April 9

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

Psalm  25:5

April is:

• National Garden Month - To honor America's gardeners at the beginning of the new gardening year. Sponsor: Garden Council,
  
  
• National Humor Month - Focuses public attention on how people can develop a better sense of humor to enrich their lives. laughter is a great way to cope-and it's cheaper than vodka! Sponsor: Jester Press
  
  
• National Occupational Therapy Month - To thank occupational therapists.Sponsor: American Occupational Therapy Association

Today is:

• African Methodist Episcopal Church established (1816) - Rev. Richard Allen formed the first African Methodist Episcopal Church. 
  
  
• Astronauts Day - The first 7 U.S. astronauts were selected in 1959.
  
  
• Civil War ended (1865) - General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
  
  
• Dry milk patented (1877).
  
  
• Longest Word Day - The longest word (207,000 letters) was published in a science journal.
  
  
• National Former Prisoners of War Recognition Day 
  
  
• TV Guide Birthday - TV Guide published its first issue in 1953. 
  
  
• Winston Churchill Day - In 1963, Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen.

Born on this Day

• 1649: James Scott Duke of Monmouth
  

• 1865: Erich Ludendorff, German general during World War I
  

• 1879 : W.C. Fields (Claude William Dukinfield), comedian and actor
  

• 1898: Paul Robeson, stage and screen actor best remembered for his role in Othello
  

• 1903: Actor Ward Bond (Wagon Train, Gone with the Wind, Drums Along the Mohawk, It's a Wonderful Life, The Maltese Falcon, Mister Roberts, Rio Bravo, Tall in the Saddle, The Time of Your Life)
  

• 1905: J. William Fulbright, U.S. senator from Arkansas who opposed the Vietnam War
  

• 1916: Jazz musician Julian Dash
  

• 1926: Hugh Hefner, founder and publisher of Playboy magazine
  

• 1932: Naturalist Jim Fowler
  

• 1932: Singer Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes, Your True Love, Honey Don't, Pink Pedal Pushers, Shine Shine, Cotton Top, Restless; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987)
  

• 1933: Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo (Casino Royale, The Brain, Is Paris Burning, Swashbuckler, Le Magnifique, Love and the Frenchwoman)
  

• 1935: Comedian Avery Schreiber
  

• 1939: Actress Michael Learned (The Waltons, All My Sons, Deadly Business, A Christmas Without Snow)
  

• 1942: Country singer Margo Smith
  

• 1942: Actor Brandon de Wilde (Shane, Hud, In Harm's Way, The Member of the Wedding, Goodbye My Lady, All Fall Down)
  

• 1953: Country singer Hal Ketchum
  

• 1954: Actor Dennis Quaid
  

• 1955: Humorist Jimmy Tingle ("60 Minutes II")
  

• 1957: Golfer Severiano Ballesteros
  

• 1965: Actress-model Paulina Porizkova
  

• 1969: Rock singer KevMart(Candlebox)
  

• 1979: Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam  
  

• 1980: Actor Ryan Northcott
     

Events in History on this day
  

• 0193: In the Balkans, the distinguished soldier Septimius Seversus is proclaimed emperor by the army in Illyricum.
  

• 0715: Constantine ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
  

• 1241: In the Battle of Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeat Poles and Germans. Two views of the Battle of Liegnitz.
  

• 1454: The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence sign a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.
  

• 1682: French explorer Robert La Salle reached the Mississippi River.
  

• 1770: Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay on the Australian continent.
  

• 1833: Peterborough, New Hampshire opened the first municipally supported public library.
  

• 1865: The Civil War effectively came to an end today, as Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The generous terms of the surrender allowed Confederate officers to keep their sidearms and all troops who owned their horses were permitted to take them home for the spring planting.
  

• 1872: S.R. Percy of New York City received a patent for dried milk.
  

• 1905: The first aerial ferry bridge went into operation in Duluth, Minnesota.
  

• 1912: The Boston Red Sox defeated Harvard 2-0 on this, the day that Fenway Park was opened for the first time. The venerable ball park is still in use today and ranks as one of the most beautiful in the major leagues.
  

