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April 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).
43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
900 – The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.
1092 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II
1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
1526 – The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.
1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.
1782 – The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
1789 – George Washington’s reception at Trenton is hosted by the Ladies of Trenton as he journeys to New York City for his first inauguration.
1792 – Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil’s independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
1802 – Twelve thousand Wahhabis under Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, invaded city of Karbala, killed over three thousand inhabitants, and sacked the city.
1806 – Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.
1809 – Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.
1821 – Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.
1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1856 – Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.
1894 – Norway formally adopts the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
1914 – Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.
1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
1926 – Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four Shi’a Imams, is leveled to the ground by Wahhabis.
1934 – The “Surgeon’s Photograph”, the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.
1952 – Secretary’s Day (now Administrative Professionals’ Day) is first celebrated.
1958 – United Airlines Flight 736 collides into a United States Air Force fighter jet near Arden, Nevada in what is now Enterprise, Nevada.
1960 – Brasília, Brazil’s capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
1962 – The Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World’s Fair in the United States since World War II.
1963 – The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Bahá’í Faith.
1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair opens for its second and final season.
1966 – Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
1967 – A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d’état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
1975 – Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
1977 – Annie opens on Broadway.
1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.
1987 – The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.
1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
1993 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
2004 – Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.
2010 – The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.
2012 – Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
2014 – The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and 15 deaths from Legionnaires disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
2019 – Eight bombs explode at churches, hotels, and other locations in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday; more than 200 people are killed.

Births on April 21

1132 – Sancho VI, king of Navarre (d. 1194)
1488 – Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (d. 1523)
1523 – Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (d. 1571)
1555 – Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter and etcher (d. 1619)
1619 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (d. 1677)
1630 – Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Dutch-English painter (d. 1700)
1631 – Francesco Maidalchini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1700)
1642 – Simon de la Loubère, French mathematician, poet, and diplomat (d. 1729)
1651 – Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankan priest, missionary, and saint (d. 1711)
1652 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician and academic (d. 1719)
1671 – John Law, Scottish economist (d. 1729)
1673 – Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1742)
1713 – Louis de Noailles, French general (d. 1793)
1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788)
1752 – Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer, hydrographer, and politician, French Minister of Marine and the Colonies (d. 1807)
1752 – Humphry Repton, English gardener and author (d. 1818)
1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1862)
1775 – Alexander Anderson, Scottish-American illustrator and engraver (d. 1870)
1790 – Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (d. 1876)
1810 – John Putnam Chapin, American politician, 10th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1864)
1811 – Alson Sherman, American merchant and politician, 8th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1903)
1814 – Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, English art collector and philanthropist (d. 1906)
1816 – Charlotte Brontë, Cornish-English novelist and poet (d. 1855)
1837 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish lieutenant and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
1838 – John Muir, Scottish-American environmentalist and author (d. 1914)
1851 – Charles Barrois, French geologist and palaeontologist (d. 1939)
1854 – William Stang, German-American bishop (d. 1907)
1864 – Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (d. 1920)
1868 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (d. 1932)
1870 – Edwin Stanton Porter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1941)
1874 – Vincent Scotto, French actor and composer (d. 1952)
1882 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
1885 – Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1967)
1887 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball manager (d. 1978)
1889 – Marcel Boussac, French businessman (d. 1980)
1889 – Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
1892 – Freddie Dixon, English motorcycle racer and racing driver (d. 1956)
1893 – Romeo Bertini, Italian runner (d. 1973)
1898 – Maurice Wilson, English soldier, pilot, and mountaineer (d. 1934)
1899 – Randall Thompson, American composer and academic (d. 1984)
1903 – Luis Saslavsky, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1904 – Jean Hélion, French painter (d. 1987)
1904 – Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (d. 1945)
1905 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)
1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (d. 2000)
1911 – Kemal Satır, Turkish physician and politician (d. 1991)
1912 – Eve Arnold, Russian-American photojournalist (d. 2012)
1912 – Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1913 – Norman Parkinson, English photographer (d. 1990)
1914 – Angelo Savoldi, Italian-American wrestler and promoter, co-founded International World Class Championship Wrestling (d. 2013)
1915 – Garrett Hardin, American ecologist, author, and academic (d. 2003)
1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (d. 2001)
1916 – Estella B. Diggs, American businesswoman and politician (d. 2013)
1918 – Eddy Christiani, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1919 – Don Cornell, American singer (d. 2004)
1919 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (d. 1981)
1919 – Licio Gelli, Italian financer (d. 2015)
1920 – Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (d. 1991)
1922 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1922 – Allan Watkins, Welsh-English cricketer (d. 2011)
1923 – John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (d. 2009)
1924 – Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (d. 1965)
1925 – Anthony Mason, Australian soldier and judge, 9th Chief Justice of Australia
1925 – John Swinton of Kimmerghame, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (d. 2018)
1926 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms
1926 – Arthur Rowley, English footballer, manager and cricketer (d. 2002)
1927 – Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (d. 1991)
1928 – Jack Evans, Welsh-Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
1930 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (d. 2004)
1930 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
1930 – Dieter Roth, German-Swiss illustrator and sculptor (d. 1998)
1930 – Jack Taylor, English footballer and referee (d. 2012)
1931 – Morgan Wootten, American high school basketball coach (d. 2020)
1932 – Slide Hampton, African-American trombonist and composer
1932 – Elaine May, American actress, comedian, director, and screenwriter
1932 – Angela Mortimer, English tennis player
1933 – Edelmiro Amante, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator
1933 – Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (d. 2014)
1935 – Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host
1935 – Thomas Kean, American academic and politician, 48th Governor of New Jersey
1936 – James Dobson, American evangelist, psychologist, and author, founded Focus on the Family
1936 – Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2009)
1937 – Gary Peters, American baseball player
1937 – Ben Zinn, Israeli-born American academic and former international soccer player
1939 – John McCabe, English pianist and composer (d. 2015)
1939 – Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, activist, and author
1939 – Reni Santoni, American actor
1940 – Jacques Caron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1940 – Souleymane Cissé, Malian director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 – David L. Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma
1942 – Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand politician, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
1945 – Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Indian cricketer and umpire
1945 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (d. 2017)
1945 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
1947 – Al Bumbry, American baseball player
1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1947 – John Weider, English bass player
1948 – Gary Condit, American businessman and politician
1948 – Paul Davis, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2008)
1948 – Josef Flammer, Swiss ophthalmologist
1948 – Dieter Fromm, German runner
1949 – Patti LuPone, American actress and singer
1950 – Shivaji Satam, Indian actor
1951 – Tony Danza, American actor and producer
1951 – Michael Freedman, American mathematician and academic
1951 – Bob Varsha, American sportscaster
1951 – Steve Vickers, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Gerald Early, American author and academic
1952 – Cheryl Gillan, British businesswoman and politician, Secretary of State for Wales
1953 – John Brumby, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Victoria
1954 – Ebiet G. Ade, Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – James Morrison, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1955 – Murathan Mungan, Turkish author, poet, and playwright
1955 – Doug Soetaert, Canadian ice hockey player
1956 – Peter Kosminsky, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Phillip Longman, German-American demographer and journalist
1957 – Hervé Le Tellier, French linguist and author
1957 – Jesse Orosco, American baseball player
1957 – Herbert Wetterauer, German painter, sculptor, and author
1958 – Andie MacDowell, American model, actress, and producer
1958 – Yoshito Usui, Japanese illustrator (d. 2009)
1958 – Michael Zarnock, American author
1959 – Tim Jacobus, American illustrator and painter
1959 – Olga Kuragina, Russian pentathlete
1959 – Arno Pijpers, Dutch footballer and coach
1959 – Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Michel Goulet, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
1960 – Julius Korir, Kenyan runner
1961 – Cathy Cavadini, American voice actress
1961 – Carey Hayes, American screenwriter and producer
1961 – Chad Hayes, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1961 – Neale Marmon, English-German footballer, coach, and manager
1961 – David Servan-Schreiber, French physician, neuroscientist, and author (d. 2011)
1962 – Les Lancaster, American baseball player and coach
1962 – Craig Robinson, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Aavo Sarap, Estonian footballer and coach
1963 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (d. 2004)
1963 – Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
1963 – John Cameron Mitchell, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1964 – Alex Baumann, Czech-Canadian swimmer
1964 – Ludmila Engquist, Russian-Swedish hurdler
1965 – Ed Belfour, Canadian ice hockey player
1965 – Karen Foster, American model and actress
1965 – Gary Grant, American basketball player
1965 – Thomas Helmer, German footballer
1965 – Fiona Kelleghan, American academic, critic and librarian
1967 – Emilio Valle, Cuban hurdler
1968 – Peter van Vossen, Dutch footballer and coach
1969 – John Kibowen, Kenyan runner
1969 – Toby Stephens, English actor
1970 – Jeff Anderson, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1970 – Glen Hansard, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1970 – Rob Riggle, American actor and comedian
1970 – Nicole Sullivan, American actress, comedian, and screenwriter
1971 – Axl Rotten, American wrestler (d. 2016)
1971 – Michael Turner, American author and illustrator (d. 2008)
1972 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan runner (d. 2001)
1972 – Gwendal Peizerat, French ice dancer
1973 – Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter
1973 – Jonathan Nsenga, Belgian hurdler and coach
1974 – Maksim Gruznov, Estonian footballer
1974 – Orlando Jordan, American wrestler
1974 – David Peachey, Australian rugby league player
1975 – Danyon Loader, New Zealand swimmer
1976 – Rommel Adducul, Filipino basketball player
1976 – Petero Civoniceva, Fijian-Australian rugby league player
1977 – Gyula Koi, Hungarian scholar and educator
1977 – Jamie Salé, Canadian figure skater
1978 – Jacob Burns, Australian footballer
1978 – Jukka Nevalainen, Finnish drummer
1978 – Yuliya Pechonkina, Russian hurdler
1979 – Virginie Basselot, French chef
1979 – Tobias Linderoth, French-Swedish footballer and coach
1979 – James McAvoy, Scottish actor
1980 – Jeff Keppinger, American baseball player
1980 – Vincent Lecavalier, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Tony Romo, American football player
1981 – Mads Junker, Danish footballer
1982 – Khalif Barnes, American football player
1982 – Micheal Luck, Australian rugby league player
1982 – Carnell Williams, American football player
1983 – Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer
1983 – Marco Donadel, Italian footballer
1983 – Tarvaris Jackson, American football player (d. 2020)
1984 – Shayna Fox, American voice actress
1986 – Audra Cohen, American tennis player
1986 – Alexander Edler, Swedish ice hockey player
1986 – Rodney Stuckey, American basketball player
1986 – Mirko Valdifiori, Italian footballer
1987 – Nadif Chowdhury, Bangladeshi cricketer
1987 – Eric Devendorf, American basketball player
1987 – Leroy George, Dutch footballer
1987 – Anastasia Prikhodko, Ukrainian singer
1988 – Ricky Berens, American swimmer
1988 – Jencarlos Canela, American singer-songwriter and actor
1988 – Pedro Mosquera, Spanish footballer
1988 – Adam Rooney, Irish footballer
1989 – Tatyana McFadden, Russian-American sprinter and skier
1989 – Carlos Muñoz, Chilean footballer
1990 – Aleksandar Prijović, Swiss-born Serbian footballer
1992 – Isco, Spanish footballer
1992 – Rene Santos, Brazilian footballer
1992 – Joc Pederson, American baseball player
1994 – Mitchell Weiser, German footballer

Deaths on April 21

234 – Emperor Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (b. 181)
586 – Liuvigild, king of the Visigoths
847 – Odgar, Frankish archbishop of Mainz
866 – Bardas, de facto regent of the Byzantine Empire
941 – Bajkam, de facto regent of the Abbasid Caliphate
1073 – Pope Alexander II
1109 – Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-English archbishop and saint (b. 1033)
1136 – Stephen, Count of Tréguier Breton noblemen (b. c. 1058/62)
1142 – Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (b. 1079)
1213 – Maria of Montpellier, Lady of Montpellier, Queen of Aragon (b. 1182)
1329 – Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1282)
1400 – John Wittlebury, English politician (b. 1333)
1509 – Henry VII of England (b. 1457)
1557 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1495)
1574 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519)
1591 – Sen no Rikyū, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
1650 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
1668 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (b. c. 1604)
1699 – Jean Racine, French playwright and poet (b. 1639)
1719 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
1720 – Antoine Hamilton, Irish-French soldier and author (b. 1646)
1722 – Robert Beverley, Jr., English historian and author (b. 1673)
1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy (b. 1663)
1740 – Thomas Tickell, English poet and author (b. 1685)
1758 – Francesco Zerafa, Maltese architect (b. 1679)
1815 – Joseph Winston, American soldier and politician (b. 1746)
1825 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician and academic (b. 1765)
1852 – Ivan Nabokov, Russian general (b. 1787)
1863 – Sir Robert Bateson, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (b. 1782)
1900 – Vikramatji Khimojiraj, Indian ruler (b. 1819)
1910 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (b. 1835)
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (b. 1892)
1924 – Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
1930 – Robert Bridges, English poet and author (b. 1844)
1932 – Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Bohemian cardinal (b. 1864)
1938 – Muhammad Iqbal, Indian-Pakistani philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
1941 – Fritz Manteuffel, German gymnast (b. 1875)
1945 – Walter Model, German field marshal (b. 1891)
1946 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist and philosopher (b. 1883)
1948 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author (b. 1887)
1952 – Leslie Banks, American actor, director and producer (b. 1890)
1954 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (b. 1897)
1956 – Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
1965 – Edward Victor Appleton, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1971 – François Duvalier, Haitian physician and politician, 40th President of Haiti (b. 1907)
1973 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
1973 – Kemal Tahir, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1910)
1974 – Chic Harley, American football player (b. 1894)
1977 – Gummo Marx, American vaudevillian and talent agent (b. 1893)
1978 – Sandy Denny, English singer-songwriter (b.1947)
1978 – Thomas Wyatt Turner, American biologist and academic (b. 1877)
1980 – Alexander Oparin, Russian biochemist and academic (b. 1894)
1980 – Sohrab Sepehri, Iranian poet and painter (b. 1928)
1983 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-American actor and singer (b. 1902)
1984 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
1984 – Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian engineer and mountaineer (b. 1943)
1985 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer, created the monokini (b. 1922)
1985 – Tancredo Neves, Brazilian banker and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (b. 1910)
1986 – Marjorie Eaton, American painter and actress (b. 1901)
1986 – Salah Jahin, Egyptian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1930)
1987 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1906)
1989 – James Kirkwood, Jr., American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1924)
1990 – Erté, Russian-French illustrator (b. 1892)
1991 – Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor (b. 1909)
1996 – Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-born American engineer and race car driver (b. 1909)
1996 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician, 1st President of Ichkeria (b. 1944)
1996 – Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistani cricketer (b. 1925)
1996 – Jimmy Snyder, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
1998 – Jean-François Lyotard, French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1924)
1999 – Buddy Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933)
2004 – Mary McGrory, American journalist (b. 1918)
2005 – Gerry Marshall, English race car driver and journalist (b. 1941)
2006 – Johnny Checketts, New Zealand commander and pilot (b. 1912)
2006 – T. K. Ramakrishnan, Indian politician (b. 1922)
2006 – Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1931)
2007 – Lobby Loyde, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1941)
2009 – Vivian Maier, American photographer (b. 1926)
2010 – Gustav Lorentzen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
2010 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, seventh President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1920)
2010 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan-English engineer and civil servant (b. 1930)
2011 – Catharina Halkes, Dutch theologian and academic (b. 1920)
2012 – Doris Betts, American author and academic (b. 1932)
2012 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and activist, founded Prison Fellowship (b. 1931)
2012 – Albert Falco, French captain and diver (b. 1927)
2012 – Charles Higham, English-American author and poet (b. 1931)
2012 – Jerry Toppazzini, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1931)
2013 – Chrissy Amphlett, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1959)
2013 – Shakuntala Devi, Indian mathematician and astrologer (b. 1929)
2013 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor, author, and educator (b. 1905)
2013 – Gordon D. Gayle, American general and historian (b. 1917)
2014 – Herb Gray, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1931)
2014 – Janet Gray Hayes, American politician, 60th Mayor of San Jose (b. 1926)
2014 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (b. 1936)
2014 – Win Tin, Burmese journalist and politician, co-founded the National League for Democracy (b. 1930)
2015 – M. H. Abrams, American author, critic, and academic (b. 1912)
2015 – Steve Byrnes, American sportscaster and producer (b. 1959)
2015 – John Moshoeu, South African footballer and manager (b. 1965)
2015 – Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Indian politician, Governor of Assam (b. 1927)
2015 – Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters, Canadian general (b. 1920)
2015 – Betsy von Furstenberg, German-American actress (b. 1931)
2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958)
2017 – Ugo Ehiogu, English footballer (b. 1972)
2018 – Verne Troyer, American actor (b. 1969)
2018 – Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest Japanese and Asian person ever, last verified person born in the 19th century (b. 1900)
2019 – Polly Higgins, Scottish barrister, author and environmental lobbyist, (b. 1968)

