Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April
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| << | Selected anniversaries for April | >> | ||||
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2021 day arrangement | ||||||
April 1: Paschal Triduum begins (Western Christianity, 2021); Iranian Islamic Republic Day (1979)
First locomotive used on the Brill Tramway
- 1340 – A band of warriors led by Niels Ebbesen killed Count Gerhard III, ending Holstein rule in Denmark.
- 1871 – The Duke of Buckingham opened the first section of the Brill Tramway (locomotive pictured), a short railway line to transport goods between his lands and the national rail network.
- 1933 – English cricketer Wally Hammond set a record for the highest individual score in Test cricket of 336 not out during a match against New Zealand.
- 2001 – An American Lockheed EP-3 and a Chinese Shenyang J-8 collided in mid-air off the island of Hainan, resulting in an international dispute between the two countries.
- Aimery of Cyprus (d. 1205)
- Ferruccio Busoni (b. 1866)
- Alan Kulwicki (d. 1993)
April 2: World Autism Awareness Day; Feast day of Saint Francis of Paola (Catholicism)
Hatton Garden safe-deposit facility
- 1865 – American Civil War: On the third attempt, Union forces captured Petersburg, Virginia, although Confederate officials and most of their remaining troops were able to escape.
- 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the first national census of the country.
- 1979 – Spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military research facility near the city of Sverdlovsk, causing around 100 deaths.
- 1992 – Bosnian War: At least 48 civilians were massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 2015 – Six elderly men burgled a safe-deposit facility (pictured) in Hatton Garden, London, and stole items worth up to an estimated £14 million.
- Maria Sibylla Merian (b. 1647)
- Albert Pike (d. 1891)
- Sue Townsend (b. 1946)
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Seal of Edward the Confessor
- 1043 – Edward the Confessor (depicted on seal), usually considered to be the last king of the House of Wessex, was crowned King of England.
- 1559 – Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain signed the second of two treaties to end the last Italian War.
- 1946 – Imperial Japanese Army officer Masaharu Homma was executed for war crimes committed during the Bataan Death March.
- 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, was unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
- 1996 – A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while attempting an instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing all 35 people on board, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
- Thomas C. Kinkaid (b. 1888)
- Pál Teleki (d. 1941)
- Graham Greene (d. 1991)
April 4: Easter (Western Christianity, 2021)
William Henry Harrison
- 1268 – The Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice signed a treaty that brought seven years of hostilities to a temporary end.
- 1841 – William Henry Harrison (pictured) became the first U.S. president to die in office, sparking a brief constitutional crisis regarding questions of presidential succession that were left unanswered by the U.S. Constitution.
- 1859 – Bryant's Minstrels premiered the minstrel song "Dixie" in New York City as part of their blackface show.
- 1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
- 2013 – A building collapsed on tribal land in Mumbra, a suburb of Thane in Maharashtra, India, causing 74 deaths.
- Robert III of Scotland (d. 1406)
- Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours (b. 1752)
- Karen Spärck Jones (d. 2007)
April 5: Hansik in South Korea (2021)
Akashi Kaikyō Bridge
- 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first legislation in Great Britain providing for copyright regulated by the government and courts, received royal assent and went into effect five days later.
- 1936 – An F5 tornado struck Tupelo, Mississippi, and killed at least 216 people during one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
- 1966 – During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese military prime minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempted to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down.
- 1998 – The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge (pictured), the longest suspension bridge in the world, linking Awaji Island and Kobe in Japan, opened to traffic.
- Ivan Kőszegi (d. 1308)
- Henry Havelock (b. 1795)
- Julio Ángel Fernández (b. 1946)
Cover of the official report for the 1896 Olympics
- 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Egyptian Ayyubid forces defeated the Crusader army at the Battle of Fariskur in Egypt, capturing King Louis IX of France as a hostage.
- 1808 – John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company, the profits from which made him the first multi-millionaire in the United States.
- 1896 – The first modern Olympic Games (cover of official report shown) opened in Athens, with athletes from 14 nations participating in 43 events.
- 1941 – World War II: German forces invaded Greece, beginning Operation Marita.
- 2009 – Mass protests began across Moldova against the results of the parliamentary election.
