today.nukz.net: Almanac April 17

Wenceslao Moreno (April 17, 1896 – April 20, 1999), better known as Señor Wences, was a Spanish ventriloquist. His popularity grew with his frequent appearances on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s.

Wences was known for his speed, skill, and grace as a ventriloquist. His stable of characters included Johnny, a childlike face drawn on Wences' hand, which he would place atop an otherwise headless doll and with whom Wences conversed while switching his voices between Johnny's falsetto and his own voice at amazing speed. Wences would create Johnny's face on stage to open his act, placing his thumb next to, and in front of, his bent first finger; the first finger would be the upper lip, and the thumb the lower lip. He used lipstick to draw the lips onto the respective fingers and then drew eyes onto the upper part of the first finger, finishing the effect with a tiny long-haired wig on top of his hand. Flexing the thumb would move the "lips".

Events

69 – After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.
1080 – King of Denmark Harald III dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized.
1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) the start of the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury.
1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.
1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.
1555 – After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in America.
1797 – Citizens of Verona, Italy, begin an eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces, which will end unsuccessfully.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.
1897 – The Aurora, Texas UFO incident
1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150.
1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1942 – French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
1944 – Forces of the Communist-controlled Greek People's Liberation Army attack the smaller National and Social Liberation resistance group, which surrenders. Its leader Dimitrios Psarros is murdered.
1945 – Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German Nazi forces.
1946 – Syria obtains its Independence from the French occupation.
1949 – At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.
1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.
1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
1964 – Ford Mustang is introduced to the North American market.
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1969 – Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek is deposed.
1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1971 – The People's Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.
1975 – The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
1978 – Mir Akbar Khyber was assassinated, provoking a communist coup d'état in Afghanistan.
1982 – Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
1986 – The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.
2006 – Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

