Back in Time – This Day in History – April 22

1957: Elvis Presley

By Mick Ferris, Press Association, AP, UPI, calendar.songfacts.com, classicbands.com and thisdayinmusic.com

1370: Building begins on the Bastille in Paris.

1500: Pedro Alvares Cabral is the first European to discover Brazil and claims it for Portugal.

1521: French King Francois I declares war on Spain.

1616: Death of Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, author of Don Quixote, from cirrhosis at 68.

1659: Lord Protector Richard Cromwell disbands parliament.

1671: Charles II sits in on parliament.

1692: Edward Bishop is jailed for proposing flogging as a cure for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

1769: Madame du Barry becomes King Louis XV’s “official” mistress.

1809: Napoleon beats Austria Archduke Karl at the Battle of Eckmuhl.

1864: Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.

1870: Birth of Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov).

1876: Tchaikovsky completes his ballet “Swan Lake”.

1889: About 20,000 homesteaders massed along the border of the Oklahoma Territory, awaiting the signal to start the Oklahoma land rush.

1898: With the United States and Spain on the verge of war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. Congress authorized creation of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the “Rough Riders.”

1908: Death of prime minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman aged 71.

1914: U.S. forces took control of the Mexican port city of Veracruz during the fighting of the Mexican Revolution.

1915: The first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare took place as German forces unleashed chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died.

1916: Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers Eóin MacNeill issues the countermanding order in Dublin to try to stop what would become the Easter Rising.

1930: British troops battle pro-independence revolutionaries in the Jalalabad hills near Chittagong, Bengal province, British India.

1931: Egypt and Iraq sign a peace treaty.

1934: The US Division of Investigation (later the FBI) under Melvin Purvis, botch an operation to capture the John Dillinger gang at Little Bohemia Lodge, Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin.

1944: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at Salzburg.

1945: The concentration camp at Sachsenhausen is liberated. On the same day, upon being informed that a planned counter-attack in Berlin never happened, Hitler flies into a rage, denounces the German Army and concedes World War II is lost. Meanwhile, SS chief Heinrich Himmler secretly meets with Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, asking him to act as an intermediary for a surrender offer to the Western Allies. The Allies do not take the offer seriously.

1952: An atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 Superfortress.

1954: The Army-McCarthy hearings began in which Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., accused the Army go going soft on communism, while the Army said it was pressured to give a speedy commission to a McCarthy aide.

1957: Elvis Presley had his custom built ‘Music Gates’ installed at Gracelands. The gates were designed by Abe Saucer and custom built by John Dillars Jr, of Memphis Doors inc. Elvis Presley purchased Graceland on March 25, 1957. (From Dєภเรє Cคђ๏๏ภ (@denisecahoon4))

1959: British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn arrives in New York after spending 24 hours in a Panamanian prison when her husband, Dr Roberto Arias, a former Panamanian ambassador in London, is suspected of planning a coup against the government of President Ernesto de la Guarda.

1959: The Alan Freed "Rock and Roll movie" Go, Johnny, Go premieres in New York, featuring Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and The Flamingos.

1965: The Beatles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Ticket To Ride.' Taken from the film Help! it was the group's seventh UK No.1.

1966: 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs (who were originally called The Troglodytes) was released in the U.S. on both the Atco and Fontana labels. The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, 'Wild Thing' became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.

1967: Martial Law goes into effect in Greece.

1969: The first human eye transplant is performed. On the same day, Joe Frazier KOs Dave Zyglewick in Round 1 for heavyweight boxing title and Bernadette Devlin, the youngest woman ever to be elected to Westminster, makes a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons concerning the situation in Northern Ireland .

1970: Millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.”

1971: Haiti’s ruler, Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, dies after 14 years in power.

1972: Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke walked and rode on the surface of the moon for 7 hours, 23 minutes. Young, whose career with NASA began in 1962, would spend the next four decades as an astronaut, retiring in 2004 at the age of 74.

1977: Shimon Peres becomes prime minister of Israel.

1978: Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta win the Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing A-Ba-Ni-Bi in Paris.

1980: Thirteen leading officials of the ousted government in Liberia are publicly executed on the orders of the new military regime.

1981: More than $3.3 million is stolen from the First National Bank of Arizona in Tucson in the then largest US bank robbery in history.

1983: Stern magazine in Germany announces the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries written by Adolf Hitler. (They turn out to be a hoax).

1984: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Lionel Richie - Hello

2. Phil Collins - Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)

3. Queen - I Want To Break Free

4. The Thompson Twins - You Take Me Up

5. Duran Duran - The Reflex

6. Shakin' Stevens - A Love Worth Waiting For

7. Kool And The Gang - When You Say You Love Somebody (In The Heart)

8. Captain Sensible - Glad It's All Over/Damned On 45

9. Depeche Mode - People Are People

10. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Locomotion

11. Blancmange - Don't Tell Me

12. Rufus And Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody

13. The Flying Pickets - When You're Young And In Love

14. Scritti Politti - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)

15. The Bluebells - I'm Falling

16. The Special AKA - Nelson Mandela

17. The SOS Band - Just Be Good To Me

18. Nik Kershaw - Dancing Girls

19. The Cure - The Caterpillar

20. The Pointer Sisters - Automatic

***

1985: Jose Sarney was sworn in as Brazil's first civilian president in 21 years.

