AD 121 Marcus Aurelius - Roman Emperor who was trained as a philosopher. He proved a noble, civilised emperor, despite ruling through difficult times. He found time to write his Meditations, revealing his loneliness. He also founded chairs of philosophy
1564 William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on this day. No actual birth records exist, although it is believed he was born on April 23rd. Scholars celebrate his birthday on April 26th
1785 John James Audubon - US ornithologist, artist and naturalist. He was born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. He was the illegitimate son of French sea captain Jean Audubon and a servant, Jeanne Rabine. Audubon's mother died shortly after his birth and while still a young child, he and his half-sister went to live at their father's home in Le Port Launay de Couëron, France. During a happy childhood, Audubon studied geography, fencing, and mathematics, but was most enthusiastic about exploring the out-of-doors and collecting and drawing birds' nests, eggs, and other curiosities. At eighteen, Audubon immigrated to the US to avoid military conscription and to operate Mill Grove, a farm near Philadelphia that his father had purchased in 1789. Through mismanagement and neglect Audubon lost the farm, beginning a long series of early commercial failures. At Mill Grove, Audubon met Lucy Bakewell, whom he married in 1808. They moved to Louisville, Kentucky, then to Henderson, Kentucky, and in later years to New Orleans. Because he was often absent on collecting excursions, his wife, who encouraged him in his drawings, worked as a governess and schoolteacher to support the family. Fascination with birds inspired journeys as far South as the Florida Keys and as far North as Labrador, Canada. From 1810 to 1819, the family lived in Henderson, Kentucky, a town located along the Mississippi flyway, an important migratory route for birds. He toured Europe in 1826 to raise money for his project of publishing his Birds of North America. The four-volume project consisted of 435 hand-coloured plates, and was published by London engraver Robert Havell between 1827-38. In 1886, George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, founded the Audubon Society, forerunner of the National Audubon Society. Grinnell created the organisation, named for John James Audubon, to address the uncontrolled hunting of nearly extinct species such as the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon. After 1900, the National Association of Audubon Societies supported the effort to end US participation in international trade in wild bird feathers. Extermination threatened many birds hunted for plumage essential to fashionable women's hats. Passage of H.R. 3321 in 1913 banned importation of such feathers except for scientific or educational purposes
1822 Frederick Law Olmsted - US landscape architect who designed Central Park in New York City, and a series of parks in Boston which comprise the “Emerald Necklace”
1888 Anita Loos - Author and playwright (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, I Married an Angel, San Francisco, Saratoga, The Women)
1886 Ma Rainey - US singer known as "the mother of the blues"
1894 Rudolf Hess – Egyptian-born Nazi party secretary and deputy to Adolph Hitler. He caused an international sensation when he parachuted into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a truce between Britain and Germany. He was imprisoned by the British in the Tower of London, the last man ever to be held there under lock and key. After the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau prison by the Nuremberg tribunal, and he died in prison, in 1987
1898 John Grierson - Scottish film producer, director and documentary film pioneer who invented the term "documentary." He was the founding head of the National Film Board of Canada
1900 Charles Richter - Seismologist who invented the Richter scale for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes. He was born in Hamilton, Ohio
1914 Bernard Malamud - US novelist and short-story writer (The Fixer, The Tenants, Idiots First)
1917 I.M. Pei – Chinese-born US architect (JF Kennedy Library in Boston, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, The National Gallery in Washington DC, Louvre Pyramid in Paris)
1922 Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé – Former Governor-General of Canada and Speaker of the House of Commons, born at Prud'homme, Saskatchewan. She was the first woman to hold those posts
1926 Bambi Linn - Dancer, actress (Oklahoma!, Your Show of Shows)
1933 Carol Burnett - Entertainer, comedienne (The Carol Burnett Show, The Garry Moore Show, Plaza Suite, Mama’s Family, Pete 'n' Tillie)
1938 Duane Eddy - Songwriter-musician (Rebel-'rouser, Forty Miles of Bad Road, Because They're Young) and actor (Because They're Young, A Thunder of Drums, The Wild Westerners, The Savage Seven, Kona Coast) He did a cover version of Henry Mancini’s Theme from Peter Gunn
1941 Claudine Clark - Singer (Party Lights, Freddy Blue Eyes, Come On and Dance)
1942 Claudine Auger - French actress (Thunderball, Secret Places, Credo) She also played Isadora Klein in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Three Gables
1942 Bobby Rydell - Singer (Wild One, We Got Love, Swingin' School, Kissin' Time, Volaré, Forget Him) and actor (Bye Bye Birdie, That Lady From Peking)
1943 Gary Wright - Rock musician (Dream Weaver, Love is Alive, Really Wanna Know You)
