Back in Time – This Day in History – March 30

1923: Laconia

By Mick Ferris, Press Association, AP, UPI, calendar.songfacts.com, classicbands.com and thisdayinmusic.com

1296: Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during an armed conflict between Scotland and England.

1533: Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

1674: Jethro Tull, inventor of the see drill, is born.

1822: Florida became a United States territory.

1842: Physician Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation. He placed an ether-soaked towel over the face of James Venable and removed a tumour from his neck. This event predated Morton’s public demonstration of ether by four years, but was not disclosed until 1849 in the Southern Medical Journal, which was after Morton's widely publicized feat. 

1853: Birth of artist Vincent van Gogh.

1856: Russia signs the Treaty of Paris, ending the Crimean War.

1858: A U.S. patent was granted to Hymen Lipman for a pencil with an attached eraser.

1867: U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

1870: The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

1883: Count Karel Kinsky rides Zoedone to victory in the Grand National.

1894: George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida” premieres at Theatre Royal, South Shields.

1913: Born on this day: Italian American singer, songwriter and actor Frankie Laine who scored the 1953 UK No.1 single 'I Believe', (which spent eighteen non-consecutive weeks at the top of the UK singles chart), plus over 25 other UK Top 20 singles and the 1956 US No.3 single 'Moonlight Gambler'. He died on 6 February 2007 aged 93.

1923: The Cunard liner Laconia arrived in New York City, the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world. The cruise lasted 130 days.

1939: The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph.

1942: The SS murders 200 inmates of Trawniki concentration camp.

1944: 781 British bombers attack Nuremberg.

1945: During World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Austria with the goal of taking Vienna, which it accomplished two weeks later.

1953: Albert Einstein announces revised unified field theory.

1954: Test Cricket debut of Garry Sobers for the West Indies v England.

1955: Marlon Brando wins the Oscar for best actor in On The Waterfront at the Academy Awards.

1957: Buddy Knox became the first artist in the Rock 'n' Roll era to write his own number one hit when 'Party Doll' topped the US singles chart. Knox would go on to score four more US Top 40 hits between 1957 and 1961.

1958: Little Richard had his final US Top 10 hit with a song he had recorded in October, 1956, "Good Golly Miss Molly". The previous Autumn he had given up Rock 'n' Roll and had enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology.

1959: The Dalai Lama flees Tibet and is granted political asylum in India.

1963: 16 year old Lesley Gore records her breakthrough hit, "It's My Party". Producer Quincy Jones hurried Gore into the studio when he found out that Phil Spector was going to cut the song with The Crystals. The single would reach #1 in the US and #9 in the UK.

1967: The photo session took place at Chelsea Manor studios in London with Michael Cooper for the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. After the shoot The Beatles resumed work at Abbey Road studios on ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ adding guitars, bass, tambourine, and backing vocals. The session began at 11:00 pm and ends at 7:30 am.

1968: Brian Fletcher wins the Grand National on 100/7 chance Red Alligator.

1968: US TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

2. Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra - Love Is Blue (L'amour Est Bleu)

3. The Monkees - Valleri

4. 1910 Fruitgum Co. - Simon Says

5. Aretha Franklin - (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone

6. The Delfonics - La - La - Means I Love You

7. The Union Gap Featuring Gary Puckett - Young Girl

8. Georgie Fame - The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde

9. The Beatles - Lady Madonna

10. Dionne Warwick - (Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls

11. Manfred Mann - Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)

12. The First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)

13. Simon & Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair (/Canticle)

14. Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

15. The Box Tops - Cry Like A Baby

16. Petula Clark - Kiss Me Goodbye

17. Sam & Dave - I Thank You

18. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - If You Can Want

19. James Brown And The Famous Flames - I Got The Feelin'

20. Gladys Knight And The Pips - The End Of Our Road

***

1970: Triple Crown winner Secretariat was born at The Meadow near Doswell, Virginia.

1972: North Vietnam launches a major offensive against South Vietnam.

1974: Brian Fletcher wins the Grand National on Red Rum for the second consecutive year.

1974: John Denver went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sunshine On My Shoulders', the singers first of four US No.1's. Denver was killed in a plane crash on 12th October 1997.

1975: As the Vietnam War neared its end, Communist forces occupied the city of Da Nang.

1978: Paul Simonon and Nicky Headon from The Clash were arrested in Camden Town after shooting down racing pigeons with air guns from the roof of Chalk Farm Studios.

