April 14 - Call me Ansel

Call me Ansel

This Day In History

1434

The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.

1775

The first abolition society in North America is established.

1828

Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

1860

The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.

1894

The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.

1912

The White Star liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40pm. The ship sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,517 lives.

1927

The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1939

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

1956

In Chicago, Illinois, videotape is first demonstrated.

1981

The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completes its first test flight.

2003

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

Famous Birthdays

1126

Averroes, Arab Spanish physician, philosopher and polymath (d. 1198)

1629

Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist and horologist (d. 1695)

1827

Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist (d. 1900)

1866

Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher and companion (d. 1936)

1868

Peter Behrens, German architect (d. 1940)

1904

Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)

1925

Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)

1932

Loretta Lynn, American country musician/singer

1941

Pete Rose, American baseball player

1954

Bruce Sterling, American science fiction author

1961

Robert Carlyle, British actor

1968

Anthony Michael Hall, American actor

1977

Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress