April 17......

April 17 is the 107th (108th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 258 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Class "The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery." — Eugene V. Debs

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Anti-Semitism "[The Antichrist will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish." — Jerry Falwell, Baptist minister and founder of the Moral Majority {which wasn't and isn't either}

{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

● 69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.

● 618 - Scotland - Fifty-three monks are burned alive in their refectory by a gang of armed women seeking revenge for being cheated out of their pasture rights, on the island of Eigg.

● 858 - Benedict III ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 1414 - Isabelle la Boulangere fined for performing an act of prostitution on this day (it was Easter Sunday).

● 1421 - Dikes at Dort Holland breaks, 100,000 drown

● 1492 - Spain - Ferdinand and Isabella sign the agreement to finance and set the terms of Columbus's voyage to the Indies. The document is known as the Capitulations of Santa Fe. Establishes that Columbus would become the viceroy and governor of all discovered land and rights to 10% of all assets brought to Spain, among other terms.

● 1521 - Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings and is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

● 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.

● 1534 - Sir Thomas More confined in London Tower

● 1535 - Antonio Mendoza was appointed first viceroy of New Spain.

● 1555 - After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

● 1596 - Arch duke Albrecht of Austria occupies Calais

● 1629 - Horses were first imported into the colonies by the American Massachusetts Bay Colony.

● 1640 - Reorus Torkillus, 41, from Sweden, landed at Fort Christie in Delaware, making him the first Lutheran pastor to arrive in North America.

● 1680 - Death of Kateri Tekakwitha, first Indian Roman Catholic nun, from self-inflicted penitential wounds. In 1980, 300 years later, she becomes first American Indian to be beatified by Roman Catholic church.

● 1711 - Charles VI Habsburg becomes king of Austria

● 1747 - French troops occupy Zeeuws-Flanders, Netherlands

● 1758 - Frances Williams published a collection of Latin poems. He was the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere.

● 1776 - English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'You have now such faith as is necessary for your living unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When you are, you shall have faith for this also.'

● 1790 - American polymath, revolutionist Ben Franklin dies, 84. Twenty thousand people attend his funeral.

● 1793 - Battle of Warsaw

● 1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions to Spanish territories in America.

● 1808 - Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of US ships

● 1810 - Pineapple cheese was patented by Lewis M. Norton.

● 1817 - Seven Luddites hanged in London for destroying textile machines.

● 1817 - 1st US school for the deaf founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc (American School for the Deaf-Hartford CT)

● 1824 - Slavery abolished in Central America.

● 1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54º 40' N

● 1833 - Birth of Arthur Arnould, Dieuze (the Moselle), France. Journalist, novelist, member of First International and the Paris Commune, companion of Michael Bakunin.

● 1833 - English historian and statesman Thomas B. Macaulay declared: 'The whole history of Christianity proves that she has little indeed to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally.'

● 1839 - Guatemala forms republic

● 1853 - US Marine Hospital at Presidio (San Francisco) established

● 1853 - Thorbecke government resigns

● 1854 - Birth of Benjamin Tucker (1854-1939), South Dartmouth, Mass. American individualist anarchist, publisher, journalist, propagandist, theorist.

● 1860 - New Yorkers learned of a new law that required fire escapes to be provided for tenement houses.

● 1861 - Virginia become 8th state to secede

● 1861 - Indianola TX-"Star of West" taken by Confederacy

● 1863 - Grierson's Raid La Grange TN to Baton Rouge LA

● 1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah GA

● 1864 - Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges

● 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.

● 1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

● 1894 - Nikita S. Khrushchev, who made important policy changes in the Soviet Union during his rule as premier from 1958 to 1964, was born.

● 1895 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

● 1900 - 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession

● 1905 - U.S. Supreme Court holds that a maximum hours law for New York bakery workers is unconstitutional under the due process clause of the 14th amendment.

● 1907 - 11,745 immigrants arrive at Ellis Island NY

● 1914 - Yarmouthm England pier hit by a suffragette bomb.

● 1917 - A bill in Congress to establish Daylight Saving Time was defeated. It was passed a couple of months later.

● 1920 - Birth of Robert G. Bratcher, principal translator of the American Bible Society's 1966-1976 "Good News Bible" (also known as "Today's English Version").

