April 16......

April 16 is the 106th (107th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 259 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Civil Rights "I am – Somebody. I may be poor, but I am – Somebody! I may be on welfare, but I am – Somebody! I may be uneducated, but I am – Somebody! I must be, I'm God's child. I must be respected and protected. I am black and I am beautiful! I am – Somebody! Soul Power!" — Jesse Jackson

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Absurdity "The Earth is flat, and anyone who disputes this claim is an atheist who deserves to be punished." — Abdel-Aziz Ibn Baaz, sheik and Saudi Arabian religious authority, 1993

{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

● 1178 BC - A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War.

● 69 - Otho committed suicide after being defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum.

● 73 - Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.

● 556 - Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 1065 - The Norman Robert Guiscard took Bari. Five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy ended.

● 1071 - Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.

● 1175 - Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, signed the Treaty of Montebello with the Lombard League.

● 1291 - The more things change, the more they stay the same - Rudolph Hapsburg purchases the rights to govern Lucerne, Switzerland.

● 1346 - Serbian Empire was proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the South-Eastern Europe.

● 1395 - Azzo X d'Este is defeated at the Battle of Castelmaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops.

● 1509 - French army under Louis XII enters Alps

● 1521 - German reformer Martin Luther, 34, arrived at the Diet of Worms, where he afterward defended his "Ninety-Five Theses," first advanced in 1517. At the Diet, Luther refused to recant his ideas 'unless overcome by Scripture.'

● 1550 - In a Royal Order of Charles V of Spain, the question "What is an Indian?" was posed; exploration of America was suspended until the matter was settled.

● 1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.

● 1632 - Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed supreme commander

● 1681 - New World - Province of New Jersey is sold for $25,000. And that was back when it was pretty...

● 1705 - Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College

● 1724 - 1st Easter observed

● 1746 - Battle at Culloden Troops of "James VIII & III" defeat Charles Stuart

● 1772 - Anglican clergyman and hymn writer John Newton wrote in a letter: 'I think there is a scriptural distinction between faith and feeling, grace and comfort.... The degree of the one is not often the just measure of the other.'

● 1777 - Battle of Bennington-New England's Green Mountain Boys rout British

● 1780 - The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.

● 1789 - George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration

● 1797 - England - Sailors mutiny at Spithead, off Portsmouth .

● 1799 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

● 1818 - Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)

● 1829 - Death of Carl G. Glaser, 45, German choral master and composer of the hymn tune AZMON, to which we today sing, "O For a Thousand Tongues."

● 1851 - A lighthouse was swept away in a gale at Minot’s Ledge, MA.

● 1853 - The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.

● 1854 - "Army of the poor" leader Jacob Coxey born, Massillon, Ohio. Well-to-do businessman who was a Populist and quite untypical of his class in other ways, proposed a plan of federal work relief on public roads to be financed by an issue of Treasury notes -- thus ending the depression of 1893 by means of monetary inflation and work relief for the unemployed. When Congress refused to pass this bill, Coxey stated, "We will send a petition to Washington with boots on." Thus Coxey's Army marched peacefully from Ohio to Washington, D.C. where they were cheered by crowds, but Coxey and his lieutenants were arrested by police and about 50 people were beaten or trampled.

● 1854 - San Salvador destroyed by earthquake

● 1854 - Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach NY, 311 die

● 1861 - US President Abraham Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states

● 1862 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves conscription act for white males between 18-35

● 1862 - American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.

● 1862 - American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.

● 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

● 1865 - Battle of Columbus & West Point GA (Fort Tyler)

● 1866 - Nitroglycerine at Wells Fargo & Company office explodes

● 1866 - Karakozov attempts to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia

● 1868 - Louisiana voters approve new constitution

● 1869 - Ebenezer Bassett, 1st US Negro diplomat, begins service in Haiti

● 1871 - German Empire ends all anti-Jewish civil restrictions

● 1871 - Demonstration in Hyde Park in London, England, in support of the Paris Commune.

● 1874 - Two hundred men led by Elijah Baxter, the elected Governor of Arkansas, surround the State House, seized 24 hours earlier by defeated candidate Joseph Brooks and his supporters. Two weeks later, a pitched battle between the two camps kills or wounds 25.

● 1874 - Dr David Livingstone's corpse arrives in Southampton

● 1880 - Australia - Compulsory state schooling for 6 to 14 year old children is introduced in New South Wales.

● 1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

● 1883 - Paul Kruger chosen President of Transvaal

● 1888 - Drentse & Friese peat cutters go on strike

● 1889 - Sir Charlie Chaplin, the British-born actor and director who became internationally famous for his role in American silent movies, was born.

