April 21, 2001
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April 21, 2001
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April is:
Today is:
Alfred G. Packer Day - Celebrated since 1968 it recognizes the only convicted cannibal in the U.S. Sponsor: University Memorial Center, university of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
First artificial heart implant (1987) - Dr. Michael E. DeBakey performed the first successful artificial heart implant in Houston, Texas.
Kindergarten Day - Celebrates the birthday of Friedrich Froebel (1782), who began the first kindergarten in 1837.
Born on this Day
1393: John Capgrave
1782: Friedrich Froebel, inventer of the first kindergarten. He founded
the first kindergarten in 1837 in Blankenburg, Germany.
1816: Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, in Thornton, England.
She wrote in the preface of "Jane Eyre,"; "Conventionality is not
morality."
1838: Naturalist John Muir
1816: English novelist Charlotte Bronte
1830: James Starley, English inventor of the geared bicycle
1864: German sociologist Max Weber
1915: Actor Anthony Quinn
1915: Ice skater Werner Groebli ("Mr. Frick")
1926: Britain's Queen Elizabeth the Second. (Born Elizabeth Alexandra
Mary in London). Although today is her birthday, it is always celebrated in June at the
Trooping of the Colours.
1930: Italian actress Silvana Mangano
1932: Actress-comedian-writer Elaine May
1935: Actor-turned-talk show host Charles Grodin
1939: Singer-songwriter Ernie Maresca
1947: Singer-musician Iggy Pop
1948: Singer-songwriter Paul Davis
1949: Actress Patti LuPone
1951: Actor Tony Danza
1958: Actress Andie MacDowell
1959: Rock singer Robert Smith (The Cure)
1959: Rock musician Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)
1963: Actor John Cameron Mitchell ("Party Girl")
1968: Rapper Michael Franti (Spearhead)
1970: Comedian Nicole Sullivan ("MAD TV")
0753 BC: According to the historian Varro, Romulus founded
Rome.
0341: Death of St. Simon Barsabba'e
0586: Death of Leovigild, King of the Visgoths
1073: Death of Pope Alexander II
1097: Adhemar and Raymond's armies of the 1st Crusade
arrive in Constantinople
1109: Death of St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury
1142: Peter Abelard, French theologian dies
1509: Henry the VIII became King of England when his
father, Henry the VII, died. Shortly afterward, he married his brother's widow, Catherine
of Aragon.
1618: Pedro Paez discovers the source of the Blue Nile
1641: The House of Commons, in defiance of the House of
Lords, passes a Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford
1649: The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for
freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.
1789: John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president
of the United States.
1795: Haydn was introduced to King George the Third. It
was reported that the King said, "You've written a great deal." Haydn said,
"Yes, Sire, a great deal more than is good!" To which the King said, "Oh,
no, the world contradicts that."
1836: An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the
Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring the independence of Texas. The 900 Texans caught the
1,200 Mexicans taking a siesta. The entire confrontation took only 18 minutes.
1862: Congress establishes US Mint in Denver, Colorado.
1855: The first railroad train crossed the first railroad
bridge over the Mississippi, between Rock Island, IL, and Davenport, IA. A river pilot
damaged it two weeks later and Abraham Lincoln represented the railroad.
1895: Woodville Latham demonstrated the first use of a
moving picture projected on a screen in New York City.
1910: Author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as
Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut.
1913: The zipper was patented by Swedish engineer Gideon
Sunback. He improved on an 1813 design of Whitcomb Judson called a clasp-locker, which
often jammed. Zippers were first used in World War I and appeared on civilian clothes in
the 1920's.
1918: Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known
as the "Red Baron," was killed in action during World War I. He is credited with
having shot down 80 Allied planes.
1940: The quiz show that asked the "$64
question," "Take It or Leave It," premiered on CBS Radio.
1955: The Jerome Lawrence-Robert Lee play "Inherit
the Wind," loosely based on the Scopes trial of 1925, opened at the National Theater
in New York.
1956: Leonard Ross, age 10, became the youngest
prizewinner on a big time quiz program. The youngster won $100,000 on "The Big
Surprise" for knowing about his specialty -- stocks.
1960: Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia,
transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.
1967: A Greek army coup in Athens sent King Constantine
into exile in Italy.
