On this day in history, April 12, 1954, Bill Haley records 'Rock Around the Clock,' rock's first No. 1 hit
Rebellious rocker with blistering guitar solo topped US charts eight weeks in 1955.


Bill Haley and his Comets perform onstage in 1955 in New York. They recorded "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" in New York City in 1954.


Bill Haley and His Comets lit up the skies of global pop culture with a meteoric new sound when they recorded "(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" in New York City on this day in history, April 12, 1954.

It became rock ‘n’ roll's first hit song — on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Rock Around the Clock" topped the U.S. Billboard singles chart for an incredible eight straight weeks in the summer of 1955 and was a major hit in the United Kingdom earlier that year.

"We premiered it," Haley told Rolling Stone Magazine in 1967.

"We put country & western together with rhythm & blues, and that was rock. The first three years were ours, all ours, 'til [Elvis] Presley came along."

"It was not the first recording of ‘Rock Around the Clock,’ nor was it Bill Haley’s first rock and roll record," music scholar David Deacon-Joyner wrote for the Library of Congress.

"It was, however, the seismic event that kicked off the rock revolution."

 

1606: The Union Jack unites the flags of England and Scotland
By royal decree of England's King James I, the English St. George's Cross, and Scotland's St. Andrew's Cross are brought together in one design to symbolize the new unity of their two nations.

 

12 Apr 1945
Franklin Roosevelt passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage after complaining of acute headache during a portrait painting session with artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff at Warm Springs, Georgia.

 

On This Day In History
April 12, 1861
Civil War begins as Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

Four of the bloodiest years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

As early as 1858, the ongoing conflict between North and South over the issue of slavery had led Southern leadership to discuss a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans, the anti-slavery party, won the presidency. Following Republican Abraham Lincoln’s victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina immediately initiated secession proceedings. On December 20, the South Carolina legislature passed the “Ordinance of Secession,” which declared that “the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.” After the declaration, South Carolina set about seizing forts, arsenals, and other strategic locations within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana—had followed South Carolina’s lead.

In February 1861, delegates from those states convened to establish a unified government. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was subsequently elected the first president of the Confederate States of America. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, a total of seven states (Texas had joined the pack) had seceded from the Union, and federal troops held only Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Fort Pickens off the Florida coast, and a handful of minor outposts in the South. Four years after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the Confederacy was defeated at the total cost of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead.

 

April 13

1250 - The Seventh Crusade was defeated in Egypt, French King Louis IX is captured.

1598 - Edict of Nantes grants French Huguenots (French protestants) political rights

1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.

1964 - 36th Academy Awards: Tom Jones( best film, Patricia Nealin in Hud(best actress) and Sydney Poitier in Lily of the Fields (best actor)

1866 - Butch Cassidy was born.

1743 - Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia.

 

April 13, 1360 marked a day dubbed 'Black Monday' which may or may not be a case of Divine Intervention, when over 1,000 English soldiers were killed by a hailstorm near Chartres, France.

During this segment of 'The Hundred Years War,' King Edward III of England was actively attempting to conquer France, and had sent troops to burn and sack the suburbs of Paris.

While they were camped outside Chartres, a sudden storm materialized. Lightning struck, killing several people, and hailstones began pelting the soldiers, scattering the horses. One described it as “a foul day, full of myst and hayle, so that men dyed on horseback.” Two of the English leaders were killed and panic set in among the troops, who had no shelter from the storm.

The loss of over 1,o00 soldiers was seen by many as a sign from God, and King Edward was convinced to negotiate peace with the French. On May 8, 1360, the Treaty of Bretigny was signed, initiating a 9 year pause in the fighting before French King/Emperor Charles V declared war because the English had failed to honor the provisions of the treaty.

 

On this day in history, April 13, 1997, Tiger Woods, 21, dominates Masters with record 12-stroke win
He was a sensation ever since appearing on TV at age 2 — popularity of golf soared in wake of Woods' masterful Masters.


Tiger Woods celebrates after sinking a 4-foot putt to win the U.S. Masters Golf Tournament with a record low score of 18 under par on April 13, 1997, at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.


