Back in Time – This Day in History – April 11

1970: Apollo 13

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

1471: In the Wars of the Roses King Edward IV of England seizes London from Henry VI.

1814: Napoleon abdicates unconditionally and is exiled to Elba.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd outside the White House, saying, “We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart.” (It was the last public address Lincoln would deliver.)

1868: The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.

1900: The U.S. Navy acquired its first submarine, a 53-foot craft designed by Irish immigrant John P. Holland. Propelled by gasoline while on the surface and by electricity when submerged, the Holland served as a blueprint for modern submarine design.

1914: Mexican President Huerta breaks off diplomatic relations with the US.

1921: Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax, at 2 cents a package.

1933: Hermann Goering becomes Premier of Prussia.

1941: German bombers blitz Coventry.

1945: Allied troops liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. French writer Marcel Conversy would describe his 15 months there as a "living hell."

1947: The Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player to take the field for a Major League Baseball team, playing in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. Four days later, on April 15, Robinson made his official MLB debut, playing on opening day at Ebbets Field against the Boston Braves.

1950: Prince Rainier III becomes ruler of Monaco.

1951: US President Harry Truman appoints General Ridgway as supreme commander of the UN forces in Korea after shocking the American public by dismissing General Douglas Macarthur.

1952: Singin' In The Rain, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and newcomer Debbie Reynolds, is released in the US, but barely makes a splash.

1955: Failed assassination attempt on Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Enlai when a plane he is on is bombed and crashes into the South China Sea.

1956: Travelling from Amarillo to Nashville, the plane that Elvis Presley is flying on develops engine trouble and is forced to make an emergency landing. For the rest of his life he has a fear of flying.

1956: James Brown has his first chart entry when "Please, Please, Please" debuts on the Billboard R&B chart. Rising slowly at first, the record would climb to #6 by the Summer and sell over a million copies. In 2004, it was ranked number 142 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1957: The island of Singapore is granted self-government from Britain to come into effect next year. On the same day, poet Pablo Neruda is arrested in Buenos Aires.

1959: Billy Wright of Wolves becomes the first player in the world to make 100 internationals appearance in England’s 1-0 victory over Scotland at Wembley.

1961: Former SS officer Adolf Eichmann went on trial in Israel, charged with crimes against humanity for his role in the Nazi Holocaust. (Eichmann was convicted and executed.)

1961: Bob Dylan makes his first live appearance in New York’s Greenwich Village as support to John Lee Hooker.

1963: Gerry and the Pacemakers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'How Do You Do It'' The group's first of three UK No.1's.

1964: The Beatles set a new chart record when they had 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from 'Can't Buy Me Love' at No.1 to 'Love Me Do' at No. 81.

1965: Performing at the New Musical Express poll winners concert, at London's Wembley Empire Pool, England, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Animals, The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Moody Blues, Them, Cilla Black, The Seekers and Donovan.

1966: Frank Sinatra records "Strangers In The Night," improvising the famous "dooby, dooby doo" at the end.

1966: NBC broadcasts the last episode of the Rock and Roll TV show, Hullabaloo, which features Paul Anka, Lesley Gore, Peter And Gordon and The Cyrkle. The show had been on the air since January 1965, a year after ABC came up with Shindig!

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included the Fair Housing Act, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

1970: Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission, began with the successful launch of the spacecraft Odyssey from Cape Canaveral with crew James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert. Two days later, on 13 Apr disaster struck 200,000 miles from earth. A liquid oxygen tank exploded, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water. Swigert reported: “Houston, we've had a problem.” The lunar landing was aborted. After circling the moon, the crippled spacecraft began a long, cold journey back to earth with enormous logistical problems in providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow a safe return. On 17 Apr, with the world anxiously watching, tragedy turned to triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1970: The Beatles started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Let It Be'. It became the group's 19th US No.1 in 6 years. The track was a No.2 hit in the UK.

1970: Us TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. The Beatles - Let It Be

2. Jackson 5 - ABC

3. John Ono Lennon - Instant Karma (We All Shine On)

4. Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky

5. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

6. Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

7. Frijid Pink - House Of The Rising Sun

8. Badfinger - Come And Get It

9. Bobby Sherman - Easy Come, Easy Go

10. The Jaggerz - The Rapper

11. The Supremes - Up The Ladder To The Roof

12. The Originals - The Bells

13. Aretha Franklin - Call Me/Son Of A Preacher Man

14. The Friends Of Distinction - Love Or Let Me Be Lonely

15. The Guess Who - American Woman/No Sugar Tonight

16. Brook Benton - Rainy Night In Georgia/Rubberneckin'

17. Chairman Of The Board - Give Me Just A Little More Time

18. Santana - Evil Ways

19. The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

20. Three Dog Night - Celebrate

***

1971: All 4 former members of The Beatles have solo singles on the UK charts as

Ringo Starr enters the chart:

29 - Ringo Starr with "It Don't Come Easy"

25 - George Harrison - "My Sweet Lord"

11 - Paul McCartney - "Another Day" and

10 - JohnLennon - "Power To The People"

(From ME Music@espofootball)

***

1979: The Tanzanian army captures Kampala, the capital of Uganda forcing dictator Idi Amin to flee into exile in Libya.

