Back in Time – This Day in History – April 14

1912: Titanic

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

43BC: The Battle of Forum Gallorum: Marc Antony besieging Julius Caesar’s assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed.

1471: Wars of the Roses: Battle of Barnet – Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians and kill the Earl of Warwick.

1536: Henry VIII expropriates minor monasteries.

1611: The word “telescope” was first used in public by Prince Federico Cesi at a banquet held by the pioneer scientific society, the Academy of Linceans (or Lynxes, of which he was a founder). It was held to honour Galileo, on a grand hillside estate. After Galileo showed the guests the satellites of Jupiter, other celestial marvels, and even an inscription on a building three miles away.

1741: Emperor Momozomo of Japan is born in Kyoto.

1759: Death of composer George Frideric Handel, aged 74.

1775: The first American society for the abolition of slavery was formed in Philadelphia.

1792: France declares war on Austria.

1828: Noah Webster registers the copyright of the first American dictionary for publication.

1841: The first detective novel, Edgar Allen Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is published.

1849: Hungary declares itself independent of Austria.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington. Lincoln died the next morning. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

1894: First public showing of Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope.

1912: The British liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40 p.m. ship’s time and began sinking. (The ship went under two hours and 40 minutes later with the loss of 1,514 lives.)

1915: Turkey invades Armenia.

1918: Two U.S. pilots of the First Aero Squadron shot down two enemy German planes over the Allied Squadron Aerodome in France during World War I. It was the first U.S.-involved dogfight in history. One of the pilots, Lt. Douglas Campbell, would eventually shoot down five enemy aircraft, making him the first U.S. flying ace.

1927: The first Volvo was produced in Sweden.

1931: King Alfonso XIII was deposed, ending 981 years of monarchical rule in Spain, and ushering in the Second Spanish Republic, the republican regime that governed Spain from 1931 to 1939.

1935: The “Black Sunday” dust storm descended upon the central Plains, turning a sunny afternoon into total darkness.

1936: Singer Édith Piaf is questioned after nightclub owner and her patron Louis Leplée murdered in Paris.

1939: John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is published.

1940: Allied troops land in Norway.

1944: The first Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz. On the same day, General Dwight D Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

1945: US 7th Army & Allies forces capture Nuremberg and Stuttgart in Germany.

1956: Ampex Corp. demonstrated the first practical videotape recorder at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.

1958: Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 with Laika, the first dog in space, aboard burns up during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

1960: Motown is founded by Berry Gordy in Detroit. The musical “Bye Bye Birdie” opened on Broadway.

1960: "The Sound of Fury" by Billy Fury is recorded at Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead. Regarded as one of the most important early British rock 'n roll LPs. On the LP, Fury writes all his own songs sometimes under the pseudonym Wilbur Wilberforce (From ME Music@espofootball)

1962: Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France after the resignation of Michel Debré.

1968: A massive student rally in West Berlin ends in violent clashes between police and protesters.

1969: John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles go into EMI Studios, Abbey Road alone and record The Ballad Of John And Yoko. On the same day, Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand share the Oscar for best actress in the first ever tie for The Lion In Winter and Funny Girl respectively.

1970: President Richard Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun to the U.S. Supreme Court. (The choice of Blackmun, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate a month later, followed the failed nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell.)

1972: The Provisional IRA explodes 24 bombs in towns and cities across Northern Ireland.

1973: Acting FBI director L Patrick Gray resigns after admitting he destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal.

1974: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun
2. Mud - The Cat Crept In
3. Slade - Everyday
4. Glitter Band - Angel Face
5. Diana Ross And Marvin Gaye - You Are Everything
6. Hot Chocolate - Emma
7. Gary Glitter - Remember Me This Way
8. Wombles - Remember You're A Womble
9. Sunny - Doctor's Orders
10. Paper Lace - Billy, Don't Be A Hero
11. The Chi-Lites - Homely Girl
12. Bill Haley And His Comets - Rock Around The Clock {1974}
13. Little Jimmy Osmond - I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door
14. Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye
15. Limmie And The Family Cookin' - A Walkin' Miracle
16. Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl
17. ABBA - Waterloo
18. Mott The Hoople - The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll
19. Olivia Newton-John - Long Live Love
20. The New Seekers - I Get A Little Sentimental Over You ft. Lyn Paul

***

1978: A Korean Airlines Boeing 707 is fired on by Soviets and crashes in Russia.

1979: Yusufu Lule is sworn in as the new president of Uganda.

1980: Norman Mailer wins the Pulitzer Prize for “Executioner’s Song”. On the same day, Kramer vs Kramer dominates the Oscars, winning the four top awards of best picture, best director (Robert Benton), best actor (Dustin Hoffman) and best actress (Meryl Streep).

