April 2......

April 2 is the 92nd (93rd in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 273 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Atheism & Agnosticism "No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever." — Daniel J. Boorstin

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Homophobia " State universities are breeding grounds, quite literally, for sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV), homosexual behavior, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, alcoholism, and drug abuse." — James Dobson

{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

● 68 - Galba, governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of Roman emperors begun with Julius Caesar and Augustus.

● 999 - Gerbert of Aurillac elected as 1st French Pope

● 1250 - The 7th Crusade surrenders to the Muslims.

● 1416 - Alfonso V succeeds his father as king of Aragón

● 1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which would fall on May 29.

● 1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first known European to do so.

● 1524 - At age 40, Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (a former Catholic priest) publicly married the widow Anna (ne Reinhard) Meyer. Their marriage lasted until his death at the Battle of Kappel in 1531.

● 1550 - Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy

● 1559 - England/France signs 1st Treaty of Le Cateau-Cambrésis

● 1590 - States-General appoints earl Mauritius, viceroy of Utrecht

● 1595 - Cornelis de Houtman's ships depart to Asia through Cape of Good Hope

● 1645 - Robert Devereux resigns as parliament supreme commander

● 1745 - Austria & Bavaria sign peace

● 1755 - Commodore William James captures pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.

● 1792 - Congress establishes Philadelphia mint; US authorizes $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & $2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime

● 1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.

● 1804 - Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.

● 1805 - Author Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark.

● 1827 - Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils

● 1845 - H L Fizeau & J Leon Foucault take 1st photo of Sun

● 1860 - 1st Italian Parliament met at Turin

● 1863 - Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia and demand the Confederate government to release emergency supplies.

● 1864 - Skirmish at Crump's Hill (Piney Woods), Louisiana

● 1864 - Skirmish at Spoonville/Antoine AR

● 1865 - General A P Hill is killed by a Federal Picket

● 1865 - Battle of Fort Blakely AL & Selma AL

● 1865 - Battle of Petersburg VA (Fort Gregg, Sutherland's Station)

● 1865 - American Civil War: Siege of Petersburg broken - Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.

● 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

● 1866 - President Andrew Johnson ends war in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia

● 1870 - Victoria Woodhull is 1st woman to be nominated for US President

● 1872 - Samuel F.B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, died at age 80.

● 1872 - George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine

● 1873 - Birth of anarchist Luigi Luccheni, in Paris, to an Italian mother. In 1898, stabbed Elisabeth of Austria, "Sissi," in Geneva, using a frayed file, as a symbolic blow against "the persecutors of the workmen." The Swiss courts condemned him to forced labor. Found hanged in prison in 1910.

● 1877 - 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn

● 1877 - Birth of American evangelist Mordecai Ham. It was under Ham's preaching in the late 1930s that Billy Graham was led into a living faith.

● 1883 - Battle at Bamako French assault on Fabous arm forces attack

● 1889 - Charles Hall patented aluminum.

● 1891 - Max Ernst, the German painter and sculptor influential in the Surrealist movement, was born.

● 1894 - Death of English philanthropist William D. Longstaff, 72. A friend of Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, Longstaff left several writings, but is best remembered today for authoring the hymn, "Take Time to Be Holy."

● 1899 - Birth of Ferdinand Felix Fortin. French anarchist militant, spent time in prison, in 1935 and 1936, for publishing anti-militarist articles, later joining the libertarian forces in Barcelona during the Spanish Revolution.

● 1900 - The Foraker Act passes through Congress, giving Puerto Ricans limited self-rule.

● 1902 - Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated by a terrorist in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.

● 1902 - "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.

● 1903 - A demonstration of 10,000 liberals, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, protesting the re-election of General Bernardo Reyes as state governor, is fired on by federales under the command of Reyes himself. Fifteen protesters are killed and many more wounded.

● 1905 - The Simplon rail tunnel officially opened. The tunnel went under the Alps and linked Switzerland and Italy.