● 1900 - The first book of postage stamps was issued. The two-cent stamps were available in books of 12, 24 and 48 stamps.

● 1902 - Philippines - Surrender of the last resistance to U.S. occupation.

● 1903 - Mexico - The buildings of the anarchist newspaper "El hijo del Ahuizote" are seized by the police for the second time. The staff are arrested for having "ridiculed public authorities," always one of the most noble of criminal offenses.

● 1904 - Birth of Merrill C. Tenney, American N.T. scholar. In addition to his many scholarly writings, Tenney was dean of the Wheaton College Graduate School in Illinois from 1947-71.

● 1905 - Andrew Carnegie donated $10,000,000 of personal money to set up the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

● 1908 - Natural Bridges National Monument established (Lake Powell UT)

● 1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

● 1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Saint Petersburg from exile in Finland.

● 1917 - The 296th Regiment are the first to refuse to advance on the German Hindenburg Line in a mutiny that will embrace more than half a million conscript soldiers of the French Army.

● 1918 - Prince Hopkins arrested, indicted by federal grand jury in Los Angeles for violating the Espionage Act due to his opposition to U.S. involvement in World War I; he released on $25,000 bail. Four months later, he pleads guilty & is fined $27,000.

● 1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.

● 1920 - Italian-American anarchist Feruccio Coacci is arrested in Bridgewater, Mass. for his activities supporting "Cronaca Sovversiva" and deported on the 18th.

● 1921 - Liberal Freedom League forms in The Hague

● 1922 - The Treaty of Rapallo, in which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations between Berlin and Moscow, is signed.

● 1924 - Child labor laws strengthened in Holland

● 1925 - During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.

● 1930 - Jose Carlos Mariaátegui, political leader/essayist and the first Peruvian intellectual to apply the Marxist model of historical materialism to Peruvian problems, dies in Lima.

● 1934 - Los Angeles County Supervisor Roger W. Jessup calls for deporting some 7,000 indigent Filipinos on the welfare rolls.

● 1936 - General strike called in Madrid, Spain after fascists kill three workers and wound 50.

● 1938 - Great-Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia

● 1939 - Stalin requests British, French & Russian anti-Nazi pact

● 1941 - World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.

● 1942 - Japanese occupying army on Java installs film censorship

● 1942 - King George VI awards George Cross to Island of Malta

● 1943 - 40 New Zealand bombers attack Haarlem Netherlands (85 killed)

● 1943 - Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally invents lysergic acid diethylamide 25 (LSD), discovering its psychedelic effects.

● 1944 - The destroyer USS Laffey survived immense damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa.

● 1945 - In his first speech to Congress, President Harry S. Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

● 1945 - American troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.

● 1945 - The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.

● 1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc .

● 1945 - German ship Goya, overfilled with refugees, sinks after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing more than 7,000 people.

● 1945 - German troops in Groningen surrender

● 1945 - US troops land on He Shima Okinawa

● 1946 - 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket, White Sands NM; 8 km altitude

● 1946 - NSB mayor of Rotterdam Netherlands, FE Müller sentence to 100 years in jail

● 1946 - Syria gains independence.

● 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 Zoomar lens, invented by Dr. Frank Back, was demonstrated in New York City. It was the first lens to exhibit zooming effects.

● 1947 - America's worst harbor explosion occurred in Texas City, Texas, when the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, devastating the town. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The explosions and resulting fires killed more than 500 people and left 200 others missing.

● 1948 - Christians in Action was incorporated in Compton, CA. Founded by Rev. Lee Shelley, this interdenominational overseas mission helps establish national churches in nearly two dozen overseas countries.

● 1948 - Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris France

● 1951 - British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75

● 1956 - 1st solar powered radios go on sale

● 1957 - USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

● 1958 - French government of Gaillard falls due to Tunisia crisis

● 1959 - Datu Abdul Rozak inaugurated as premier of Malaysia federation

● 1962 - Walter Cronkite begins anchoring CBS Evening News

● 1962 - Brazil nationalizes US businesses

● 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.

● 1964 - Sentences totalling 307 years were passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes in what became known as the Great Train Robbery.

● 1965 - Test flight of heavy Saturn S-1C-rocket

● 1966 - Forty-four hundred march against war in New York City.

● 1966 - G. Gordon Liddy & the FBI raid Millbrook and bust Timothy Leary for possession of marijuana.

● 1966 - Rhodesian PM Ian Smith breaks diplomatic relations with Britain

● 1967 - Government bans Marathon Peace March, Greece.

● 1967 - Black riots in Cleveland.

