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Walter Lantz

Walter Lantz

Walter Lantz (April 27, 1900 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, best known for founding the Walter Lantz Studio and creating Woody Woodpecker.

Start in Animation

Walter Lantz was born April 27 1900 in New Rochelle, New York into a family of Italian immigrants. He was interested in art at an early, completing a mail order drawing class at age twelve. Lantz got his first taste of animation when he watched Winsor McCay’s cartoon short, Gertie the Dinosaur. This, perhaps, inspired him to become a cartoonist himself later on. While working as an auto mechanic Lantz got his first break in the art world. A well-to-do customer, Fred Kafka, liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board. He bankrolled his studies at New York City's Art Students League. Kafka also helped him get a job in town, as a copy boy at The New York American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. When he had completed his day’s work at the newspaper office, he attended art school. By the time he was sixteen, Lantz was working behind the camera in the animation department under the supervision of director Gregory La Cava. After working for Gregory La Cava, Lantz moved to Hollywood where he worked briefly for director Frank Capra and later as a gag writer for Mack Sennett. Lantz then began work at the John R. Bray Studios in New York on the Colonel Heeza Liar series. In 1924, Lantz began to rise to prominence at the studio and directed, animated, and even starred in his first cartoon series, Dinky Doodle. By 1927 he moved to Hollywood, California and wrote for Mack Sennett comedies.

The Oswald Era

In 1928, Lantz was hired by Charles B. Mintz as a director on the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series for Universal. Earlier that year, Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler had succeed in snatching Oswald from the character's original creator, Walt Disney. Universal president Carl Laemmle became unsatisfied with the Mintz-Winkler product and fired them, deciding instead to produce the Oswalds directly on the Universal lot. While schmoozing with Laemmle, Lantz wagered a bet that if he could win the producer in a game of poker that the character would be his. As fate would have it, Lantz successfully won the bet and Oswald was now his character. As Lantz began assembling a new studio, he decided to select a fellow New York animator, Bill Nolan, to help develop the series. Nolan's previous credentials included inventing the panorama background and developing a new, streamlined Felix the Cat. Nolan was (and still is) probably best known for perfecting the "rubber hose" style of animation. In September 1929, Lantz finally put out his first cartoon, Race Riot. By 1935, Lantz had managed to become an independent producer, supplying cartoons to Universal instead of merely overseeing the animation department. By 1940, he was negotiating ownership for the characters he had been working with.

The Woody Woodpecker Era

When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz decided that he needed a new character. Meany, Miny, and Moe, Baby-Face Mouse, and Snuffy Skunk were only a few of the personalities Lantz and his staff had come up with. However, one character, Andy Panda, stood out from the rest and soon became Lantz's headline star for the 1939-1940 production season. In the fifth Andy short, Knock Knock, a crazy but persistent bird made sport of pecking holes in the roof of Andy and his father's home. This character would become Woody Woodpecker. In either 1940 or 1941, during this time of transition, Lantz married his wife Gracie Stafford, an actress. Mel Blanc supplied Woody's voice for his first three cartoons. When Blanc accepted a full-time contract with Leon Schlesinger Productions/Warner Bros. and left the Lantz studio, gagman Ben Hardaway, who was the main force responsible for Knock Knock, became the bird's voice. Despite this, however, Blanc's distinctive laugh was still used throughout the cartoons. During 1948, the Lantz studio had a hit Academy Award-nominated tune in “The Woody Woodpecker Song”, featuring Blanc’s laugh. Mel Blanc sued Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in various later cartoons without his permission. The judge, however, ruled against Blanc, saying that he had failed to copyright his voice or contributions. Even though Lantz had won the case, he paid Blanc the money in an out of court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and went off to search for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker. Searching for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker during 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Gracie, Lantz's wife, had offered to do Woody's voice, however Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Gracie went about secretly making her own anonymous audition tape, and submitted it with the others for the studio to listen to. Not knowing whose voice was being heard; Lantz picked Gracie’s voice to do Woody Woodpecker. Gracie supplied Woody’s voice all the way up until Lantz finally stopped making new cartoons for Woody Woodpecker. At first Gracie had chosen to voice Woody with no screen credit because she thought that it would disappoint the children to know Woody Woodpecker was voice by a woman. However, she soon came to enjoy being known as the voice of Woody Woodpecker, and allowed her name to be put on the credit screen. The baby boomer generation came to know and love Lantz as the creator of the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. He used his TV appearances to show how the animation was actually done. For many of those young viewers, it was the first they had come to see an explanation of the process. That same generation later knew him for entertaining the troops during the Vietnam War and later visiting the hospitalized veterans.

