Updated March 31, 2012, 2:28 pm
On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.
On April 1, 1884, Florence Blanchfield, an American nurse who was the first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the U.S. Army, was born. Following her death on May 12, 1971, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1789 The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City. 1853 Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first U.S. city to pay its firefighters a regular salary. 1873 Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Russia. 1918 Britain’s Royal Air Force was established. 1933 Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses. 1960 The first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral. 1970 President Richard Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and TV. 1984 Singer Marvin Gaye, 44, was shot to death by his father. 1987 In his first major speech on the epidemic, President Ronald Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, “We’ve declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1.” 1999 A New Jersey man was arrested and charged with originating the “Melissa” e-mail virus, which infected more than 1 million computers worldwide. 2001 Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour armed standoff with police at his Belgrade villa. 2003 American troops rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier. 2008 The Pentagon made public a legal memo dated March 14, 2003, that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects. 2009 Benjamin Netanyahu took office as Israel’s prime minister for a second time. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito turns 62 years old today.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff turns 64 years old today.
AP Photo/Charles Sykes
1928 Jane Powell, Actress, turns 84 1932 Debbie Reynolds, Actress, turns 80 1938 Ali MacGraw, Actress, turns 74 1939 Rudolph Isley, R&B singer (The Isley Brothers), turns 73 1939 Phil Niekro, Baseball Hall of Famer, turns 73 1947 David Eisenhower, Grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, turns 65 1952 Annette O’Toole, Actress, turns 60 1953 Barry Sonnenfeld, Director, turns 59 1971 Method Man, Rapper, turns 41 1973 Rachel Maddow, Broadcast journalist, turns 39 1982 Sam Huntington, Actor, turns 30
Historic Birthdays
Florence Blanchfield 4/1/1884 – 5/12/1971 American nurse and army officer.Go to obituary »
79 William Harvey 4/1/1578 – 6/3/1657
English physician; developed theory of blood circulation61 Jean-Etienne Portalis 4/1/1746 – 8/25/1807
French lawyer; helped draft Napoleonic Code83 Otto von Bismarck 4/1/1815 – 7/30/1898
German statesman; first chancellor of German Empire (1871-90)58 Jorge Isaacs 4/1/1837 – 4/17/1895
Colombian poet and novelist59 Edwin Austin Abbey 4/1/1852 – 8/1/1911
American-English painter and illustrator50 Edmond Rostand 4/1/1868 – 12/2/1918
French dramatist; wrote “Cyrano de Bergerac”69 Sergey Rachmaninoff 4/1/1873 – 3/28/1943
Russian composer and piano virtuoso56 Edgar Wallace 4/1/1875 – 2/10/1932
English novelist, playwright, and journalist47 Lon Chaney 4/1/1883 – 8/26/1930
American silent film actor60 Whittaker Chambers 4/1/1901 – 7/9/1961
American journalist; accuser in the Alger Hiss case
