William Henry Harriso(Ninth U.S. President; died of pneumonia a month after inauguration)–
Martin Luther King Jr.(U.S. civil rights leader; was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee)–
Roger Ebert(film critic)–
Born
Linus Yale Jr.(inventor)–
Jules Léger(Canadian statesman)–
Muddy Waters(musician)–
Maya Angelou(poet)–
Craig T. Nelson(actor)–
Evelyn Hart(ballerina)–
Robert Downey Jr.(actor)–
James Roday(actor)–
Heath Ledger(actor)–
Events
John Tyler first US vice president to take over after a president died –
Susanna Madora Salter became the first woman to be elected mayor of an American community (Argonia, Kansas) –
First one-way radio telephone communication, New York to Delaware –
Ben Hur won 11 Academy Awards –
The Beatles occupied all the top 5 positions on the Billboard singles chart in the U.S. –
The world’s first totally artificial heart was implanted in a human by US surgeon Dr. Denton A. Cooley. The patient, Haskell Karp, lived only a few days, dying of pneumonia and kidney failure. –
Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith’s son accepted the nation’s highest award for valor for his late father, who exposed himself to enemy fire in Iraq and saved at least 100 of his fellow U.S. soldiers. It was the first medal of honor awarded in the Iraq War –
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck just south of the U.S. border near Mexicali –
Weather
Augusta, Georgia, and six Georgia counties, were hit by a tornado –
Nineteen degrees F in Boston, Massachusetts –
Fifteen degrees F in Concord, New Hampshire –
Thirteen states (including Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio), as well as Ontario, experienced 148 tornadoes, with numerous fatalities and injuries between April 3 and today –
