April 30

 
Dianna Elise Agron (born April 30, 1986) is an American actress, singer, dancer, producer, writer and director. She is best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray in the Fox television series Glee. She also appeared in several episodes of Veronica Mars and Heroes. She branched out into writing and directing. The result is the short film "A Fuchsia Elephant", about an 18-year-old girl played by Agron who creates an ideal birthday party. She also played roles in the films such as "The Romantics", "The Hunters", "I Am Number Four" and "Glee: The 3D Concert Movie".

Alexandra Holden (born April 30, 1977) is an American film and television actress.

April 29

1861 – American Civil War

The American Civil War, also known as the War between the States or simply the Civil War, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the "Union" or the "North") and several Southern slave states that had declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy" or the "South"). The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, and, after four years of bloody combat (mostly in the South), the Confederacy was defeated, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.

April 28

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American model, television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002). Alba later appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Good Luck Chuck both in 2007.

Alba has been called a sex symbol. She appears on the "Hot 100" section of Maxim and was voted number one on AskMen.com's list of "99 Most Desirable Women" in 2006, as well as "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 2007. In 2005, TV Guide ranked her # 45 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list. The use of her image on the cover of the March 2006 Playboy sparked a lawsuit by her, which was later dropped. She has also won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television, and a Golden Globe nomination for her lead role in the television series Dark Angel.

April 27

Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, film producer, and director, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker, Space Mouse, Homer Pigeon, Chilly Willy. 

April 26

Channing Matthew Tatum 

 

(born April 26, 1980) is an American actor and film producer, best known for his roles in Step Up (2006), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), Dear John (2010), The Vow (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012), and Magic Mike (2012). He has also appeared in films such as Coach Carter (2005), She's the Man (2006), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), Fighting (2009), and The Dilemma (2010). While known for his dramatic performances in Dear John and The Vow, he has also ventured into more comedic roles. Standing 6'1" (1.85 m), earlier in his career he worked variously as a dancer, model, and stripper.

April 25

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz vocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she sold 40 million copies of her 70 plus albums, won 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedomby George H. W. Bush.

April 23

Ray Peterson (April 23, 1939 – January 25, 2005) was an American pop singer who was best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Corrine, Corrina" in the 1960s.

Ray T. Peterson was born in Denton, Texas.As a boy he had to overcome polio. Blessed with a four-octave singing voice, Peterson moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was signed to a recording contract by RCA Victor Records in 1958. He recorded several songs that were minor hits until "The Wonder of You" made it into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 15, 1959. The song would later be recorded by Elvis Presley, with whom Peterson became friends. Peterson scored a Top 10 hit with the teenage tragedy song, "Tell Laura I Love Her",.

In 1960, Peterson created his own record label with his manager Stan Shulman, called Dunes Records, and enlisted the help of record producer Phil Spector. with "Corrine, Corrina" Peterson's dramatic ballad, "I Could Have Loved You So Well", written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and produced by Spector, only reached #57 on the U.S. chart.

His last charting US-Top-30 hit was "Missing You". By the mid 1960s he had become something of a phenomenon on the west coast of the United States, appearing live in numerous concerts with Paul McCartney lookalike Keith Allison.

Peterson died of cancer in 2005, in Smyrna, Tennessee, aged 65. He left a widow and four sons and three daughters. He was interred in the Roselawn Memorial Gardens cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

April 22

Earth Day originally celebrated at Spring Equinox around March 20, is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment. Now Earth Day is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.Earth Day is planned for April 22 in all years at least through 2015.
The name and concept of Earth Day was pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. He proposed March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

April 21

Christoph Sanders (born April 21, 1988) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Ned Banks in the television series Ghost Whispererand Kyle Anderson in the television series Last Man Standing.

Drew Garrett (born Drew Garrett Nelson on April 21, 1989 in Jupiter, Florida) is an Emmy Award-nominated American actor. He was best known for his role as Michael Corinthos III on General Hospital.