● 1968 - The Pentagon announced that troops would begin coming home from Vietnam.

● 1970 - 70 die in an avalanche (France)

● 1970 - Paisley victory rattles NI parliament; Protestant right-winger Ian Paisley has won a seat in Northern Ireland's parliament.

● 1971 - U.S. military veterans hurl medals onto White House lawn, Washington D.C.

● 1971 - Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates over 2,000 people openly refused to pay part or all of their income tax in protest over the war in Vietnam. War tax resisters currently estimate the numbers of people engaging in some sort of income tax resistance due to conscientious objection to military taxation as at least 10,000 in the U.S.

● 1972 - 2 giants pandas (Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing) arrive in the US, from China

● 1972 - Apollo 16 launched; 5th manned lunar landing (Decartes Highlands)

● 1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

● 1973 - U.S. bombs Laos in a further extension of the Vietnam War.

● 1974 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1975 - The Khmer Rouge Rebels win control of Cambodia after a five-year civil war triggered in part by the decimation of U.S. bombing. A further reign of terror begins.

● 1977 - The ban on women attending West Point was lifted.

● 1978 - In Orissa, India, 180 people died when a tornado hit.

● 1979 - Failed Palestinian attack on Zaventem Airport in Belgium

● 1980 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1981 - Columbia space shuttle returns

● 1982 - Queen Elizabeth proclaims Canada's new constitution

● 1983 - Bridge blocked to stop boat loaded with guns for export, Sweden.

● 1985 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds rights of Navajo Nation to tax businesses on the reservation without obtaining federal approval.

● 1985 - Univ. of California-Berkeley police arrest over 160 anti-apartheid demonstrators at Biko plaza sit-in.

● 1986 - First American "test-tube" baby born, Cleveland, Ohio.

● 1986 - To dispel rumors he's dead, Moammar Qadhafi appears on TV

● 1987 - FCC imposes a broader definition of indecency over airwaves

● 1987 - MP on gay sex charges; British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with gross indecency.

● 1987 - The U.S. Patent Office began allowing the patenting of new animals created by genetic engineering.

● 1988 - In Forlì, Italy, Red Brigades kill Italian Senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita.

● 1989 - Berendrechtsluis opens in Antwerp, biggest flood lock in world

● 1990 - Maximum New York State unemployment benefits raised to $260 per week

● 1990 - Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977

● 1992 - U.N. commission sets Iraq-Kuwait border.

● 1992 - Italian financier Carlo de Benedetti and 32 others were convicted of fraud in connection with the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

● 1992 - The House ethics committee listed 303 current and former lawmakers who had overdrawn their House bank accounts.

● 1992 - Afghánistán President Najibullah resigns

● 1992 - The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.

● 1993 - UN makes Srebrenica 'safe haven'; The United Nations Security Council votes to create a safe haven for Bosnian Muslims under siege in the town of Srebrenica.

● 1993 - Jury reaches guilty verdict in Federal case against cop who beat Rodney King, but the verdict is not read until April 17th

● 1994 - Ralph Ellison, African American author of the seminal "The Invisible Man" in the 1950s dies in New York, never completing his second novel.

● 1995 - The European Union and Canada agreed to protect threatened fish stocks in the north Atlantic.

● 1996 - An Italian court found former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi guilty on charges of corruption. He was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison.

● 1998 - The Nashville Tornado of 1998, one of the most serious urban tornadoes causes one death and significantly damages downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

● 2000 - Some 20,000 global justice activists blockade meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Washington DC.

● 2000 - Australia - 116 Kosovar refugees deported to an uncertain future in Kosovo; 21 are instead sent to the Port Hedland Detention Centre.

● 2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned major parts of a 1996 child pornography law based on rights to free speech.

● 2003 - The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.

BIRTHS

● 778 - King Louis the Pious (d. 840)

● 1319 - King John II of France (d. 1364)

● 1495 - Petrus Apianus, German mathematician (d. 1557)

● 1646 - Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (d. 1708)

● 1660 - Hans Sloane, British collector and physician (d. 1753)

● 1661 - Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, British poet and statesman (d. 1715)

● 1682 - John Hadley, British inventor (d. 1744)

● 1728 - Joseph Black, Scottish chemist (d. 1799)

● 1730 - Henry Clinton, British general (d. 1795)

● 1755 - Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, French painter (d. 1842)

● 1786 - Sir John Franklin, English rear admiral and explorer (d. 1847)

● 1800 - George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, British soldier (d. 1888)

● 1821 - Ford Madox Brown, English painter (d. 1893)