1947 Warren Clarke – British actor (Dalziel and Pascoe, A Respectable Trade, Sleepers, In With the Flynns, Lewis: Dark Matter, Blackadder: The Cavalier Years, Top Secret!, The Jewel in the Crown, Reilly: The Ace of Spies, Firefox, Shelley, A Clockwork Orange) He played Colonel Gould in the Sherlock Holmes movie Hands of a Murderer He also played Danny Keever in The Sweeney episode Contact Breaker
1956 Ron Donachie – Scottish actor (Game of Thrones, Lewis: Falling Darkness, The Bill)
1958 Giancarlo Esposito – Danish-born American actor (Once Upon a Time, The Usual Suspects, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Gospel Hill, Ali, Homicide: Life on the Street, Do the Right Thing, Taps)
1961 Joan Chen – Actress (On Deadly Ground, Judge Dredd, In a Class of His Own, Twin Peaks)
1963 Jet Li – Chinese martial arts expert and actor (Kiss of the Dragon, Romeo Must Die, Hero, Lethal Weapon 4, The Expendables series of movies, Mulan, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Badges of Fury)
1965 Kevin James – Actor (The King of Queens, Grilled, Hitch, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry)
1965 Susannah Harker – British actress (Heat of the Sun, Pride and Prejudice, House of Cards) She’s the sister of actress Caroline Harker. She played Adelaide Savage in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Dying Detective
1967 Marianne Jean-Baptiste – British actress (Without a Trace, Secrets & Lies, Spy Game, A Murder of Crows, Blindspot, Broadchurch, Training Day)
1977 Tom Welling – Actor (Smallville, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Fog, Judging Amy)
1978 Stana Katic – Canadian actress (Castle, Quantum of Solace, The Spirit, 24, Company Man)
1980 Jordana Brewster – Actress (The Fast and the Furious, Chuck, Nearing Grace, Fast Five, The Invisible Circus, The Faculty, Dallas)
Died this Day
1865 John Wilkes Booth - Assassin of US President Abraham Lincoln. After shooting President Lincoln, Booth injured his leg badly when he jumped to the stage to escape. He managed to hobble outside to his horse, and rode to Virginia with David Herold, stopping at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who placed splints on Booth's legs. They then hid in a tobacco barn on Richard Garrett's farm near Bowling Green, Virginia, as thousands of Union troops combed the area looking for them. When the troops finally caught up with Booth and Herold, they gave them the option of surrendering before the barn was burned down. Herold surrendered but Booth remained in the barn, daring the Union soldiers to come in after him. Minutes later, a single shot from an unknown gun felled Lincoln's assassin. There has been speculation that the fatal shot may have been self-inflicted
1970 Gypsy Rose Lee, age 56 - Actress, dancer, strip-tease artist (You Can't Have Everything). She was the subject of the Broadway show & film Gypsy and the sister of actress June Havoc
1976 Sidney James - South African born British comedian of stage, screen, radio and television (Bless This House, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Belles of St. Trinian's and numerous Carry on… movies) He died after collapsing on stage while performing at Sunderland, less than 2 weeks before his 63rd birthday
1984 William "Count" Basie, age 79 - US jazz pianist and bandleader who perfected the big band sound, attracting many leading musicians
1989 Lucille Ball, age 77 - Comedienne and actress (I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Yours Mine and Ours, Mame) She died of a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles
On this Day
1607 An expedition of English colonists, including Captain John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Virginia, to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere
1625 Jesuit priest Jean de Brébeuf sailed for Quebec from Dieppe, France with two priests and two lay brothers. He was the founder of the Huron Mission
1778 Captain James Cook sailed from Nootka Sound, tracing the coast of British Columbia and Alaska
1860 The Second Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada was formed from six independent militia units. It later became the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, the oldest regiment in the Canadian regular army
1895 The trial of Oscar Wilde began at the Old Baily in London. He was accused of homosexuality, which was then a crime in England. He was released on bail
1918 Women in Nova Scotia were granted the right to vote
1921 The first motor cycle police patrols went on duty in London, England
1923 Albert, Duke of York, married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey. When his brother, Edward VIII abdicated the throne, he became King George VI. After George VI’s death, his widow became the Queen Mother. Their daughter became Queen Elizabeth II
1964 The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania
1983 The first Canadian-built airship, the Skyship 500, took her maiden flight at the Toronto Airport. The airship had a capacity of 10 people, and used non-flammable helium
1986 The worst nuclear accident in history occurred at the Chernobyl plant near Kiev, in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. Forty-thousand people were forced from the area and at least 31 died as a result of the accident. The outside world was not aware of the accident until April 28th, when Scandinavian technicians detected abnormally high radiation levels
1992 Worshippers in Moscow openly celebrated the Russian Orthodox Easter for the first time in 74 years
14
Responses