April 1
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Events on This Day
1760 - One of the first reportings of All Fools’ Day was in Poor Robin’s Almanack (no, not Poor Richard; but Poor Robin) on this day. Poor Robin said, “The first of April, some do say, is set apart for All Fools’ Day, but why the people call it so, nor I nor they themselves do know.” What is an April Fool? Someone who you trick into doing or saying something ludicrous, nonsensical, or fake. In other words, someone you make out to be a fool. Since this is pretty ludicrous, and you’re reading it, could it be that you’re an April Fool?
1826 - Samuel Morey of Oxford, New Hampshire patented the internal combustion engine. It was pretty much the kind of engine we still use in cars and trucks, but not as complicated and needing less maintenance than those of today. That’s what we call progress.
1864 - James Goodwin Batterson, head of the England Granite Works, along with some well-heeled Hartford CT business aquaintances, founded the Travelers Insurance Company (the company with the red umbrella as a logo). The first general insurance policy issued by the firm in July 1864.
1918 - The Royal Air Force was established in Great Britain. It replaced the Royal Flying Corps. Two months later, England began bombing industrial targets in Germany from bases in France.
1930 - Gabby Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA. The impact of the ball almost knoced Hartnett down.
1945 - U.S. forces launched the invasion on the Pacific island of Okinawa during World War II. What followed was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific conflict, claiming the lives of more than 12,000 Americans and over 110,000 Japanese soldiers before U.S. forces secured the island in June.
1946 - A series of tsunamis (tidal waves) struck the Hawaiian Islands. Generated by an earthquake in Aleutian Trench, the waves resulted in more than 170 deaths. Maximum wave heights were reported to be 54 feet in Molokai, and 55 feet in Pololu Valley on the Big Island. Waves in some areas penetrated more than half a mile inland. Between wave crests, the receding water is reported to have exposed some areas of the seafloor 500 feet out to sea. Many curious school children, who ventured into the exposed reef area, not knowing the receding water to be a sign of an approaching tsunami, were killed when the big wave hit. No tsunami warnings were given in those days.
1949 - The first all-black-cast variety show was presented on WENR-TV in Chicago, IL. The show was called Happy Pappy.
1955 - One Man’s Family was seen on TV for the final time after a six-year stay on NBC-TV. The longtime popular radio show of the same name continued until 1959.
1956 - Chet Huntley began his successful news career with NBC. He started as a reporter and analyst of the Sunday news series, Outlook. Soon, he would be teamed with David Brinkley for election coverage. The duo would click and become coanchors of The Huntley-Brinkley Report nightly on NBC with Huntley presenting news from the New York studio while Brinkley reported from Washington, DC. John Chancellor, who would become the sole anchor of the NBC Nightly News years later, was also a part of the broadcast giving comment and analysis on the day’s top news. Huntley and Brinkley closed each news broadcast with the trademark, “Good night Chet.” “Good night David, and good night for NBC News.”
1956 - The 10th annual Tony Awards show was held at the at the Plaza Hotel, New York. best Play was The Diary of Anne Frank; best Musical went to Damn Yankees. Ben Gazzara, Julie Harris, Ray Walston, Gwen Verdon, Ed Begley, Una Merkel, Russ Brown and Lotte Lenya were among the many winners.
1957 - All of Great Britain was fooled this April Fool’s Day by England’s famous newscaster, Richard Dimbleby. The newscaster, wrapping up the day’s news on Panorama, the BBC’s current affairs program, reported about the “spring spaghetti crop in southern Switzerland.” The filmed report showed the spaghetti (some ten pounds of the stuff) being picked from a tree. Many Brits believed him, by Jove! One member of our staff remembers doing something similar by asking radio listeners to “send us $100 and we’ll send you 25 words or less.”
1960 - The first U.S. weather satellite was launched. TIROS I (Television Infrared Observation Satellite Program) was put into orbit and soon meteorologists saw the first pictures of a midlatitude cyclone over the northeastern United States. Other, more powerful satellites launched since then provide pictures and more exact climatological data.
1963 - The daily TV serial, General Hospital, began its long and popular run on ABC-TV. Not to be left on the operating table alone, NBC-TV countered with its popular program, The Doctors.