● 1925 - Paul Painlevé follows Edouard Herriot on as French premier

● 1927 - Japan's Wakarsoeki government falls/Baron Tanaka becomes premier

● 1930 - Abkhazian ASSR established in Georgian SSR

● 1932 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia ends slavery

● 1935 - Provincial-National elections (Musserts NSB achieves 7.9%/44 chairs)

● 1935 - Sun Myung Moon claims to have a revelation from Jesus telling him to complete his mission from almost 2000 years ago.

● 1939 - Stalin signs British-France-Russian anti-Nazi pact

● 1941 - Office of Price Administration established (to handle rationing)

● 1941 - Igor Sikorsky accomplished the first successful helicopter lift-off from water near Stratford, CT.

● 1941 - British troop land in Iraq/Yugoslavia; surrender to Nazi's

● 1941 - World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.

● 1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.

● 1942 - 12 Lancasters bombs MAN-factory in Augsburg

● 1942 - Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp

● 1943 - Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul

● 1943 - SS-Lieutenant-General Jürgen Stoop arrives in Warsaw

● 1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden

● 1945 - German occupiers flood Wieringermeer Netherlands

● 1945 - Mussolini flees from Salò to Milan

● 1945 - US troops lands in Mindanao

● 1945 - In Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb.

● 1946 - Last French troops leave Syria (National Day)

● 1946 - Syria declares independence from French administration

● 1951 - Fears for crew of lost British submarine; A massive air and sea search for the HM Submarine Affray is under away after it went missing earlier today.

● 1954 - President Eisenhower issues a memo threatening use of atomic bomb against China.

● 1956 - USSR's Cominform (Parliament) dissolves

● 1956 - Bulgaria premier Tchervenkov resigns

● 1956 - Kominform disbands

● 1956 - Premium Savings Bonds introduced in Great Britain

● 1958 - Brussel's (Belgium) World Fair opens

● 1959 - Twenty-two arrested in Times Square for refusing to take part in civil defense drill, New York City.

● 1960 - As a response to the Greensboro sit-in, 140 black students form Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the late 60s it becomes a black militant organization and far from nonviolent in position. Nearly 150 students from nine states met in North Carolina with Ella Baker, James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr. By this time, in mid April, over 50,000 students have participated in sit-ins in less than three months.

● 1960 - American Samoa sets up a constitutional government

● 1960 - Swedish statesman and Secretary General of the U.N. Dag Hammarskjöld noted in his journal "Markings": 'Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love - - takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.'

● 1961 - U.S. uses covert mercenaries to invade Cuba in the abortive Bay of Pigs fiasco. Invasion ends quickly in disarray and ignominy for the U.S., which initially denies responsibility. An army of 1,500 anti-Castro rightwing Cuban exiles, mercenaries equipped and trained at a secret Guatemala base by the CIA, landed in an attempt to "liberate" Cuba from Communist rule. Within three days, the invasion proves an unqualified disaster; fully 1,200 of the exiles were taken prisoner.

● 1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair.

● 1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.

● 1965 - Twenty-five thousand march in first major national demonstration against the Vietnam War, Washington D.C. Sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society, the event also lives SDS to national prominence. The number of marchers is roughly equal to the number of of US troops in South Vietnam. Both would increase over time. Several hundred students in today's protest break away from the main march and conduct a brief sit-in at a Capitol door. Every subsequent anti-war demonstration will see the same split between those who want to maintain peaceful, legal demonstrations, and those who urge more radical tactics.

● 1967 - Shortwave Radio New York Worldwide goes back on the air after a week off

● 1967 - Surveyor 3 launched; soft lands on Moon, April 20

● 1968 - One-third of Duke University student body strikes to protest racial discrimination in hiring of non-academic staff.

● 1968 - Twenty thousand in final rally for annual anti-nuclear Aldermaston March, Trafalgar Square, London, England.

● 1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. His death sentence would later be commuted to life, a sentence he still serves, when capital punishment is ruled unconstitutional three years later.

● 1969 - Devlin is youngest-ever woman MP; A 21-year-old woman, Bernadette Devlin, is voted in as Britain's youngest ever female MP and the country's third youngest ever.

● 1969 - Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.

● 1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

● 1971 - Seattle Peace Action Coalition leads an anti-war march of 2,500 from downtown to Seattle Center.