April 20

Clayne Crawford (born April 20, 1978) is an American actor.Crawford has appeared in such films as A Walk to Remember (2002), Swimfan (2002), A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and The Great Raid (2005). He had a recurring role in the first season of Jericho as Mitchell "Mitch" Cafferty. He has appeared twice as Quinn, a professional man of violence, in the TNT hit show Leverage. In 2008 he appeared in Life in the episode "Evil ... and His Brother Ziggy." Crawford featured as the main protagonist in the 2010 straight to DVD prequel to Smokin' Aces, Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball. He had a recurring role in the eighth season of 24. Currently he has a recurring role in the A&E series The Glades and in the upcoming drama Rectify. Crawford also co-stars with David Hyde Pierce in the indie thriller The Perfect Host.

Tara Leigh Patrick (born April 20, 1972), better known by her stage name Carmen Electra, is an American glamour model, actress, television personality, singer, and dancer. She gained fame for her appearances in Playboy magazine, on the MTV game show Singled Out, on the TV series Baywatch, and dancing with the Pussycat Dolls, and has since had roles in the parody films Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Disaster Movie. An extinct species of fly was named Carmenelectra shechisme in honor of Electra's "splendid somal structure" in 2002.

April 19

Ashley Judd was born on the 19^th of April in 1968. She is an American television and film actress and political activist. Judd grew up in a family of successful performing artists as the daughter of country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of Wynonna Judd. While she is best known for an ongoing acting career spanning more than two decades, she has increasingly become involved in global humanitarian efforts and political activism. Judd has played lead roles in films including “Ruby in Paradise” (1993), “Norma Jean & Marilyn” (1996), “Kiss the Girls” (1997), “Double Jeopardy” (1999), “Where the Heart Is” (2000), “High Crimes” (2002) and “Dolphin Tale” (2011). She also starred as Rebecca Winstone in the television series “Missing” in 2012. In 2010, she received a master's degree in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor, filmmaker, teacher and author. His first prominent role was a lead part on the short-lived cult hit television program “Freaks and Geeks”; he later achieved recognition for playing the title character in the TV biographical film “James Dean” (2001), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe Award. He portrayed Harry Osborn in Spider-Man trilogy. His notable films are “Pineapple Express”, “Milk”, “127 Hours”, “Tristan & Isolde”, “Annapolis”, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, and “Oz the Great and Powerful”, with upcoming films “This Is the End” and “Lovelace”. He also has a recurring role in the ABC soap opera “General Hospital”. For his role in 127 Hours, Franco received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in “Almost Famous”. She then starred in the hit film “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (2003) which gained her wider fame. She has since established herself in Hollywood after starring in several productions including “Raising Helen” (2004), “The Skeleton Key” (2005), “You, Me and Dupree” (2006), “Fool's Gold” (2008) and “Bride Wars” (2009). She is currently playing the recurring role of Cassandra July in the musical comedy-drama series “Glee”.

April 18

Richard Harding Davis was born this day. He was a journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. His writing greatly assisted the political career ofTheodore Roosevelt and he also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion and he is credited with making the clean

-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.

Davis became a managing editor of Harper's Weekly, and was one of the world's leading war correspondents at the time of the Second Boer War in South Africa. As an American, he had the opportunity to see the war first-hand from both the British and Boer perspectives. Davis also worked as a reporter for the New York Herald, The Times, and Scribner's Magazine.

He was popular among a number of leading writers of his time, and is considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also mentioned early in Sinclair Lewis's book Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero.

During the Spanish-American War, Davis was on a United States Navy warship when he witnessed the shelling of Matanzas, Cuba, a part of theBattle of Santiago de Cuba. Davis' story made headlines, but as a result, the Navy prohibited reporters from being aboard any American naval vessel for the rest of the war.

Davis with Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba, 1898.

Davis was a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and he helped create the legend surrounding the Rough Riders, for which he was made an honorary member. Some[who?] have even gone so far to accuse Davis of involvement in William Randolph Hearst's alleged plot to have started the war between Spain and the United States in order to boost newspaper sales; however, Davis refused to work for Hearst after a dispute over fictionalizing one of his articles.

Bessie and Hope Davis.

