0451 Attila's Hun's plunder Metz 1118 Pope Gelasius II excommunicated Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor 1348 Prague U, 1st university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV 1456 Louis van Burbon becomes prince-bishop of Luik 1498 Crowd storms Savonarola's convent San Marco Florence Italy 1509 France declares war on Venice 1521 Inquisitor-General Adrian Boeyens bans Lutheran books 1521 Magelhaes' fleet reaches Cebu 1584 Ieper surrenders to duke Van Parma 1625 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed German supreme commander 1645 Michael Cardozo becomes 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil 1652 Dutch establish settlement at Cape Town, South Africa 1655 Fabio Chigi replaces Pope Innocent X as Alexander VII 1712 Slave revolt (New York NY) 1724 Johann S Bach's "John Passion" premieres in Leipzig 1788 1st settlement in Ohio, at Marietta 1798 Territory of Mississippi is organized 1805 Premiere of Beethoven's "Eroica" (conducted by himself) 1818 General Andrew Jackson conquers St Marks FL from Seminole Indians 1827 English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches 1831 Dom Pedro abdicates to son, Dom Pedro II crowned emperor of Brazil 1860 Grand duke Frederik I liberalizes laws in Bathe 1862 Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee; Island #10 falls 1863 Battle of Charleston SC, failed Federal fleet attack on Fort Sumter 1865 Battle of Farmville VA 1888 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Yellow Face" (BG) 1891 Nebraska introduces the 8 hour work day 1901 SDAP demands General voting right/abolishing First Chamber 1902 Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms 1906 Act of Algeciras drawn between Moroccan police & banking business 1917 De Falla's ballet "El Sombrero de tres Picos", premieres in Madrid 1917 James Barries' "Old Lady Shows Her", premieres in London 1919 1st parcel of land is purchased for Cleveland Metroparks 1922 Naval Reserve #3, "Teapot Dome", leased to Harry F Sinclair 1923 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney 1923 Workers Party of America (NYC) becomes official communist party 1926 Forest fire burns 900 acres & kills 2 (San Luis Obispo CA) 1926 Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose 1927 Using phone lines TV is sent from Washington DC to New York NY 1928 44-year old New York Ranger General Manager Lester Patrick replaces his injured goaltender in a Stanley Cup game, & beats Montréal Maroons 2-1 1931 Seals Stadium opens in San Francisco 1933 Prohibition ends, Utah becomes 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment 1933 University Bridge, Seattle opens for traffic 1933 1st 2 Nazi anti-Jewish laws, bar Jews from legal & public service 1934 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspends his campaign of civil disobedience 1939 Italy annexes Albania 1940 1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T Washington) 1940 7th Golf Masters Championship Jimmy Demaret beats Lloyd Mangrum, shooting a 280 1941 British Generals O'Connor & Neame captured in North Africa 1942 Heavy German assault on Malta 1943 NFL adopts free substitution rule 1943 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini meet for an Axis conference in Salzburg 1943 British/US troops make contact at Wadi Akarit, South-Tunisia 1943 Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg seriously wounded in allied air raid 1944 General Montgomery speaks to Generals about invasion plan 1945 1st & last assault of German Rammkommando on US bombers 1945 US B-17's bombs range at Lüneburg 1945 US planes intercept Japanese fleet heading for Okinawa on a suicide mission; superbattleship Yamato & four destroyers are sunk 1946 Part of East Prussia incorporated into Russian SFSR 1946 10th Golf Masters Championship Herman Keiser wins, shooting a 282 1948 World Health Organization established by UN 1949 Rogers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific" opens at Majestic Theater (for 1928 performances) 1951 American Bowling Congress begins 1st masters tournament 1951 15th Golf Masters Championship Ben Hogan wins, shooting a 280 1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak 1953 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight 1953 Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden elected 2nd UN General-Secretary 1954 German government refuses to recognize DDR 1954 President Dwight Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China 1954 WALB TV channel 10 in Albany GA (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting 1956 Spain relinquishes her protectorate in Morocco 1956 10th NBA Championship Philadelphia Warriors beat Fort Wayne Pistons, 4 games to 1 1957 21st Golf Masters Championship Doug Ford wins, shooting a 283 1957 Last of New York's electric trolleys completes its final run 1958 Dodgers erect 42-foot screen in left field at Los Angeles Coliseum to cut down on home runs, since it is only 250 feet down the line 1959 Radar 1st bounced off sun, Stanford CA 1959 Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years 1962 Umrigar slams 172 vs West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 248 minutes 1962 Yugoslav ex-president Milovan Djilas returns to jail 1963 Yugoslavia proclaimed a Socialistic republic 1963 27th Golf Masters Championship Jack Nicklaus wins, shooting a 286 1963 Public stock offering of 115,000 shares in Milwaukee Braves withdrawn after only 13,000 shares are sold to 1,600 new investors 1965 Bevan Congdon makes a stumping as 12th man New Zealand vs Pakistan 1966 US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor (whoops!) 