On This Day April 22

1994
First left-handing heavyweight boxing champ: Michael Moorer defeats Evander Holyfield for the title.

1992
Series of explosions in the Guadalajara, Mexico sewer system, flattening buildings and hurling cars into air, killing more than 200 people.

1986
First genetically altered virus to be released into the environment is approved by the Department of Agriculture. It was to fight a form of herpes affecting swine.

1976
First woman anchor of a network TV news program is hired, Barbara Walters for ABC's Evening News. She was given a 5-year contract at $1,000,000 a year.

1954
Sen. Joseph McCarthy begins televised hearings of alleged Communist activity.

1952
First televised atomic bomb explosion: The US explodes a bomb in Nevada, allowing the image to transmitted coast to coast.

1946
A Brazilian woman delivers 10 babies: Tying the record for the highest number of babies for a single pregnancy. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1915
First large scale chemical warfare: German forces release 168 tons of chlorine gas, killing 5,000.

1903
First light-heavyweight boxing championship: Jack Root beats Charles "Kid" McCoy by points.

1876
First National League baseball game: Boston Red Stockings beat Philadelphia Athletics 6-5. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1959
Catherine Mary Stewart, Canadian actress, Kayla Brady of Days of Our Lives.

1952
Marylin Chambers (Marilyn Ann Briggs), American porn star. Film: Behind the Green Door (1972). She was the teenage mother on the Ivory Snow soap box. She also did spots for Pepsi and Clairol and had a minor role in The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) and was a Junior Olympics diver and gymnast.

1950
Peter Frampton, British guitarist. Music: Frampton Comes Alive (1976), the all-time best-selling live pop album.

1937
Jack Nicholson, American actor. Film: Easy Rider (1969), The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Oscar), The Shining (1980, "Here's Johnny"), and Batman (1989, The Joker).

1935
Glen Campbell, American singer, five-time Grammy-winner. Music: Gentle on My Mind (1967), Wichita Lineman (1968), and Rhinestone Cowboy (1975). Film True Grit (1969).

1926
Charlotte Rae, American actress. TV: Diff'rent Stroke (Edna) and Facts of Life (Edna).

1923 d. 2006
Aaron Spelling, American TV and film producer. TV: Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, and Melrose Place,

1909 d. 1952
Ralph Byrd, American actor. Dick Tracy of the movies and TV series.

1906 d. 2005
Eddie Albert (Edward Albert Heimberger), American actor. TV: Green Acres (Oliver Wendell Douglas).

1904 d. 1967
J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist. "father of the atom bomb." He predicted the existence of rapidly rotating neutron stars (1938), black holes (1939), and directed the lab that perfected the atom bomb (1943-45).

1881 d. 1957
Neal Ball (Cornelius Ball), American baseball shortstop. He made the first major-league unassisted triple play (1909).

1870 d. 1924
Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov), Russian revolutionary, founder of the Soviet Union in (1917).

1724 d. 1804
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, founder of critical philosophy.

1994 b. 1913
Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th U.S. President (1969-74) and 36th U.S. Vice-President (1953-61).

1984 b. 1902
Ansel Adams, American photographer, famous for his black and white photographs of the California's Yosemite Valley.

1983 b. 1905
Earl "Fatha" Hines, American jazz pianist, "Father of Modern Jazz Piano." Music: My Monday Date, Caution Blues, Fifty-Seven Varieties, and Rosetta.

1933 b. 1863
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, English auto maker, co-founder of Rolls-Royce automobile company (1904).

1669 b. 1596
Richard Mather, co-edited the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in America in English.

536 b. ????
Saint Agapitus I, Italian religious leader, 57th Pope (535-536).

April 22

Events

Birthdays

Deaths