April 20
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Events on This Day
1832 - The U.S. Congress and President Andrew Jackson made Hot Springs, Arkansas the first Federal Reservation in order to protect the hot springs flowing from the southwestern slope of Hot Springs Mountain. Although Hot Springs Federal Reservation’s name wasn’t changed to Hot Springs National Park until 1921, Hot Springs is the oldest park in the National Park System. Yellowstone National Park was the first to bear the title of ‘National Park’. It became a national park in 1872.1931 - Louis Armstrong recorded the classic, When It’s Sleepy Time Down South, for Okeh Records. Satchmo would use the tune as his theme song for decades. The song was waxed in Chicago, IL.
1931 - The great Knute Rockne died in a plane crash on March 31, 1931. It would be tough to fill his shoes. Twenty days later, Jesse Harper became the new athletic director and Heartley ‘Hunk’ Anderson took over as coach of Notre Dame. Anderson coached the Fighting Irish from 1931-33. Elmer Layden replaced Anderson from 1934-1940 and Frank Leahy coached Notre Dame twice -- from 1941-1943 and from 1946-1953.
1935 - Your Hit Parade, starring Kay Thompson, Charles Carlyle, Gogo DeLys and Johnny Hanser, was first broadcast on radio. A youngster named Frank Sinatra would later be part of the program as a featured vocalist. Your Hit Parade stayed on the radio airwaves for 24 years.
1940 - RCA publicly demonstrated its powerful new electron microscope. The inventor was Dr. Vladimir Zworykin at the RCA laboratories, Camden, New Jersey.
1945 - The U.S. Seventh Army and allied forces captured the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
1945 - U.S. forces conquered the Motobu Peninsula on the island of Okinawa.
1947 - Comedian Fred Allen of Allen’s Alley fame didn’t find things so funny when censors cut him off the air during his radio broadcast. Allen was telling a joke about a mythical network vice-president when he was suddenly taken off the air. One moment please... (See Allen at work in a later TV game show, Judge For Yourself.)
1949 - Willie Shoemaker won his first race as a jockey aboard Shafter V at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, CA, not far from San Francisco.
1953 - Operation Little Switch began in Korea, exchanging sick and wounded prisoners of war -- of both sides.
1959 - Desilu Playhouse on CBS-TV presented a two-part show titled, The Untouchables starting this night. Robert Stack starred in the program and became a major television star when The Untouchables become a weekly network series in the fall of 1959.
1961 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave approval for FM stereo broadcasting. It would be another five or six years before FM stations went ‘underground’ or ‘progressive’ to attract listeners who were tired of the lack of audio quality on AM stations. FM stations to that time had broadcast in glorious monaural sound.
1962 - NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 207,500 feet (63,246 meters) -- to “the edge of space.”
1967 - The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Surveyor 3 landed on the moon.
1969 - The 23rd annual Tony Awards show was held at the at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, New York. Winners included The Great White Hope (best Play); 1776 (best Musical); James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope (best Actor Dramatic); Julie Harris in Forty Carats (best Actress Dramatic); Jerry Orbach in Promises, Promises (best Actor Musical); and Angela Lansbury in Dear World (best Actress Musical).
1970 - Bruno Kreisky became the first socialistic chancellor of Austria. Kreisky also was the first Jewish politician to gain power in central Europe.
1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
1975 - The 29th annual Tony Awards show was held at the at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York. Winners included Equus (best Play); The Wiz (best Musical); John Kani and Winston Ntshona in Sizwe Bansi is Dead and The Island (best Actor(s) Dramatic); Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (best Actress Dramatic); John Cullum in Shenandoah (best Actor Musical); and Angela Lansbury in Gypsy (best Actress Musical).
1979 - Johnny Carson was said to be leaving The Tonight Show. Newspapers around the country gave details about why the comedian and late-night host was said to be unhappy after 17 years on the show. Guess what? More moola, more vacation time and a four-day week (not working Mondays) was enough for the ‘Great Carsoni’ to hang around NBC for another 12 years...
1980 - The first Cubans sailing to the United States as part of the massive Mariel boatlift reached Florida.
1985 - The British pop music group Wham!, featuring George Michael, became the first to release cassettes in the People’s Republic of China. Selections from two of the group’s albums were packaged and sold on the tape.