1967 Israeli/Syrian border fights 1967 Tom Donahue, San Francisco dj begins new radio format - Progressive (KMPX-FM) 1969 Dodgers' Bill Singer is credited with 1st official save, against Reds 1969 Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material 1969 Ted Williams begins managing Washington Senators, they lose to Yankees 8-4 1970 "Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds", premieres in NYC 1970 42nd Academy Awards - "Midnight Cowboy", John Wayne & Maggie Smith win 1970 Milwaukee Brewers (former Seattle Pilots) 1st game, lose to Angels 12-0 1971 Dismissal of Curt Flood's suit against baseball is upheld by Supreme Court 1971 President Richard Nixon orders Lieutenant Calley (My Lai) free 1971 WCJB TV channel 20 in Gainesville FL (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting 3-judge US Circuit Court of Appeals 1973 Cleveland sets day-game & opening-game attendance records of 74,420 1973 Doug Walters' best Test Cricket bowling, 5-66 vs West Indies Georgetown 1974 Herb Gardner's "Thieves", premieres in NYC 1976 Chinese Politburo fires vice-premier Deng Xiaoping 1977 Consumer Product Safety Commission bans the flame-retardant chemical "TRIS" 1977 Toronto Blues Jays 1st game, they beat Chicago 9-5 1978 President Jimmy Carter defers production of the neutron bomb 1978 Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC 1978 US Court of Appeals upholds Commissioner Kuhn's voiding of attempted player sales by A's owner Charlie Finley in June 1976 1979 Henri La Mothe dives 28' into 12 3/8" of water 1979 Houston Astro Ken Forsch pitches no-hitter against Atlanta Braves, 6-0 1979 Islander's Mike Bossy scores 4 goals against Flyers 1980 Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis 1981 Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 seconds 1981 Belgium Eyskens government forms 1982 Pittsburgh Penguins 1-New York Islanders 8-Preliminary-Islanders hold 1-0 lead 1982 Iran minister of Foreign affairs Ghotbzadeh arrested 1983 STS-6 specialist Story Musgrave & Don Peterson 1st STS spacewalk 1983 Washington Capitals 4-New York Islanders 2-Patrick Division Semifinals-series tied 1-1 1983 WIBC Championship Tournament in Las Vegas, attracts 75,480 women bowlers for 83-day event 1983 Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt 1984 Detroit Tiger Jack Morris pitches no-hitter against Chicago White Sox, 4-0 1985 1st live telecast of Easter Parade 1985 14th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Alice Miller 1985 New Jersey General Hershel Walker runs for USFL record 233 yards 1986 Wrestlemania II at 3 locations, Hulk Hogan beats King Kong Bundy 1987 National Museum of Female Physicians opens in Washington DC 1988 New Jersey Devils 3-2 over New York Islanders, 1st NHL playoff round tied 1-1 1988 Gerrit John Heijns murderer, arrested 1988 Russia announces it will withdraw its troops from Afghánistán 1988 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1989 New York Supreme Court takes America's Cup away from San Diego Yacht Club for using a catamaran against New Zealand; Appeals court eventually overrules 1989 Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, with about a dozen deaths 1990 Farm Aid IV concert 1990 Fire kills 110 on a ferry in Norway, in an unrelated event, 30 die in a ferry flip over in Burma 1990 John Poindexter (National Security Advisor) found guilty on Iran-Contra scandal 1990 Michael Milken pleads innocent to security law violations 1990 New York Rangers beat New York Islanders 5-2, Rangers lead 2-0 in preliminary NHL playoff 1990 BPAA US Open by Ron Palombi Jr 1991 George Washington Bridge raises toll from $3.00 to $4.00 1991 Wrestlemania VII scheduled in Los Angeles CA, actually performed 03/24 1991 "Big Love" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 41 performances 1991 "Shadowlands" closes at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC after 169 performances 1991 3rd Seniors Golf Tradition Jack Nicklaus 1991 Chris Johnson wins LPGA Ping/Welch's Golf Championship 1991 Compton Gamma Ray Observatory orbits Earth 1993 Dante Bichette hits the 1st Colorado Rockie homerun (Shea Stadium, New York) 1994 "Medea" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 82 performances 1994 1st night game at Cleveland's Jacobs Field, Indians 6 Seattle 2 1994 New York Yankees beat Texas Rangers 18-6 1994 Shannen Doherty files for divorce from Ashley Hamilton 1994 Singer Percy Sledge pleads guilty to tax evasion 1994 Vatican acknowledges Holocaust (Nazi's killing Jews) for 1st time 1995 Baseball exhibition season begins late due to strike 1996 8th Seniors Golf Tradition Jack Nicklaus wins 1996 Jayasuriya hits fastest ODI fifty off 17 balls vs Pakistan, Singapore 1996 Kelly Robbins wins Sacramento 12 Bridges LPGA Golf Classic 1996 Pakistan beat Sri Lanka to win Singer Cup in Singapore 1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Fort Myers FL on WRXK 96.1 FM ____________________________________________________________________
Missing In Action......