Holidays and observances April 21

Christian feast day:
- Abdecalas
- Anastasius Sinaita
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Beuno
- Conrad of Parzham
- Holy Infant of Good Health
- Shemon Bar Sabbae
- Wolbodo
- April 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Civil Service Day (India)
Grounation Day (Rastafari movement)
Heroic Defense of Veracruz (Mexico)
Kang Pan-sok’s Birthday (North Korea)
Kartini Day (Indonesia)
Local Self Government Day (Russia)
National Tea Day (United Kingdom)
National Tree Planting Day (Kenya)
San Jacinto Day (Texas)
Queen’s Official Birthday (Falkland Islands)
Tiradentes’ Day (Brazil)
Vietnam Book Day (Vietnam)

April 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 17 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

1080 – Harald III of Denmark dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized.
1349 – The rule of the Bavand dynasty in Mazandaran is brought to an end by the murder of Hasan II.
1362 – Kaunas Castle falls to the Teutonic Order after a month-long siege.
1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.
1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.
1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, in what would be one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in the Americas.
1797 – Citizens of Verona begin an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces.
1861 – The state of Virginia’s secession convention votes to secede from the United States, later becoming the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America.
1863 – American Civil War: Grierson’s Raid begins: Troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins: Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
1869 – Morelos is admitted as the 27th state of Mexico.
1876 – Catalpa rescue: The rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia.
1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.
1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the “right to free contract” is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150.
1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1942 – French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Königstein Fortress.
1944 – Forces of the Communist-controlled Greek People’s Liberation Army attack the smaller National and Social Liberation resistance group, which surrenders. Its leader Dimitrios Psarros is murdered.
1945 – World War II: Montese, Italy, is liberated from Nazi forces.
1946 – The last French troops are withdrawn from Syria.
1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom’s first National Park.
1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1969 – Communist Party of Czechoslovakia chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.
1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1971 – The Provisional Government of Bangladesh is formed.
1975 – The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
1978 – Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking a communist coup d’état in Afghanistan.
1982 – Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
1992 – The Katina P is deliberately run aground off of Maputo, Mozambique and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
2006 – A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 11 people and injuring 70.
2013 – An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills 15 people and injures 160 others.
2014 – NASA’s Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

Births on April 17

44 – Pope Evaristus (d. 107)
1277 – Michael IX Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1320)
1455 – Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice (d. 1538)
1497 – Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conquistador, conquered northern Chile (d. 1553)
1573 – Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (d. 1651)
1586 – John Ford, English poet and playwright (d. 1639)
1598 – Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Italian priest and astronomer (d. 1671)
1620 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, French-Canadian nun and saint, founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal (d. 1700)
1635 – Edward Stillingfleet, British theologian and scholar (d. 1699)
1676 – Frederick I of Sweden (d. 1751)
1683 – Johann David Heinichen, German composer and theorist (d. 1729)
1710 – Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, Scottish politician (d. 1767)
1734 – Taksin, King of Thailand (d. 1782)
1741 – Samuel Chase, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1811)
1750 – François de Neufchâteau, French academic and politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 1828)
1756 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian commander (d. 1805)
1766 – Collin McKinney, American surveyor, merchant, and politician (d. 1861)
1794 – Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist and explorer (d. 1868)
1798 – Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician and academic (d. 1840)
1814 – Josif Pančić, Serbian botanist and academic (d. 1888)
1816 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English architect and philanthropist (d. 1876)
1820 – Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter and inventor of baseball (d. 1892)
1833 – Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1900)
1837 – J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier, founded J.P. Morgan & Co. (d. 1913)
1842 – Maurice Rouvier, French businessman and politician, 53rd Prime Minister of France (d. 1911)
1849 – William R. Day, American jurist and politician, 36th United States Secretary of State (d. 1923)
1852 – Cap Anson, American baseball player and manager (d. 1922)
1863 – Augustus Edward Hough Love, English mathematician and theorist (d. 1940)
1865 – Ursula Ledóchowska, Polish-Austrian nun and saint, founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus (d. 1939)
1866 – Ernest Starling, English physiologist and academic (d. 1927)
1875 – Aleksander Tõnisson, Estonian general and politician, 5th Estonian Minister of War (d. 1941)
1877 – Matsudaira Tsuneo, Japanese diplomat (d. 1949)
1878 – Emil Fuchs, German-American lawyer and businessman (d. 1961)
1878 – Demetrios Petrokokkinos, Greek tennis player (d. 1942)
1879 – Henri Tauzin, French hurdler (d. 1918)
1882 – Artur Schnabel, Jewish-Polish pianist and composer (d. 1951)
1888 – Herms Niel, German soldier, trombonist, and composer (d. 1954)
1891 – George Adamski, Polish-American ufologist and author (d. 1965)
1895 – Robert Dean Frisbie, American soldier and author (d. 1948)
1896 – Señor Wences, Spanish-American ventriloquist (d. 1999)
1897 – Nisargadatta Maharaj, Indian philosopher and educator (d. 1981)
1897 – Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (d. 1975)
1897 – Edouard Wyss-Dunant, Swiss physician and mountaineer (d. 1983)
1899 – Aleksander Klumberg, Estonian decathlete and coach (d. 1958)
1903 – Nicolas Nabokov, Russian-American composer and educator (d. 1978)
1903 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Ukrainian-American cellist and educator (d. 1976)
1903 – Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (d. 1975)
1905 – Louis Jean Heydt, American journalist and actor (d. 1960)
1905 – Arthur Lake, American actor (d. 1987)
1906 – Sidney Garfield, American physician, co-founded Kaiser Permanente (d. 1984)
1909 – Alain Poher, French politician, President of France (d. 1996)
1910 – Evangelos Averoff, Greek historian and politician, Greek Minister of Defence (d. 1990)
1910 – Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter and producer (d. 1999)
1910 – Helenio Herrera, French footballer and manager (d. 1997)
1911 – Hervé Bazin, French author and poet (d. 1996)
1911 – Lester Rodney, American soldier and journalist (d. 2009)
1912 – Marta Eggerth, Jewish-Hungarian-American actress and singer (d. 2013)
1914 – George Davis, American art director (d. 1984)
1914 – Mac Raboy, American illustrator (d. 1967)
1915 – Martin Clemens, Scottish soldier (d. 2009)
1915 – Joe Foss, American general and politician, 20th Governor of South Dakota (d. 2003)
1915 – Regina Ghazaryan, Armenian painter (d. 1999)
1916 – Win Maung, 3rd President of Union of Myanmar (d. 1989)
1916 – A. Thiagarajah, Sri Lankan educator and politician (d. 1981)
1916 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, world’s first female prime minister (d. 2000)
1918 – William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
1919 – Gilles Lamontagne, Canadian lieutenant and politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 2016)
1919 – Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2012)
1920 – Edmonde Charles-Roux, French journalist and author (d. 2016)
1923 – Lindsay Anderson, English actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
1923 – Solly Hemus, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2017)
1923 – Neville McNamara, Australian air marshal (d. 2014)
1923 – Gianni Raimondi, Italian lyric tenor (d. 2008)
1923 – Harry Reasoner, American soldier and journalist (d. 1991)
1924 – Kenneth Norman Jones, Australian public servant
1924 – Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (d. 2013)
1925 – René Moawad, Lebanese lawyer and politician, 13th President of Lebanon (d. 1989)
1926 – Joan Lorring, British actress (d. 2014)
1926 – Gerry McNeil, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (d. 2004)
1927 – Margot Honecker, East German politician and First Lady (d. 2016)
1928 – Victor Lownes, American businessman (d. 2017)
1928 – Cynthia Ozick, American short story writer, novelist, and essayist
1928 – Heinz Putzl, Austrian fencer
1928 – Fabien Roy, Canadian accountant and politician
1929 – James Last, German-American bassist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2015)
1930 – Chris Barber, English trombonist and bandleader
1931 – John Barrett, English tennis player and sportscaster
1931 – Malcolm Browne, American journalist and photographer (d. 2012)
1934 – Don Kirshner, American songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
1934 – Peter Morris, Australian-English surgeon and academic
1935 – Bud Paxson, American broadcaster, founded Home Shopping Network and Pax TV (d. 2015)
1937 – Ronald Hamowy, Canadian historian and academic (d. 2012)
1937 – Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian-German engineer and businessman (d. 2019)
1938 – Ben Barnes, American businessman and politician, 36th Lieutenant Governor of Texas
1938 – Doug Lewis, Canadian lawyer and politician, 41st Canadian Minister of Justice
1938 – Ronald H. Miller, American theologian, author, and academic (d. 2011)
1938 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American theorist and author (d. 1988)
1939 – Robert Miller, American art dealer (d. 2011)
1940 – Eric Dancer, English businessman and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Devon
1940 – Billy Fury, English singer-songwriter (d. 1983)
1940 – John McCririck, English journalist (d. 2019)
1940 – Chuck Menville, American animator and screenwriter (d. 1992)
1940 – Anja Silja, German soprano and actress
1940 – Agostino Vallini, Italian cardinal and vicar general of Rome
1941 – Lagle Parek, Estonian architect and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior
1942 – Buster Williams, American jazz bassist
1943 – Richard Allen Epstein, American lawyer, author, and academic
1946 – Clare Francis, English sailor and author
1947 – Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie, Scottish lawyer and judge
1947 – Richard Field, English lawyer and judge
1947 – Sherrie Levine, American photographer
1947 – Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Japanese baseball player, coach, and manager
1948 – Jan Hammer, Czech pianist, composer, and producer
1948 – Alice Harden, American educator and politician (d. 2012)
1948 – Pekka Vasala, Finnish runner
1951 – Olivia Hussey, Argentinian-English actress
1951 – Börje Salming, Swedish ice hockey player and businessman
1952 – Joe Alaskey, American voice actor (d. 2016)
1952 – Pierre Guité, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – John McColl, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
1952 – Željko Ražnatović, Serbian commander (d. 2000)
1952 – John Robertson, Scottish businessman and politician
1954 – Riccardo Patrese, Italian race car driver
1954 – Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler and actor (d. 2015)
1954 – Michael Sembello, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 – Todd Lickliter, American basketball player and coach
1955 – Pete Shelley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018)
1955 – Mike Stroud, English physician and explorer
1956 – Colin Tyre, Lord Tyre, Scottish lawyer and judge
1957 – Teri Austin, Canadian actress
1957 – Afrika Bambaataa, American disc jockey
1957 – Nick Hornby, English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter
1957 – Julia Macur, English lawyer and judge
1957 – Frank McDonough, British historian
1958 – Laslo Babits, Canadian javelin thrower (d. 2013)
1959 – Sean Bean, English actor
1959 – Jimmy Mann, Canadian ice hockey player
1959 – Li Meisu, Chinese shot putter
1960 – Vladimir Polyakov, Russian pole vaulter
1961 – Frank J. Christensen, American labor union leader
1961 – Norman Cowans, Jamaican-English cricketer
1961 – Boomer Esiason, American football player and sportscaster
1961 – Bella Freud, English fashion designer
1962 – Paul Nicholls, English jockey and trainer
1964 – Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1964 – Maynard James Keenan, American singer-songwriter and producer
1964 – Rachel Notley, Canadian politician
1964 – Lela Rochon, American actress
1966 – Vikram, Indian actor and singer
1967 – Kimberly Elise, American actress
1967 – Marquis Grissom, American baseball player and coach
1967 – Ian Jones, New Zealand rugby player
1967 – Barnaby Joyce, Australian politician, 17th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
1967 – Liz Phair, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 – Julie Fagerholt, Danish fashion designer
1968 – Phil Henderson, American basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
1968 – Eric Lamaze, Canadian jockey
1968 – Roger Twose, New Zealand cricketer
1968 – Richie Woodhall, English boxer and trainer
1970 – Redman, American rapper, producer, and actor
1971 – Claire Sweeney, English actress
1972 – Gary Bennett, American baseball player
1972 – Tony Boselli, American football player and sportscaster
1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress
1972 – Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
1972 – Yuichi Nishimura, Japanese footballer and referee
1972 – Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Katrin Koov, Estonian architect
1973 – Brett Maher, Australian basketball player and sportscaster
1973 – Theo Ratliff, American basketball player
1974 – Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1974 – Victoria Beckham, English singer and fashion designer
1975 – Heidi Alexander, English politician
1975 – Travis Roy, American ice hockey player
1976 – Maurice Wignall, Jamaican hurdler and long jumper
1977 – Chad Hedrick, American speed skater
1977 – Frederik Magle, Danish composer, organist, and pianist
1978 – Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer, German skier
1978 – Lindsay Hartley, American actress
1978 – Jason White, Scottish rugby player
1979 – Eric Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Marija Šestak, Serbian-Slovenian triple jumper
1980 – Fabián Vargas, Colombian footballer
1980 – Curtis Woodhouse, English footballer, boxer, and manager
1981 – Jenny Meadows, English runner
1981 – Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer-songwriter
1981 – Ryan Raburn, American baseball player
1981 – Chris Thompson, English runner
1981 – Zhang Yaokun, Chinese footballer
1982 – Brad Boyes, Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Chuck Kobasew, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Stanislav Chistov, Russian ice hockey player
1983 – Roberto Jiménez, Peruvian footballer
1983 – Andrea Marcato, Italian rugby player
1984 – Pablo Sebastián Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
1984 – Jed Lowrie, American baseball player
1984 – Raffaele Palladino, Italian footballer
1985 – Rooney Mara, American actress
1985 – Luke Mitchell, Australian actor and model
1985 – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, French tennis player
1986 – Romain Grosjean, French race car driver
1988 – Takahiro Moriuchi, Japanese singer-songwriter
1989 – Paraskevi Papachristou, Greek triple jumper
1989 – Avi Kaplan, singer and songwriter
1990 – Jonathan Brown, Welsh footballer
1992 – Lachlan Maranta, Australian rugby league footballer
1994 – Alanna Goldie, Canadian fencer
1996 – Lorna Fitzgerald, British actress