1981: President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt. Race-related rioting erupted in the Brixton district of south London.

1981: Larry Holmes beats Trevor Berbick in 15 rounds for heavyweight boxing title. One the same day, a race riot breaks out in Brixton.

1983: Voters elected Harold Washington as the first African-American mayor of Chicago.

1983: Seve Ballesteros wins his second US Masters title. On the same day, Gandhi dominates the Academy Awards, winning best film, best director (Richard Attenborough) and best actor (Ben Kingsley).

1984: Chinese troops invade Vietnam. On the same day, Konstantin Chernenko is named President of the Soviet Union.

1986: Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 million kilometers (39 million mi), on its outbound journey.

1988: Cher wins Best Actress for the romantic comedy Moonstruck at the Academy Awards in New York.

1989: Philadelphia Flyers' Ron Hextall became the first NHL goaltender to score in a playoff game, defeating the Washington Capitals.

1990: Customs officers in Middlesbrough seize what they believe is the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.

1992: The IRA bombs London’s financial district, killing three.

1993: A riot that would last 11 days erupted at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Nine inmates and a guard died.

1993: Bernhard Langer wins his second US Masters.

1993: UK TOP 20: Album chart:

1. David Bowie - Black tie white noise

2. Suede - Suede

3. Sugar - Beaster

4. David Essex - Cover shot

5. Almighty - Powertrippin

6. Annie Lennox - Diva

7. REM - Automatic For The People

8. Eric Clapton - Unplugged

9. Arrested Development - 3 Years 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of Arrested Development

10. Dina Carroll - So Close

11. Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way

12. Hot Chocolate - Their Greatest Hits

13. Depeche Mode - Songs of faith and devotion

14. Sting - Ten Summoners Tales

15. Take That - Take That & Party

16. The Hollies - The Air that I breathe the best of

17. Boney M - The Greatest hits

18. David Zinman - Gorecki Symphony No 3

19. Randy Crawford - The Very Best of Randy Crawford

20. Kd Lang - Ingenue

***

1996: Israel launches air strikes on Beirut, Lebanon.

1999: José María Olazábal of Spain wins his second US Masters title.

2000: South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje is sacked after admitting dishonesty following match-fixing allegations in India.

2001: Singer/actor Harry Secombe dies aged 79.

2004: Phil Mickelson claims his first major title, winning the US Masters.

2006: Ariel Sharon was officially relieved of his duties as prime minister of Israel when the Cabinet declared him to be permanently incapacitated. Sharon had a major stroke on Jan. 4, 2006, and fell into a coma a short time later. He died in 2014.

2006: Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

2006: June Pointer, the youngest of the four Pointer Sisters died of cancer aged 52.

2007: Author Kurt Vonnegut dies aged 84.

2009: A 16-nation Asian summit in Bangkok, Thailand, was canceled after demonstrators stormed the venue. Boston University won its fifth NCAA hockey championship, defeating Miami (Ohio) 4-3 in overtime. Susan Boyle, a middle-aged volunteer church worker, wowed judges and audiences alike with her soaring rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” on the British TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

2010: Phil Mickelson wins his third US Masters title in Augusta.

2011: France became the first European nation to ban the wearing of full veils in public.

2013: Fossilized dinosaur eggs with embryos are discovered in China.

2018: A military transport plane crashed just after takeoff in Algeria, killing 257 people in the worst aviation disaster in the history of the North African country. Mitzi Shore, owner of the Los Angeles club the Comedy Store, died at the age of 87.

2019: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London by police and arrested on failure to appear in court on US extradition charges. On the same day, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir is overthrown and arrested by the army in Khartoum after 29 years in power and EU leaders agree to a six-month extension to Brexit after Parliament fails to reach a consensus.

2020: Bob Dylan, 78, lands his first #1 on a Billboard chart when "Murder Most Foul" tops the Rock Digital Song Sales tally.

2020: A virtual concert hosted by Farm Aid co-founder Willie Nelson to support American farmers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, raised more than $500,000. The show also featured at-home performances from Farm Aid co-founders Neil Young and John Mellencamp, as well as board member Dave Matthews.

BIRTHDAYS:

Louise Lasser, actress/writer, 82;

Bob Harris, broadcaster, 75;

Neville Staples, singer (The Specials/Fun Boy Three), 65;

Jeremy Clarkson, broadcaster, 61;

Vincent Gallo, actor/director/screenwriter, 60;

Mark Thomas, comedian/satirist, 58;

Lisa Stansfield, singer, 55;

Cerys Matthews, singer-songwriter/broadcaster, 52;

Oliver Riedel, bassist (Rammstein) 50;

Joss Stone (Joscelyn Stoker), singer, 34;

Nile Ranger, footballer, 30;

Dele Alli, footballer, 25.