● 1821 - Collis Huntington, one of the Big Four

● 1823 - Ferdinand Eisenstein, German mathematician (d. 1852)

● 1844 - Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)

● 1847 - Hans Auer, Swiss architect, (d. 1906)

● 1859 - Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, philanthropist (d. 1924)

● 1865 - Henry George Chauvel, Australian general (d. 1945)

● 1867 - Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (d. 1912)

● 1871 - John Millington Synge, Irish writer (d. 1909)

● 1878 - Tip Foster, English cricketer (d. 1914)

● 1886 - Ernst Thälmann, German politician (d. 1944)

● 1889 - Charles Chaplin, English actor, writer, and film producer (d. 1977)

● 1901 - Nikolay P. Akimov, Russian scenic designer and producer (d. 1968)

● 1904 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (d. 1983)

● 1905 - Frits Philips, Dutch businessman (d. 2005)

● 1907 - August Eigruber, Austrian war criminal (d. 1947)

● 1912 - Garth Williams, American illustrator (d. 1996)

● 1912 - Catherine Scorsese, Italian-American actress (d. 1997)

● 1915 - Gerard McLarnon, Irish playwright (d. 1997)

● 1918 - Spike Milligan, British comedian (d. 2002)

● 1918 - Joan Alexander, American actress

● 1919 - Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer

● 1919 - Tom Willmore, English geometer (d. 2005)

● 1920 - Barry Nelson, Actor

● 1921 - Peter Ustinov, English actor (d. 2004)

● 1922 - Kingsley Amis, English author (d. 1995)

● 1924 - Henry Mancini, American composer (d. 1994)

● 1927 - Edie Adams, American actress

● 1927 - Pope Benedict XVI

● 1927 - Peter Mark Richman, American actor

● 1928 - Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football player (d. 2002)

● 1929 - Edie Adams, Actress, singer

● 1930 - Herbie Mann, American jazz flute player (d. 2003)

● 1933 - Joan Bakewell, British broadcaster

● 1935 - Sarah Kirsch, German poet

● 1935 - Bobby Vinton, American singer

● 1937 - Joseph Whipp, American actor

● 1938 - Gordon Wilson, Scottish politician

● 1938 - Rich Rollins, American baseballer

● 1939 - Dusty Springfield, English singer (d. 1999)

● 1939 - Boris Dvornik, Croatian actor

● 1940 - Margrethe II of Denmark, queen regnant

● 1942 - Frank Williams, English Formula 1 constructor

● 1943 - Ruth Madoc, British actress

● 1944 - Anthony Principi, Former secretary of veterans affairs

● 1944 - Omar Chkhaidze, Russian painter

● 1946 - Margot Adler, American journalist

● 1947 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor), American basketball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1947 - Gerry Rafferty, British musician and songwriter

● 1949 - Melody Patterson, American actress

● 1951 - Pierre Toutain-Dorbec, French photographer, painter, sculptor

● 1951 - Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian writer and photographer

● 1951 - Björgvin Halldórsson, Icelandic singer

● 1952 - Bill Belichick, American football coach

● 1952 - Billy West, American voice actor

● 1953 - Peter Garrett, Australian musician (Midnight Oil)

● 1953 - J. Neil Schulman, American writer

● 1954 - Ellen Barkin, American actress

● 1955 - Bruce Bochy, American baseball player and manager

● 1956 - Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier

● 1959 - Alison Ramsay, Scottish field hockey player

● 1960 - Rafael Benítez, Spanish football manager

● 1960 - Pierre Littbarski, German footballer

● 1961 - Doris Dragović, Croatian singer

● 1962 - Ian MacKaye, American musician, (Fugazi and Minor Threat)

● 1963 - Jimmy Osmond, American pop singer (The Osmonds)

● 1964 - Dave Pirner, American rock singer (Soul Asylum)

● 1965 - Jon Cryer, American actor ("Two and a Half Men")

● 1965 - Martin Lawrence, American actor

● 1965 - Michael Wong Man Tak, Hong Kong based actor, director, singer and producer

● 1966 - Dan Rieser, Rock musician

● 1971 - Selena, American singer (d. 1995)

● 1971 - Moses Chan, Hong Kong actor

● 1972 - Peter Billingsley, Actor ("A Christmas Story")

● 1973 - Bonnie Pink, Japanese singer

● 1974 - Xu Jinglei, Chinese actress, singer and director

● 1975 - Sean Maher, American actor

● 1976 - Lukas Haas, American actor

● 1976 - Shu Qi, Taiwanese actress

● 1977 - Fredrik Ljungberg, Swedish footballer

● 1978 - Matthew Lloyd, Australian rules footballer

● 1978 - Lara Dutta, Indian actress and ex-Miss Universe

● 1979 - Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Swedish musician (The Hives)