Deaths on April 17

485 – Proclus, Greek mathematician and philosopher (b. 412)
617 – Donnán of Eigg, Irish priest and saint
648 – Xiao, empress of the Sui Dynasty
744 – Al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph (b. 706)
818 – Bernard of Italy, Frankish king (b. 797)
858 – Benedict III, pope of the Catholic Church
1071 – Manuel Komnenos, Byzantine military commander (b. c. 1045)
1080 – Harald III of Denmark (b. 1041)
1111 – Robert of Molesme, Christian saint and abbot (b. 1027)
1298 – Árni Þorláksson, Icelandic bishop (b. 1237)
1321 – Infanta Branca of Portugal, daughter of King Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1259)
1331 – Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford, English nobleman (b. 1257)
1344 – Constantine II, King of Armenia
1355 – Marin Falier, Doge of Venice (b. 1285)
1427 – John IV, Duke of Brabant (b. 1403)
1539 – George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)
1574 – Joachim Camerarius, German scholar and translator (b. 1500)
1669 – Antonio Bertali, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1605)
1680 – Kateri Tekakwitha, Mohawk-born Native American saint (b. 1656)
1695 – Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican poet and scholar (b. 1651)
1696 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (b. 1626)
1711 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678)
1713 – David Hollatz, Polish pastor and theologian (b. 1648)
1764 – Johann Mattheson, German lexicographer and composer (b. 1681)
1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, publisher, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (b. 1706)
1799 – Richard Jupp, English surveyor and architect (b. 1728)
1840 – Hannah Webster Foster, American journalist and author (b. 1758)
1843 – Samuel Morey, American engineer (b. 1762)
1882 – George Jennings, English engineer and plumber, invented the Flush toilet (b. 1810)
1888 – E. G. Squier, American archaeologist and journalist (b. 1821)
1892 – Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish-Canadian journalist and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1822)
1921 – Manwel Dimech, Maltese journalist, author, and philosopher (b. 1860)
1923 – Laurence Ginnell, Irish lawyer and politician (b. 1852)
1930 – Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and stage designer (b. 1863)
1933 – Kote Marjanishvili, Georgian director and playwright (b. 1872)
1936 – Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, Dutch lawyer and politician, 28th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1873)
1942 – Jean Baptiste Perrin, French-American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
1944 – J. T. Hearne, English cricketer and coach (b. 1867)
1944 – Dimitrios Psarros, Greek lieutenant, founded the National and Social Liberation (b. 1893)
1946 – Juan Bautista Sacasa, Nicaraguan medical doctor, politician and 20th President of Nicaragua (b. 1874)
1948 – Suzuki Kantarō, Japanese admiral and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1868)
1954 – Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Romanian lawyer and politician, Romanian Minister of Justice (b. 1900)
1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
1961 – Elda Anderson, American physicist and health researcher (b. 1899)
1967 – Red Allen, American singer and trumpet player (b. 1908)
1975 – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India (b. 1888)
1976 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1977 – William Conway, Irish cardinal (b. 1913)
1983 – Felix Pappalardi, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (b. 1939)
1984 – Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1933)
1987 – Cecil Harmsworth King, English publisher (b. 1901)
1987 – Dick Shawn, American actor (b. 1923)
1988 – Louise Nevelson, Ukrainian-American sculptor and educator (b. 1900)
1990 – Ralph Abernathy, American minister and activist (b. 1936)
1993 – Turgut Özal, Turkish engineer and politician, 8th president of Turkey (b. 1927)
1994 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American psychologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
1995 – Frank E. Resnik, American sergeant and businessman (b. 1928)
1996 – Piet Hein, Danish poet and mathematician (b. 1905)
1997 – Chaim Herzog, Israeli general, lawyer, and politician, 6th President of Israel (b. 1918)
1998 – Linda McCartney, American photographer, activist, and musician (b. 1941)
2003 – Robert Atkins, American physician and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet (b. 1930)
2003 – H. B. Bailey, American race car driver (b. 1936)
2003 – John Paul Getty, Jr., American-English philanthropist (b. 1932)
2003 – Earl King, American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter (b. 1934)
2003 – Yiannis Latsis, Greek businessman (b. 1910)
2004 – Edmond Pidoux, Swiss author and poet (b. 1908)
2006 – Jean Bernard, French physician and haematologist (b. 1907)
2006 – Scott Brazil, American director and producer (b. 1955)
2006 – Henderson Forsythe, American actor (b. 1917)
2007 – Kitty Carlisle, American actress, singer, socialite and game show panelist (b. 1910)
2008 – Aimé Césaire, Caribbean-French poet and politician (b. 1913)
2008 – Danny Federici, American organist and accordion player (b. 1950)
2011 – Eric Gross, Austrian-Australian pianist and composer (b. 1926)
2011 – Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (b. 1940)
2011 – Robert Vickrey, American artist and author (b. 1926)
2012 – Leila Berg, English journalist and author (b. 1917)
2012 – J. Quinn Brisben, American educator and politician (b. 1934)
2012 – Dimitris Mitropanos, Greek singer (b. 1948)
2012 – Nityananda Mohapatra, Indian journalist, poet, and politician (b. 1912)
2012 – Jonathan V. Plaut, American rabbi and author (b. 1942)
2012 – Stanley Rogers Resor, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 9th United States Secretary of the Army (b. 1917)
2013 – Carlos Graça, São Toméan politician, Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (b. 1931)
2013 – Bi Kidude, Tanzanian Taarab singer (b. ≈1910)
2013 – Yngve Moe, Norwegian bass player and songwriter (b. 1957)
2013 – V. S. Ramadevi, Indian politician, 13th Governor of Karnataka (b. 1934)
2014 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927)
2014 – Bernat Klein, Serbian-Scottish fashion designer and painter (b. 1922)
2014 – Wojciech Leśnikowski, Polish–American architect and academic (b. 1938)
2014 – Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (b. 1940)
2015 – Robert P. Griffin, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (b. 1923)
2015 – Scotty Probasco, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1928)
2015 – Jeremiah J. Rodell, American general (b. 1921)
2015 – A. Alfred Taubman, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1924)
2016 – Chyna, American wrestler (b. 1969)
2016 – Doris Roberts, American actress (b. 1925)
2018 – Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the United States (b. 1925)
2018 – Carl Kasell, American radio personality (b. 1934)
2019 – Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, 61st and 64th President of Peru (b. 1949)

Holidays and observances on April 17

Christian feast day:
- Kateri Tekakwitha (Canada)
- Stephen Harding
- April 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Store Bededag or General Prayer Day can fall, while May 13 is the latest; observed on the 4th Friday after Easter. (Denmark)
Evacuation Day (Syria), celebrates the recognition of the independence of Syria from France in 1946.
FAO Day (Iraq)
Flag Day (American Samoa)
Malbec World Day
Women’s Day (Gabon)
World Hemophilia Day

April 17 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 15 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

769 – The Lateran Council condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings.
1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.
1395 – Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Terek River. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the throne.
1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
1632 – Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War.
1642 – Irish Confederate Wars: A Confederate Irish militia is routed in the Battle of Kilrush when it attempts to halt the progress of a Royalist Army.
1715 – The Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1736 – Foundation of the Kingdom of Corsica.
1738 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.
1755 – Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.
1817 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
1861 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes President upon Lincoln’s death.
1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.
1896 – Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
1907 – Triangle Fraternity is founded at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.
1920 – Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
1922 – U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1936 – First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.
1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing around one thousand people.
1942 – The George Cross is awarded “to the island fortress of Malta” by King George VI.
1945 – Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.
1952 – First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
1955 – McDonald’s restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1960 – At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
1969 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 onboard.
1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacre of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong river into South Vietnam.
1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang’s death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in China.
1994 – Marrakesh Agreement relating to foundation of World Trade Organization is adopted.
2013 – Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring 264 others.
2013 – A wave of bombings across Iraq kills at least 75 people.
2014 – In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, at least 200 civilians were gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well as hospitals.
2019 – The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire.

Births on April 15

68 BC – Gaius Maecenas, Roman politician (d. 8 BC)
1282 – Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1329)
1367 – Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
1442 – John Paston, English noble (d. 1479)
1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (d. 1519)
1469 – Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru (d. 1539)
1552 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1626)
1563 – Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Sikh leader (d. 1606)
1588 – Claudius Salmasius, French author and scholar (d. 1653)
1592 – Francesco Maria Brancaccio, Catholic cardinal (d. 1675)
1641 – Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician and geographer (d. 1722)
1642 – Suleiman II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1691)
1646 – Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
1684 – Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
1688 – Johann Friedrich Fasch, German violinist and composer (d. 1758)
1707 – Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1783)
1710 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1790)
1741 – Charles Willson Peale, American painter and soldier (d. 1827)
1771 – Nicolas Chopin, French-Polish educator (d. 1844)
1772 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French biologist and zoologist (d. 1844)
1793 – Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer and academic (d. 1864)
1795 – Maria Schicklgruber, mother of Alois Hitler and the paternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler (d.1847)
1800 – James Clark Ross, English captain and explorer (d. 1862)
1808 – William Champ, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Tasmania (d. 1892)
1809 – Hermann Grassmann, German linguist and mathematician (d. 1877)
1817 – William Crowther, Dutch-Australian politician, 14th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1885)
1828 – Jean Danjou, French captain (d. 1863)
1832 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet, painter, and illustrator (d. 1908)
1841 – Mary Grant Roberts, Australian zoo owner (d. 1921)
1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company Ltd (d. 1919)
1843 – Henry James, American novelist, short story writer, and critic (d. 1916)
1856 – Jean Moréas, Greek poet and critic (d. 1910)
1858 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist, psychologist, and philosopher (d. 1917)
1861 – Bliss Carman, Canadian-British poet and playwright (d. 1929)
1863 – Ida Freund, Austrian-born chemist and educator (d. 1914)
1874 – George Harrison Shull, American botanist and geneticist (d. 1954)
1874 – Johannes Stark, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
1875 – James J. Jeffries, American boxer and promoter (d. 1953)
1877 – Georg Kolbe, German sculptor (d. 1947)
1878 – Robert Walser, Swiss author and playwright (d. 1956)
1879 – Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (d. 1980)
1883 – Stanley Bruce, Australian captain and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
1885 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (d. 1947)
1886 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet and critic (d. 1921)
1887 – William Forgan Smith, Scottish-Australian politician, 24th Premier of Queensland (d. 1953)
1888 – Maximilian Kronberger, German poet and author (d. 1904)
1889 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter and educator (d. 1975)
1889 – A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d. 1979)
1890 – Percy Shaw, English businessman, invented the cat’s eye (d. 1976)
1892 – Theo Osterkamp, German general and pilot (d. 1975)
1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch-American clocksmith, Nazi resister, and author (d. 1983)
1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Russian general and politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
1894 – Bessie Smith, African-American singer and actress (d. 1937)
1895 – Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker player (d. 1980)
1895 – Abigail Mejia, Dominican feminist activist, nationalist, literary critic and educator (d. 1941)
1896 – Nikolay Semyonov, Russian physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
1898 – Harry Edward, Guyanese-English sprinter (d. 1973)
1901 – Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
1901 – Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1986)
1901 – René Pleven, French businessman and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1993)
1902 – Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d. 2002)
1903 – John Williams, English-American actor (d. 1983)
1904 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter and illustrator (d. 1948)
1907 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch-English ethologist and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
1908 – eden ahbez, Scottish-American songwriter and recording artist (d. 1995)
1908 – Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
1910 – Sulo Bärlund, Finnish shot putter (d. 1986)
1910 – Miguel Najdorf, Polish-Argentinian chess player and theoretician (d. 1997)
1912 – William Congdon, American-Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1998)
1912 – Kim Il-sung, North Korean general and politician, 1st Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 1994)
1915 – Elizabeth Catlett, African-American sculptor and illustrator (d. 2012)
1916 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (d. 1982)
1916 – Helene Hanff, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1917 – Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982)
1917 – Elmer Gedeon, American baseball player and bomber pilot (d. 1944)
1917 – James Kee, American lawyer and politician (d. 1989)
1918 – Hans Billian, German film director, screenwriter, and actor (d. 2007)
1919 – Alberto Breccia, Uruguayan-Argentinian author and illustrator (d. 1993)
1920 – Godfrey Stafford, English-South African physicist and academic (d. 2013)
1920 – Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist and academic (d. 2012)
1920 – Richard von Weizsäcker, German soldier and politician, 6th President of Germany (d. 2015)
1921 – Georgy Beregovoy, Ukrainian-Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1995)
1921 – Angelo DiGeorge, American physician and endocrinologist (d. 2009)
1922 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (d. 2013)
1922 – Hasrat Jaipuri, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 1999)
1922 – Harold Washington, American lawyer and politician, 51st Mayor of Chicago (d. 1987)
1922 – Graham Whitehead, English racing driver (d. 1981)
1923 – Artur Alliksaar, Estonian poet and author (d. 1966)
1923 – Robert DePugh, American activist, founded the Minutemen (an anti-Communist organization) (d. 2009)
1924 – M. Canagaratnam, Sri Lankan politician (d. 1980)
1924 – Rikki Fulton, Scottish comedian (d. 2004)
1924 – Neville Marriner, English violinist and conductor (d. 2016)
1927 – Robert Mills, American physicist and academic (d. 1999)
1929 – Gérald Beaudoin, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2008)
1929 – Adrian Cadbury, English rower and businessman (d. 2015)
1930 – Georges Descrières, French actor (d. 2013)
1930 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Icelandic educator and politician, 4th President of Iceland
1931 – Kenneth Bloomfield, Northern Irish civil servant
1931 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and psychologist Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
1933 – Roy Clark, American musician and television personality (d. 2018)
1933 – David Hamilton, English-French photographer and director (d. 2016)
1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress and producer (d. 1995)
1935 – Stavros Paravas, Greek actor and producer (d. 2008)
1936 – Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
1937 – Bob Luman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1978)
1938 – Claudia Cardinale, Italian actress
1938 – Hso Khan Pha, Burmese-Canadian geologist and politician (d. 2016)
1939 – Marty Wilde, English singer-songwriter and actor
1939 – Desiré Ecaré, Ivorian filmmaker (d. 2009)
1940 – Jeffrey Archer, English author, playwright, and politician
1940 – Penelope Coelen, South African actress, model, beauty queen and 1958 Miss World
1940 – Willie Davis, American baseball player and actor (d. 2010)
1940 – Robert Lacroix, Canadian economist and academic
1941 – Howard Berman, American lawyer and politician
1942 – Francis X. DiLorenzo, American bishop (d. 2017)
1942 – Walt Hazzard, American basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
1942 – Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
1942 – Tim Lankester, English economist and academic
1943 – Pınar Kür, Turkish author, playwright, and academic
1943 – Robert Lefkowitz, American physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1943 – Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater, English politician
1943 – Hugh Thompson, Jr., American soldier and pilot (d. 2006)
1944 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Russian-Chechen general and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (d. 1996)
1944 – Dave Edmunds, Welsh singer, guitarist, and producer
1946 – John Lloyd, Scottish journalist and author
1946 – Pete Rouse, American politician, White House Chief of Staff
1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American screenwriter and producer
1947 – Martin Broughton, English businessman
1947 – Lois Chiles, American model and actress
1947 – David Omand, English civil servant and academic
1947 – Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, Swedish nurse and politician, Swedish Minister for Social Security
1947 – Woolly Wolstenholme, English singer and keyboard player (d. 2010)
1948 – Christopher Brown, English historian, curator, and academic
1948 – Michael Kamen, American composer and conductor (d. 2003)
1948 – Phil Mogg, English singer-songwriter and musician
1949 – Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer-songwriter and actress
1949 – Craig Zadan, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1950 – Josiane Balasko, French actress, director, and screenwriter
1950 – Amy Wright, American actress
1950 – Karel Kroupa, Czech football player
1951 – Heloise, American journalist and author
1951 – John L. Phillips, American captain and astronaut
1951 – Stuart Prebble, English journalist and producer
1951 – Marsha Ivins, American engineer and astronaut
1952 – Kym Gyngell, Australian actor, comedian, and screenwriter
1952 – Brian Muir, English sculptor and set designer
1952 – Avital Ronell, Czech-American philosopher and academic
1955 – Dodi Fayed, Egyptian film producer (d. 1997)
1955 – Joice Mujuru, Zimbabwean politician
1956 – Michael Cooper, American basketball player and coach
1957 – Evelyn Ashford, American runner and coach
1958 – Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1958 – John Bracewell, New Zealand cricketer
1958 – Memos Ioannou, Greek basketball player and coach
1958 – Benjamin Zephaniah, English actor, author, poet, and playwright
1959 – Fruit Chan, Chinese director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Kevin Lowe, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
1959 – Emma Thompson, English actress, comedian, author, activist and screenwriter
1960 – Pierre Aubry, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Susanne Bier, Danish director and screenwriter
1960 – Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist and sportscaster
1960 – Tony Jones, English snooker player
1961 – Neil Carmichael, English academic and politician
1961 – Carol W. Greider, American molecular biologist
1961 – Dawn Wright, American geographer and oceanographer
1962 – Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan athlete and politician
1962 – Tom Kane, American voice actor
1963 – Alex Crawford, Nigerian-South African journalist
1963 – Manzoor Elahi, Pakistani cricketer
1963 – Manoj Prabhakar, Indian cricketer and sportscaster
1964 – Andre Joubert, South African rugby player
1964 – Lee Kernaghan, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Linda Perry, American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer
1965 – Kevin Stevens, American ice hockey player
1966 – Samantha Fox, English singer-songwriter and actress
1966 – Mott Green, American businessman (d. 2013)
1967 – Frankie Poullain, Scottish bass player and songwriter
1967 – Dara Torres, American swimmer and journalist
1968 – Ben Clarke, English rugby player and coach
1968 – Brahim Lahlafi, Moroccan-French runner
1968 – Ed O’Brien, English guitarist
1969 – Jeromy Burnitz, American baseball player
1969 – Kaisa Roose, Estonian pianist and conductor
1969 – Jimmy Waite, Canadian-German ice hockey player and coach
1970 – Chris Huffins, American decathlete and coach
1971 – Philippe Carbonneau, French rugby player
1971 – Finidi George, Nigerian footballer
1971 – Jason Sehorn, American football player
1971 – Josia Thugwane, South African runner
1971 – Karl Turner, English lawyer and politician
1972 – Arturo Gatti, Italian-Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
1972 – Lou Romano, American animator and voice actor
1974 – Kim Min-kyo, South Korean actor and director
1974 – Danny Pino, American actor and screenwriter
1974 – Mike Quinn, American football player
1974 – Douglas Spain, American actor, director, and producer
1974 – Tim Thomas, American ice hockey player
1975 – Sarah Teichmann, German-American biophysicist and immunologist
1976 – Jason Bonsignore, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1976 – Darius Regelskis, Lithuanian footballer
1976 – Kęstutis Šeštokas, Lithuanian basketball player
1976 – Steve Williams, English rower
1977 – Sudarsan Pattnaik, Indian sculptor
1977 – Brian Pothier, American ice hockey player
1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
1978 – Tim Corcoran, American baseball player
1978 – Luis Fonsi, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter and dancer
1978 – Chris Stapleton, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
1980 – Patrick Carney, American drummer, musician, and producer
1980 – James Foster, English cricketer
1980 – Raül López, Spanish basketball player
1980 – Willie Mason, New Zealand-Australian rugby league player
1980 – Aida Mollenkamp, American chef and author
1980 – Billy Yates, American football player
1981 – Andrés D’Alessandro, Argentinian footballer
1982 – Michael Aubrey, American baseball player
1982 – Anthony Green, American singer-songwriter
1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1983 – Alice Braga, Brazilian actress
1983 – Matt Cardle, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1983 – Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Andreas Fransson, Swedish skier (d. 2014)
1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player
1983 – Martin Pedersen, Danish cyclist
1984 – Antonio Cromartie, American football player
1984 – Cam Janssen, American ice hockey player
1984 – Daniel Paille, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Ryan Hamilton, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Tom Heaton, English footballer
1986 – Sylvain Marveaux, French footballer
1988 – Blake Ayshford, Australian rugby league player
1988 – Steven Defour, Belgian footballer
1988 – Chris Tillman, American baseball pitcher
1989 – Darren Nicholls, Australian rugby league player
1990 – Emma Watson, English actress
1991 – Daiki Arioka, Japanese idol, singer, and actor
1991 – Javier Fernández López, Spanish figure skater
1992 – Jeremy McGovern, Australian rules football player
1994 – Brodie Grundy, Australian rules football player
1994 – Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Bahamian sprinter
1995 – Leander Dendoncker, Belgian footballer
1999 – Denis Shapovalov, Canadian tennis player
2001 – Shanti Dope, Filipino rapper

