April 6......

April 6 is the 96th (97th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 269 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Bigotry & Prejudice "Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety." — Ben Hecht

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Iraq War "Mission Accomplished" — Banner boasting victory in the war in Iraq was the backdrop to President Bush's speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

{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

● 648 - BC - Earliest solar eclipse recorded by the Ancient Greeks.

● 6 - BC - This day is believed by some Biblical scholars to be the actual date of the historical birth of Jesus Christ.

● 402 - Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.

● 610 - Lailat-ul Qadar, the night the Koran descended to Earth

● 774 - Charles the Great affirms Pippins promise of Quiercy

● 1106 - Fire in Venice

● 1199 - English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.

● 1199 - Pierre Basile, killer of Richard I of England, dies.

● 1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.

● 1327 - The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.

● 1362 - Robber bastion Tard-Venus strikes at Brignais France

● 1516 - A Willaert installed as singer of cardinal Ippolito I d'Este

● 1634 - Heeren XIX asks "to secure Eylands Curaçao"

● 1652 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which eventually becomes Cape Town.

● 1663 - King Charles II signs Carolina Charter

● 1664 - France & Saksen sign alliance

● 1667 - An earthquake devastates Dubrovnik, then independent city-state.

● 1672 - France declares war on Netherlands

● 1712 - Slave revolt in New York

● 1722 - Peter the Great ends tax on men with beards

● 1724 - Duke of Newcastle becomes English minister of Foreign Affairs

● 1727 - Denmark signs Covenant of Hannover

● 1735 - The first Moravians from Europe arrived in America. Invited by colonial governor James Oglethorpe, ten males of the "Unitas Fratrum" landed in Savannah, Georgia after sailing from England in February.

● 1757 - English king George II fires minister William Pitt Sr

● 1781 - Peru - Tupac Amaru captured after being denounced by a traitor.

● 1782 - Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Thailand, who was overthrown in a coup d'état.

● 1789 - 1st US Congress begins regular sessions, Federal Hall, New York NY

● 1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.

● 1812 - Birth of anarchist sympathizer Alexander Herzen, Moscow.

● 1814 - Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.

● 1815 - English militia shoots prisoners, 100's killed

● 1830 - James Augustine Healy, the first black Roman Catholic bishop in America, was born to an Irish planter and a slave on a plantation near Macon, Georgia.

● 1830 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith, Jr. and five others at Fayette, New York.

● 1830 - Relations between the Texans and Mexico reached a new low when Mexico would not allow further emigration into Texas by settlers from the U.S.

● 1832 - Black Hawk War begins when Sauk/Fox return to plant traditional corn fields and are repulsed by whites who have expropriated their land.

● 1841 - John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.

● 1841 - Cornerstone laid for 2nd Mormon temple, Nauvoo IL

● 1848 - Jews of Prussia granted equality

● 1859 - US recognizes Liberal government in México's War of the Reform

● 1860 - Joseph Smith III, creates the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr.

● 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh begins - In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh.

● 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Sayler's Creek - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.

● 1866 - Reconstructionist “Civil Rights Bill,” to give African-Americans same rights as whites, is passed. Southern efforts to circumvent the law marks the beginning of Jim Crow.

● 1866 - Birth of American muckraker Lincoln Steffens, San Francisco.

● 1866 - G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) is established

● 1868 - Mormon church leader Brigham Young, 67, married his 27th and last wife. (In all, Brigham Young's wives bore him 47 children.)

● 1869 - 1st plastic, Celluloid, patented

● 1870 - Clarence E. McClung, an American zoologist who made important discoveries in the field of genetics, was born.

● 1875 - Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at the same time.

● 1878 - Birth of Andre Mournier (known as "The Agronomist"), in Joigny, Yonne, France. Member of the anarchist Colony of Aiglemont.

● 1878 - Birth of Erich Muhsam [Muehsam; Mehsam], poet and anarchist militant, Berlin, Germany. Assassinated by the Nazis in July 1934 in Orianenburg Concentration Camp.