1967 - The first [original] Country Music Association Hall of Fame opened in Nashville, Tennessee - on Music Row at 16th and Division. It closed on December 31, 2000. (A new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opened May 17, 2001, located in downtown Nashville.)
1970 - The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, passed by both the U.S. House and Senate, was signed into law by President Nixon. The law banned cigarette advertising on radio and TV. Advertising continued in magazines, billboards, sports events, and elsewhere.
1976 - Apple Computer Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak -- in a garage in Cupertino, CA.
1979 - Iran proclaimed itself to be an Islamic Republic after the fall of the Shah.
1981 - Jack Welch began his term as the head of General Electric.
1982 - The U.S. transferred control of the Panama Canal Zone to, you guessed it, Panama.
1983 - New York Islander player Mike Bossy became the first NHL player to score 60 goals in three consecutive seasons.
1984 - Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father (following an argument after he intervened in an altercation between his parents) in Los Angeles. Gaye’s first hit was Stubborn Kind of Fellow (1962) and was followed by more than 20 other chart toppers, including his biggest, I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1968).
1985 - George Plimpton played an April Fool’s joke on readers of Sports Illustrated this day. He introduced the U.S. to Sidd Finch, a 28-year-old aspiring monk, who could throw a 168 MPH fastball! Whoa! Finch was said to be a free-agent pitcher in the New York Mets’ spring training camp; that he had learned the art of the pitch while playing the French horn in his spare time. Hmmm. Plimpton later admitted that Finch was the figment of a most active imagination. No such person existed. Still doesn’t.
1985 - Unranked Villanova defeated top-ranked Georgetown 66-64 to win the NCAA basketball championship, ending the Hoya’s hopes for back-to-back wins.
1985 - The long-awaited album, We Are the World, was finally released. Eight rock stars donated previously unreleased material for the LP. Three-million copies of the award-winning single of the same name had already been sold. The song, We Are the World, was number five, and moving up, on the Billboard magazine pop single’s chart this day.
1987 - Steve Newman became the first man to walk solo around the world. No foolin’! The 15,000-mile trek took him four years and untold pairs of shoes to complete. His first words after completing the journey, “Man, my dogs are achin’!”
1990 - The U.S. minimum wage was raised to $3.80. It had been at $3.35 per hour since January 1981.
1991 - The U.S. minimum wage went from $3.80 to $4.25 per hour, and was still behind the rate of inflation.
1995 - Some 1,500 mourners attended a memorial for Mexican-American singer Selena in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she had been shot to death the day before.
1997 - The U.S. Library of Congress began its Today in History Web site at memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html.
1998 - Judge Susan Webber Wright threw out the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones against President Bill Clinton saying her claims of sexual harassment fell “far short” of being worthy of trial.
1999 - CBS Corp. announced an agreement to buy King World Productions Inc., the leading syndicator of TV programs, for $2.5 billion.
1999 - Canada created the territory of Nunavut (‘our land’), to provide autonomy for the Inuit people. The territory stretches some 1.9 million square kilometres and is nearly one-fifth the size of Canada.
2000 - Michelle Kwan of the U.S. won her third World Figure Skating title.
2001 - Notre Dame won its first national championship in women’s basketball, defeating Purdue, 68-66.
2001 - A U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane with 24 aboard collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea and was forced to land on China’s Hainan island. The fighter jet crashed. Chinese pilot Wang Wei parachuted out of his F-8 jet but was never found.
2002 - Maryland won its first NCAA men’s basketball championship with a 64-52 victory over Indiana.
2002 - A state appeals court struck down a 1897 Michigan law prohibiting swearing in front of women and children. The law was declared to be unconstitutional, saying it would be “difficult to conceive of a statute that would be more vague.”
2003 - Chinese pop singer and movie star Leslie Cheung jumped to his death at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong.
2003 - Pfc. Jessica Lynch (19), part of the 507th Maintenance Company captured on Mar 23, was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. Eleven bodies were also recovered (eight were identified as US personnel. Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, a former Iraqi lawyer, had disclosed Lynch’s location to U.S. forces prior to her rescue.
2004 - U.S. President George Bush (II) signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act also known as the Laci Peterson Bill, making harm to a fetus a distinct federal crime.
