Moments in Time: Rock Around the Clock
The History Channel
On April 16, 1942, the citizens of the Island of Malta were awarded the George Cross by King George VI in honor of their heroic struggle against nearly continuous bombing by German and Italian forces during the early part of World War II.
On April 12, 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded the rollicking "Rock Around the Clock." While the song was released in May, it didn't hit No. 1 on the pop charts until July 1955, after being used as the theme song for the movie "Blackboard Jungle."
On April 14, 1956, Ampex Corp. demonstrated its first commercial videotape recorder, the VR-1000. CBS was one of the early TV companies to adopt the technology, which allowed a one-hour long program to be recorded on a single reel of tape.
On April 10, 1971, a U.S. table tennis team began a week-long visit to the People's Republic of China at the invitation of China's communist government as part of an effort to build better relations between the two countries.
On April 15, 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke relinquished the Pulitzer Prize she had received just two days earlier for her feature "Jimmy's World," published in the Post on Sept. 29, 1980, about an 8-year-old heroin addict, after admitting she made up the story.
On April 13, 1999, Jack Kevorkian, aka "Dr. Death," was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second degree murder of 52-year-old Thomas Youk, who was in the final stages of ALS. Youk's assisted suicide the previous year was videotaped and shown on the Nov. 23, 1998, broadcast of "60 Minutes." Kevorkian served eight years before being released on parole for good behavior.
On April 11, 2006, the Amsterdam Historical Museum presented an exhibition of Anne Frank's private letters. One of them, which was disapproved of by her father, Otto Frank, talked about her friendship with the boy who shared her family's hiding place. Most of the letters were sent to Anne's relatives in Switzerland.
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