- Henry Barrowe (d. 1593)
- René Lalique (b. 1860)
- Ng Ser Miang (b. 1949)
April 7: National Beer Day in the United States
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Juvénal Habyarimana
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh, the bloodiest battle in U.S. history at the time, in Hardin County, Tennessee.
- 1896 – An Arctic expedition led by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen reached 86°13.6′N, almost three degrees beyond the previous Farthest North latitude.
- 1948 – The United Nations established the World Health Organization to act as a coordinating authority on international public health.
- 1994 – Rwandan Civil War: The Rwandan genocide began a few hours after the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana (pictured), with hundreds of thousands killed in the following 100 days.
- 2017 – A hijacked truck was deliberately driven into crowds along Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people.
- George the Standard-Bearer (d. 821)
- Bert Ironmonger (b. 1882)
- Santa Barraza (b. 1951)
Krak des Chevaliers
- 1271 – The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers (pictured) to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baibars.
- 1911 – American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo, one of the earliest animated films.
- 1943 – Otto and Elise Hampel were executed in Berlin for performing acts of resistance against Nazism.
- 1961 – A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf killed 238 people.
- 1968 – BOAC Flight 712 experienced an engine fire shortly after take-off from London Heathrow, leading to the deaths of five people on board, including flight attendant Jane Harrison, who was posthumously awarded a George Cross for heroism.
- Allen Butler Talcott (b. 1867)
- Marie Byles (b. 1900)
- Kofi Annan (b. 1938)
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Boeing 737 on its maiden flight
- 1866 – The Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first United States federal law to affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law, was enacted.
- 1917 – First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
- 1948 – Palestine war: Fighters from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi attacked Deir Yassin, a village near Jerusalem, killing more than 100 Palestinian Arabs.
- 1967 – The first Boeing 737 took its maiden flight (pictured), eventually becoming the most produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.
- 1993 – Iranian filmmaker Morteza Avini was killed by a land mine in Fakkeh while producing a documentary.
- Jean Quintin (d. 1561)
- Mary Jackson (b. 1921)
- Vilhelm Bjerknes (d. 1951)
M87* imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope
- 1741 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussian forces defeated Austrian troops at the Battle of Mollwitz in present-day Małujowice, Poland, cementing Frederick II's authority over the newly conquered territory of Silesia.
- 1826 – Greek War of Independence: Inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi attempted to escape a year-long siege, but were caught and killed by Ottoman forces.
- 1925 – The novel The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published by Scribner's.
- 2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project published the first image of a black hole (depicted), located at the center of the galaxy M87.
- Giovanni Aldini (b. 1762)
- Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (b. 1917)
- Carole Goble (b. 1961)
April 11: Divine Mercy Sunday (Catholicism, Anglicanism; 2021)
Emir Abdullah of Transjordan
- 1544 – Italian War of 1542–1546: French and Spanish forces fought a massive pitched battle in the Piedmont region of Italy.
- 1888 – The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, considered one of the world's finest concert halls, was inaugurated.
- 1921 – Emir Abdullah (pictured) established the first centralised government in the recently created British protectorate of Transjordan.
- 1951 – U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements about the Korean War that contradicted the administration's policies.
- 2001 – In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated American Samoa by a score of 31–0, the largest margin of victory ever in an international football match.
- Ramadan ibn Alauddin (d. 1349)
- Charles Evans Hughes (b. 1862)
- Bunny Ahearne (d. 1985)
April 12: Cosmonautics Day in Russia (1961); Yuri's Night
Yuri Gagarin
- 1831 – Broughton Suspension Bridge near Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step across the bridge.
- 1861 – Confederate forces began bombarding Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War.
- 1961 – Aboard Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (pictured) performed the first human spaceflight, completing one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes.
- 2013 – Four Chadian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing by jihadist rebels in Kidal, Mali.
- Tenby Davies (b. 1884)
- Beverly Cleary (b. 1916)
- Karim Fakhrawi (d. 2011)
April 13: First day of Ramadan (Islam, 2021); Vaisakhi (Sikhism, 2021); Cheti Chand begins / Ugadi in parts of India (Hinduism, 2021)
Ba Cụt
- 1742 – Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah was first performed in Dublin.
- 1946 – Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone.