2004 - Paul Atkinson, guitarist in the British group The Zombies, died in LA. He was 58 years old. The Zombies’ hits included She’s Not There, Tell Her No and Time of the Season.
2004 - The DJIA removed AT&T, Kodak and International Paper; insurance goliath American International Group (AIG), drug giant Pfizer (PFE), and telecom titan Verizon Communications (VZ) were added.
2005 - Sin City debuted in U.S. movie theatres. The crime thriller stars Josh Hartnett, Marley Shelton, Bruce Willis, Jaime King, Jessica Alba, Maria Bello, Kate Bosworth, Jason Douglas, Carla Gugino, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Makenzie Vega, Katherine Willis, Elijah Wood, Benecio del Toro, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson and Michael Clarke Duncan.
2005 - U.S. President Clinton’s former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, pled guilty to sneaking classified documents out of the National Archives; he was later sentenced to two years’ probation.
2006 - A Soyuz capsule docked with the international space station (ISS), bringing Brazil’s first astronaut, a new Russian-American crew and a fresh load of supplies.
2007 - Nelly Furtado was the star of the Juno Awards ceremony in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Furtado was both host and the big winner at the 2007 edition of Canada’s top music awards.
2008 - India scrapped import duties on cooking oils and maize and extended a ban on pulse (mushy stuff) exports, escalating its fight against surging inflation driven by rises in global commodity prices.
2009 - Sweden became the 5th European country to allow gay marriage, as it adopted a law giving same sex couples the same marriage rights as heterosexuals.
2010 - 92-year-old Actor John Forsythe died at his home in Santa Ynez, CA. His films included The Trouble with Harry and Topaz. His TV roles included Bachelor Father (1957-1962) and Dynasty (1981-1989). And Forsythe played the original heard-but-never-seen Charlie in the original Charlie’s Angels TV series (1976-1981).
2011 - Motion pictures starting runs in the U.S.: Hop, with Kaley Cuoco, Russell Brand, James Marsden, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Perkins and Elizabeth Perkins Chelsea Handler; Insidious, starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Angus Sampson, Ty Simpkins and Andrew Astor; Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright, Russell Peters and James A. Woods; Cat Run, with Paz Vega, Christopher McDonald, Scott Mechlowicz, Tony Curran and Karel Roden; The Last Godfather, starring Harvey Keitel, Jason Mewes, Blake Clark, Jon Polito, Michael Rispoli and Jocelin Donahue; and Super, with Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Gregg Henry and Michael Rooker.
2011 - A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 lost cabin pressure following a fuselage rupture just after takeoff from Phoenix, AZ. The Boeing 737-300 made an emergency landing in Yuma with no injuries. Inspectors later found small cracks in 3 more Southwest planes. and some 300 flights were cancelled over the next few days as Southwest examined 79 other 737s.
2012 - Comic actor Adam Sandler and his movie Jack and Jill swept the annual Razzies, winning a record-breaking 10 awards for the worst film -- and worst performances -- of 2011. The Sony Pictures comedy was the first film to win in every Razzie category.
2013 - India’s Supreme Court rejected a patent application by Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis for Gleevec, a major cancer drug. The ruling allowed Indian makers of generic drugs to continue making copycat versions of the drug. The wholesale cost of the brand-name version of Gleevec was about $77,000 for a year’s supply.
2013 - A Saudi newspaper said the kingdom’s religious police were allowing women to ride motorbikes and bicycles -- but only in restricted, recreational areas. Al Arab Al Yawm cited an unnamed official from the powerful religious police as also saying women had to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya.
2014 - The United Nations reported that it was trying to evacuate some 19,000 Muslims urgently from Bangui and other parts of Central African Republic who are surrounded by anti-balaka Christian militia threatening their lives.
2014 - California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was indicted on 12 federal counts related to the 2010 gas pipeline explosion that leveled a San Bruno neighborhood and killed 8 people. If convicted of the charges, PG&E could face a maximum of $6 million in fines and court-ordered oversight. (In March 2015 PG&E was given one more year to prepare for the criminal trial.)
2015 - POTUS Barack Obama ordered a new sanctions program to be put in place which could block assets of U.S. and foreign hackers -- and of companies seeking to profit from cyberattacks. Obama said the threat from cyberattacks was a national emergency and that the sanctions could help strike back against those involved in attacks on U.S. targets.