1981: The first test flight of America’s first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1983: Former bass player with The Pretenders, Pete Farndon, dies from a drug overdose.

1985: Bernhard Langer becomes the first German winner of the US Masters.

1986: Americans got word of a U.S. air raid on Libya (because of the time difference, it was the early morning of April 15 where the attack occurred.) Desmond Tutu is elected Anglican Archbishop of Capetown. French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris at age 78.

1990: US TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
2. Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
3. Michael Bolton - Soul Provider
4. Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
5. Alannah Myles - Alannah Myles
6. Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
7. Phil Collins - ...But Seriously
8. Aerosmith - Pump
9. The B-52s - Cosmic Thing
10. M.C. Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
11. Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam - The Album
12. Linda Ronstadt (Featuring Aaron Neville) - Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind
13. Quincy Jones - Back On The Block
14. Depeche Mode - Violator
15. Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True
16. Lisa Stansfield - Affection
17. Robert Plant - Manic Nirvana
18. Babyface - Tender Lover
19. Don Henley - The End Of The Innocence
20. Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining

***

1991: Ian Woosnam wins his only major title with the US Masters.

1994: Two U.S. Air Force F-15 warplanes mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including 15 Americans. Turner Classic Movies made its cable debut; the first film it aired was Ted Turner’s personal favorite, “Gone with the Wind.”

1995: Actor, writer and folk singer Burl Ives dies from cancer aged 85.

1996: Nick Faldo wins his third US Masters and his sixth and final major tournament.

1998: The very first VH1 Divas special debuts on the music channel as a benefit concert for VH1's Save The Music Foundation. Headliners are Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain, with a guest appearance by Carole King.

1999: Singer-songwriter and actor Anthony Newley dies from cancer. On the same day, NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees, killing 75.

2000: Kenneth Noye, 52, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the road rage killing of a man on the M25 in 1996. On the same day, Metallica file a lawsuit against P2P file sharing phenomenon Napster.

2001: Death of Scottish football legend Jim Baxter.

2002: Tiger Woods becomes the third golfer to claim back-to-back US Masters titles. On the same day, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.

2003: US troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985.

2007: Silver Birch, ridden by Robbie Power, wins the Grand National at Aintree.

2008: Silvio Berlusconi swept back into power in a third term as prime minister of Italy in a new election that gave him control of both houses of Parliament.

2009: Somali pirates seized four ships with 60 hostages. North Korea said it was restarting its rogue nuclear program, booting U.N. inspectors and pulling out of disarmament talks in an angry reaction to the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.

2009: Former Beatle George Harrison was honoured with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Sir Paul McCartney attended the unveiling outside the landmark Capitol Records building, joining Harrison's widow Olivia and son Dhani. Eric Idle, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and musician Tom Petty also attended the ceremony.

2010: The devastating magnitude-7.1 Yushu earthquake staggered northwest China. Officials reported the death toll eventually surpassed 2,600, with many thousands of people injured.

2010: Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull begins erupting from the top crater in the centre of the glacier.

2014: Suspected Islamic militants struck in the heart of Nigeria with a massive rush-hour bomb blast that killed 75 people in Abuja, the capital. The Washington Post and The Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize in public service for revealing the U.S. government’s sweeping surveillance efforts. Percussionist Armando Peraza died of pneumonia at the age of 89. He was a member of the band Santana from 1972 until the early 90s.

2015: American R&B and soul singer Percy Sledge died of liver cancer at his home in Baton Rouge aged 73. The inspiration behind his 1966 US No.1 hit 'When a Man Loves a Woman', came when Sledge's girlfriend left him for a modelling career after he was laid off from a construction job in late 1965.

2018: Czech filmmaker Milos Forman, whose American movies “Amadeus” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” won a deluge of Academy Awards including Oscars for best director, died at a Connecticut hospital at the age of 86.

2019: Tiger Woods wins his fifth US Masters and his first major title in 11 years.

BIRTHDAYS:

Loretta Lynn (Webb), country artist, 89;

Julie Christie, actress, 81;

Tony Burrows, singer (Edison Lighthouse/First Class/The Ivy League/The Flowerpot Men), 79;

John Sergeant, broadcaster/journalist, 77;

Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist (Deep Purple/Rainbow) 76;

Sonja Kristina (Sonia Shaw), singer (Curved Air) 72;

Julian Lloyd Webber, cellist, 70;

Peter Capaldi, actor, 63;

Adrien Brody, actor, 48;

Sarah Michelle Gallar, actress, 44;

Win Butler, singer/guitarist (Arcade Fire) 41;

Abigail Breslin actress, 25.