● 1905 - Cairo-Capetown railway opens

● 1908 - In Rome, Italy, during a funeral for a worker who died in an industrial accident, confrontations occurred with the police, who opposed the procession. Police drew their guns and opened fire, leaving four dead and 17 wounded. Among the dead is the anarchist militant Paolo Chiarelli. A general strike is declared. Subsequently, several anarchists are arrested, tried, and condemned to heavy prison sentences.

● 1910 - Karl Harris perfected the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber.

● 1912 - Titanic undergoes sea trials under its own power

● 1912 - Sun Yet Sen forms Guomindang-Party in China

● 1914 - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced plans to divide the country into 12 districts.

● 1916 - German troops overtake Bois de Caillette

● 1917 - World War I: The Battle of Vimy Ridge commences when the Canada Corps launches an artillery bombardment of the German trenches. To that time, the biggest artillery bombardment in history.

● 1917 - President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy."

● 1917 - Jeanette Rankin, representative from Montana, is seated in the U.S. House of Representatives. She becomes the only member to vote against U.S. entry into both World Wars. Prior to amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Montana was the only U.S. state to allow women to vote.

● 1921 - Professor Albert Einstein lectures in NYC on his new theory of relativity

● 1926 - Riots between Moslems & Hindus in Calcutta

● 1930 - 1st New York-Bermuda airplane flight lands in Bermuda

● 1930 - Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.

● 1932 - Aviator Charles Lindbergh, through an intermediary, paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. (The child was found dead the following month. The ransom money was eventually traced to Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the crime.)

● 1935 - Sir Watson-Watt patents RADAR

● 1941 - German occupier disallows Dutch scouting association

● 1941 - USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittles B-25 departs from San Francisco

● 1942 - England - Joyce Allen is the first woman to appear before a C.O. tribunal.

● 1942 - Two black soldiers and one white soldier shot to death, and five black soldiers were wounded, near Fort Dix, New Jersey in a fight over the use of a telephone.

● 1944 - CPI-leader Palmiro Togliatti returns to Italy

● 1944 - Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania

● 1945 - 1st US units reach east coast of Okinawa

● 1947 - The U.N. Security Council voted to appoint the U.S. as trustee for former Japanese-held Pacific Islands.

● 1951 - U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower assumed command of all allied forces in the Western Mediterranean area and Europe.

● 1953 - Raab forms his 1st government in Austria

● 1955 - British apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in "Letters to an American Lady": 'Fear is horrid, but there's no reason to be ashamed of it. Our Lord was afraid (dreadfully so) in Gethsemane. I always cling to that as a very comforting fact.'

● 1958 - National Advisory Council on Aeronautics renamed NASA

● 1958 - Wind speed reaches 450 kph in tornado in Wichita Falls TX (record)

● 1960 - Nearly 100 student sit-iners from 19 states attend workshop at the activist Highlander School in eastern Tennessee; Guy Carawan teaches them 1930s labor songs - "We Shall Not Be Moved," "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize," "This Little Light of Mine," "We Shall Overcome."

● 1960 - Cuba buys oil from USSR

● 1960 - France signed an agreement with Madagascar that proclaimed the country an independent state within the French community.

● 1962 - New pedestrian crossings cause chaos; A new style of pedestrian crossing causes confusion among both drivers and pedestrians following its launch in London.

● 1963 - Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King began the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, AL.

● 1963 - Explorer 17 attains Earth orbit (254/914 km)

● 1963 - USSR launches Luna 4; missed Moon by 8,500 km

● 1964 - USSR launches Zond 1 to Venus; no data returned

● 1964 - Josef Klaus succeeds Alfons Gorbach as chancellor of Austria

● 1964 - Military coup in Brazil by General Castello Branco, President Goulart ousted

● 1966 - Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes 1st spacecraft to orbit Moon

● 1966 - One hundred thousand Vietnamese demonstrate in Da Nang against U.S. and South Vietnamese governments. Civil unrest spreads to Hue and Saigon.

● 1966 - South Vietnamese troops joined in demonstrations at Hue and Da Nang for an end to military rule.

● 1967 - Two thousand people barricade three blocks of Haight Street in San Francisco to sing, dance, and blow bubbles.

● 1967 - In Peking, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against Mao foe Liu Shao-chi.