1986 - Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls scored a record 63 points in an NBA playoff loss (including two overtime periods) to the Boston Celtics.
1987 - Starlight Express posted the largest week’s gross in Broadway history. The roller-skating musical earned $606,081 at the box office. The revival of The King and I starring Yul Brynner had been the previous leader (1985).
1987 - Special occasion stamps were offered for the first time by the U.S. Postal Service. “Happy Birthday,” “Get Well” and other messages were offered.
1992 - Entertainer Madonna and Time Warner signed a seven-year deal worth some $60-million. Under the pact, she became head of her own label, Maverick, which she formed with her manager Freddy DeMann. Madonna called the deal, “the perfect marriage of art and commerce.”
1996 - Russia and the leaders of the seven richest democracies agreed in Moscow to end nuclear tests with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by the fall and pledged new steps to keep nuclear materials out of the wrong hands.
1999 - Deranged students Eric Harris (18 years old) and Dylan Klebold (age 17) went on a rampage through the corridors of Columbine High School in Littleton (Denver), Colorado. They shot and killed twelve classmates and one teacher, and wounded 26 others. The student killers ultimately turned their guns on themselves.
2000 - The Chinese Communist party announced that Cheng Kejie, a deputy chairman in the national legislature, was expelled and charged with amassing $4.5 million in bribes and kickbacks. (Kejie was executed later that year.)
2001 - These films opened in theatres across the U.S.: Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, starring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski; Freddy Got Fingered, with Tom Green, Rip Torn, Harland Williams and Julie Hagerty; and The Visit, starring Obba Babatunde, Hill Harper, Billy Dee Williams and Marla Gibbs.
2001 - A Peruvian air force jet shot down a Cessna 185 carrying U.S. missionaries. Veronica Bowers (35) and her infant daughter, Charity, were killed when the plane crash landed in the Amazon River. The pilot, who was shot in the leg, survived, as did Jim Bowers (the woman’s husband), and another of their children. The plane had been identified by a U.S. surveillance plane after it was mistakenly thought to be trafficking in narcotics.
2003 - U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in the Iraqi capital.
2004 - WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy renamed as MCI -- after shedding some $36 billion of debt.
2004 - Dominican Republic General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez said that country’s 300 troops would be pulled out of Iraq early, following similar moves by Spain and Honduras.
2005 - U.S. President George Bush (II) signed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, designed to make individual bankruptcy more difficult.
2006 - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement saying that smoked marijuana has no accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S.
2007 - Movies debuting in the U.S.: Fracture, starring Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Billy Burke, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davitz and Valerie Dillman; In the Land of Women, with Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Makenzie Vega, Clark Gregg, Elena Anaya and Meg Ryan; and Vacancy, starring Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley and Ethan Embry.
2007 - 13 people were indicted in New York City for credit card fraud. Waiters in some 40 restaurants in New York, Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Connecticut had recorded customers’ credit card information and passed it on to criminals who used the information to make more than $3 million worth of illegal purchases.
2008 - China unveiled a new food safety law that includes penalties of up to life imprisonment for people responsible for the production of substandard food.
2009 - Former Tacoma, Washington elementary school teacher Jennifer Rice (33) was convicted of having sex with a student (10) and his brother (15). Rice was leter sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
2009 - More Venezuelan polo horses, sickened just before a tournament, died, raising the death toll to 21. Each of the horses was valued at up to $200,000. On April 23 Franck’s Pharmacy (a compounding pharmacy in Ocala, Florida) admitted to having prepared a generic version of Biodyl, a vitamin supplement banned in the U.S., which had been administered to all the horses.
2010 - Hey Watch This opened in U.S. theatres. The comedy, documentary stars Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Shelby Chong, Jimmy Root, Ricky Borrego, Carla Daws, Roman Garcia, Tray Hill, Kevin Karwoski and Robert Ketterer.
2010 - An explosion and fire destroyed the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others. The Deepwater Horizon rig sank 2 days later. Oil leaking from the rig was stopped after owner BP capped the gushing wellhead on July 15, 2010. This, after it had released about 4.9 million barrels (205.8 million gallons) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
2011 - Oil giant BP marked the first anniversary of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill by suing its business partners for billions of dollars. This, as Gulf residents held somber vigils and relatives flew over the waters where 11 oil rig workers died.
