Back in Time – This Day in History – April 2

 Back in Time – This Day in History – April 2

1845: The Sun

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

742: Birth of Charlemagne.

1513: Juan Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.

1725: Giacomo Casanova, writer, adventurer and famous lover, born in Venice.

1783: William Cavendish-Bentinck becomes prime minister of Britain after an opposition coalition of Henry Fox and Frederick North forces William Petty to resign.

1792: Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to coin money, all to be inscribed with the Latin words "E Pluribus Unum," a motto meaning "Out of Many, One."

1800: First performance of Beethoven’s 1st Symphony in C.

1801: The British, led by Horatio Nelson destroy the Danish fleet in the naval Battle of Copenhagen.

1805: Birth of author Hans Christian Andersen in Odense, Denmark.

1836: Charles Dickens marries Catherine Thomson Hogarth.

1845: The first surviving daguerrotype photograph showing details of the sun was taken by French physicists Armand Fizeau and Léon Foucault. 

1863: During the Civil War, the Richmond Bread Riot erupted in the Confederate capital as a mob outraged over food shortages and rising prices attacked and looted stores.

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, because of advancing Union forces.

1872: Samuel Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, dies at 80.

1877: President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife, Lucy Hayes, brought the annual Easter Egg Roll to the White House. Prior to that, it had been held on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

1912: The just-completed RMS Titanic left Belfast to begin its sea trials eight days before the start of its ill-fated maiden voyage.

1917: President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” (Congress declared war four days later.)

1921: Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new “Theory of Relativity”

1930: Ras Tafari Makonnen becomes Emperor Haile Delassie of Abyssinia.

1932: Aviator Charles Lindbergh left $50,000 in a New York City cemetery for the return of his kidnapped son. The child was later found dead. Bruno Hauptmann subsequently was convicted of kidnapping and murder, and was executed.

1935: Physicist Robert Watson-Watt receives a British patent for RADAR.

1939: Ralph Guldahl wins his only Masters golf title with a tournament record 279 (−9), 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Sam Snead.

1944: Dmitri Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony premieres in New York. On the same day, the Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania.

1956: The soap operas “As the World Turns” and “The Edge of Night” premiered on CBS-TV.

1956: Johnny Cash records "I Walk The Line" at Sun Studio in Memphis. His label boss, Sam Phillips, has him speed up the tempo, which is a good call: The song becomes Cash's first #1 Country hit.

1957: Elvis Presley appears for the first time outside the United States, performing at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This and a show the next day in Ottawa would be the only Elvis concerts ever given outside the US.

1958: The term “beatnik” was coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen to refer to members of the pre-hippie counterculture; the term was inspired by the “Beat Generation” and by the Soviet launch of its second Sputnik spacecraft.

1960: Cuba buys oil from the USSR.

1964: Beach Boys recorded their next single 'I Get Around', which became their first US No.1 in the summer of this year. The song begins with a multi-part a cappella introduction that quickly shifts into rock-style verses sung by Mike Love and a pop chorus sung in falsetto by Brian Wilson.

1964: The Beatles had their fourth UK No.1 single with 'Can't Buy Me Love.' With advanced sales of over 2.1 million, it holds the record for the greatest advanced orders for a single in the UK.

1965: The first edition of music show ‘Ready Steady Goes Live!’ was shown on ITV, featuring presenters Cathy McGowan and Keith Fordyce.

1966: The Soviet Union’s Luna 10 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon.

1968: “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the groundbreaking science-fiction film epic produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

1971: Janis Joplin was at No.1 on the US album charts with the posthumously released Pearl. The album features the No.1 hit 'Me and Bobby McGee', written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster on which she played acoustic guitar.

1975: South Vietnamese military and civilians began evacuating Quang Ngai province from the city of Qui Nhon as the North Vietnamese began its march toward Saigon. The North captured the capital city later in the month.

1977: Red Rum wins a record third Grand National, this time with Tommy Stack riding. Also, Charlotte Brew becomes the first female jockey to ride in the National.

1977: Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US album chart with Rumours. The album is Fleetwood Mac's most successful release; along with winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, the record has sold over 45 million copies worldwide.

US TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

2. Eagles - Hotel California

3. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life

4. Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson - A Star Is Born (Soundtrack)

5. Kansas - Leftoverture

6. John Denver - John Denver's Greatest Hits, Volume 2

7. Boston - Boston

8. The Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle

9. Neil Diamond - Love At The Greek

10. Barry Manilow - This One's For You

11. Bob Seger - Night Moves

12. Natalie Cole - Unpredictable

13. George Benson - In Flight

14. Pink Floyd - Animals

15. Paul McCartney And Wings - Wings Over America

16. Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat

17. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

18. KISS - Rock And Roll Over

19. Thelma Houston - Anyway You Like It

20. Jethro Tull - Songs From The Wood: 40th Anniversary, The Country Set

***

1978: Velcro goes on sale for the first time.

1978: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Brian And Michael - Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs

2. Blondie - Denis

3. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

4. Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

5. Showaddywaddy - I Wonder Why

6. Suzi Quatro - If You Can't Give Me Love

7. Eruption - I Can't Stand The Rain

8. Genesis - Follow You Follow Me

9. Andy Cameron - Ally's Tartan Army

10. Nick Lowe - I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

11. Andrew Gold - Never Let Her Slip Away

12. Hot Chocolate - Every 1's A Winner

13. Wings - With A Little Luck

14. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Is This Love

15. Samantha Sang - Emotions

16. The Manhattan Transfer - Walk In Love

17. Darts - Come Back My Love

18. Dan Hill - Sometimes When We Touch

19. ABBA - Take A Chance On Me

20. Johnny Mathis And Deniece Williams - Too Much Too Little Too Late

***

1982: Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)

1986: Four American passengers, including an 8-month-old girl, her mother and grandmother, were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.

1987: One of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, Buddy Rich died aged 69 due to complications caused by a brain tumour. Rich worked with many acts including, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey's band, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Rush's Neil Peart organized a pair of 90s tribute albums (titled Burning for Buddy), which also featured the work of Kenny Aronoff, Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Max Roach, Steve Smith and Matt Sorum.

1990: Eric Clapton was fined by Walton-on-Thames Magistrates court, after being booked for speeding at 105mph; Clapton was also banned from driving for three months.

1992: A New York jury convicted mob boss John Gotti in five killings, racketeering and other charges. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

1992: Edith Cresson, France’s first female premier, resigns. 

1997: After 32 years, Joni Mitchell is reunited with her first daughter, Kilauren Gibb. Joni gave the child up for adoption at the start of her career.

1998: Rob Pilatus, one half of pop duo Milli Vanilli was found dead in a Frankfurt Hotel room after taking a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol.

2003: Soul singer Edwin Starr died at his British home in Nottingham aged 61.

2005: Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century, died at his Vatican apartment. The 84-year-old pontiff had urinary and bacterial infections that led to organ failure.

2006: A John Lennon schoolbook containing the 12-year-old's drawing of Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter was sold at auction for £126,500, ($239,733). The poem inspired Lennon to write The Beatles' 1967 song ‘I Am The Walrus’. Also sold for £12,000, ($22,741) was a ship's log book written by Lennon during a stormy trip to Bermuda in 1980, and a letter from Paul McCartney to his bandmates Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr failed to reach its £50,000, ($94,742) reserve price.

2007: The University of Florida repeated as NCAA Division I basketball champion, becoming the first school to win both the national collegiate major basketball and football titles the same calendar year.

2011: India becomes the first team to win the Cricket World Cup on home soil, defeating Sri Lanka by six wickets.

2012: One Goh, a 38-year-old former nursing student in Oakland, Calif., opened fire on the Oikos University campus, killing seven people and injuring three others, authorities said. He was captured a short time later.

2014: A soldier shot and killed three service members, injured 16 others, then killed himself at Fort Hood, Texas, 4 1/2 years after 13 people died in a shooting spree at the same base.

2015: Al-Shabab militants conducted an "operation against the infidels," killing 148 people at Garissa University College in Kenya.

2018: Death of Winnie Mandela, aged 81.

2019: NASA states it wants to send astronauts to Mars by 2033, and land on the Moon again in 2024.

BIRTHDAYS: 

Linda (Lydia) Hunt, actress, 76; 

Emmylou Harris, singer, 74; 

Paul Gambaccini, broadcaster, 71; 

Linford Christie, athlete, 61; 

Christopher Meloni, actor, 60; 

Clark (Robert) Gregg, actor/director, 59; 

Keren Woodward, singer, (Bananarama), 58; 

Karl Beattie, director and producer (Most Haunted) 58; 

Teddy Sherringham, footballer, 55; 

Helen Chamberlain, broadcaster, 54; 

Michael Fassbender, actor, 44; 

Aiden Turner, actor, 44; 

Jesse Plemons, actor, 33.