Eldrick "Tiger" Woods, a prodigy since the time he was a toddler, delivered on his destiny of golf greatness with a jaw-dropping 12-stroke victory in the Masters Tournament on this day in history, April 13, 1997.

"A win for the ages!" broadcaster Jim Nantz enthused, as the gallery erupted when Woods' final putt dropped in the 18th hole.

His 12-shot victory over second-place finisher Tom Kite remains the greatest margin in the history of the storied golf tournament.

He is still the youngest winner in Masters history to this day.

Woods shot an incredible 18-under, which stood as the lowest-ever score in the Masters until it was surpassed by Dustin Johnson in 2020 (-20).

Golf Digest called the win by the 21-year-old phenom "the dawn of dominance" and an "epic victory that shook the game."

Woods tore up all four rounds, including a scintillating 65 (7-under) third round on Saturday that put him in a commanding position entering the final round.

"Tiger’s Grrrreat!" beamed the front-page headline of local newspaper Augusta Chronicle Sunday morning.

The final round proved a coronation, not a competition.

 

2000: Metallica vs Napster
Metallica files a lawsuit against Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing company, after discovering their entire discography was being downloaded for free by Napster users. The company will later remove the band's music from their service and ban more than 300,000 users that shared Metallica songs.

 

April 14

1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington,D.C.. He would die a day later.

1912 - RMS Titanic, worlds largest ocean liner, hit an iceberg off of Newfoundland at 11:40 pm
. It sank in early hours the next day.

1981 - The first Space Shuttle, Columbia 1, returned to Earth after 2 days and 6 hours in space.

1894 - The first showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope( moving pictures)

 

On April 14, an event in 1930 provided the impetus and inspiration for a different, yet connected event in 1939.

On April 14, 1930, which became known as 'Black Sunday,' one of the most devastating dust storms of the 'Dust Bowl' era swept through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and a small part of southern Nebraska.

High winds had kicked up clouds of millions of tons of dirt and dust and dispersed them in a storm so dense and dark that some eyewitnesses believed the world was coming to an end.

The causes of the Dust Bowl have a long lineage, back to the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided settlers with 160 acres of public land, which was followed by the Kinkaid Act of 1904 and the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. Collectively, these acts led to a massive influx of new and inexperienced farmers across the Great Plains.

The two main factors which produced the Dust Bowl were a severe and long-lasting drought coupled with the overplowing and over-grazing of the land, which tremendously reduced the grasses which held the topsoil down. Once high winds came, the soil was set free.

On May 11, 1934, a massive dust storm two miles high traveled 2,000 miles to the East Coast, blotting out monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol.

While the worst of it had subsided by 1936, the era came to a close when regular rainfall returned to the region in 1939, but not before over 2.5 million people had fled the area.







On April 14, 1939, John Steinbeck's epic, Pulitzer Prize winning novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' was published. The story centered on Tom Joad and his family, who were driven from their homestead in Oklahoma by the dust bowl storms and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.

It is regarded as one of the greatest novels in American history.

 

1828: Noah Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language; based on the principle that word usage should evolve from the spoken language, the work was hugely influential, though it was initially attacked for its “Americanism.”

 

On this day in history, April 14, 1910, President Taft throws out first pitch at MLB game
The 27th president was a fan of baseball, calling it a 'healthy amusement'.


William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27th president of the U.S. Originally hailing from Ohio, he later served as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Opening Day welcomes the new spring baseball season each year, a uniquely American tradition steeped in history and fanfare.

And on this day in history, April 14, 1910, President William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to throw out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game.

Taft was first in a long line of presidents to have the honor. Nearly every president since Taft has thrown out the first pitch, with a few recent exceptions.

The groundbreaking MLB first pitch took place in Washington, D.C., ahead of a match-up between two East Coast teams: the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. The game-starting pitcher was Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators.

Having President Taft throw out the ceremonial first pitch was something that Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith had wanted for several years, according to History.com.

 

April 15

1865 - Abraham Lincoln passed away from the evening before when John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Wad, D.C.

1912 - The RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg of of Newfound the night before.

1751 - Samuel Johnson's " A Dictionary of the English Language" was published.

