Today In History: Trump Takes NY Primary; Spielberg Arranges Andrea Bocelli Performance For Clintons

April 19, 2017, is the 107th day of the year, with 256 days remaining. The moon is in a third-quarter phase, sometimes called a last-quarter moon, and illumination is at 49 percent.

Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump take New York primary

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton dealt consequential blows to their competitors after commanding victories in the New York primary in 2016. At 2,819,534 votes, Trump seized control of the Republican presidential race with 89 new delegates under his proverbial belt against John Kasich's six delegates and Ted Cruz's count of zero. On the Democrat side, Clinton secured 4,556,124 votes with 139 new delegates against Bernie Sanders' 108.

Trump was declared the winner on the GOP side within a minute of the 9 p.m. poll closings with 60 percent of the vote to his name.

Andrea Bocelli performs for Clintons, backs out of Trump's inauguration

In 1998, Italian classical crossover tenor Andrew Bocelli performed before President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, with the National Symphony Orchestra at the request of famed film director Steven Spielberg. Set at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the performance was held on behalf of the Democratic Party.

Bocelli had been invited to perform at the 2017 presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, but fearing backlash from opponents of Trump and Trump's policies, Bocelli ultimately decided against performing at the event. Trump is known to be a fan of the Lajatico-born singer-songwriter, as revealed when Trump, his daughter, Ivanka, and Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, attended a performance by Bocelli at Central Park one rainy evening in 2011.

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Photo credit: Clinton image via Gage Skidmore, Trump image via Wikimedia Commons