Deaths on April 15

628 – Suiko, emperor of Japan (b. 554)
943 – Liu Bin, emperor of Southern Han (b. 920)
956 – Lin Yanyu, Chinese court official and eunuch
1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex (b. 1001)
1136 – Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare (b. 1094)
1220 – Adolf of Altena, German archbishop (b. 1157)
1237 – Richard Poore, English ecclesiastic
1415 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek philosopher and translator (b. 1355)
1446 – Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian sculptor and architect (b. 1377)
1502 – John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange (b. 1443)
1558 – Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (b. c. 1500)
1610 – Robert Persons, English Jesuit priest, insurrectionist, and author (b. 1546)
1632 – George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician, English Secretary of State (b. 1580)
1652 – Patriarch Joseph of Moscow, Russian patriarch
1659 – Simon Dach, German poet and hymnwriter (b. 1605)
1719 – Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, French wife of Louis XIV of France (b. 1635)
1754 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician and academic (b. 1676)
1761 – Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish lawyer and politician, Lord President of the Court of Session (b. 1682)
1761 – William Oldys, English historian and author (b. 1696)
1764 – Peder Horrebow, Danish astronomer and mathematician (b. 1679)
1765 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian chemist and physicist (b. 1711)
1788 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b. 1711)
1793 – Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian priest, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1718)
1854 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist (b. 1773)
1861 – Sylvester Jordan, Austrian-German lawyer and politician (b. 1792)
1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
1888 – Matthew Arnold, English poet and critic (b. 1822)
1889 – Father Damien, Belgian priest and saint (b. 1840)
1898 – Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui, New Zealand commander and politician
1912 – Victims of the Titanic disaster:
- Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder (b. 1873)
- John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel, businessman, and author (b. 1864)
- Archibald Butt, American general and journalist (b. 1865)
- Jacques Futrelle, American journalist and author (b. 1875)
- Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
- Henry B. Harris, American producer and manager (b. 1866)
- Wallace Hartley, English violinist and bandleader (b. 1878)
- James Paul Moody, English Sixth Officer (b. 1887)
- William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish First Officer (b. 1873)
- Jack Phillips, English telegraphist (b. 1887)
- Edward Smith, English Captain (b. 1850)
- William Thomas Stead, English journalist (b. 1849)
- Ida Straus, German-American businesswoman (b. 1849)
- Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (b. 1845)
- John B. Thayer, American business and sportsman (b. 1862)
- Henry Tingle Wilde, English chief officer (b. 1872)
1917 – János Murkovics, Slovene author, poet, and educator (b. 1839)
1927 – Gaston Leroux, French journalist and author (b. 1868)
1938 – César Vallejo, Peruvian journalist, poet, and playwright (b. 1892)
1942 – Robert Musil, Austrian-Swiss author and playwright (b. 1880)
1943 – Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian painter and set designer (b. 1882)
1944 – Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Russian general (b. 1901)
1945 – Hermann Florstedt, German SS officer (b. 1895)
1948 – Radola Gajda, Montenegrin-Czech general and politician (b. 1892)
1949 – Wallace Beery, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1885)
1962 – Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1880)
1962 – Arsenio Lacson, Filipino journalist and politician, Mayor of Manila (b. 1912)
1963 – Edward Greeves, Jr., Australian footballer (b. 1903)
1966 – Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury, Bengali politician, writer, journalist, first health minister of East Pakistan
1967 – Totò, Italian comedian (b. 1898)
1971 – Gurgen Boryan, Armenian poet and playwright (b. 1915)
1971 – Friedebert Tuglas, Estonian author and critic (b. 1886)
1979 – David Brand, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1912)
1980 – Raymond Bailey, American actor and soldier (b. 1904)
1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
1982 – Arthur Lowe, English actor (b. 1915)
1984 – Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
1986 – Jean Genet, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1910)
1988 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1926)
1989 – Hu Yaobang, Chinese soldier and politician, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1915)
1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress (b. 1905)
1993 – Leslie Charteris, English author and screenwriter (b. 1907)
1993 – John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geophysicist and geologist (b. 1908)
1998 – William Congdon, American-Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1912)
1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian general and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1925)
1999 – Harvey Postlethwaite, English engineer (b. 1944)
2000 – Edward Gorey, American poet and illustrator (b. 1925)
2001 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
2002 – Damon Knight, American author and critic (b. 1922)
2002 – Byron White, American football player, lawyer, and jurist, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (b. 1917)
2004 – Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese illustrator (b. 1934)
2007 – Brant Parker, American illustrator (b. 1920)
2008 – Krister Stendahl, Swedish bishop, theologian, and scholar (b. 1921)
2009 – Clement Freud, German-English journalist, academic, and politician (b. 1924)
2009 – László Tisza, Hungarian-American physicist and academic (b. 1907)
2009 – Salih Neftçi, Turkish economist and author (b. 1947)
2010 – Jack Herer, American author and activist (b. 1939)
2010 – Michael Pataki, American actor and director (b. 1938)
2011 – Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian journalist, author, and activist (b. 1975)
2012 – Paul Bogart, American director and producer (b. 1919)
2012 – Dwayne Schintzius, American basketball player (b. 1968)
2013 – Benjamin Fain, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (b. 1930)
2013 – Richard LeParmentier, American-English actor and screenwriter (b. 1946)
2013 – Jean-François Paillard, French conductor (b. 1928)
2014 – John Houbolt, American engineer and academic (b. 1919)
2014 – Eliseo Verón, Argentinian sociologist and academic (b. 1935)
2015 – Jonathan Crombie, Canadian-American actor and screenwriter (b. 1966)
2015 – Surya Bahadur Thapa, Nepalese politician, 24th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1928)
2017 – Clifton James, American actor (b. 1920)
2017 – Emma Morano, Italian supercentenarian, last person verified born in the 1800s (b. 1899)
2018 – R. Lee Ermey, American actor (b. 1944)
2018 – Vittorio Taviani, Italian film director and screenwriter (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances on April 15

Christian feast day:
- Abbo II of Metz
- Father Damien (The Episcopal Church)
- Hunna
- Paternus of Avranches
- April 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the Sun (North Korea)
Earliest day on which Sechseläuten can fall, while April 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in April. (Zürich)
Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
Hillsborough Disaster Memorial (Liverpool, England)
Jackie Robinson Day (United States)
National American Sign Language Day (United States)
One Boston Day (United States)
Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year)
Tax Day, the official deadline for filing an individual tax return (or requesting an extension). (United States, Philippines)
Universal Day of Culture
World Art Day

April 15 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

240 – Shapur I becomes co-emperor of the Sasanian Empire with his father Ardashir I.
467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
627 – King Edwin of Northumbria is converted to Christianity by Paulinus, bishop of York.
1012 – Duke Oldřich of Bohemia deposes and blinds his brother Jaromír who flees to Poland.
1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.
1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.
1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.
1807 – The Froberg mutiny ends when the remaining mutineers blow up the magazine of Fort Ricasoli.
1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.
1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1862 – American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw).
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
1865 – American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
1877 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
1910 – SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, is launched.
1917 – World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
1927 – Shanghai massacre of 1927: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Communist Party of China members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.
1927 – Rocksprings, Texas was hit by an F5 tornado that destroyed 235 of the 247 buildings in the town and killed 72 townspeople and injured 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history.
1928 – The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.
1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed.
1934 – The U.S. Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President upon Roosevelt’s death.
1945 – World War II: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reached Tangermünde—only 50 miles from Berlin.
1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
1961 – Cold War: Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, Vostok 1.
1963 – The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.
1970 – Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.
1980 – The Americo-Liberian government of Liberia is violently deposed.
1980 – Transbrasil Flight 303, a Boeing 727, crashes on approach to Hercílio Luz International Airport, in Florianópolis, Brazil. Fifty-five out of the 58 people on board are killed.
1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.
1983 – Harold Washington is elected as the first black mayor of Chicago.
1990 – Jim Gary’s “Twentieth Century Dinosaurs” exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the only sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition there.
1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park’s name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.
1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.
2002 – A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market, killing seven people and wounding 104.
2007 – A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.
2009 – Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency.
2010 – Merano derailment: A rail accident in South Tyrol kills nine people and injures a further 28.
2013 – Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali.
2014 – The Great Fire of Valparaíso ravages the Chilean city of Valparaíso, killing 16 people, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying over 2,000 homes.

