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On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on April 15:
1452 Leonardo da Vinci Italy, painter/sculptor/scientist/visionary
1469 Nanak 1st guru of Sikhs
1651 Domenico Gabrielli composer
1682 John van Huysum Dutch painter (flowers/fruit)
1684 Catherine I empress of Russia (1725-27)
1707 Leonhard Euler Bassle Sweden, mathematician (Euler's Constant)
1800 Sir James Clark Ross explorer (British Antarctic)
1820 Evander McNair Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1902
1821 Emerson Brown Joseph (Confederacy), died in 1894
1822 Napolean Jackson Tecumseh Dana Major General (Union volunteers)
1829 Mary Harris Thompson 1st American woman surgeon
1837 Horace Porter Brevet Brigadier General (Union Army), died in 1921
1843 Henry James New York NY, US/British writer/critic (Turn of the Screw, Bostonians)
1850 John Munroe Longyear US, capitalist/bank president
1874 Johannes Stark Germany, physicist (Stark effect) (Nobel 1919)
1889 Thomas Hart Benton Neosho MO, painter/muralist (Lonesome Road)
1891 Alvin P[leasant Delaney] Carter Maces Springs VA, vocalist (Carter Family)
1894 Elizabeth Mae "Bessie" Smith Empress of Blues (over 200 songs)
1901 Joe Davis English snooker/billiards-world champion (1927-46)
1912 Kim II Sung "President" of North Korea (1945-94)
1917 Hans Conried Baltimore MD, actor (Bullwinkle Show, Make Room for Daddy)
1921 Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 3)
1924 Neville Marriner Lincoln England, conductor (Minnesota Orchestra 1978)
1929 Adrian Cadbury candy manufacturer (Cadbury, Schweppes)
1932 Nikolai Stepanovich Porvatkin Russian cosmonaut
1933 Elizabeth Montgomery Los Angeles CA, actress (Samantha/Serena-Bewitched)
1933 Roy Clark Meherrin VA, country singer (Hee Haw)
1939 Claudia Cardinale Tunis, actress (Blindfold, 8½, Pink Panther)
1940 Phil Lesh Berkeley CA, bassist (Grateful Dead-Truckin')
1942 Kim Il Jong son of Kim Il Sung, North Korean "President"/sawed-off little twerp/world class fruitloop
1947 DeDe Lind Los Angeles CA, playmate (August 1967)
1947 Linda Bloodworth-Thomason TV producer (Designing Women, Murphy Brown)/FOB
1951 Marsha S Ivins Baltimore MD, astronaut (STS 32, 46, 62, 81)
1951 John L Phillips Fort Belvoir VA, PhD/astronaut
1956 Gregory J Harbaugh Cleveland OH, astronaut (STS 39, 54, 71, 82)
1957 Evelyn Ashford Shreveport LA, 100 meter runner (Olympics-4 gold-1976, 84)
1960 Marvin Clyde Goodwin New Orleans LA, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
1965 Soichi Noguchi Yokohama Japan, astronaut

Deaths which occurred on April 15:
1415 Manuel Chrysoloras Byzantine leader/diplomat (Erotèmata), dies
1472 Leon B Alberti Italian humanist/architect (Philodoxis), dies at 68
1605 Boris Godunov tsar of Russia (1598-1605), dies
1765 Michail von Lomonosov Russian scholar/poet, dies at 53

1865 President Abraham Lincoln dies, at 7:22 am, morning after being shot by John Wilkes Booth

1888 Matthew Arnold English poet, dies at 65
1925 John Singer Sargent US portrait painter, dies at 69
1949 Wallace Beery US actor (The Champ), dies at 64
1975 John B McKay US test pilot (X-15), dies
1980 Jean-Paul Sartre existentialist philosopher/writer (Nobel 1964), dies in Paris at 74
1980 Raymond Bailey actor (Mr Drysdale-Beverly Hillbillies), dies at 75
1982 5 Muslim extremist murderers of Egyptian President Sadat executed
1986 Sergei Nikolayevich Anokhin cosmonaut, dies at 76
1989 Hu Yaobang General Secretary of Chinese Commnist Party, dies
1990 Greta Garbo actress (Anna Karenina, Camille), dies at 84
1993 George Ives, composer dies at 111
1993 Leslie Charteris British mystery writer (Saint), dies at 85

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 ZERBE MICHAEL R.---JULIAN CA.
1968 METZ JAMES H.---POPLAR BLUFF MO.
[03/18/77 SRV RETURNED REMAINS TO PCOM]
1970 BIVENS HERNDON A.---JAMICA NY.
[DIED 2 HOURS AFTER CAPTURE]
1970 MILLER ROGER A.---HOPEWELL JUNCTION NY.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED. ALIVE IN 98]
1972 DESPIEGLER GALE A.---BROWNS VALLEY MN.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 TRIMBLE LARRY A.---FARMINGTON WA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 06/89 ID 09/89]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0069 Battle at Bedriacum, North-Italy
1205 Battle at Adrianople Visigoths beats Emperor Boudouin of Constantinople
1250 Pope Innoncent III refuses Jews of Cordova Spain to build a synagogue
1450 French defeat English at Battle of Formigny in 100 Years' War
1493 Columbus meets with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
1632 Swedish & Saxon army beat Earl Tilly
1715 Uprising of Yamasse-Indians in South Carolina
1729 Johann S Bachs "Matthäus Passion" premieres in Leipzig