1965 BAKER ARTHUR D. SAN ANTONIO TX LAST SEEN ON DIVE THRU THIN CLOUDS 1965 LEWIS JAMES W. MARSHALL TX LAST SEEN ON DIVE THRU THIN CLOUDS 1965 ROARK WILLIAM MARSHALL BELLEVUE NE REMAINS NOT RETURNED AS REPORTED 03/77 BODY RECOVERED?? USG REPORTS REMAINS ID 3/77 1966 BARNETT ROBERT RUSSELL GLADEWATER TX 1966 WALKER THOMAS TAYLOR TOLEDO OR 1968 MC MURRAY FRED H. JR. CHARLESTON SC 1972 CARLSON ALBERT E. SAN LORENZO CA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG 1972 LULL HOWARD B. JR. DALLAS TX EVADED TO XT7297 WHERE KILLED 1972 POTTS LARRY F. SMYRNA DE "CAPTURED, DIED IN QUANG BIHN" 1972 SMITH MARK A. LIMA OH 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG 1972 SCHOTT RICHARD S. ST CROIX VI KILLED IN BUNKER AT XU731081 1972 WALKER BRUCE C. PUEBLO CO "EVADED 11 DAYS, NVA APPROACHING" 1972 WALLINGFORD KENNETH HOUSTON TX 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG
BB-39 USS ARIZONA- 04-07-2006
Births which occurred on April 07:
1506 St Francis Xavier Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan 1534 José de Anchieta Spanish jesuit/missionary (Brazilian Tupi-Indians) 1613 Gerard Dou Dutch painter (Night School) 1622 Louise Hollandine daughter of King Frederik V & Elizabeth Stuart 1629 Juan José of Austria, Spanish General/Governor of Netherlands 1648 Ferdinand van Kessel Flemish painter 1694 Coelestin Praelisauer composer 1699 Andreas Benedikt Praelisauer composer 1727 Henri Hardouin composer 1727 Michel Adanson French biologist (Natural History of Sénégal) 1745 Georg Druschetzky composer 1748 Georg Wenzel Ritter composer 1756 Charles Felix King of Sardina (1821-31) 1763 Domenico Dragonetti composer 1768 Karl Theodor Toeschi composer 1770 William Wordsworth England, poet laureate (The Prelude) 1772 F M Charles Fourier French socialist 1775 Francis C Lowell founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill 1780 William Ellery Channing US, Unitarian clergyman 1786 William Rufus DeVane King (D) 13th US Vice President (1853) 1801 Henry Eagle Commander (Union Navy), died in 1882 1803 Flora Tristan writer 1805 Francis Wilkinson Pickens (Governor-SC, Confederacy), died in 1869 1819 Hubert Leonard composer 1820 György Klapka Hungarian General/MP (Komárom-castle) 1822 Gershom Mott Major General (Union volunteers) 1826 Johann Hermann Berens composer 1841 Alfred Cogniaux Belgian botanicus 1841 Joseph H "Jozef" Neuhuys painter 1847 J P Jacobsen writer 1851 Otto Adolf Klauwell composer 1858 Adrien H Gerhard Dutch socialist politician (SDAP) 1859 Walter Camp Connecticut, father of American football (Yale) 1860 W K Kellogg a real corn flake 1869 David Grandison Fairchild US, botanist/explorer, brought plants to US 1870 Gustav Landauer German socialist 1870 Joseph Ryeland Belgian composer/Baron 1872 William Monroe Trotter famous African 1878 C M M Hathorn cricketer (South African Test centurion in 1905-06) 1878 Jozef C Bittremieux Flemish theologist (Virgin & Mother of God) 1882 Bert "Dainty" Ironmonger cricketer (belated Australian representative 1928-33) 1882 Kurt von Schleiger German chancellor (12/2/32-1/28/33) 1884 Charles Dodd English new testament authority 1884 Louis H N Bosch van Rosenthal Dutch politician/resistance fighter 1889 Gabriela Mistral Chilean poet (Desolación, Tenderness)/Nobel 1945 1890 Marjory Stoneman Douglas environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades) 1893 Allan W Dulles US diplomat/CIA head 1953-61 (Germany's Underground) 1893 Irene Castle dancer (leader in anti-vivisection movement) 1894 Gerald Brenan English writer 1895 Eduardo Toldra composer 1895 Lewis B Combs naval commander/civil engineer 1896 Benny Leonard lightweight boxing champion (1917-25) 1897 Walter Winchell Harlem New York NY, newscaster/columnist (Untouchables) 1897 Harald Sigurd Johan Saeverud composer 1899 Robert Marcel Casadesus French pianist/composer (Prix