April 23rd
1616
Playwright William Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon, England.
1896
The Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York City.
1954
Hank Aaron hit the first of his 755 home runs.
1969
Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death (later reduced to a life sentence) for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
1985
Coca-Cola announced that it was changing its formula and introduced New Coke.
1988
Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon leaves the charts for its first time after spending a record of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200.
1989
NBC aired the pilot episode of "Baywatch."
1995
Sportscaster Howard Cosell died at age 77.
1998
James Earl Ray, convicted of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., died.
Birthdays
81 Shirley Temple Black Diplomat, former child actress
79 Alan Oppenheimer Actor ("Murphy Brown")
70 David Birney Actor
70 Lee Majors Actor ("The Six Millon Dollar Man")
66 Tony Esposito Hockey Hall of Famer
61 Blair Brown Actress
60 Joyce DeWitt Actress ("Three's Company")
56 James Russo Actor
55 Michael Moore Director ("Fahrenheit 9/11")
54 Judy Davis Actress
52 Jan Hooks Actress ("Saturday Night Live")
49 Valerie Bertinelli Actress ("One Day at a Time")
49 Craig Sheffer Actor
48 George Lopez Actor
42 Melina Kanakaredes Actress ("CSI: NY")
41 Stan Frazier Rock musician (Sugar Ray)
41 Tim Womack Country musician (Sons of the Desert)
39 Scott Bairstow Actor
35 Barry Watson Actor
32 Kal Penn Actor ("House"), Obama White House staffer
32 John Cena Professional wrestler
30 Jaime King Actress
26 Aaron Hill Actor ("Greek")
24 Rachel Skarsten Actress
19 Matthew Underwood Actor
19 Camryn Walling Actor
52 William Shakespeare 4/23/1564 - 4/23/1616 English poet and dramatist
77 James Buchanan 4/23/1791 - 6/1/1868 15th president of the United States (1857-61)
89 Max Planck 4/23/1858 - 10/4/1947 German Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1918); originated quantum theory
82 Warren Spahn 4/23/1921 - 11/24/2003 Baseball Hall of Famer
52 Roy Orbison 4/23/1936 - 12/6/1988 Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, guitarist and a pioneer of rock and roll whose recording career spanned more than four decades