Born on this Day 1st April
1578 William Harvey
1647 John Wilmot
1873 Sergei Rachmaninov
1874 Edgar Wallace
1893 Cicely Courtneidge
1926 John Scott Martin
1931 George Baker
1932 Debbie Reynolds
1938 Ali MacGraw
1939 Rudolph Isley
1947 Robin Scott
1948 Ronnie Lane
1957 David Gower
1960 Michael Praed
1961 Susan Boyle
1962 Philip Schofield
1966 Chris Evans
1969 Dean Windass
1973 Kris Marshall
1981 Hannah Spearritt

Died on this Day
1984 Marvin Gaye
1984 Jack Howarth

Music

1957 The Everley Brother’s single ‘Bye Bye Love’ was released in the US.

1957 Teenage sensations Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers opened their UK tour at the London Palladium, with the 14 year old singer, the youngest to have ever topped te bill there.

1971 The Sea and Sun festival took place in Puerto Rico, including The Allman Brothers Band, Emaerson Lake & Palmer, Black Sabbath and the J Geils Band.

Sport

1985 The Government announced that it plannedt o ban alcohol from football grounds in England & Wales.

1997 It was reported that golf clubs were missing out on millions of pounds of National lottery money because they didn’t have enough female members and were still sexist establishments

People & Showbiz

1957 As an April Fool’s joke, Panorama showed footage of ‘Spaghetti Bushes’ being harvested.

1981 Robert De Niro won Best Actor Oscar forhis performance in ‘Raging Bull’ and Sissey Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for the film ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’.

General Events

1293 Robert Winchelsey leaves England for Rome, to be consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury.

1318 Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English.

1875 The Times published the first British weather chart.

1908 The Territorial Army consisting of volunteer soldiers, was formed in Britain.

1918 The Royal Air Force was formed when the Royal Flying Corps amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service.

1973 Value Added Tax came into operation in the UK.

1989 Free eye tests in the UK ended.

1989 Police reported Richard Branson to the Civil Aviation Authority after he flew a silver balloon with flashing lights across London trying to fool people into thinking they had seen a UFO.

1990 The longest riot in British history began at Manchester’s Strangeway’s Prison, lasting for a further 24 days.

1997 Comet Hale-Bopp is seen passing over perihelion.

2004 Google introduces its Gmail product to the public. The launch is met with scepticism on account of the launch date.