1743 Edmund Cartwright - British rector who invented the power loom in 1785, however, it was not initially welcomed, for fear of job losses. He also invented wool combing machines
1766 Robert Bailey Thomas - US founder and editor of The Farmer's Almanac
1815 Anthony Trollope - British surveyor and novelist (Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Can You Forgive Her?, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Finn, The Way We Live Now, He Knew He Was Right) He also was responsible for having the first pillar boxes erected in St Helier, in the Channel Islands where, while working as a British Post Office surveyor, he noted, “there were no receiving offices for people in distant parts of the town”
1874 John R. Pope - US architect who designed the National Gallery of Art
1905 Robert Penn Warren - US novelist and poet (All the King's Men, Promises: Poems, Now and Then: Poems) He was the first official poet laureate of the US
1906 William Joyce - US born British traitor who collaborated with Germany during World War II, and broadcast propaganda from Germany to Britain in a curious British accent, which earned him the nickname of Lord Haw Haw
1922 J.D. Cannon – Actor (McCloud, Cannon, Krakatoa East of Java, Cool Hand Luke, Alias Smith and Jones)
1923 Freddy Scott - Singer (Hey Girl, Are You Lonely For Me)
1928 Johnny Griffin - Jazz musician on the tenor sax (Chicago Riffin', Flying Home, Soft and Furry, Honeybucket)
1930 Richard Donner – Producer & director (Ladyhawke, Maverick, Lethal Weapon, Superman, Conspiracy Theory, Radio Flyer, Scrooged) He also directed many TV episodes (The FBI, Get Smart, The Wild Wild West, Gilligan's Island, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, The Man from UNCLE, The Fugitive, Route 66, The Twilight Zone, The Rifleman)
1934 Shirley MacLaine - Actress (The Pyjama Game, The Apartment, Terms of Endearment, Gypsy in My Soul, Irma La Douce, The Turning Point, Guarding Tess, Downton Abbey) She is the sister of Warren Beatty
1936 Jill Ireland - British actress (Assassination, Death Wish 2, Hard Times) She was married to Charles Bronson, and she was also a former Monte Carlo Ballet dancer
1940 Michael Parks – Actor (Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Planet Terror, Wicked, From Dusk Till Dawn, Twin Peaks, The Return of Josey Wales, Sidewinder 1) He played Cal Leonard in the Perry Mason episode The Case of Constant Doyle
1940 Sue Grafton – US author who mainly writes mysteries (A Is for Alibi, O Is for Outlaw, Kezia Dane, The Lolly-Madonna War) Grafton was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up surrounded by books. Her father, a Louisville attorney, wrote three critically acclaimed mystery novels, and her mother was a passionate reader
1942 Barbra Streisand - Singer (Evergreen, People, The Way We Were, You Don't Bring Me Flowers), actress (Funny Girl, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, The Owl and the Pussycat, Hello Dolly, Funny Lady, The Way We Were), director (Yentl, The Prince of Tides) She is married to James Brolin
1943 David Morrell – Canadian-born author (Rambo: First Blood, Brotherhood of the Rose, Burnt Sienna, Testament, The Protector, Last Reveille, The Fifth Profession, Extreme Denial)
1945 Doug Clifford - Drummer with the group Creedence Clearwater Revival (Lookin' Out My Back Door, Up Around the Bend, Bad Moon Risin’, Susie Q)
1953 Eric Bogosian – Actor (Dolores Claiborne, Talk Radio, Under Siege 2, Deconstructing Harry)
1968 Aidan Gillen – Irish actor (The Wire, Game of Thrones, Love/Hate, Shanghai Knights, Poirot: Five Little Pigs, Lorna Doone)
1969 Rory McCann – Scottish actor (Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans, Hot Fuzz, Alexander, The Book Group)
1969 Melinda Clarke – Actress (The OC, Spawn, Return to Two Moon Junction, Days of Our Lives)
1977 Eric Balfour – Actor (24, Haven, Six Feet Under, What Women Want, The OC, Bloodlines: Murder in the Family)
Died this Day
1731 Daniel Defoe - British author (Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, Roxana, The Life of Captain Singleton) He died at his lodgings, in Ropemaker’s Alley, Moorfields
1942 Lucy Maud Montgomery, age 68 – Canadian author (Anne of Green Gables series, Emily of New Moon series, Kilmeny of the Orchard, The Blue Castle) She was born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, and died in Toronto, Ontario
1947 Willa Cather, age 73 – US author (O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, April Twilights, The Troll Garden, One of Ours, , Death Comes to the Archbishop, Shadows on the Rock)
1967 Vladimir Komarov, age 40 - Russian cosmonaut who became the first known space fatality when his spacecraft, Soyuz I, tangled in the re-entry parachute
1974 Bud Abbott, age 78 – Entertainer who was half of the famous Abbott and Costello comedy team (Who's on First?, The Abbott & Costello Show, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man) Born in 1895 to a family of circus performers, Abbott teamed up with Lou Costello in 1936 to form a vaudeville comedy act. They got their big break performing on Kate Smith's popular radio show in 1938. The pair went on to have their own radio show from 1940 to 1949 and made more than 30 films from 1940 to 1956. Although they made millions from their films, Abbott died penniless after an eight-year battle with the IRS over back taxes
1986 Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, age 89 - The former Mrs. Simpson, died in Paris. King Edward VIII abdicated less than a year after acceding the throne in 1936, to marry the US divorcee. He told the people of Britain he could not go on without the "woman I love"
1997 Pat Paulsen, age 69 – Comedian, actor (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Harper Valley PTA, They Still Call Me Bruce, Bloodsuckers From Outer Space) and perennial US Presidential candidate
On this Day
1792 The French national anthem, La Marseillaise, was composed by Captain Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle
1800 The US Library of Congress was established in Washington, DC, as President John Adams approved legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress." The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801 and were stored in the US Capitol, the library's first home. The first library catalogue, dated April 1802, listed 964 volumes and nine maps. Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 17 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints, and drawings
1877 Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South
1915 The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians during World War I
1916 On Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organisation of Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule. Assisted by militant Irish socialists, the Republicans rioted and attacked British provincial government headquarters across Dublin and seized the Irish capital's General Post Office. Following these successes, they proclaimed the independence of Ireland and by the next morning were in control of much of the city. Later that day, however, British authorities launched a counteroffensive, and in a few days the uprising had been crushed
1949 Sweets and chocolates were no longer rationed in Britain
1952 Canadian actor Raymond Burr made his TV acting debut on the Gruen Guild Playhouse in an episode titled, The Tiger. He would go on to star in the Perry Mason and Ironside series
1953 British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace
1962 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first coast-to-coast satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California and Westford, Massachusetts. Signals from California were bounced off the first experimental communications satellite, Echo I, and received in Massachusetts
1980 The US launched an abortive attempt to free the US hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight US servicemen. With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans. The mission was then cancelled at the staging area in Iran, but during the withdrawal one of the retreating helicopters collided with one of six C-130 transport planes, killing eight soldiers and injuring five. The next day, a sombre Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days
1983 Canadian Cliff Thorburn became the first person to record a maximum 147 break at the World Professional Snooker Championships in England
1990 The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope
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