Back in Time – This Day in History – April 10

1912: Titanic

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

1516: The first Jewish ghetto is established when Venice compels Jews to live in a certain area.

1607: The British colonial expedition that would found Jamestown departs Puerto Rico for the American mainland.

1741: Prussia defeats Austria in the Battle of Mollwitz.

1790: President George Washington signed the first United States Patent Act.

1790: Merchant Robert Gray docked at Boston Harbor, becoming the first American to circumnavigate the globe. He had sailed from Boston in September 1787.

1815: The massive volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora was the most powerful in 1,600 years. It formed a crater 5-miles across on Indonesia's Sumbawa island, lowered the island by 4,000 feet, and killed 10,000 people. The series of eruptions between 5 Apr and 15 Apr had worldwide effects more far-reaching than the famous 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. The record amounts of ash Tambora spewed into the atmosphere encircled the globe, screened the sun’s light and caused a global drop in temperature. Thus 1816 was a “Year Without a Summer,” with severe climate abnormalities across the globe. Frosts killed crops and late heavy snowstorms occured. Elsewhere, there were severe storms, excessive rainfall and floods. Widespread famine and disease killed 80,000 more people.

1849: The safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt, who sells the rights for $400.

1864: Austrian Archduke Maximilian becomes Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico.

1866: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.

1877: The first human cannonball act is performed in London.

1912: The RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton for her maiden (and final) voyage.

1916: The Professional Golfers Association of America was founded.

1919: Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous people during the Mexican Revolution, was ambushed and killed in Morelos by government forces.

1925: Tsaritsyn is re-named Stalingrad. On the same day, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald is published.

1931: Death of poet and painter Khalil Gibran.

1932: Paul von Hindenburg is re-elected President of Germany in a run-off election against Adolf Hitler.

1936: Born on this day: Ricky Valance, (born David Spencer), who became the first Welsh singer to score a UK No.1 with the 1960 single, 'Tell Laura I Love Her' which sold over a million copies. He died on 12 June 2020 at his home in Spain at the age of 84.

1941: Croatia established as a fascist German puppet state.

1942: The Bataan Death March, during which thousands of Filipinos and Americans died, began in the Philippines. Hoyt R. Haynie of El Dorado, Ark., who survived the 55-mile march, but saw many of his friends die, would later proclaim, "I'm an American, I'm proud to be an American and as far as I'm concerned, that's all there is to be."

1944: Soviet forces liberate Odessa from the Nazis.

1947: Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

1953: Dag Hammarskjöld becomes the second Secretary-General of the United Nations.

1956: Leo Fender patents the successor to his popular "Telecaster" model of electric guitar, this time called the "Stratocaster."

1957: Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to all shipping traffic. (The canal had been closed due to wreckage resulting from the Suez Crisis.) The jury-deliberation film drama “12 Angry Men,” starring Henry Fonda, premiered in Los Angeles. John Osborne’s play “The Entertainer,” starring Laurence Olivier, opened in London.

1957: Ricky Nelson, 16, performs his first single, a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walking," on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, the TV series he stars in alongside his real-life family. The song quickly climbs the charts and launches his music career.

1959: Happy Birthday!!!: American guitarist, singer, and songwriter Brian Setzer. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.

1959: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Russ Conway - Side Saddle

2. Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

3. Buddy Holly - It Doesn't Matter Anymore

4. Connie Francis - My Happiness

5. Chris Barber's Jazz Band - Petite Fleur

6. Shirley Bassey - As I Love You

7. Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee

8. Billy Eckstine - Gigi

9. Slim Dusty - A Pub With No Beer

10. Marty Wilde - Donna

11. Beverley Sisters - Little Drummer Boy

12. Perry Como - Tomboy

13. Coasters - Charlie Brown

14. Eddie Cochran - C'mon Everybody

15. Pearl Carr And Teddy Johnson - Sing Little Birdie

16. Malcolm Vaughan - Wait For Me/Willingly

17. Little Richard - By The Light Of The Silvery Moon

18. Billy Fury - Maybe Tomorrow

19. Lonnie Donegan - Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight)

20. Paul Anka - (All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings

***

1960: Arnold Palmer wins the US Masters in Augusta.

1961: Gary Player beats Arnold Palmer to become the first international golfer to win the US Masters

1962: Artist Stuart Sutcliffe, original bass player with The Beatles, dies of a brain haemorrhage in Hamburg, West Germany, age 22 as the band are on their way from Liverpool to visit him and girlfriend Astrid Kircher.

1963: The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sank in the Atlantic Ocean 220 miles east of Boston. All 129 men on board were lost.

1967: At the Academy Awards, “A Man for All Seasons” won best picture of 1966; its star, Paul Scofield, was named best actor; Elizabeth Taylor received best actress for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

1967: Marvin Gaye records his version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine at Motown Studios, Detroit.

1968: Fifty-one people die when a ferry capsizes in Wellington harbour, New Zealand, during one of the worst storms ever to hit the country. On the same day, Rod Steiger wins the best actor Oscar for “In The Heat Of The Night.”, which also wins best picture.

1969: Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's steamy duet "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" hits #1 in the UK, where it's banned by the BBC.

1970: Jim Morrison is dragged off stage by keyboardist Ray Manzarek during a Doors concert in Boston, after Morrison asks the audience: “Would you like to see my genitals?” On the same day, Paul McCartney issues a press statement, announcing that The Beatles have split up.

1971: The U.S. table tennis team arrived in China, the first U.S. group to penetrate the so-called Bamboo Curtain since the 1950s.

1972: More than 5,000 people die in a massive earthquake in southern Iran. On the same day, The French Connection wins the Oscar for best picture. Gene Hackman takes the best actor award for his role as “Popeye” Doyle.

