April 3


April 3 is the 93th day of the year (94st in leap years) in the Gregorian
calendar, with 272 days remaining.

Events

   * 1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri
     to Sacramento, California is started (completed on April 13).
   * 1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the
     capital of the break-away Confederate States of America.
   * 1882 - Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by
     Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
   * 1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death
     of the baby son of Anne and Charles Lindbergh.
   * 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the
     United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell
     on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
   * 1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila
     in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
   * 1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes
     $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
   * 1953 - TV Guide debuts.
   * 1968 - Simon and Garfunkel release the critically acclaimed album
     Bookends.
   * 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
   * 1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly
     Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
   * 1986 - IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
   * 1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his
     Montana cabin.
   * 1996 - An Air Force air transport carrying United States Commerce
     Secretary Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on-board.
   * 2000 - Microsoft antitrust case: Microsoft is ruled to have violated
     United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its
     competitors.

Births

   * 1783 - Washington Irving, author (+ 1859)
   * 1822 - Edward Everett Hale, writer, (+ 1909)
   * 1823 - William Marcy Tweed, political boss (+ 1878)
   * 1885 - Allan Dwan, film director ( + 1981)
   * 1893 - Leslie Howard, actor (+ 1943)
   * 1898 - George Jessel, comedian (+ 1981)
   * 1903 - Peter Huchel, lyricist and author of radio plays (+ 1981)
   * 1904 - Sally Rand, dancer (+ 1979)
   * 1907 - Iron Eyes Cody, actor (+ 1999)
   * 1916 - Herb Caen, newspaper columnist (+ 1997)
   * 1924 - Doris Day, actress
   * 1924 - Marlon Brando, actor
   * 1925 - Tony Benn, British politician
   * 1926 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (+ 1967)
   * 1930 - Helmut Kohl, politician, German Bundeskanzler from 1982 to 1998
   * 1934 - Jane Goodall, zoologist
   * 1942 - Marsha Mason, actress
   * 1942 - Wayne Newton, singer
   * 1944 - Tony Orlando, musician
   * 1949 - Richard Thompson, musician, songwriter
   * 1958 - Alec Baldwin, actor
   * 1959 - David Hyde Pierce, actor
   * 1961 - Eddie Murphy, actor and comedian
   * 1968 - Sebastian Bach, musician ("Skid Row")
   * 1986 - Amanda Bynes, teen actress and show host

Deaths

   * 1882 - Jesse James, outlaw
   * 1897 - Johannes Brahms, composer
   * 1901 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, impresario
   * 1932 - Wilhelm Ostwald, chemist
   * 1936 - Bruno Hauptmann, convicted of killing Charles Lindbergh Jr.
   * 1950 - Kurt Weill, composer
   * 1986 - Richard Manuel, musician ("The Band")
   * 1988 - Milt Caniff, cartoonist
   * 1990 - Sarah Vaughn, singer
   * 1991 - Graham Greene, writer
   * 1993 - Pinky Lee, children's television host