April 16

In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah. 

Psalm 44:8

 April is:

• International Amateur Radio Month - Celebrates the role of amateur radio operators who help promote friendship and good will among all people. Sponsor: International Society of Friendship and Good Will.
  
  
• International Guitar Month - Sensor; Guitar & Accessories Marketing Association, Jerome Hershman.
  
  
• Keep America Beautiful Month - Do your part to keep our country, beautiful-don't litter blossom; Keep America Beautiful

Today is:

• Fibber McGee and Molly - Premiered (1935) This radio .comedy premiered on NBC.
  
  
• First woman to fly across the English Channel (1917) Harriet Quimby flew from Dover, England, to Hardelot, France.
  
  
• Saint Benedict Joseph Labre Feast Day - He lived as a homeless hermit, and is considered a patron saint of tramps and the homeless.
  
  
• Saint Bernadette Feast Day - A shepherdess who had many visions of the Virgin Mary, she is patron saint of shepherds. Her shrine in Lourdes, France, is a great place of healing. She died on this date in 1879.
  
  
• Silent Movie Stars Day - On the birthday of Charlie Chaplin, the greatest silent movie star, celebrate by watching a silent movie.

Born on this Day

• 1660: Hans Sloane, founder of British Museum
  

• 1786: Sir John Franklin, arctic explorer who discovered the North-West Passage.
  

• 1864: Flora Batson, soprano baritone singer
  

• 1867: Wilbur Wright, designer, builder and flyer of first airplane
  

• 1871: John Millington Synge, dramatist and poet Playboy of the Western World
  

• 1889: Charlie Chaplin, silent movie actor best remembered for his character “Little Tramp.”
  

• 1918: Actor-comedian Spike Milligan
  

• 1920: Actor Barty Nelson
  

• 1921: Actor-director-author Peter Ustinov
  

• 1924: Composer and conductor Henry Mancini ( Moon River). 1927: Actor Peter Mark Richman
  

• 1929: Actress-singer Edie Adams
  

• 1930: Jazz musician Herbie Mann
  

• 1935: Singer Bobby Vinton
  

• 1940: Queen Margrethe the Second of Denmark
  

• 1947: Basketball Hall-of-Famer (Lew Alcinder) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  

• 1947: Singer Gerry Rafferty
  

• 1950: Actor David Graf
  

• 1953: Actor Jay O. Sanders
  

• 1954: Actress Ellen Barkis
  

• 1963: Singer Jimmy Osmond
  

• 1964: Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum)
  

• 1965: Actor-comedian MartLawrence
  

• 1965: Actor Jon Cryer
  

• 1966: Rock musician Dan Rieser (Marcy Playground)
  

• 1972: Actor Peter Billingsley ("A Christmas Story")
  

• 1976: Actor Lukas Haas    
     

Events in History on this day
  

• 0069: Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Otho commits suicide.
  

• 0556: Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
  

• 1065: The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule southern Italy.
  

• 1705: Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton.
  

• 1746: Bonnie Prince Charles is defeated at the battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought Britain.
  

• 1777: At the Battle of Bennington, New England's minute men rout British regulars.
  

• 1789: President-elect Washington left Mount Vernon, Virginia, for his inauguration New York.
  

• 1818: U.S. Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.
  

• 1854: San Salvador is destroyed by an earthquake.
  

• 1862: Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.
  

• 1862: A bill ending slavery the District of Columbia became law.
  

• 1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
  

• 1917: Vladimir Ilyich Lenreturned to Russia after years of exile.
  

• 1922: Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets a row, to set a women's record.
  

• 1942: The Island of Malta is awarded the George Cross recognition for heroism under constant German air attack. It was the first such award given to any part of the British Commonwealth.
  

• 1944: The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa.
  

• 1945: American troops enter Nuremberg, Germany. The Nuremberg Trial brought high-ranking Nazis to justice.
  

• 1945: His first speech to Congress, President Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Roosevelt.
  

• 1945: US troops reached Nuremberg, Germany, during the Second World War.
  

• 1947: Financier and presidential confidant Bernard M. Baruch said a speech at the South Carolina statehouse: "Let us not be deceived – we are today the midst of a cold war."
  

• 1947: A lens which provides zoom effects is demonstrated New York City.
  

• 1947: America's worst harbor explosion occurred Texas City, Texas, when the French ship "Grandcamp" blew up; another ship, the "Highflyer," exploded the following day. The blasts and resulting fires killed 576 people.
  

• 1962: Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."
  

• 1968: The Pentagon announces the "Vietnamization" of the war; troops will begcoming home.
  

• 1972: Two giants pandas arrive the U.S. from China.
  

• 1972: Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.
  

• 1977: The ban on women attending West Point is lifted.
  

• 1989: Spain's ambassador to Lebanon (Pedro Manuel de Aristegui) was killed by shellfire that broke out between Christian militiamen and an alliance of Syrian and Muslim gunners.
  

• 1990: The Supreme Court rejected appeals by Dalton Prejean, a nearly retarded man condemned to die for the 1977 murder of a Louisiana state trooper (Prejean was executed the following month). The court also let stand a ban on school dances in the Bible Belt town of Purdy, Mo.
  

• 1991: President Bush announced that US forces would be sent into northern Iraq to assist Kurdish refugees. 
  

• 1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev began a visit to Japan. Sir David Lean, director of the movies "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago," died in London at age 83.
  

• 1994: Bosnian Serbs downed a British Sea Harrier jet near Gorazde; the pilot ejected, and was rescued by Bosnian government troops.
  

• 1994: Ralph Ellison, author of "Invisible Man," died New York at age 80.
  

• 1995: In his Easter Sunday message, Pope John Paul II sent a message of peace to victims of unrest, including the Palestinians and Kurds.
  

• 1996: President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, arrived in Japan for a three-day visit after a brief stopover in South Korea. 
  

• 1996: Britain's Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were in the process of getting a divorce. 
  

• 1998: Paula Jones announced she would ask an appeals court to reinstate her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton after it was thrown out by a federal judge.
  

• 1998:Tornadoes claimed eleven lives Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. 
  

• 1999: President Clinton defended NATO airstrikes against Serbian targets during visits to Michigan and Massachusetts, saying U.S. involvement in Kosovo was a moral imperative. Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from hockey.
  

• 2000: The International Monetary Fund concluded a protest-marred opening session in Washington with a statement repeating past pledges to seek greater debt relief for the poorest countries and reform the IMF so it could better prevent financial crises.
  

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