Diémer) 19-- Elaine Miles actress (Marilyn-Northern Exposure) 19-- Morris Johnson Jr drag race car driver 19-- Shane rocker (Electric Angels-I Believe, Whiplash) 1900 Tebbs Lloyd Johnson England, 50K walker (Olympics-bronze-1952) 1903 Willi Forst Austrian actor/director (Im weissen Rössl) 1908 Percy Faith conductor (Summer Place) 1908 Le Duan Vietnamese politician 1912 John Adrian Hope politician/businessman 1912 Valère Depauw Flemish writer 1914 Sydney Thompson rock climber 1915 Billie Holiday [Eleanora Fagan] Philadelphia PA, singer (Ain't Nobody's Business) 1915 Henry Kuttner US, sci-fi author (Dark World, As You Were, Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner) 1917 R G Armstrong Birmingham AL, actor (T.H.E. Cat) 1918 Peanuts Hucko Syracuse NY, dixieland clarinetist (Lawrence Welk Show) 1918 Ronald Howard Norwood England, actor (Naked Edge, Africa-Texas Style) 1918 C B Bertie Clarke cricketer (Barbados & West Indian leg-spinner) 1918 Peter Aryans [PCJ Vander] Dutch radio actor (Shoot Out) 1919 Edoardo Mangiarotti Italy, épée (Olympics-gold-1952) 1919 Ralph Flanagan Loraine OH, orchestra leader (Let's Dance) 1920 Ravi Shankar Benares India, sitar player (Sounds of India) 1920 Terence Edward Armstrong polar geographer 1922 Kenneth Howard Peacock composer 1924 Nick Perito Denver CO, orchestra leader (Don Knotts Show, Big Show) 1924 Harry Cordon comic/host (Fred Haché Show) 1924 Ikuma Dan composer 1926 Johannes Rood Dutch immunologist (Eurotransplant) 1928 Alan J Pakula director (All the President's Men, Klute) 1928 James [Scott Bumgarner] Garner Norman OK, actor (Rockford Files, Bret Maverick) 1928 James White UK, sci-fi author (Star Surgeon, Star Healer) 1930 Andrew Sachs actor (Manuel-Fawlty Towers) 1931 Donald Barthelme Philadelphia PA, writer (Snow White, Sadness) 1931 Daniel Ellsberg whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot 1932 Louis "Mr Bo" Collins Indianola MS, blues singer (If Trouble Was Money) 1933 Wayne Rogers Birmingham AL, actor (MASH, House Calls, Chiefs) 1934 Ian Richards Edinburgh Scotland, actor (Montgomery-Ike) 1935 Hodding Carter III press secretary (Jimmy Carter) 1935 Bobby Bare Irontown OH, country singer (Detroit City) 1935 Yvonne Fedderson co-founder (Childhelp USA) 1937 [Big] Charlie Thomas New York NY, jazz/rock singer (Drifters) 1938 Freddie Hubbard Indianapolis IN, jazz trumpeter (Art Blakey) 1938 Yvonne Lime Glendale CA, actress (Father Knows Best, Dobie Gillis) 1938 [Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr San Francisco CA, (Governor-Democrat-CA, 1975-83) 1939 David Frost Tenderdon England, TV host (That Was the Week That Was) 1939 Donald L Holmquest Dallas TX, astronaut 1939 Francis Ford Coppola Detroit MI, film maker (Godfather, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti) 1940 Jan Wilhelm Morthenson composer 1940 Patricia Paay Dutch singer (You are not hip) 1942 Edda Barends actress (Arthur & Eva) 1943 Roberta Shore [Schourup] Monterey Park CA, actress/singer (Virginian) 1943 Dennis Amiss cricketer (prolific English batsman) 1943 Mick Abrahams Luton Bedfordshire England, rock guitarist (Jethro Tull-This Was) 1943 Spencer Dryden New York NY, rock drummer (Jefferson Airplane-Go Ask Alice) 1946 Bill Kreutzmann Palo Alto CA, drummer (Grateful Dead, Grass Roots) 1946 Barbara Benary composer 1947 Patricia Bennett US singer (He's So Fine) 1949 John Oates guitarist/vocalist (Hall & Oates-Rich Girl) 1951 Janis Ian [Janis Eddy Fink] New York NY, folk singer (Society's Child, At 17) 1951 John Dittrich Union NJ, country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels) 1952 Bruce Gary Burbank CA, rock drummer (Knack-My Sharona) 1952 Jane Frederick US pentathlete (Olympics-7th-1976) 1953 Everard Endt US, yachting (Olympics-gold-1952) 1954 Donna White LPGA golfer 1954 Jackie Chan martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx) 