2016 - Movies debuting in the U.S. included: Collide, starring Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones and Anthony Hopkins; The Dark Horse, with Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston and Kirk Torrance; Everybody Wants Some!!, starring Zoey Deutch, Tyler Hoechlin and Ryan Guzman; God’s Not Dead 2, with Jesse Metcalfe, David A.R. White and Ray Wise; Kill Your Friends, starring Ed Skrein, Nicholas Hoult and James Corden; Meet the Blacks, with Mike Tyson, Mike Epps and Zulay Henao; Miles Ahead,starring Don Cheadle, Emayatzy Corinealdi and Ewan McGregor; and Saturday’s Warrior, with Kenny Holland, Monica Moore Smith and Jacob Buster.
2016 - Delivery driver Junead Khan (25) was convicted in London of plotting to kill U.S. troops based in England. The 25-year-old Khan, along with his 23-year-old uncle Shazib Khan, were planning to stage road accidents with soldiers’ cars, then attack them with knives and home-made bombs. The pair was also convicted of planning to join Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
2017 - 75-year-old Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in literature in a small afternoon ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. He performed a concert in Stockholm that evening, the first stop on a long-planned European tour.
2018 - Emmy-winning TV writer and producer Steven Bochco died of cancer in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 74 years old. Bochco developed a number of popular TV series over the years, including Hill Street Blues (1981), L.A. Law, NYPD Blue (1993) and Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989).
2018 - On this Easter Sunday, Pope Francis, speaking at the Vatican, called for peace in a world marked by war and conflict. Amid heavy security, tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate Mass and to hear the pope’s “Urbi et Orbi”(“to the city and the world”) message.
2020 - COVID-19 news: 1)The U.S. government and Florida worked out a plan to allow thousands of passengers on the MS Zaandam cruise ship, exposed to an onboard coronavirus outbreak, to disembark. POTUS Trump had urged Governor Ron DeSantis to drop his opposition. 2)Russian medical supplies arrived at JFK. The U.S. had purchased 60 tons of ventilators, masks, and respirators in what had become a public relations coup for Vladimir Putin. 3)Russia had registered 2,777 cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths, mostly in Moscow. The Kremlin said Putin had decided to handle his duties remotely, after the head of the country’s main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting last week with the president. 4)Israel restricted movement into and out of the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, the country’s 9th largest city, due to its high number of coronavirus cases. 5)The Spanish Ministry of Health reported 7,719 newly diagnosed cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 102,136 with over 9,000 deaths. Spain hit a record of 864 deaths in one day.
2020 - Federal prosecutors said billionaire West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s coal companies had agreed to pay more than $5 million for thousands of mine safety violations. A civil case had been brought by prosecutors in Virginia on behalf of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mine Safety and Health Administration sought to claim payments on nearly 2,300 violations committed since 2014. Prosecutors said the Justice family’s 24 companies operated in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.
2020 - T-Mobile completed its $23 billion merger with Sprint, solidifying its position as the No.3 wireless provider in the United States. In February, federal judge approved the deal, rejecting a claim by a group of states that the proposed transaction would violate antitrust laws and raise prices.
2021 - The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) to loosen local media ownership restrictions (again). The National Association of Broadcasters applauded the high court’s decision. “NAB commends today’s unanimous decision by the Supreme Court that the FCC’s recent and long-overdue modernization of its broadcast ownership regulations was lawful and appropriate,” NAB president Gordon Smith said. “It is critical that the Commission continue to examine its media ownership rules to ensure that America’s broadcasters are able to compete and meet the needs of local communities across the nation in today’s media landscape.”
2021 - The New Hampshire Supreme Court expanded the definition of the term ‘adultery’ to (also) apply to a spouse engaged in same-sex infidelity.
2021 - Germany reported 24,300 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past day -- and 201 deaths. Chancellor Angela Merkel called on citizens to help ease the strain on nurses and doctors caring for the rising number of patients by respecting pandemic rules over the upcoming (April 4) Easter holiday.
2022 - Movies scheduled to open on this day included: The Contractor, starring Chris Pine, Gillian Jacobs and Ben Foster; Morbius, with Jared Leto, Michael Keaton and Adria Arjona; Barbarians, starring Catalina Sandino Moreno, Iwan Rheon and Tom Cullen; Boon, starring Neal McDonough, Tommy Flanagan and Christina Ochoa; and You Won’t Be Alone, with Noomi Rapace, Alice Englert and Anamaria Marinca.