● 1971 - Egypt, Libya & Syria form federation (FAR)

● 1971 - People's Republic Bangladesh forms, under sheik Mujib ur-Rahman

● 1972 - Revised Dutch constitution proclaimed

● 1973 - Berkeley, Calif. voters approve law making marijuana possession lowest enforcement priority of police department.

● 1973 - Federal Express delivers its first package.

● 1974 - Ted Bundy victim Susan Rancourt disappears from Central Washington State College, Ellensburg WA

● 1974 - Moslem fundamentalists assault military academy in Heliopolis Egypt

● 1975 - Cambodian Civil War ends: The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender. The nightmare is just beginning.

● 1976 - During his unsuccessful re-election bid, U.S. President Gerald Ford appears as himself on Saturday Night Live

● 1977 - Christian-Democrats win Belgium parliamentary election

● 1982 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1982 - Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.

● 1983 - In Warsaw, police route 1,000 Solidarity supporters

● 1983 - India entered space age launching SLV-3 rocket

● 1984 - Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.

● 1985 - In Lebanon, the cabinet resigned as Shiites took W. Beirut.

● 1986 - Norwegian government rejects participation in Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars).

● 1986 - Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, and others co-found the Rainbow Coalition, initially intended as a progressive public policy think tank within the Democratic Party.

● 1986 - British journalist McCarthy kidnapped; John McCarthy is abducted on his way to the airport - three bodies, believed to be of British hostages, are also found.

● 1986 - Treaty signed, ending Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Sicily.

● 1986 - IBM produces 1st megabit-chip

● 1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1987 - In Sri Lanka, Tamil guerrillas killed 122 people in a road ambush.

● 1989 - France - Eugene Bizeau dies. French vine-grower, pacifist, anarchist poet and songster; Bizeau fought for his ideals until his death at age 105.

● 1989 - Maximum New York State unemployment benefits raised to $245 per week

● 1989 - Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros

● 1989 - In Poland, courts gave Solidarity legal status.

● 1990 - Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist, dies at 64.

● 1990 - In a significant setback for religious freedom, U.S. Supreme Court rules an Oregon ban on peyote use by American Indians does not violate First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.

● 1990 - Gas explodes on passenger train in Kumrahar India, 80 die

● 1991 - Railroad workers go on strike in the US

● 1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever gaining 17.58 to 3,004.46.

● 1992 - Rally against increasing repression, Pancevo, Yugoslavia.

● 1993 - Police officers found guilty of violating Rodney King's civil rights

● 1993 - STS-56 (Discovery) lands

● 1994 - Aruba government of Oduber falls

● 1996 - Brazil - Police clash with 2,000 landless peasants in the eastern Amazon town of Eldorado dos Carajas, killing 19 and wounding 69. Although 156 officers were indicted for the killings, only three went on trial; they were acquited. Over 1,000 Brazilians, mostly indigenous, lose their lives in similar land disputes in the 1990s. Ninety percent of the land belongs to 20% of the people, while 40% own just 1%.

● 1996 - Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing their parents.

● 1997 - John Bell, 115, receives new pacemaker

● 1999 - Dozens hurt in London bomb blast; An explosion in south London has injured at least 45 people.

● 1999 - In India, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee collapsed after losing a vote of confidence.

● 2001 - Brazil - Protestors across the country mark the 1996 killings of landless protestors, planting crosses in city squares to honor the victims, blocking bridges and tossing McEggs at McDonald's McRestaurants. Coordinated by the Farmworkers Movement, which is pressuring the government for speedier land reforms.

● 2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.

● 2004 - Israel assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi with a missile strike on his car.

● 2006 - Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was convicted of corruption. (He was later sentenced to 60 years in prison.)

● 2006 - 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide attack near the old Central bus station in Tel Aviv.

