1564, William Shakespeare is born. He dies April 23rd, 1616, on his 52nd birthday.
1616, William Shakespeare dies at age 52.
1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York City. The White House was built a decade later.
1900,The word “hillbilly” was first used in print in an article in the New York Journal. It was spelled “Hill-Billie” and used in a story of a “free and untrampled white citizen of Alabama who lived in the hills.”
1936, Roy Orbison is born. He dies in 1988.
1943, Actor Herve Villechaize (pronounced AIR-vay VILL-uh-shays) (Fantasy Island) is born. He dies in 1993.
1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his record 755 major-league home runs, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
1956, Elvis Pressley performs for the first time as a rock n’ roll artist in Las Vegas.
1960, Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark is born. He dies in 1991.
1963, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds got his first hit in the major leagues.
1965, More than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War.
1966, “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers peaks at Number Three on the pop chart.
1968, The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.
1968, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is born. He is put to death in 2001.
1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for the assassination of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty as unconstitutional.
1971, Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones is released.
1975, Badfinger singer-guitarist Pete Ham dies at age 27.
1983, Let’s Dance by David Bowie peaks at Number Four on the U.S. album chart and Number One in the U.K.
1984, the identification of the HIV virus that causes AIDS was announced.
1985, “New Coke” debuted, becoming one of the biggest corporate flops ever.
1988, a ban went into effect on smoking during domestic flights of two hours or less.
1988, “One Step Up” by Bruce Springsteen peaks at Number 13 on the pop chart.
1989, The pilot episode of Baywatch airs.
1991, Former New York Dolls singer-guitarist Johnny Thunders dies at age 38.
1994, “Streets Of Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen peaks at Number Nine on the pop chart.
1994, The Pink Floyd album The Division Bell enters the U.S. album chart at Number One, where it stays for four weeks.
1995, Sportscaster Howard Cosell dies at age 77.
1996, a Bronx civil-court jury ordered Bernhard Goetz to pay $43 million to Darrell Cabey, one of four young men he’d shot on a subway car in 1984 after Goetz said he was afraid the men were going to attack him.
1998, James Earl Ray, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s assassin, dies at age 70.
2001, Commander Scott Waddle, the former captain of the U.S.S. Greeneville submarine, was given a letter of reprimand and docked a month’s pay for the collision between his sub and a Japanese fishing boat off Oahu, Hawaii, that killed nine people on the boat.
2001, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck is released on bail after facing charges in a London court over an alleged air rage incident that occurred two days earlier in the first-class section of a flight from Seattle to London. He is eventually acquitted of all charges.