● 1882 - Birth of Rose Schneiderman, organizer of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

● 1886 - City of Vancouver British Columbia Canada incorporated

● 1886 - Declaration of Berlin neutralizes Tonga

● 1889 - George Eastman places Kodak Camera on sale for 1st time

● 1890 - French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Segu, West-Sudan

● 1893 - Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.

● 1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.

● 1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

● 1903 - The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and The West.

● 1903 - General strike begins, Holland.

● 1903 - General railroad strike against "worgwetten" (anti-strike laws)

● 1903 - French Army Nationalists were revealed for forging documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dryfus.

● 1904 - Deportation of the British anarchist John Turner is argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, in Turner v. Williams; the court rules in the case in May that Congress has unlimited power to exclude aliens and deport those who have entered in violation of the laws, including philosophical anarchists.

● 1906 - 1st animated cartoon copyrighted

● 1909 - 1st credit union established in US

● 1909 - Explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole. The claim, disputed by skeptics, was upheld in 1989 by the Navigation Foundation.

● 1911 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).

● 1912 - Electric starter 1st appeared in cars

● 1916 - German parliament OKs unrestricted submarine warfare

● 1917 - U.S. enters World War I, declares war on Germany; 56 Congress people oppose U.S. entry. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, re-elected on an anti-war platform, does an about face. Thousands of Americans are suddenly declared "anti-American." They are now considered "traitors" for opposing U.S. entry into a war that will leave 10 million dead. Thousands are now jailed, harassed, tarred and feathered, lynched, forced to get on their knees and kiss the American flag, castrated or killed, etc., by such outstanding icons of "patriotic" virtue as the American Legion -- basically for maintaining the original anti-war position which got Wilson elected President. The government, police, and vigilantes across the nation destroy printing presses, labor halls and offices, burn books and papers, all for the "War for Democracy," a war which was to end all wars. Yep.

● 1920 - French troop attacks Main/Darmstadt/Hanau

● 1922 - Treaty comes into force which demilitarizes Aland Islands, Finland.

● 1923 - The first Prefects Board in Southeast Asia is formed in Victoria Institution, Malaysia.

● 1924 - 4 planes leave Seattle on 1st successful around-the-world flight

● 1924 - Italian fascists receive 65% of vote of parliament

● 1924 - Völkische Block (Nazi's) receives 17.8% of vote in Bayern

● 1925 - 1st film shown on an airplane (British Air)

● 1926 - Walter Varney Airlines makes first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).

● 1927 - William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number ‘1’ when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator’s license.

● 1930 - Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Thus he starts Salt Satyagraha.

● 1930 - 1st transcontinental glider tow completed

● 1931 - First of the "Scottsboro Boys" trials begins in Alabama. After a speedy conviction, evidence of their innocence emerges at subsequent trials.

● 1934 - 418 Lutheran ministers arrested in Germany

● 1936 - ANP begins telex service in Amsterdam

● 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203 and injuring 1,800.

● 1938 - The United States recognized the German conquest of Austria.

● 1938 - The United States recognized the German conquest of Austria.

● 1938 - Teflon invented by Roy J Plunkett

● 1939 - US & UK agree on joint control of Canton & Enderbury Islands (Pacific)

● 1939 - Great Britain & Poland sign military pact

● 1941 - Italian-held Addis Ababa capitulates to British & Ethiopian forces

● 1941 - Beginning of 3 day bombardment of Belgrade (17,000 die)

● 1941 - British General Gambier-Parry caught in North Africa

● 1941 - German bombardment on Piraeus (munitions ship explodes)

● 1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins; Germany invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece.

● 1941 - German invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece trigger pogroms against Jews and Serbs.

● 1943 - British & US offensive at Wadi Akarit, South-Tunisia

● 1943 - Lou Jansen, leader of illegal Dutch political party (CPN) arrested

● 1944 - Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain France overrun by Nazi's

● 1945 - Birth of international reggae star and revolutionary Bob Marley.