Retirement

Walter Lantz's studio was the last classical cartoon studio to close in 1972. In his retirement, Lantz managed his studio’s properties which still had value with re-releasing cartoons and sales to new venues. He continued to draw and paint, selling paintings with Woody Woodpecker in them rapidly. On top of that, he worked with Little League and other youth groups around his area. In 1982, Lantz donated seventeen artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, among them a wooden model of Woody Woodpecker from the cartoon character’s debut in 1941. During 1993, Lantz established a ten thousand dollar scholarship and prize for animators in his name at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Walter Lantz died at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California of heart failure on March 22, 1994.

Walter Lantz "Cartunes"


- Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1929–1938)
- Cartune Classics (1934–1942, 1953–1957)
- Andy Panda (1939–1949)
- Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949, 1951–1972)
- Swing Symphonies (1941–1945)
- Musical Miniatures (1946–1948)
- Chilly Willy (1953–1972)
- The Beary Family (1962–1972)

Awards Walter Lantz was Presented


- 1959 he was honored by the Los Angeles City Council as "one of America's most outstanding animated film cartoonists".
- 1973 the international animation society, ASIFA/Hollywood, presented him with its Annie Award.
- 1979 he was given a special Academy Award, "for bringing joy and laughter to every part of the world through his unique animated motion pictures."
- 1986 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

External links


- [http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/ The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia]
- [http://davidbrady.com/times/latlantz.html Los Angeles Times]
- [http://www.toonopedia.com/lantz.htm Walter Lantz] at Don Markstein's Toodpedia
- [http://www.toonopedia.com/universl.htm The Walter Lantz Studio] at Don Markstein's Toodpedia

See also


- The Golden Age of American animation Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter Lantz, Walter

April 27

April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining.

Events


- 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland.
- 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
- 1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
- 1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
- 1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
- 1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
- 1667 - The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
- 1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
- 1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
- 1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
- 1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
- 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
- 1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
- 1897 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.
- 1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
- 1906 - Salem, Ohio celebrates its Centennial.[http://www.salemohio.com]
- 1908 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
- 1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Murat V.
- 1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
- 1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
- 1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.
- 1945 - The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
- 1947 - Babe Ruth Day is celebrated at Yankee Stadium.
- 1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
- 1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
- 1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
- 1964 - "Love me do" by the Beatles was #1 for one week in the US
- 1967 - Expo '67 opens in Montreal, Quebec.
- 1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
- 1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
- 1986 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) hijacks HBO's satellite and transmits his own message to HBO viewers.
- 1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed, comprising of Serbia and Montenegro.
- 1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.
- 1997 - Andrew Cunanan murders Jeffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that will last until July and terminate with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
- 2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus 380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

