This Day In History
- 1451 Queen Isabella I, who sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus, was born in Madrigal, Spain.
- 1509 Henry VIII became king of England following the death of his father, Henry VII.
- 1864 Congress authorized the use of the phrase ''In God We Trust'' on U.S. coins.
- 1878 The first Egg Roll was held on the grounds of the White House in Washington, DC. The first president on hand for the first Egg Roll was Rutherford B. Hayes.
- 1889 Land Ho! At noon, the sound of a gun shot was the only signal needed for thousands of settlers to rush into the Oklahoma territory to claim their pieces of land. The U.S. Federal government had purchased almost two million acres of land in Central Oklahoma from the Crete and Seminole Indians and opened it up on this day to the settlers to claim their stakes. The purchase was made under pressure of cattle ranchers who needed more land for grazing.
- 1898 The first shot of the Spanish-American War rang out as the USS Nashville captured a Spanish merchant ship off Key West, Fla.
- 1889 The Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims
- 1952 An atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.
- 1954 The televised Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.
- 1970 The first Earth Day was observed -- with the purpose of reclaiming the purity of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the environment we live in. With the slogan "Give Earth a Chance", Earth Day continues to be celebrated on this anniversary or on the vernal equinox.
- 1990 Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon freed American hostage Robert Polhill after nearly 39 months of captivity.
- 1993 The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 1994 Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at age 81 in New York, four days after suffering a stroke.
- 1997 Government commandos stormed the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, ending a 126-day hostage crisis. All 14 Tupac Amaru rebels were killed; 71 hostages were rescued.
- 2000 In a pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami; the 6-year-old boy was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
- 2002 Actor Robert Blake was charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife outside a Los Angeles restaurant.
- 1724 Immanuel Kant (philosopher: The Critique of Pure Reason; died Feb 12, 1804)
- 1870 Nikolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) (Russian premier [1917-1924]; died Jan 21, 1924)
- 1904 J. (Julius) Robert Oppenheimer (physicist: Enrico Fermi Award for work in nuclear physics: designed & built 1st atomic bomb; died Feb 18, 1967)
- 1908 Eddie Albert (Edward Albert Heimberger) (actor: Green Acres, Teahouse of the August Moon, Roman Holiday)
- 1923 Aaron Spelling (Emmy Award-winning executive producer: Day One, AT&T Presents [1988-1989], And the Band Played On [1993-1994]; Charlie?s Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place)
- 1936 Glen Campbell (Grammy Award-winning singer: By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Gentle on My Mind, CMA Entertainer of the Year [1968]; Galveston, Wichita Lineman, Southern Nights, Rhinestone Cowboy; TV host: The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour; actor: True Grit, Norwood, Strange Homecoming)
- 1937 (John Joseph) Jack Nicholson (Academy Award-winning actor: One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest [1975], Terms of Endearment [1983], As Good as It Gets [1997]; Five Easy Pieces, The Shining, Batman, Broadcast News, Chinatown, Easy Rider, Prizzi?s Honor, The Witches of Eastwicke, Little Shop of Horrors, A Few Good Men)
- 1950 Peter Frampton (guitarist, singer: Show Me the Way, Do You Feel Like We Do, I Can't Stand it No More)
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