1578 William Harvey - British physician who developed the theory of blood circulation
1746 Jean-Etienne Portalis - French lawyer who helped draft the Napoleonic Code
1868 Edmond Rostand - French playwright (Cyrano de Bergerac)
1873 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Russian piano virtuoso and composer (Prelude in C Minor), was born in Novgorod Province, Russia
1875 Edgar Wallace - British playwright, journalist, and novelist (Four Just Men, The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder, Red Aces, The Ringer) He was found abandoned when just 9 days old and was raised by a Billingsgate fish porter
1883 Lon Chaney - US actor who was known as The Man of a Thousand Faces (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Bushwackers, The Phantom of the Opera, The Unholy Three, He Who Gets Slapped, Oliver Twist, West of Zanzibar, The Horror of it All) His parents where deaf-mutes, and he had to communicate with them by mime. He was the father of Lon Chaney Jr.
1885 Wallace Beery - Actor (The Champ, Grand Hotel, We're in the Navy Now, Treasure Island, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Last of the Mohicans, China Seas) He was briefly married to Gloria Swanson. He was the half-brother of Noah Beery and uncle to actor Noah Beery Jr.
1884 Florence Blanchfield - US nurse who was the first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the US Army. She achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
1915 Art Lund - Actor (The Most Happy Fella, Donnybrook, Calamity Jane, Bucktown, The Last American Hero) and singer (Mam’selle)
1928 George Grizzard - Actor (Advise and Consent, Bachelor Party, False Witness, The Stranger Within, Scarlet)
1929 Jane Powell - Actress (Deep in My Heart, Hit the Deck, Small Town Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)
1930 Grace Lee Whitney - Actress (Star Trek, The Man From Galveston, Irma la Douce, A Public Affair) She also played Neila in the Batman episodes King Tut’s Coup and Batman’s Waterloo
1931 George Baker – Bulgiarian-born British actor (Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Little Lord Fauntleroy, No Job for a Lady, Robin of Sherwood, Journey’s End, The Canterville Ghost, Miss Marple: At Bertram’s Hotel, Triangle, I Claudius, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
1932 Debbie Reynolds - Actress (Singin' in the Rain, Tammy and the Bachelor, The Tender Trap, The Unsinkable Molly Brown), singer (Tammy, A Very Special Love) She was the mother of Carrie Fisher
1932 Gordon Jump - Actor (WKRP in Cincinnati, Sybil) He was also in the Perry Mason TV movie The Case of the Lost Love
1938 Ali MacGraw - Actress (Goodbye Columbus, Love Story, The Getaway, The Winds of War)
1939 Rudolph Isley - Singer with his family group The Isley Brothers (Shout, Twist & Shout, It's Your Thing, This Old Heart of Mine)
1954 Annette O'Toole - Actress (Smallville, Superman III, Cat People, 48 Hrs., It, Nash Bridges)
1960 Michael Praed – British actor (Robin of Sherwood, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Timewatch, Staggered)
1973 Kris Marshall – British actor (My Family, Murder City, Traffic Light, Death at a Funeral, Funland, The Merchant of Venice, Love Actually, The Four Feathers, Sanditon, Death in Paradise, Heist)
1976 David Oyelowo – British actor (Spooks/MI-5, Selma, The Last King of Scotland, As You Like It, Who Do You Love, The Help, Red Tails, Interstellar, Les Misérables, Jack Reacher)
1983 Matt Lanter – Actor (90210, Commander in Chief, Sorority Row, Disaster Movie, Heroes)
Died this Day
1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine - Who married Louis VII of France in 1137, but divorced him in 1152 and married Henry II, the future King of England
1406 Robert III - King of Scotland. He died when he learned his younger son James had been on a vessel that was captured by the English
1917 Scott Joplin, age 49 - US composer and pianist who was known as the King of Ragtime (Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer)
1946 Noah Beery, age 63 – Actor (Mark of Zorro, Vanishing American, The Drifter) He died in the arms of his brother Wallace, on Wallace's birthday
1984 Marvin Gaye - Singer (I Heard It Through the Grapevine) He was shot to death by his father in Los Angeles the day before his 45th birthday. The elder Gaye pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and received probation
1988 Jim Jordan - Star of the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly. Jordan, a former vaudeville performer, launched the radio show in 1935 with his wife, Marian. The show ran for more than 20 years
On this Day
1564 All Fools' Day is said to have originated when King Charles IX of France changed the calendar. Prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, the April 1st date was observed as New Year's Day by cultures as varied as the Roman and the Hindu
