1912 - “Up in the crows nest, Frederick Fleet was staring into the darkness. It was around 11:30 p.m. on a very odd calm moonless night when he noticed a black object immediately in their path, he knew it was ice!” The Royal Mail Steamship Titanic of the White Star Line struck an iceberg at approximately 11:40 p.m. The great ship, on its maiden voyage, sank just under three hours later. 1,517 passengers were lost at sea. (See TWtD, April 15.) 

1912 - Frederick Rodman Law was a stunt man and became the first man to intentionally jump from the Brooklyn Bridge in New York without intending to take his own life. He was OK after the leap. 

Louis Henri Sullivan, Architekt (USA) Chicago/Ill), gestorben
 1924 - Shorty Rogers (Milton Rajonsky)
musician: trumpet, bandleader, songwriter: Keen and Peachy, Martians Go Home, Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud; composer, arranger: film: That Certain Girl; died Nov 7, 1994, geboren

 1935 - Marty (Richard Martin) Keough
baseball: Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, geboren

 1935 - Loretta Lynn
country singer: Coal Miner’s Daughter, I’m a Honky-Tonk Girl, One’s on the Way, The Pill; 1st woman to earn the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award; named ACM Artist of the Decade [1979], geboren

 1935 - Bobby Nichols
golfer: PGA Champion [1964], geboren

1958 - Laurie London reached the top spot on the music charts with He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, knocking Perry Como’s Catch a Falling Star down a peg or two. 

It was the 11th nomination for Katharine Hepburn, an academy record! And, the Oscar goes to ... 

For the first time in the history of the Academy Awards, a tie resulted in two stars sharing the Best Actress Oscar. Barbra Streisand for her performance in Funny Girl had reached the top, only to share the honor with the ‘First Lady of the American Screen’, Katharine Hepburn for her starring role in The Lion in Winter. 

Hepburn also broke the record that night as the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner awarded the previous year and Morning Glory [1932-33] were the other films. She was also only the third person to win two years in a row. Hepburn added a twelfth nomination and a fourth Oscar in 1981 for her performance in On Golden Pond with co-star Henry Fonda. She earned three of these awards after her sixtieth birthday. 

There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “He who laughs last, laughs best.” Not all of Katharine Hepburn’s peers were admirers. After completing her first film (A Bill of Divorcement) in 1932, she told her lecherous, co-star John Barrymore that she would never act with him again. His reply, “Really, my dear? I didn’t know you ever had.” Hepburn, who had made her stage debut on Broadway in 1928, was reviewed by columnist Dorothy Parker for a 1933 performance as “running the gamut of emotions from A to B.” And, in 1938 she was labeled “box-office poison.” Obviously Hepburn has had the last laugh. 

Her most memorable performances include Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story opposite Cary Grant; Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike with co-star and significant other, Spencer Tracy; The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Suddenly Last Summer opposite Montgomery Clift. Long Day’s Journey into Night earned her a 1962 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award. 

From Broadway to Hollywood to television ... 1975 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in her ABC Theatre performance, opposite Laurence Olivier, in Love Among the Ruins ... to literature ... two best-sellers, The Making of "The African Queen" or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind and her autobiography, Me, Katharine Hepburn remains a star, the idol of independent, talented young women in their search for fame and fortune. 

1980 - Kramer vs. Norma, Apocalypse vs. Jazz. That’s how the honors were divided at the 52nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Johnny Carson was hosting quite a contest! But the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role went to Melvyn Douglas for his performance in Being There. Was it going to be an upset? Being There was a long shot to win Best Picture and this was its first award all evening. All That Jazz had already won four of the golden statuettes and Apocalypse Now, two. Next, it was Meryl Streep who picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Dustin Hoffman, Best Actor, for their roles in Kramer vs. Kramer, making it a trio of Oscars for Kramer, so far. Then Norma Rae picked up two awards: Best Music/Song, It Goes like It Goes, David Shire (music), Norman Gimbel (lyrics) and Best Actress, Sally Field. But it was in the cards for Kramer vs. Kramer as it won for Best Director (Robert Benton), and then, Best Picture (Stanley R. Jaffe, producer). Going into the evening, All That Jazz and Kramer vs. Kramer each had nine Oscar nominations, Apocalypse Now had eight, and Norma Rae, four. 
Hochzeit von Stephen K. Hayes und 'Rumiko Urata' 

1985 - The once-notorious Lexington Hotel in Chicago received a visitor, in the person of Geraldo Rivera, along with a camera crew. A record audience watched as the long-sealed vault of racketeer, Al Capone was opened during a much-hyped TV special. Guess what? All that Geraldo found were broken bottles and no trace that Capone and his gang had ever stashed anything there. 

Easter Sunday (GR)

Landesparteitag der Hamburger SPD