woman attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning was the sixth victim of a serial rapist operating in Cambridge.

● 1976 - Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes

● 1979 - Christian Turks occupy St Jansbasiliek

● 1979 - Yusuf Lule becomes premier of Uganda

● 1980 - Washoe tribe wins federal court decision that it can enforce its own hunting laws in the Pine Nut Mountains of Nevada.

● 1980 - La Donna Harris, running mate of Barry Commoner, becomes first Native American running a major campaign for U.S. Vice President. (Winona LaDuke, 1996 and 2000 VP candidate with Ralph Nader, would be the second.)

● 1980 - Jose Ester Borras (1913-1980) dies. Spanish anarchist, active in the resistance in France and in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

● 1980 - "TASS" denounced US boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics

● 1981 - The separatist Parti Quebecois wins increased majority in Quebec.

● 1981 - Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy." Cooke relinquished the prize two days later after admitting she had fabricated the story.

● 1983 - Undefeated middleweight boxer Tony Ayala gets 35 years on sex assault

● 1983 - Harold Washington elected 1st black mayor of Chicago

● 1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1984 - U.S. President Reagan sent emergency military aid to El Salvador without congressional approval.

● 1984 - Christopher Walker was killed in a fight with police in New Hampshire. Walker was wanted as a suspect in the kidnappings of 11 young women in several states.

● 1984 - 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41C)-Challenger 5-returns to Earth

● 1985 - Atlantis ferried to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas

● 1985 - Enver Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia as the leader of Albania.

● 1986 - Pope John Paul II met Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff at Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind.

● 1987 - Would-be Reagan assassin and Jodie Foster fan John Hinckley, Jr. loses his bid for a 12-hour Easter pass after a psychiatrist reveals that he's established a pen-pal relationship with Florida death row inmate Ted Bundy.

● 1987 - Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to the latter in 1999.

● 1988 - Italy government of De Mita forms

● 1989 - Six killed in West Bank village raid; At least six Palestinians have been killed in an early morning raid by Israeli soldiers on an Arab village on the West Bank.

● 1990 - The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.

● 1992 - Labour's Neil Kinnock resigns; Neil Kinnock resigns as Labour Party leader blaming the Conservative-backed press for his party's defeat at the general election.

● 1992 - Business district of Chicago shuts down for days when the Chicago River breaches the city's underground tunnel system.

● 1992 - 5.5 earthquake hits Netherlands

● 1994 - President guard at Kigali Rwanda, chops 1,200 church members to death

● 1994 - Target date for Israeli complete withdrawal, doesn't occur

● 1995 - Five Catholic Worker activists are arrested for resistance at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

● 1996 - Israeli Defense Force missiles kill two women and four children in ambulance as "legitimate target," southern Lebanon.

● 1998 - Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb.

● 1999 - Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, MI, to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. Youk's assisted suicide was videotaped and shown on "60 Minutes" in 1998.

● 1999 - Supporters of microradio (pirate) radio stations protest at the Tampa, Fla. office of the FCC.

● 2000 - Richard Gordon was charged with trying to extort $250,000 from Louie Anderson in exchange for not telling the tabloid media about Anderson once asking him for sex. Gordon was held without bail pending a court hearing.

● 2000 - It was announced that 69 people had died when the Arlahada, a Philippine ferry, capsized. 70 people were rescued.

● 2002 - Twenty-five Hindus were killed and about 30 were wounded when grenades were thrown by suspected Islamic guerrillas near Jammu-Kashir.

● 2002 - Venezuela's interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office. Thousands of protesters had supported over the ousting of president Hugo Chavez.

● 2005 - Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-to-back court appearances in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta.

BIRTHS

● 1506 - Peter Faber, French Jesuit theologian (d. 1546)

● 1519 - Catherine de Medici, wife of Henry II of France (d. 1589)

● 1547 - Elisabeth of Valois, third wife of Philip II of Spain (d. 1568)

● 1570 - Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspiriter

● 1584 - Albert VI of Bavaria (d. 1666)

● 1593 - Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English statesman (d. 1641)

● 1618 - Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer (d. 1693)

● 1648 - Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French (d. 1717)

● 1715 - John Hanson, President of the United States in Congress Assembled (d. 1783)

● 1729 - Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore and magazine editor (d. 1811)

● 1732 - Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)

● 1735 - Isaac Low, New York delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1791)

● 1743 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809) and author of the Declaration of Independence (New style date) (d. 1826)

● 1747 - Louis Philip II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)

● 1764 - Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (d. 1830)

● 1769 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter (d. 1830)

