April 27

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Proverbs 27:1

April is:

• National Poetry Month - Beginning in 1996, April is the new month for poetry!
  
  
• National Recycling Month -
  
  
• National School Library Month

Today is:

• Natural Law Day - In 1417, a chicken in Basel, Switzerland was burned at the stake for violating natural law by laying a brightly colored egg. Sponsor: A Pilgrim's Almanac.
  
  
• Saint Zita Feast Day - A servent hereself, she is patron saint of maidservents, she is also invoked to find lost keys.
  
  
• Worthy Wage  Day - Set aside to promote action to secure better wages and working conditions for teachers and child care providers. Sponsor: Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals.

Born on this Day

• 1737: English historian Edward Gibbon author of "Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire."
  

• 1759: Mary Godwin (author: Vindication of the Rights of Women)
  

• 1791: Samuel F.B. Morse, American artist and inventor of magnetic telegraphy
  

• 1822: Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and 18th president of the United States (born in Point Pleasant, Ohio)
  

• 1896: Wallace Carothers, inventor of nylon
  

• 1900: Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz
  

• 1904: English poet C. Day Lewis
  

• 1922: Actor Jack Klugman
  

• 1927: Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King
  

• 1932: Actress Anouk Aimee
  

• 1932: Announcer Casey Kasem
  

• 1932: Former football coach Chuck Knox
  

• 1937: CBS News correspondent Phil Jones
  

• 1939: Actress Judy Carne
  

• 1941: Opera singer Judith Blegen
  

• 1944: Rhythm-and-blues singer Cuba Gooding
  

• 1947: Singer Ann Peebles
  

• 1948: Rock singer Kate Pierson (The B-52's)
  

• 1949: Rhythm-and-blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics)
  

• 1949: Actor Douglas Sheehan ("Knots Landing")
  

• 1949: Musician Clive Taylor (Amen Corner)
  

• 1951: Rock musician Ace Frehley (KISS)
  

• 1959: Pop singer Sheena Easton
  

• 1962: Actor James Le Gros
  

• 1965: Rock musician Rob Squires (Big Head Todd & the Monsters)
  

• 1969: Singer Mica Paris
  

• 1979: Rock singer-musician Travis Meeks (Days of the New)               
     

Events in History on this day
  

• 1124: Death of Alexander I, King of Scotland
  

• 1172: Henry II, King of England, leaves Ireland
  

• 1174: Marie of Champagne issues a "responsum" to the inquiry "Can real love exist between married people?" The answer was "No."
  

• 1278: Death of St. Zita
  

• 1404: John "the Fearless" becomes Duke of Burgundy
  

• 1509: Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.
  

• 1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
  

• 1605: Death of Pope Leo XI
  

• 1646: Charles I flees Oxford
  

• 1667: John Milton sells the copyright for "Paradise Lost" for 10 pounds
  

• 1805: A force led by US Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
  

• 1810: Ludwig van Beethoven gave the world a romantic piece for piano, with the dedication, "For Therese, as a remembrance." But today nobody remembers Therese. The publisher couldn't read Beethoven's handwriting and to this day the piece is known as "Fur Elise."
  

• 1850: The American-owned steamship "The Atlantic" began regular trans-Atlantic passenger service. It was the first U.S. vessel to challenge what had been a British monopoly.
  

• 1865: The steamer "Sultana" exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, killing more than 1400 Union prisoners of war.
  

• 1880: Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
  

• 1882: Ralph Waldo Emerson died in Concord, Massachusetts, one month before his 70th birthday and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery beside Thoreau and Hawthorne.
  

• 1897: Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) is dedicated.
  

• 1903: Jamaica Race Track opened this day in Long Island, New York. Among the spectators were Lillian Russell and "Diamond" Jim Brady.
  

• 1932: American poet Hart Crane, returning from Mexico where he had gone on a Guggenheim Fellowship, drowned after jumping from a steamer while en route to New York; he was 32.
  

• 1937: The first Social Security payment was made in the United States.
  

• 1938: Geraldine Apponyi was the first American woman to become a Queen as she married King Zog of Albania on this day.
  

• 1945: The Allies rejected peace offers by German SS chief Heinrich Himmler, insisting on unconditional surrender.
  

• 1946: The first commercial, carrier ship to be equipped with radar, the SS African Star, was placed in service.
  

• 1947: It was "Babe Ruth Day" at Yankee Stadium as baseball fans, not just in New York, but across the country as well, honored the ailing star.
  