1734 Canada's first lighthouse was put into service, at the entrance to the harbour of the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, now part of Nova Scotia. The lighthouse, constructed by the French, was a 70 foot-high circular tower made of coursed rubble. The actual light was a circle of cod-liver oil fed wicks set in a copper ring mounted on cork floats. This light was said to be visible for 18 nautical miles, an impressive distance for those times. A small duty was levied on vessels using Louisbourg Harbour to cover the expense of construction and upkeep - including the lightkeepers salary. This was a profitable light, since the duty covered the cost of building it, and more. As in all these early open-flame lights, much heat was generated inside the lantern. The lantern design proved faulty, for the wood had no protection from the high temperatures, resulting in the gutting of the lantern by fire, one night in September, 1736. The stone tower survived, and the reconstructed lantern was designed to prevent a similar occurrence. The project engineer used a larger reservoir, placed in a water jacket to dissipate the heat, and with wicks spaced further apart so that the heat generated would be less intense. The entire lantern was designed with six stone pillars surmounted by a vault-shaped brick roof covered with lead, with vents fitted into each of the 6 faces, and a chimney. During the British seige of Louisbourg in 1758, the tower was heavily damaged. The light was deemed beyond repair and left to disintegrate, and was not rebuilt until the mid-19th century
1789 The US House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House Speaker
1823 The Lords of the Treasury, the British government's finance division, requested a study of mathematician Charles Babbage's proposal for a mechanical calculator called the Difference Engine. Eventually, the Lords agreed to provide Babbage with funds to develop the engine. Babbage devoted the next ten years of his life to building the Difference Engine. Unfortunately, after spending $17,000 of government funds and nearly the same amount from his own pocket, Babbage ran out of money and was never able to build the machine. In 1854, a Swedish engineer finally succeeded in constructing a Difference Engine based on Babbage's theories
1841 Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was published. It is generally considered to be the first detective story
1853 Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first US city to pay its fire-fighters a regular salary
1868 In Canada, the government fixed a uniform first class postal rate of 3˘. They also established the Post Office Savings Bank
1873Five-hundered and forty-six people died when the luxury liner Atlantic was wrecked on a reef near Mars Rock, outside Halifax Harbour. The ship, sailing from Liverpool to New York, turned into Halifax Harbour to get coal, but struck a reef near Mars Rock, Meagher's Island. Local fishermen managed to save 300
1875 The Times of London published Britain's first weather chart
1877 Prospector Edward Schieffelin began his search for silver in what is now southern Arizona. He ignored the taunts of his fellow miners who predicted he would only find his own tombstone. Later that year, Schieffelin was not only alive and well, but he had found one of the richest silver veins in the West. He named it the Tombstone Lode. The Tombstone Mining District and the town of Tombstone quickly became major economic and social centres of the Southwest, and by 1881, more than 10,000 people lived in the region. The Wild West spirit of the town and large amounts of money attracted gamblers, criminals, and would-be lawmen. Of these, Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers are the most famous today, because of their brief shoot-out with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in 1881
1891 The telephone link between London and Paris was opened
1909 The first double decker buses in Britain began operating, in Widnes, Cheshire
1918 Prohibition was declared in Alberta
1918 During the First World War, the Royal Air Force was established in Britain with the merging of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. The RAF took its place beside the British navy and army as a separate military service with its own ministry. By the war's end, in November 1918, the RAF had gained air superiority along the western front , and it’s strength was nearly 300,000 officers and airmen, and more than 22,000 aircraft
1932 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police absorbed the provincial police forces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta
1935 General Electric announced it had developed a method for making metal radio tubes. The metal tubes were smaller, lighter and sturdier than the previously used glass tubes. They were also more effective at conducting and radiating heat, which improved short-wave reception
1942 Gasoline rationing went into effect in Canada as Canadians first became acquainted with ration books. A national speed limit of 40 miles an hour was proclaimed. Food ration cards were issued later in the year. Official rationing remained in effect for five years
1945 US forces invaded Okinawa during World War II
1946 Tidal waves struck the Hawaiian Islands, killing more than 170 people
1949 Tupperware was patented in the US
1960 The first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral
1970 President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television
1975 Canadian radio stations first started giving the temperature in Celsius
1976 Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple. Their goal was to develop and sell personal computers
1983 US Interior Secretary James Watt declined to invite the Beach Boys to Fourth of July celebrations in Washington. Watt said rock 'n' roll bands attract the wrong element, but changed his mind under pressure from a powerful Beach Boys fan - First Lady Nancy Reagan
1999 Nunavut, Canada's newest northern territory, officially came into existence. It was carved out of the eastern half of the Northwest Territories
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