Births

1278 – Michael IX Palaeologus, co-ruling Eastern Roman Emperor (d. 1320)
1573 – Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (d. 1651)
1586 – John Ford, English dramatist
1598 – Giovanni Riccioli, Italian astronomer (d. 1671)
1620 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame (d. 1700)
1622 – Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet (d. 1695)
1683 – Johann David Heinichen, German Baroque composer and music theorist (d. 1729)
1710 – Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, British Freemason (d. 1767)
1734 – Taksin, King of Thailand (d. 1782)
1741 – Samuel Chase, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1811)
1750 – François de Neufchâteau, French statesman and intellectual figure (d. 1828)
1756 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian Freedom Fighter, Tamil Revolutionist (d. 1805)
1766 – Collin McKinney, one of five individuals who drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence and its oldest signatory (d. 1861)
1794 – Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist (d. 1868)
1798 – Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (d. 1840)
1814 – Josif Pancic, Serbian botanist (d. 1888)
1816 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English Methodist chapel builder (d. 1876)
1820 – Alexander Joy Cartwright, Inventor of the Modern Game of Baseball (d. 1892)
1833 – Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian composer (d. 1900)
1837 – J. P. Morgan, American financier (d. 1913)
1842 – Maurice Rouvier, French statesman (d. 1911)
1849 – William R. Day, American diplomat and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1923)
1852 – Cap Anson, American Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1922)
1863 – Augustus Edward Hough Love, English mathematician (d. 1940)
1865 – Ursula Julia Ledochowska, Polish-Austrian Catholic saint (d. 1939)
1866 – Ernest Starling, British physiologist (d. 1927)
1877 – Matsudaira Tsuneo, Japanese diplomat (d. 1949)
1878 – Emil Fuchs, German-born American attorney and baseball owner (d. 1961)
1882 – Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (d. 1951)
1884 – Leo Frank, American victim of lynching (d. 1915)
1885 – Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Danish author (d. 1962)
1890 – Art Acord, American actor and rodeo rider (d. 1931)
1891 – George Adamski, Polish-American author and ufologist (d. 1965)
1896 – Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (d. 1999)
1897 – Thornton Wilder, American dramatist (d. 1975)
1902 – Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican politician (d. 1974)
1903 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)
1903 – Nicolas Nabokov, Russian-born composer, writer, and cultural figure (d. 1978)
1903 – Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)
1905 – Louis Jean Heydt, American actor (d. 1960)
1905 – Arthur Lake, American actor (d. 1987)
1906 – Sidney R. Garfield, American physician (d. 1984)
1909 – Alain Poher, French politician (d. 1996)
1910 – Evangelos Averoff, Greek politician (d. 1990)
1910 – Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter (d. 1999)
1911 – Hervé Bazin, French writer (d. 1996)
1911 – Lester Rodney, American journalist (d. 2009)
1912 – Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-born actress and singer, naturalized citizen of the United States
1914 – George W. Davis, American art director (d. 1984)
1915 – Joe Foss, United States Marine and politician (d. 2003)
1915 – Martin Clemens, Scottish guerilla fighter (d. 2009)
1915 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan politician and the world's first female head of government (d. 2000)
1910 – Helenio Herrera, French footballer player and manager (d. 1997)
1917 – Bill Clements, American politician (d. 2011)
1918 – William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
1919 – Gilles Lamontagne, Canadian politician
1919 – Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer
1920 – Edmonde Charles-Roux, French journalist and writer
1923 – Lindsay Anderson, English film director (d. 1994)
1923 – Gianni Raimondi, Italian tenor (d. 2008)
1923 – Harry Reasoner, American journalist (d. 1991)
1923 – Solly Hemus, American baseball player
1925 – Erich Göstl, German War Hero (d. 1990)
1925 – René Moawad, Lebanese politician (d. 1989)
1926 – Gerry McNeil, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
1928 – Cynthia Ozick, American writer
1928 – Fabien Roy, Canadian politician
1929 – James Last, German band leader
1929 – Peggy McKercher, 11th Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan
1929 – Michael Forest, American actor
1930 – Chris Barber, British jazz band leader
1934 – Don Kirshner, American composer (d. 2011)
1937 – Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian-German automotive engineer and executive
1938 – Ben Barnes, American politician
1938 – Doug Lewis, Canadian politician
1938 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, co-founder of Discordianism
1939 – Robert Miller, American art dealer (d. 2011)
1940 – Billy Fury, British singer (d. 1983)
1940 – John McCririck, English television horse racing pundit
1940 – Anja Silja, German soprano
1942 – David Bradley, British actor
1942 – Kenas Aroi, Nauruan politician
1943 – Bobby Curtola, Canadian pop singer and teen idol
1943 – Richard Allen Epstein, American lawyer
1947 – Linda Martin, Irish singer
1947 – Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Japanese baseball player
1948 – Jan Hammer, Czech composer
1950 – L. Scott Caldwell, American actress
1950 – Bruce McNall, American former NHL team owner
1951 – Olivia Hussey, Argentine-born actress
1951 – Börje Salming, Swedish ice hockey player
1952 – Pierre Guite, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Željko Ražnatovic, Serbian warlord (d. 2000)
1954 – Riccardo Patrese, Italian race car driver
1954 – Rowdy Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler
1954 – Michael Sembello, American musician
1954 – Lester Square, Canadian musician (The Monochrome Set)
1955 – Todd Lickliter, American basketball coach
1955 – Pete Shelley, British musician (Buzzcocks)
1957 – Teri Austin, Canadian TV soap actress
1957 – Nick Hornby, English author
1957 – Susan Roman, Canadian voice actress
1959 – Sean Bean, English actor
1961 – Boomer Esiason, American football player and commentator
1961 – Frank J. Christensen, American labor leader
1963 – Joel Murray, American actor
1964 – Maynard James Keenan, American singer (Tool and A Perfect Circle)
1964 – Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player
1964 – Lela Rochon, American actress
1965 – William Mapother, American actor
1965 – Yoshiki Kuroda, Japanese urban planner
1966 – Vikram, Indian actor
1967 – Marquis Grissom, American baseball player
1967 – Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian-born Scottish actor
1967 – Kimberly Elise, American actress
1967 – Timothy Gibbs, American actor
1967 – Liz Phair, American musician/songwriter
1967 – Leslie Bega, American actress
1968 – Prince Maurits of the Netherlands
1970 – Redman, American rapper
1972 – Gary Bennett, American baseball player
1972 – Tony Boselli, American football player
1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress
1972 – Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
1972 – Jarkko Wiss, Finnish Footballer
1972 – Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player
1972 – Claire Sweeney, English actress
1972 – Yuichi Nishimura, Japan referee football player
1973 – Brett Maher, Australian basketballer
1973 – Theo Ratliff, American basketball player
1973 – Kaiho Ryoji, Japanese sumo wrestler
1974 – Victoria Beckham, English singer (Spice Girls)
1974 – Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish guitarist and singer (Opeth)
1975 – Gabriel Soto, Mexican actor
1975 – Travis Roy, American hockey player
1976 – Monet Mazur, American actress and musician
1976 – Alex Nesic, American actor
1976 – Ana Geislerová, Czech actress
1977 – Chad Hedrick, American speed skater
1977 – Phil Jamieson, Australian singer (Grinspoon)
1977 – Frederik Magle, Danish composer, organist and pianist
1977 – Sizzla, Jamaican dancehall artist
1978 – Lindsay Hartley, American actress
1978 – Loukas Louka, Greek-Cypriot footballer
1978 – Jason White, Scottish rugby player
1979 – Eric Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Siddharth Narayan, Indian actor
1979 – Sung Si Kyung, Korean singer
1980 – Curtis Woodhouse, English footballer/boxer
1980 – Lee Hyun-il, South Korean badminton player
1980 – Nicholas D'Agosto, American television and film actor
1980 – Fabián Andrés Vargas, Colombian football player
1981 – Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer
1981 – Ryan Raburn, American baseball player
1981 – Zhang Yaokun, Chinese football player
1982 – Lee Jun Ki, South Korean actor and model
1982 – Brad Boyes, Canadian hockey player
1983 – Stanislav Chistov, Russian hockey player
1983 – Roberto Jimenez, Peruvian football player
1983 – Andrea Marcato, Italian rugby player
1984 – Jed Lowrie, American baseball player
1984 – Pablo Sebastián Álvarez, Argentine footballer
1985 – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, French tennis player

