1856 – Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes badly damaged by gunpowder explosion, kills 4,000 on island of Rhodes
1882 – Wood block alarm invented, when alarm rang, it dropped 20 wood blocks
1948 – US female Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
1948 – 1st US figure skating championships held
1980 – France performs nuclear test
1987 – MLB Chicago Cubs trade Dennis Eckersley to Oakland A’s for 3 minor league players
1987 – Duchess of Windsor’s jewels auctioned for £31,380,197
1992 – 1st exhibition game at Camden Field – Orioles beat NY Mets
1994 – The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Ray Floyd wins first of 4 Champions Tour majors with birdie on first playoff hole against Dale Douglass
2013 – 50 people are killed by flooding across Argentina
Author: gil7
Today in History for 3rd April 2023
Historical Events
1922 – Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by an ailing Vladimir Lenin
1923 – 2 “Black Sox” sue White Sox (unsuccessfully) for back salary
1954 – Don Perry climbs a 20′ rope in under 2.8 seconds (AAU record)
1964 – US and Panama agree to resume diplomatic relations
1976 – 130th Grand National: John Burke wins aboard Rag Trade; equal record 4th winner trained by Fred Rimell and 2nd winner owned by Pierre Raymond Bessone
1992 – 1st exhibition game at Camden Field – Orioles beat NY Mets
Famous Birthdays
1769 – Christian Günther von Bernstorff, Danish-Prussian statesman and diplomat, born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 1835)
1822 – Edward Everett Hale, American clergyman and author (Man without a Country), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1909)
1940 – Roger Burman, English head of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, born in Birmingham, England
1959 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor (Niles Crane-Fraiser), born in Saratoga Springs, New York
1962 – Simon Raymonde, British bassist, songwriter, and record producer (Cocteau Twins), born in Lewisham, London, England
1986 – Sergio Sánchez Ortega, Spanish footballer (Espanyol), born in Mataró, Spain
Famous Deaths
1942 – Paul Gilson, Belgian composer, dies at 76
1951 – John C. Kielstra, Dutch economist and governor (Suriname 1933-44), dies at 72
1981 – Leo Kanner, Austrian-American psychiatrist and social activist known for his work related to autism, dies at 86
2007 – Nina Wang, Chinese widow of businessman Teddy Wang (Asia’s richest woman), dies at 69
2021 – Jill Corey [Norma Jean Speranza], American pop singer (Your Hit Parade), dies at 85
2022 – June Brown, British actress (EastEnders, 1985–93 and 1997–2020 – “Dot”; Sitting Target), dies at 95
Famous Deaths for 2nd April 2023
1872 – Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor of the electric telegraph and Morse Code, dies at 80
1930 – Zewditu, Empress of Ethiopia (1916-30), dies at 53
1979 – Carroll Rosenbloom, American businessman and NFL team owner (Baltimore Colts, LA Rams), dies of a heart attack at 72
1992 – Paula Kelly, American big band singer (The Modernaires), dies at 72
2002 – Jack Kruschen, Canadian character actor (The Apartment, Busting Loose), dies at 80
2005 – Pope Saint John Paul II [Karol Wojtyla], 264th Roman Catholic Pope (1978-2005), dies of heart failure at 84
2010 – Mike Cuellar, Cuban baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1967, 70, 71, 74; World Series 1964, 70; AL Cy Young Award 1969; Baltimore Orioles), dies from stomach cancer at 72
2011 – Larry Finch, American college basketball coach (University of Memphis 1986-97), dies at 60
2013 – Jesús Franco, Spanish film director and writer, dies from complications from a stroke at 82
2020 – Sergio Rossi, Italian shoe designer, dies of COVID-19 complications at 84
Historical Events for 2nd April 2023
1453 – Turkish forces under Sultan Mehmed II begin the siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which falls May 29
1865 – Battle of Fort Blakely Alabama, last major battle of the US Civil War
1902 – Dutch football club Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging (MVV) is established in Maastricht, Netherlands
1932 – “Tarzan the Ape Man” released starring Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the first of his 12 Tarzan films
1977 – Montreal Canadiens rout the Washington Capitals, 11-0 at the Montreal Forum to set an NHL record of 34 straight home games without a loss
