Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Born

  • Samuel Chase (lawyer)
  • John Pierpont Morgan (business tycoon)
  • Thornton Wilder (author)
  • William Holden (actor)
  • Olivia Hussey (actress)
  • Boomer Esiason (football player)
  • Joel Murray (actor)
  • Jennifer Garner (actress)

Died

  • Benjamin Franklin (U.S. statesman )
  • Linda McCartney (photographer, singer, activist, & wife of Beatle Paul McCartney)
  • Dr. Robert C. Atkins (cardiologist who introduced the Atkins Diet”“)
  • Doris Roberts (actress)
  • Barbara Bush (U.S. First Lady)

Events

  • Christopher Columbus’s trip financed by Spain
  • Lewis M. Norton patented a vat for forming pineapple-shape cheese
  • First Minot’s Ledge Light in Massachusetts swept away during storm
  • Song Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here, was copyrighted
  • Geraldine Mock completed solo flight around the world
  • Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth after having major difficulties
  • 6-lb. 10-oz. goldfish caught in Lake Hodges, California
  • Spacelab’s final mission, Neurolab, launched
  • Discovery of first Earth-size planet in Habitable Zone” publicized”

Weather

  • Eastern Massachusetts was blanketed with 12-18 inches of snow
  • Twenty-eight degrees F at St. Louis, Missouri
  • The Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota reached 20 feet above flood stage
  • Eastern U.S. heat wave: 80 degrees F, Portland, Maine; 97 degrees F, Newark, New Jersey
  • Del Rio, Texas, experienced a temperature of 101 degrees F

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