Born on this Day 2nd April
1725 Casanova
1805 Hans Christian Andersen – making today International Children’s Book Day
1834 Frederic Bartholdi
1914 Sir Alec Guiness
1939 Marvin Gaye
1937 Barry Hills
1940 Penelope Keith
1946 Sue Townsend
1949 Paul Gambaccini
1960 Linford Christie
1966 Teddy Sheringham
1971 Todd Woodbridge

Died on this Day
1872 Samuel Morse
1974 Georges Pompidou

Music
1954 Doris Day’s ‘Secret Love’ entered the UK singles chart, destined to hold the No.1 spot for 9 weeks.

1956 Johnny Cash recorded his first big hit ‘I Walk The Line’.

1966 Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass had 4 albums in the US Top 10.

1967 Steve Winwood left The Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic.

1967 The Beatles finished recording the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’ album.

1977 Frank Sinatra topped the British album chart with ‘Portrait of Sinatra’.

1987 There were a record 13 female artists in the UK Top 40 singles chart.

Sport
1927 The first radio commentary of the Oxford v. Cambridge Boat Race was by Oliver Nickalls and J.C.Squire.

1938 The Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race was televised for the first time.

1955 Duncan Edwards aged 18 and a half became the youngest footballer to play for England, in the home international against Scotland.

1983 In the First Division of the Football League, Liverpool beat Sunderland by one goal to nil, to retain their lead at the top of the table.

1994 Security at Aintree racecourse was tightened after animal rights protesters threatened to disrupt the Grand National.

People & Showbiz
1978 The first episode of ‘Dallas’ was shown in the US-called ‘Digger’s Daughter’.

1995 The actor and comedian Tony Slattery launched a verbal attack on theatre critics at the start of The Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony.

1997 Though unknown a year before, The Spice Girls were set to sell their 10 millionth album within the week. The girl band had an estimated value of £50 million at that point of their career.

General Events
1984 Terence Rafferty from Polbathick who was accused of holding 29 councillors and 6 officials hostage because he was refused planning permission had those restrictions lifted by Caradon District Council so that he could sell his 2 houses.

1984 Video shop owners Keith and Harriet Lewis were fined £10 each after opening their shop illegally on a Sunday.

1986 During a flight from Rome to Athens, a bomb exploded on board a TWA Boeing 727 in mid-air, blowing a hole in the fuselage. Although 4 people were sucked out, only 9 others were injured and the plane managed to land safely.

1992 The crew of an American F1-11 bomber ejected to safety as it developed engine trouble and crashed into a field near its base at RAF Upper Heyford., Oxfordshire, sending wreckage into a nearby factory car park and damaging a number of cars.

1984 Henry Weston from Denmead, Portsmouth, and Robin Cross from Norwich set off from London to run round the world to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund. They estimated that it would take them 2 years to run the 16,000 mile journey.

1994 A sign saying ‘husbands only’ at a hospital in Winchester was to be changed to ‘partners only’.

1995 The Welsh Secretary, John Redwood, was to announce that all 1,800 primary schools in Wales were to be linked to the internet.