2011 - U.S. Homeland Security officials said they were scrapping the 5-color system in use since 2001 terrorist threat alerts. The old color-coded terrorist threat alerts would be replaced by public, written warnings.
2011 - Sister Act, “A Divine Musical Comedy,” opened at Broadway’s Broadway Theatre. Based on the hit 1992 film of the same name, Sister Act received multiple Tony Award nominations for the 2011 season, including Best Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Patina Miller) and Best Featured Actress in a Musical ( Victoria Clark). The show closed on August 26, 2012 after 561 performances.
2012 - Movies opening in the U.S.: The documentary, Chimpanzee, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield; The Lucky One, starring Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Jay R. Ferguson, Riley Thomas Stewart, Joe Chrest and Adam LeFevre; Think Like a Man, with Arielle Kebbel, Meagan Good, Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Hart and Michael Ealy; Darling Companion, starring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ayelet Zurer and Jay Ali; The Moth Diaries, with cott Speedman, Sarah Bolger, Lily Cole, Anne Day-Jones, Sarah Gadon, Melissa Farman and Valerie Tian; the documentary, To the Arctic 3D, narrated by Meryl Streep; and Zombie Dawn, with Sebastian Accorsi, Guillermo Alfaro, Martin Bohte, Felipe Lobos, Jorge Magni and Christopher Offermann.
2012 - George Zimmerman apologized to the family of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed African-American teen that he shot in a confrontation that riveted the U.S. and sparked intense discussions about race, racial profiling and gun laws. Zimmerman spoke moments before a Florida judge set a $150,000 bond that would let him get out of jail to await trial.
2013 - Some 80,000 people gathered in Denver’s Civic Center Park to celebrate state voters’ decision to legalize the recreational use of cannabis (two people were wounded by gunfire). And 10-15 thousand gathered in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill for the annual “420” (still illegal) pot-smoking party. (The smokers left some 10,000 pounds of garbage to be cleaned up.)
2014 - Robbers in South Africa broke into a provincial parks office in Nelspruit and used a machine tool called a grinder to break into a safe holding several dozen rhino horns worth some $5.2 million on the illegal market in Asia. And how long did the thieves get to enjoy their new fortune? They were arrested about 7 weeks later.
2014 - Thousands of partiers gathered to celebrate the first LEGAL “420” -- the April 20th pot holiday -- at Denver’s Civic Center Park.
2015 - Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. said it had defaulted on its dollar-denominated debt, which had exposed international creditors to potential losses. The struggling Chinese property developer had been grappling with a slumping property market amid a slowdown in the Chinese economy -- world’s second largest. Kaisa Group was the first Chinese property developer to default on its dollar bonds.
2015 - An Egyptian court sentenced 22 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death for its attack on a police station in a district outside Cairo in 2013. The defendants were convicted of murder, attempted murder, and the destruction of public facilities during the attack in which one policeman was killed.
2016 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that abolitionist and women’s rights crusader Harriet Tubman (~1822-1913) would replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. (2024 update: Tubman is scheduled to appear on the $20 dollar bill around 2030. Despite the reluctance that was clearly evinced by former POTUS Donald Trump to proceed with the project.)
2016 - German auto giant Volkswagen and the U.S. government reached a deal for the automaker to spend over $1 billion to compensate owners of some 600,000 diesel vehicles that had been rigged to cheat on emissions tests.
2017 - The Cherokee Nation (14 Oklahoma counties) sued distributors and retailers of opioid medications, including Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreens, for contributing to the ‘epidemic’ of opioid abuse.
2017 - A federal court found that a Republican-drawn map setting the boundaries of Texas statehouse districts violated the U.S. Constitution by intentionally discriminating against minority voters.