2022 - European Union officials warned China’s leader Xi Jinping that any attempt to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine would hurt business ties between the two economic superpowers. China offered the E.U. assurances that it would seek peace in Ukraine but said this would be on its own terms, refusing to take a tougher stand towards Russia.
2022 - The European Union has launched a stockpiling operation to boost its defenses against chemical, nuclear and biological incident. This, because of increasing concerns over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
2022 - Workers at a Staten Island (New York City) Amazon.com facility voted 55% in favor of forming a union, making it the online retailer’s first U.S. facility to organize.
2023 - Heavy rain and gusty winds temporarily forced visitors in Times Square to seek shelter during the early evening. Areas south and west of the New York City tri-state area were the hardest hit, with a deadly EF-3 tornado that moved through Sussex County, Delaware.
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Birthdays on This Day April 1
1815 - Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck
Duke of Lauenburg, Prince of Bismarck: Minister-President of Prussia [1862-1890], Chancellor of Germany [1871-1890]; died July 30, 18981873 - Sergei Rachmaninoff
musician: pianist, composer: Prelude in C Sharp Minor, Second Piano Concerto; died March 28, 19431883 - Lon (Leonidas F.) Chaney
actor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Bushwackers, The Phantom of the Opera, The Unholy Three, He Who Gets Slapped, Oliver Twist, West of Zanzibar, The Horror of it All; died Aug 26, 19301885 - Wallace (Fitzgerald) Beery
Academy Award-winning actor: The Champ [1931-1932], Grand Hotel, We’re in the Navy Now, Treasure Island, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Last of the Mohicans, China Seas; died Apr 15, 19491895 - Alberta Hunter
jazz singer: Nobody Knows The Way I Feel Dis Mornin’, Second Hand Man, Someday Sweetheart, Boogie Woogie Swing, My Castle’s Rockin’; died Oct 17, 19841906 - Ned Glass
actor: Charade, Kid Galahad, West Side Story, The Fortune Cookie, Save the Tiger, Street Music, Goldie and the Boxer, Vega$, Lady Sings the Blues, Banyon, The Love Bug, Blackbeard’s Ghost; died Jun 15, 19841908 - Bob Nolan
songwriter, singer: group: [Bob Nolan and] The Sons of the Pioneers: Cool Water, Tumbling Tumbleweeds; actor: Night Time in Nevada, Pecos Bill, Apache Rose, My Pal Trigger, Sunset in El Dorado, The Yellow Rose of Texas; died June 16, 19801915 - Art Lund
singer: Mamselle, actor: The Most Happy Fella, Donnybrook, Black Caesar, Bucktown, The Last American Hero; died May 31, 19901920 - Toshirô Mifune
actor: Shadow of the Wolf, Shogun, Winter Kills, 1941, Midway, Paper Tiger, Red Sun, The Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood, Samurai series, Rashomon, Drunken Angel; died Dec 24, 19971922 - William Manchester
writer: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964, A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age; died Jun 1, 20041923 - Bobby Jordan
actor: Dead End Kids film series, The Man Is Armed, Treasure of Monte Cristo, Spook Busters, Ghosts on the Loose, Live Wires, Kid Dynamite, Flying Wild; died Sep 10, 19651927 - Walter Bahr
Hall of Fame soccer player [midfield]: U.S. National Team [1950 FIFA World Cup], Philadelphia Nationals, Philadelpia Uhrik Truckers, Montreal Hakoah, S.C. Eintracht, New York German-Americans; soccer coach: Temple Univ; died Jun 18, 20181928 - George Grizzard
actor: Advise and Consent, Bachelor Party, False Witness, The Stranger Within, Scarlett; died Oct 2, 20071929 - Jane Powell (Suzanne Burce)
actress: Deep in My Heart, Hit the Deck, Small Town Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; died Sep 16, 20211929 - Bo Schembechler
football head coach: Miami Univ [1963-1968], Univ of Michigan [1969-1989]; died Nov 17, 20061930 - Grace Lee Whitney
actress: Star Trek TV and film series, House of Wax, Some Like It Hot, Pocketful of Miracles, Irma la Douce; died May 1, 20151932 - Gordon Jump