● 1771 - Richard Trevithick, English engineer and inventor (d. 1833)

● 1772 - Eli Terry, American clockmaker and an innovator in mass production (d. 1852)

● 1780 - Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer (d. 1868)

● 1784 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)

● 1787 - John Robertson, U.S. congressman (d. 1873)

● 1802 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (d. 1884)

● 1808 - Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (d. 1896)

● 1816 - Sir William Benett, English pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1875)

● 1825 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868)

● 1828 - Joseph Barber Lightfoot, English theologian and Bishop of Durham (d. 1889)

● 1832 - Juan Montalvo, Ecuadoran author (d. 1889)

● 1841 - Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (d. 1905)

● 1850 - Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, British astronomer (d. 1917)

● 1851 - Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)

● 1852 - F.W. Woolworth, American businessman (d. 1919)

● 1860 - James Ensor, Belgian painter (d. 1949)

● 1866 - Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (d. 1908)

● 1871 - Martinez Gonzalez, Mexican poet, physician and diplomat (d. 1952)

● 1872 - Alexander Roda Roda, Austrian writer (d. 1945)

● 1873 - John W. Davis, American politician (d. 1955)

● 1875 - Ray Lyman Wilbur, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (d. 1949)

● 1879 - Edward Bruce, Director of the New Deal art projects during the Great Depression (d. 1943)

● 1880 - Charles Christie, Canadian film studio owner (d. 1955)

● 1885 - Georg Lukács, Hungarian-born philosopher and literary critic (d. 1971)

● 1885 - Vean Gregg, American baseball player (d. 1964)

● 1887 - Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician and President of the Canadian Medical Association (d. 1995)

● 1888 - John Hays Hammond Jr., American inventor; developed radio remote control (d. 1965)

● 1889 - Herbert Osborne Yardley, American cryptographer (d. 1958)

● 1890 - Frank Murphy, American public servant (d. 1949)

● 1891 - Maurice Vincent Buckley, Australian winner of the Victoria Cross (d. 1921)

● 1891 - Nella Larsen, African-American novelist (d. 1964)

● 1892 - Arthur Travers 'Bomber' Harris, British Air Force commander in World War II (d. 1984)

● 1892 - Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, Scottish inventor; knighted for his role in the development of radar (d. 1973)

● 1894 - Arthur Fadden, thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973)

● 1897 - Werner Voss, German World War I pilot (d. 1917)

● 1900 - Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer (d. 1976)

● 1901 - Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and semanticist (d. 1981)

● 1902 - Philippe de Rothschild, French race car driver and wine grower (d. 1988)

● 1904 - Sir David Robinson, British philanthropist and entrepreneur (d. 1987)

● 1906 - Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)

● 1907 - Harold Stassen, American Presidential candidate (d. 2001)

● 1909 - Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, Polish mathematician (d. 1984)

● 1909 - Eudora Welty, American writer (d. 2001)

● 1911 - Ico Hitrec, Croatian footballer (d. 1946)

● 1916 - Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner, American actress, journalist, and children's book publisher (d. 2006)

● 1919 - Roland Gaucher, French journalist

● 1919 - Howard Keel, American actor, singer, and president of the Screen Actors Guild (d. 2004)

● 1919 - Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American atheist activist (d. 1995)

● 1920 - Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (d. 1982)

● 1920 - Claude Cheysson, French politician

● 1920 - Liam Cosgrave, fifth Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland

● 1920 - John LaPorta, American musician (d. 2004)

● 1922 - John Braine, British novelist (d. 1986)

● 1922 - Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian politician (d. 1999)

● 1923 - Don Adams, American actor and comedian (d. 2005)

● 1924 - Jack Chick, American evangelist

● 1924 - Stanley Donen, American film director

● 1926 - John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough

● 1926 - Ellie Lambeti, Greek actress

● 1928 - Alan Clark, English politician (d. 1999)

● 1931 - Dan Gurney, American race car driver

● 1932 - Orlando Letelier, Chilean politician (d. 1976)

● 1933 - Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. Senator

● 1935 - Lyle Waggoner, American actor

● 1937 - Edward Fox, English actor

● 1937 - Lanford Wilson, American playwright

● 1939 - Seamus Heaney, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1939 - Paul Sorvino, American actor

● 1941 - Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

● 1943 - Bill Conti, American musician

● 1944 - Jack Casady, American musician (Jefferson Airplane)

● 1944 - Susan Davis, American politician

● 1944 - Brian Pendleton, musician, The Pretty Things (d. 2001)