Births on April 12

811 – Muhammad al-Jawad, the ninth Imam of Shia Islam (d. 835)
959 – En’yū, emperor of Japan (d. 991)
1116 – Richeza of Poland, queen of Sweden and Grand Princess of Minsk (d. 1156)
1432 – Anne of Austria, Landgravine of Thuringia (d. 1462)
1484 – Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect, designed the Apostolic Palace and St. Peter’s Basilica (d. 1546)
1484 – Maharana Sangram Singh, Rana of Mewar (d. 1527)
1500 – Joachim Camerarius, German scholar and translator (d. 1574)
1526 – Muretus, French philosopher and author (d. 1585)
1550 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English courtier and politician, Lord Great Chamberlain (d. 1604)
1577 – Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
1612 – Simone Cantarini, Italian painter and engraver (d. 1648)
1639 – Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician (d. 1712)
1656 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (d. 1738)
1705 – William Cookworthy, English minister and pharmacist (d. 1780)
1710 – Caffarelli, Italian actor and singer (d. 1783)
1713 – Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French historian and author (d. 1796)
1716 – Felice Giardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1796)
1722 – Pietro Nardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1793)
1724 – Lyman Hall, American physician, clergyman, and politician, 16th Governor of Georgia (d. 1790)
1748 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist and author (d. 1836)
1777 – Henry Clay, American lawyer and politician, 9th United States Secretary of State (d. 1852)
1792 – John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, English soldier and politician, Lord Privy Seal (d. 1840)
1794 – Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician and engineer (d. 1847)
1796 – George N. Briggs, American lawyer and politician, 19th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1861)
1799 – Henri Druey, Swiss lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 1855)
1801 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1843)
1816 – Charles Gavan Duffy, Irish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Victoria (d. 1903)
1823 – Alexander Ostrovsky, Russian playwright and translator (d. 1886)
1839 – Nikolay Przhevalsky, Russian geographer and explorer (d. 1888)
1845 – Gustaf Cederström, Swedish painter (d. 1933)
1851 – José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican soldier and poet (d. 1880)
1851 – Edward Walter Maunder, English astronomer and author (d. 1928)
1852 – Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician and academic (d. 1939)
1856 – Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, English mountaineer, cartographer, and politician (d. 1937)
1863 – Raul Pompeia, Brazilian writer (d. 1895)
1868 – Akiyama Saneyuki, Japanese admiral (d. 1918)
1869 – Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1941)
1874 – William B. Bankhead, American lawyer and politician, 47th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1940)
1880 – Addie Joss, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1911)
1883 – Imogen Cunningham, American photographer and educator (d. 1976)
1883 – Dally Messenger, Australian rugby player, cricketer, and sailor (d. 1959)
1884 – Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (d. 1932)
1884 – Otto Meyerhof, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
1885 – Robert Delaunay, French painter (d. 1941)
1887 – Harold Lockwood, American actor and director (d. 1918)
1888 – Dan Ahearn, Irish-American long jumper and police officer (d. 1942)
1888 – Cecil Kimber, English automobile engineer (d. 1945)
1892 – Henry Darger, American writer and artist (d. 1973)
1894 – Dorothy Cumming, Australian-American actress (d. 1983)
1894 – Francisco Craveiro Lopes, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 13th President of Portugal (d. 1964)
1898 – Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (d. 1976)
1901 – Lowell Stockman, American farmer and politician (d. 1962)
1902 – Louis Beel, Dutch academic and politician, 36th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
1903 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1907 – Zawgyi, Burmese poet, author, literary historian, critic, scholar and academic (d. 1990)
1907 – Felix de Weldon, Austrian-American sculptor, designed the Marine Corps War Memorial (d. 2003)
1908 – Ida Pollock, English author and painter (d. 2013)
1908 – Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American pilot and general (d. 2006)
1910 – Gillo Dorfles, Italian art critic, painter and philosopher (d. 2018)
1910 – Irma Rapuzzi, French politician (d. 2018)
1911 – Mahmoud Younis, Egyptian engineer (d. 1976)
1912 – Frank Dilio, Canadian businessman (d. 1997)
1912 – Hamengkubuwono IX, Indonesian politician, 2nd Vice President of Indonesia (d. 1988)
1912 – Hound Dog Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
1913 – Keiko Fukuda, Japanese-American martial artist (d. 2013)
1914 – Armen Alchian, American economist and academic (d. 2013)
1916 – Beverly Cleary, American author
1916 – Russell Garcia, American-New Zealander composer and conductor (d. 2011)
1916 – Benjamin Libet, American neuropsychologist and academic (d. 2007)
1917 – Helen Forrest, American singer and actress (d. 1999)
1917 – Vinoo Mankad, Indian cricketer (d. 1978)
1917 – Robert Manzon, French racing driver (d. 2015)
1919 – István Anhalt, Hungarian-Canadian composer and educator (d. 2012)
1919 – Billy Vaughn, American musician and bandleader (d. 1991)
1921 – Robert Cliche, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (d. 1978)
1922 – Simon Kapwepwe, Zambian politician, 2nd Vice President of Zambia (d. 1980)
1923 – Ann Miller, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2004)
1924 – Raymond Barre, French economist and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2007)
1924 – Peter Safar, Austrian physician and academic (d. 2003)
1924 – Curtis Turner, American race car driver (d. 1970)
1925 – Evelyn Berezin, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2018)
1925 – Ned Miller, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2016)
1925 – Oliver Postgate, English animator, puppeteer, and screenwriter (d. 2008)
1926 – Jane Withers, American actress
1927 – Thomas Hemsley, English baritone (d. 2013)
1927 – Alvin Sargent, two-time Academy-Award-winning American screenwriter (d. 2019)
1928 – Hardy Krüger, German actor
1928 – Jean-François Paillard, French conductor (d. 2013)
1929 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (d. 2013)
1929 – Mukhran Machavariani, Georgian poet and educator (d. 2010)
1930 – John Landy, Australian runner and politician, 26th Governor of Victoria
1930 – Bryan Magee, English philosopher and politician (d. 2019)
1930 – Manuel Neri, American sculptor and painter
1930 – Michał Życzkowski, Polish technician and educator (d. 2006)
1931 – Leonid Derbenyov, Russian poet and songwriter (d. 1995)
1932 – Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 5th Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2005)
1932 – Jean-Pierre Marielle, French actor (d. 2019)
1932 – Tiny Tim, American singer and ukulele player (d. 1996)
1933 – Montserrat Caballé, Spanish soprano and actress (d. 2018)
1934 – Heinz Schneiter, Swiss footballer and manager (d. 2017)
1936 – Charles Napier, American actor (d. 2011)
1936 – Kennedy Simmonds, Kittitian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
1937 – Dennis Banks, American author and activist (d. 2017)
1937 – Igor Volk, Ukrainian-Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017)
1939 – Alan Ayckbourn, English director and playwright
1939 – Johnny Raper, Australian rugby league player and coach
1940 – Woodie Fryman, American baseball player (d. 2011)
1940 – Herbie Hancock, American pianist, composer, and bandleader
1941 – Bobby Moore, English footballer and manager (d. 1993)
1942 – Bill Bryden, Scottish actor, director, and screenwriter
1942 – Carlos Reutemann, Argentinian race car driver and politician
1942 – Jacob Zuma, South African politician, 4th President of South Africa
1943 – Sumitra Mahajan, Indian politician, 16th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
1944 – Lisa Jardine, English historian, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1944 – John Kay, German-Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1945 – Lee Jong-wook, South Korean physician and diplomat (d. 2006)
1946 – Ed O’Neill, American actor and comedian
1946 – George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, Scottish politician and diplomat, 10th Secretary General of NATO
1947 – Roy M. Anderson, English epidemiologist, zoologist, and academic
1947 – Martin Brasier, English palaeontologist, biologist, and academic (d. 2014)
1947 – Alex Briley, American disco singer
1947 – Tom Clancy, American historian and author (d. 2013)
1947 – Woody Johnson, American businessman and philanthropist
1947 – Dan Lauria, American actor
1947 – David Letterman, American comedian and talk show host
1948 – Jeremy Beadle, English television host and producer (d. 2008)
1948 – Joschka Fischer, German academic and politician
1948 – Marcello Lippi, Italian footballer, manager, and coach
1949 – Scott Turow, American lawyer and author
1950 – Flavio Briatore, Italian businessman
1950 – David Cassidy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
1950 – Joyce Banda, Malawian politician, 4th president of Malawi
1950 – Nick Sackman, English composer and educator
1951 – Tom Noonan, American actor
1952 – Reuben Gant, American football player
1952 – Leicester Rutledge, New Zealand rugby player
1952 – Gary Soto, American poet, novelist, and memoirist
1952 – Ralph Wiley, American journalist (d. 2004)
1953 – Tanino Liberatore, Italian author and illustrator
1954 – John Faulkner, Australian educator and politician, 52nd Australian Minister for Defence
1954 – Steve Stevaert, Belgian businessman and politician (d. 2015)
1954 – Pat Travers, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 – Fabian Hamilton, English graphic designer, engineer, and politician
1956 – Andy Garcia, Cuban-American actor, director, and producer
1956 – Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer-songwriter and actor
1957 – Greg Child, Australian mountaineer and author
1957 – Vince Gill, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1957 – Tama Janowitz, American novelist and short story writer
1958 – Will Sergeant, English guitarist
1958 – Klaus Tafelmeier, German javelin thrower
1958 – Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian hurdler
1959 – Howard Stableford, English radio and television host
1961 – Corrado Fabi, Italian racing driver
1961 – Charles Mann, American football player and sportscaster
1961 – Magda Szubanski, English-Australian actress, comedian and writer
1962 – Art Alexakis, American singer-songwriter and musician
1962 – Carlos Sainz, Spanish racing driver
1962 – Nobuhiko Takada, Japanese mixed martial artist and wrestler, founded Hustle
1963 – Lydia Cacho, Mexican journalist and author
1964 – Chris Fairclough, English footballer and coach
1965 – Amy Ray, American folk-rock singer-songwriter, musician, and music producer
1965 – Kim Bodnia, Danish actor and director
1965 – Chi Onwurah, English politician
1965 – Gervais Rufyikiri, Burundian politician
1965 – Mihai Stoica, Romanian footballer and manager
1966 – Nils-Olav Johansen, Norwegian guitarist and singer
1966 – Lorenzo White, American football player
1967 – Sarah Cracknell, English singer-songwriter
1968 – Alicia Coppola, American actress
1968 – Toby Gad, German songwriter and producer
1968 – Adam Graves, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 – Jörn Lenz, German footballer and manager
1969 – Lucas Radebe, South African footballer and sportscaster
1969 – Michael Jackson, American football player and politician (d. 2017)
1970 – Sylvain Bouchard, Canadian speed skater
1971 – Nicholas Brendon, American actor
1971 – Shannen Doherty, American actress, director, and producer
1972 – Paul Lo Duca, American baseball player and sportscaster
1973 – J. Scott Campbell, American author and illustrator
1973 – Ryan Kisor, American trumpet player and composer
1973 – Antonio Osuna, Mexican-American baseball player
1973 – Christian Panucci, Italian footballer and manager
1974 – Belinda Emmett, Australian actress (d. 2006)
1974 – Bryan Fletcher, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1974 – Roman Hamrlík, Czech ice hockey player
1974 – Marley Shelton, American actress
1974 – Sylvinho, Brazilian footballer and manager
1976 – Olga Kotlyarova, Russian runner
1976 – Brad Miller, American basketball player
1977 – Giovanny Espinoza, Ecuadorian footballer
1977 – Sarah Monahan, Australian actress
1977 – Jason Price, Welsh footballer
1977 – Glenn Rogers, Australian-Scottish cricketer
1978 – Guy Berryman, Scottish bass player and producer
1978 – Scott Crary, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1978 – Svetlana Lapina, Russian high jumper
1978 – Robin Walker, English businessman and politician
1979 – Claire Danes, American actress
1979 – Elena Grosheva, Russian gymnast
1979 – Mateja Kežman, Serbian footballer
1979 – Jennifer Morrison, American actress
1979 – Cristian Ranalli, Italian footballer
1979 – Lee Soo-young, South Korean singer
1980 – Sara Head, Welsh Paralympic table tennis champion
1980 – Brian McFadden, Irish singer-songwriter
1981 – Yuriy Borzakovskiy, Russian runner
1981 – Nicolás Burdisso, Argentinian footballer
1981 – Tulsi Gabbard, American politician
1981 – Grant Holt, English footballer and professional wrestler
1981 – Hisashi Iwakuma, Japanese baseball pitcher
1983 – Jelena Dokic, Serbian-Australian tennis player
1983 – Luke Kibet, Kenyan runner
1984 – Aleksey Dmitrik, Russian high jumper
1985 – Brennan Boesch, American baseball player
1985 – Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer
1986 – Brad Brach, American baseball pitcher
1986 – Blerim Džemaili, Swiss footballer
1986 – Marcel Granollers, Spanish tennis player
1986 – Jonathan Pitroipa, Burkinabé footballer
1987 – Brooklyn Decker, American model and actress
1987 – Shawn Gore, Canadian football player
1987 – Josh McCrone, Australian rugby league player
1987 – Luiz Adriano, Brazilian professional footballer
1987 – Brendon Urie, American singer, songwriter, musician and multi-instrumentalist
1988 – Ricardo Gabriel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
1988 – Stephen Brogan, English footballer
1988 – Amedeo Calliari, Italian footballer
1988 – Jessie James Decker, American singer-songwriter
1989 – Bethan Dainton, Welsh rugby union player
1989 – Miguel Ángel Ponce, American-Mexican footballer
1989 – Ádám Hanga, Hungarian basketball player
1989 – Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian-American ice dancer
1989 – Valentin Stocker, Swiss footballer
1990 – Francesca Halsall, English swimmer
1990 – Hiroki Sakai, Japanese footballer
1991 – Torey Krug, American ice hockey player
1991 – Lionel Carole, French professional footballer
1991 – Oliver Norwood, English born Northern Irish international footballer
1991 – Magnus Pääjärvi, Swedish ice hockey player
1991 – Jazz Richards, Welsh international footballer
1992 – Chad le Clos, South African swimmer
1993 – Jordan Archer, English-Scottish footballer
1993 – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Canadian ice hockey player
1994 – Isabelle Drummond, Brazilian actress and singer
1994 – Saoirse Ronan, American-born Irish actress
1994 – Oh Sehun, South Korean musician
1994 – Eric Bailly, Ivorian professional footballer
1994 – Guido Rodríguez, Argentine footballer
1995 – Pedro Cachín, Argentine tennis player
1996 – Elizaveta Kulichkova, Russian tennis player

Deaths on April 12

45 BC – Gnaeus Pompeius, Roman general and politician (b. 75 BC)
352 – Julius I, pope of the Catholic Church
434 – Maximianus, archbishop of Constantinople
901 – Eudokia Baïana, Byzantine empress and wife of Leo VI
1125 – Vladislaus I, Duke of Bohemia (b. 1065)
1167 – Charles VII, king of Sweden (b. c. 1130)
1212 – Vsevolod the Big Nest, Grand Prince of Vladimir (b. 1154)
1256 – Margaret of Bourbon, Queen of Navarre, regent of Navarre (b. c. 1217)
1443 – Henry Chichele, English archbishop (b. 1364)
1500 – Leonhard of Gorizia, Count of Gorz (b. 1440)
1530 – Joanna La Beltraneja, Princess of Castile (b. 1462)
1550 – Claude, Duke of Guise (b. 1496)
1555 – Joanna of Castile (b. 1479)
1675 – Richard Bennett, English politician, colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1609)
1684 – Nicola Amati, Italian instrument maker (b. 1596)
1687 – Ambrose Dixon, English-American soldier (b. 1619)
1704 – Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and theologian (b. 1627)
1748 – William Kent, English architect, designed Holkham Hall and Chiswick House (b. 1685)
1782 – Metastasio, Italian-Austrian poet and composer (b. 1698)
1788 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-Italian composer (b. 1719)
1795 – Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
1814 – Charles Burney, English composer and historian (b. 1726)
1817 – Charles Messier, French astronomer and academic (b. 1730)
1850 – Adoniram Judson, American lexicographer and missionary (b. 1788)
1866 – Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, English politician, founded Fleetwood (b. 1801)
1872 – Nikolaos Mantzaros, Greek composer and theorist (b. 1795)
1878 – William M. Tweed, American lawyer and politician (b. 1823)
1879 – Richard Taylor, American general (b. 1826)
1885 – William Crowther, Dutch-Australian politician, 14th Premier of Tasmania (b. 1817)
1898 – Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, Canadian cardinal (b. 1820)
1902 – Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist and academic (b. 1842)
1906 – Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian scholar, academic, and philanthropist (b. 1836)
1912 – Clara Barton, American nurse and humanitarian, founded the American Red Cross (b. 1821)
1933 – Adelbert Ames, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Mississippi (b. 1835)
1937 – Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, Turkish playwright and poet (b. 1852)
1938 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (b. 1873)
1943 – Viktor Puskar, Estonian colonel (b. 1889)
1945 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and politician, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
1953 – Lionel Logue, Australian actor and therapist (b. 1880)
1962 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish racing driver (b. 1923)
1966 – Sydney Allard, English racing driver and founder of the Allard car company (b. 1910)
1968 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German engineer (b. 1899)
1971 – Ed Lafitte, American baseball player and dentist (b. 1886)
1973 – Arthur Freed, American songwriter and producer (b. 1894)
1975 – Josephine Baker, French actress, activist, and humanitarian (b. 1906)
1977 – Philip K. Wrigley, American businessman, co-founded Lincoln Park Gun Club (b. 1894)
1980 – William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian politician, 20th President of Liberia (b. 1913)
1981 – Prince Yasuhiko Asaka of Japan (b. 1887)
1981 – Joe Louis, American boxer and wrestler (b. 1914)
1983 – Jørgen Juve, Norwegian football player and journalist (b. 1906)
1983 – Carl Morton, American baseball player (b. 1944)
1984 – Edwin T. Layton, American admiral and cryptanalyst (b. 1903)
1986 – Valentin Kataev, Russian author and playwright (b. 1897)
1988 – Colette Deréal, French singer and actress (b. 1927)
1988 – Alan Paton, South African historian and author (b. 1903)
1989 – Abbie Hoffman, American activist, co-founded Youth International Party (b. 1936)
1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
1992 – Ilario Bandini, Italian racing driver and businessman (b. 1911)
1997 – George Wald, American neurologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
1998 – Robert Ford, Canadian poet and diplomat (b. 1915)
1999 – Boxcar Willie, American singer-songwriter (b. 1931)
2001 – Harvey Ball, American illustrator, created the smiley (b. 1921)
2002 – George Shevelov, Ukrainian-American linguist and philologist (b. 1908)
2004 – Moran Campbell, Canadian physician and academic, invented the venturi mask (b. 1925)
2006 – William Sloane Coffin, American minister and activist (b. 1924)
2007 – Kevin Crease, Australian journalist (b. 1936)
2008 – Cecilia Colledge, English-American figure skater and coach (b. 1920)
2008 – Patrick Hillery, Irish physician and politician, 6th President of Ireland (b. 1923)
2008 – Jerry Zucker, Israeli-American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1949)
2010 – Michel Chartrand, Canadian trade union leader (b. 1916)
2010 – Werner Schroeter, German director and screenwriter (b. 1945)
2011 – Karim Fakhrawi, Bahraini journalist, co-founded Al-Wasat (b. 1962)
2012 – Mohit Chattopadhyay, Indian poet and playwright (b. 1934)
2012 – Rodgers Grant, American pianist and composer (b. 1935)
2013 – Robert Byrne, American chess player and author (b. 1928)
2013 – Johnny du Plooy, South African boxer (b. 1964)
2013 – Michael France, American screenwriter (b. 1962)
2013 – Brennan Manning, American priest and author (b. 1934)
2013 – Annamária Szalai, Hungarian journalist and politician (b. 1961)
2013 – Ya’akov Yosef, Israeli rabbi and politician (b. 1946)
2014 – Pierre Autin-Grenier, French author and poet (b. 1947)
2014 – Pierre-Henri Menthéour, French cyclist (b. 1960)
2014 – Maurício Alves Peruchi, Brazilian footballer (b. 1990)
2014 – Hal Smith, American baseball player and coach (b. 1931)
2014 – Billy Standridge, American race car driver (b. 1953)
2015 – Paulo Brossard, Brazilian jurist and politician (b. 1924)
2015 – Patrice Dominguez, Algerian-French tennis player and trainer (b. 1950)
2015 – Alfred Eick, German commander (b. 1916)
2015 – André Mba Obame, Gabonese politician (b. 1957)
2016 – Anne Jackson, American actress (b. 1925)
2016 – Mohammad Al Gaz, Emirati politician & diplomat (b. 1930)
2017 – Charlie Murphy, American actor and comedian (b. 1959)
2020 – Tarvaris Jackson, American football player (b. 1983)

