Today in History - History - April 5th

1976Tom Stoppard's "Dirty Linen" premieres in London

198716th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Betsy King

1996Marlon Brando makes anti-semetic remarks about hollywood on Larry King

1895Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices

1818In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement - led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín - win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.

1923Firestone Co put their inflatable tires into production

1997Steve Irwin's "The Crocodile Hunter" debuts

1984Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)

1603New English King James I (James VI of Scotland) departs Edinburgh for London

1954Elvis Presley records his debut single "That's All Right"

1947Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines (2001-2010) in San Juan Philippines

1908(Ruth Elizabeth) Bette Davis, Lowell Mass, US actress (Of Human Bondage, Jezebel)

1950Agnetha Fältskog [Anna Ulvaeus], Swedish singer (ABBA)

1916Gregory Peck, La Jolla California, actor (To Kill a Mockingbird, MacArthur)

1923Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnam President (1965-75)

1937Colin Powell, Bronx NY, general/asst to president (Nat Sec Affairs)

1856Booker Taliaferro Washington, pioneer educator (1st black on US stamp)

1588Thomas Hobbes, Westport England, philosopher (Leviathan)

1955Musician Ray Charles (24) weds Della Beatrice Howard

1999Talk show host Wayne Brady (26) weds dancer Mandie Taketa

1964Douglas MacArthur, US general (Pacific theater-WW II), dies at 84

1994Kurt Cobain, grunge rocker (Nirvana), commits suicide by gun at 27 in Seattle, Washington

2008Charlton Heston, American Actor, dies at 84

1997Allen Ginsberg, beat poet, dies at 80

1992Sam Walton, Billionaire CEO (Wal-Mart), dies of multiple myeloma at 74

2005Saul Bellow, Canadian born writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1915)