APRIL 26 — 1986 Happy Anniversary Ahnold and Mariah; 1865 John Wilkes Booth dies; 2015 Houston Rocket’s Harden commits record number turnovers for the NBA season
APRIL 26
1986- Happy birthday Arnold and Maria Schwarzenegger.
They met at a celebrity tennis tournament. He’s a republican, she’s a democrat! Ah, the yin and the yang. She was a co-anchor for the CBS morning news in New York, and a Kennedy. Her mom was John and Robert Kennedy’s sister. Her dad, R. Sargent Shriver, was a Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1972.
Arnold, a professional body builder who was born in 1947 in Austria, became an American citizen in 1983. He was five-time Mr. Universe champ, and then became Hercules in New York, and then Conan the Barbarian, and by the time he became the Terminator, he was one of Hollywood’s biggest actors. Literally and monetarily.
Maria was born in 1955, graduated from Georgetown University in 1977, and became a journalist. That’s how she met Tom Brokaw, who introduced her to Arnold. On April 26, 1986 they got married at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in front of 500 guests. Fellow Mr. Universe Franco Columbu was the best man, and Caroline Kennedy was the bride’s maid.
Later in 2003, Schwarzenegger got into politics and became governor of California, ousting Democratic Gray Davies in a recall election. In 2011, Arnold was busted bearing other children with his maid. Shriver allegedly also had an affair, and they divorced.
Rumor has it they may get back together, we’ll see.
1865-John Wilkes Booth perishes in a burning barn.
There was a $20,000 bounty on his head after he shot President Lincoln, and the military was swarming the area looking for him. He was holed up in a barn along with his partner in crime David Herold, who surrendered when authorities showed up and surrounded the barn. Booth did not. They lit the barn on fire, and Sgt. Boston Corbett shot him square in the neck. Corbett said he did it because he saw Booth raise his pistol at him, however the accounts say that Corbett shot Booth “without order, pretext, or excuse”.
Corbett would later be disciplined for not following orders by taking Booth alive. They dragged him out of the barn, and three hours later, Booth whispered, tell my mother I died for my country. Then he raised his hands to his face and as he looked at them he whispered useless, useless, and that was the last thing he said.
There’s another version of how he actually escaped and that they shot a booth look-a-like, and rumors and theories abound on what really happened. I love conspiracy theories, many of them I find hilarious, but we don’t have time to get into that.
Check out the 2010 Robert Redford movie, The Conspirator, where Booth is played by Toby Kebbell.
1931- Lou Gehrig hits a home run
…but is called out for passing a runner, a little mistake that cost him his American League home run crown. He tied with Babe Ruth for the season. Not bad, considering that during the 17 seasons he played with the Yankees, he became a seven-time all star, two time AL MVP, six time World Series Champion, tallied 493 home runs, etc. etc.etc. but had to retire due to being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, at age 36.
2015 James Harden goes on the wrong side of the history books during the Western Conference
Finals. Harden, rocking one of the coolest beards in the history of mankind, was having a fairly decent season s 2015-2016; averaging 28.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists, according to hoopshype.com. The Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors met for the first time during the Western Finals. On this night of Game 4, Harden would score 45 points, but committed too many turnovers, totally 370 for the season, passing the record of Chicago Bull Hall-Of-Famer Artis Gilmore during the 1977-1978. The Rockets would get win this game, but lost the series, and Golen State would beat the Cleveland Cavs to win it all.