1954 Tony Dorsett NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Heisman Trophy) 1955 Andrea Fisher artist 1956 Gail Lee Hirata LPGA golfer 1958 Alexandra Neil Boston MA, actress (Rose-Guiding Light) 1958 Tony Ayre rocker (Adventures-Sea of Love) 1960 Simon Climie rock vocalist/keyboardist (Climie Fisher-Love Changes) 1962 Andy Hampsten Columbus OH, cyclist (Olympics-96) 1962 Bonny Warner Mount Baldy CA, lugist 1962 Hugh Edward Ralph O'Connor actor (In the Heat of the Night) 1964 Helen Wadsworth S Wales, golfer (Curtis Cup 1990) 1964 Joe Durant Pensacola FL, Nike golfer (1992 Boise Open-7th) 1965 Alexander Mronz Cologne Germany, tennis star 1965 Kaushik Amalean cricketer (two Tests for Sri Lanka 1986-88) 1966 Teri Ann Linn Honolulu HI, actress (Kristen-Bold & Beautiful) 1967 Steve Wisniewski NFL guard (Oakland Raiders) 1968 Bill Bellamy actor (Fled, How to be a Player, Joey Breaker) 1968 Don[ald] Smith North Tonawanda NY, rower (Olympics-5th-1996) 1969 Clark Sheehan Denver CO, cyclist (Olympics-96) 1969 Jeremy Lincoln NFL cornerback (Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks) 1969 Peggy Clasen St Paul MN, speed skater (Olympics-1994) 1969 Ricky Bones Salinas Puerto Rico, pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees) 1969 Ricky Watters NFL running back (Philadelphia Eagles) 1970 Alexander Karpovtsev Moscow Russia, NHL defenseman (New York Rangers) 1970 Kevin Smith NFL cornerback (Dallas Cowboys) 1971 Cara Kendra Bernosky Miss Pennsylvania-USA (1997) 1971 Mark Thompson Russellville KY, pitcher (Colorado Rockies) 1971 Stephen Brimacombe Australian 100 meter/200 meter (Olympics-96) 1971 Victor Kraatz Berlin Germany, Canadian ice dancer (1995 World Champions-4th) 1972 Greg Clark tight end (San Francisco 49ers) 1972 Joanne Brown Australian softball catcher/1st baseman (Olympics-bronze-96) 1972 Lovett Purnell wide receiver (New England Patriots) 1972 Malcolm Huckaby NBA guard (Miami Heat) 1972 Shana Williams Bridgeton NJ, long jumper/heptathlete 1974 Anita Maxwell WNBA forward (Cleveland Rockers) 1975 Beverly Peele super model (Elle) 1975 Ronde Barber cornerback (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) 1975 Tiki Barber running back (New York Giants) 1975 Victoria Adams "Posh Spice", Hertfordshire, vocalist (Spice Girls) 1976 Erich Goldmann Dingolfing Germany, hockey defenseman (Team Germany 1998) 1978 Siobhan Drake-Brockman Bunbury Australia, tennis star (1994 Port Pirie) _________________________________________________________________
Deaths which occurred on April 07:
0030 Jesus crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem (scholars' estimate, according to astronomer Schaefer) 0924 Berengarius I Emperor of Italy, murdered 1444 John Capreolus French theologist (Libri IV), dies at about 50 1498 Charles VIII King of France (1483-98), dies at 27 1524 Philip of Burgundy bishop of Utrecht, dies 1614 El Greco Spanish painter (View of Toledo), dies (birth date unknown) 1719 Jean-Baptiste de la Salle French priest/theory/saint, dies at 67 1766 Tiberius Hemsterhuis Dutch classicist, dies at 81 1767 Franz Sparry composer, dies at 51 1768 Michel Mathieu composer, dies at 78 1778 Johann Balthasar Kehl composer, dies at 52 1783 Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer composer, dies at 71 1789 Abdül-Hamid I 27th sultan of Turkey (1774-89), dies at 64 1789 Peter Camper anatomist/animal scholar, dies at 66 1803 [François Dominique] Toussaint L'Ouverture Haitian revolutionary, dies 1810 Pieter L van de Kasteele Dutch politician/patriot, dies at 61 1833 Antoni Henryk Radziwill Lithuanian/Polish composer, dies at 57 1842 Henrik A Bjerregaard Norwegian writer/poet (Fjeldeventyret), dies at 50 1850 William Lisle Bowles English poet (14 Sonnets), dies at 87 1858 Anton Diabelli Austria publisher/composer, dies at 76 1862 Sydney