On This Day April 2

2005
First African-American to win a major motorsport event: James "Bubba" Stewart wins the 250cc THQ AMA Supercross Series race.

1992
John Gotti, boss of the nation's largest crime family is convicted of murder and racketeering. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

1987
IBM withdraws the IBM PC from the market and introduces the PS/2 Models 30, 50, and 80.

1986
IBM withdraws the Portable PC from the market and introduces the new Convertible Laptop PC.

1978
Dallas: The long-running primetime soap opera debuts on CBS.

1935
Radar: Sir Robert Watson-Watt is granted a patent for the radar. He is considered the inventor of the radar, although others had also done research on it.

1917
World War I: Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany. It would do so four days later.

1902
First full-time movie theater in the U.S.: Tally's "Electric Theatre" opens in Los Angeles, California. It only lasted six months.

1792
First U.S. coin to contain "E Pluribus Unum" is authorized. They were first minted in 1795. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1513
Juan Ponce de Leon sets anchor near present-day St. Augustine, making him the first European known to have visited what is now the United States. He named the land Florida and claimed it for the King of Spain.

1965
Rodney King, Los Angeles police punching bag. The acquittal of four officers charged in the incident led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

1954
Ron Palillo, American actor. TV: Welcome Back Kotter (Arnold Dingfilder Horshack).

1941
Dr. Demento (Barret 'Barry' Eugene Hansen), American radio personality, specializing in off-beat music.

1939 d. 1984
Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr.), American Grammy-winning Motown singer. He was shot and killed by his father. Music: How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You (1965), I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1969, #1), Let's Get It On (1973, #1), and (Sexual) Healing (1982, Grammy).

1935
Sharon Acker, Canadian actress. TV: The New Adventures of Perry Mason (Della Street).

1920 d. 1982
Jack Webb (John Randolph Webb), American actor. TV: Dragnet. (Sgt. Joe Friday - He carries a badge).

1914 d. 2000
Sir Alec Guinness, English Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, Oscar), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Star Wars (1977, Obi-Wan Kenobi).

1912 d. 1989
Herbert Mills, American singer, with the Mills Brothers, the most popular vocal group of all time.

1911 d. 1992
Charles "Honi" Coles, American Tony-winning tap dancer. Broadway: Hello Dolly. Film: Dirty Dancing and Cotton Club. He was inducted into the Tap Dance Hall of Fame (2003).

1908 d. 2003
Buddy Ebsen (Christian Ebsen Jr.), American actor. TV: The Beverly Hillbillies (Jed Clampett) and Barnaby Jones (title role). He was originally cast as the "Tin Man" in the The Wizard of Oz (1939), but had to quit because he was allergic to the silver makeup.

1891 d. 1976
Max Ernst, German-born Surrealist artist, and leader of the Cologne Dadaists.

1875 d. 1940
Walter Percy Chrysler, American auto executive, founder of the Chrysler Automobile Company.

1867 d. 1925
Eugene Sandow, German strongman, "Father of Modern Bodybuilding." He organized the first bodybuilding contest (1901 ) with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as one of the judges.

1834 d. 1904
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty, using his mother as the model.

1805 d. 1875
Hans Christian Andersen, Danish poet, novelist. Writings: The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes, and The Emperor's New Clothes.

1725 d. 1798
Casanova (Giovanni Jacopo), Italian lover, adventurer, considered history's greatest romantic.

1618 d. 1663
Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician, physicist. He discovering that the distance covered by a falling object was proportional to the square of the time of the fall and coined the word 'diffraction.'

742 d. 814
Emperor Charlemagne (Charles the Great), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans, introduced (789) the royal foot as a unit of length.

2005 b. 1920
John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), 264th Pope (1978-2005), the first Polish Pope. He reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church for almost 27 years, making his the second-longest pontificate.

1994 b. 1916
Betty Furness, American actress, pioneer in TV consumer reporting. TV: Today.

1987 b. 1917
Buddy Rich (Bernard Rich), American jazz drummer. He was the second-highest-paid child performer of the 1930s.

1966 b. 1899
C.S. Forester (Cecil Scott Forester), novelist, created Horatio Hornblower.

1928 b. 1868
Theodore William Richards, American Nobel-winning Chemist, known for his research in atomic weights.

1872 b. 1791
Samuel F.B. Morse (Samuel Finley Breese Morse), American inventor of the telegraph and Morse code.

April 2

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Deaths