Births


- 1623 - Johann Adam Reinken, German organist (d. 1722)
- 1701 - King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
- 1718 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (d. 1790)
- 1737 - Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
- 1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English activist and author (d. 1797)
- 1791 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
- 1812 - Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
- 1820 - Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (d. 1903)
- 1822 - Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
- 1840 - Edward Whymper, English mountain climber (d. 1911)
- 1878 - Frank Alvin Gotch, American professional wrestler (d. 1917)
- 1888 - Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
- 1891 - Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (d. 1953)
- 1894 - Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-born musicologist and composer (d.1995)
- 1896 - Rogers Hornsby, baseball player (d. 1963)
- 1899 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
- 1904 - Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (d. 1972)
- 1913 - Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1916 - Enos Slaughter, baseball player (d. 2002)
- 1920 - Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
- 1920 - Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet
- 1922 - Jack Klugman, American actor
- 1927 - Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King
- 1931 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- 1932 - Anouk Aimée, French actress
- 1932 - Casey Kasem, American disc jockey
- 1932 - Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
- 1937 - Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1938 - Earl Anthony, American bowler (d. 2001)
- 1939 - Judy Carne, British actress and comedienne
- 1941 - Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
- 1944 - Cuba Gooding, Sr., American musician (The Main Ingredient)
- 1945 - August Wilson, American playwright (d. 2005)
- 1947 - Ann Peebles, American singer
- 1948 - Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52's)
- 1951 - Ace Frehley, American musician (KISS)
- 1952 - George Gervin, American basketball player
- 1959 - Sheena Easton, Scottish singer
- 1963 - Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
- 1967 - Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
- 1969 - Darcey Bussell, British ballerina
- 1969 - Mica Paris, British singer and presenter
- 1970 - Kylie Travis, English actress and model
- 1976 - Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1984 - Patrick Stump, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
- 1988 - Nicholas Henderson, Scottish political activist
- 1990 - Natasha Margolis, Australian violinist

Deaths


- 630 - King Ardashir III of Persia
- 1404 - Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
- 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer
- 1530 - Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
- 1599 - Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
- 1605 - Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
- 1613 - Robert Abercromby, Scottish Jesuit (b. 1532)
- 1625 - Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (b. 1553)
- 1656 - Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
- 1694 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
- 1695 - John Trenchard, English statesman (b. 1640)
- 1702 - Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
- 1782 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
- 1813 - Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
- 1882 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
- 1915 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
- 1921 - Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
- 1932 - Hart Crane, American writer (suicide) (b. 1899)
- 1936 - Karl Pearson, English statistician (b. 1857)
- 1952 - Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (b. 1865)
- 1965 - Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
- 1970 - Arthur Shields, Irish actor (b. 1896)
- 1972 - Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana (b. 1909)
- 1977 - Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1992 - Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
- 1995 - Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
- 1996 - William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1920)
- 1998 - Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born writer (b. 1925)
- 1999 - Al Hirt, American trumpeter (b. 1922)
- 2000 - Vicki Sue Robinson, American singer (b. 1954)
- 2002 - George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
- 2002 - Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (b. 1916)
- 2002 - Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances


- Slovenia: Day of Uprising Against Occupation
- South Africa: Freedom day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/27 BBC: On This Day] ---- April 26 - April 28 - March 27 - May 27 – listing of all days ko:4월 27일 ms:27 April ja:4月27日 simple:April 27 th:27 เมษายน

March 22

March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). There are 284 days remaining.

Events


- 238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors.
- 1621 - The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
- 1622 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
- 1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
- 1638 - Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
- 1765 - The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act, the first direct tax levied from England on the American colonies.
- 1809 - Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne.
- 1849 - The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
- 1871 - In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
- 1888 - The Football League is formed.
- 1894 - The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.
- 1895 - First display (a private screening) of motion pictures by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
- 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.
- 1939 - World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.
- 1941 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
- 1942 - World War II: In the Mediterranean sea, Regia Marina defeats Royal Navy in the Second Battle of Sirte.
- 1945 - The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
- 1954 - Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.
- 1958 - Faisal becomes King of Saudi Arabia.
- 1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
- 1963 Please Please Me, the first Beatles album, is released in the UK.
- 1965 - Bob Dylan "goes electric," releasing his first album featuring electric instruments, Bringing It All Back Home.
- 1975 - A fire at the Brown's Ferry nuclear reactor in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
- 1975 - In Stockholm, Sweden, Teach-In wins the twentieth Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands singing "Ding-a-dong."
- 1978 - Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- 1984 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- 1989 - Fawn Hall, Oliver North's former secretary, begins two days of testimony at North's Iran-Contra trial in Washington.
- 1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
- 1995 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
- 1997 - Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
- 2005 - Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols (women's college basketball), becomes the all-time leader in victories for both men's and women's college basketball, getting her 880th win as coach of the team.