Holidays and observances on April 12

Children’s Day (Bolivia)
Christian feast day:
- Adoniram Judson (Episcopal Church)
- Alferius
- Blessed Angelo Carletti di Chivasso
- Erkembode
- Pope Julius I
- Teresa of the Andes
- Zeno of Verona
- April 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Commemoration of first human in space by Yuri Gagarin:
- Cosmonautics Day (Russia)
- International Day of Human Space Flight
- Yuri’s Night (International observance)
Halifax Day (North Carolina)
National Redemption Day (Liberia)

April 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 6 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) at the Battle of Thapsus.
402 – Stilicho defeats the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.
1250 – Seventh Crusade: Ayyubids of Egypt capture King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fariskur.
1320 – The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
1327 – The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
1385 – John, Master of the Order of Aviz, an illegitimate son of Peter I of Portugal, is made king John I of Portugal.
1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which falls on May 29.
1580 – One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
1652 – At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.
1712 – The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy fail in their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.
1782 – King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) establishes the Chakri dynasty.
1793 – During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.
1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America’s first millionaire.
1812 – British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.
1814 – Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
1830 – Church of Christ, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement, is organized by Joseph Smith and others at either Fayette or Manchester, New York.
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison’s death.
1860 – The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.
1861 – First performance of Arthur Sullivan’s debut success, his suite of incidental music for The Tempest, leading to a career that included the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins: In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Sailor’s Creek: Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign.
1866 – The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.
1869 – Celluloid is patented.
1888 – Thomas Green Clemson dies, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.
1893 – Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
1895 – Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary’s claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.
1911 – During the Battle of Deçiq, Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg).
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress).
1926 – Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).
1929 – Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.
1930 – At the end of the Salt March, Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
1936 – Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.
1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
1945 – World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Slater’s Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end.
1947 – The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.
1957 – Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines.
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
1968 – In Richmond, Indiana’s downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.
1968 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins the Liberal Leadership Election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon after.
1970 – Newhall massacre: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout.
1972 – Vietnam War: Easter Offensive: American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
1973 – Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
1973 – The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
1974 – The Swedish pop band ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Waterloo”, launching their international career.
1979 – Student protests break out in Nepal.
1984 – Members of Cameroon’s Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
1992 – The Bosnian War begins.
1994 – The Rwandan genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
1997 – In Greene County, Tennessee, the Lillelid murders occurs when a group of young people abduct and kidnap a religious family before shooting them dead on a rural suburban road.
1998 – Nuclear weapons testing: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.
1998 – Travelers Group announces an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger is completed on October 8, of that year, forming Citibank.
2004 – Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.
2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
2008 – The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement and Egyptian activists.
2009 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L’Aquila, Italy, killing 307.
2010 – Maoist rebels kill 76 CRPF officers in Dantewada district, India.
2011 – In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas were exhumed from several mass graves.
2012 – Azawad declares itself independent from the Republic of Mali.
2017 – U.S. military launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an airbase in Syria. Russia describes the strikes as an “aggression”, adding they significantly damage US-Russia ties.
2018 – A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior ice hockey team collides with a semi-truck in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others.

Births on April 6

1135 – Maimonides, Jewish philosopher, Torah scholar, physician and astronomer (March 30 also proposed, d. 1204)
1342 – Infanta Maria, Marchioness of Tortosa
1483 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (d. 1520)
1573 – Margaret of Brunswick-Lüneburg, German noble (d. 1643)
1632 – Maria Leopoldine of Austria (d. 1649)
1651 – André Dacier, French scholar and academic (d. 1722)
1660 – Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
1664 – Arvid Horn, Swedish general and politician, Governor of Västerbotten County (d. 1742)
1671 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet and playwright (d. 1741)
1672 – André Cardinal Destouches, French composer (d. 1749)
1706 – Louis de Cahusac, French playwright and composer (d. 1759)
1708 – Johann Georg Reutter, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1772)
1725 – Pasquale Paoli, French soldier and politician (d. 1807)
1726 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (d. 1755)
1741 – Nicolas Chamfort, French author and playwright (d. 1794)
1766 – Wilhelm von Kobell, German painter and educator (d. 1853)
1773 – James Mill, Scottish historian, economist, and philosopher (d. 1836)
1787 – Celestina Cordero, Puerto Rican educator (d. 1862)
1810 – Philip Henry Gosse, English biologist and academic (d. 1888)
1812 – Alexander Herzen, Russian philosopher and author (d. 1870)
1815 – Robert Volkmann, German organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1883)
1818 – Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Norwegian journalist and poet (d. 1870)
1820 – Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (d. 1910)
1823 – Joseph Medill, Canadian-American publisher and politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1899)
1824 – George Waterhouse, English-New Zealand politician, 7th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1906)
1826 – Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (d. 1898)
1844 – William Lyne, Australian politician, 13th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1913)
1851 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer and academic (d. 1932)
1852 – Will Crooks, English trade unionist and politician (d. 1921)
1855 – Charles Huot, Canadian painter and illustrator (d. 1930)
1857 – Arthur Wesley Dow, American painter and photographer (d. 1922)
1860 – René Lalique, French sculptor and jewellery designer (d. 1945)
1861 – Stanislas de Guaita, French poet and author (d. 1897)
1864 – William Bate Hardy, English biologist and academic (d. 1934)
1866 – Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, Canadian cardinal (d. 1931)
1869 – Levon Shant, Armenian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1951)
1878 – Erich Mühsam, German author, poet, and playwright (d. 1934)
1881 – Karl Staaf, Swedish pole vaulter and hammer thrower (d. 1953)
1884 – J. G. Parry-Thomas, Welsh race car driver and engineer (d. 1927)
1886 – Athenagoras I of Constantinople (d. 1972)
1886 – Walter Dandy, American physician and neurosurgeon (d. 1946)
1886 – Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, Indian ruler (d. 1967)
1888 – Hans Richter, Swiss painter, illustrator, and director (d. 1976)
1888 – Gerhard Ritter, German historian and academic (d. 1967)
1890 – Anthony Fokker, Dutch engineer and businessman, founded Fokker Aircraft Manufacturer (d. 1939)
1892 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American businessman, founded the Douglas Aircraft Company (d. 1981)
1892 – Lowell Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 1981)
1895 – Dudley Nichols, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1960)
1898 – Jeanne Hébuterne, French painter and author (d. 1920)
1900 – Leo Robin, American composer and songwriter (d. 1984)
1901 – Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian activist (d. 1925)
1902 – Julien Torma, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1933)
1903 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player and manager (d. 1962)
1903 – Harold Eugene Edgerton, American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
1904 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German lawyer, politician and Chancellor of Germany (d. 1988)
1904 – Erwin Komenda, Austrian car designer and engineer (d. 1966)
1908 – Marcel-Marie Desmarais, Canadian preacher, missionary, and author (d. 1994)
1909 – William M. Branham, American minister and theologian (d. 1965)
1909 – Hermann Lang, German race car driver (d. 1987)
1910 – Barys Kit, Belarusian-American rocket scientist (d. 2018)
1911 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
1913 – Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune, American geographer and academic (d. 1993)
1915 – Tadeusz Kantor, Polish director, painter, and set designer (d. 1990)
1916 – Phil Leeds, American actor (d. 1998)
1916 – Vincent Ellis McKelvey, American geologist and author (d. 1987)
1917 – Leonora Carrington, English-Mexican painter and author (d. 2011)
1918 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (d. 1982)
1919 – Georgios Mylonas, Greek politician, 11th Greek Minister of Culture (d. 1998)
1920 – Jack Cover, American pilot and physicist, invented the Taser gun (d. 2009)
1920 – Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1921 – Wilbur Thompson, American shot putter (d. 2013)
1922 – Gordon Chater, English-Australian comedian and actor (d. 1999)
1923 – Herb Thomas, American race car driver (d. 2000)
1926 – Sergio Franchi, Italian-American singer and actor (d. 1990)
1926 – Gil Kane, Latvian-American author and illustrator (d. 2000)
1926 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish evangelical minister and politician, 2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 2014)
1926 – Randy Weston, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 2018)
1927 – Gerry Mulligan, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (d. 1996)
1928 – James Watson, American biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 – Willis Hall, English playwright and author (d. 2005)
1929 – Joi Lansing, American model, actress and nightclub singer (d. 1972)
1929 – André Previn, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2019)
1931 – Ram Dass, American author and educator (d. 2019)
1931 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2008)
1932 – Connie Broden, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1932 – Helmut Griem, German actor and director (d. 2004)
1933 – Roy Goode, English lawyer and academic
1933 – Tom C. Korologos, American journalist and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Belgium
1933 – Eduardo Malapit, American lawyer and politician, Mayor of Kauai (d. 2007)
1934 – Enrique Álvarez Félix, Mexican actor (d. 1996)
1934 – Anton Geesink, Dutch martial artist and wrestler (d. 2010)
1934 – Guy Peellaert, Belgian painter, illustrator, and photographer (d. 2008)
1935 – Douglas Hill, Canadian author and critic (d. 2007)
1936 – Helen Berman, Dutch-Israeli painter and illustrator
1936 – Jean-Pierre Changeux, French neuroscientist, biologist, and academic
1937 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1937 – Tom Veivers, Australian cricketer and politician
1937 – Billy Dee Williams, American actor, singer, and writer
1938 – Paul Daniels, English magician and television host (d. 2016)
1938 – Roy Thinnes, American television and film actor
1939 – André Ouellet, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1939 – John Sculley, American businessman, co-founded Zeta Interactive
1940 – Homero Aridjis, Mexican journalist, author, and poet
1940 – Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Mexican-American actor and producer (d. 2011)
1941 – Christopher Allsopp, English economist and academic
1941 – Phil Austin, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1941 – Hans W. Geißendörfer, German director and producer
1941 – Don Prudhomme, American race car driver and manager
1941 – Gheorghe Zamfir, Romanian flute player and composer
1942 – Barry Levinson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1942 – Anita Pallenberg, Italian-English model, actress, and fashion designer (d. 2017)
1943 – Max Clifford, English journalist and publicist (d. 2017)
1943 – Roger Cook, New Zealand-English journalist and academic
1943 – Ian MacRae, New Zealand rugby player
1943 – Mitchell Melton, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1944 – Felicity Palmer, English operatic soprano
1945 – Rodney Bickerstaffe, English trade union leader (d. 2017)
1945 – Peter Hill, English journalist
1946 – Paul Beresford, New Zealand-English dentist and politician
1947 – John Ratzenberger, American actor and director
1947 – André Weinfeld, French-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1947 – Mike Worboys, English mathematician and computer scientist
1949 – Alyson Bailes, English academic and diplomat (d. 2016)
1949 – Patrick Hernandez, French singer-songwriter
1949 – Ng Ser Miang, Singaporean athlete, entrepreneur and diplomat
1949 – Horst Ludwig Störmer, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1950 – Claire Morissette, Canadian cycling activist (d. 2007)
1950 – Cleo Odzer, American anthropologist and author (d. 2001)
1951 – Bert Blyleven, Dutch-American baseball player and sportscaster
1951 – Jean-Marc Boivin, French skier, mountaineer, and pilot (d. 1990)
1951 – Pascal Rogé, French pianist
1951 – Phil Schaap, American jazz disc jockey and historian
1952 – Udo Dirkschneider, German singer-songwriter
1952 – Marilu Henner, Greek-Polish American actress and author
1952 – Michel Larocque, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (d. 1992)
1953 – Patrick Doyle, Scottish actor and composer
1953 – Christopher Franke, German-American drummer and songwriter
1955 – Rob Epstein, American director and producer
1955 – Michael Rooker, American actor, director, and producer
1955 – Cathy Jones, Canadian actress, comedian, and writer
1956 – Michele Bachmann, American lawyer and politician
1956 – Normand Corbeil, Canadian composer (d. 2013)
1956 – Mudassar Nazar, Pakistani cricketer
1956 – Lee Scott, English politician
1956 – Sebastian Spreng, Argentinian-American painter and journalist
1956 – Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer and coach
1957 – Giorgio Damilano, Italian race walker and coach
1957 – Maurizio Damilano, Italian race walker and coach
1957 – Jaroslava Maxová, Czech soprano and educator
1957 – Paolo Nespoli, Italian soldier, engineer, and astronaut
1958 – Graeme Base, Australian author and illustrator
1959 – Gail Shea, Canadian politician
1960 – Warren Haynes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Richard Loe, New Zealand rugby player
1960 – John Pizzarelli, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – Rory Bremner, Scottish actor and screenwriter
1961 – Peter Jackson, English footballer and manager
1962 – Iris Häussler, German sculptor and academic
1962 – Marco Schällibaum, Swiss footballer, coach, and manager
1963 – Rafael Correa, Ecuadorian economist and politician, 54th President of Ecuador
1965 – Black Francis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Sterling Sharpe, American football player and sportscaster
1966 – Vince Flynn, American author (d. 2013)
1966 – Young Man Kang, South Korean-American director and producer
1967 – Julian Anderson, English composer and educator
1967 – Kathleen Barr, Canadian voice actress and singer
1967 – Tanya Byron, English psychologist and academic
1967 – Jonathan Firth, English actor
1968 – Archon Fung, American political scientist, author, and academic
1968 – Affonso Giaffone, Brazilian race car driver
1969 – Bret Boone, American baseball player and manager
1969 – Bison Dele, American basketball player (d. 2002)
1969 – Philipp Peter, Austrian race car driver
1969 – Paul Rudd, American actor
1969 – Spencer Wells, American geneticist and anthropologist
1970 – Olaf Kölzig, South African-German ice hockey player and coach
1970 – Roy Mayorga, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1970 – Huang Xiaomin, Chinese swimmer
1972 – Anders Thomas Jensen, Danish director and screenwriter
1972 – Dickey Simpkins, American basketball player and sportscaster
1973 – Donnie Edwards, American football player
1973 – Randall Godfrey, American football player
1973 – Rie Miyazawa, Japanese model and actress
1973 – Sun Wen, Chinese footballer
1975 – Zach Braff, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Hal Gill, American ice hockey player
1976 – Candace Cameron Bure, American actress and talk show panelist
1976 – James Fox, Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1976 – Chris Hoke, American football player
1976 – Georg Hólm, Icelandic bass player
1976 – Hirotada Ototake, Japanese author and educator
1977 – Ville Nieminen, Finnish ice hockey player
1977 – Andy Phillips, American baseball player and coach
1978 – Imani Coppola, American singer-songwriter and violinist
1978 – Robert Glasper, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1978 – Tim Hasselbeck, American football player and sportscaster
1978 – Myleene Klass, Austrian/Filipino-English singer, pianist, and model
1978 – Martín Méndez, Uruguayan bass player and songwriter
1978 – Blaine Neal, American baseball player
1978 – Igor Semshov, Russian footballer
1979 – Lord Frederick Windsor, English journalist and financier
1979 – Clay Travis, American sports journalist, blogger, and broadcaster
1980 – Tommi Evilä, Finnish long jumper
1980 – Tanja Poutiainen, Finnish skier
1980 – Antonio Thomas, American wrestler
1981 – Robert Earnshaw, Welsh footballer
1981 – Jeff Faine, American football player
1981 – Alex Suarez, American bass player
1982 – Travis Moen, Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Spanish actor
1983 – Mehdi Ballouchy, Moroccan footballer
1983 – Jerome Kaino, New Zealand rugby player
1983 – Mitsuru Nagata, Japanese footballer
1983 – Remi Nicole, English singer-songwriter and actress
1983 – James Wade, English darts player
1983 – Katie Weatherston, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Max Bemis, American singer-songwriter
1984 – Michaël Ciani, French footballer
1984 – Siboniso Gaxa, South African footballer
1984 – Diana Matheson, Canadian soccer player
1985 – Clarke MacArthur, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Frank Ongfiang, Cameroonian footballer
1985 – Sinqua Walls, American basketball player and actor
1986 – Nikolas Asprogenis, Cypriot footballer
1986 – Aaron Curry, American football player
1986 – Goeido Gotaro, Japanese sumo wrestler
1986 – Ryota Moriwaki, Japanese footballer
1987 – Benjamin Corgnet, French footballer
1987 – Heidi Mount, American model
1987 – Juan Adriel Ochoa, Mexican footballer
1987 – Levi Porter, English footballer
1987 – Hilary Rhoda, American model
1988 – Jucilei, Brazilian footballer
1988 – Leigh Adams, Australian footballer
1988 – Daniele Gasparetto, Italian footballer
1988 – Carlton Mitchell, American football player
1988 – Fabrice Muamba, Congolese-English footballer
1988 – Ivonne Orsini, Puerto Rican-American model and television host, Miss World Puerto Rico 2008
1990 – Lachlan Coote, Australian rugby league player
1990 – Charlie McDermott, American actor
1990 – Andrei Veis, Estonian footballer
1992 – Ken, South Korean singer
1992 – Julie Ertz, American soccer player
1994 – Adrián Alonso, Mexican actor
1995 – Darya Lebesheva, Belarusian tennis player
1998 – Peyton List, American actress and model