1972: During his first visit to the United States in 20 years, movie pioneer and comic Charlie Chaplin accepted an honorary Academy Award for his "incalculable" contribution to the art of filmmaking.

1974: Ytizhak Rabin replaces resigning Israeli PM Golda Meir. On the same day, magician Penn and Teller first meet.

1977: Tom Watson wins the US Masters for the first time.

1981: Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands is elected to Westminster as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

1982: US TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Go-Go's - Beauty And The Beat

2. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll

3. Vangelis - Chariots Of Fire (Soundtrack)

4. The J. Geils Band - Freeze-frame

5. Rick Springfield - Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet

6. Olivia Newton-John - Physical

7. Simon And Garfunkel - The Concert In Central Park

8. Bob And Doug Mckenzie - Great White North

9. Loverboy - Get Lucky

10. Asia - Asia

11. Journey - Escape

12. The Police - Ghost In The Machine

13. Quincy Jones - The Dude

14. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted By Louis Clark - Hooked On Classics

15. Quarterflash - Quarterflash

16. Foreigner - 4

17. The Cars - Shake It Up

18. Skyy - Skyy Line

19. Alabama - Mountain Music

20. The Oak Ridge Boys - Bobbie Sue

***

1983: King Hussein of Jordan ceases negotiations with the PLO.

1984: Nate Nelson, lead vocalist for The Flamingos dies of heart disease on his 52nd birthday.

1988: Sandy Lyle wins the US Masters.

1990: Tom Waits takes Doritos Chips to court for using a Waits sound-alike on radio ads. The jury awards him $2.475 million in punitive damages. On the same day, West Indies bowler Curtly Ambrose takes 8-45 vs England at Bridgetown.

1991: An Italian ferry headed to Sardinia collided with an oil tanker near Leghorn, Italy, killing 151 ferry passengers and crew members. The tanker crew survived.

1991: Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits guest stars as a rock star on the "Glitter Rock - April 12, 1974" episode of Quantum Leap.

1992: Comedian Sam Kinison dies in a car crash aged 38.

1994: Jose Maria Olazabal wins his first of two US Masters.

1998: The Good Friday Agreement is reached in Northern Ireland after two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.

1999: The all-star tribute concert Here There and Everywhere: A Concert For Linda is held at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Paul McCartney, George Michael, Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders), Elvis Costello and Sinead O'Connor raise money for animal charities while remembering Paul's wife Linda, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.

2000: The manager of an Aldi supermarket in County Durham who was sacked for being HIV positive receives around £300,000 compensation in an out of court settlement with the company shortly before an employment tribunal is due to begin.

2003: American singer Little Eva died in Kinston, North Carolina, aged 59. She had the 1962 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'The Loco-Motion'. Eva was working as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin who asked her to record the song they'd just written. 'The Loco-Motion' was also a hit for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974 (US No.1) and for Kylie Minogue in 1988 (US No.3).

2005: Tiger Woods wins his fourth US Masters. On the same day, at 16 years, 271 days James Vaughan scores for Everton in a 4-0 win against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park to become the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.

2006: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was narrowly beaten in his bid for another term by former premier Romano Prodi.

2007: Two Russian cosmonauts and U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi arrived at the international space station. DNA tests showed that former boyfriend Larry Birkhead was the father of the late Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.

2007: The former home of Johnny Cash burnt to the ground. Cash and his wife June Carter used the base in Tennessee to write many of their songs, and to entertain fans and US presidents. Part of Cash's famous late-period video 'Hurt' was shot inside the house, 20 miles north-east of country music capital Nashville. After the couple's deaths in 2003, the home in Henderson was bought by Bee Gee Barry Gibb who was preparing to refurbish the property when fire struck - within a few hours, only the stone chimneys remained of the building.

2010: Polish President Lech Kaczynski, 60, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military and church officials.

2012: French Resistance figure Raymond Aubrac, 97, died in Paris. The University of Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino as its football coach, citing a “pattern of misleading” behavior that included hiring his mistress.

2013: Kate Bush received the CBE from the Queen for services to music.

2014: CBS said Stephen Colbert would replace David Letterman on The Late Show when the longtime host stepped down in 2015.

2016: A fireworks explosion at the Paravur Puttingal Devi Temple in Paravur, India, left 106 dead and 400 injured.

2019: New species of human announced named Homo luzonensis, 3ft tall, remains dated 50-60,000 years old found in cave on island of Luzon, Philippines. An international team of scientists shared the first image of a supermassive black hole. On the same day, New York declares a public health emergency and compulsory vaccinations after a measles outbreak in Brooklyn.

BIRTHDAYS:

Gloria Hunniford, broadcaster, 81;

Burke Shelley, bassist/vocalist (Budgie) 74;

Steven Seagal, actor, 69;

Lenny Pickett, saxophonist (Tower of Power) 67;

Lesley Garrett, soprano, 66;

Brian Setzer, guitarist/singer-songwriter, 62;

Katrina Leskanich, guitarist/vocalist, (Katrina and the Waves) 62;

Reni (Alan Wren) drummer (Stone Roses) 57;

Roberto Carlos, footballer, 48;

David Harbour, actor, 46;

Sophie Ellis Bextor, singer, 42;

Charlie Hunnam, actor, 41;

Liz McClarnon, singer, (Atomic Kitten) 40;

Chyler Leigh, actress, 39;

Mandy Moore, actress/singer, 37;

Vincent Kompany, football manager, 35;

Hayley Westenra, singer, 34;

Haley Joel Osment, actor, 33;

Sadio Mane, footballer, 31;

Alex Pettyfer, actor, 31;

Daisy Ridley, actress, 29.