Friday, April 8

This Day In History

• 1513   Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
• 1834   Cornelius Lawrence became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote in a city election. The voters of New York City decided to make him mayor of their fair city.
• 1873   Alfred Paraf of New York City patented the first successful oleomargarine.
• 1935   The Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress.
• 1952   President Harry S. Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike.
• 1970   The Senate rejected President Richard Nixon's nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court.
• 1974   Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record.
• 1981   Omar N. Bradley, a World War II general and the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died at age 88.
• 1986   It took 18 years of singing the U.S. national anthem, but on this day, at long last, baritone Robert Merrill of the Metropolitan Opera became the first person to both sing the anthem and throw out the first ball at Yankee Stadium for the Yanks home opener.
• 1987   Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned after saying on ABC's ''Nightline'' that blacks may lack some of the ''necessities'' for becoming baseball managers.
• 1990   Ryan White, the teen-age AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18.
• 1992   Tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a news conference that he had AIDS.
• 1994   Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27.
• 1997   The Vatican chose Archbishop Francis George of Portland, Ore., to head the Archdiocese of Chicago, succeeding the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
• 2002   Suzan-Lori Parks became the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama for her play ''Topdog/Underdog.''

Happy Birthday To

• 563 B.C.   Buddha (Shakyamuni) (?The Enlightened One? in the Buddhist faith; died Feb 15, 483 B.C.)
• 1892   Mary Pickford (Gladys Louise Smith) (Academy Award-winning actress: Coquette [1928-29], Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Stella Maris, The Taming of the Shrew, Pollyanna, A Poor Little Rich Girl; died May 29, 1979)
• 1912   Sonja Henie (ice skater: Norwegian Olympic gold medalist [1928, 1932, 1936]; World Champion [1927 thru 1936]; died Oct 12, 1969)
• 1968   Patricia Arquette (actress: Flirting with Disaster, Holy Matrimony, True Romance, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors; granddaughter of actor Cliff Arquette and sister of actress Roseanna Arquette)