1985 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1993 – Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mark Price has his consecutive free throw streak end at 77, during a 114-113 loss at Charlotte; falls 1 short of Calvin Murphy’s NBA record of 78 straight free throws
1993 – Venezuelan DC-10 crashes at Margarita, killing 10
2019 – 70 villages evacuated in Khuzesta province, Iran, after at least 45 killed in flooding after unprecedented rainfall
2020 – Spain’s death toll passes 10,000 (10003), as it posts a record single-day rise of 950 deaths
Today in History for 2nd April 2023
Historical Events
1645 – Robert Devereux resigns as parliament supreme commander
1827 – US inventor Joseph Dixon of Salem, Massachusetts, begins manufacturing lead pencils
1960 – Cuba buys oil from USSR
1989 – 8th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Tennessee beats Auburn, 76-60; Lady Vols forward Bridgette Gordon MOP
2000 – The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Tom Kite wins his lone Champions Tour major with birdie on 6th playoff hole with Tom Watson and Larry Nelson
2006 – Kraft Nabisco Championship Women’s Golf, Mission Hills CC: Australian Karrie Webb beats Lorena Ochoa of Mexico with a birdie on the 1st playoff hole; earlier eagles same hole to force the playoff
Famous Birthdays
1798 – August Heinrich Hoffmann, German writer, born in Fallersleben, Electorate of Brunswick -Lüneburg (d. 1874)
1901 – Anis Fuleihan, American composer, born in Kyrenia, Cyprus (d. 1970)
1952 – Will Hoy, English auto racer (British Touring Car C’ship 1991), born in Melbourn, England (d. 2002)
1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor (Law and Order; Runaway Bride), born in Washington, D.C.
1975 – Deedee Magno Hall, Filipino-American rocker (Party-Rodeo, That’s Why), born in Portsmouth, Virginia
1976 – Rory Sabbatini, South African golfer (US Masters 2007 runner-up, 6 PGA Tour titles, born in Durban, RSA
Famous Deaths
1787 – Thomas Gage, British general (b. 1719)
1791 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French revolutionary (influential member of the National Constituent Assembly), dies of natural causes at 42
1924 – Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming, Danish botanist (plant ecology, environment-organism interactions), dies at 82
1969 – Fortunio Bonanova, Spanish actor and opera singer (My Best Gal, Havana Rose), dies at 74
2000 – Tommaso Buscetta, Sicilian mafioso and pentito (b. 1928)
2003 – Michael Wayne, American film producer (Green Berets, McLintock), son of John Wayne, dies at 68
Famous Deaths for 1st April 2023
1548 – Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1506-48), dies at 81
1814 – Jozef de Ferraris, French-Austrian general and cartographer, dies at 87
1832 – Robert the Hermit, US ex-slave/hermit in Massachusetts, dies
1878 – John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (b. 1796)
1918 – Karl Valentin, Swedish composer, dies at 64
1984 – Chepín [Electo Rosell], Cuban violinist, bandleader, and composer (Orquesta Chepín-Chovén), dies at 76
1998 – Eugene “Gene” Evans, American actor (My Friend Flicka, Johnny Ringo, Alamo), dies of heart failure at 75
2010 – John Forsythe, American actor (Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty), dies at 92
2013 – Jack Pardee, American College Football Hall of Fame linebacker (Texas AandM; NFL: LA Rams, Washington Redskins) and coach (Houston Oilers), dies at gallbladder cancer at 76
2018 – Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan general and dictator (1982-83) convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, dies of a heart attack at 91
Historical Events for 1st April 2023
1792 – Gronings feminist Etta Palm demands women’s right to divorce
1868 – Hampton Institute opens
1891 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1933 – Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany
1942 – Allied air raid on Japanese occupied harbor city Kupang, Timor, Indonesia
1972 – 30,000 attend Mar Y Sol rock concert, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
1972 – MLB players stage first ever collective strike; play resumes (13/4/72) when owners and players agree to $500,000 increase in pension fund payments
1993 – Alan Bennett’s play “The Madness of George III” premieres in London
2000 – Michelle Kwan pushes through all 7 triple jumps at the Palais des Exposition in Nice, France to become the first American since Peggy Flemming to win 3 world figure skating titles