Nelson composer, dies at 62 1871 Alexander grandson of English queen Victoria, dies at 1 day old 1871 Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff Austrian Admiral (Helgoland/Lissa), dies at 43 1875 Georg Herwegh writer, dies at 57 1877 Errico Petrella composer, dies at 63 1880 Diederich Krug composer, dies at 58 1881 Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte Corsican MP, dies at 65 1884 Maria van Ackere-Doolaeghe Flemish poet (Avondlamp), dies at 80 1891 P[hineas] T Barnum US circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 80 1917 Spyridon Filiskos Samaras composer, dies at 53 1932 Erv A Kelley US policeman, shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd 1933 Jan Erik/Eric Jan Hanussen Berlin astrologist/illusionist, murdered 1934 William Monroe Trotter civil rights activist/journalist, dies on 62nd birthday in Boston 1943 Jovan Ducic Serbian poet (Blue Legends), dies at 72 1950 Walter Huston dies at 66 1955 Theda Bara actress (Camille, Cleopatra, 2 Orphans), dies at 62 1958 Judge Jackson composer, dies at 75 1958 Klimenty Arkad'yevich Korchmaryov composer, dies at 58 1961 Marian Jordan radio comedienne (Fibber McGee & Molly), dies at 62 1961 Jesus Guridi composer, dies at 74 1961 Yusef Greiss composer, dies at 61 1967 Anne Morrison Chapin dies in West Hollywood 1968 Jim Clark of Scotland, former world driving champion, dies in race car at 32 1970 Josina Machel wife of Mozambique's 1st President Samora Machel, dies 1971 Charles F Pahud de Mortanges (Olympics-gold-1928, 32), dies at 74 1972 "Crazy" Joe Gallo mobster, killed at his 43rd birthday party 1972 Abeid Karume Tanzanian sheik/President, murdered 1972 Victor Wong actor (Mission to Moscow, King Kong) dies at 65 1973 Nick Stuart bandleader, dies of cancer at 69 1976 Mary Margaret McBride TV hostess (Mary Margaret McBride), dies at 76 1977 Siegfried Buback German Federal Republic procureur-General, murdered Attorney-General 1978 Ernest Kanitz composer, dies at 83 1979 Bruno Apitz writer, dies at 78 1982 Brenda Benet actress (Track of Thunder), commits suicide by gun at 36 1983 Gavin Gordon television actor (Romance, Lone Cowboy), dies at 82 1984 Samuel G Engel screenwriter/poet, dies of heart failure at 79 1984 Frank Church (Senator-Democrat-OH, 1957-81), dies at 59 1987 Maxine Sullivan [Williams] American actress (Going Places), dies at 75 1988 Cesar Bresgen Austrian composer/organist, dies at 74 1989 Tikhon Toropets patriarch of Russian Orthodox/saint, dies at 123(?) 1992 Alix Talton former Miss Georgia, dies of lung cancer at 72 1992 Clovis Ruffin fashion designer (T shirt dress), dies of AIDS at 46 1992 Rick Emery dies after long illness at 39 1993 Max Croiset Dutch actor/dramatist/director (Zeekant), dies at 80 1993 Richard Schmiechen dies of AIDS at 45 1993 S C (Billy) Griffith cricketer (England 1948-49, MCC secretary), dies 1994 Agathe Uwilingiyimana PM of Rwanda, assassinated 1994 Angelus Gottfried "Golo" Mann German/US historian, dies at 85 1994 Arthur Gordon Clough journalist, dies at 59 1994 Evert Hartman Dutch writer (War Without Friends), dies at 56 1994 François de Grossouvre President Mitterrand advisor, suicide at 76 1994 Kurt Cobain grunge rocker (Nirvana), commits suicide by gun at 27 1994 Lee Brilleaux British R&B-singer/guitarist (Stupidity), dies at 41 1995 Philip Vincent Belloc Jebb architect, dies at 68 1996 Ian Spurling ballet designer, dies at 59
BB-39 USS ARIZONA- 04-07-2006
1776 U.S. Navy captures first British warship
On this day in 1776, Navy Captain John Barry, commander of the American warship Lexington, makes the first American naval capture of a British vessel when he takes command of the British warship HMS Edward off the coast of Virginia. The capture of the Edward and its cargo turned Captain Barry into a national hero and boosted the morale of the Continental forces.