• 1928: Mae West made her glamorous debut on Broadway in the classic production of "Diamond Lil".
  

• 1939: Singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial Washington DC after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
  

• 1940: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
  

• 1942: American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulated to Japanese forces; the surrender was followed by the notorious "Bataan Death March" which claimed nearly ten-thousand lives.
  

• 1947: A series of tornadoes Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 169 lives.
  

• 1950: Bob Hope hosted a "Star-Spangled Review" this night on NBC-TV. Hope became the highest paid performer for a single show on TV to that time. The "Star-Spangled Review" was a musical special Hope's first television appearance.
  

• 1959: NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
  

• 1963: British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary US citizen.
  

• 1963: President Kennedy opened the baseball season by throwing out the first ball at Washington's new District of Columbia Stadium, now known as Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (RFK).
  

• 1965: "TIME" magazine featured a cover with the entire "Peanuts" gang on this day. It was a good day for Charlie Brown.
  

• 1965: The newly built Houston Astrodome featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees. President Lyndon B. Johnson attended the opening of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The first indoor stadium was termed the "Eighth Wonder of the World". (The Astros won, 2-to-1.)
  

• 1968: Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., is buried.
  

• 1970: Paul McCartney announces official split of the Beatles.
  

• 1984: Actress Shirley MacLaine received her first Academy Award for the film, "Terms of Endearment", at the 56th annual Oscars presentation. MacLaine had been nominated five times over 26 years before winning the statuette.
  

• 1985: Tom Seaver broke a major-league baseball record that had been held by Walter Johnson as he started his 15th opening-day game.
  

• 1987: Dikye Baggett became the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson's disease. The procedure took place in Nashville, TN.
  

• 1989: Hundreds of thousands of people marched Washington DC, demanding continued safe and legal abortion and urging the Supreme Court to uphold its 1973 "Roe versus Wade" decision.
  

• 1990: The baseball season opened a week late because of a labor dispute.
  

• 1990: Humorist John Henry Faulk, who'd challenged 1950's blacklisting in the entertainment industry, died in Austin, Texas, at age 76.
  

• 1991: The 1991 Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded to John Updike for "Rabbit at Rest"; the drama prize went to Neil Simon for "Lost in Yonkers." In journalism, The Des Moines Register received the gold medal for public service for its series about rape victim Nancy Ziegenmeyer, who'd allowed her name and pictures to be used. 
  

• 1992: Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges.
  

• 1993: The Reverend BenjamChavis was chosen to head the NAACP, succeeding BenjamHooks.
  

• 1994: Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ordered UN troops to use "all available means" to roll back Serb military gains the Muslim enclave of Gorazde. The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on an eleven-day mission that included mapping the Earth's surface three dimensions.
  

• 1995: Alberto Fujimori was re-elected president of Peru.
  

• 1995: Two suicide bombings on buses in the Gaza Strip killed seven Israelis and an American college student.
  

• 1995: Women's rights supporters rallied near the US Capitol to protest violence against women.
  

• 1996: In a dramatic shift of purse-string power, President Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law. 
  

• 1996: Dan Rostenkowski, the once-powerful House Ways and Means chairman, pleaded guilty to two mail fraud charges in a deal that brought with it a 17-month prison term. 
  

• 1998: The National Prisoner of War Museum opened Andersonville, Georgia, the site of the infamous Civil War prison camp.
  

• 1998: More than 150 Muslims died a stampede which occurred on the last day of the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.   
  

• 1999: A judge ordered the federal government to pay $909 million to Glendale Federal Bank in California for breach of contract (the ruling stemmed from a 1996 Supreme Court decision that said the government broke its contract with Glendale and two other thrifts when it changed the rules on how they must count their assets).
  

• 1999: : Niger's president, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was gunned down by members of his own Presidential Guard.
  

• 2000: President Eduard Shevardnadze won a second term as leader of Georgia. 
  

• 2000: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori fell just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff for an unprecedented third term. 
  

• 2000: Vijay Singh won the Masters, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.
  
  

Today's Daily Miscellany

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