Births


- 1212 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (d. 1234)
- 1366 - Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1399)
- 1459 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
- 1503 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (d. 1583)
- 1599 - Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (d. 1641)
- 1609 - King John II Casimir of Poland (d. 1672)
- 1663 - August Hermann Francke, German protestant minister (d. 1727)
- 1712 - Edward Moore, English writer (d. 1757)
- 1720 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (d. 1799)
- 1723 - Charles Carroll, American lawyer and delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1783)
- 1797 - King Wilhelm I of Germany (d. 1888)
- 1812 - Stephen Pearl Andrews, abolitionist (d. 1886)
- 1817 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian prophet of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892)
- 1817 - Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
- 1860 - Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (d. 1940)
- 1868 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
- 1878 - Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete (d. 1919)
- 1887 - Chico Marx, American comedian and actor (d. 1961)
- 1901 - Greta Kempton, American artist (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Lucia dos Santos, Portuguese nun (d. 2005)
- 1908 - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- 1909 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- 1912 - Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (d. 1985)
- 1912 - Karl Malden, American actor
- 1913 - Tom McCall, Governor of Oregon (d. 1983)
- 1915 - Georgiy Zhzhonov, Russian actor and writer
- 1918 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
- 1920 - Werner Klemperer, German actor (d. 2000)
- 1920 - Ross Martin, Polish-American actor (d. 1981)
- 1924 - Allen Neuharth, American businessman and writer
- 1923 - Marcel Marceau, French mime
- 1928 - Carrie Donovan, American fashion editor (d. 2001)
- 1928 - Ed Macauley, American basketball player
- 1930 - Derek Bok, American lawyer and educator
- 1930 - Pat Robertson, American televangelist
- 1930 - Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
- 1931 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 - William Shatner, Canadian actor
- 1933 - May Britt, Swedish actress
- 1933 - Abolhassan Banisadr, President of Iran
- 1934 - Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah
- 1935 - M. Emmet Walsh, American actor
- 1936 - Ron Carey, labor leader
- 1936 - Roger Whittaker, British singer
- 1937 - Armin Hary, German athlete
- 1940 - Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (d. 1996)
- 1941 - Jeremy Clyde, British actor and singer
- 1941 - Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor
- 1943 - George Benson, American musician
- 1943 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (d. 1976)
- 1946 - Rudy Rucker, American author
- 1948 - Wolf Blitzer, American television journalist
- 1948 - Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer
- 1949 - Fanny Ardant, French actress
- 1952 - Bob Costas, American sports commentator and talk show host
- 1955 - Pete Sessions, American politician
- 1956 - Lena Olin, Swedish actress
- 1957 - Stephanie Mills, American actress, singer
- 1959 - Matthew Modine, American actor
- 1966 - Artis Pabriks, Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1967 - Mario Cipollini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 - Leontien van Moorsel, Dutch cyclist
- 1972 - Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
- 1972 - Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
- 1973 - Juninho, Brazilian football player
- 1974 - Marcus Camby, American basketball player
- 1976 - Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
- 1976 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress

Deaths


- 1322 - Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, English politician (b. 1278)
- 1418 - Dietrich of Nieheim, German historian
- 1421 - Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV of England (killed in battle) (b. 1388)
- 1471 - Pope Paul II (b. 1418)
- 1544 - Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (b. 1488)
- 1602 - Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (b. 1557)
- 1685 - Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)
- 1687 - Jean Baptiste Lully, Italian-born French composer (b. 1632)
- 1758 - Jonathan Edwards, American minister (b. 1703)
- 1758 - Richard Leveridge, English bass and composer (b. 1670)
- 1772 - John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)
- 1820 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (b. 1779)
- 1832 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer (b. 1749)
- 1896 - Thomas Hughes, English novelist (b. 1822)
- 1913 - Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese Nationalist (b. 1882)
- 1924 - William Macewen, Scottish surgeon (b. 1848)
- 1945 - John Hessin Clarke, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1857)
- 1951 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b. 1871)
- 1952 - Uncle Dave Macon, American musician (b. 1870)
- 1958 - Michael Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
- 1977 - A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1904)
- 1978 - Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (b. 1905)
- 1981 - James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (b. 1915)
- 1986 - Charles Starrett, American actor
- 1990 - Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (b. 1928)
- 1994 - Dan Hartman, American musician, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1950)
- 1994 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (b. 1899)
- 1999 - David Strickland, American actor (b. 1969)
- 2001 - William Hanna, American animator and studio founder (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Terry Lloyd, English reporter (b. 1952)
- 2004 - Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian co-founder of Hamas
- 2005 - Kenzo Tange, Japanese architect (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances


- The fourth day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
- Easter Sunday - 1818, 2285. In the Gregorian Calendar 22 March is the earliest date on which Easter Sunday can fall (25th April is the latest).
- World Water Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/22 BBC: On This Day] ---- March 21 - March 23 - February 22 - April 22 -- listing of all days ko:3월 22일 ms:22 Mac ja:3月22日 simple:March 22 th:22 มีนาคม

1994

1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family.

Events

January


- January 1 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect
- January 1 - Zapatista Army of National Liberation begins war in Chiapas, Mexico
- January 1 - Bantustans join South Africa
- January 6 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
- January 8 - Valeri Polyakov began his 437.7 day orbit, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit.
- January 11 - Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein
- January 14 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
- January 17 - 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 am.
- January 20 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
- January 26 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
- January 28 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- January 31 - German luxury car manufacturer BMW announces the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace

February


- February 1 - In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.
- February 3 - William J. Perry was sworn in as the 19th Secretary of Defense of United States
- February 5 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
- February 6 - Serb mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace
- February 9 - Peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina announced (so called Vance-Owen peace plan)
- February 12 - Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream," is stolen in Oslo. It is recovered on May 7
- February 22 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames would later be convicted to life imprisonment and his wife would receive 5 years in prison
- February 24 - In Gloucester, local police begins excavations at 25 Cromwell Street the home of Frederick West suspected of multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested
- February 25 - Kahanist Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank. He kills 29 Muslims before worshippers beat him to death
- February 27 - Australian Federal Sports & Environment Minister Ros Kelly resigns over "The Sports Rorts Affair", where it was alleged that she apportioned money for community sporting projects in a pork barreling fashion.
- February 28 - US F-16 pilots shoot down four Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone

March


- March 1 - A lone terrorist kills Ari Halberstam on an attack on 14 Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. [http://www.arihalberstam.com]
- March 1 - South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia.
- March 1 - Mary Ellen Withrow begins term of office as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bill Clinton.
- March 4 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.
- March 6 - Referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
- March 7 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
- March 12 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
- March 12 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
- March 16 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
- March 23 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated. Mario Aburto Martinez is arrested for the crime and confesses on the same day.
- March 27 - A tornado outbreak occurs in Southeastern United States. One tornado hits the United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama killing 22. This outbreak is the biggest tornado event of 1994.
- March 28 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg killing 18.
- March 31 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).

April


- April 6 - Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and president of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira died when a missile shoots down their jet near Kigali, Rwanda. This is taken as a pretext to begin the Rwandan Genocide
- April 7 - The Rwandan Genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.
- April 8 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He had committed suicide three days earlier.
- April 16 - Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
- April 20 - Paul Touvier is found guilty of ordering the execution of 7 Jews when he was serving in the Vichy France Milice
- April 21 - Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda
- April 22 - Former American President Richard Nixon dies.
- April 25 - End of term for Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu as 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.
- April 30 - Formula One driver Roland Ratzenberger of Austria, age 32, dies in a high-speed, single-car crash in the practise session for the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy

May


- May 1 - Formula One driver Ayrton Senna of Brazil, age 34, is killed in a high-speed, single-car accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy
- May 6 - The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over seven years to complete, opens between England and France. Passengers can now travel between the two countries in 35 minutes.
- May 9 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president
- May 10 - Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys
- May 10 - An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
- May 10 - Punk rock band Weezer releases their eponymous debut that goes on to sell more than 3 million copies.
- May 12 - Hockey becomes Canada's official winter sport.
- May 31- Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have dinner at the Granita restaurant in Islington and allegedly make a deal on who will become the leader of the Labour Party, and ultimately, the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

