This Month In YesterYear History - April

  

In "This Month in YesterYear History," we look back at the big pop culture moments from 

20 (2005), 25 (2000), and 30 (1995) years ago!   

Below, you'll find a little time capsule of what was significant during this month in history.  Hopefully, as you read these brief recaps of the past, you'll remember the who, when, and where of some long-tucked-away memories!  That's the whole point of this site! 

POINTS OF REFERENCE

2005:  On April 3rd, WWE's Wrestlemania XXI (21) took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  John Cena defeats JBL while (now actor) Dave Batista defeats Triple H.  Wrestlemania 21 will forever be remembered as the Wrestlemania with the excellent movie parody commercials.  Those are worth looking up on YouTube if you have time.  On the 4th, North Carolina beats Illinois to win the Men's NCAA Basketball Championship, while Baylor defeats Michigan State on the 5th to win the Women's Championship.  On the 6th, the Washington Nationals (the former Montreal Expos) lost their inaugural opener to the Philadelphia Phillies.  On the 10th, Tiger Woods wins his 4th green jacket at the 69th Masters, following a 1-hole playoff with Chris DiMarco.  On the 14th, the Oregon Supreme Court nullified marriage certificates issued to gay couples a year earlier in Multnomah County.  On the 19th, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected as Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal Conclave.  On the 23rd, YouTube's co-founder uploads the now commonplace website's first video:  Himself at the zoo with two elephants.  It now has over 311 million views.  107 people die in a train crash in Amagaski, Japan, on the 25th.  Also, that day, Bulgaria and Romania signed treaties to join the European Union.  On the 26th, Syria withdraws all troops from Lebanon, ending its 29-year military rule over the country.  The double-decker jumbo jet Airbus A380 makes its first flight in Toulouse, France, on April 27th.

2000:  Boxer Chris Byrd wins the WBO Heavyweight Title after champion Vitali Klitschko goes down in the 9th round with a shoulder injury on April 1st.  Earlier that day, figure skater Michelle Kwan made 7 triple jumps in Nice, France, to become the first American woman since Peggy Flemming (1968) to win 3 world figure skating titles.  On the 2nd, the University of Connecticut wins the Women's NCAA Basketball tournament.  Also on the 2nd, from Anaheim, California, WWE's Wrestlemania XVI takes place.  Triple H wins the World Title by defeating Mick Foley, The Big Show, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  On the 3rd, Michigan State wins the Men's NCAA Basketball tournament.  Nine US Marines are killed on the 8th when an Osprey tilt-wing aircraft crashes in Arizona.  On April 11th, two new MLB baseball fields opened: Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco and Comerica Park in Detroit.  On the 13th, the "Rock for the Rainforest" concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City, featuring performances by Sting, Elton John, Ricky Martin, Billy Joel, and others.  On April 14, Metallica played spoil-sport and filed a lawsuit against the music and movie downloading file-share program Napster.  I spent quite a bit of our old dial-up and DSL bandwidth on Napster, but at least we didn't have as many computer viruses after Metallica got it shut down.  On the 15th, President Bill Clinton signed the "Giant Sequoia National Monument" proclamation, preserving the giant sequoia groves in California and protecting the world's largest trees.  Sequoia National Park is definitely worth the visit, should you ever be in the Fresno area.  Say hi to General Sherman for me!  On the 22nd, the "Big Number Change" occurred in England, where available phone numbers increased five-fold when they switched to an eight-digit dialing number.  On the 30th, Pope John Paul II canonized Polish nun Sister Faustina (Helena Kowalska) as a Saint.  

  