- 1956 – The Vietnamese National Army captured Ba Cụt (pictured), a military commander of the Hòa Hảo religious sect, which ran a de facto state in South Vietnam in opposition to Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm.
- 1997 – In golf, 21-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest player to win the Masters Tournament, breaking its record for the lowest four-round score.
- Henry De la Beche (d. 1855)
- Al Green (b. 1946)
- Danie Mellor (b. 1971)
April 14: Tamil New Year and other New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asia (2021); Day of the Georgian Language (1978); N'Ko Alphabet Day in West Africa (1949); Yom HaZikaron in Israel (2021)
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Damage to the Apollo 13 service module
- 1865 – Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fatally shot U.S. president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
- 1909 – Following a reactionary military revolt against the Committee of Union and Progress, a mob began a massacre of Armenian Christians in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1967 – After leading a military coup three months earlier, Gnassingbé Eyadéma installed himself as President of Togo, a post that he held until 2005.
- 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded (damage pictured), causing the NASA spacecraft to lose most of its oxygen and electrical power.
- 2014 – Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in the town of Chibok, Nigeria.
- Alexander Greenlaw Hamilton (b. 1852)
- Yakov Dzhugashvili (d. 1943)
- Lita (b. 1975)
April 15: Independence Day in Israel (2021); Day of the Sun in North Korea
- 1638 – The Tokugawa shogunate put down a rebellion by Japanese Catholic peasants in Shimabara Domain over increased taxes, resulting in greater enforcement of the policy of national seclusion.
- 1738 – Serse (audio featured), an opera by Baroque composer George Frideric Handel loosely based on Xerxes I of Persia, premiered in London.
- 1936 – A group of Arabs in British Mandatory Palestine killed two Jews at a roadblock, an act widely viewed as the beginning of violence within the Arab revolt.
- 1958 – On Walter O'Malley's initiative, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants played the first Major League Baseball game on the U.S. West Coast.
- George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (d. 1632)
- Richard von Weizsäcker (b. 1920)
- Dara Torres (b. 1967)
MV Sewol
- 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: Severely outnumbered French forces repulsed an Ottoman attack at the Battle of Mount Tabor in present-day Israel.
- 1847 – New Zealand Wars: A minor Māori chief was accidentally shot by a junior British Army officer in the settlement of Whanganui on New Zealand's North Island, triggering the Whanganui campaign.
- 1917 – Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, where he joined the Bolshevik movement in Russia.
- 1963 – In response to an open letter written by white clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail in defence of the strategy of nonviolent resistance against racism.
- 2014 – The ferry MV Sewol (pictured) sank off Donggeochado, South Korea, killing 304 of 476 passengers on board, most of whom were students from Danwon High School.
- Frederick I, Duke of Austria (d. 1198)
- John Millington Synge (b. 1871)
- Johnnie Lewis (b. 1946)
April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)
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Modern reconstruction of Kaunas Castle
- 1080 – Canute IV became King of Denmark upon the death of his brother Harald III.
- 1362 – Lithuanian Crusade: After a month-long siege, forces of the Teutonic Order captured and destroyed Kaunas Castle (reconstruction pictured), which was defended by troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1907 – Minas Geraes, the first of three Brazilian dreadnought battleships, was laid down, sparking a vastly expensive South American naval arms race with Argentina and Chile.
- 1951 – The Peak District was designated the first national park in the United Kingdom.
- Marino Faliero (d. 1355)
- William R. Day (b. 1849)
- Elda Emma Anderson (d. 1961)
Robert Mugabe
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Colonists Paul Revere and William Dawes, who were later joined by Samuel Prescott, began a midnight ride to warn residents of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, about the impending arrival of British troops.
- 1915 – World War I: Hit by ground fire, French aviation pioneer Roland Garros landed his aircraft behind enemy lines and was taken prisoner.
- 1938 – Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of DC Comics, made his debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe (pictured) became the first prime minister of Zimbabwe after the Lancaster House Agreement brought an end to the unrecognized state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
- 1996 – Operation Grapes of Wrath: Israeli forces shelled Qana, Lebanon, killing at least 100 civilians and injuring more than 110 others at a United Nations compound.