2018 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams and Emily Ratajkowski; Super Troopers 2, with Rob Lowe, Marisa Coughlan and Emmanuelle Chriqui; Traffik, starring Paula Patton, Missi Pyle and Dawn Olivieri; Beyond the Clouds, with Tannishtha Chatterjee, Ishaan Khattar and Malavika Mohanan; Corbin Nash, starring Corey Feldman, Malcolm McDowell and Rutger Hauer; the animated Duck Duck Goose, featurint the voices of Jim Gaffigan, Zendaya, Lance Lim, Greg Proops, Natasha Leggero, Diedrich Bader, Reggie Watts and Carl Reiner; Ghost Stories, with Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse; Kodachrome, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Ed Harris and Bruce Greenwood; Little Pink House, with Catherine Keener, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Aaron Douglas; and Lou Andreas-Salomé, The Audacity to be Free, with Nicole Heesters, Katharina Lorenz and Liv Lisa Fries.
2018 - Wells Fargo agreed to pay the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency one billion dollars for a series of unethical/illegal deeds. The fine was imposed for forcing customers with auto loans to buy insurance they didn’t need and for failing to follow the process it explained to customers concerning payments to lock in mortgage interest rates.
2018 - The Democratic National Committee filed suit accusing Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, his son, his son-in-law, the Russian Federation and WikiLeaks of a conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 election.
2019 - The FBI arrested a member of an armed group of U.S. citizens who had been stopping migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico. Larry Hopkins (69) had represented himself as the commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a volunteer group camped out near Sunland Park. Hopkins was indicted on charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
2020 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant. The ruling settled a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions. The justices’ vote overturned the conviction of Evangelisto Ramos, who had been serving a life sentence in Louisiana for killing a woman after a jury voted 10-2 to convict him in 2016. Now the same rules apply in all 50 states and in the federal system.
2020 - COVID-19 news: 1)157 Australian economists warned the government against easing social distancing rules even as the rate of infections slowed to a multi-week low. With growing calls to ease the restrictions, the leading Australian economists issued an open letter to call on the government to prioritise containing the spread of coronavirus. “We cannot have a functioning economy unless we first comprehensively address the public health crisis,” the group of economists from Australian universities wrote. 2)The head of Rospotrebnadzor, a health and consumer protection agency at the forefront of Russia’s fight against the pandemic, said that underfunded medical institutions had accounted for more than half of 74 infection hot spots so far identified across the country. Russia had reported 47,121 cases of the coronavirus with a death toll of 405. 3)UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
2021 - A jury in Minneapolis convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of second-degree murder (and two other charges) for killing George Floyd in May 2020. In June 2021 Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
2021 - Big increases in sales of prescription drugs and medical devices helped Johnson & Johnson boost its first-quarter profit nearly 7%, blowing past Wall Street forecasts.
2022 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and other finance ministers and central bankers abruptly clicked out of a Group of 20 virtual meeting in protest when Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, started to speak.
2022 - New Mexico workplace safety regulators issued the maximum possible fine against a film production company ($139,793) for firearms saftey failures on the set of Rust, where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot in Ocrtober 2021.
2022 - A Russian ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to surrender or die expired with no mass surrender. The commander of a Ukrainian unit believed to be holding out in the besieged city said his forces could survive just days or hours. (Russian troops occupied the city May 16, 2022.)
2023 - SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the most powerful ever made (33 booster engines), launched in a historic first test flight from Boca Chica (almost in Mexico), Texas. The rocket exploded four minutes into its flight. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. CEO Elon Musk congratulated the company and said the team “learned a lot” from the “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
and more...