Deaths on April 6

861 – Prudentius, bishop of Troyes
885 – Saint Methodius, Byzantine missionary and saint (b. 815)
887 – Pei Che, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
943 – Liu Churang, Chinese general and chief of staff (b. 881)
943 – Nasr II, ruler (amir) of the Samanid Empire (b. 906)
1147 – Frederick II, duke of Swabia (b. 1090)
1199 – Richard I, king of England (b. 1157)
1231 – William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
1250 – Guillaume de Sonnac, Grand Master of the Knights Templar
1252 – Peter of Verona, Italian priest and saint (b. 1206)
1340 – Basil, emperor of Trebizond (Turkey)
1362 – James I, count of La Marche (b. 1319)
1376 – Preczlaw of Pogarell, Cardinal and Bishop of Wrocław (b. 1310)
1490 – Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490 (b. 1443)
1520 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)
1523 – Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English nobleman (b. 1479)
1528 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (b. 1471)
1551 – Joachim Vadian, Swiss scholar and politician (b. 1484)
1571 – John Hamilton, Scottish archbishop and academic (b. 1512)
1590 – Francis Walsingham, English politician and diplomat, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1532)
1593 – Henry Barrowe, English Puritan and separatist (b. 1550)
1605 – John Stow, English historian and author (b. 1525)
1621 – Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (b. 1539)
1641 – Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), Italian painter (b. 1581)
1655 – David Blondel, French minister, historian, and scholar (b. 1591)
1676 – John Winthrop the Younger, English politician, 1st Governor of Connecticut (b. 1606)
1686 – Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, Irish-English politician (b. 1614)
1707 – Willem van de Velde the Younger, Dutch-English painter (b. 1633)
1755 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister and historian (b. 1690)
1790 – Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b. 1719)
1825 – Vladimir Borovikovsky, Ukrainian-Russian painter and educator (b. 1757)
1829 – Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (b. 1802)
1833 – Adamantios Korais, Greek philosopher and scholar (b. 1748)
1838 – José Bonifácio de Andrada, Brazilian poet, academic, and politician (b. 1763)
1860 – James Kirke Paulding, American author and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Navy (b. 1778)
1862 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (b. 1803)
1883 – Benjamin Wright Raymond, American merchant and politician, 3rd Mayor of Chicago (b. 1801)
1886 – William Edward Forster, English businessman, philanthropist, and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (b. 1818)
1899 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (b. 1809)
1906 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician, 6th County Governor of Møre og Romsdal (b. 1849)
1913 – Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore (b. 1835)
1923 – Kabalega, King of Bunyoro (b.1853)
1927 – Florence Earle Coates, American poet (b. 1850)
1935 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet and playwright (b. 1869)
1944 – Rose O’Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer (b. 1874)
1947 – Herbert Backe, German agronomist and politician (b. 1896)
1950 – Louis Wilkins, American pole vaulter (b. 1882)
1953 – Idris Davies, Welsh poet and author (b. 1905)
1959 – Leo Aryeh Mayer, Polish-Israeli scholar and academic (b. 1895)
1961 – Jules Bordet, Belgian microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
1963 – Otto Struve, Ukrainian-American astronomer and academic (b. 1897)
1970 – Maurice Stokes, American basketball player (b. 1933)
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
1974 – Willem Marinus Dudok, Dutch architect (b. 1884)
1974 – Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (b. 1895)
1977 – Kōichi Kido, Japanese politician, 13th Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (b. 1889)
1979 – Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect, designed the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library (b. 1893)
1983 – Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, Indian General who served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1962 to 1966 and the Military Governor of Hyderabad State from 1948 to 1949. (b. 1908)
1992 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
1994 – Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan banker and politician, 3rd President of Rwanda (b. 1937)
1994 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (b. 1955)
1995 – Ioannis Alevras, Greek banker and politician, President of Greece (b. 1912)
1996 – Greer Garson, English-American actress (b. 1904)
1998 – Norbert Schmitz, German footballer (b. 1958)
1998 – Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
1999 – Red Norvo, American vibraphone player and composer (b. 1908)
2000 – Habib Bourguiba, Tunisian politician, 1st President of Tunisia (b. 1903)
2001 – Charles Pettigrew, American singer-songwriter (b. 1963)
2003 – David Bloom, American journalist (b. 1963)
2003 – Anita Borg, American computer scientist and educator; founded Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (b. 1949)
2003 – Gerald Emmett Carter, Canadian cardinal (b. 1912)
2003 – Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, educator, and activist (b. 1927)
2004 – Lou Berberet, American baseball player (b. 1929)
2004 – Larisa Bogoraz, Russian linguist and activist (b. 1929)
2005 – Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (b. 1923)
2006 – Maggie Dixon, American basketball player and coach (b. 1977)
2006 – Francis L. Kellogg, American soldier and diplomat (b. 1917)
2006 – Stefanos Stratigos, Greek actor and director (b. 1926)
2007 – Luigi Comencini, Italian director and producer (b. 1916)
2009 – J. M. S. Careless, Canadian historian and academic (b. 1919)
2009 – Shawn Mackay, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1982)
2010 – Wilma Mankiller, American tribal leader (b. 1945)
2010 – Corin Redgrave, English actor (b. 1939)
2011 – Gerald Finnerman, American director and cinematographer (b. 1931)
2012 – Roland Guilbault, American admiral (b. 1934)
2012 – Thomas Kinkade, American painter and illustrator (b. 1958)
2012 – Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist and academic (b. 1936)
2012 – Sheila Scotter, Australian fashion designer and journalist (b. 1920)
2012 – Reed Whittemore, American poet and critic (b. 1919)
2013 – Hilda Bynoe, Grenadian physician and politician, 2nd Governor of Grenada (b. 1921)
2013 – Bill Guttridge, English footballer and manager (b. 1931)
2013 – Bigas Luna, Spanish director and screenwriter (b. 1946)
2013 – Ottmar Schreiner, German lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
2014 – Mary Anderson, American actress (b. 1918)
2014 – Jacques Castérède, French pianist and composer (b. 1926)
2014 – Liv Dommersnes, Norwegian actress (b. 1922)
2014 – Mickey Rooney, American soldier, actor, and dancer (b. 1920)
2014 – Chuck Stone, American soldier, journalist, and academic (b. 1924)
2014 – Massimo Tamburini, Italian motorcycle designer, co-founded Bimota (b. 1943)
2015 – Giovanni Berlinguer, Italian lawyer and politician (b. 1924)
2015 – James Best, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
2015 – Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter and conductor (b. 1918)
2015 – Dollard St. Laurent, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929)
2016 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
2017 – Don Rickles, American actor and comedian (b. 1926)
2019 – Michael O’Donnell, British physician, journalist, author and broadcaster (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances on April 6

Chakri Day, commemorating the establishment of the Chakri dynasty. (Thailand)
Christian feast day:
- Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach (Lutheran Church).
- Brychan
- Eutychius of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Marcellinus of Carthage
- Pope Celestine I (Catholic Church)
- Pope Sixtus I
- April 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
National Fisherman Day (Indonesia)
New Beer’s Eve (United States)
Tartan Day (United States & Canada)

April 6 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 4 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

On the Roman calendar, this was known as the day before the nones of April (Latin: Prid. Non. Apr.).

April 4 in History

503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
1147 – Moscow is mentioned for the first time in the historical record, when it is named as a meeting place for two princes.
1268 – A five-year Byzantine–Venetian peace treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
1460 – Basel University is founded.
1581 – Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
1609 – Moriscos are expelled from the Kingdom of Valencia.
1660 – Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain promises, among other things, a general pardon to all royalists for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.
1721 – Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first British prime minister.
1768 – In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.
1796 – Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.
1814 – Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French.
1818 – The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).
1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.
1850 – A large part of the English village of Cottenham burns to the ground in suspicious circumstances.
1850 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city.
1859 – Bryant’s Minstrels debut “Dixie” in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
1865 – American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.
1873 – The Kennel Club is founded, the oldest and first official registry of purebred dogs in the world.
1875 – Vltava, composed by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana and also known by its German name Die Moldau, premiered in Prague.
1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.
1913 – First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes.
1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party in Germany.
1933 – U.S. Navy airship USS Akron is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather.
1939 – Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
1945 – World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
1945 – World War II: American troops capture Kassel.
1945 – World War II: Soviet troops liberate Hungary from German occupation and occupy the country themselves.
1949 – Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
1958 – The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London.
1960 – France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.
1964 – The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
1965 – The first model of the new Saab Viggen fighter aircraft is unveiled.
1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
1968 – A.E.K. Athens B.C. becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup.
1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
1973 – The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated.
1973 – A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming.
1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1975 – Vietnam War: A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.
1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
1981 – Iran–Iraq War: The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft.
1983 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.
1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
1988 – Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
1990 – The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress.
1991 – Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
1994 – Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name Mosaic Communications Corporation.
1996 – Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.
2002 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.
2009 – France announces its return to full participation of its military forces within NATO.
2013 – More than 70 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.
2020 – China holds a National day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.

