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, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott began a midnight ride from Boston to Lexington to warn residents 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, made his debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe (pictured) took the oath of office to become the first prime minister of Zimbabwe upon the country's independence from the United Kingdom.
- 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. 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)
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after the Oklahoma City bombing
- AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrayed Gaius Calpurnius Piso's plot to kill Roman emperor Nero, leading to the arrest of the conspirators.
- 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which allowed daughters to inherit the Habsburg hereditary possessions.
- 1903 – Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia Governorate, causing the death of nearly 50 Jews and focusing worldwide attention on the persecution of Jews in Russia.
- 1984 – "Advance Australia Fair", written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.
- 1995 – A truck bomb destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (damage pictured) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others.
- Jagat Gosain (d. 1619)
- Elizabeth Dilling (b. 1894)
- Michel Roux (b. 1941)
April 20: First day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2021); 420 (cannabis culture)
Billie Holiday
- 1535 – Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the painting Vädersolstavlan, the oldest colour depiction of the city.
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: Commanded by Napoleon, Franco-German forces defeated a reinforced Austrian corps at the Battle of Abensberg.
- 1939 – Billie Holiday (pictured) recorded the song "Strange Fruit", which later became an emblem of the civil rights movement.
- 1968 – Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada, succeeding Lester B. Pearson.
- 2010 – An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
- Peter Bartholomew (d. 1099)
- Dave Bancroft (b. 1891)
- Frances Ames (b. 1920)
April 21: Grounation Day (Rastafari); Rama Navami (Hinduism, 2021); Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2021)
Sam Houston
- 1836 – Forces of the Republic of Texas led by Sam Houston (pictured) defeated the Mexican troops of General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution.
- 1958 – United Airlines Flight 736 collided with a U.S. Air Force fighter jet over southern Nevada, resulting in the deaths of all 49 people on board both aircraft.
- 1970 – In response to a dispute over wheat production quotas, Leonard Casley declared his 75 km2 (29 sq mi) farm in Western Australia to be an independent country as the Hutt River Province.
- 2010 – Ukraine and Russia signed the Kharkiv Pact, extending the Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea.
- Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109)
- Simon de la Loubère (b. 1642)
- Vivian Maier (d. 2009)
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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