Birthdays: Tamerlane, Eadweard Muybridge, Lenin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Paul Robeson, Jean Paul Belmondo, Ward Bond, Seve Balesteros, Carl Perkins, Michael Learned, Tom Lehrer, Paula Poundstone, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Hefner, Dennis Quaid is 69, Elle Fanning is 25
1553- French comic writer Francois Rabelais died. His last words were: ” I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”
1747- Famed British actor David Garrick signed a contract to take over the management of London’s Drury Lane Theatre.
1778- In Paris the philosopher Voltaire is initiated into the Masonic Order of the Nine Sisters on the arm of his friend, Benjamin Franklin.
1914- The first all color film” The World, The Flesh and the Devil” premiered in London.
1921- The Fly-In Lunch Party. Leslie Brand was a millionaire who developed Glendale California north of Los Angeles. This day he invited guests to a special garden party provided they all arrived in their own airplanes. The little biplanes parked all around his grounds, today known as The Brand Library.
1938- In an interview with Liberty Magazine, Walt Disney said he, “had plans to put animation to various well-known pieces of music, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice being only the start.” He was beginning to think of expanding the short into a concert feature. The result of which would be Fantasia.
1942- Black opera star Marian Anderson gave her concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to an audience of 75,000. She was snubbed from giving a recital at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall which caused a furious Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the DAR and arrange this concert.
1943- A U.S. Patents court concluded that Guglielmo Marconi had used several of Nichola Tesla’s patents to create Wireless Broadcasting. So in effect, Tesla was the real inventor of radio broadcasting. Vindication came too late. Marconi died a rich Nobel-Prize winner, and Tesla died alone and penniless.
1948- Variety columnist Lee Mortimer had been needling Frank Sinatra for his advocacy of liberal causes. He accused Old Blue Eyes of draft-dodging, and hinted maybe he had pro-Communist sympathies. This day as Sinatra passed Mortimer in front of Ciro's restaurant on Sunset Blvd. he heard Mortimer call him a dirty dago. Frank went at Mortimer and punched his lights out.
1952- The quiz show “I’ve Got A Secret” hosted by Gary Moore premiered on the Dumont Network and ran for 15 years.
1953- The first issue of the T.V. Guide.
1959- NASA introduced the first seven astronauts to the public, The Mercury Astronauts: Donald Slayton, Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn, Leroy Cooper, and Malcolm Carpenter- all military test pilots instead of scientists.
1962- The musical West Side Story swept the Academy Awards.
1963- Animator Vernon Stallings died (1891-1963) He is known for inventing the animation disc while working on Felix the Cat in the 1920s.
1965- Mickey Mantle hits the first indoor home run as the Astrodome opens with an exhibition game with the Astros hosting the Yankees. President Lyndon Johnson was supposed to throw out the first pitch but arrived late. Phillie catcher Bob Boone commented about the Astrodome "This is a tough yard for a hitter when the air conditioning is blowing in.."
1966- actress Sophia Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, with whom she had been living with for a decade but not allowed to marry because Catholics did not allow divorce from their previous spouses.
2004- Archaeologists in Cyprus discover the 10,000 year-old grave of a New Stone Age man. With him were the remains of a cat that looks like it was deliberately placed there. This is the oldest evidence of man domesticating cats. So rest in peace- Gronk and Fluffy.
2008- Stuntman Rupert MacDonald built a full-size Viking ship out of 15 million popsicle sticks.
2023- Illuminations’ Super Mario Bros. Movie breaks all records of an animated movie opening, and a movie based on a game. $484 million USD over the Easter holiday.
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