1738 Bottle opener invented

1776 Duchess of Kingston found guilty of bigamy
1784 1st balloon flight in Ireland
1800 James Ross discovers North Magnetic pole
1817 1st American school for the deaf opens (Hartford CT)
1850 City of San Francisco incorporated
1858 Battle of Azimghur, Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists
1861 Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln
1864 General Steeles' Union troops occupies Camden AR
1874 New York legislature passes compulsory education law
1877 1st telephone installed Boston-Somerville MA
1878 Harley Procter introduces Ivory Soap
1892 General Electric Company forms & is incorporated in New York
1896 1st Olympic games close at Athens, Greece
1900 International Exposition opens in Paris France
1901 1st British motorized burial
1902 Pope Leo XIII encyclical "On the Church in the US"
1912 Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM in North Atlantic as the band plays on
1922 Frederick Banting, John MacLeod & Charles Best discover insulin
1923 1st sound on film public performance shown at Rialto Theater (NYC)
1927 Babe Ruth hits 1st of 60 homeruns of season (off A's Howard Ehmke)
1927 Switzerland & USSR agree to diplomatic relations
1931 The 1st walk across America backwards began
1940 British troops land at Narvik Norway
1941 1st helicopter flight of 1 hour duration, Stratford CT
1942 George VI awards the George Cross to the people of Malta
1945 FDR buried on grounds of Hyde Park home
1945 British & Canadian troops liberate Nazi camp of Bergen-Belsen
1945 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Communium interpretes dolorum
1945 US troops occupy concentration camp Colditz
1948 1st Jewish-Arab military battle, Arabs defeated (Shock!)
1949 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Redemptoris nostri
1952 1st B-52 prototype test flight
1955 Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants (Illinois)
1957 Saturday mail delivery restored after Congress givs Post Office $41 million
1959 Fidel Castro begins US goodwill tour
1959 US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles resigns
1960 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), organizes at Shaw University
1961 "Music Man" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 1375 performances
1964 Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens (Bridge-Tunnel measures 17.6 miles (28.4 km) and is considered the world's largest bridge-tunnel complex)
1964 Ian Smith becomes premier of Rhodesia
1969 North Korea shoots at US airplane above Japanese sea
1970 Libyan leader Qadhafi launches "Green Revolution"
1972 Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Carole King & Quincy Jones perform at a benefit for George McGovern for President
1974 Military coup in Niger, President Diori Hamani deposed
1975 1st appearance of the San Diego Chicken
1981 Janet Cooke says her Pulitzer award 8-year-old heroin addict story is a lie, Washington Post relinquishes Pulitzer Prize on fabricated story
1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens
1984 Extremist Sikhs plunder 40 stations in Punjab India
1986 US air raids Libya, responding to La Belle disco, Berlin bombing
1988 Meteorite explode above Indonesia
1989 95 crushed to death at Sheffield Soccer Stadium in England
1989 Students in Beijing pro-democracy protests
1990 "In Living Color" premieres on FOX-TV
1991 Europe foreign ministers lift most remaining sanctions against South Africa
1992 Billionaire Leona Helmsley is sent to jail for tax evasion
1992 Jay Leno's final appearance as permanent guest host of Tonight Show
1992 William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley inducted into National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
1994 Indians lose 1st game at Jacobs Field, Kansas City wins 2-1
1994 Robert F Kennedy Jr (21 days after his divorce) weds Mary Richardson
1996 Tokyo and Washington agreed on a gradual return of U.S. military bases on Okinawa to Japan.
1997 The Justice Department inspector general reported that FBI crime lab agents produced flawed scientific work or inaccurate testimony in major cases such as the Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 In Saudi Arabia, fire destroyed a tent city outside Mecca, killing at least 343 Muslim pilgrims.
1997 Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams
1999 Astronomers announced they had discovered evidence of a solar system in the constellation Andromeda. It was the only known solar system other than our own.
2001 U.N. investigators arrested Bosnian Serb army officer Dragan Obrenovic in connection with the Serbian Army's slaughter of as many as 7,000 Muslim men and boys.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Africa : African Freedom Day
Massachusetts, Maine : Patriots Day-Boston Marathon run (1775) (Monday)
US : National Garden Week Week (Day 5)
US : Hostility Day
US : Rubber Eraser Day
Zoo and Aquarium Month.

Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Fordicidia a d xvij Kal Maias
Buddhist : New Year (Bangladesh)

Religious History
1746 Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'Oh, how precious is time, and how it pains me to see it slide away, while I do so little to any good purpose. Oh, that God would make me more fruitful and spiritual.'
1817 In Hartford, CT, American clergyman Thomas H. Gallaudet, 30, and deaf Frenchman Laurent Clerc opened the first American school for the deaf, called the American Asylum.
1872 In deciding the legal case "Watson v. Jones," the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a member of a religious organization may not appeal to secular courts against a decision made by a church tribunal within the area of its competence.
1892 Birth of Corrie ten Boom, Dutch devotional author whose family was arrested by the Gestapo during WWII for hiding Jewish refugees in their home. (Corrie's experience with the Nazis was depicted in the 1971 film, "The Hiding Place.")
1958 British apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in "Letters to an American Lady": 'I had been a Christian for many years before I really believed in the forgiveness of sins, or more strictly, before my theoretical belief became a reality to me.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime."

What a Difference 30 Years Makes...
1970: Killer weed.
2000: Weed killer.

New State Slogans...
Pennsylvania: Stop at One of Our Highway Exits

Male Language Patterns...
"Do you love me?" REALLY MEANS,
"I've done something stupid and you might find out."

Female Language Patterns...
"No, pizza's fine." REALLY MEANS,
"You cheap slob!"