● 1945 - Tony Dow, American actor

● 1945 - Bob Kalsu, American football player (d. 1970)

● 1945 - Lowell George, American country/rock singer/guitarist (Little Feat) (d. 1979)

● 1946 - Al Green, American singer and pastor

● 1947 - Thanos Mikroutsikos, Greek composer & former minister

● 1948 - Nam Hae-il, Chief of Naval Operations of Republic of Korea Navy

● 1948 - Sue Doughty, British politician

● 1949 - Frank Doran, Scottish politician

● 1949 - Christopher Hitchens, English-born journalist, critic, and author

● 1950 - Terry Lester, American actor (d. 2003)

● 1950 - Ron Perlman, American actor

● 1950 - William Sadler, American actor

● 1951 - Peabo Bryson, American singer

● 1951 - Peter Davison, English actor

● 1951 - Max Weinberg, American drummer ("Late Night with Conan O'Brien" bandleader, E Street Band)

● 1951 - Joachim Streich, East German footballer

● 1952 - Ron Dittemore, American space administrator

● 1952 - David Drew, British politician

● 1952 - Erick Avari, British-Indian actor

● 1952 - Sam Bush, Bluegrass musician

● 1953 - Stephen Byers, British politician

● 1954 - Jimmy Destri, Rock musician (Blondie)

● 1954 - Niels Olsen, Danish singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner

● 1955 - Ole von Beust, Mayor of Hamburg

● 1955 - Lupe Pintor, Mexican boxer

● 1956 - Peter 'Possum' Bourne, New Zealand rally driver (d. 2003)

● 1956 - Alison Wheeler, British activist

● 1957 - Gary Kroeger, Actor, comedian

● 1957 - Saundra Santiago, American actress

● 1957 - Dallas Moir, Scottish cricketer

● 1960 - Bob Casey, U.S. senator, D-Pa.

● 1960 - Rudi Völler, German football coach

● 1960 - Olaf Ludwig, German cyclist

● 1961 - Joey Mazzola, Rock musician (Sponge)

● 1962 - Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (d. 1988)

● 1962 - Jennifer Rubin, American actress

● 1963 - Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player

● 1964 - Davis Love III, Golfer

● 1964 - Page Hannah, Actress

● 1964 - Caroline Rhea, Canadian actress

● 1965 - Lisa Umbarger, Rock musician

● 1965 - Patricio Pouchulu, Argentinean architect

● 1966 - Marc Ford, American musician (The Black Crowes)

● 1967 - Capleton, Reggae singer

● 1970 - Monty Brown, American professional wrestler

● 1970 - Gerry Creaney, Scottish footballer

● 1970 - Rebecca Cummings, American porn actress

● 1970 - Rick Schroder, American actor

● 1971 - Bo Outlaw, American basketball player

● 1971 - Dina Korzun, Russian actress

● 1971 - Valensia, Dutch singer

● 1972 - Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player

● 1972 - Aaron Lewis, American singer

● 1974 - Sergei Gonchar, Russian ice hockey player

● 1974 - David Zdrilić, Australian footballer

● 1975 - Lou Bega, German-born musician and artist

● 1975 - Bruce Dyer, English footballer

● 1976 - Glenn Howerton, Actor, producer

● 1976 - Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)

● 1976 - Patrik Elias, Czech ice hockey player

● 1976 - Yoo Ji-tae, South Korean actor

● 1978 - Arron Asham, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1978 - Carles Puyol, FC Barcelona player [And Spain]

● 1978 - Kyle Howard, American television and movie actor

● 1979 - Baron Davis, American basketball player

● 1979 - Meghann Shaughnessy, American professional tennis player

● 1980 - Jana Cova, Czech pornographic actress

● 1980 - Quentin Richardson, American basketball player

● 1981 - Courtney Peldon, Actress ("Boston Public")

● 1982 - Nellie McKay, American singer

● 1982 - Janice Vidal, Hong Kong singer

● 1982 - Jill Vidal, Hong Kong singer, Janice Vidal's twin sister

● 1992 - Emma Degerstedt, American actress

DEATHS

● 800 - Paul the Deacon, Italian monk and chronicler

● 814 - Krum, Khan of Bulgaria

● 1093 - Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev (b. 1030)

● 1279 - Boleslaus the Pious, Polish duke

● 1605 - Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia

● 1635 - Fahkr-al-Din II, Druze Prince of Lebanon (executed)

● 1638 - Henri, duc de Rohan, French Huguenot leader (b. 1579)

● 1641 - Richard Montagu, English clergyman (b. 1577)

