John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison)
(May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)

On April 7, 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne won his first
—and only—acting Academy Award, for his star turn in the
director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit.

Wayne appeared in some 150 movies over the course of his long
and storied career. He established his tough, rugged, uniquely
American screen persona most vividly in the many acclaimed
films he made for the directors John Ford and Howard Hawks
from the late 1940s into the early 1960s. He earned his first
Oscar nomination, in the Best Actor category, for Sands of Iwo
Jima (1949). The Alamo (1960), which Wayne produced, directed
and  starred in, earned a Best Picture nomination.

1969

 
President Woodrow Wilson addresses congress to declare
war on Germany.

The United States plunged ferociously into World War I following
a vote in the House of Representatives on this day in history,
April 6, 1917.

President Woodrow Wilson requested a declaration of war against Germany before a joint session of Congress on April 2, as the
United States faced both the threat of unrestricted submarine
warfare from Germany and the potential of its alliance with
Mexico to seize vast swaths of the American West.

The Senate voted in favor of the war declaration two days later. 

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989)

Bette Davis, a Hollywood legend whose "raw, unbridled intensity
kept her at the top of her profession for 50 years," as Encyclopedia Britannica put it, was born on this day in history, April 5, 1908.

A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian
to accrue ten nominations.

    
1931  (Bette Davis film debut)

  
      

1989  (Final film role)
      
      
      
     

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was
fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-
story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)