April 4, 2023
QUOTE
The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.
--Muddy Waters
BIRTHDAYS
1792 – Thaddeus Stevens, Lawyer and politician
1906 – John Cameron Swayze, Journalist
1913 – McKinley Morganfield (known as Muddy Waters), Singer-songwriter and guitarist
1916 – David White, Actor
1932 – Anthony Perkins, Actor
IN MEMORY
1929 – Karl Benz, German engineer and businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr., Minister and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
1983 – Gloria Swanson, Actress
2013 – Roger Ebert, Journalist, critic, and screenwriter
IN ON THIS DAY
1581 – Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
1818 – The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state.
1865 – A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1983 – Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.