● 1945 - Coevorden freed from Nazi's

● 1945 - Japanese giant battleship Yamato heads to Okinawa

● 1945 - Massive kamikaze-attack on US battle fleet near Okinawa

● 1945 - US marines explore Tsugen Shima near Okinawa

● 1950 - John F Dulles becomes advisor to US Secretary of State Dean Acheson

● 1952 - Mass meetings of non-whites to protest against apartheid, South Africa.

● 1952 - American missionary and Auca Indian martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'Faith makes life so even, gives one such confidence, that the words of men are as wind.'

● 1953 - Years after Jackie Robinson's entry into the major leagues, followed by many other black stars, the Class C minor league Hot Springs, Arkansas baseball team is voted out of the Cotton States League after the club refuses to cancel contracts with two black pitchers whose services it had obtained.

● 1953 - Iranian Premier Mossadegh demanded that the shah's power be reduced.

● 1954 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island

● 1955 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1955 - Yemen failed coup by Abdullah Seif el-Islam

● 1956 - Polish communist Gomulka freed from prison

● 1957 - NYC ends trolley car service

● 1957 - USSR performs nuclear test (atmospheric tests)

● 1963 - About 45 demonstrators are arrested in a small march on City Hall as civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, escalate.

● 1964 - Egypt & Belgium restore diplomatic relations

● 1965 - Intelsat 1 ("Early Bird") 1st commercial geosynchronous communications satellite

● 1965 - President Lyndon Johnson authorizes the use of U.S. ground combat troops for offensive operations. Tomorrow he offers North Vietnam aid in exchange for peace. North Vietnam rejects the offer.

● 1967 - Tens of thousands protesting Vietnam War jeer Vice President Humphrey in West Berlin, West Germany.

● 1967 - In South Vietnam, 1,500 Viet Cong attacked Quangtri and freed 200 prisoners.

● 1967 - Premier Pompidou forms new French government

● 1968 - United States erupts in race violence; Dozens of major cities in the United States are rocked by an escalation in the race riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King.

● 1968 - In wake of riots following M. L. King's assassination, Oakland police raid Black Panther Party headquarters, killing Bobby Hutton and wounding three others, including Eldridge Cleaver. Police open fire on a car of Black Panthers returning from a meeting. The Panthers escape their vehicle and run into a house. Police throw tear gas & riddle the house with machine-gun bullets. After police set the building on fire, the Panthers try to surrender. Seventeen-year-old Bobby Hutton comes out of the house with his hands in the air. But a police officer shouts, "He's got a gun." This prompts a barrage of police gunfire that leaves Hutton dead. Police later admit Hutton was not carrying a gun.

● 1968 - 94.5% of East German voters approve new socialist constitution

● 1968 - In Richmond, Virginia's downtown district, a double explosion of gunpowder stock at a sporting-goods store kills 41 and injures 150.

● 1970 - Newhall Incident: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed.

● 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive - American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.

● 1972 - Egypt drops diplomatic relations with Jordan

● 1973 - Harbor strike in Gent/Antwerp, Belgium

● 1973 - Indies troops invade Sikkim

● 1973 - US launches Pioneer 11 to Jupiter & Saturn

● 1975 - 'Operation Babylift' lands in UK; A plane carrying 99 Vietnamese orphans has landed at Heathrow airport.

● 1975 - Bundy victim Denise Oliverson disappears from Grand Junction CO

● 1976 - Spain - MIL member Oriol Sole Sugranyes shot dead following an escape of Resistance prisoners (all ETA members but him) from a Segovia jail as he tries to cross the border into France.

● 1980 - France - Raiders destroy one computer center, and two others two days later. The actions were claimed by Action Directe. The Committee for the Liquidation and Misappropriation of Computers stated - "We are computer workers, well-placed to know the present and future danger of computer systems....They are used to clarify, control, and repress. We do not want to be shut up in the ghettos of programs and organizational patterns."