1989: US TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Madonna - Like A Prayer

2. Tone-Loc - Loc-ed After Dark

3. Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth

4. Bobby Brown - Don't Be Cruel

5. Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & The Cooked

6. Guns N' Roses - G N' R Lies

7. Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl

8. New Kids On The Block - Hangin' Tough

9. Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl

10. Traveling Wilburys - Traveling Wilburys

11. Living Colour - Vivid

12. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

13. Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True

14. Soundtrack - Beaches

15. The Bangles - Everything

16. Bon Jovi - New Jersey

17. Mike + The Mechanics - Living Years

18. Def Leppard - Hysteria

19. Skid Row - Skid Row

20. R.E.M. - Green

***

1990: Hezbollah release US hostage Robert Polhill from Lebanon after 39 months.

1992: More than 200 people died when a gas leak caused sewers in Guadalajara, Mexico, to explode.

1993: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C. to honor victims of Nazi extermination.

1994: Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.

1994: Michael Moorer beats Evander Holyfield in 12 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title. 

1995: George Foreman beats Axel Schulz in 12 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas.

1997: A 126-day standoff at the Japanese Embassy in Lima ended after Peruvian commandos stormed the building and freed 72 hostages held by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. All 14 rebels were killed.

2000: US federal agents have seized six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez in an early morning raid on the home of his relatives in Miami.

2003: Songwriter Felice Bryant died of cancer. Wrote many hits with her husband Boudleaux including; The Everly Brothers, 'Bye Bye Love', 'All I Have To Do Is Dream', 'Wake Up Little Susie' and 'Raining In My Heart' a hit for Buddy Holly. Other acts to record their song include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Simon And Garfunkel, Sarah Vaughan, Grateful Dead, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, Count Basie, Dean Martin, Ruth Brown, Cher, R.E.M. and Ray Charles.

2004: Former NFL star Pat Tillman, who turned down a lucrative contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army Rangers, was killed in Afghanistan. The U.S. military said later he was a victim of friendly fire; he was 27.

2005: Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington, D.C. to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui is serving a life prison sentence.)

2008: It was revealed that 60s singer Tommy Steele took Elvis Presley on a secret tour of London in 1958 after Presley struck up a friendship with Steele. When the rock legend flew into London for a day, Steele apparently took him round the city, showing him famous landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament. For more than 50 years, Presley fans had believed the only time Elvis ever set foot in the UK was during a stop-over at Prestwick Airport in Scotland in March 1960.

2009: British-born movie director Ken Annakin (”Swiss Family Robinson”) died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 94. Oscar-winning British cinematographer Jack Cardiff (”Black Narcissus”) died in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, at age 94.

2012: A 30 year old woman collapses and dies during the London Marathon.

2013: Singer Richie Havens, who opened the Woodstock Festival, dies of a heart attack at 72.

2016: World leaders from 175 countries gathered in New York on Earth Day to sign the Paris Agreement, the first international accord that outlines steps to combat climate change and lower carbon levels by 2100.

2017: Romanian coach Ilie Nastase is thrown off the tennis court for insulting British female players during the Federation Cup play-off in Constanta.

2018: Liverpool’s Mo Salah is named PFA Player of the Year.

2019: Former Celtic and Scotland captain Billy McNeill dies aged 79.

2020: Sudan bans female genital mutation and makes it a criminal offence.

BIRTHDAYS: 

Jack (John) Nicholson, actor/screenwriter, 84; 

John Waters, director/screenwriter, 75; 

Peter Frampton, guitarist/singer-songwriter, 71; 

Paul Carrack, singer-songwriter, 70; 

Donald Tusk, former Polish politician and president of the European Commission, 64; 

Lloyd Honeyghan, former boxer, 61; 

Sean Lock, comedian, 58; 

Jeffrey Dean Morgam, actor, 55; 

Sheryl Lee, actress, 54; 

Dion Dublin, football pundit, 52; 

Craig Logan, bassist (Bros)/record producer, 52; 

Shavo Odadjian, bassist, (System Of A Down) 47; 

Darren Moore, football manager, 47; 

Kaka (Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite) footballer, 39; 

Amelle Berrabah, singer (The Sugarbabes) 37; 

Micghelle Ryan, actress, 37; 

Amber Heard, actress, 35; 

David Luiz (Marinho), footballer, 34; 

John Obi Mikel, footballer, 34; 

Machine Gin Kelly (Colson Baker) rapper/actor, 31.