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); Rama Navami (Hinduism, 2021); Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2021)
Reception to Washington on April 21, 1789, at Trenton by N. C. Wyeth
- 900 – A debt was pardoned by the Datu of Tondo on the island of Luzon, as inscribed on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known written document found in the Philippines.
- 1789 – The Ladies of Trenton social club hosted a reception (depicted) for president-elect George Washinton 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".
- 1925 or 1926 – Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four of the Twelve Imams of Shia Islam, was demolished by Wahhabis.
- 1975 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned as president of South Vietnam, and was replaced by Trần Văn Hương, as Xuân Lộc fell after a last stand.
- Max Weber (b. 1864)
- John Maynard Keynes (d. 1946)
- Dorothy Eady (d. 1981)
Two-cent piece first issued in 1864
- 1500 – Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet 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 (pictured), the first U.S. currency to bear the phrase "In God We Trust".
- 1915 – World War I: German forces released 168 tons of chlorine gas at the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres, causing thousands of casualties among French troops.
- 1969 – British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston completed the first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world, winning the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.
- 2000 – In a pre-dawn raid, U.S. federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami and returned him to his Cuban father.
- Miguel de Cervantes (d. 1616)
- Laura Gilpin (b. 1891)
- Wilhelm Cauer (d. 1945)
April 23: National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey (1920)
Hank Aaron
- 1014 – Forces led by Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, defeated an alliance of Viking and Irish troops at the Battle of Clontarf, which ended with Brian's death.
- 1661 – Charles II was crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1920 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the country's unicameral legislature, first met in Ankara in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence.
- 1954 – Batting for the Milwaukee Braves against Vic Raschi of the St. Louis Cardinals, Hank Aaron (pictured) hit the first of his 755 home runs in Major League Baseball.
- 2010 – Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the controversial anti–illegal immigration bill SB 1070, much of which was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Béla III of Hungary (d. 1196)
- Joan of Acre (d. 1307)
- Leni Robredo (b. 1965)
April 24: Holy Week begins (Eastern Christianity, 2021); Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (1915)
Hubble Space Telescope
- 1479 BC – Thutmose III became the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, with his aunt and stepmother Hatshepsut as coregent.
- 1866 – German composer Max Bruch conducted the premiere of his first violin concerto, which later became his most famous work.
- 1913 – The Woolworth Building in New York City officially opened; at the time, it was the tallest building in the world, with a height of 792 ft (241 m).
- 1965 – Cold War: The Dominican Civil War broke out due to tensions following a military coup of the democratically elected government of President Juan Bosch two years earlier.
- 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope (pictured) was launched aboard STS-31 by Space Shuttle Discovery.
- Xu Guangqi (b. 1562)
- Anthony Trollope (b. 1815)
- Sathya Sai Baba (d. 2011)
April 25: Holy Week begins (Eastern Christianity, 2021); Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (1915); Liberation Day in Italy (1945)
USS Triton (SSRN-586)
- 775 – The Abbasid army won a decisive victory over the forces of rebelling Armenian princes at the Battle of Bagrevand.
- 1846 – Mexican–American War: Mexican forces defeated American troops over the disputed border of Texas, later serving as the primary justification for the U.S. Congress's declaration of war on Mexico.
- 1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allies of World War I passed a resolution allocating League of Nations mandates for the administration of former Ottoman territories in the Middle East.
- 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton (pictured) completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
- 1974 - The Carnation Revolution took place in Portugal ending the 48 year long autoritarian dictatorship( Estado Novo (Portugal) ).
- 1990 – Violeta Chamorro took office as president of Nicaragua, becoming the first female head of state in the Americas to have been elected in her own right.
- Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester (d. 1264)
- Georg Sverdrup (b. 1770)
- Emmeline B. Wells (d. 1921)
- Al Pacino (b. 1940)
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 during Mass.
- 1944 – World War II: U.S. Navy submarines began attacks on Japan's Take Ichi convoy as it sailed in waters between Taiwan and the Philippines, eventually sinking four vessels and killing more than 4,000 troops.
- 1970 – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) came into being when the WIPO Convention entered into force.
- 2007 – Controversy surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet Red Army World War II memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, erupted into mass protests and riots.
- Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (b. 1782)
- Srinivasa Ramanujan (d. 1920)
- Giorgio Moroder (b. 1940)
April 27: King's Day in the Netherlands
Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn
- 1521 – Filipino natives led by chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan at the Battle of Mactan.
- 1650 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Covenanter forces defeated an invading Royalist army at the Battle of Carbisdale near the village of Culrain, Scotland.
- 1945 – The photograph Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn (pictured) was taken after German troops withdrew to Norway on the last day of the Second World War in Finland, ending the Lapland War.
- 2005 – The Airbus A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world, made its maiden flight from Toulouse, France.
- Mary Wollstonecraft (b. 1759)
- Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822)
- Olivier Messiaen (d. 1992)
April 28: Workers' Memorial Day
Mounted police, including one on a white horse, maintaining order at the FA Cup Final
- 224 – The ancient Iranian Parthian Empire fell to the Sasanids after its forces were defeated at the Battle of Hormozdgan.
- 1789 – Near the island of Tofua, Fletcher Christian, acting lieutenant on board the Royal Navy ship Bounty, led a mutiny against the commander, William Bligh.
- 1923 – The 1923 FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was held on the opening day (crowd and police pictured) of the Empire Stadium in London.
- 2008 – The 1,388-foot-tall (423.2 m) Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, the building with the world's highest residence above ground level at the time, held its grand opening.
- Rhys ap Gruffydd (d. 1197)
- Elena Kagan (b. 1960)
- Bradley Wiggins (b. 1980)
Replica of HMS Endeavour
- 1770 – On his first voyage, British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour (replica pictured) landed at Botany Bay near present-day Sydney, making the first recorded European contact with the eastern coast of Australia.
- 1903 – A rockslide buried the Canadian mining town of Frank under more than 110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of rock, killing at least 70 people.
- 1945 – World War II: The U.S. Army liberated Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, and killed German prisoners of war.
- 1970 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces began the Cambodian campaign, aiming to attack North Vietnamese jungle bases.
- 2015 – The ringleaders of the Bali Nine were executed in Indonesia for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin to Australia in 2005.
- Louis II of Anjou (d. 1417)
- Thomas Beecham (b. 1879)
- Uma Thurman (b. 1970)
April 30: Reunification Day in Vietnam (1975)
Faustina Kowalska
- 313 – Civil wars of the Tetrarchy: An outnumbered army led by Roman emperor Licinius defeated his rival Maximinus II's forces at the Battle of Tzirallum.
- 1598 – King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, granting freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
- 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opened near Alderson, West Virginia, as the first federal prison for women in the United States.
- 1945 – World War II: As Allied forces closed in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker one day after their marriage.
- 2000 – Faustina Kowalska (portrait shown), a Polish nun whose apparitions of Jesus inspired the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy, was canonized by Pope John Paul II.
- Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (b. 1651)
- Dadasaheb Phalke (b. 1870)
- Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982)
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