today.nukz.net: Almanac April 25

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" "Queen of Jazz" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist.

With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

Events

404 BC – Peloponnesian War: Lysander's Spartan Armies defeated the Athenians and the war ends.
1134 – The name Zagreb was mentioned for the first time in the Felician Charter relating to the establishment of the Zagreb Bishopric around 1094.
1607 – Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
1644 – The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming Dynasty China, commits suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
1707 – The Habsburg army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
1792 – La Marseillaise (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1804 – The western Georgian kingdom of Imereti accepts the suzerainty of the Russian Empire
1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.
1846 – Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War.
1847 – The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1849 – The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1861 – American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington, D.C.
1862 – American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Marks' Mills.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.

Anzac Beach – Australian and New Zealand forces invade Turkey

1915 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins—The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
1916 – Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1916 – Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove.
1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopt a resolution to determine the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
1938 – U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
1939 – DC Comics publishes its second major superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most popular comic book superheroes of all time.
1943 – The Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket is instituted.
1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
1945 – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 – The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini tries to escape. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
1945 – Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
1945 – The last German troops retreat from Finland's soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland.
1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1959 – The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1961 – Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
1965 – Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.
1966 – The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
1972 – Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.
1974 – Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal overthrows the Estado Novo regime and eventually establishes a democratic government.
1975 – As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 – American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1983 – Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
1986 – Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II.
1988 – In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
2003 – The Human Genome Project comes to an end two and a half years earlier than expected.
2005 – The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.
2005 – Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.
2005 – 107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
2007 – Boris Yeltsin's funeral – the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.
2011 – At least 300 people killed in deadliest tornado outbreak in the Southern United States since the 1974 Super Outbreak.

