Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

April 17

1982
World record for standing on one foot: 34 hours, is set by N. Ravi (India). (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1964
Mustang: Ford's new sports car is unveiled at the New York World's Fair. At a base price of $2,368, it sold an industry record of 417,000 units in its first year.

1961
Bay of Pigs Invasion: Led by Cuban exiles, trained, armed, and directed by the U.S., in effort to overthrow Castro. It failed.

1943
First Soldier's Medal awarded to a woman: Nurse Edith Greenwood exhibits heroism in saving patient's lives during an Arizona hospital fire, for which she was awarded the medal the following June.

1861
Civil War: Virgian becomes the 8th state to secede from the Union. (Source: The Civil War Day by Day)

1777
Thomas Paine is elected Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

1610
Henry Hudson sets sail on his fateful voyage to find a North-West passage. His crew mutinied in June of 1611 setting him adrift never to be heard from again.

1492
Agreement signed between Columbus and the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for a voyage to find a new route to the East Indies.

1959
Teri Austin, Canadian actress. TV: Knots Landing (Jill Bennett).

1923     d. 1991
Harry Reasoner, newscaster (What do you get if you cross a gorilla with a computer?).

1918     d. 1981
William Holden (William Franklin Beedle Jr.), American actor.

1905     d. 1987
Arthur Lake (Arthur Silverlake), American actor. He played Dagwood Bumstead on radio, TV, and the movies.

1897
Thornton Wilder, American Pulitzer-winning novelist, playwright. Writings: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927, Pulitzer), Our Town (1938, Pulitzer), and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942, Pulitzer).

1893     d. 1969
Irene Castle, American dancer. She and her husband Vernon popularized the Fox-trot dance (c1912).

1891     d. 1965
George Adamski, Polish-American extraterrestrial contactee. Some regard him as the first contactee.

1837     d. 1913
John Pierpont Morgan, American financier.

1797     d. 1857
Linus Yale, American inventor, invented the Yale lock (1848).

1741     d. 1811
Samuel Chase, American Revolutionary leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Supreme Court justice.

1991     b. 1908
Sir David Lean, British director, whose films have won 28 Oscars. Film: Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Dr. Zhivago (1965).

1985     b. 1924
Scott Brady (Gerald Tierney), American actor. TV: Laverne & Shirley (Shirley Feeney's dad).

1960     b. 1938
Eddie Cochran, American musician. Music: Summertime Blues (1958).

1904     b. 1812
Samuel Smiles, Scottish author, Thrift (1875), containing the adage "A place for everything, and everything in its place."

1843     b. 1762
Samuel Morey, American inventor.  He patented the first U.S. internal combustion engine.  It was later used to power the first automobile ride in the U.S. (The second in the world).

1790     b. 1706
Benjamin Franklin, signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S., and for whom the U.S. state of Franklin was named.

858     b. ????
Benedict III, Italian religious leader, 104th Pope (855-858).

485     b. 410
Proclus, Greek mathematician, discovered that with a given point only one line can be drawn which is parallel to another given line.

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