actor: WKRP in Cincinnati, Sister Kate, Growing Pains, Bitter Vengeance, Ransom Money, Making the Grade, Dirkham Detective Agency; died Sep 22, 20031932 - Debbie Reynolds (Mary Frances Reynolds)
actress: Singin’ in the Rain, Tammy and the Bachelor, The Tender Trap, The Unsinkable Molly Brown; singer: Tammy, A Very Special Love; mother of actress, Carrie Fisher; died Dec 28, 20161934 - Jim Ed (James Edward) Brown
singer: group: The Browns: The Three Bells, Scarlet Ribbons; solo: Morning; CMA Country Duo of the Year [w/Helen Cornelius - 1977]: I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You; died Jun 11, 20151936 - Ron (Ronald Peter) Perranoski
baseball: pitcher: LA Dodgers [World Series: 1963, 1965, 1966], Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, California Angels; pitching coach: LA Dodgers [1981], SF Giants [1994]; died Oct 2, 20201939 - Rudolph Isley
singer: group: The Isley Brothers: Shout, Twist & Shout, It’s Your Thing, This Old Heart of Mine; died Oct 11, 20231939 - Ali (Alice) MacGraw
actress: Goodbye Columbus, Love Story, The Getaway, The Winds of War1939 - Phil (Philip Henry) Niekro
Baseball Hall of Famer: pitcher: Milwaukee Braves, Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1969, 1975, 1978, 1982], NY Yankees [all-star: 1984], Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays; died Dec 26, 20201941 - Guy Trottier
hockey: NHL: NY Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs; died Sep 19, 20141942 - Alan Blakley
musician: guitar: group: Brian Poole and The Tremeloes: Twist and Shout, Do You Love Me, Someone Someone, Silence is Golden; died Jun 10, 19961942 - Phil Margo
singer: group: The Tokens: The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Tonight I Fell in Love; Cross Country: In the Midnight Hour1944 - Rusty (Daniel Joseph) Staub
baseball: Houston Colt .45’s, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, NY Mets, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers; restaurateur1945 - Johny Barbata
musician: drums: groups: The Turtles: Happy Together, It Ain’t Me Babe, Let Me Be, You Baby, She’d Rather Be with Me, You Showed Me, Elenore; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jefferson Starship: LP: Dragonfly, Red Octopus, Spitfire, Earth; Miracles, We Built This City, Sara, Tomorrow Doesn’t Matter Tonight, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now1947 - Norm Van Lier
basketball: Cincinnati Royals, Chicago Bulls1948 - Jimmy Cliff
songwriter, singer: Wonderful World, Beautiful People, Come Into My Life, Vietnam, Wild World, Hard Road to Travel, You Can Get It If You Really Want1948 - Willie (Guillermo Naranjo) Montañez
baseball: California Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, SF Giants, Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1977], NY Mets, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, SD Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates1948 - Doug Sutherland
football: Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle: Super Bowl VIII, IX, XI1950 - Billy Currie
musician: synthesizer, keyboards, violin: group: Ultravox: Vienna, All Stood Still, The Thin Wall, The Voice1952 - Annette O’Toole (Toole)
actress: Temptation, Here on Earth, Keeping the Promise, My Brother’s Keeper, Dead By Sunset, Kiss of a Killer, Jewels; songwriter: co-wrote Oscar-nominated A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow from A Mighty Wind [2003] w/husband Michael McKean1954 - Jeff Porcaro
musician: drums; founding member of Toto: Rosanna, Hold the Line, Africa, Georgy Porgy, Live for Today, 99, Without Your Love, St. George and the Dragon, Isolation, I’ll Be Over You; studio musician: Michael Jackson’s Beat It, Heal The World; Michael McDonald’s I Keep Forgettin’ [Every Time You’re Near]; John Sebastian’s Welcome Back; Don Henley’s Dirty Laundry, New York Minute; Elton John’s Jump Up!; Randy Newman’s I Love L.A.; Eric Clapton’s Forever Man; died Aug 5, 19921956 - Libby Riddles
dogsled racer: first woman to win Iditarod [1985]1960 - Shanna McCullough
actress [1983-2010]: X-rated films: WPINK-TV, My Bare Lady, Nymphette Does Hollywood, Erotic Pool Party, Space Nuts, Tiger’s Got Wood1961 - Susan Boyle