Despite his alleged association with Yellow journalism, his writings of life and travel in Central America, the Caribbean, Rhodesiaand South Africa during the Second Boer War were widely published. He was one of many war correspondents who covered theRusso-Japanese War from the perspective of the Japanese forces.

Davis had success with his 1897 novel Soldiers of Fortune that he turned into a play and was later filmed twice, once in 1914 and in 1919 by Allan Dwan.

Davis later reported on the Salonika Front of the First World War where he was arrested by the Germans as a spy but was released.

Davis was married twice, first to Cecil Clark, an artist, in 1899, and then to Bessie McCoy in 1912, an actress and Vaudevilleperformer, who is remembered for her signature Yama Yama Man routine. Davis and Bessie had a daughter, Hope.

He died of a heart attack on April 11, 1916, seven days before his 52nd birthday.

April 17

Tessa James

Her first television role was playing Anne Baxter in the soap opera Neighbours. She also played the lead role in the Australian short film, Hugo.

James joined the cast of Home and Away as Nicole Franklin in 2008. In an interview, James stated that she likes playing Nicole because they are complete opposites and that she is not a fan of wearing lots of make-up, unlike Nicole. In March 2011, James confirmed that she had left Home and Away after three and a half years. She plans to audition for roles in Los Angeles.

April 16

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was a British comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame in thesilent era. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from a child in the Victorian era to close to his death at the age of 88, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.

Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, scored, and starred in most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence meant he often spent years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, and often feature the Tramp struggling against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work, Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked among the greatest films of all time.

April 15

Bessie Smith was born this day in 1937. He was an American blues singer.

Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.

All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop a stage presence. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.

In 1920, sales figures of over 100,000 copies for "Crazy Blues," an Okeh Records recording by singer Mamie Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to blacks, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers. Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 and her first session for Columbia was February 15, 1923. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A- series; when the label decided to establish a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued.

She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues", which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".

Smith was gifted with a powerfully strong voice that recorded very well from her first record, made during the time when recordings were made acoustically. With the coming of electrical recording (circa 1925), the sheer power of her voice was even more evident.

She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins,Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green.

April 14

Berinthia "Berry" Berenson Perkins (April 14, 1948 – September 11, 2001) was an American photographer, actress, and model. Perkins, who was the wife of actor Anthony Perkins, died in the September 11 attacks as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11.

Following a brief modeling career in the late 1960s, Berenson became a freelance photographer. By 1973, her photographs had been published in Life, Glamour, Vogue and Newsweek.
She also appeared in several motion pictures, including Cat People with Malcolm McDowell. She starred opposite Anthony Perkin in the 1978 Alan Rudolph film Remember My Name and opposite Jeff Bridges in the 1979 film Winter Kills.

April 13

Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American television, film and voice actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast (for which he won a Golden Globe), Slade in the animated series Teen Titans and Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy. He has starred in the Guillermo del Toro films Cronos, Blade II, and as the comic book character Hellboy in both 2004's Hellboy and its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He has also played Mr. Kellerman in an episode of Charmed titled Wrestling with Demons and as the narrator of the post-apocalyptic game series Fallout. In 2010, he provided the voice of the Stabbington brothers in Tangled, Disney's animated film adaptation of "Rapunzel". He was the narrator of the television series 1000 Ways to Die on Spike.

April 12

Shannen Maria Doherty was born on the 12^th of April in 1971. She is an American actress, producer, author and television director, known for her work in “Little House on the Prairie”, “Heathers”, “Our House”, “Beverly Hills, 90210”, and “Charmed”. Doherty had guest spots on TV series including “Voyagers!” and “Father Murphy”. When a casting notice was released in Hollywood for a regular role on the popular “Little House on the Prairie”, she jumped at the opportunity and eventually won the role of Jenny Wilder at the age of 11, thanks in part to actor/producer Michael Landon seeing her guest spot on Father Murphy, which he also produced. Doherty stayed in the series until the show's cancellation in 1983. In 1982, Shannen lent her voice talents to the animated film “The Secret of NIMH”. In 1985, Doherty starred as Maggie Malene in the teen-comedy movie, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, alongside actresses Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker. Doherty was also twice nominated for the Saturn Award, Best Genre TV Actress for her performance in Charmed, in 1999 and 2000 respectively. In 2007, AOL named Prue Halliwell the 10th greatest witch in television history.

Marley Eve Shelton (born April 12, 1974) is an American film and television actress. Shelton began her acting career in her late teens, and appeared in several 1990s' television movies and shows. She made her film debut in the critically acclaimed drama “Grand Canyon” (1991), and was cast in the films “The Sandlot” (1993), “Nixon” (1995), and “Warriors of Virtue” (1997). Shelton subsequently appeared in “Pleasantville” (1998) and “Never Been Kissed” (1999). Although those parts were supporting roles, both made Shelton a more-known star, and for which she found a wider fame. In 2001, Shelton had her first starring role in the black comedy “Sugar & Spice”, and appeared as one of the main characters in the teen horror film “Valentine”. Shelton then appeared in supporting roles in the films “Uptown Girls” (2003), “Sin City” (2005), and “The Last Kiss” (2006). After being cast in a significant role in the double-feature film "Grindhouse" (2007), she received the lead role in the CBS show “Eleventh Hour”. In 2009, Shelton starred in “A Perfect Getaway” and subsequently had a role in “Scream 4” (2011).

Jennifer Marie Morrison (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress, model, and film producer. She is best known for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron in “House”, and Emma Swan in the current ABC adventure fantasy television series “Once Upon a Time”. She also portrayed Zoey Pierson in the sixth season of “How I Met Your Mother”.

April 11

Kelli Brianne Garner (born April 11, 1984 in Bakersfield, California) is an American actress. Her credits include Man of the House, The Aviator, Bully and Thumbsucker. She appeared in two Green Day music videos "Jesus of Suburbia" and the unreleased "Whatsername".  In December 2005, Garner starred in the Off-Broadway production of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead at the Century Center for the Performing Arts. She played Kate Cameron in Pan Am. In February 2012, it was revealed that Garner had been dating actor Johnny Galecki since 2011.

April 10

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan. He became the first foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in Japan.

He later moved to the Los Angeles, California, area where he made his film debut in 1988 in Above the Law. By 1991, he had starred in three successful films, and would go on to achieve greater fame in Under Siege (1992), where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. However both On Deadly Ground (1994, which he directed) and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) did poorly in theaters. During the later half of the 90s, he starred in three more theatrical films and a direct-to-video The Patriot. Aside from Exit Wounds (2001) and Half Past Dead (2002), his career shifted almost entirely to direct-to-video films (often low budget productions and shot in Europe or Asia). Between 1998 to 2009, he appeared in a total of 22 of these. At the age of 59, he returned to the big screen as Torrez in the 2010 film Machete. As of 2011, he's currently busy with the third season of his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman.

Seagal is also a recording artist and guitarist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, an animal rights activist and a supporter of the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, and the Tibetan independence movement.

April 9

Hugh Marston Hefner (born April 9, 1926) is an American magazine publisher, as well as the founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises.He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and has made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he received a "worst supporting actor" nomination for a Razzie award for his performance in Miss March.

A documentary by Brigitte Berman, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996.

Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes.

In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary, Discovering the It Girl. "Nobody has what Clara had. She defined an era and made her mark on the nation," he stated.

Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004), Sex and the City and its sequel Sex and the City 2. Some of her other work has included starring in the films: The Manhattan Project, Baby's Day Out, Let It Ride, Warm Springs, Little Manhattan, The Babysitters, Rampart and a recurring role in the television show The Big C. She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, aGrammy Award, and a GLAAD Media Award.

Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American actress who is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films such as Panic Room (2002), Speak (2004), Into the Wild (2007), The Messengers (2007), Adventureland(2009), The Runaways (2010), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and On the Road(2012).According to Forbes, Stewart was the highest paid actress in 2012 with total earnings of $34.5 million. She earned $12.5 million each for last two installments in the Twilight series, including royalties. She ranked #7 on AskMen's list of Top 99 Women for 2013. Stewart will play the muse Delphi in the upcoming The Big Shoe which will be directed by Steven Shainberg.