April 9
It’s Name Yourself Day and Winston Churchill Day
ON THIS DAY…
1413 Henry V is crowned King of England
1667 First ever public art exhibition opens in Paris
1682 Robert La Salle claimed the lower Mississippi River and all lands that touch it for France
1770 Capt James Cook discovers Botany Bay
1838 The National Galley opened in London
1865 The Civil War ends with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House
1867 The US Senate ratified the treaty with Russia that purchased the territory of Alaska by one vote
1872 SR Percy of New York City patentented dried milk
1883 Peterborough, NH opened the first municipally supported public library
1914 The first full-color film, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, was shown in London
1928 Mae West made her glamorous debut on Broadway in Diamond Lil
1939 Contralto Marian Anderson, after being denied performing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., gave a concert at the Lincoln Memorial
1945 National Football League officials made it mandatory for football players to wear socks in all league games
1947 Atomic Energy Commission formed
1953 TV Guide was published for the first time
1953 Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax starring Vincent Price
1956 Nat King Cole is beaten up by racial segregationists in Birmingham, AL
1957 The Suez Canal is cleared and opens to shipping
1959NASA announced the selection of its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepherd and Donald Slayton
1963 Winston Churchill became the first honorary US citizen
1966 Sophia Loren marries Carlo Ponti
1967 The first Boeing 737 was rolled out for use
1968 Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was buried
1971 The Mephisto Waltz starring Alan Alda opens in the US
1973 The San Diego Chicken made his first public appearance
1976 Alfred Hitchcock’s The Family Plotopens in the US
2005 Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles
BORN:
1898 Paul Robeson, actor and civil rights activist (Body and Soul, The Emperor Jones, Show Boat, King Solomon’s Mines)
1903 Ward Bond, actor (Wagon Train, The Searchers, Mister Roberts, The Quiet Man, Fort Apache)
1926 Hugh Hefner, publisher
1928 Tom Lehrer, songwriter (“Vatican Rag”, “The Masochism Tango”, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, “We Will All Go Together When We Go”)
1932 Carl Perkins, songwriter/musician (“Blue Suede Shoes”, “Honey Don’t”)
1935 Avery Schreiber, comedic actor/Doritos huckster (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Swashbuckler, Caveman, Scavenger Hunt)
1937 Marty Krofft, TV producer & writer (H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Land of the Lost, Pink Lady and Jeff)
1954 Dennis Quaid, actor (Frequency, Breaking Away, The Right Stuff, Innerspace)
1966 Cynthia Nixon, actress (Sex and the City, Addams Family Values, The Manhattan Project, Amadeus)
DIED:
1626 Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman, and essayist; he is also known as a proponent of the scientific revolution, dies at 65
1959 Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, interior designer, writer, educator, and philosopher; he designed more than 1,000 projects, of which more than 500 resulted in completed works, dies at 91