● 1968 - Chad creates Union of Central African States

● 1968 - Senator Eugene McCarthy wins Democratic primary in Wisconsin

● 1969 - Twenty-one Black Panther Party members are charged with plotting to charged with conspiring to kill police, bomb five New York City stores, shooting at police, and trying to blow up police stations. Thirteen are prosecuted in September 1970. After an eight month trial, the jury took only two-and-a-half hours to vote to acquit the defendants, rejecting the prosecution's crusade to discredit the Black Panthers.1970 - Massachusetts enacts a law which exempts its citizens from having to fight in an undeclared war, ala Vietnam.

● 1970 - Native Americans, including a young activist named Leonard Peltier, stage a third attempted occupation of Fort Lawton in an effort to force the city of Seattle to return the land to its original owners. The campaign eventually results in the creation of Daybreak Star Cultural Center in adjacent Discovery Park.

● 1970 - 2 men begin ascent of south face of Annapurna I, the highest final stage in a wall climb in the world

● 1970 - Meghalaya becomes autonomous state within India's Assam state

● 1970 - Qatar gains independence from Britain

● 1972 - Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin visits Cairo Egypt

● 1972 - Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist in the early 1950s during the Red Scare.

● 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive begins - North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.

● 1973 - Launch of LexisNexis computerized legal research service.

● 1973 - Ed Kemper stuffs mother's throat in disposal

● 1974 - Pres. Richard Nixon is informed by the Internal Revenue Service that he owes the government $271,148.72 in back taxes for the years 1970, 1971, and 1972, plus a 5% negligence penalty of $13,554.44.

● 1974 - French President Georges Pompidou died in Paris.

● 1974 - Arganat Committee publishes report concerning Yom Kippur War

● 1975 - Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.

● 1975 - CN Tower completed in Toronto Ontario Canada: reaches 553.33 metres in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.

● 1976 - Cambodia's Khieu Sampan succeeds prince Sihanouk as premier

● 1976 - Portuguese constitution assumed

● 1978 - Episcopal Canon Mary Simpson of New York spoke from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey in London. She was the first ordained woman to preach there in the 913 years since 1065, when the Abbey was first consecrated.

● 1979 - Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin visits Cairo Egypt/meets President Sadat

● 1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.

● 1981 - Belgium's 4th government of Martens resigns

● 1981 - Heavy battle between Christian militia & Syrian army in East Lebanon

● 1982 - President Reagan authorizes much broader powers for federal government to withhold public information on "national security" grounds.

● 1982 - Falkland Islands "incident" begins -- war between England and Argentina, in which the penguins lose. Marks the fall of one set of despots (the Argentine generals) and the rise of another (the Thatcher government).

● 1984 - "We have taken that question out of the game because it is distasteful in this country." -- Selchow & Righter executive John Nason, confirming that the question, "How many months pregnant was Nancy Davis when she walked down the aisle with Ronald Reagan?" has been removed from the American version of "Trivial Pursuit." (The answer - two and a half.)

● 1984 - Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma is launched aboard Soyuz T-11, and becomes the first Indian in space.

● 1984 - In Jerusalem, three Arab gunmen wounded 48 people when they opened fire into a crowd of shoppers.

● 1985 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1986 - Bomb tears hole in airliner over Greece; Four people are killed after they are sucked through a hole blown in the side of a TWA jet flying to Athens.

● 1986 - George Corley Wallace (Governor-Democrat-AL) announces retirement plans

● 1987 - The speed limit on U.S. interstate highways was increased to 65 miles per hour in limited areas.

● 1988 - U.S. Special Prosecutor James McKay declined to indict Attorney General Edwin Meese for criminal wrongdoing.

● 1989 - An editorial in the "New York Times" declared that the Cold War was over.

● 1989 - General Prosper Avril, Haiti's military leader, survived a coup attempt. The attempt was apparently provoked by Avril's U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking.

● 1989 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.

● 1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to incinerate half of Israel with chemical weapons if Israel joined a conspiracy against Iraq.