● 1979 - Christijan Albers, Dutch Formula 1 driver

● 1980 - Paul London, American professional wrestler

● 1982 - Boris Diaw, French basketball player

● 1982 - Barry Jones, Scottish magician

● 1982 - Jonathan Vilma, American football player

● 1983 - Cat Osterman, American softball pitcher

● 1983 - George Patis, Greek bandminton player

● 1984 - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, young adult author

● 1985 - Mark Baker, Welsh author and historian

● 1985 - Luol Deng, British-Sudanese basketball player

● 1987 - Aaron Lennon, English footballer

DEATHS

● 69 - Otho, Roman Emperor (b. 32)

● 744 - al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph

● 924 - Berengar of Friuli, King of Italy

● 1113 - Sviatopolk II of Kiev, Russian prince (b. 1050)

● 1118 - Adelaide del Vasto, wife of Roger II of Sicily

● 1198 - Duke Frederick I of Austria

● 1645 - Tobias Hume, English composer

● 1687 - George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1628)

● 1689 - Aphra Behn, English dramatist (b. 1640)

● 1783 - Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (b. 1719)

● 1788 - Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (b. 1707)

● 1828 - Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter (b. 1746)

● 1846 - Domenico Dragonetti, Italian composer (b. 1763)

● 1859 - Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)

● 1888 - Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski, Polish physicist (b. 1845)

● 1904 - Maximilian Kronberger, German poet (b. 1888)

● 1904 - Samuel Smiles, Scottish writer and reformer (b. 1812)

● 1914 - George William Hill, American astronomer (b. 1838)

● 1915 - Nelson W. Aldrich, American politician (b. 1841)

● 1930 - José Carlos Mariátegui, Peruvian journalist, political philosopher and activist (b. 1894)

● 1938 - Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)

● 1946 - Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automobile designer (b. 1884)

● 1947 - Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp (b. 1900)

● 1958 - Rosalind Franklin, British chemist (b. 1920)

● 1968 - Edna Ferber, American author (b. 1885)

● 1972 - Kawabata Yasunari, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)

● 1978 - Lucius Clay, American general (b. 1897)

● 1985 - Scott Brady, American actor (b. 1924)

● 1991 - David Lean, British film director (b. 1908)

● 1992 - Neville Brand, American actor (b. 1920)

● 1994 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1913)

● 1995 - Iqbal Masih, Pakistani child slave labourer, activist (b. 1982)

● 1996 - Stavros Niarchos, Greek shipping tycoon (b. 1909)

● 1997 - Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. 1951)

● 1997 - Roland Topor, French illustrator (b. 1938)

● 1998 - Fred Davis, English snooker player (b. 1913)

● 1998 - Alberto Calderón, Argentine mathematician (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Michael Ritchie, American film director (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Alec Stock, English football manager (b. 1917)

● 2002 - Ruth Fertel, American restaurateur (b. 1927)

● 2002 - Robert Urich, American actor (b. 1946)

● 2003 - Graham Stuart Thomas, English author and garden designer (b. 1909)

● 2005 - Kay Walsh, British actress (b. 1911)

● 2005 - Marla Ruzicka, American humanitarian worker and peace activist (b. 1976)

● 2006 - Francisco Adam, Portuguese actor and model (b. 1983)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Benedict Joseph Labré
● St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes
● Sts. Callistus & Charisius
● St. Contardo
● St. Donan
● St. Drogo
● St. Encratia
● St. Fructuosus
● St. Herve
● St. Lambert of Saragossa
● Sts. Martial, Urban, Eventius, Caecilian, Julia, and their companions, martyrs of 304
● St. Paternus
● St. Turibius of Astorga
● St. Turibius of Palencia
● St. Vasius
● Blessed Hervé of Tours

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for April 3 (Civil Date: April 16)
● St. Nicetas the Confessor, abbot of Medikion.
● St. Illyricus of Mt. Myrsinon in the Peloponnesus.
● Martyrs Elpidephorus, Dius, Bithonius, and Calycus.
● Virgin Martyr Theodosia of Tyre, and Martyr Irene.
● St. Nectarius, abbot of Bezhetsk.
● New-Martyr Paul the Russian at Constantinople.
● Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Unfading Flower".
● Holy Martyr Ulphianus

● Cuba : Militiamen Day

● Denmark : Queen Margrethe's Birthday

● Puerto Rico : José De Diego's Birthday (1867)

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Massachusetts, Maine: Patriots Day-Boston Marathon run (1775) - (Monday)


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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