April 5
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Births
- 1472 - Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan and wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1510)
- 1479 - Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru (died 1574)
- 1588 - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (died 1679)
- 1692 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (died 1730)
- 1732 - Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French artist (died 1806)
- 1784 - Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (died 1859)
- 1816 - Samuel Freeman Miller, United States Supreme Court justice (died 1890)
- 1827 - Joseph Lister English surgeon (died 1912)
- 1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (died 1909)
- 1856 - Booker T. Washington, American Educator (died 1915)
- 1871 - Mirko Seljan, Croatian explorer
- 1875 - Mistinguett, French vaudeville performer (died 1956)
- 1900 - Spencer Tracy, American actor (died 1967)
- 1901 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (died 1981)
- 1905 - Bill Raisch, American actor (died 1984)
- 1908 - Bette Davis, American actress (died 1989)
- 1908 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (died 1989)
- 1909 - Albert R. Broccoli, American film producer (died 1996)
- 1911 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (died 1960)
- 1912 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (died 1983)
- 1916 - Gregory Peck, American actor (died 2003)
- 1917 - Robert Bloch, American author (died 1994)
- 1920 - Arthur Hailey, American writer (died 2004)
- 1922 - Gale Storm, American singer and actress
- 1922 - Christopher Hewett, British actor (died 2001)
- 1923 - Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnamese president (died 2001)
- 1923 - Michael Gazzo, American actor (died 1995)
- 1926 - Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and writer
- 1929 - Nigel Hawthorne, British actor (died 2001)
- 1931 - Boris Strugatsky, Russian author (died 1991)
- 1933 - Larry Felser, American sports columnist and writer
- 1934 - Frank Gorshin, American actor (died 2005)
- 1934 - Roman Herzog, German politician
- 1937 - Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State
- 1941 - Michael Moriarty, American actor and political activist
- 1942 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh film director
- 1943 - Max Gail, American actor
- 1946 - Jane Asher, British actress, writer
- 1947 - Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th President of the Philippines
- 1949 - Judith Resnik, astronaut (died 1986)
- 1950 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer (ABBA)
- 1965 - Mike McCready, American musician (Pearl Jam)
- 1973 - Pharrell Williams, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)
- 1978 - Stephen Jackson, American basketball player
[edit] Deaths
- Kurt Cobain, singer/songwriter, frontman of Nirvana. (1994)
- Heiner Zieschang, German mathematician. (2004)
[edit] Events
- 1242 - During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forces rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
- 1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
- 1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
- 1654 - The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.
- 1690 - Patrizio Cardinal Ficca is eleceted pope and takes the name Patricius I
- 1792 - United States President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
- 1804 - The first recorded meteorite falls in Possil, Scotland (High Possil Meteorite).
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown. The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia.
- 1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires.
- 1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
- 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: A F5 tornado slams into the north side of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 233. It is the 4th deadliest tornado in United States history.
- 1942 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- 1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR allowing "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
- 1949 - Fireside Theatre debuts on television.
- 1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people.
- 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
- 1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
- 1956 - In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a lanslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister.
- 1957 - In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad sworn in as the first chief minister.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.
- 1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
- 1973 - Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1976 - In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident.
- 1986 - Bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin, Germany, kills three.
- 1991 - ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard.
- 1992 - Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
- 1992 - Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protestor Suada Dilberovic on the Skenderija Bridge.
- 1993 - The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.
- 1998 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
- 1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- 1999 - In Laramie, Wyoming, United States, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
- 2005 - ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announces on World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It would be his last on-air appearance.