BIRTHS

● 1278 - Michael IX Palaeologus, co-ruling Eastern Roman Emperor (d. 1320)

● 1573 - Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (d. 1651)

● 1586 - John Ford, English dramatist

● 1598 - Giovanni Riccioli, Italian astronomer (d. 1671)

● 1710 - Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, British Freemason (d. 1767)

● 1734 - Taksin, King of Thailand (d. 1782)

● 1741 - Samuel Chase, American jurist and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1811)

● 1750 - François de Neufchâteau, French statesman and intellectual figure (d. 1828)

● 1794 - Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist (d. 1868)

● 1798 - Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (d. 1740)

● 1806 - William Simms, American journalist and novelist (d. 1870)

● 1816 - Thomas Hazlehurst, English Methodist chapel builder (d. 1876)

● 1833 - Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian composer (d. 1900)

● 1837 - J.P. Morgan, American financier and philanthropist (d. 1913)

● 1842 - Maurice Rouvier, French statesman (d. 1911)

● 1863 - Augustus Edward Hough Love, English mathematician (d. 1940)

● 1863 - Constantine P. Cavafy, Greek poet (d. 1933)

● 1865 - Ursula Julia Ledochowska, Polish-Austrian Catholic saint (d. 1939)

● 1866 - Ernest Starling, British physiologist (d. 1927)

● 1880 - Sir Leonard Woolley, English archaeologist; excavated the Sumerian city of Ur (d. 1960)

● 1882 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (d. 1951)

● 1885 - Isak Dinesen, Danish author (d. 1962)

● 1890 - Art Acord, American actor and rodeo rider (d. 1931)

● 1894 - Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union (1958-64) (d. 1971)

● 1897 - Thornton Wilder, American dramatist (d. 1975)

● 1899 - Sir Vincent Wigglesworth, English entomologist (d. 1994)

● 1902 - Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican writer, politician, and diplomat (d. 1974)

● 1903 - Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)

● 1903 - Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)

● 1914 - George Davis, American art director (d. 1998)

● 1915 - Joe Foss, American soldier and politician (d. 2003)

● 1916 - Helenio Herrera, French footballer player and manager (d. 1997)

● 1917 - Bill Clements, Governor of Texas

● 1918 - William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)

● 1923 - Lindsay Anderson, English film director (d. 1994)

● 1923 - Harry Reasoner, American journalist (d. 1991)

● 1923 - Solly Hemus, American baseball player

● 1926 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2004)

● 1928 - Cynthia Ozick, American writer

● 1929 - James Last, German band leader

● 1930 - Chris Barber, British jazz band leader

● 1934 - Don Kirshner, American television producer and composer

● 1935 - Theo Angelopoulos, Greek film director

● 1938 - Ben Barnes, Lt. Governor of Texas

● 1940 - Anja Silja, German soprano

● 1942 - David Bradley, British actor

● 1944 - L. Scott Caldwell, American actress

● 1946 - Georges J.F. Kohler, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1995)

● 1947 - Linda Martin, Irish singer

● 1948 - Jan Hammer, Czech composer

● 1950 - Bruce McNall, American former NHL team owner

● 1951 - Olivia Hussey, Argentine-born actress

● 1952 - Željko Ražnatović, Serbian warlord (d. 2000)

● 1954 - Riccardo Patrese, Italian race car driver

● 1954 - Rowdy Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler

● 1954 - Michael Sembello, American musician

● 1955 - Pete Shelley, British musician (Buzzcocks)

● 1957 - Nick Hornby, English author

● 1959 - Sean Bean, English actor

● 1961 - Boomer Esiason, American football player

● 1963 - Joel Murray, American actor

● 1964 - Lela Rochon, Actress

● 1964 - Maynard James Keenan, American singer (Tool and A Perfect Circle)

● 1964 - Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1965 - William Mapother, Actor ("Lost")

● 1966 - Vikram, Indian actor

● 1967 - Kimberly Elise, Actress

● 1967 - Marquis Grissom, American baseball player

● 1967 - Liz Phair, American musician/songwriter

● 1967 - Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian-born Scottish actor

● 1970 - Redman, American rapper

● 1972 - Gary Bennett, American baseball player

● 1972 - Tony Boselli, American football player

● 1972 - Jennifer Garner, American actress ("Alias")

● 1972 - Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer

● 1972 - Ruffian, American thoroughbred racehorse (d. 1975)

● 1972 - Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1973 - Craig Anderson, Country musician (Heartland)

● 1973 - Brett Maher, Australian basketballer

● 1974 - Victoria Beckham, English singer (Spice Girls)

● 1974 - Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish singer (Opeth)

