^{The Peary Sledge Party at the North Pole, April 6, 1909}

Today in History

• Roman Civil War: Caesar defeats the Optimates in the Battle of Thapsus (46 BCE)
• The New York Slave Revolt begins (1712 CE)
• John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, which would eventually make him America’s first millionaire (1808 CE)
• Napoléon abdicates and is exiled to Elba (1814 CE)
• American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins (1862 CE) and the Battle of Sayler’s Creek takes place (1865 CE)
• Oscar Wilde is arrested (1895 CE)
• Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole (1909 CE)
• World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (1917 CE)
• The Douglas World Cruisers take off on the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe; the trip will take 175 days (1924 CE)
• The Salt Satyagraha begins under the leadership of Mohandas K. Gandhi (1930 CE)
• People begin lining up outside breweries and taverns, awaiting the end of Prohibition in the US at midnight (1933)
• World War II: The Nazis invade Yugoslavia and Greece (1941 CE)
• The first Tony Awards are presented (1947 CE)
• The first geosynchronous communications satellite, Early Bird, is launched (1965 CE)
• Pioneer 11 is launched (1973 CE)
• The American League begins using the designated hitter (1973 CE)
• The Rwandan genocide begins (1994 CE)

Birthdays

• Raphael, painter (1483; died on the same day in 1520)
• James Mill, philosopher and economist (1773)
• Nadar, photographer (1820)
• Walter Huston, actor (1884)
• Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer (1890)
• Donald Douglas, aircraft manufacturer (1892)
• Lowell Thomas, journalist and broadcaster (1892)
• Mickey Cochrane, baseball player and manager (1903)
• Big Walter Horton, harmonica player (1918)
• Edmond Fischer, Nobel Prize winning biochemist (1920)
• Gil Kane, comic book artist (1926)
• Gerry Mulligan, saxophonist (1927)
• James Watson, Nobel Prize winning biologist (1928)
• Joi Lansing, model and actress (1929)
• André Previn, conductor and composer (1929)
• Ram Dass, mystic (1931)
• Ivan Dixon, actor (1931)
• Merle Haggard, singer-songwriter (1937)
• Billy Dee Williams, actor (1937)
• Roy Thinnes, actor (1938)
• John Sculley, Pepsi president and Apple CEO (1939)
• Phil Austin, radio comedian, member of Firesign Theatre (1941)
• Gheorghe Zamfir, pan flute player (1941)
• Barry Levinson, movie maker (1942)
• Anita Pallenberg, model and actress (1944)
• John Ratzenberger, actor (1947)
• Horst Störmer, Nobel Prize winning physicist (1949)
• Marilu Henner, actress (1952)
• Rob Epstein, documentary producer (1955)
• Keith Jesperson, the “Happy Face Killer” (1955)
• Blind Mississippi Morris, singer and harmonica player (1955)
• Michele Bachmann, politician (1956)
• Bret Boone, baseball player and manager (1969)
• Paul Rudd, actor (1969)
• Zach Braff, actor (1975)
• Candace Cameron Bure, actress (1976)
• Tim Hasselbeck, football player (1978)
• Hilary Rhoda, supermodel (1987)

Deaths

• Saint Methodius, apostle to the Slavs (885)
• Richard Coeur de Lion, English monarch (1199)
• Raphael, painter (1520; born on the same day in 1483)
• Albrecht Dürer, painter (1528)
• Albert Sidney Johnson, Confederate general (1862)
• Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet (1935)
• Sam Sheppard, accused murderer (1970)
• Игорь Стравинский (Igor Stravinsky), composer (1971)
• Isaac Asimov, author (1992)
• Greer Garson, actress (1996)
• Wendy O. Williams, singer-songwriter (1998)
• Tammy Wynette, singer-songwriter (1998)
• Red Norvo, vibraphone player (1999)
• Rainier III, prince of Monaco (2005)
• Wilma Mankiller, first female chief of the Cherokee Nation (2010)
• Thomas Kinkade, painter (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations