Updated April 9, 2012, 2:28 pm
On April 10, 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced he had purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.
Go to article »On April 10, 1847, Joseph Pulitzer, influential 19th-century American newspaper editor and publisher, was born. Following his death on Oct. 29, 1911, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1866 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated. 1925 “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published. 1932 Adolf Hitler came in second in voting for German president to the incumbent, Paul von Hindenburg. 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced he had purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals, paving the way for Robinson to become the first black to play in the major leagues. 1981 Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won election to the British Parliament. 1992 Financier Charles Keating Jr. was sentenced in Los Angeles to nine years in prison for swindling investors when his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed. (The convictions were later overturned). 1998 Negotiators in Northern Ireland reached a landmark settlement that called for Protestants and Catholics to share power. 2001 The Netherlands legalized mercy killings and assisted suicide for patients with unbearable, terminal illness. 2007 A woman wearing an explosives vest strapped underneath her black robe blew herself up in the midst of 200 police recruits in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, killing 16. 2010 Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military and church officials. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Max von Sydow turns 83 years old today.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Actress-singer Mandy Moore turns 28 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
1929 Liz Sheridan, Actress (“Seinfeld”), turns 83 1932 Omar Sharif, Actor (“Doctor Zhivago,” “Lawrence of Arabia”), turns 80 1936 John Madden, Sportscaster, turns 76 1947 Bunny Wailer, Reggae musician, turns 65 1948 Mel Blount, Football Hall of Famer, turns 64 1951 Steven Seagal, Actor, turns 61 1954 Peter MacNicol, Actor (“24,” “Ally McBeal”), turns 58 1958 Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, R&B singer, producer, turns 54 1959 Brian Setzer, Rock musician (Stray Cats), turns 53 1960 Afrika Bambaataa, Rapper, turns 52 1960 Katrina Leskanich, Rock singer (Katrina and the Waves), turns 52 1968 Orlando Jones, Actor, comedian, turns 44 1981 Laura Bell Bundy, Actress, singer, turns 31 1982 Chyler Leigh, Actress (“Grey’s Anatomy”), turns 30 1988 Haley Joel Osment, Actor (“The Sixth Sense”), turns 24
Historic Birthdays
Joseph Pulitzer 4/10/1847 – 10/29/1911 American editor and journalist.Go to obituary »
62 Hugo Grotius 4/10/1583 – 8/28/1645
Dutch jurist and scholar; wrote “On the Law of War and Peace”79 Benjamin H. Day 4/10/1810 – 12/21/1889
American printer and journalist; founded The New York Sun78 Lewis Wallace 4/10/1827 – 2/15/1905
American soldier, lawyer and author; wrote “Ben-Hur”83 William Booth 4/10/1829 – 8/20/1912
English minister and founder of the Salvation Army87 Frank Baldwin 4/10/1838 – 4/8/1925
American inventor; known for the Monroe calculator78 George Arliss 4/10/1868 – 2/5/1946
English actor54 Vladimir Lenin 4/10/1870 (OS) – 1/21/1924
Russian Communist leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917)85 Frances Perkins 4/10/1880 – 5/14/1965
American secretary of labor (1933-45)62 Robert Burns Woodward 4/10/1917 – 7/8/1979
American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1965)