● 1980 - Post It Notes are introduced

● 1981 - Yugoslav government sends troops to Kosovo

● 1982 - U.S. begins unsubtle naval maneuvers in Central American and Caribbean waters.

● 1982 - Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center from White Sands

● 1983 - Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock 'n' roll bands attract the "wrong element."

● 1984 - 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41-C)- Challenger 5 is launched; 1st time 11 people in space

● 1984 - Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard attack government buildings in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.

● 1985 - Satellite dish daubed with human blood, Watsonian Army Base, Melbourne, Australia.

● 1985 - Atlantis (OV-104) rollout at Palmdale

● 1985 - Sudan suspends constitution after coup under General Swarreddahab

● 1985 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1985 - William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital.

● 1987 - Dennis Levine began a two-year jail term for insider trading.

● 1988 - North pole explorer Matthew Henson buried next to Robert Peary in Arlington

● 1989 - Dockers' 'jobs for life' scrapped; The government has announced it is to abolish legislation which guarantees work for more than 9,000 dockers.

● 1992 - Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov died at age 72. It would be ten years before the cause of his death would be revealed. He had received tainted blood during surgery and had contracted AIDS. Because of the prejudice shown Arthur Ashe in similar circumstances, doctors urged Asimov and family to wait the ten years.

● 1992 - Serbian troops begin siege of Sarajevo

● 1992 - US Supreme Court rules a Nebraska farmer was entrapped by postal agents into buying mail-order child pornography

● 1992 - A general strike is declared by communist groups in Nepal

● 1993 - 1st test flight of Ilyushin IL-96M (Moscow)

● 1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by extremists.

● 1994 - Liberal Supreme Court Justice Blackmun (Roe vs Wade) resigns

● 1994 - Palestinian suicide bomber kills 7 Israelis & himself

● 1994 - Rockwell B-1B Lancers break 11 world speed records

● 1996 - Eleven arrested at main post office near Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., for attempting to mail needed medical supplies to Iraq in defiance of U.S.-led embargo.

● 1997 - Fault cuts short space shuttle mission; NASA brings home the space shuttle Columbia 12 days early amid fears over a defective fuel cell.

● 1997 - Progress M-34 Launch (Russia)

● 1998 - Country singer Tammy Wynette died at age 55.

● 1998 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.

● 1998 - Citicorp and Travelers Group announced that they would be merging. The new creation was the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world. The name would become Citigroup.

● 1998 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time.

● 1998 - Federal researchers in the U.S. announced that daily tamoxifen pills could cut breast cancer risk among high-risk women.

● 2001 - Algerian national Ahmed Ressam, accused of bringing explosives into the United States days before the millennium celebrations, was convicted twice in the same day - first in France for belonging to a group supporting Islamic militants, then in Los Angeles on terror charges.

● 2001 - Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy.

● 2004 - Jordan's military court convicted eight Muslim militants and sentenced them to death for the 2002 killing of U.S. aid official Laurence Foley in a terror conspiracy linked to al-Qaida.

● 2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.

● 2005 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco died at age 81, leaving the throne to Prince Albert II.

BIRTHS

● 1483 - Raphael, Italian painter and architect (d. 1520)

● 1613 - Stjepan Gradić, Croatian philosopher and scientist (d. 1683)

● 1630 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (d. 1680)

● 1651 - André Dacier, French classical scholar (d. 1722)

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

● 1671 - Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet (d. 1741)

● 1725 - Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot and military leader (d. 1807)

● 1773 - James Mill, Scottish philosopher, historian and economist (d. 1836)

● 1812 - Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (d. 1870)

● 1815 - Robert Volkmann, German composer (d. 1883)

● 1818 - Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Norwegian poet (d. 1870)

● 1820 - Nadar, French photographer (d. 1910)

● 1823 - Joseph Medill, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1899)

● 1826 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (d. 1898)

● 1849 - John William Waterhouse, British painter (d. 1917)

● 1851 - Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer (d. 1932)

● 1860 - Rene Lalique, French jeweler and important figure in the Art Nouveau movement (d. 1945)