● 1991 - First female Premier of a Canadian province takes office. Rita Johnston succeeds William Vander Zalm, who resigned, as Premier of British Columbia.

● 1992 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.

● 1992 - Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) lands

● 1992 - Edith Cresson, France's 1st female premier, resigns

● 1993 - 1st test flight of Fokker 70 (Amsterdam)

● 1993 - Venezuelan DC-10 crashes at Margarita, killing 10

● 1995 - New York Police Department & New York Transit Police merge into one organization

● 1996 - Antonio Ortiz Ramirez (1907-1996) dies. Ortiz was a member of the CNT in 1936 during the Spanish Revolution and Civil War. Afterwards Ortiz went to France which interned him in camps in Algeria. He then joined then liberation army to free Lattre, fought in Africa, and took part in the freeing of Strasbourg during WWII, before settling in Venezuela.

● 1996 - Russia and Belarus signed a treaty that created a political and economic alliance in an effort to reunite the two former Soviet republics.

● 1996 - Lech Walesa resumed his old job as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard. He was the former Solidarity union leader who became Poland's first post-war democratic president.

● 1997 - Over 200 citizens show up at a Seattle Dept. of Energy budget hearing, many in radiation suits and mutant radioactive survivor makeup, and conduct die-ins to protest possible restart of nuclear weapon production at Hanford. Five years later, the plan is finally shelved for good.

● 1998 - Papon guilty of war crimes; Former French cabinet minister Maurice Papon has been found guilty of war crimes for his part in deporting Jews from France during World War II.

● 1999 - Ward Valley, in Mohave Desert of Southern California, spared from nuclear waste dump after years of opposition by Native Americans and environmentalists.

● 2002 - Israeli forces surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians retreated. A siege ensues.

● 2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt a thwarted bombing of the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid.

● 2005 - Pope John Paul II, who helped topple communism in Europe and left a deeply conservative stamp on the church that he led for 26 years, died in his Vatican apartment at age 84.

● 2006 - Over 60 tornadoes breakout, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.

● 2007 - An earthquake with magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter Scale shakes the South Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands, causing a tsunami, with tsunami warnings as far away as the east coast of Australia.

● 2007 - Two Michigan kids, brutally murdered in the home of Dusan Mandick. Their bodies were found in pieces in the freezer, and half eaten by Dusan himself, later revealed after DNA testing of his stool samples.

BIRTHS

● 742 - Charlemagne (d. 814)

● 1348 - Andronicus IV Palaeologus, Eastern Roman Emperor (d. 1385)

● 1510 - Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (d. 1550)

● 1527 - Abraham Ortelius, Flemish cartographer and geographer (d. 1598)

● 1545 - Elizabeth of Valois, wife of Philip II of Spain (d. 1568)

● 1565 - Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599)

● 1618 - Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1663)

● 1653 - Prince George of Denmark, prince consort of Anne of England (d. 1708)

● 1719 - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (d. 1803)

● 1725 - Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer (d. 1798)

● 1731 - Catharine Macaulay, English historian and radical political writer (d. 1791)

● 1781 - Bhagwan Swaminarayan, religious leader (d. 1830)

● 1788 - Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet (d. 1862)

● 1798 - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (d. 1874)

● 1805 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (d. 1875)

● 1814 - Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (d. 1879)

● 1827 - William Holman Hunt, English painter (d. 1910)

● 1834 - Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor of Statue of Liberty (d. 1904)

● 1838 - Léon Gambetta, French statesman (d. 1882)

● 1840 - Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (d. 1902)

● 1862 - Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1947)

● 1867 - Eugen Sandow, German bodybuilder and circus performer (d. 1925)

● 1869 - Hughie Jennings, American baseball player and manager (d. 1928)

● 1875 - Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (d. 1940)

● 1891 - Max Ernst, German painter (d. 1976)

● 1900 - Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (d. 1942)

● 1902 - Jan Tschichold, German typographer (d. 1974)

● 1903 - Lionel Chevrier, Canadian politician (d. 1987)

● 1905 - Kurt Adler, Austrian-born American conductor and administrator of the San Francisco Opera (d. 1988)

● 1907 - Luke Appling, American baseball player (d. 1991)