1995:  On the 1st, Carson Wagonlit Travel Agency begins charging a $15 service fee.  This is the first known fee of its kind as commissions are reduced (and today barely existent) after the introduction of direct online bookings as in-home internet use begins to rise.  Also, on the 1st, the New York Islanders retire Bobby Nystrum's number 23.  The 2nd is a big day for hockey fans.  FOX network airs its first NHL hockey game, and with it comes the debut of the FOX TRAX glowing hockey puck.  I know it caught some flack, but I liked it.  Also, the famous Bud Ice "Doobie Doobie Doo" Penguin commercial first aired during this hockey game.  On the 2nd, UConn wins the Women's NCAA Basketball Title.  The longest strike in American sports history (232 days) finally ends as MLB owners accept the player's offer to return to work without a contract on the 2nd.  The MLB was the first major sports league to lose an entire season due to player's union negotiations.  The Sunday NY Times raises its price from $2 to $2.50 on the 3rd.  It now costs over $6.  NFL Linebacker Lawrence Taylor defeats WWE's (WWF's) Bam Bam Bigelow at Wrestlemania 11 in Hartford, Connecticut on the 3rd.  UCLA wins the Men's NCAA Title, also on the 3rd.  Former shock-jock Howard Stern gets into "trouble" when he makes disparaging remarks about the singer Selena, who had been shot and killed days earlier.  On the 8th, Oliver McCall beats Larry Homes after 12 rounds for the Heavyweight boxing title.  On the 10th, New York City became the first to ban smoking in all eating establishments that seat more than 35 people.  On the 18th, legendary quarterback Joe Montana announces his retirement from football.  The next day, a truck bomb exploded at Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168, including 19 children.  Over 500 more were injured.  On the 21st, Timothy McVeigh was arrested for the bombing.  On the 22nd, George Foreman defeats Axel Shulz in Las Vegas for his newest Heavyweight Title.  President Clinton makes April 23, 1995, a federal day of mourning over Oklahoma City.  On the 24th, baseball player Darryl Strawberry is forced to pay nearly $400,000 in back taxes.  On the 26th, Coors Field in Denver opens for the first time when the new Colorado Rockies defeat the Mets 11-9 in 14 innings.  

TOP MOVIES

2005: "Sin City" - 

Sin City (also known as Frank Miller's Sin City) is considered a neo-noir crime anthology film directed by Robert Rodriquez and Frank Miller.  Based on Miller's comic book series of the same name, the film stars an ensemble cast led by Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Elijah Wood.   

Most of the film is based on the first, third, and fourth books in Miller's original comic series.  Broken into three parts, "The Hard Goodbye" is about an ex-con who embarks on a rampage in search of his one-time sweetheart's killer.  "The Big Fat Kill" follows a private eye who gets caught in a street war between prostitutes and a group of mercenaries, the police, and the mob.  "The Yellow Bastard" focuses on an aging police officer who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured serial killer.  The intro and outro of the film are based on the short story "The Customer is Always Right" from the sixth book in the comic series.

Sin City opened on April 1 to box office success, featuring recognition for the film's unique use of black and white while retaining added color for select objects in the movie.  It still holds a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was given four of four stars by Roger Ebert, calling it a "visualization of the pulp noir imagination."  The film grossed over $29 million on its opening weekend but sharply declined in its second weekend.  Ultimately, it led the month with a total gross run of $74.1 million against its $40 million budget.  Worldwide, it earned $158.7 million. 

Miller and Rodriguez directed a sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, in 2014, but it failed to replicate the success of the original.  

2000: "Rules of Engagement" -  

Rules of Engagement was directed by William Friedkin as a war-legal drama starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.  Jackson played U.S. Marine Colonel Terry Childers, who is being court-martialed after being accused of ordering several Marines to kill civilians.  

The script was based on a screenplay by future US Senator James Webb.  It had been in development with Universal for over ten years before being acquired by Paramount Pictures, where it was further developed under producer Scott Rudin.  Sylvester Stallone had been in talks to star in the movie.  Filming took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco, and several locations in Virginia and South Carolina.  

Only 37% of critics' reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, with the critical consensus reading, "The script is unconvincing, and the courtroom action is unengaging."  Roger Ebert gave it two and a half stars, calling it an "expert melodrama" with an "infuriating screenplay."  

The film only earned $71 million worldwide, based on a budget of $60 million, making it considered a financial failure.

1995: "Bad Boys" -  

This action/comedy buddy cop film was directed by Michael Bay in his feature debut.  Produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, it stars Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey.  The two are Miami narcotics detectives who are investigating $100 million worth of stolen heroin and must also protect a woman from an international drug dealer after she witnesses a key murder.

Columbia Pictures released The film on April 7, 1995, and received mixed reviews from critics.  It was commercially successful, grossing over $141 million worldwide.  Three sequels followed, although two significantly after the fact:  Bad Boys II in 2003, Bad Boys for Life in 2020, and Bad Boys: Ride or Die in 2024.  