Barry was born in the seaboard county of Wexford, Ireland, in 1745 and offered his services to the Continental Congress upon the outbreak of the American Revolution. Congress purchased Barry’s ship, Black Prince, which it renamed Alfred and placed under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins. It was the first ship to fly the American flag, raised by John Paul Jones.
Barry served with distinction throughout the American Revolution. At sea, he had continued success with the Lexington. On land, he raised a volunteer force to assist General Washington in the surprisingly successful Trenton, New Jersey, campaign of 1776-77. On May 29, 1781, Barry was wounded while successfully capturing the HMS Atlanta and the HMS Trepassy while in command of a new ship, Alliance. He recovered and successfully concluded the final naval battle of the Revolutionary War with a victory over the HMS Sybylle in March 1783.
Barry’s outstanding career has been memorialized on both sides of the Atlantic. A bridge bearing his name crosses the Delaware River, and Brooklyn, New York, is home to a park named for him. In addition, four U.S. Navy ships and a building at Villanova University carry his name, and statues in his honor stand in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and his birthplace, Wexford, Ireland. On September 13, 1981, President Ronald Reagan declared “Commodore John Barry Day” to honor a man he called “one of the earliest and greatest American patriots, a man of great insight who perceived very early the need for American power on the sea.” _________________________________________________________________
1862 Battle of Shiloh concludes
Two days of heavy fighting conclude near Pittsburgh Landing in western Tennessee. The Battle of Shiloh became a Union victory after the Confederate attack stalled on April 6, and fresh Yankee troops drove the Confederates from the field on April 7.
Shiloh began when Union General Ulysses S. Grant brought his army down the Tennessee River to Pittsburgh landing in an effort to move on Corinth, Mississippi, 20 miles to the southwest. Union occupation of Corinth, a major rail center, would allow the Yankees to control nearly all of western Tennessee. At Corinth, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston did not wait for Grant to attack. He moved his army toward Grant, striking on the morning of April 6. Throughout the day, the Confederates drove the Yankees back but could not break the Union lines before darkness halted the advance. Johnston was killed during the first day, so General Pierre G. T. Beauregard assumed command of the Confederate force.
Now, Grant was joined by the vanguard of Buell's army. With an advantage in terms of troop numbers, Grant counterattacked on April 7. The tired Confederates slowly retreated, but they inflicted frightful casualties on the Yankees. By nightfall, the Union had driven the Confederates back to Shiloh Church, recapturing such grisly reminders of the previous days' battle such as the Hornets' Nest, the Peach Orchard, and Bloody Pond. The Confederates finally limped back to Corinth, thus giving a major victory to Grant.
The cost of the victory was high. Grant's and Buell's forces totaled about 62,000, of which 1,754 were killed, 8,408 were wounded, and 2,885 were captured or missing for a total of 13,047 casualties. Of 45,000 Confederates engaged, 1,723 were killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing for a total of 10,694 casualties. The 23,741 casualties were five times the number at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, and they were more than all of the war's major battles (Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, Fort Donelson, and Pea Ridge) to that date combined. It was a sobering reminder to all in the Union and the Confederacy that the war would be long and costly. __________________________________________________________________
1918 Winston Churchill urges talks with Russia
One month after Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, formally ending its participation in World War I, Winston Churchill secretly proposes to the British War Cabinet a method by which Britain’s former ally could be persuaded to reenter the war.