1985 – Rooney Mara, American actress
1987 – Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, Canadian actress, DJ and singer
1989 – Paraskevi Papahristou, Greek triple jumper
1990 – Jonathan Brown, Welsh footballer
1995 – Paulie Litt, American actor
1996 – Dee Dee Davis, American actress

Deaths

326 – Alexander of Alexandria, Patriarch of Alexandria
485 – Proclus, Greek philosopher (b. 412)
617 – Donnán of Eigg, Celtic Christian martyr, patron saint of Eigg
1080 – King Harald III of Denmark (b. 1041)
1427 – John IV, Duke of Brabant (b. 1403)
1539 – George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)
1574 – Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (b. 1500)
1680 – Kateri Tekakwitha, first American Indian to receive beatification (b. 1656)
1695 – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican writer
1696 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, French writer (b. 1626)
1711 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678)
1713 – David Hollatz, Pomeranian dogmatician (b. 1648)
1742 – Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (b. 1664)
1761 – Thomas Bayes, English mathematician
1764 – Johann Mattheson, German composer (b. 1681)
1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, diplomat, and printer (b. 1706)
1799 – Richard Jupp, English architect (b. 1728)
1843 – Samuel Morey, American inventor (b. 1762)
1849 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman and priest (b. 1777)
1873 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (b. 1783)
1882 – George Jennings Sanitary engineer (b. 1810)
1892 – Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1822)
1902 – Francis of Assisi of Bourbon, King Consort of Spain (b. 1822)
1921 – Manwel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (b. 1860)
1923 – Laurence Ginnell, Irish republican and land agitator (b. 1852)
1930 – Alexander Golovin, Russian painter (b. 1863)
1933 – Konstantine Marjanishvili, Georgian theatre director (b. 1872)
1936 – Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, Dutch Prime Minister (b. 1873)
1937 – Yi Sang, Korean poet (b. 1910)
1941 – Al Bowlly, British dance band vocalist (b. 1899)
1942 – Jean Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
1944 – J.T. Hearne, English cricketer (b. 1867)
1944 – Dimitrios Psarros, Greek army officer and resistance fighter (b. 1893)
1954 – Lucretiu Patrascanu, Romanian communist activist (b. 1900)
1960 – Eddie Cochran, American musician (b. 1938)
1967 – Red Allen, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1908)
1975 – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher (b. 1888)
1976 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1895)
1977 – William Conway, Irish cardinal (b. 1913)
1983 – Felix Pappalardi, American musician and recording producer (b. 1939) (Mountain)
1984 – Claude Provost, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1933)
1985 – Takis Miliadis, Greek actor (b. 1922)
1985 – Evadne Price (aka Helen Zenna Smith), British writer (b. 1896)
1987 – Cecil Harmsworth King, owner of Mirror Group Newspapers (b. 1901)
1987 – Dick Shawn, Actor and Comedian (b. 1923)
1988 – Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (b. 1900)
1990 – Reverend Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights activist (b. 1936)
1993 – Turgut Ozal, 8th president of Turkey (b. 1927)
1994 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1913)
1995 – Frank E. Resnik, American business executive (b. 1928)
1996 – Piet Hein, Danish scientist and poet (b. 1905)
1997 – Allan Francovich, American documentarian (b. 1941)
1997 – Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (1983–1993) (b. 1918)
1998 – Linda McCartney, American designer and photographer (b. 1941)
2003 – Robert Atkins, American dietician (b. 1930)
2003 – H. B. Bailey, American racing driver (b. 1936)
2003 – John Paul Getty Jr., American-born philanthropist (b. 1932)
2003 – Earl King, American musician and songwriter (b. 1934)
2003 – Yiannis Latsis, Greek shipping tycoon (b. 1910)
2004 – Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (b. 1908)
2004 – Soundarya, Indian actress (b. 1971)
2006 – Jean Bernard, French physician and haematologist (b. 1907)
2006 – Scott Brazil, American television producer and director. (b. 1955)
2007 – Kitty Carlisle, American actress and television personality (b. 1910)
2007 – Gil Dobrica, Romanian singer (b. 1946)
2008 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (b. 1913)
2008 – Danny Federici, American organ player (E-Street Band) (b. 1950)
2011 – Eric Gross, Austrian-Australian composer (b. 1926)
2011 – Nikos Papazoglou, Greek singer and songwriter (b. 1948)
2011 – AJ Perez, Filipino teen actor (b. 1993)
2011 – Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (b. 1940)
2012 – Dimitris Mitropanos, Greek singer (b. 1948)
2012 – Nityananda Mohapatra, Indian politician, poet, and journalist (b. 1912)