Michael Bay (the director) did not like the script much and often asked Smith and Lawrence how they could improve the dialogue.  He allowed them to improvise while the cameras were rolling and found the pair's banter to be better than the script.  Bay secretly told Smith to call Lawrence a bitch before the car scene to get a genuine reaction, and the entire "two bitches in the sea" lines were improvised.  

On opening weekend, the film generated $15.5 million to beat out A Goofy Movie (a miscarriage of justice, in my opinion) and Tommy Boy for the number one spot.  It remained at the top until its third week, when it was dethroned by While You Were Sleeping, a film that only made $7 million on its opening weekend.  

TOP SONGS

2005:  "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent featuring Olivia

2000:  "Maria Maria" by Santana 

1995:  "This is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan

TOP TV NEWS

April 2005:  

1st:  ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings hosts what turns out to be his final World News telecast   Four days later, he informs viewers via a taped segment that he was diagnosed with lung cancer and starting treatment   He died less than four months later.

6th:  Meet the Barkers debuts on MTV.

12th:  The Deadliest Catch debuts on Discovery Channel.  

13th:  Revelations, the apocalyptic drama series starring Bill Pullman, debuts on NBC   This show had so much potential as a religious/historical/mystery set in the Holy Land but went off the rails when it centered on an end-of-world cult in the American Southwest   It only lasted 6 episodes.  

15th:  PBS Kids oddly chooses to 'celebrate' paying taxes and "Tax Day" with a two-hour special, "Know Your Dough."  

ABC cancelled the sitcom 8 Simple Rules, which had run since 2002   After John Ritter's death, the show was never the same.

16th:  NBC cancels "LAX" after two seasons.

22nd:  Joan of Arcadia was canceled by CBS after three seasons.

29th:  CBS cancels JAG after 10 seasons and 227 episodes.

April 2000:  

1st:  Cartoon Network moves it's Saturday morning programming block, Boomerang, to its own network   It would initially lean heavily into vintage Hanna-Barbera, especially in brand-identity and imagery, until it's "revamp" in 2015.

MasterChef USA launches on PBS.

4th:  FBI/Mafia crime drama "Falcone" debuts on CBS   It was based on "true-life" events from the film "Donnie Brasco."  It had been intended to air in 1999, but following the Columbine school shooting, CBS opted to not air such a violent and graphic series   When it was aired a year later, they "burned" the entire season's 9 episodes between April 4th and April 12th   It was canceled immediately following.

9th:  Pacific Blue, the crime drama described as "Baywatch on bicycles," was canceled by the USA Network   It had been on since 1996.  

12th:  The FOX series "Get Real" airs its 20th and final episode, leaving 2 unaired episodes   Two of the actors on the show, Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, subsequently had successful film careers.

23rd:  The Nickelodeon series "The Journey of Allen Strange" was canceled after four seasons.

26th:  Bill Cosby's sitcom "Cosby" was canceled by CBS after four seasons   I liked this show and would watch it with my Grandparents   I enjoyed seeing Bill and Phylicia Rashad together again, and I ended up briefly working for Bill himself four years later.

April 1995:  

2nd:  FOX airs NHL games for the first time, introducing the world to the innovative "FOX TRAX" puck that made the television hockey game appear more like a video game.

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel debuts on HBO. 

12th:  Drew Barrymore famously does a dance on David Letterman's desk and "flashes" him in honor of his birthday.

13th:  The syndicated remake of The Pink Panther cartoon series was canceled, having only lasted two seasons.

The Cosby Mysteries, starring Bill Cosby, was canceled by NBC after one season.  

The George Wendt Show was also canceled on this day by NBC   Meant to be a vehicle for the former Cheers star, the show only lasted 6 episodes.

28th-29th:  World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling showcase the "Collision in Korea."  It is the first time ever that an American pro wrestling event was held in North Korea, and one of the few times in history that Americans were allowed in the country   The event was rebroadcast in Japan and the United States, with the main event featuring Ric Flair and Antonio Inoki   Click HERE to listen to a podcast by former WCW executive Eric Bischoff detailing the fascinating events surrounding this momentous occasion.