1979: MP Airey Neave is killed by an IRA car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster.

1980: UK TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Genesis - Duke

2. Rose Royce - Greatest Hits - Rose Royce

3. Status Quo - 12 Gold Bars

4. Johnny Mathis - Tears And Laughter

5. Matt Monro - Heartbreakers

6. Marti Webb - Tell Me On A Sunday

7. Various Artists - Star Tracks

8. Crystal Gayle - The Crystal Gayle: Singles Album

9. The Police - Regatta De Blanc

10. The Shadows - String Of Hits

11. Billy Joel - Glass Houses

12. The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

13. Sad Café - Fascades

14. Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

15. Def Leppard - On Through The Night

16. Sammy Hagar - Loud And Clear

17. Rainbow - Down To Earth

18. Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes

19. The Specials - Specials

20. The Pretenders - Pretenders

***

1981: President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John W. Hinckley, Jr.; also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer, Thomas Delahanty.

1985: Ireland beat England 13-10 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin to clinch it’s 10th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship and sixth Triple Crown.

1986: Death of actor James Cagney aged 86.

1987: Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” sells for a record £22.5 million.

1991: Patricia Bowman of Jupiter, Florida, told authorities she’d been raped hours earlier by William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy, at the family’s Palm Beach estate. (Smith was acquitted at trial.)

1992: Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster are awarded Oscars for Silence of the Lambs.

1999: A jury in Oregon awarded $81 million in damages to the family of a smoker who died from lung cancer. A state judge reduced the punitive portion to $32 million.

1999: Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic insisted that NATO attacks stop before he moved toward peace, declaring his forces ready to fight “to the very end.” NATO answered with new resolve to wreck his military with a relentless air assault.

2000: Mick Jagger opened the new arts centre that had been named after him at Dartford Grammar. The singer said he had spent the worst years of his life at the school. On the same day, Richard Branson is knighted by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.

2001: At 15 years 9 months, swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the 200m butterfly world record at the US World Championship trials at Austin, Texas.

2002: Britain’s Queen Mother Elizabeth died at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old.

2004: In a reversal, President George W. Bush agreed to let National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testify publicly and under oath before an independent panel investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

2004: Death of broadcaster Alistair Cooke aged 95.

2004: Timi Yuro, died from throat cancer aged 62. Was just 18 years old when she reached No.4 on the US charts in 1961 with 'Hurt'.

2005: Neil Young underwent surgery to address a brain aneurysm. He made a quick and full recovery.

2006: American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.

2013: North Korea declares it is at a state of war with South Korea.

2017: A massive fire caused an interstate bridge to collapse during rush hour in Atlanta; no one was hurt. North Carolina rolled back its “bathroom bill” in a bid to end a yearlong backlash over transgender rights that had cost the state dearly in business projects, conventions and basketball tournaments. At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX successfully launched and then retrieved its first recycled rocket.

2018: Actor Bill Maynard (Walter Williams) dies aged 89.

2019: American singer songwriter Billy Adams died age 79. He wrote and recorded the mid-1950s rockabilly staple ‘Rock, Pretty Mama,’ Other songs he recorded in the late ’50s include ‘You Heard Me Knocking,’ ‘True Love Will Come Your Way’ and ‘You Gotta Have a Duck Tail.’

2020: American soul singer Bill Withers died from heart complications aged 81. His hits include 'Just The Two Of Us', 'Lovely Day' and 'Use Me'. On 'Lovely Day', he set the record for the longest sustained note on a US chart hit, holding a high E for 18 seconds. His ballad 'Ain't No Sunshine', earned him his first Grammy award.

BIRTHDAYS: 

Rolf Harris, 91; 

Warren (Henry) Beatty, actor/director, 84; 

Graeme Edge, drummer (The Moody Blues) 79; 

Eric Clapton (Clapp), guitarist/singer-songwriter, 76; 

Robbie Coltrane (Anthony McMillan), actor, 71; 

Paul Reiser, actor, 65; 

MC Hammer, (Stanley Kirk Burrell) rapper, 59; 

Tracy Chapman, singer-songwriter, 57; 

Piers Morgan, broadcaster, 56; 

Celine Dion, singer, 53; 

Mark Consuelos, actor, 50; 

Norah Jones, singer-songwriter, 42; 

Simon Webbe, singer, (Blue) 42; 

Sergio Ramos (Garcia), Spanish footballer, 35.