Births

1214 – King Louis IX of France (d. 1270)
1228 – King Conrad IV of Germany (d. 1254)
1284 – King Edward II of England (d. 1327)
1287 – Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, de facto ruler of England (d. 1330)
1502 – Georg Major, German Protestant theologian (d. 1574)
1599 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1658)
1608 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, French politician (d. 1660)
1621 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman, and dramatist (d. 1679)
1666 – Johann Heinrich Buttstett, German Baroque organist and composer (d. 1727)
1694 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (d. 1753)
1710 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer (d. 1776)
1723 – Giovanni Marco Rutini, Italian composer (d. 1797)
1725 – Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1786)
1767 – Nicolas Oudinot, French marshal (d. 1847)
1770 – Georg Sverdrup, Norwegian philologist (d. 1850)
1775 – Charlotte of Spain, Spanish Infanta and queen of Portugal (d. 1830)
1776 – Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (d. 1857)
1843 – Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse (d. 1878)
1849 – Felix Klein, German mathematician (d. 1925)
1850 – Luise Adolpha Le Beau, German composer (d. 1927)
1851 – Leopoldo Alas y Ureña, a.k.a. "Clarín", Spanish novelist (d. 1901)
1862 – Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, British politician (d. 1933)
1868 – John Bevins Moisant, American aviator (d. 1910)
1873 – Walter de la Mare, English poet (d. 1956)
1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1937)
1876 – Jacob Nicol, Canadian newspaper publisher and politician (d. 1958)
1897 – Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (d. 1965)
1898 – Fred Haney, baseball player (d. 1977)
1900 – Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
1902 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist (d. 1964)
1903 – Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)
1905 – George Nepia, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1986)
1906 – William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1997)
1908 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)
1909 – William Pereira, American architect (d. 1985)
1913 – Nikolaos Roussen, Greek naval officer in World War II (d. 1944)
1913 – Earl Bostic, American musician (d. 1965)
1914 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., American writer (d. 1948)
1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (d. 1996)
1918 – Gerard Henri de Vaucouleurs, French astronomer (d. 1995)
1918 – Astrid Varnay, Swedish-born soprano (d. 2006)
1920 – Jean Carmet, French actor (d. 1994)
1921 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter (d. 2006)
1923 – Melissa Hayden, American ballerina (d. 2006)
1923 – Albert King, American musician (d. 1992)
1924 – Franco Mannino, Italian composer (d. 2005)
1925 – Sammy Drechsel, German journalist, film director, and cabaret performer (d. 1986)
1925 – Kay E. Kuter, American actor (d. 2003)
1925 – Louis O'Neil, Canadian professor and politician
1926 – Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner, Austrian politician (d. 2008)
1927 – Albert Uderzo, French cartoonist
1927 – Corín Tellado, Spanish romance novelist (d. 2009)
1928 – Vassar Clements, American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler (d. 2005)
1929 – Yvette Williams, first woman New Zealander to go to Olympics
1930 – Paul Mazursky, American film director and writer
1931 – Felix Berezin, Russian mathematician (d. 1980)
1932 – Meadowlark Lemon, American basketball player
1932 – William Roache, British television actor (Coronation Street)
1933 – Jerry Leiber, American composer
1933 – Joyce Ricketts, American baseball player [AAGPBL] (d. 1992)
1934 – Peter McParland, Northern Irish footballer
1935 – April Ashley, English model
1938 – Ton Schulten, Dutch artist
1939 – Ted Kooser, American poet and US Poet Laureate
1940 – Jochen Borchert, German politician
1940 – Al Pacino, American actor
1941 – Bertrand Tavernier, French director, screenwriter and actor
1941 – Princess Muna al-Hussein, of Jordan
1942 – Jon Kyl, American politician, junior senator of Arizona
1942 – Katsuji Adachi, Japanese professional wrestler
1944 – Len Goodman, English dancer
1945 – Stu Cook, American rock bassist (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
1945 – Richard C. Hoagland, American conspiracy theorist
1945 – Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
1946 – Talia Shire, American actress
1946 – Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian politician
1947 – Johan Cruijff, Dutch footballer
1947 – Jeffrey DeMunn, American actor
1948 – Yu Shyi-kun, former Premier of Taiwan
1949 – Michael Brown, American musician and songwriter (The Left Banke)
1949 – James Fenton, English poet
1949 – Vicente Pernía, Argentine footballer
1949 – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French economist, lawyer, and politician
1950 – Steve Ferrone, English drummer
1950 – Peter Jurasik, American actor
1951 – Ian McCartney, British Member of Parliament
1952 – Ketil Bjørnstad, Norwegian pianist
1952 – Vladislav Tretiak, Soviet ice hockey player
1953 – Ron Clements, American animation director
1955 – Américo Gallego, Argentine footballer
1955 – Parviz Parastui, Iranian actor
1955 – Christopher Tyng, American composer
1956 – Dominique Blanc, French actress
1956 – Jaroslava Schallerová, Czech actress
1958 – Fish, Scottish singer and lyricist (ex-Marillion)
1959 – Dominique Blanc, French actress
1959 – Tony Phillips, American baseball player
1960 – Bruce Redman, Australian film producer
1961 – Dinesh D'Souza, American author
1963 – Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, French actress
1963 – David Moyes, Scottish footballer
1963 – Bernd Müller, German footballer
1964 – Hank Azaria, American actor and voice actor
1964 – Andy Bell, English singer and songwriter (Erasure)
1965 – Eric Avery, American musician (Jane's Addiction, Deconstruction, Polar Bear)
1965 – Mark Bryant, American basketball player
1965 – Simon Fowler, English musician (Ocean Colour Scene)
1966 – James Stacy Barbour, American actor and singer
1966 – Diego Domínguez, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
1966 – Erik Pappas, Greek-American baseball player
1969 – Joe Buck, American sports broadcaster
1969 – Gina Torres, American actress
1969 – Darren Woodson, American football player
1969 – Renée Zellweger, American actress
1970 – Jason Lee, American actor
1970 – Jason Wiles, American actor
1970 – Tomoko Kawakami, Japanese voice actress (d. 2011)
1971 – Sara Baras, Spanish flamenco dancer
1973 – Fredrik Larzon, Swedish drummer (Millencolin)
1974 – Dean Phoenix American gay pornographic actor
1974 – Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou
1975 – Emily Bergl, British-American actress
1975 – Jacque Jones, American baseball player
1976 – Tim Duncan, American basketball player
1976 – Gilberto, Brazilian footballer
1976 – Rainer Schüttler, German tennis player
1976 – Kim Jong Kook, South Korean singer
1977 – Constantinos Christoforou, Cypriot singer
1977 – Ilias Kotsios, Greek footballer
1977 – Marguerite Moreau, American actress
1977 – Paavo Siljamäki, Finnish musician
1977 – Matthew West, American Christian singer
1978 – Letícia Birkheuer, Brazilian model
1978 – Matt Walker, British swimmer
1980 – Daniel MacPherson, Australian actor
1980 – Bruce Martin, New Zealand cricketer
1980 – Kazuhito Tadano, Japanese baseball player
1980 – Alejandro Valverde, Spanish cyclist
1981 – Dwone Hicks, American football player
1981 – Felipe Massa, Brazilian Formula One driver
1981 – John McFall, British sprinter
1981 – Anja Pärson, Swedish skier
1982 – Brian Barton, American baseball player
1982 – Monty Panesar, English cricketer
1982 – Marco Russo, Italian footballer
1983 – DeAngelo Williams, American football player
1983 – J.P. Howell, American baseball player
1983 – Joanne Peh, Singaporean actress
1984 – Robert Andino, American baseball player
1984 – Melonie Diaz, American actress
1984 – Andre' Woodson, American football player
1985 – Giedo van der Garde, Dutch racing driver
1985 – Jadyn Maria, Puerto Rican singer & songwriter
1986 – Alexei Emelin, Russian ice hockey player
1987 – Johann Smith, American soccer player
1987 – Jay Park, b-boy & musician, part of Art of Movement
1988 – James Sheppard, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Marie-Michèle Gagnon, Canadian alpine ski racer
1989 – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, 11th Panchen Lama
1990 – Taylor Walker, Australian Rules football player
1996 – Allisyn Ashley Arm, American child actress

