1961 Silicon Integrated circuit Robert Noyce patents his revolutionary device.

1959 St. Lawrence Seaway Opens to the public, providing access between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

1959 Mario Andretti The legendary driver makes his racing debut, winning at the Nazareth Motor Speed-way (Pennsylvania) in a 1948 Hudson.

1954 Solar battery Bell Laboratories announces its invention.

1950 First black drafted by an NBA team Charles "Chuck" Cooper is selected by the Boston Celtics.

1944 United Negro College Fund Founded by Frederick Douglass Patterson, president of the Tuskegee Institute.

1901 License Plates New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.

1898 U.S. declares war on Spain The war was considered to have officially begun April 21.

1859 Suez Canal Construction of the North-South waterway connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas begins. It was completed in 1869.

1792 First execution by Guillotine The French execute convicted criminal Nicolas Jacques Peletier.

1750 First house built in Kentucky Dr. Thomas Walker completes its construction near the present-day town of Barbourville.

1719 The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe The first volume of Daniel Defoe's classic work is published.

1521 First circumnavigation of the globe Magellan, leader of the expedition, is mortally wounded in a battle with the natives of the Philippine Islands. He died on the 27th. The three-year voyage, started in 1519, was completed without him.

1964 Hank Azaria American Emmy-winning actor. TV: The Simpsons (voice of Moe, Apu, Police Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Cletus, Professor Frink, and Snake).

1946 Talia Shire (Talia Coppola), American actress. Film: The Godfather (1972, Don Corleone's daughter) and Rocky (1976, Rocky's wife).

1940 Al Pacino (Alberto Pacino), American Oscar-Tony-Emmy winning actor.  Started his career as a stand up comedian.  He turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.  Film: The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Scent of a Woman (1992, Oscar).

1932 Meadowlark Lemon American basketball player, Harlem Globetrotter.

1930 Paul Mazursky American film director. Film: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986, screenplay).

1923 Albert King d. 1992 (Albert Nelson), American blues musician. Music: Laundromat Blues (1966) and Born Under a Bad Sign (1967).

1918 Ella Fitzgerald American jazz singer. Music: A-Tisket, A-Tasket (1938) and On The Sunny Side Of The Street (1963).

1908 Edward R. Murrow d. 1965 American Emmy-winning journalist. He won four Peabody awards, the Medal of Freedom (1964), and was knighted an honorary commander of the Order of the British Empire (1965).

1906 William Joseph Brennan Jr d. 1997 American lawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1956-90).

1874 Guglielmo Marconi d. 1937 Italian Nobel-winning physicist, radio pioneer, inventor of the wireless telegraph (1896).

1873 Howard Roger Garis d. 1962 American children's author, creator of the Uncle Wiggily the rabbit stories and board game.

1599 Oliver Cromwell d. 1658 Lord Protector of England. He led "the curse of Cromwell," in which he massacred the Irish during an extensive expropriation of their land. He also outlawed Christmas celebrations in England, calling them an extreme forgetfulness to Christ.

1284 Edward II d. 1327 King of England (1307-1327). He decreed that an inch was equal to three average barleycorns laid end to end (1324).

1214 Louis IX d. 1270 King of France (1226-70). Known as Saint Louis, he was canonized in 1297.

2009 Beatrice Arthur b. 1922 (Bernice Frankel), American Tony-Emmy-winning actress, and served as a U.S. Marine during WWII. TV: Maude (Maude Findlay) and The Golden Girls (Dorothy).  Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof (Yente the Matchmaker).

1995 Ginger Rogers b. 1911 (Virginia McMath), American Oscar-winning actress, Fred Astaire's dance partner.

1981 Alice Lon b. 1926 American singer, TV personality, Lawrence Welk's original Champagne Lady (1955-59). Welk fired her showing too much knee on camera.

1972 George Sanders b. 1906 British Oscar-winning Actor. Film: Starred in The Saint and The Falcon movies. He was married to both Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sister Magda. He died of suicide.

1944 George Herriman b. 1880 American cartoonist, creator of Krazy Kat (1910).

1885 Emma b. 1836 Queen of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii)  (1855-63). She was the first queen to visit the U.S. (1866).

1878 Anna Sewell b. 1820 English author. Writings: Black Beauty (1877).

1744 Anders Celsius b. 1701 Swedish astronomer, inventor of the Celsius (centigrade) thermometer (1742).

1595 Torquato Tasso b. 1544 Italian poet of the late Renaissance. He spent seven years confined to an insane asylum. Writings: Gerusalemme liberato (1575, which is considered one the great masterpieces of European literature).

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