From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On this day for the United States
Events
1787 - Charter granted establishing the institution now known as the
University of Pittsburgh .
1827 - The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first
railroad in
America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
1844 - A gun on
USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a
Potomac River cruise, killing two
United States Cabinet members and several others.
1849 - Regular
steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the
United States begins with the arrival of the
SS California in
San Francisco Bay , 4 months 21 days after leaving
New York Harbor .
1850 - The
University of Utah opens in
Salt Lake City ,
Utah .
1854 - The
Republican Party of the United States is organized in
Ripon, Wisconsin .
1861 -
Colorado is organized as a
United States territory .
1883 - The first
vaudeville theater opens in
Boston, Massachusetts .
1885 - The
American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in
New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
1935 -
Nylon is discovered by
Wallace Carothers .
1940 -
Basketball is
televised for the first time (
Fordham University vs. the
University of Pittsburgh in
Madison Square Garden ).
1942 - The heavy cruiser
USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the
Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
1953 -
James D. Watson and
Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of
DNA ; formal announcement
April 25 following publication in April
Nature (pub.
April 2 ).
1960 - The
United States defeats
Czechoslovakia 9-4 in
ice hockey to win the gold medal at the
Winter Olympics in
Squaw Valley, California .
1972 -
Sino-American relations : The
United States and
People's Republic of China sign the
Shanghai Communiqué .
1974 - After seven years, the
United States and
Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.
1983 - The
final episode of
M*A*S*H is broadcast in the
USA , becoming the most watched
television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
1991 - First
Gulf War ends.
1993 -
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the
Branch Davidian church in
Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader
David Koresh . Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
1997 - The
North Hollywood shootout takes place.
1998 - First flight of RQ-4
Global Hawk , first
unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
2001 - The
Nisqually earthquake measuring 6.8 on the
Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the
Seattle ,
Tacoma , and
Olympia area of the U.S. state of
Washington .
2007 -
Jupiter flyby of the
New Horizons
Pluto -observer spacecraft.
Births
1670 -
Benjamin Wadsworth , American President of Harvard University (d.
1737 )
1851 -
Samuel W. McCall , 47th
Governor of Massachusetts (d.
1923 )
1882 -
Geraldine Farrar , American soprano (d.
1967 )
1894 -
Ben Hecht , American playwright (d.
1964 )
1896 -
Philip Showalter Hench , American physician,
Nobel laureate (d.
1965 )
1903 -
Vincente Minnelli , American film director (d.
1986 )
1906 -
Bugsy Siegel , American gangster (d.
1947 )
1907 -
Milton Caniff , American cartoonist (
Terry and the Pirates ,
Steve Canyon ) (d.
1988 )
1908 -
Billie Bird , American actress (d.
2002 )
1915 -
Ketti Frings , American
Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright and screenwriter, (d.
1981 )
1915 -
Zero Mostel , American actor (d.
1977 )
1923 -
Charles Durning , American actor
1929 -
Hayden Fry , American football coach
1929 -
Frank Gehry , Canadian-American architect
1930 -
Leon Neil Cooper , American physicist,
Nobel laureate
1930 -
Gavin MacLeod , American actor
1931 -
Dean Smith , American basketball coach
1939 -
Tommy Tune , American dancer
1940 -
Mario Andretti , Italian-American race car driver and one-time
F1
world champion
1940 -
Joe South , American singer
1942 -
Frank Bonner , American actor
1943 -
Barbara Acklin , American soul singer (d.
1998 )
1944 -
Kelly Bishop , American actress
1945 -
Bubba Smith , American football player and actor
1948 -
Steven Chu , American physicist,
Nobel laureate
1948 -
Bernadette Peters , American actress and singer
1948 -
Mercedes Ruehl , American actress
1951 -
Bill Cratty , American modern dancer and choreographer (d.
1998 )
1952 -
William Finn , American composer
1953 -
Paul Krugman , American economist
1954 -
Brian Billick , American football coach
1955 -
Gilbert Gottfried , American comedian
1956 -
Adrian Dantley , American basketball player
1956 -
Mike Tenay , American wrestling commentator
1957 -
Paul Delph , American musician and producer (d.
1996 )
1957 -
John Turturro , American actor
1957 -
Cindy Wilson , American singer (
The B-52's )
1969 -
Butch Leitzinger , American race car driver
1969 -
Robert Sean Leonard , American actor
1969 -
Patrick Monahan , American singer (
Train )
1970 -
Daniel Handler , American writer, better known as
Lemony Snicket
1971 -
Tristan Louis , American writer
1972 -
Rory Cochrane , American actor
1975 -
Mike Rucker , American football player
1976 -
Ali Larter , American actress and model
1977 -
Jason Aldean , American country singer
1978 -
Jamaal Tinsley , American basketball player
1980 -
Tayshaun Prince , American basketball player
1981 -
Brian Bannister , American baseball player
1984 -
Ben Fagan , American musician and reality show contestant
Deaths
1788 -
Thomas Cushing , American Continental Congressman (b.
1725 )
1916 -
Henry James , American writer (b.
1843 )
1959 -
Maxwell Anderson , American playwright and film writer (b.
1888 )
1967 -
Henry Luce , American publisher (b.
1898 )
1974 -
Bobby Bloom , American singer/songwriter (b.
1946 )
1977 -
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson , American actor (b.
1905 )
1978 -
Philip Ahn , American actor (b.
1905 )
1978 -
Zara Cully , American actress (b.
1892 )
1986 -
Laura Z. Hobson , American novelist (b.
1900 )
1991 -
Wassily Hoeffding , American statistician (b.
1914 )
2002 -
Mary Stuart , American actress (b.
1926 )
2004 -
Daniel J. Boorstin , American historian, writer, and
Librarian of Congress (b.
1914 )
2006 -
Owen Chamberlain , American physicist,
Nobel laureate (b.
1920 )
2007 -
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and political commentator (b.
1917 )