Today in History: Music, sports and more

1429 Joan of Arc arrives at the siege of Orleans

1852 1st edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus published

1862 New Orleans falls to Union forces during US Civil War

1864 Skirmish at Jenkins’ Ferry, Arkansas

1864 Battle of Gate Pa (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Maori warriors in Tauranga

1945 US Army liberates 31,601 people from the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany

1974 US President Richard Nixon said he will release edited tapes made in the White House

1975 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war

1990 Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate

1991 Cyclone strikes the Chittagong district in Bangladesh, killing 139,000 people and leaving 10 million homeless

1992 Jury acquits LA police officers of beating Rodney King, riots begin

1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Fresno CA on KFRR 104.1 FM

1997 Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 comes into force, outlaws production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories

2004 Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office

2004 Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production

Music

1967 “Respect” single released by Aretha Franklin (Billboard Song of the Year 1967)

1968 “Hair” opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 1750 performances

1982 17th Academy of Country Music Awards: Alabama, Merle Haggard, and Barbara Mandrell win

1991 “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” single released by Alan Jackson (ASCAP Award Country Song of the Year 1992, Billboard Song of the Year 1991)

1992 27th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire win

2016 “Views” 4th studio album by Drake is released

TV and Movies

1953 The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV

1961 ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” debuts

2018 Animated series “The Simpsons” surpasses “Gunsmoke”’s 635-episode count to have highest episode count of any series on TV

Sports

1980 NFL Draft: Oklahoma running back Billy Sims first pick by Detroit Lions

1981 Phillie Steve Carlton is 1st lefty to strike out 3,000 batters

1987 Chicago Cub Andre Dawson hits for cycle

Birthdays

1863 William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (San Francisco Examiner, Seattle P-I), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1951)

1899 Duke Ellington, American bandleader, composer and pianist (Take the A Train), born in Washington, District of Columbia (d. 1974)

1901 Hirohito, 124th Emperor of Japan (1926-89), born in Aoyama Palace, Tokyo (d. 1989)

1933 Willie Nelson, American country singer (On the Road Again), born in Abbott, Texas

1938 Bernard “Bernie” Madoff, American fraudster and financier who committed the largest fraud in US history, born in Queens, New York

1947 Tommy James, singer (cri-im-son & clo-o-ver o-o-ver & o-o-ver)

1951 Dale Earnhardt, American auto racer (7 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championships), born in Kannapolis, North Carolina (d. 2001)

1954 Jerome “Jerry” Seinfeld, American comedian and actor (Seinfeld, Bee Movie), born in Brooklyn, New York

1957 Daniel Day-Lewis, English actor (Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York), born in London

1958 Eve Plumb, actress (Jan-Brady Bunch, I’m Gonna Get You Sucka), born in Burbank, California

1958 Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress (Scarface, Batman Returns, Hairspray), born in Santa Ana, California

1970 Andre Agassi, American tennis player (Olympic gold 1996, 8 Grand Slam titles), born in Las Vegas, Nevada

Deaths

1980 Alfred Hitchcock, English director (Psycho, Birds, Rear Window), dies of renal failure at 80

Weddings and Divorces

1945 Adolf Hitler (56) marries Eva Braun (33) in the Führerbunker, Berlin

1950 Actor Sidney Poitier (23) weds model Juanita Hardy

1988 Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson marry

2011 Royal wedding of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Catherine [Kate] Middleton held at Westminister Abbey, London