Back in Time – This Day in History – April 17

1492: Christopher Columbus

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

1397: Geoffrey Chaucer tells the “Canterbury Tales” for the first time at the court of Richard II.

1421: The sea broke the dikes at Dort, Holland, drowning an estimated 100,000 people.

1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10 per cent of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered.

1521: Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (Luther was later declared an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.)

1524: Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazano discovered New York Harbor.

1534: Sir Thomas More is confined in the Tower of London.

1790: U.S. statesman, printer, scientist and writer Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

1808: Napoleon orders the seizure of US ships.

1860: Acknowledged as first world title bout, champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight out a brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw near Farnborough before police stop the fight.

1861: The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

1865: Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

1875: Modern Snooker is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India.

1912: The sister ship of the doomed RMS Titanic, the Olympic, radioed in that survivors of the ocean liner sinking were rescued and safely on board the RMS Carpathia.

1924: The motion picture studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded, the result of a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and the Louis B. Mayer Co.

1932: Emperor Haile Selassie ends slavery in Ethiopia.

1937: A European record attendance for a football match of 149,415 sees Scotland beat England 3-1 at Hampden Park in a Home Championship match.

1939: Joe Louis KOs Jack Roper in Round 1 for the heavyweight boxing title.

1940: Born on this day: English singer Billy Fury, who had the 1961 UK No.3 single 'Halfway To Paradise', plus 25 other Top 40 UK singles. He played rock 'n' roller "Stormy Tempest" in the film That'll Be The Day along side David Essex and Ringo Starr. An early British rock and roll (and film) star, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s, and spent 332 weeks on the UK chart. Fury died of a heart attack on 28th January 1983.

1941: British troops land in Iraq. On the same day, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.

1945: Italian leader Benito Mussolini flees from Salò to Milan. On the same day, the US 8th Army bombs Dresden.

1948: Elpidio Quirino becomes President of the Philippines following the death of President Manuel Roxas.

1951: The 75-strong crew of a British submarine is feared dead after going missing off the south coast of England.

1953: Harry Belafonte makes his film debut in Bright Road, also starring Dorothy Dandridge. He soon becomes a star of stage and screen.

1956: Premium Bonds are introduced in Britain.

1960: Singer-songwriter Eddie Cochran is killed when the taxi he is travelling in crashes into a lamppost on Rowden Hill, Chippenham, Wilts. His girlfriend, songwriter Sharon Sheeley and singer Gene Vincent survive the crash. The first police officer on the scene is cadet David Harman, later of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch.

1960: UK TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Original Soundtrack - South Pacific

2. Duane Eddy - The Twang's The Thang

3. Tony Hancock - This Is Hancock

4. Original Broadway Cast - Flower Drum Song

5. Original Soundtrack - Gigi

6. Cliff Richard - Cliff Sings

7. Bobby Darin - This Is Darin

8. Russ Conway - My Concerto For You

9. Original Broadway Cast - My Fair Lady

10. Original Cast Recording - Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be

11. Elvis Presley - Elvis' Golden Records

12. Original Soundtrack - The King And I

13. Peter Sellers - Songs For Swingin' Sellers

14. Freddy Cannon - The Explosive Freddy Cannon

15. London Philharmonic Orchestra - Ravel's Bolero

16. Original Soundtrack - The Five Pennies

17. John Hanson - Student Prince

18. Original Soundtrack - Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!

19. Mr Acker Bilk - 7 Ages Of Acker

20. Mr Acker Bilk - Acker Bilk's Omnibus

***

1961: Some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion by the third day.

1964: Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock became the first woman to complete a solo airplane trip around the world as she returned to Columbus, Ohio, after 29 1/2 days in her Cessna 180. Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair. The first game was played at New York’s Shea Stadium; the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Mets, 4-3.

1965: Bob Dylan's second studio album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was at No.1 on the UK chart. The album opens with 'Blowin' in the Wind', which became an anthem of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary.