Birthdays on This Day April 20
1850 - Daniel Chester French
sculptor: public monuments: Minute Man statue in Concord, MA, Abraham Lincoln seated in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC; died Oct 7, 19311889 - Adolf Hitler
murderer of over six-million people, the ultimate racist and as TIME magazine said, “...redefined the meaning of evil forever.”; committed suicide Apr 30, 19451893 - Harold Lloyd
comedian, actor: For Heaven’s Sake, Slapstick, Feet First, Safety Last, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock; died Mar 8, 1971; more1893 - Joan Miró
artist: Chiffres et Constellations, Le Carnaval d’Arlequin, The Gold of Azure; died Dec 25, 19831900 - Norman Norell (Norman David Levinson)
costume designer: Astoria Studio of Paramount Pictures; fashion designer: worked w/Charles Armour, Hattie Carnegie, Anthony Traina [Traina-Norell collection], solo: American fashion leader [1941-1972]; died Oct 25, 19721904 - Bruce Cabot
actor: Diamonds are Forever, The Green Berets, McLintock!, Il Tesoro di Rommel, Avalanche, Mickey the Kid, The Robin Hood of El Dorado, King Kong, The Roadhouse Murder; died May 3, 19721908 - Lionel Hampton
singer, songwriter, jazz musician: vibes, drums, piano, bandleader: On the Sunny Side of the Street, Hey! Hot Mallets, Ba-Ba-Re-Bop, Rag Mop; played with Benny Goodman; died Aug 31, 20021913 - Dick Wessel
actor: Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, Gasoline Alley, Corky of Gasoline Alley, Blackbeard, the Pirate, The Gazebo, Riverboat [TV series], Wives and Lovers; died Apr 20, 19651914 - Betty Lou Gerson
radio actress: Road of Life, The Guiding Light, The First Nighter Program, Curtain Time, Grand Hotel, The Whistler, Crime Classics, Escape, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Lux Radio Theater; film actress: Mary Poppins, The Miracle of the Hills, The Fly, The Green-Eyed Blonde, An Annapolis Story, Undercover Girl; died Jan 12, 19991920 - John Paul Stevens
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court [12/19/1975-6/29/2010]; he was nominated by President Gerald Ford to replace the Court’s longest serving justice, William O. Douglas; died Jul 16, 20191923 - Tito (Ernest) Puente
jazz musician, bandleader: Abanaquito, Para Los Rumberos, Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid, Fancy Feet; died May 31, 20001924 - Nina Foch (Nina Consuelo Maud Fock)
actress: Scaramouche, Spartacus, The Ten Commandments, An American in Paris, Mahogany; died Dec 5, 20081925 - Henri Renaud
French jazz musician: pianist; record producer; died Oct 17, 20021925 - Ernie Stautner
Pro Football Hall of Famer [defensive tackle]: Boston College; NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers: recovered 21 fumbles, scored 3 safeties, played in 9 Pro Bowls; died Feb 16, 20061926 - Elena Verdugo
actress: Little Giant, House of Frankenstein, Meet Millie, Marcus Welby, M.D.; died May 30, 20171927 - Phil Hill
race driver: one of only two Americans to win the Formula One title [1961]; died Aug 28, 20081929 - Bob Braun
Emmy Award-winning TV host [WLWT-TV]: The Bob Braun Show [1979]; regular on WCPO-TV’s The Dottie Mack Show [carried on DuMont TV net]; radio host [WLW]: inducted into Cincinnati Radio Hall of Fame [1993]; singer: ’Til Death Do Us Part [1962]; actor: Die Hard 2, Ironside, Murder, She Wrote, The Young and the Restless; died Jan 15, 20011936 - Beaver Harris (William Godwin Harris)
musician: drums: co-led 360 Degree Music Experience [w/Roswell Rudd, Marion Brown, Grachan Moncur III]; died Dec 22, 19911937 - George Takei
actor: Star Trek, Kissinger and Nixon, Oblivion, Star Trek 1-6, The Green Berets, Red Line 7000, Ice Palace; more1939 - Johnny Tillotson
singer: Poetry In Motion, It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’, Without You, Talk Back Trembling Lips1941 - Ryan O’Neal
actor: Love Story, Paper Moon, What’s Up Doc?, Peyton Place; died Dec 8, 20231943 - Jamie Gillis
actor [1971-2004]: X-rated films: French Wives, The Seduction of Lyn Carter, The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Barbara Broadcast, The Ecstasy Girls, World of Henry Paris, Wanda Whips Wall Street, Swedish Erotica series, Pandora’s Mirror; died Feb 19, 20101945 - Michael Brandon (Feldman)
actor: Lovers and Other Strangers, Red Alert, Rich and Famous, Promises in the Dark1945 - Steve Spurrier
football: Univ of Florida [Heisman Trophy winner: 1966], SF 49ers1945 - Jimmy Winston (Langwith)
musician: organ: groups: Moments, Small Faces1946 - Tom (Thomas George) Hutton