• 1950: The Boston Celtics hired Arnold "Red" Auerbach to coach their losing team. In 16 seasons, he led them to 9 NBA championships.
  

• 1956: Rocky Marciano relinquished his crown as heavyweight boxing champ when he retired from boxing.
  

• 1960: The submarine, Tullibee, was launched from Groton, Connecticut. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.
  

• 1965: Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died in Pawling, New York, at age 57.
  

• 1967: Expo '67 was officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
  

• 1968: Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" was released. It is widely associated with the film "The Graduate.""
  

• 1969: Bolivian President Rene Barrientos Ortuno was killed in a helicopter crash near the village of Arque. He had been president since 1964.
  

• 1973: During the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned.
  

• 1978: Convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.
  

• 1978: Afghanistan's armed forces seized power, establishing a government based on Islamic principles. President Daoud was killed and new President Nur Mohammed Taraki proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
  

• 1981: Beatle Ringo Starr married actress Barbara Bach at the Marylebone Registry Office in London. Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson were in attendance.
  

• 1982: The trial of John W. Hinckley Junior, who had shot four people, including President Reagan, began in Washington. (The trial ended with Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity.)
  

• 1983: President Reagan appeared before Congress to urge members to embrace his arms and economic program for Central America, saying the United States had a duty to save the region from the leftist revolution.
  

• 1983: Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) struck out the 3,509th batter for his career to pass Walter Johnson as all time strike out king. The Astros won 4-2 over Montreal. Johnson's record had been on the books for 55 years.
  

• 1984: In a speech during his visit to China, President Reagan extolled the virtues of capitalism. However, Chinese television deleted Reagan's criticism of the Soviet Union and praise of freedoms in the United States.
  

• 1984: In London, the ten-day siege at the Libyan Embassy ended peacefully as the building's occupants left for home.
  

• 1985: President Reagan used his weekly radio address to say he was looking forward to his visit to Europe without mentioning his plans to visit the military cemetery at Bitburg, a decision which had sparked controversy.
  

• 1986: A video pirate calling himself Captain Midnight interrupted a movie on HBO with a printed message protesting de-scrambling fees. (He turned out to be John R. MacDougall of Florida, who was fined and placed on probation.
  

• 1987: Attorney General Edwin Meese barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from the United States, citing the alleged role of the former United Nations secretary-general in Nazi war crimes.
  

• 1988: The Senate approved a sweeping trade bill, 63-to-36, falling short of the two-thirds vote needed to override a threatened veto by President Reagan.
  

• 1989: More than 150,000 students and workers calling for democracy marched, cheered and sang through central Beijing.
  

• 1990: The aperture door of the Hubble Space Telescope was opened by ground controllers as the space shuttle Discovery, which had carried the Hubble into orbit, prepared to return home.
  

• 1991: A group of 250 Kurds became the first refugees to move into a new U.S.-built camp in northern Iraq.
  

• 1992: Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
  

• 1992: The new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro. Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
  

• 1992: A Zambian air force plane carrying Zambia's national football team crashed into the Atlantic off Gabon killing all 30 aboard.
  

• 1993: The final performance of the current New York Philharmonic series, included the new Phillip Ramey horn concerto and the Haydn 69th Symphony, plus Ravel's "Rhapsody espagnole" and the short version of "Appalachian Spring." Leonard Slatkin conducted.
  

• 1993: After a hiatus of more than four months, Israeli and Arab delegates resumed Middle East peace talks in Washington DC.
  

• 1994: Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California.
  

• 1995: Former Orange County, California, Treasurer Robert Citron pleaded guilty to six counts of defrauding investors in the Orange County investment pool.
  

• 1996: Tens of thousands of refugees streamed home to southern Lebanon after a US-brokered cease-fire silenced the guns in the 16-day Israel-Hezbollah war. Events
  

• 1997: President Clinton, along with former presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter, helped polish gritty city streets in Philadelphia as they launched the three-day Summit for America's Future, a gathering on community service also attended by former President Gerald Ford and former first lady Nancy Reagan.
  

• 1997: Armed separatists took two hostages in West Texas, sparking a standoff with 300 police officers. 
  

• 1999: A week after the Columbine High School massacre, President Clinton called for new gun control measures, saying, "People's lives are at stake here."
  

• 1999: Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt died in New Orleans at age 76.
  

• 2000: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani disclosed that he had prostate cancer (he later bowed out of the US Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton).
  
  
  
  

Today's Daily Miscellany

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