Mariah Carey broke a record, Doris Day got married on her birthday and Jane Goodall was born – here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history.
An American outlaw was killed
Year: 1882
Jesse James started out as a farm boy from Missouri, but soon became one of history’s most notorious American outlaws. He was a murderer, a bank robber and a Confederate guerrilla in the US Civil War.
He was born on September 5, 1847 in Clay County to a Baptist minister and hemp farmer.
After he robbed a bank in 1969 – the crime that shot James to notoriety – newspaper editor John Newman Edwards painted the criminal out to be a Wild West Robin Hood, who robbed the rich to give to the poor, but historians have long since laid rest to that myth.
As leader of the James-Younger Gang, a group of outlaws that centred on James and his brother Frank, he went on to commit countless crimes.
It was Robert Ford, a new gang recruit, who stopped him. On April 3, 1882, he shot and killed James, hoping to collect a reward for doing so, as well as amnesty for his own crimes.
Mariah Carey topped Elvis Presley in the charts
Year: 2008
Mariah Carey has had more number one singles in the US charts than any other solo artist in history. In fact, as far as musicians go, only The Beatles top her, with 20 top-spot hits. On April 3, 2008, she surpassed Elvis Presley's total to earn this accolade, with the song Touch My Body.
In 2019, she added another tune to that list, as All I Want for Christmas Is You finally peaked at number on the Hot 100 chart.
Carey achieved her first number one with her debut single, Vision of Love, in August 1990 and has had another 18 chart-toppers since then.
The American singer-songwriter, noted for her impressive five-octave vocal range, turned 49 or 50 (her age is widely disputed) on March 27.
A suffragette was jailed
Year: 1913
She might have spent a lot of time in and out of jail, but women’s rights in the UK wouldn’t be what they are today if it wasn’t for Emmeline Pankhurst. She was born in 1958 in Manchester, England, into a family with radical political views. She went on to establish the Women’s Social and Political Union, whose members were known as suffragettes. They fought long and hard for female equality and the right to vote in the UK.
At first, WSPU’s actions were fairly peaceful, but growing disappointment as the women’s suffrage movement stalled, led the group to became more “militant” and aggressive.
Pankhurst was first put behind bars in 1908. On April 3, 1913, after a weapon went off in a house being built for the chancellor of the exchequer, she was slapped with a three-year sentence of penal servitude for inciting the crime. She was released after a hunger strike, but was rearrested and re-released a number of times after that, until the following year, when World War 1 changed everything.
Pankhurst urged women to join the war effort and called a halt to demonstrations. Women’s contributions at this time helped the cause along, and the British government finally gave limited voting rights to females. Another bill in 1918 gave women the right to be elected to Parliament.
But it wasn’t until the month after Pankhurt’s death, in 1928, that women were given equal voting rights in the UK.
A world-renowned environmentalist was born
Year: 1934
In an interview with The National in February, Dame Jane Goodall referred to death as her "next big adventure".
The primatologist and anthropologist turns 86 today, but she’s as active as ever.
Born in 1934 in London, England, Goodall has been curious about animals since she was a child. "When I was 10, everybody laughed at me because I wanted to go to Africa and live with wild animals," she told The National. But she did exactly that, living alongside and researching chimpanzees in Gombe, now Tanzania.
She defied all critics of her gender, youth and non-scientific background, to become a leading scientist and activist.
Doris Day got married on her birthday
Year: 1951
On the day American actress and singer Doris Day married producer Martin Melcher, she also turned 29. It was April 3, 1951 and it was the third time Day was getting wed.
Her first wedding took place in March 1941. She married Al Jorden, a trombonist and violent schizophrenic. This lasted less than 2 years.
The second took place in March 1946, when she married saxophonist George Weidler. They separated three years later.
Day was married to Melcher for 17 years, until his death – and then went on to wed Barry Comden on April 14, 1976. That attempt lasted six years.
She remained unmarried for the rest of her life, a total of 37 years. Day, who also founded a charity called the Doris Day Animal Foundation, died on May 13, 2019 from pneumonia at the age of 97.