baseball: LA Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays1947 - Brian Lavender
hockey: NHL: SL Blues, NY Islanders, Detroit Red Wings, California Seals1947 - David Leland
actor: Time Bandits, Personal Services; director/writer: Wish You Were Here; director: Checking Out, The Big Man: Crossing the Line; writer: Mona Lisa, Personal Services, Running Wild1948 - Joe Bonner
jazz pianist, composer; died Nov 21, 20141948 - Craig Frost
musician: keyboard: group: Grand Funk Railroad: We’re an American Band, The Loco-Motion, Some Kind of Wonderful, Bad Time1948 - Gregory Itzin
actor: 24, Friends, Murder One, NCIS, The Mentalist, Night Court, Matlock, Diagnosis: Murder, Jake and the Fatman, The O.C., Judging Amy, Boston Legal, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, The Pretender, DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, Covert Affairs1949 - Veronica Cartwright
actress: ER, The X-Files, Invasion of the Body Snatchers [1978], Alien, The Birds, Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Revenge; more1949 - Jessica (Phyllis) Lange
Academy Award-winning actress: Tootsie [1982], Blue Sky [1994]; Frances, King Kong, All That Jazz, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Sweet Dreams1951 - Luther Vandross
singer, songwriter: Never Too Much, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye; died July 1, 20051959 - Clint Howard
actor: Backdraft, Cocoon, Ice Cream Man, That Thing You Do!, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, How the Grinch Stole Christmas1961 - Don Mattingly
baseball [first base]: NY Yankees; winner many awards and honours: the Yankees established a monument in his honour and retired his #231964 - John Carney
football [placekicker]: Notre Dame Univ; NFL: TB Buccaneers, LA Rams, SD Chargers, NO Saints1964 - Crispin Glover
actor: Dead Man, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Doors, Twister, Back to the Future film series, Friday the 13th, Part 4: The Final Chapter, My Tutor, Charlie's Angels [2000]1964 - Andy Serkis
actor: King Kong [2005], Blessed, 13 Going on 30, The Lord of the Rings series, Standing Room Only; more1968 - William deVry
actor: The Bold and the Beautiful, Dead in a Heartbeat, The Lost World, I Know What You Did, Convictions, Once in a Blue Moon, Port Charles, All My Children1969 - Blair Atcheynum
hockey [right wing]: Ottawa Senators, SL Blues, Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks1969 - Wade Hayes
singer: Old Enough to Know Better, On a Good Night, The Day That She Left Tulsa [In a Chevy], Up North, Goodbye Is the Wrong Way to Go, Wichita Lineman; founded McHayes [with Alan Jackson’s fiddle player Mark McClurg]; member of backing band for former Alabama lead singer Randy Owen1970 - Shemar Moore
actor: S.W.A.T., Criminal Minds, The Young and the Restless, Nikki and Nora, Reversible Errors, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Motives 2, Kill Me, Deadly; TV host: Soul Train [1999-2003]1971 - Allan Houston
basketball [guard]: Univ of Tennessee; NBA: Detroit Pistons, NY Knicks1972 - Carmen Electra
model: Playboy magazine cover girl [Apr 2003]; TV game show host: MTV: Singled Out; actress: Baywatch, Hyperion Bay, Scary Movie, Whacked!, Starsky & Hutch1973 - Lamond Murray
basketball [forward]: Univ of California; LA Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors1976 - Joey Lawrence
actor: Gimme a Break, Blossom, Chains of Gold, Pulse, Wait Till Your Mother Gets Home, Radioland Murders1977 - Desmond Clark
football [tight end]: Wake Forest Univ; NFL: Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears1979 - Ruth Connell
actress: Supernatural, Above Their Station, Sh*t British People Say in the USA, Hara Kiri, The Cursed Man1987 - John Patrick Amedori
actor: The Butterfly Effect, Dear White People, The Vatican Tapes, Joan of Arcadia, Ghost Whisperer, Stick It, Gossip Girl1988 - Brandon Belt
baseball [outfielder]: San Francisco Giants [2011–2022]: 2012, 2014 World Series champs; Toronto Blue Jays [2023]1991 - Luke Kuechly
football [middle linebacker]: NFL: Carolina Panthers [2012-2019]: 2016 Super Bowl 501997 - Maemae Renfrow
actress: Hunter Street, Attaway Appeal, American Satan, Bomb City, Sickhouse
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day April 20
1950If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake (facts) - Eileen Barton
Music, Music, Music (facts) - Teresa Brewer
1959
1968
1977
1986
1995
2004
2013
2022
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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