● 1695 - Jean de la Fontaine, French author (b. 1621)

● 1722 - Charles Leslie, Irish Anglican theologian (b. 1650)

● 1793 - Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, French revolutionary (b. 1763)

● 1794 - Nicolas Chamfort, French writer (b. 1741)

● 1826 - Franz Danzi, German composer (b. 1763)

● 1853 - Leopold Gmelin, German chemist (b. 1788)

● 1853 - James Iredell, Jr., Governor of North Carolina (b. 1788)

● 1855 - Henry De la Beche, English geologist (b. 1796)

● 1868 - Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1818)

● 1880 - Robert Fortune, Scottish botanist (b. 1813)

● 1882 - Bruno Bauer, German theologian (b. 1809)

● 1890 - Samuel J. Randall, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1828)

● 1909 - Whitley Stokes, British lawyer (b. 1830)

● 1910 - William Quiller Orchardson, British painter (b. 1835)

● 1911 - George Washington Glick, Governor of Kansas (b. 1827)

● 1911 - John McLane, Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1852)

● 1912 - Ishikawa Takuboku, Japanese author (b. 1886)

● 1918 - Lavr Georgevich Kornilov, Russian general (b. 1870)

● 1938 - Grey Owl, proponent of nature conservation (b. 1888)

● 1941 - Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)

● 1944 - Cécile Chaminade, French composer and pianist (b. 1857)

● 1945 - Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (b. 1874)

● 1959 - Eduard van Beinum, Dutch conductor (b. 1901)

● 1962 - Culbert Olson, Governor of California (b. 1876)

● 1966 - Abdul Salam Arif, President of Iraq (b. 1921)

● 1975 - Larry Parks, American actor (b. 1914)

● 1975 - François (Ngarta) Tombalbaye, first President of Chad (b. 1918)

● 1978 - Jack Chambers, Canadian artist and film maker (b. 1931)

● 1981 - Prince Asaka Yasuhiko of Japan (b. 1887)

● 1983 - Theodore Stephanides, Greek poet, author, doctor and naturalist (b. 1896)

● 1984 - Richard Hurndall. British actor (b. 1910)

● 1984 - Ralph Kirkpatrick, American musician (b. 1911)

● 1993 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (car accident) (b. 1909)

● 1997 - Dorothy Frooks, American author, publisher, military figure, and actress (b. 1896)

● 1997 - Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (b. 1903)

● 1999 - Ortvin Sarapu, New Zealand chess player "Mr NZ Chess" (b. 1924)

● 1999 - Willi Stoph, German politician (b. 1914)

● 2000 - Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (b. 1916)

● 2001 - Robert Moon, Postal Inspector and "Father" of the ZIP Code (b. 1917)

● 2002 - Desmond Titterington, Northern Irish racecar driver (b. 1928)

● 2004 - Lou Berberet, baseball player (b. 1929)

● 2004 - Caron Keating, British television presenter (b. 1962)

● 2005 - Don Blasingame, baseball player (b. 1932)

● 2006 - Bill Baker, baseball player (b. 1911)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Caradoc
● St. Carpus
● Bl. Edward Catheriek
● St. Gunioc
● St. Hermengild
● St. Martin I, Pope
● St. Maximus
● Bl. John Lockwood

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 31 (Civil Date: April 13)
● St Hypatius the Wonderworker, Bishop of Gangra.
● St. Hypatius, abbot of Rufinus in Chalcedon.
● St. Apollonius, ascetic of the Thebaid.
● Martyrs Abdas the bishop and Benjamin the deacon, of Persia.
● Repose of St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia.
● Righteous Joseph the Fair, son of Jacob.
● St. Acacius the Confessor, Bishop of Melitene.
● St. Hypatius the Healer of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Blaise of Amoria, monk.
● 38 Relatives who were martyred.
● St. Stephen the Wonderworker, monk.
● Blessed Innocent of Moscow, Enlightener of Siberia and Alaska.
● Appearance of the Iberian (Iveron) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
● Repose of Abbot Philaret of Glinsk Hermitage (1841)
● Repose of Archbishop Averky of Jordanville (1976).

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Menander.

● Greek Orthodox Church:
● St. Martin the Confessor

● Buddhist : New Year (Thailand)

● Buddhist : Songkran Day; honors monks (Thailand)

● France 1598, England 1829 : Religious Freedom Day

● First day of Cambodian New Year.

● Alabama, Oklahoma : Thomas Jefferson's Birthday (1743)

● Maryland : John Hanson Day

● US : Huguenot Day (1598)

IN FICTION

● 1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist"


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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