June


- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN weapons inspectors Ritter and Smidovitch learn, through Israeli intelligence reports, that Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son, is the key player in efforts by the Iraqi government to hide the country's alleged illegal weapons
- June 6-8 - Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva - they agree to one-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days)
- June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
- June 14 - Hacker Kevin Poulsen pleads guilty to seven counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
- June 14 - The New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks 4 games to 3 in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 15 - As of 2004 the third highest grossing animated film of all-time, The Lion King, opens in theatres nationwide.
- June 15 - Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations
- June 17 - NFL star OJ Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low speed chase, which unfolds live on television, ends up at Simpson's mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, where he then surrendered to police.

July


- July - The planet Jupiter is hit by twenty one large fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 over the course of six days.
- July 2 - Assassination of Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar in Bogotá
- July 7 - Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
- July 17 - Brazil defeats Italy 3-2 on penalties to win the Football World Cup 1994, after the game ended 0-0 after extra time.
- July 18 - In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations killing ninety six and injuring many more. On 9 November 2005 Alberto Nisman Arentino prosecutor identified Hezbollah militant Ibrahim Berro responsible.
- July 25 - Israel and Jordan sign the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
- July 25 - Phone Numbers through Australia start changing to eight digits (Mona Vale, Sydney 1st to change)

August


- August - 'Wollemia nobilis', a "fossil tree" discovered by bushwalker David Noble only 150 km from the largest city in Australia.
- August 1 - Fire destroys Norwich Central Library in the UK, including most of its historical records
- August 12 - Woodstock '94 begins. It is the 25 year anniversary of woodstock in 1969.
- August 14 - End of Woodstock '94.
- August 31 - the Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of military operations" from midnight.

September


- September 3 - Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
- September 4 - Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan opens. All international services are transferred from Itami to Kansai.
- September 5 - New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta John Newman is shot outside his home (Australia's first political assassination since 1977)
- September 8 - A Boeing 737 carrying USAir Flight 427 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. There are no survivors
- September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the use of these weapons for a period of 10 years.
- September 28 - The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in Baltic Sea, killing 852.
- September 28 - Jose Francisco Ruiz Massier, Mexican politician, assassinated on the orders of the president's brother
- September-October - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.

October


- October 5 - UNESCO inaugurates World Teachers’ Day to celebrate and commemorate the signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers on October 5, 1966.
- October 8 - Iraq disarmament crisis: President of the UN Security Council says that Iraq must withdraw its troops from the Kuwait border and immediately cooperate with weapons inspectors
- October 12 - NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14)
- October 15 - After three years of exile in the US, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country.
- October 15 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.
- October 26 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
- October 29 - Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House (Duran was later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton).
- October 31 - An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
- October 31 - HRH The Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel where his late mother, HSH Princess Alice of Battenberg is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the Nazis in Athens, during World War II.

November


- November 4 - Sydney's third runway opens ensuring protests about noise levels.
- November 5 - A letter by former US President Ronald Reagan is released that announces he has Alzheimer's disease
- November 8 - Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the United States Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress.
- November 13 - Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
- November 13 - The first passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.
- November 16 - Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order that prohibits the State of California from implementing Proposition 187, that would have denied most public services to illegal aliens.
- November 20 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).
- November 25 - Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as the company's CEO
- November 28 - Voters in Norway reject European Union membership (see Norwegian EU referendum, 1994)
- November 28 - In Portage, Wisconsin, USA, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by another inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium.
- November 29 - Two-year murder trial of 14 south Vietnamese accused of murder of 24 north Vietnamese ends in Hong Kong - all defendants are acquitted.
- November 30 - Famous hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur survives five bullets in an apparent robbery attempt outside a New York music studio.