- Ippolita Maria Sforza (b. 1445 or 1446)
- Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (b. 1838)
- Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (d. 1942)
April 19: Feast day of Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury (Catholicism, Anglicanism); Patriots' Day in various U.S. states (2021)
Mae West
- 797 – Byzantine emperor Constantine VI was captured, blinded, and imprisoned by the supporters of his mother Irene.
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: The French won a hard-fought victory over Austria in Lower Bavaria when their opponents withdrew from the field of battle that evening.
- 1927 – American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her play Sex.
- 1971 – The first space station, Salyut 1, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR, USSR.
- 1984 – "Advance Australia Fair", written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.
- George St Lo (b. 1655)
- Sarah Bagley (b. 1806)
- Michel Roux (b. 1941)
April 20: First day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2021); 420 (cannabis culture)
Fernando Lugo
- 1537 – Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
- 1818 – Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
- 1914 – A fire and a gun battle between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow Massacre.
- 1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace, forcing it to make an emergency landing.
- 2008 – Fernando Lugo (pictured) became the first non–Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.
- William Bedloe (b. 1650)
- David Brainerd (b. 1718)
- Vjekoslav Luburić (d. 1969)
April 21: Grounation Day (Rastafari)
Washington's reception at Trenton depicted by N. C. Wyeth
- 900 – A debt was pardoned by the chief of Tondo on the island of Luzon and recorded on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known calendar-dated document found in the Philippines.
- 1789 – The Ladies of Trenton social club hosted a reception (depicted) for President-elect George Washington as he journeyed to New York City for his first inauguration.
- 1863 – Following his exile from Baghdad, Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, began a twelve-day stay in the Garden of Ridván, where he declared himself to be "He whom God shall make manifest".
- 1975 – Vietnam War: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned as President of South Vietnam and was succeeded by Trần Văn Hương as the town of Xuân Lộc fell after a last stand.
- Max Weber (b. 1864)
- John Maynard Keynes (d. 1946)
- Dorothy Eady (d. 1981)
Pedro Álvares Cabral
- 1500 – A fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral (pictured) anchored off the coast of present-day Brazil, claiming the land for the Portuguese Empire.
- 1864 – The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of a two-cent coin, the first U.S. currency to bear the phrase "In God We Trust".
- 1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
- 1993 – Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager, was murdered while waiting for a bus in Eltham, London, leading to cultural changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice.
- 2013 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested two men who were plotting to commit terrorist attacks against Via Rail operations.
- James Sullivan (b. 1744)
- Emily Davies (b. 1830)
- Käthe Kollwitz (d. 1945)
April 23: National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey (1920)
Edmund Ironside
- 1016 – Edmund Ironside (pictured) became King of England, reigning for only seven months before the country was conquered by Cnut the Great.
- 1516 – The best-known version of the Reinheitsgebot, a German law on the purity of beer, was adopted in Bavaria.
- 1918 – First World War: The British Royal Navy conducted an unsuccessful raid on the German-occupied Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium.
- 1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis was arrested for espionage by the communist government of Czechoslovakia.
- 1971 – The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers, the first album on their own label, Rolling Stones Records.
- Wihtred of Kent (d. 725)
- Jim Bottomley (b. 1900)
- Leni Robredo (b. 1965)
April 24: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (1915)
The original Library of Congress building, Washington, D.C.
- 1800 – The Library of Congress (building pictured), the de facto national library of the United States, was established as part of an act of Congress providing for the transfer of the nation's capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.
- 1866 – German composer Max Bruch conducted the premiere of his first violin concerto, which later became his most famous work.
- 1915 – The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire began with the arrest and deportation of hundreds of prominent Armenians in Constantinople.
- 2011 – Secret documents relating to detainees at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp were released on WikiLeaks and several independent news organizations.
- Benjamin Lee Whorf (b. 1897)
- Bridget Riley (b. 1931)
- Kumar Dharmasena (b. 1971)
April 25: Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (1915); Liberation Day in Italy (1945)
USS Triton (SSRN-586)
- 1644 – Ming–Qing transition: The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
- 1792 – The French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by guillotine.
- 1915 – First World War: The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles to begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.
- 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine Triton (pictured) completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
- 2015 – An earthquake registering 7.8 Mw struck Nepal, resulting in approximately 9,000 deaths and 22,000 injuries.