1861 - Abraham Lincoln mobilized 75,000 volunteers for the U.S. Civil War.

1947 - Jackie Robinson became the first black American to play in the National Baseball
Major League. It is Jackie Robinson Day.

 

1927: America's worst river flood begins
Swollen by the previous year's torrential rains, the Mississippi River begins flowing over levees as more record-breaking showers fall. The ensuing flood will wash into 10 states, eventually covering 14 percent of Arkansas.

 

Who Died Today in History?

Greta Garbo(1905-1990)

Swedish actress (Anna Karenina, Camille), dies at 84

Greta Garbo

Biography:
Greta Garbo was a Swedish-American actress who rose to international stardom in the 1920s and 1930s, becoming synonymous with an aura of mystery and sophistication. She began her acting career in European films before moving to the United States in 1925 to work for MGM, quickly becoming one of the leading actresses of her time.

Garbo was renowned for her cinematic presence and natural performances, setting her apart from other actresses of the era who were often seen as overly theatrical. She was nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an honorary Oscar in 1954 for her "unforgettable screen performances." Some of her most famous films include Anna Karenina (1935), Camille (1936), and Ninotchka (1939).

Although primarily known for her dramatic roles, Garbo's performance in Ninotchka showcased her talent for comedy and revealed a different dimension to her abilities. It was marketed with the tagline "Garbo Laughs," playing on her reputation for gravitas, and the film was a commercial and critical success.

 

15 Apr 1933
Franklin Roosevelt exercised a new power given to his office by the United States Congress and force-purchased gold from gold hoarders. This was among his first steps in removing the US currency from the gold standard and to impose tighter control over the US currency.

15 Apr 1941
Franklin Roosevelt approved the formation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of combat pilots in China. The 1st AVG would be commonly known as the Flying Tigers.

 

April 16 is a date that is rich with past events, some good, some horrible, but I choose to highlight the release of the debut album by a rock 'n roll band that would become legendary.

On this date in 1964, Decca Records issued the self-titled EP 'The Rolling Stones.' The album contained only one song by the fledgling songwriting team of Jagger - Richard, 'Tell Me (You're Coming Back)' along with covers of such varied tunes as 'Route 66' and 'Can I Get a Witness,' and two band compositions credited to the group pseudonym 'Nanker Phelge.'

The album hit #1 on the UK album charts two weeks after release and stayed at the top for 12 weeks. It was one of the biggest selling albums in the UK for 1964.

The U.S. release was on London Records (same cover photo):

 

April 16

1705 - Queen Anne of England knighted Sir Isaac Newton at Trinity College in Cambridge.

1900 - The United States Post Office issues the first booklet of postage stamps

1932 - The short film "The Music Box" starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy was released winning the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

1962 - Walter Cronkite began anchoring CBS Evening News

1889 - Charlie Chaplin was born

 

On this day in history, April 16, 1889, future Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin is born in London
Chaplin's 'bowler hat, out-turned feet, mustache and walking cane' became his trademark.


Charlie Chaplin sits wrapped in a blanket in the snow as The Lone Prospector in his 1925 film, "The Gold Rush."

On this day in history, April 16, 1889, future Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin — full name Charles Spencer Chaplin — is born in London, England.

Chaplin would go on to become one of the most financially successful stars of early Hollywood, according to History.com.

At the tender age of five, he was introduced to the stage as the son of London music hall entertainers.

As a young child, he was watching a show in which his own mother, known by the stage name Lily Harley, was starring — "when her voice cracked," as History.com relates.

"He was quickly shuffled onto the stage to finish the act" for her, the site also says.

His father passed when he was very young and his mother wound up having "a nervous breakdown."

That's when Chaplin, along with his older half-brother, Sydney, took to the streets of London. The boys earned pennies for their dancing and were eventually sent to an orphanage.

At age 12 or so he had his first chance to act in a legitimate stage show — and appeared as "Billy" the page boy in different productions of "Sherlock Holmes," that same site says in an overview of the actor's life.

After that, he began his career as a comedian in vaudeville — eventually traveling to the U.S. in 1910 as a featured player with the Fred Karno Company.

The "bowler hat, out-turned feet, mustache and walking cane" soon became his trademark.