Russia’s withdrawal from the war was a direct result of the sweeping revolution of 1917 that brought the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in March and the rise to power of the radical socialist Vladimir Lenin and his followers, the Bolsheviks, in November. The departure left the other Allies reeling, as they assumed (correctly) that Germany, freed from its struggle in the east, would launch a renewed, potentially devastating, initiative on the Western Front.
Churchill, a former first lord of the Admiralty who had been forced to resign for his role in the disastrous Allied campaign at the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915, had returned to London after a stint spent serving in a battalion on the Western Front to become the minister of munitions in Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s cabinet. In his note to the War Cabinet of April 7, 1918, Churchill suggested that a prominent and well-respected representative of the Allies—perhaps former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt—should be dispatched to Russia to negotiate with the Bolsheviks a plan to reopen the Eastern Front.
In these negotiations, Churchill wanted Britain, France and the United States to offer support to the Bolsheviks in their efforts to overcome internal opposition to their regime in Russia. “Let us never forget,” Churchill reminded his colleagues, “that Lenin and Trotsky [Leon Trotsky, the Bolsheviks’ foreign minister] are fighting with ropes round their necks. They will leave office for the grave. Show them any real chance of consolidating their power, of getting some kind of protection against the vengeance of a counter-revolution, and they would be non-human not to embrace it.” The future prime minister and legendary statesman later proved to be an avid anti-Bolshevik and steadfast supporter of the White (opposition) forces in Russia in the post-World War I years; thus his April 1918 plan, which was not put into practice by his superiors, was a clear manifestation of his all-consuming drive to achieve victory for the Allies. _________________________________________________________________
1939 Italy invades Albania
On this day in 1939, in an effort to mimic Hitler's conquest of Prague, Benito Mussolini's troops, though badly organized, invade and occupy Albania.
Although the invasion of Albania was intended as but a prelude to greater conquests in the Balkans, it proved a costly enterprise for Il Duce. Albania was already dependent on Italy's economy, so had little to offer the invaders. And future exploits in neighboring nations, in Greece in particular, proved to be disastrous for the Italians. ___________________________________________________________________
1945 Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk by Allied forces
On this day in 1945, the Japanese battleship Yamato, ostensibly the greatest battleship in the world, is sunk in Japan's first major counteroffensive in the struggle for Okinawa.
Weighing 72,800 tons and outfitted with nine 18.1-inch guns, the battleship Yamato was Japan's only hope of destroying the Allied fleet off the coast of Okinawa. But insufficient air cover and fuel cursed the endeavor as a suicide mission. Struck by 19 American aerial torpedoes, it was sunk, drowning 2,498 of its crew. ____________________________________________________________________
1975 North Vietnamese forces begin preparations for final offensive
North Vietnamese forces prepare to launch the "Ho Chi Minh Campaign," designed to set the conditions for a final communist victory in South Vietnam. By this time, well over two-thirds of South Vietnam was under communist control as South Vietnamese forces had fallen back in panic when the North Vietnamese pressed the attack.
The Ho Chi Minh Campaign offensive was the final phase of the North Vietnamese plan to defeat South Vietnam. Despite the imposition of a cease-fire by the terms of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, fighting had continued between South Vietnamese forces and the North Vietnamese troops left in South Vietnam at the end of the 1972 Easter Offensive. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. They overran the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975.
President Richard Nixon had repeatedly promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese violated the Peace Accords in a major way. However, by the time the communists captured Phuoc Long, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon's promises to Saigon.
This situation emboldened the North Vietnamese, who launched Campaign 275 in March 1975, to capture the provincial capital of Ban Me Thuot (Darlac province) in the Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese defenders fought very poorly and were quickly overwhelmed by the North Vietnamese attackers. The United States did nothing. Stunned by the lack of response from Washington, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered his forces in the Highlands to withdraw to more defensible positions to the south. What started out as a reasonably orderly withdrawal soon degenerated into a panic that spread throughout the South Vietnamese armed forces. They abandoned Pleiku and Kontum with very little fighting and the North Vietnamese pressed the attack from the west and north. In quick succession, Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang in the north fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter.
As the North Vietnamese forces closed on the approaches to Saigon, the politburo in Hanoi issued an order to Gen. Van Tien Dung to launch the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, the final assault on Saigon itself. Dung ordered his forces into position for the final battle. The South Vietnamese 18th Division made a valiant final stand at Xuan Loc, 40 miles northeast of Saigon, in which the South Vietnamese soldiers destroyed three of Dung's divisions. After a week, however, the South Vietnamese succumbed to the North Vietnamese. By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. By the morning of April 30, it was all over. When the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the South Vietnamese surrendered. The Vietnam War was over.
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