- Henri Duveyrier (d. 1892)
- Emmeline B. Wells (d. 1921)
- John McFall (b. 1981)
April 26: World Intellectual Property Day
Lorenzo de' Medici
- 1478 – In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici (portrait shown) and killed his brother Giuliano at Florence Cathedral.
- 1865 – U.S. Army soldiers cornered and fatally shot John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, ending a twelve-day manhunt.
- 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established.
- 1989 – An editorial was published in the People's Daily denouncing the growing unrest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing which would remain contentious through the remainder of the protests.
- 1994 – Just before landing at Nagoya Airport, Japan, the copilot of China Airlines Flight 140 inadvertently triggered the takeoff/go-around switch, causing the aircraft to crash and killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
- Marcus Aurelius (b. 121)
- Nano Nagle (d. 1784)
- Margaret Gowing (b. 1921)
April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands
Magellan's death at the Battle of Mactan
- 395 – Aelia Eudoxia married Byzantine emperor Arcadius without the knowledge or consent of Rufinus, the Praetorian prefect who had intended for his own daughter to wed the emperor.
- 1521 – Filipino natives led by chieftain Lapulapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan at the Battle of Mactan (depicted).
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British Army regulars defeated Patriot militias in the Battle of Ridgefield, galvanizing resistance in the Connecticut Colony.
- 1904 – Chris Watson became the first prime minister of Australia from the Labour Party.
- Margaret Macpherson Grant (b. 1834)
- Rogers Hornsby (b. 1896)
- Vinod Khanna (d. 2017)
April 28: Workers' Memorial Day
Nichiren
- 1253 – The Japanese monk Nichiren (pictured) first expounded the mantra Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, declaring it to be the essence of Buddhism and leading to the foundation of Nichiren Buddhism.
- 1789 – Fletcher Christian, the acting lieutenant on board the Royal Navy ship Bounty, led a mutiny against the commander William Bligh in the South Pacific.
- 1910 – Flying from London to Manchester, French aviator Louis Paulhan won the first long-distance aeroplane race in England.
- 1941 – World War II: Presaging a campaign of genocide against the Serbs of Croatia, around 190 people were massacred by members of the Ustaše movement in Gudovac.
- 2001 – American entrepreneur Dennis Tito boarded the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 to the International Space Station, becoming the world's first fee-paying space tourist.
- Shajar al-Durr (d. 1257)
- Tristan Tzara (b. 1896)
- Hermann Fegelein (d. 1945)
Centaurus A
- 1770 – On his first voyage, British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour landed at Botany Bay near present-day Sydney, making the first recorded European contact with the eastern coast of Australia.
- 1826 – In Parramatta, Australia, Scottish astronomer James Dunlop discovered Centaurus A (pictured), which was later recognised as one of the nearest radio galaxies to Earth.
- 1944 – Second World War: British agent Nancy Wake parachuted into Auvergne, France, becoming a liaison between the Special Operations Executive and the local Maquis group.
- 1991 – A powerful tropical cyclone struck Chittagong, Bangladesh, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving up to 10 million homeless across the region.
- 2011 – Watched by a worldwide television audience of tens of millions, Prince William and Catherine Middleton were married at Westminster Abbey in London.
- Catherine of Siena (d. 1380)
- Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (b. 1882)
- Arthur B. C. Walker Jr. (d. 2001)
April 30: Lag BaOmer (Judaism, 2021); Reunification Day in Vietnam (1975)
Mary Pickford's handprints and footprints
- 1883 – New York governor Grover Cleveland signed legislation that led to the creation of Niagara Falls State Park, the United States' first state park.
- 1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first two celebrities to make imprints of their hands and feet in cement (Pickford's pictured) at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
- 1982 – Sixteen monks and a nun belonging to Ananda Marga in Calcutta, India, were dragged out of taxis by persons unknown in three different locations, beaten to death and then set on fire.
- 2004 – The New Yorker published an online article and photographs detailing accounts of torture and abuse by American military personnel of Iraqi prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
- Rodrigo Anes de Sá Almeida e Meneses (d. 1733)
- Luigi Russolo (b. 1885)
- Roger L. Easton (b. 1921)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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