● 1908 - Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)

● 1910 - Paul Triquet, Canadian military officer (d. 1980)

● 1912 - Herbert Mills, American singer (The Mills Brothers) (d. 1989)

● 1914 - Sir Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)

● 1917 - Dabbs Greer, Actor

● 1917 - Lou Monte, American singer (d. 1989)

● 1920 - Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)

● 1923 - G. Spencer-Brown, English mathematician

● 1923 - Clifford Scott Green, American Federal Judge

● 1926 - George MacDonald Fraser, English author

● 1926 - Sir Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver

● 1927 - Carmen Basilio, American boxer

● 1927 - Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (d. 2006)

● 1927 - Kenneth Tynan, English critic and writer (d. 1980)

● 1928 - Rita Gam, Actress

● 1928 - Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, American cardinal (d. 1996)

● 1928 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (d. 1991)

● 1934 - Paul Joseph Cohen, American mathematician

● 1934 - Brian Glover, British actor and wrestler (d. 1997)

● 1936 - Sharon Acker, Actress

● 1937 - Dick Radatz, American baseball player (d. 2005)

● 1938 - John Larsson, 17th General of The Salvation Army

● 1938 - Whirlaway, American thoroughbred racehorse, 1941 Triple Crown Winner (d. 1953)

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

● 1939 - Lise Thibault, Lieutenant-governor of Quebec

● 1940 - Penelope Keith, English actress

● 1941 - Dr. Demento, American radio personality

● 1942 - Leon Russell, American blues-rock pianist/guitarist session musician

● 1942 - Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef

● 1943 - Larry Coryell, Jazz guitarist

● 1945 - Linda Hunt, American actress

● 1945 - Reggie Smith, American baseball player

● 1945 - Don Sutton, American baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1946 - Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist (The Guess Who) (d. 1997)

● 1947 - Emmylou Harris, American singer

● 1947 - Camille Paglia, American feminist writer

● 1949 - Pamela Reed, American actress

● 1951 - Ayako Okamoto, Japanese golfer

● 1951 - Moriteru Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist

● 1952 - Pat Drummond, Australian singer-songwriter

● 1952 - Thierry Le Luron, French humorist (d. 1986)

● 1952 - Leon Wilkeson, American rock bassist (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 2001)

● 1953 - Jim Allister, Northern Irish politician

● 1953 - David Robinson, American musician (The Cars)

● 1953 - Debralee Scott, American actress (d. 2005)

● 1954 - Allan Davis, Australian diplomat

● 1954 - Susumu Hirasawa, Japanese electropop musician

● 1955 - Ron Palillo, American actor

● 1959 - Juha Kankkunen, Finnish race car driver

● 1959 - Badou Zaki, Morrocan footballer and manager

● 1960 - Linford Christie, English athlete

● 1961 - Christopher Meloni, American actor ("Law and Order: Special Victims Unit")

● 1961 - Buddy Jewell, Country singer ("Nashville Star")

● 1961 - Keren Woodward, English singer (Bananarama)

● 1962 - Billy Dean, Country singer

● 1962 - Pierre Carles, French documentarist

● 1962 - Clark Gregg, American actor

● 1962 - Mark Shulman, American children's author

● 1964 - Jana Marie Hupp, Actress

● 1964 - Pete Incaviglia, American baseball player

● 1965 - Rodney King, American victim of police brutality

● 1966 - Bill Romanowski, American football player

● 1966 - Teddy Sheringham, English footballer

● 1966 - Garnet Silk, Jamaican singer (d. 1994)

● 1967 - Greg Camp, American musician (Smash Mouth)

● 1967 - Helen Chamberlain, British television presenter

● 1969 - Tony Fredianelli, Rock musician (Third Eye Blind)

● 1971 - Todd Woodbridge, Australian tennis player

● 1971 - ZEEBRA, Japanese hip hop artist

● 1972 - Chico Slimani, Moroccoan-British singer

● 1973 - Roselyn Sanchez, Puerto Rican actress ("Without a Trace")

● 1974 - Håkan Hellström, Swedish musician

● 1975 - Adam Rodriguez, American actor ("CSI: Miami")