singer: Britain’s Got Talent contestant: debut LP, I Dreamed a Dream, hit #1 on worldwide charts1961 - Mark White
musician: guitar: group: ABC: Tears are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, Be Near Me, When Smokey Sings, King Without a Crown1964 - Scott Stevens
hockey: Washington Capitals, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils1965 - Jane Adams
actress: Hung, Jesse Stone: Stone Cold, The Wackness, Lifelines, Alexander the Last, Calvin Marshall, The Lie, Silver Bullets, Restless1965 - Jumbo Elliott
football [tackle]: Univ of Michigan; NFL: NY Giants, NY Jets
1965 - Mark Jackson
basketball [guard]: St. John’s Unive; NBA: New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets1968 - Woody Lee
singer: Get over It, I Like the Sound of That, I Can Do That, Lonely, Needin’ Lovin’, I’m on Your Side, Hold It Right There, Life in the Slow Lane1968 - Traci Lind
actress: Ryan’s Hope, Club Med, Fright Night Part II, Bugsy, Code Name: Wolverine, The End of Violence, Cadillac1969 - Frank Castillo
baseball [pitcher]: Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins; died Jul 28, 20131969 - Kevin Dean
hockey: NJ Devils, Atlanta Thrashers, Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks1970 - Sung Hi Lee
model, actress: Death to the Supermodels, The Girl Next Door, Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure, Nurse Betty, A Night On the Water1973 - Rachel Maddow
TV talk show host: The Rachel Maddow Show [TRMS] on MSNBC1974 - China Chow
actress: The Big Hit, Frankenfish, Burn Notice; host/judge: Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist; voice actor: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas1976 - David Oyelowo
actor: Selma, Interstellar, Spooks, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Middle of Nowhere, Lincoln, The Butler; voice actor: Star Wars Rebels1980 - Kip Moore
singer: Something ’Bout a Truck, Beer Money, Hey Pretty Girl, Young Love1980 - Bijou Phillips
model; singer: LP: album: I’d Rather Eat Glass; actress: Havoc, Raising Hope, Black and White, Bully, The Door in the Floor, Backwater, Zodiac1982 - Sam Huntington
actor: Being Human, Safety Glass, Superman Returns, Molding Clay, Sleepover, Raising Genius, In Enemy Hands, Home of Phobia1982 - Taran Killam
comedian, actor: The Amanda Show, Scrubs, Wild ’N Out, MADtv, Stuck in the Suburbs, Saturday Night Live1983 - Matt Lanter
actor: Timeless, 90210, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Disaster Movie, Sorority Row, Vampires Suck, The Roommate, Star-Crossed; voice actor: Ultimate Spider-Man1985 - Beth Tweddle
British gymnast: competed in Athens [2004], Beijing [2008] and London [2012] Olympics: Bronze medal on uneven bars1985 - Josh Zuckerman
actor: Kyle XY, Desperate Housewives, Storage, Ceremonies of the Horsemen, Feast, The View From the Swing, Return to the Secret Garden1986 - Brad Jones
football [linebacker]: NFL: Green Bay Packers [2009–2014]: 2011 Super Bowl XLV champs; Philadelphia Eagles [2015]1986 - Hillary Scott
singer: group: Lady Antebellum: LPs: Lady Antebellum, Need You Now, Own The Night, On This Winter’s Night, Golden, 7471987 - Mackenzie Davis
actress: The F Word (What If), Halt and Catch Fire, Freaks of Nature, Always Shine, Blade Runner 20491988 - Brook Lopez
pro basketball center: NBA: New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets [2008–2017]; Los Angeles Lakers [2017–2018]; Milwaukee Bucks [2018– ]1997 - Asa Butterfield
actor: Sex Education, Hugo, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Ender’s Game, The Space Between Us, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Time Freak
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Hit Music on This Day April 1
1949Cruising Down the River (facts) - The Blue Barron Orchestra (vocal: ensemble)
Far Away Places (facts) - Margaret Whiting
1958
1967
1976
1985
1994
2003
2012
2021
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Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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