● 1975 - Gabriel Soto, Mexican actor

● 1977 - Chad Hedrick, American speed skater

● 1977 - Sizzla, Jamaican dancehall artist

● 1978 - Jordan Hill, American singer

● 1978 - Lindsay Korman, Actress, singer

● 1980 - Curtis Woodhouse, English footballer

● 1981 - Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer

● 1982 - Lee Jun Ki, South Korean actor and model

● 1982 - Brad Boyes, Canadian hockey player

● 1983 - Stanislav Chistov, Russian hockey player

● 1995 - Paulie Litt, Actor ("Hope and Faith")

● 1996 - Dee Dee Davis, Actress ("The Bernie Mac Show")

DEATHS

● 326 - Alexander of Alexandria, Patriarch of Alexandria

● 487 - Proclus, Greek philosopher (b. 412)

● 617 - Donnán of Eigg, Celtic Christian martyr, patron saint of Eigg

● 1080 - King Harald III of Denmark (b. 1041)

● 1427 - John IV, Duke of Brabant (b. 1403)

● 1539 - George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)

● 1574 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (b. 1500)

● 1695 - Sor Juana, Mexican writer

● 1696 - Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, French writer (b. 1626)

● 1711 - Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678)

● 1713 - David Hollatz, Pomeranian dogmatician (b. 1648)

● 1742 - Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (b. 1664)

● 1761 - Thomas Bayes, English mathematician

● 1764 - Johann Mattheson, German composer (b. 1681)

● 1790 - Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, diplomat, and printer (b. 1706)

● 1799 - Richard Jupp, English architect (b. 1728)

● 1843 - Samuel Morey, American inventor (b. 1762)

● 1873 - Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (b. 1783)

● 1891 - Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1822)

● 1930 - Alexander Golovin, Russian painter (b. 1863)

● 1936 - Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, Dutch prime minister (b. 1873)

● 1941 - Al Bowlly, British dance band vocalist (b. 1899)

● 1942 - Jean Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)

● 1944 - J.T. Hearne English cricketer (b. 1867)

● 1954 - Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, Romanian communist activist (b. 1900)

● 1960 - Eddie Cochran, American musician (b. 1938)

● 1967 - Red Allen, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1908)

● 1975 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher (b. 1888)

● 1976 - Henrik Dam, Dutch biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1895)

● 1977 - William Cardinal Conway, Northern Irish clergyman (b. 1913)

● 1987 - Cecil Harmsworth King, owner of Mirror Group Newspapers (b. 1901)

● 1988 - Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (b. 1900)

● 1990 - Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights activist (b. 1936)

● 1994 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1913)

● 1995 - Frank E. Resnik, American business executive (b. 1928)

● 1997 - Allan Francovich, American documentarian

● 1997 - Piet Hein, Danish scientist and poet (b. 1905)

● 1998 - Linda McCartney, American-born wife of Paul McCartney (b. 1941)

● 2003 - Robert Atkins, American dietician (b. 1930)

● 2003 - Paul Getty, American-born philanthropist (b. 1932)

● 2003 - Earl King, American musician and songwriter (b. 1934)

● 2003 - Yiannis Latsis, Greek shipping tycoon (b. 1910)

● 2004 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (b. 1908)

● 2004 - Soundarya, Indian actress (b. 1971)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Anicetus, Pope (150-66) (died 166)
● St. Elias
● Sts. Fortunatus & Marcian
● St. Gerwin of Oudenburg (d. 1117)
● St. Landricus
● St. Landericus
● St. Mappalicus
● Sts. Peter and Hermogenes
● St. Robert of Chaise Dieu
● St. Stephen Harding (d. 1134)
● St. Villicus
● Bl. Radboud of Louvain (d.1142)
● Bl. Wando

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for April 4 (Civil Date: April 17)
● St. Joseph the Hymnographer.
● St. George, monk of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnesus.
● St. Zosimas, monk of Palestine.
● Virgin Martyr Pherbutha of Persia, her sister and servants.
● St. Theonas, Metropolitan of Thessalonica.
● St. Zosimas, abbot of Vorbozamsk.
● New Hieromartyr Nicetas the Albanian, of Mt. Athos.
● St. Joseph the Much-ailing of the Kiev Caves.
● Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Life-giving Spring.
● Repose of Elder Savvas of Mt. Athos. (1908).

● American Samoa : Flag Day (1900)

● Burma : New Years

● Democratic Kampuchea : Day of the Great Victory

● Japan : Children's Protection Day

● New York NY : Verrazano Day (1524)

● Syria : Evacuation Day/Independence Day (1946)

● 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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