On This Day April 10

2003
Iraq War: White House spokesman Ari Fleisher states, "But make no mistake - as I said earlier - we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found."

1994
Rodney King beating: King is awarded $3.8 million in damages from the city of Los Angeles. He became a national symbol of police brutality after he was videotaped being beaten by L.A. police in 1991.

1992
National Hockey League: The first strike the NHL ends. It had lasted for nine days.

1985
The four "unicorns" at the Ringling Bros. circus are revealed to be goats with surgically altered horns.

1963
Nuclear submarine sinks: U.S. Navy's Thresher sinks off the coast of Massachusetts killing all 129 people aboard.

1957
Ricky Nelson play the drums for the first time on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, making him an instant teen-idol.

1953
First full-length color 3-D movie: The House of Wax, starring Vincent Price, premiers in New York City. The audience was required to wear special Polaroid viewers.

1926
Superman arrives on the planet Earth, according to the first of episode of The Adventures of Superman.

1866
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is incorporated in New York by Henry Bergh.

1865
Civil War: Pres. Lincoln receives the news of Lee's surrender to Grant.

1849
Safety pin patent is issued to Walter Hunt, although it been invented more than 2,500 years earlier.

1938
Don Meredith, American football player, sportscaster, actor, Lipton tea lover.

1932
Omar Sharif (Michael Shalhoub), Egyptian actor and world-class bridge player. Film: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr. Zhivago (1965).

1929
Max von Sydow (Carl Adolf von Sydow), Swedish-born actor. Film: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965, Christ).

1921
Sheb Wooley, American actor, singer. TV: Rawhide (Pete Nolan). Music: The Purple People Eater (1958, #1), and wrote the theme for Hee Haw.

1921 d. 1992
Chuck Connors, American actor. TV: The Rifleman (Lucas McCain). Before acting he played for the Boston Celtics and became the first NBA player to shatter a backboard (1946). He went on to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

1915
Harry Morgan (Harry Bratsburg), American actor. TV: Dragnet (Joe Friday's partner Bill Gannon) and M*A*S*H (Col. Sherman T. Potter).

1909
Andy Samuel, American actor, one of the Little Rascals; he appeared in 19 Our Gang films.

1897 d. 1943
Eric Knight, British author. Writings: Lassie Come Home (1940). He was killed in a plane crash while on a mission in World War II.

1880 d. 1965
Frances Perkins, American politician, first woman U.S. presidential cabinet member (1933, F.D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor).

1868 d. 1946
George Arliss (George Augustus Andrews), British Oscar-winning actor. Film: Disraeli (1929, Oscar).

1847 d. 1911
Joseph Pulitzer, American publisher. The terms of his will established the Pulitzer Prizes.

1829 d. 1912
William Booth, English preacher, he and his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army (1865).

1827 d. 1905
General Lew Wallace, American politician, author. Writings: Ben Hur (1880), which he wrote while governor of the New Mexico territory.

1755 d. 1843
Samuel Hahnemann, German physician, founder of homeopathic medicine, based on the "law of similars." This states that diseases can be cured by drugs which produce symptoms in healthy people that are similar to the symptoms being treated.

1727 d. 1790
Samuel Heinicke, opened the first German institute for the deaf (1778).

1975 b. 1890
Marjorie Main (Mary Tomlinson), American actress. Ma of the Ma and Pa Kettle films (1947-55).

1962 b. 1940
Stuart Sutcliffe, English musician, bass guitarist for the Beatles before they became famous. He is partially credited with coming up with the name of the group, when he jokingly suggesting "Beetles" as a play on Buddy Holly's Crickets.

1585 b. 1502
Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagni), Italian religious leader, 226th Pope (1572-85). He congratulated King Gregory IX after he ordered the killing of thousands of Huguenots throughout France (1572). He also instituted the Gregorian calendar (1582).

879 b. 846
Louis II, King of France (877-79). He was known as "The Stammerer."

April 10

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