● 1976 - Jeremy Garrett, Actor

● 1976 - Andreas Anastasopoulos, Greek shot putter

● 1978 - John Gall, American baseball player

● 1979 - Jesse Carmichael, Rock musician (Maroon 5)

● 1980 - Bethany Joy Galeotti, Actress ("One Tree Hill")

● 1980 - Carlos Salcido, Mexican footballer

● 1981 - Michael Clarke, Australian cricketer

● 1981 - Bethany Joy Lenz-Galeotti, American actress

● 1982 - Jeremy Bloom, American skier and football player

● 1982 - Jack Evans, American professional wrestler

● 1982 - Leyla Milani, Canadian actress and model

● 1983 - Felix Borja, Ecuadorian footballer

● 1983 - Paul Capdeville, Chilean tennis player

● 1984 - Ashley Peldon, American actress

● 1984 - Meryl Cassie, New Zealand actress

● 1988 - Jesse Plemons, Actor ("Friday Night Lights")

● 1989 - Clare Thomas, English actress

● 1991 - Ashi the Great, All around amazing person

● 1993 - Kati RSW

DEATHS

● 1118 - Baldwin I of Jerusalem, King of Jerusalem

● 1272 - Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1209)

● 1335 - Duke Henry of Carinthia

● 1412 - Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, Spanish traveler and writer

● 1502 - Prince Arthur Tudor, son of Henry VII of England (b. 1486)

● 1507 - Francis of Paola, Italian founder of the Order of the Minims (b. 1416)

● 1657 - Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1608)

● 1657 - Jean-Jacques Olier - French catholic priest, founder of the Society of Saint-Sulpice (b. 1608)

● 1720 - Joseph Dudley, colonial Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1647)

● 1742 - James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (b. 1675)

● 1747 - Johann Jacob Dillenius, German botanist (b. 1684)

● 1754 - Thomas Carte, English historian (b. 1686)

● 1787 - Thomas Gage, British general (b. 1719)

● 1791 - Mirabeau, French statesman (b. 1749)

● 1801 - Thomas Dadford Junior, British canal engineer

● 1803 - Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician and judge (b. 1721)

● 1817 - Johann Heinrich Jung, German author (b. 1740)

● 1827 - Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and naturalist (b. 1776)

● 1845 - Philip Charles Durham, Royal Navy Admiral (b. 1763)

● 1865 - General A. P. Hill, American Confederate general (b. 1825)

● 1872 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American painter and inventor of the telegraph (b. 1791)

● 1902 - Esther Morris, suffragist and first female American judge (b. 1814)

● 1914 - Paul von Heyse, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1830)

● 1922 - Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychologist (b. 1884)

● 1928 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1868)

● 1930 - Empress Zauditu of Ethiopia (b. 1876)

● 1936 - Jean-Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general (b. 1860)

● 1953 - Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)

● 1966 - C. S. Forester, English author (b. 1899)

● 1972 - Franz Halder, German general (b. 1884)

● 1972 - Gil Hodges, American baseball player and manager (b. 1924)

● 1974 - Georges Pompidou, President of France (b. 1911)

● 1987 - Buddy Rich, American drummer (b. 1917)

● 1994 - Betty Furness, American actress (b. 1916)

● 1995 - Harvey Penick, American golf instructor (b. 1904)

● 1995 - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist (b. 1908)

● 1998 - Rob Pilatus, American model and entertainer (Milli Vanilli) (b. 1965)

● 2001 - Charles Daudelin, Canadian artist (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Jennifer Syme, American actress (b. 1972)

● 2003 - Edwin Starr, American singer (b. 1942)

● 2004 - John Argyris, Greek aeronautical engineer (b. 1913)

● 2005 - Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)

