On April 23, 1564, English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare is believed to have been born; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.
In 1896 the Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York.
In 1940 about 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez, Miss.
In 1969 Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating Sen. Robert Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)
In 1985 Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke. (Negative consumer reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version).
In 1996 a Bronx civil-court jury ordered Bernhard Goetz to pay $43 million to Darrell Cabey, one of four young men he’d shot on a subway car in 1984.
In 2002 American cardinals opened an extraordinary meeting with top Vatican officials to discuss a sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.
