April 6 in Pop Culture History

April 6 History, Trivia, and Fun Facts

April 6 History Highlights

  • 1869 – Celluloid was patented (#50359) by John Wesley Hyatt.
  • 1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games took place, 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
  • 1917 – The United States joined in World War I.
  • April 6, 1946 Birthday (fictional) Rocky Balboa, Movies
  • April 6, 2980 T.A. Birthday (fictional) Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings, Books/Films
  • If you were born on April 6th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… July 14th (prior year)

April 6 is…

Caramel Popcorn Day
Fresh Tomato Day
Siamese Cat Day
Sorry Charlie Day
Student-Athlete Day

April 6 Birthday Quotes

“When one is painting one does not think.”
– Raphael

“If you’ve only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.”
– Gerry Mulligan

“Failures not a bad thing. It builds character. It makes you stronger.”
– Billy Dee Williams

“If you’re going to do good work, the work has to scare you.”
– Andre Previn

“You don’t always have to have the ending, but you want to have a satisfactory conclusion.”
– Barry Levinson

“I don’t know how many days I worked there (Star Wars), the thing I do remember was I somehow got a parking space next to Kermit the Frog. It was Jim Henson’s space, with this Kermit the Frog sign. I took a photo of it and sent it to my mom with a caption that read, “Look, Mom. I made it. I got a parking space next to Kermit the Frog.” I was always fascinated by the film-set infrastructures.”
– John Ratzenberger

April 6 Birthdays

1483 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (died in 1520)
1926 – Gil Kane, Latvian-American comic book author and illustrator (died in 2000)
1927 – Gerry Mulligan, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (died in 1996)
1929 – Joi Lansing, American model and actress (died in 1972)
1929 – André Previn, American pianist, composer, and conductor (died in 2019)
1937 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter (died in 2016)
1937 – Billy Dee Williams, American actor
1942 – Barry Levinson, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1947 – John Ratzenberger, American actor and voice actor
1952 – Marilu Henner, Greek-Polish American actress
1955 – Michael Rooker, American actor
1956 – Michele Bachmann, American lawyer and politician
1969 – Paul Rudd, American actor
1975 – Zach Braff, American actor
1987 – Hilary Rhoda, American model
1987 – Heidi Mount, American model
1998 – Peyton List, American actress and model

April 6 History

648 BC – Earliest solar eclipse recorded by the Ancient Greeks.

1748 – Excavations began at Pompeii, covered by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

1830 – The Mormon Church was founded in Fayette Township, New York, by Joseph Smith.

1852 – Edward Sabine announced that the 11-year sunspot cycle was “absolutely identical” with Earth’s geomagnetic cycle.

1895 – Oscar Wilde was arrested, and later found guilty of being a homosexual, and sentenced to two years of hard labor.

1909 – The North Pole was discovered by Robert E. Byrd and his team.

1930 – Hostess Twinkies snack cakes were invented by James ‘Jimmy’ A. Dewar, at the Continental Baking Company in Chicago

1931 – Little Orphan Annie debuted on the Blue Network of NBC.

1936 (Tornado) Gainesville, Georgia.

1938 – Roy J. Plunkett and Jack Rebok accidentally discovered the chemical compound polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), later marketed as Teflon by DuPont.

April 6, 1946 Birthday (fictional) Rocky Balboa, Rocky, Movies

1947 – The first Tony Awards were presented for theatrical achievement.

1956 – The Capitol Records Building opened in Los Angeles. The light on top blinks out “Hollywood” in Morse Cose at night.

1957 – #1 Ht April 6, 1957 – April 12, 1957: Perry Como – Round And Round

1957 -Trolley cars in ended service in New York City.

1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit via NASA by Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company.

1966 – Hundred of children and their teachers reported seeing a UFO over Melbourne, Australia.

1973 – NASA launched Pioneer 11 to Jupiter and Saturn.

1973 – The American League of Major League Baseball began using the designated hitter.

1974 – #1 Hit April 6, 1974 – April 12, 1974: Blue Swede – Hooked on a Feeling

1974 – Waterloo won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. ABBA went on to pop music success for much of the 1970s.

1984The Gods Must Be Crazy, Moscow on the Hudson, Up The Creek and Hard To Hold were released in theaters.

1990Ernest Goes to Jail, The First Power, Cry-Baby and I Love You To Death debuted in theaters.

April 6, 1992 – Microsoft Windows 3.1 was released.

1992 – Barney and Friends premiered on PBS.

1998 – Travelers and Citicorp merged (the merger was completed on October 8) forming Citibank.

1999 – East End Show – Mamma Mia! (Musical) April 6, 1999

2001Along Came a Spider and Pokemon 3: The Movie were released in theaters.

2007Grindhouse debuted in theaters.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

There exists an area so unfathomably large that humans refer to it simply as “space.”

A group of Storks is called a Mustering or Muster.

The biggest film of 1928: The Singing Fool earned ~ $10,000,000

You have to be odd to be number one.

J.K. Rowling cited This Is Spinal Tap’s running joke about the death of their drummer as the inspiration for how Harry Potter’s Defense of The Dark Arts professor vacates their position yearly for various reasons.

Hieronymus Bosch – Real Name: Jerome Van Aken

We can refer to anything that doesn’t require horses to work as being horseless. The horseless carriage. The horseless pencil. The horseless laptop. The Horseless Large Hadron Collider.

Anne Frank and MLK Jr. were both born in the same year, yet we associate them as being in completely different periods in history.

Floccinaucinihilipilification, the declaration of an item being useless, is the longest non-medical term in the English language. #Floccinaucinihilipilification

The Capital of Tunisia is Tunis

“I don’t want to be perceived the way I am, I just want to be perceived the way I am.” #songlyrics

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