1969: Japanese marathon runner Yoshiaki Unetani won the
Boston Marathon finishing first in a record field of 1,152.
1972: "Apollo 16" astronauts John Young and
Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon in an electric car (LEM). The car is still
up there along with some expensive tools and film that they forgot to bring home.
1975: Nguyen Van Thieu resigned as president of South
Vietnam after denouncing the United States as untrustworthy. His replacement, Tran Van
Huong, prepared for peace talks with North Vietnam as communist forces advanced on Saigon.
1977: The musical play "Annie" opened on
Broadway, beginning a run of 2,377 performances.
1980: Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish
line at the Boston Marathon; she was later exposed as a fraud.
1983: Former first lady Betty Ford, undergoing treatment
at Long Beach Memorial Naval Hospital in California, disclosed in a statement that she was
addicted to alcohol as well as a drug she had been taking for arthritis.
1984: The head of the Centers for Disease Control said he
believed a virus discovered in France was the cause of the disease AIDS.
1985: The president-elect of Brazil, Tancredo de Almeida
Neves, died after an illness that had prevented his swearing-in the previous month as the
country's first civilian president in two decades.
1986: A vault in Chicago's Lexington Hotel that was linked
to Al Capone was opened during a live TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera; aside from a
few bottles and a sign, the vault was empty.
1986: The United States, Britain and France vetoed a U.N.
Security Council resolution condemning the U.S. air raid on Libya.
1987: The Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra
affair voted to grant limited immunity to President Reagan's former national security
adviser, Rear Admiral John M. Poindexter.
1987: Special occasion stamps were offered for the first
time by the U.S. Postal Service. "Happy Birthday," "Get Well" and
other messages were offered.
1988: Tennessee Senator Al Gore gave up his bid for the
Democratic presidential nomination, telling his supporters, "There will be other days
for me and for the causes that matter to us."
1989: Tens of thousands of people crowded into Beijing's
Tiananmen Square, cheering students who waved banners demanding greater political
freedoms.
1990: Pope John Paul II was greeted by hundreds of
thousands of people as he visited Czechoslovakia to help celebrate the nation's peaceful
overthrow of Communism.
1991: U.S. Marines in northern Iraq began building the
first safe-haven settlement for Kurdish refugees. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf arrived at
MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to a hero's welcome.
1992: Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed
by the state of California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber for the
1978 murder of two teen-age boys.
1993: Bernard Haitink guest-conducted the Boston Symphony
in "Four Sea Interludes from 'Peter Grimes'"; the American premiere of
"Some Days" by Turnage; and the Brahms First Symphony.
1993: An 11-day siege at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility near Lucasville, Ohio, ended after rioting inmates reached an agreement with
prison officials.
1994: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $28
billion "Get tough on crime" bill by a vote of 285-141.
1994: Eddie Murray, of the Cleveland Indians, hit home
runs from both sides of the pale for a record 11th time. Mickey Mantle held the record at
10.
1995: The FBI arrested former soldier Timothy McVeigh at
an Oklahoma jail where he'd spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was
charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier.
1996: President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin traded warm
compliments and played down nagging differences, insisting their election-year summit in
Moscow was not being influenced by presidential politics.
1996: Oddsmaker Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder died at
age 76.
1996: The Olive Tree coalition, including many former
communists, won more than a third of all the seats in the lower house of the Italian
parliament.
1997: The swollen Red River, which had flooded 75 percent
of Grand Forks, North Dakota, reached a projected crest of 54 feet, 26 feet above flood
stage.
1997: Inder Gujral was sworn in as India's new prime
minister.
1997: Police in Franklin, New Jersey, arrested two
teen-agers they say lured two pizza deliverymen to an abandoned house before opening fire,
killing both men. (Both suspects are awaiting trial.)
1998: Astronomers announced in Washington they had
discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away,
the clearest evidence yet of worlds forming beyond our solar system.
1999: A day after the mass killing at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colo., investigators continued their work, while memorial services
were held across the city and dozens of counselors offered support to grieving students,
parents, friends and family.
1999: Actor and bandleader Charles "Buddy"
Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 94.
2000: The lower house of the Russian parliament overwhelmingly approved the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which would oblige Russia to end all nuclear test explosions.
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