Happy Birthday to Frederick Law Olmstead (and to you, if today is YOUR birthday)!
Today is Friday, April 26, 2019, the 116th day of the year, 63 days till summer, and a mere 564 days until the next presidential election.
- Sunrise: 6:20am
- Sunset: 7:56pm ...giving us 13 hours and 35 minutes of daylight. Full moon rises at 8:22pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 5:03am/8:00pm
- Low: 12:08pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Union Day - Tanzania
- World Intellectual Property Day
- International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day
- Audubon Day
- Day of Dialogue
- Hug An Australian Day
- Lesbian Visibility Day
- National Hairball Awareness Day
- National Help A Horse Day
- National Kids and Pets Day
- National Pretzel Day
- Poem In Your Pocket Day
- Richter Scale Day
On this day in…
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attacked Lorenzo and killed Giuliano de'Medici.
1514 - Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn.
1607 - The British established an American colony at Cape Henry,Virginia. It was the first permanent English establishment in the Western Hemisphere.
1819 - The first Odd Fellows lodge in theU.S. was established in Baltimore,MD.
1865 - Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman during the American Civil War.
1865 - John Wilkes Booth was killed by theU.S. Federal Cavalry.
1906 - InHawaii, motion pictures were shown for the first time.
1921 - Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio in St. Louis,MO.
1929 - First non-stop flight from England to India was completed.
1931 - New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hit a home run but was called out for passing a runner.
1931 - NBC premiered "Lum and Abner." It was on the air for 24 years.
1937 - German planes attacked Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish nationalist government. This raid is considered one of the first to be attacks on a civilian population by a modern air force.
1937 - "LIFE" magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover.
1937 - "Lorenzo Jones" premiered on NBC radio.
1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time in Chicago,IL.
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women’s golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes in a tournament in Richmond,CA.
1954 - Grace Kelly was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.
1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutiveNBA title. They won two more before the streak came to an end.
1968 - Students seized the administration building at Ohio State University.
1982 - The British announced that Argentina had surrendered on South Georgia.
1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 1,200 for first time.
1985 - In Argentina, a fire at a mental hospital killed 79 people and injured 247.
1986 - The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in Kiev. Thirty-one people died in the incident and thousands more were exposed to radioactive material.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- John James Audubon 1785 - Ornithologist, naturalist, painter
- Frederick Olmstead 1822 - Journalist, landscape designer
- Jessie Redmon Fauset 1882 - Poet, essayist, novelist
- Anita Loos 1893 - Screenwriter, playwright, author
- Rudolf Hess 1895 - Adolf Hitler's Deputy in the Nazi Party
- Charles Richter 1900 - Seismologist, creator of the Richter magnitude scale used to quantify earthquakes
- Teddy Edwards 1924 - Jazz musician
- Jorgen Ingmann 1925 - Musician
- Bernard Malamud 1914 - Author of novels and short stories
- Bambi Linn 1926 - Dancer
- Carol Burnett 1933 - Actress, comedian
- Duane Eddy 1938 - Musician
- Maurice Williams 1938 - Musician (Zodiacs)
- Claudine Clark 1941 - Musician
- Bobby Rydell 1942 - Singer
- Claudine Auger 1942 - Actress ("Thunderball")
- Gary Wright 1943 - Musician
- Giorgio Moroder 1944 - Record producer, songwriter, performer
- Boyd Matson 1947 - Television anchor (National Geographic Explorer, NBC's Weekend Today)
- Donna De Varona 1947 - Swimmer
- Giancarlo Esposito 1958 - Actor, director
- Roger Taylor 1960 - Musician (Duran Duran)
- Chris Mars 1961 - Artist, musician
- Joan Chen 1961 - Actress
- Michael Damian 1962 - Actor, singer, producer
- Jet Li 1963 - Actor ("Lethal Weapon 4," "War", "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor")
- Kevin James 1965 - Actor ("I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," "The King of Queens")