Deaths

68 – Saint Mark, the first Pope of Alexandria and the founder of Christianity in Africa
1077 – Géza I of Hungary (b. 1040)
1265 – Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, English crusader
1295 – King Sancho IV of Castile
1472 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian artist, poet, and philosopher (b. 1404)
1516 – John Yonge, English diplomat (b. 1467)
1566 – Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II of France (b. 1499)
1566 – Louise Labé, French poet
1595 – Torquato Tasso, Italian poet (b. 1544)
1605 – Naresuan, King of Siam (b. 1555)
1644 – Chongzhen Emperor, Emperor of China (b. 1611)
1660 – Henry Hammond, English churchman (b. 1605)
1690 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish artist (b. 1610)
1740 – Shrimant Baji Rao Vishwanath Bhat, also known as Baji Rao I, a general and Peshwa (b. 1699)
1744 – Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer (b. 1701)
1770 – Jean-Antoine Nollet, French abbot and physicist (b. 1700)
1800 – William Cowper, English poet (b. 1731)
1840 – Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician (b. 1781)
1875 – Trinley Gyatso, 12th Dalai Lama (b. 1857)
1878 – Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)
1891 – Nathaniel Woodard, English educationalist (b. 1811)
1892 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (b. 1840)
1906 – John Knowles Paine, American composer (b. 1839)
1911 – Emilio Salgari, Italian novelist (b. 1862)
1915 – Frederick William Seward, United States Assistant Secretary of State (b. 1830)
1919 – Augustus D. Juilliard, music patron (b. 1836)
1923 – Louis-Olivier Taillon, Canadian politician (b. 1840)
1928 – Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1878)
1937 – Michal Drzymala, Polish rebel (b. 1857)
1943 – Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Russian theatre director (b. 1858)
1944 – George Herriman, American comic author (Krazy Kat) (b. 1880)
1944 – Tony Mullane, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1859)
1968 – Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
1972 – George Sanders, British actor (b. 1906)
1973 – Olga Grey, Hungarian-born American silent actress (b. 1896)
1975 – Mike Brant, Israeli singer (b. 1947)
1976 – Carol Reed, English film producer and director (b. 1906)
1976 – Markus Reiner, Israeli scientist (b. 1886)
1978 – Lee Kim Lai, Singaporean police officer (b. 1960)
1980 – Katia Mann, wife of German writer Thomas Mann (b. 1883)
1982 – John Cody, American cardinal (b. 1907)
1983 – William S. Bowdern, American Jesuit Roman Catholic priest (b. 1897)
1988 – Valerie Solanas, American radical feminist (b. 1936)
1990 – Dexter Gordon, American saxophonist (b. 1923)
1992 – Yutaka Ozaki, Japanese singer-songwriter (b. 1965)
1995 – Andria Balanchivadze, Georgian composer (b. 1906)
1995 – Art Fleming, American game show host (b. 1925)
1995 – Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (b. 1911)
1996 – Saul Bass, American graphics designer (b. 1920)
1998 – Wright Morris, American writer (b. 1910)
1998 – Christian Mortensen, Danish-American supercentenarian (b. 1882)
1999 – Roger Troutman, American musician (b. 1951)
1999 – Larry Troutman, American musician (b. 1944)
1999 – Lord Killanin, Irish International Olympic Committee president (b. 1914)
2000 – David Merrick, American theatrical producer (b. 1911)
2000 – Lucien le Cam, French mathematician (b. 1924)
2001 – Michele Alboreto, Italian race car driver (b. 1956)
2002 – Indra Devi, yoga teacher (b. 1899)
2002 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper (TLC) (b. 1971)
2002 – Athanasios Papoulis, Greek-American engineer and applied mathematician (b. 1921)
2003 – Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete (b. 1966)
2004 – Thom Gunn, English poet (b. 1929)
2005 – Hasil Adkins, Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician (b. 1937)
2005 – Swami Ranganathananda, Indian monk (b. 1908)
2006 – Jane Jacobs, American-born Canadian urbanist (b. 1916)
2007 – Alan Ball, British footballer (b. 1945)
2007 – Arthur Milton, English footballer and cricketer (b. 1928)
2007 – Bobby "Boris" Pickett, American singer and songwriter (b. 1938)
2008 – Humphrey Lyttelton, English jazz musician and broadcaster (b. 1921)
2009 – Beatrice Arthur, American comedienne, actress, and singer (b. 1922)
2010 – Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer, actress, and comedienne (b. 1935)