December


- December 2 - Australian government agrees to pay reparations to indigenous Australians who were displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s.
- December 11 - Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
- December 11 - A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a field test done by Ramzi Yousef to test explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka, a terrorist attack plan that would be exposed after an apartment fire.
- December 19 - A planned exchange rate correction of the Mexican Peso to the US Dollar, becomes a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila' effect on global financial markets. This will prompt a US$ 50,000 million 'bailout' by the Clinton administration.
- December 19 - The Whitewater Scandal investigation begins.
- December 19 - Civil unions between homosexuals are made legal in Sweden.
- December 26 - French anti-terrorist police storms a hijacked jet at Marseille and kill four Islamist terrorists.
- December 29 - Robert Schumann becomes the youngest person to visit the south pole.

Births


- January 30 - Dylan Cash, American actor
- February 23 - Dakota Fanning, American actress
- May 4 - Alexander Gould, American voice actor
- August 9 - Forrest Landis, American actor

Deaths

January


- January 1 - Arthur Espie Porritt, New Zealand politician and athlete (b. 1900)
- January 5 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1912)
- January 9 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (b. 1927)
- January 15 - Harry Nilsson, American musician (b. 1941)
- January 17 - Helen Stephens, American runner (b. 1918)
- January 22 - Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
- January 23 - Brian Redhead, British journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
- January 25 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (b. 1909)
- January 27 - Claude Akins, American actor (b. 1914)
- January 30 - Pierre Boulle, French author (b. 1912)

February-April


- February 6 - Jack Kirby, American comic book writer and illustrator (b. 1917)
- February 7 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (b. 1913)
- February 9 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1934)
- February 11 - Sorrell Booke, American actor (b. 1930)
- February 11 - William Conrad, American actor (b. 1920)
- February 11 - Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (b. 1946)
- February 14 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
- February 17 - Randy Shilts, American author and activist (b. 1951)
- February 22 - Papa John Creech, American fiddler
- February 24 - Jean Sablon, French singer (b. 1906)
- February 24 - Dinah Shore, American actress, singer (b. 1916)
- February 25 - Baruch Goldstein, American-born mass killer (b. 1956)
- February 25 - Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (b. 1914)
- February 26 - Bill Hicks, American comedian (b. 1961)
- March 4 - John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (b. 1950)
- March 22 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (b. 1899)
- March 23 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b. 1950)
- March 28 - Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (b. 1909)
- April 1 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian Nazi (b. 1906)
- April 2 - Betty Furness, American actress, author, and consumer advocate (b. 1916)
- April 5 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (suicide) (b. 1967)
- April 7 - Albert Guðmundsson, Icelandic professional football player and politician (b. 1923)
- April 7 - Golo Mann, German historian (b. 1909)
- April 10 - Sam B. Hall, American politician (b. 1924)
- April 16 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1914)
- April 17 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1913)
- April 22 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (b. 1913)
- April 30 - Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (b. 1960)

May-October


- May 1 - Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
- May 7- Clement Greenberg, American art critic (b. 1909)
- May 8 - George Peppard, American actor (b. 1928)
- May 10 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1942)
- May 12 - John Smith, Scottish politician (b. 1938)
- May 15 - Gilbert Roland, Mexican-born actor (b. 1905)
- May 19 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
- May 21 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian World War II resistance fighter (b. 1912)
- May 29 - Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany (b. 1912)
- June 9 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- June 12 - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
- June 15 - Kristen Pfaff, rock bassist (Hole) (b. 1967)
- June 29 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (b. 1908)
- July 8 - Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea (b. 1912)
- July 11 - Gary Kildall, American computer inventor (b. 1942)
- July 14 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1940)
- July 29 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- August 13 - Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- August 18 - Richard Laurence Millington Synge, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
- August 19 - Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (b. 1901)
- September 6 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (b. 1944)
- September 11 - Jessica Tandy, English actress (b. 1909)
- September 12 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut (b. 1937)
- September 30 - Andre Michael Lwoff, French microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1902)
- October 7 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
- October 14 - Emil Gilels, Russian pianist (b. 1916)
- October 19 - Martha Raye, American actress (b. 1916)
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