1965: US TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Freddie And The Dreamers - I'm Telling You Now

2. The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love

3. Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders - Game Of Love

4. Petula Clark - I Know A Place

5. Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Shotgun

6. Herman's Hermits - Can't You Hear My Heartbeat

7. The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You

8. Martha & The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run

9. Shirley Ellis - The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)

10. The Moody Blues - Go Now!

11. Roger Miller - King Of The Road

12. Herman's Hermits - Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter

13. Jewel Akens - The Birds And The Bees

14. The Seekers - I'll Never Find Another You

15. Jack Jones - The Race Is On

16. The Rolling Stones - The Last Time

17. The Beatles - Eight Days A Week

18. Vic Dana - Red Roses For A Blue Lady

19. Herman's Hermits - Silhouettes

20. Marvin Gaye - I'll Be Doggone

***

1967: Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti beats American Emile Griffith in a 15 round points decision to win world middleweight crown at Madison Square Garden.

1969: Bernadette Devlin, 21, wins the Mid Ulster seat to become Britain’s youngest ever female MP. On the same day, Alexander Dubcek is forced to resign as first secretary of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party and Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Senator Robert Kennedy.

1970: Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.

1970: Santana begin sessions for what would be their breakthrough album Abraxas at Wally Heider Recording Studio, San Francisco.

1973: Federal Express (later FedEx) began operations as 14 planes carrying 186 packages took off from Memphis International Airport, bound for 25 U.S. cities.

1973: Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side Of The Moon went gold in the US. The LP went on to stay in the US chart for more than ten years and became the longest charting rock record of all time.

1975: The Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

1979: Four RUC officers are killed by a Provisional IRA van bomb in Bessbrook, County Armagh.

1983: Felix Pappalardi, bass player with American rock band Mountain and producer of the Cream albums Disraeli Gears and Wheels Of Fire is shot dead by his wife Gail Collins during a jealous rage. On the same day, Grete Waitz runs the female world record marathon (2:25:29).

1984: Policewoman Yvonne Fletcher is killed after shots are fired from the Libyan People’s Bureau in central London.

1986: At London’s Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in the bag of Anne-Marie Murphy, a pregnant Irishwoman about to board an El Al jetliner to Israel; she’d been tricked into carrying the bomb by her Jordanian fiance, Nezar Hindawi. The bodies of kidnapped American Peter Kilburn and Britons Philip Padfield and Leigh Douglas were found near Beirut; they had been slain in apparent retaliation for the U.S. raid on Libya. British journalist John McCarthy is abducted in Beirut on his way to the airport.

1987: Drummer and percussion player Carlton Barrett of The Wailers is shot dead outside his house in Kingston, Jamaica.

1989: The Polish labor union Solidarity was granted legal status after nearly a decade of struggle and suppression -- clearing the way for the downfall of the country's Communist Party.

1991: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, ending the day at 3,004.46, up 17.58.

1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers were acquitted. Turkish President Turgut Ozal died at age 66.

1998: Linda McCartney dies after a long battle with cancer.

1999: A bomb planted by a right wing extremist explodes in Brixton.

2003: New Orleans Blues guitarist Earl King dies aged 69.

2005: Little Britain wins the BAFTA for best comedy.

2008: Danny Federici, longtime keyboard player for the E. Street Band, dies from cancer aged 58.

2009: Morrissey walks off stage during his set at the Coachella festival in California after declaring he can ‘smell burning flesh’. The committed vegetarian took offence to the smell coming from nearby barbecues.

2012: The 8th century St. Cuthbert Gospel, Europe’s oldest intact book, is purchased by the British Library for £9 million.

2013: Same-sex marriage is legalised in New Zealand.

2014: Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 87, died in Mexico City.

2015: Jimmy Anderson becomes the highest wicket-taking bowler in England’s test cricket history.

2018: Former First Lady Barbara Bush dies aged 92.

2019: Alan García, former President of Peru, commits suicide by shooting himself as police try to arrest him on corruption charges.

BIRTHDAYS:

David Bradley, actor, 79;

Henry Kelly, broadcaster, 75;

Jan Hammer, keyboards player/composer, (Mahavishnu Orchestra) 73;

Michael Sembello, songwriter, 67;

Sean Bean, actor 61;

Maynard James Keenan, singer (Tool) 57;

Liz Phair, singer-songwriter, 54;

Jennifer Garner, actress, 49;

Claire Sweeney, actress, 49;

Victoria Beckham, fashion designer, 47;

Mikael Åkerfeldt, guitarist/singer (Opeth), 47;

Rooney Mara, actress, 36;

Eliza Doolittle, (Eliza Caird), singer-songwriter, 33.