● 2006 - Nina Schenk von Stauffenberg, German wife of freedom fighter Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (b. 1913)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Abdiesus
● St. Abundius
● St. Acepsimas
● St. Adelelmus
● St. Agapius
● St. Agnes of Montepulciano
● St. Aldo
● St. Alexander
● St. Amphianus
● St. Anastasius XI
● St. Anastasius the Sinaite
● St. Anianus
● St. Apelles
● St. Aphrodisius
● St. Apollo and Companions
● St. Appian
● St. Arator
● St. Artemius
● St. Arwald
● St. Asicus
● St. Authaire
● St. Ava
● St. Basileus
● St. Beuno
● St. Bicor
● St. Bronach
● St. Castor & Stephen
● St. Catherine of Siena
● St. Cletus
● St. Conrad of Parzham
● Martyrs of Corfu
● St. Cronan of Roscrea
● St. Daniel
● St. Deodatus
● St. Diarmaid
● St. Dichu
● St. Dominic Tuoc
● St. Dyfnan
● St. Egbert
● St. Endellion
● St. Enoder
● St. Epiphanius and Alexander
● St. Erminus
● St. Evodius
● St. Exuperantia
● St. Felix
● Sts. Felix, Fortunatus, & Achilleus
● St. Fiachan
● St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
● St. Floribert
● St. Franca Visalta
● St. Francis Page
● St. Franciscus of Paola (1507)
● St. Froduiphus
● St. Genoveva of Brabant (1760)
● St. George
● St. Honorius of Brescia
● St. Hugh of Anzy le Duc
● St. Hugh the Great
● St. John Baptist Thanh
● St. John of Constantinople
● St. Joseph of Persia
● St. Lawrence Huong
● St. Leo of Sens
● St. Leonides of Alexandria
● St. Liberalis
● St. Longis & Agnofleda
● St. Louis Mary Grignion
● St. Louis de Montfort
● St. Luchesio
● St. Lucidius
● St. Macaille
● St. Macedonius
● St. Marcian of Auxerre
● St. Mareas
● St. Marian
● St. Mark
● St. Mark of Galilee
● St. Mary of Egypt
● St. Maximian of Constantinople
● St. Mella
● St. Mellitus of Canterbury
● St. Milles
● St. Musa
● St. Nicetius
● St. Opportuna
● St. Pamphilus
● Sts. Parmenius, Chrysoteins, and Helimenas
● St. Paschasius Radbertus
● St. Patrick of Prusa
● St. Paulinus of Brescia
● St. Peter of Braga
● St. Peter Chanel
● St. Peter Hieu
● St. Peter of Verona
● St. Phaebadius
● St. Philo and Agathopodes
● St. Pollio
● St. Polycarp of Alexandria
● St. Riquier
● St. Robert of Molesmes
● St. Robert of Syracuse
● St. Sabas
● St. Senan
● St. Senorina
● St. Tarbula
● St. Tertullian
● St. Theodora
● St. Theodora & Didymus
● St. Theodore of Sykeon
● St. Theodore of Tabenna
● St. Theodore Trichinas
● St. Theodosia
● St. Theophilus
● St. Theotimus
● St. Torpes
● St. Trudpert
● St. Tychicus
● St. Urban of Langres
● St. Valeria
● St. Valerie
● St. Victor
● St. Vitalis
● St. Wilfrid the Younger
● St. William Firmatus
● St. Winewald
● St. Zita
● Bl. Arnold of Leuven
● Bl. John Finch
● Bl. Peter Armengol
● Bl. Robert Anderton
● Bl. Robert Bruges
● Bl. Robert Watkinson
● Bl. William Marsden

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 20 (Civil Date: April 2)
● The Holy Fathers slain at the Monastery of St. Sabbas: Saints John, Sergius, Patrick, and others.
● St. Nicetas the Confessor, Archbishop Apollonias in Bithynia.
● Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan woman.
● Seven Virgin Martyrs of Amisus (Samsun): Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, and Theodosia.
● Suffering of St. Euphrosynus of Blue-Jay Lake.
● New-Martyr Myron of Crete.

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyrs Rodion, Aquila the Eparch, Longinus, and Emmanuel.

● Anglican:
● James Lloyd Breck, priest

● International Children's Book Day

● Malvinas Day in Argentina

● Chad : Creation of Union of Central African States (1968)

● Iran : Nawroz 13

● Liberia : National Day of Prayer & Fast

● 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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