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On This Day April 10

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Celebrity Birthdays

1921 – Professional baseball and basketball player-turned-actor Chuck Connors (“The Rifleman”)  (d. 1992)

1929 – Actor Max von Sydow (“The Seventh Seal,” “The Exorcist,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Pelle The Conqueror,” “Minority Report,” “Game of Thrones”) (d. 2020)

1932 – Golden Globe Award-winning actor Omar Sharif (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Funny Girl”)  (d. 2015)

1936 – Pro Football Hall of Famer, retired NFL coach and sportscaster John Madden

1952 – Actor, producer and martial artist Steven Seagal (“Above the Law,” “Under Siege,” “Executive Decision,” “The Patriot”)  

1959 – Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter and music producer Babyface, born Kenneth Edmonds

1984 – Singer-songwriter and actress Mandy Moore (“Candy,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Tangled,” “This Is Us”)

1988 – Actor Haley Joel Osment (“Forrest Gump,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Pay It Forward,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Entourage”)

History Highlights

1790 – President George Washington signs a bill establishing the U.S. Patent system as a means of protecting the rights of inventors for their creations.

1849 – New York mason Walter Hunt is granted U.S. Patent #6,281 for his safety pin invention, which he fashioned from a single piece of wire.

1866 – A major step toward protecting the welfare of animals is taken on this day when philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh establishes the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). 

1912 – The luxury liner Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on its fateful voyage to New York.

1953 – The first color 3-D movie opens in New York. It’s “House of Wax,” starring Vincent Price and directed by André De Toth. In addition to sparking the 3-D movie craze of the 1950s, this motion picture also launches Price’s long and successful career as a star of the horror genre.

1963 – All 129 crewmen die when the nuclear submarine USS Thresher sinks some 300 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while conducting drills.

1971 – The U.S. table tennis team begins a week-long visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the invitation of China’s communist government. The well-publicized trip is part of the PRC’s efforts to build closer diplomatic relations with the United States.

Musical Milestones

1954 – “Wanted,” by Perry Como, begins an eight-week run on top of the pop chart. 

1965 – Freddie and the Dreamers, known for their unique dance gyrations while performing, hold the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’m Telling You Now.”

1970 – Paul McCartney issues a press statement — more of a self-interview — announcing the breakup of The Beatles. McCartney wrote, “I have no future plans to record or appear with The Beatles again, or to write any music with John (Lennon).”

1971 – Motown sensation The Temptations have the No. 1 single with “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me).”

1976 – The biggest-selling live album in rock history hits the top of the U.S. album chart and remains there for 10 weeks. It’s “Frampton Comes Alive!” by British singer-songwriter Peter Frampton. An estimated 11 million copies have been sold worldwide.

1993 – One-hit-wonder Snow is in the middle of seven weeks atop the pop chart with “Informer.”

1999 – The female trio TLC kicks off four weeks as chart-toppers with “No Scrubs.”

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