2016 – The Golden State Warriors NBA record winning home run ends at 54 games with a 109-106 defeat to the Boston Celtics; the loss at Oracle Arena was the Warriors’ first since January 2015
Today in History for 1st April 2023
Historical Events
374 – Comet 1P/374 E1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0884 AUs of Earth
1930 – Chicago Cubs catcher Leo Hartnett breaks the altitude record for a catch by gloving a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, California
1931 – Jackie Mitchell becomes the second female (after Lizzie Arlington 1898) in organised baseball when she signs with the Chattanooga Lookouts Baseball Club
1978 – 132nd Grand National: Bob Davies aboard 14/1 chance Lucius wins by half a length from Sebastian V
2012 – Plane crash in Western Siberia kills at least 31 people (UTair Aviation ATR-72)
2019 – China announces new laws against fentanyl-related substances to come into effect 1 May
Famous Birthdays
1909 – Abner Biberman, American director and actor (His Girl Friday, The Leopard Man), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1977)
1924 – Čkalja [Miodrag Petrović], Serbian actor and one of the most popular comedians of former Yugoslavia, born in Kruševac, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (d. 2003)
1946 – Arrigo Sacchi, Italian soccer coach (Italy 1991-96 FIFA World Cup silver 1994; Serie A 1987-88, European Cup 1989, 90 AC Milan; Atlético Madrid, Parma), born in Fusignano, Italy
1955 – Gregg Jarrett, American television anchor
1961 – Sergio Scariolo, Italian basketball coach (NBA: assistant Toronto Raptors; head coach Spain; World Cup gold 2019), born in Brescia, Italy
1973 – Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricket batsman and captain (111 Tests; 9 x 100, HS 274no; 280 ODIs; Canterbury, Yorkshire CCC, Chennai Super Kings) and coach (Chennai Super Kings), born in Christchurch, New Zealand
Famous Deaths
1204 – Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of King Louis VII of France and King Henry II of England, mother to Richard the Lionheart, Henry the Young King and King John, dies at around 81
1548 – Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1506-48), dies at 81
1814 – Jozef de Ferraris, French-Austrian general and cartographer, dies at 87
1991 – Frankie Gustine, American Major baseball infielder (MLB All-Star 1946, 47, 48; Pittsburgh Pirates), dies at 71
1998 – Rozz Williams, American musician (Christian Death), dies at 34
2004 – Carrie Snodgress, American actress (Diary of Mad Housewife), dies at 58
Famous Deaths for 31st March 2023
1547 – King Francis I of France (1515-47), dies complaining about the weight of the crown at 52
1703 – Johann Christoph Bach, German harpsichordist and composer, dies at 60
1727 – Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician and astronomer (Gravity, Laws of Motion), dies at 84
1850 – John C. Calhoun, US Vice President (1825-32), dies of tuberculosis at 68
1900 – Frank Milligan, cricketer (Mafeking 2 Tests Eng v South Africa 1898-99), dies
1945 – Maurice Donnay, French playwright (Lovers), dies at 85
1945 – Hans Fischer, German organic chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1930), commits suicide at 63
2002 – Barry Took, British comedian (b. 1928)
2003 – H.S.M. Coxeter, English-born geometer (b. 1907)
2021 – Ron Greene, American college basketball coach (Uni of New Orleans, Mississippi State, Murray State, Indiana State), dies at 82
Historical Events for 31st March 2023
1683 – Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and King John III Sobieski of Poland sign a covenant against Turkey, beginning of the Holy League
1808 – French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names
1906 – GB Shaw’s German version of “Caesar and Cleopatra” premieres in Berlin
1922 – KFI-AM in Los Angeles CA begins radio transmissions
1946 – First election is held in Greece after World War II
1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces in an address to the nation that he will not seek re-election
1973 – Philadelphia Flyers score an NHL record tying 8 goals from an astounding 60 shots in the 2nd period of a 10-2 win over New York Islanders
1979 – 24th Eurovision Song Contest: Gali Atari and Milk and Honey for Israel wins singing “Hallelujah” in Jerusalem
1996 – Space Shuttle STS 76 (Atlantis 16), lands
2021 – Paul Simon sells his entire songwriting catalog of over 400 songs to Sony Music Publishing for an undisclosed sum