● 1869 - Louis Raemaekers, Dutch cartoonist famous for his anti-German cartoons in W. W. II (d. 1956)

● 1870 - Clarence E. McClung, American zoologist (d. 1946)

● 1878 - Erich Mühsam, German author (d. 1934)

● 1884 - Walter Huston, Canadian-born actor (d. 1950)

● 1890 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch designer of aircraft (d. 1939)

● 1892 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American industrialist (d. 1981)

● 1892 - Lowell Thomas, American travel writer (d. 1981)

● 1901 - Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian Catholic (d. 1925)

● 1902 - Veniamin Kaverin, Russian writer (d. 1989)

● 1903 - Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962)

● 1903 - Harold Edgerton, American electrical engineer (d. 1990)

● 1909 - Hermann Lang, German race car driver (d. 1987)

● 1911 - Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)

● 1920 - Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

● 1926 - Sergio Franchi, Italian-born singer and actor (d. 1990)

● 1926 - Gil Kane, Latvian-born cartoonist (d. 2000)

● 1926 - Ian Paisley, Northern Irish politician

● 1927 - Gerry Mulligan, American musician (d. 1996)

● 1928 - James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

● 1929 - André Previn, German-born composer and conductor

● 1931 - Ivan Dixon, American actor and director

● 1933 - Roy Goode, British lawyer

● 1934 - Anton Geesink, Dutch judoka

● 1937 - Merle Haggard, American musician

● 1937 - Billy Dee Williams, American actor

● 1938 - Paul Daniels, English magician

● 1938 - Roy Thinnes, American actor

● 1939 - André Ouellet, French Canadian politician

● 1940 - Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Mexican actor

● 1941 - Phil Austin, American comedian

● 1941 - Zamfir, Romanian musician

● 1942 - Barry Levinson, American film producer/director

● 1944 - Felicity Palmer, English soprano

● 1947 - John Ratzenberger, American actor ("Cheers")

● 1949 - Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1951 - Bert Blyleven, Dutch-born baseball player

● 1952 - Udo Dirkschneider, German singer (Accept and U.D.O.)

● 1952 - Marilu Henner, American actress ("Taxi," "Evening Shade")

● 1952 - Michel Larocque, French Canadian ice hockey goaltender (d. 1992)

● 1953 - Janet Lynn, Figure skater

● 1955 - Michael Rooker, American actor

● 1955 - Keith Hunter Jesperson, Canadian-born serial killer

● 1956 - Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricket player and administrator

● 1964 - Phil Gayle, English news presenter

● 1965 - Frank Black, American singer/songwriter (Pixies)

● 1966 - Vince Flynn, Author

● 1969 - Paul Rudd, American actor

● 1969 - Bison Dele, American basketball player (disappeared 2002)

● 1969 - Ari Meyers, Puerto Rican-born American actress

● 1970 - Olaf Kölzig, South African-born ice hockey player

● 1970 - Huang Xiaomin, Chinese swimmer

● 1971 - Lou Merloni, American baseball player

● 1972 - Jason Hervey, Actor ("The Wonder Years")

● 1973 - Markku Lappalainen, Rock musician (Hoobastank)

● 1973 - Donnie Edwards, American football player

● 1973 - Sun Wen, Chinese footballer

● 1973 - Rie Miyazawa, Japanese actress/singer

● 1973 - Prashanth, Indian actor

● 1974 - Adithya, Indian actor

● 1975 - Zach Braff, American actor ("Scrubs")

● 1976 - Candace Cameron, American actress ("Full House")

● 1978 - Blaine Neal, American baseball player

● 1978 - Myleene Klass, British singer (Hear'Say)

● 1982 - Bret Harrison, Actor

● 1982 - Ilan Hall, Israeli-American chef and winner of Top Chef 2

● 1983 - Diora Baird, American actress

● 1985 - Garrett Zablocki, (Senses Fail)

● 1987 - Levi Porter, English footballer

● 1987 - Hilary Rhoda, American supermodel

● 1988 - Fabrice Muamba, Anglo-Congolese footballer

DEATHS

● 1199 - King Richard I of England (killed in battle) (b. 1157)

● 1362 - James I, Count of La Marche, French soldier (b. 1319)

● 1490 - King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

● 1520 - Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)

● 1528 - Albrecht Dürer, German artist (b. 1471)

● 1551 - Joachim Vadian, Swiss humanist (b. 1484)

● 1571 - John Hamilton, Scottish prelate and politician

● 1590 - Francis Walsingham, English spymaster

● 1605 - John Stow, English historian

● 1655 - David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1591)

● 1686 - Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English royalist statesman (b. 1614)

● 1707 - Willem van de Velde, the younger, Dutch painter (b. 1633)

● 1755 - Richard Rawlinson, English minister and antiquarian (b. 1690)

● 1825 - Vladimir Borovikovsky, Russian painter (b. 1757)

● 1829 - Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1802)

● 1838 - José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, Brazilian statesman and geologist (b. 1763)

● 1862 - Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (b. 1803)

● 1883 - Benjamin Raymond, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1801)

● 1906 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)

● 1933 - Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Wife of George Armstrong Custer (b. 1842)

● 1935 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (b. 1869)

● 1953 - Idris Davies, Welsh poet (b. 1905)

● 1961 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1870)

● 1963 - Otto Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1897)

● 1970 - Sam Sheppard, American accused murderer (b. 1923)

● 1971 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (b. 1882)

● 1974 - Willem Marinus Dudok, Dutch architect (b. 1884)

● 1992 - Isaac Asimov, Russian-born author (b. 1920)

● 1994 - Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (b. 1937)

● 1994 - Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi (b. 1956)

● 1996 - Greer Garson, Irish actress (b. 1904)

● 1998 - Wendy O. Williams, American musician (Plasmatics) (b. 1949)

● 1998 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (b. 1942)

● 1999 - Red Norvo, American jazz vibraphonist (b. 1908)

● 2000 - Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (b. 1903)

● 2003 - David Bloom, American reporter (pulmonary embolism) (b. 1963)

● 2003 - Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer (b. 1927)

● 2003 - Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, catholic archbishop of Toronto (b. 1912)

● 2004 - Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (b. 1929)

● 2004 - Niki Sullivan, American guitarist (The Crickets) (b. 1937)

● 2005 - Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (b. 1923)

● 2006 - Maggie Dixon, women's college basketball coach (b. 1977)

● 2007 - Robert Frank, Author/poet (b. 1968)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Balderik
● St. Berthane
● St. Brychan, King of Brycheiniog, South Wales
● St. Elstan
● St. Florentius
● St. Isolde
● St. Marcellinus of Carthage (d. 413)
● St. Paul Tinh
● St. Platonides
● St. Rufina
● St. Sixtus
● Sts. Timothy & Diogenes
● St. Ulehad
● St. William of Eskilsoe
● St. Winebald
● Bl. Notker

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 24 (Civil Date: April 6)
● Forefeast of the Annunciation.
● St. Zacharias the Recluse.
● St. Artemon, Bishop of Seleucia.
● St. James the Confessor, Bishop of Catania.
● Hieromartyr Parthenius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● Martyrs Stephen and Peter of Kazan.
● St. Artemius, Bishop of Thessalonica.
● St. Zachariah, faster of the Kiev Caves.

● Greek Calendar:
● Eight Martyrs of Caesarea in Palestine.
● St. Martin of Thebes, monk.

● Lutheran:
● Albrecht Dürer, artist
● Michelangelo, artist

● The date of organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, Jr.. Also the date on which The Church teaches that Jesus Christ was born.

● Unification Church : Parents Day

● Tartan Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, a day set aside for the celebration of Scottish influence

● Chakri Day in Thailand, commemorating the reign of the Chakri Dynasty.

● Ethiopia : Victory Day

● South Africa : Van Riebeeck Day-founding of Capetown

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

IN FICTION

● 1883 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of the Speckled Band"


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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