Births on April 4

188 – Caracalla, Roman emperor (d. 217)
1436 – Amalia of Saxony, Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut (d. 1501)
1490 – Vojtěch I of Pernstein, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1534)
1492 – Ambrosius Blarer, German-Swiss theologian and reformer (d. 1564)
1572 – William Strachey, English author (d. 1621)
1586 – Richard Saltonstall, English diplomat (d. 1661)
1593 – Edward Nicholas, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (d. 1669)
1640 – Gaspar Sanz, Spanish guitarist, composer, and priest (d. 1710)
1646 – Antoine Galland, French orientalist and archaeologist (d. 1715)
1648 – Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-English sculptor (d. 1721)
1676 – Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Italian composer (d. 1760)
1688 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer and cartographer (d. 1768)
1718 – Benjamin Kennicott, English theologian and scholar (d. 1783)
1752 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Italian composer (d. 1837)
1760 – Juan Manuel Olivares, Venezuelan organist and composer (d. 1797)
1762 – Stephen Storace, English actor and composer (d. 1796)
1772 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement (d. 1810)
1780 – Edward Hicks, American minister and painter (d. 1849)
1785 – Bettina von Arnim, German author, illustrator, and composer (d. 1859)
1792 – Thaddeus Stevens, American lawyer and politician (d. 1868)
1802 – Dorothea Dix, American nurse and activist (d. 1887)
1818 – Thomas Mayne Reid, Irish-American author and poet (d. 1883)
1819 – Maria II of Portugal (d. 1853)
1821 – Linus Yale, Jr., American engineer and businessman (d. 1868)
1826 – Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer, invented the Gramme machine (d. 1901)
1829 – Owen Suffolk, Australian bushranger, poet, confidence-man and author
1835 – John Hughlings Jackson, English physician and neurologist (d. 1911)
1842 – Édouard Lucas, French mathematician and theorist (d. 1891)
1843 – William Henry Jackson, American painter and photographer (d. 1942)
1846 – Comte de Lautréamont, Uruguayan-French poet and educator (d. 1870)
1851 – James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, Irish lawyer and politician (d. 1931)
1853 – Remy de Gourmont, French poet, novelist, and critic (d. 1915)
1868 – Philippa Fawcett, English mathematician and educator (d. 1948)
1869 – Mary Colter, American architect, designed the Desert View Watchtower (d. 1958)
1875 – Pierre Monteux, Sephardic Jewish French-American viola player and conductor (d. 1964)
1876 – Maurice de Vlaminck, French painter and poet (d. 1958)
1878 – Stylianos Lykoudis, Greek admiral and historian (d. 1958)
1879 – Gustav Goßler, German rower (d. 1940)
1884 – James Alberione, Italian priest, founded the Society of St. Paul (d. 1971)
1884 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (d. 1943)
1886 – Frank Luther Mott, American historian and journalist (d. 1964)
1888 – Tris Speaker, American baseball player and manager (d. 1958)
1888 – Zdzisław Żygulski, Sr., Polish historian and academic (d. 1975)
1889 – Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Indian journalist, poet, and playwright (d. 1968)
1892 – Italo Mus, Italian painter (d. 1967)
1895 – Arthur Murray, American dancer and educator (d. 1991)
1896 – Robert E. Sherwood, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1955)
1897 – Pierre Fresnay, French actor and screenwriter (d. 1975)
1898 – Agnes Ayres, American actress (d. 1940)
1899 – Hillel Oppenheimer, German-Israeli botanist and academic (d. 1971)
1902 – Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, French journalist and author (d. 1969)
1902 – Stanley G. Weinbaum, American author and poet (d. 1935)
1905 – Eugène Bozza, French composer and conductor (d. 1991)
1905 – Erika Nõva, Estonian architect and engineer (d. 1987)
1906 – Bea Benaderet, Turkish-Jewish Irish-American television, radio, and voice actress (d. 1968)
1906 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (d. 1995)
1907 – Robert Askin, Australian sergeant and politician, 32nd Premier of New South Wales (d. 1981)
1910 – Đặng Văn Ngữ, Vietnamese physician and academic (d. 1967)
1911 – Max Dupain, Australian photographer (d. 1992)
1913 – Dave Brown, Australian rugby league player (d. 1974)
1913 – Rosemary Lane, American actress and singer (d. 1974)
1913 – Frances Langford, American actress and singer (d. 2005)
1913 – Jules Léger, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Governor General of Canada (d. 1980)
1913 – Muddy Waters, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1983)
1914 – Richard Coogan, American actor (d. 2014)
1914 – Marguerite Duras, French novelist, screenwriter, and director (d. 1996)
1914 – David W. Goodall, Australian ecologist and botanist (d. 2018)
1915 – Louis Archambault, Canadian sculptor (d. 2003)
1916 – Nikola Ljubičić, Serbian general and politician, 10th President of Serbia (d. 2005)
1916 – Mickey Owen, American baseball player and coach (d. 2005)
1916 – David White, American actor (d. 1990)
1918 – George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, English soldier and politician, Leader of the House of Lords (d. 2007)
1920 – Orunamamu, American-Canadian author and educator (d. 2014)
1920 – Ignatius IV of Antioch, Greek patriarch (d. 2012)
1921 – Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (d. 2015)
1922 – Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 2004)
1923 – Peter Vaughan, English actor (d. 2016)
1923 – Gene Reynolds, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2020)
1924 – Bob Christie, American race car driver (d. 2009)
1924 – Gil Hodges, American baseball player and manager (d. 1972)
1925 – Dettmar Cramer, German footballer and manager (d. 2015)
1925 – Frank Truitt, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
1925 – Claude Wagner, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (d. 1979)
1925 – Emmett Williams, American poet and author (d. 2007)
1926 – Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and activist (d. 2010)
1926 – Ronnie Masterson, Irish actress (d. 2014)
1927 – Joe Orlando, Italian-American author and illustrator (d. 1998)
1928 – Maya Angelou, American memoirist and poet (d. 2014)
1928 – Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian
1928 – Jimmy Logan, Scottish actor, director, and producer (d. 2001)
1928 – Monty Norman, English singer-songwriter and producer
1929 – Humbert Allen Astredo, American actor (d. 2016)
1930 – Netty Herawaty, Indonesian actress (d. 1989)
1931 – James Dickens, English politician (d. 2013)
1931 – Bobby Ray Inman, American admiral and intelligence officer
1931 – Catherine Tizard, New Zealand politician, 16th Governor-General of New Zealand
1932 – Clive Davis, American record producer, founded Arista Records and J Records
1932 – Richard Lugar, American lieutenant and politician, 44th Mayor of Indianapolis (d. 2019)
1932 – Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992)
1932 – Johanna Reiss, Dutch-American author
1932 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian director and producer (d. 1986)
1933 – Bill France, Jr., American businessman (d. 2007)
1933 – Brian Hewson, English runner
1933 – Bapu Nadkarni, Indian cricketer (d. 2020)
1934 – Helen Hanft, American actress (d. 2013)
1934 – Kronid Lyubarsky, Russian journalist and activist (d. 1996)
1935 – Geoff Braybrooke, English-New Zealand soldier and politician (d. 2013)
1935 – Kenneth Mars, American actor and comedian (d. 2011)
1935 – Trevor Griffiths, English playwright and educator
1938 – A. Bartlett Giamatti, American businessman and academic (d. 1989)
1939 – JoAnne Carner, American golfer
1939 – Darlene Hooley, American educator and politician
1939 – Hugh Masekela, South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer (d. 2018)
1940 – Richard Attwood, English race car driver
1940 – Sharon Sheeley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2002)
1942 – Jim Fregosi, American baseball player and manager (d. 2014)
1942 – Kitty Kelley, American journalist and biographer
1942 – Elizabeth Levy, American author
1944 – Magda Aelvoet, Belgian politician
1944 – Mary Kenny, Irish journalist, author, and playwright
1944 – Bob McDill, American country music songwriter
1944 – Craig T. Nelson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1944 – Nelson Prudêncio, Brazilian triple jumper and educator (d. 2012)
1944 – Toktamış Ateş, Turkish academician, political commentator, columnist and writer (d. 2013)
1945 – Daniel Cohn-Bendit, French-German educator and politician
1945 – Caroline McWilliams, American actress (d. 2010)
1946 – Colin Coates, Australian speed skater
1946 – Dave Hill, English guitarist
1946 – Katsuaki Satō, Japanese martial artist and coach
1946 – György Spiró, Hungarian author and playwright
1946 – Bubba Wyche, American football player and coach
1947 – Wiranto, Indonesian general and politician
1947 – Ray Fosse, American baseball player and sportscaster
1947 – Eliseo Soriano, Filipino minister and television host
1948 – Abdullah Öcalan, Turkish activist
1948 – Berry Oakley, American bass player (d. 1972)
1948 – Richard Parsons, American lawyer and businessman
1948 – Dan Simmons, American author
1948 – Derek Thompson, Northern Irish actor
1948 – Pick Withers, English drummer
1949 – Junior Braithwaite, Jamaican-American singer (d. 1999)
1949 – Shing-Tung Yau, Chinese-American mathematician and academic
1950 – Christine Lahti, American actress and director
1951 – John Hannah, American football player and coach
1952 – Rosemarie Ackermann, German high jumper
1952 – Pat Burns, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2010)
1952 – Gregg Hansford, Australian race car driver and motorcycle racer (d. 1995)
1952 – Cherie Lunghi, English actress and dancer
1952 – Karen Magnussen, Canadian figure skater and coach
1952 – Gary Moore, Northern Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2011)
1952 – Villy Søvndal, Danish educator and politician, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs
1953 – Robert Bertrand, Canadian politician
1953 – Henry Fotheringham, South African cricketer
1953 – Simcha Jacobovici, Canadian director, producer, journalist, and author
1953 – Sammy Wilson, Northern Irish politician, 31st Lord Mayor of Belfast
1953 – Chen Yi, Chinese violinist and composer
1956 – Evelyn Hart, Canadian ballerina
1956 – Tom Herr, American baseball player and manager
1956 – David E. Kelley, American screenwriter and producer
1957 – Paul Downton, English cricketer
1957 – Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish director, producer, and screenwriter
1957 – Graeme Kelling, Scottish guitarist (d. 2004)
1957 – Nobuyoshi Kuwano, Japanese singer and trumpet player
1958 – Peter Baltes, German bass player
1958 – Cazuza, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 1990)
1958 – Rodney Eade, Australian footballer and coach
1959 – Phil Morris, American actor and screenwriter
1960 – Jonathan Agnew, English cricketer and sportscaster
1960 – Jane Eaglen, English soprano
1960 – Hugo Weaving, Nigerian-Australian actor and producer
1960 – Godknows Igali, Nigerian diplomat, civil servant and technocrat
1961 – Hildi Santo-Tomas, American interior decorator
1962 – Craig Adams, English bass player and songwriter
1962 – Kailasho Devi, Indian social worker and politician
1963 – A. Michael Baldwin, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1963 – Jack Del Rio, American football player and coach
1963 – Dale Hawerchuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1963 – Jane McDonald, English singer and broadcaster
1963 – Graham Norton, Irish actor and talk show host
1964 – Branco, Brazilian footballer and coach
1964 – Dr. Chud, American drummer and singer
1964 – Anthony Clark, American actor
1964 – David Cross, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1964 – Paul Parker, England international footballer, right-back and TV pundit
1964 – Đặng Thân, Vietnamese writer and poet
1965 – Vinny Burns, English guitarist and producer
1965 – Robert Downey Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1966 – Nancy McKeon, American actress
1966 – Mike Starr, American bass player (d. 2011)
1966 – Christos Tsekos, Greek basketball player
1967 – Edith Masai, Kenyan-German runner
1967 – George Mavrotas, Greek water polo player and politician
1968 – Jesús Rollán, Spanish water polo player (d. 2006)
1969 – Piotr Anderszewski, Polish pianist and composer
1969 – Karren Brady, English journalist and businesswoman
1970 – Georgios Amanatidis, Greek footballer and manager
1970 – Greg Garcia, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1970 – Barry Pepper, Canadian actor and producer
1970 – Jason Stoltenberg, Australian tennis player
1970 – Josh Todd, American singer-songwriter and actor
1970 – Yelena Yelesina, Russian high jumper
1971 – Yanic Perreault, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1971 – Malik Yusef, American actor, producer, and poet
1971 – John Zandig, American wrestler and promoter
1972 – Jim Dymock, Australian rugby league player and coach
1972 – Jill Scott, American singer-songwriter and actress
1972 – Magnus Sveningsson, Swedish bass player
1973 – Chris Banks, American football player (d. 2014)
1973 – David Blaine, American magician and producer
1973 – Loris Capirossi, Italian motorcycle racer
1973 – Peter Hoekstra, Dutch footballer and coach
1973 – Chris McCormack, Australian triathlete and coach
1973 – Kelly Price, American singer-songwriter
1975 – Delphine Arnault, French businesswoman
1975 – Thobias Fredriksson, Swedish skier
1975 – Joyce Giraud, Puerto Rican-American model, television actress and producer, Miss Puerto Rico 1994
1975 – Pamela Ribon, American actress, screenwriter, and author
1975 – Miranda Lee Richards, American singer-songwriter
1975 – Scott Rolen, American baseball player
1975 – Kevin Weekes, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1976 – Nathan Blacklock, Australian rugby player
1976 – Sébastien Enjolras, French race car driver (d. 1997)
1976 – Emerson Ferreira da Rosa, Brazilian footballer
1976 – James Roday, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1977 – Stephan Bonnar, American mixed martial artist
1977 – Keith Bulluck, American football player and sportscaster
1977 – Adam Dutkiewicz, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1977 – Stephen Mulhern, English magician and television host
1977 – Omarr Smith, American football player and coach
1978 – Jason Ellison, American baseball player and scout
1978 – Alan Mahon, Irish footballer
1979 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor (d. 2008)
1979 – Roberto Luongo, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Natasha Lyonne, American actress
1979 – Andy McKee, American guitarist
1979 – Maksim Opalev, Russian canoeist
1980 – Johnny Borrell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1980 – Trevor Moore, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1980 – Eric Steinbach, American football player
1980 – Björn Wirdheim, Swedish race car driver
1981 – Currensy, American rapper
1981 – Eduardo Luís Carloto, Brazilian footballer
1981 – Casey Daigle, American baseball player
1981 – Anna Pyatykh, Russian triple jumper
1981 – Ned Vizzini, American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1982 – Justin Cook, American voice actor and producer
1982 – Magnus Lindgren, Swedish chef (d. 2012)
1983 – Evgeny Artyukhin, Russian ice hockey player
1983 – Eric Andre, American comedian
1983 – Ben Gordon, American basketball player
1983 – Doug Lynch, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Natalie Pike, Scottish-English model and actress
1983 – Amanda Righetti, American actress
1984 – Sean May, American basketball player
1984 – Arkady Vyatchanin, Russian swimmer
1985 – Rudy Fernández, Spanish basketball player
1985 – Dudi Sela, Israeli tennis player
1985 – Ricardo Vilar, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Eunhyuk, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
1986 – Cameron Barker, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Maurice Manificat, French skier
1986 – Aiden McGeady, Scottish-born Irish footballer
1986 – Alexander Tettey, Norwegian footballer
1987 – Sami Khedira, German footballer
1987 – McDonald Mariga, Kenyan footballer
1987 – Cameron Maybin, American baseball player
1987 – Marcos Vellidis, Greek footballer
1987 – Sarah Gadon, Canadian actress
1988 – Frank Fielding, English footballer
1989 – Vurnon Anita, Dutch footballer
1989 – Steven Finn, English cricketer
1989 – Chris Herd, Australian footballer
1991 – Yui Koike, Japanese singer and actress
1991 – Justin O’Neill, Australian rugby league player
1991 – Jamie Lynn Spears, American actress and singer
1991 – Marlon Stöckinger, Filipino race car driver
1992 – Lucy May Barker, English actress and singer
1992 – Christina Metaxa, Cypriot singer-songwriter
1992 – Ricky Dillon, American youtuber and singer
1993 – Samir Carruthers, English footballer
1993 – Frank Kaminsky, American basketball player
1994 – Shunsuke Nishikawa, Japanese actor
1994 – Risako Sugaya, Japanese singer and actress
1996 – Austin Mahone, American singer-songwriter and actor

Deaths on April 4

397 – Ambrose, Roman archbishop and saint (b. 338)
636 – Isidore of Seville, Spanish archbishop and saint (b. 560)
814 – Plato of Sakkoudion, Byzantine monk and saint (b. 735)
896 – Formosus, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 816)
911 – Liu Yin, Chinese warlord and governor (b. 874)
931 – Kong Xun, Chinese official and governor (b. 884)
968 – Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Arab prince and poet (b. 932)
991 – Reginold, bishop of Eichstätt
1284 – Alfonso X, king of Castile and León (b. 1221)
1292 – Nicholas IV, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1227)
1406 – Robert III, king of Scotland (b.1337)
1483 – Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex (b. c. 1405)
1536 – Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (b. 1460)
1538 – Elena Glinskaya, Grand Princess and regent of Russia
1588 – Frederick II, king of Denmark and Norway (b. 1534)
1596 – Philip II, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (b. 1533)
1609 – Carolus Clusius, Flemish botanist, mycologist, and academic (b. 1526)
1617 – John Napier, Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1550)
1643 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian and academic (b. 1583)
1661 – Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, Scottish field marshal (b. 1580)
1743 – Daniel Neal, English historian and author (b. 1678)
1761 – Théodore Gardelle, Swiss painter (b. 1722)
1766 – John Taylor, English librarian and scholar (b. 1704)
1774 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish novelist, playwright and poet (b. 1728)
1792 – James Sykes, American lawyer and politician (b. 1725)
1807 – Jérôme Lalande, French astronomer and academic (b. 1732)
1817 – André Masséna, French general (b. 1758)
1841 – William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (b. 1773)
1846 – Solomon Sibley, American lawyer and politician, 1st Mayor of Detroit (b. 1769)
1861 – John McLean, American jurist and politician, 6th United States Postmaster General (b. 1785)
1863 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver (b. 1790)
1864 – Joseph Pitty Couthouy, American commander and paleontologist (b. 1808)
1870 – Heinrich Gustav Magnus, German chemist and physicist (b. 1802)
1874 – Charles Ernest Beulé, French archaeologist and politician (b. 1826)
1875 – Karl Mauch, German geographer and explorer (b. 1837)
1878 – Richard M. Brewer, American criminal (b. 1850)
1879 – Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist and meteorologist (b. 1803)
1883 – Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (b. 1791)
1890 – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Quebec (b. 1820)
1890 – Edmond Hébert, French geologist and academic (b. 1812)
1912 – Charles Brantley Aycock, American lawyer and politician, 50th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1859)
1912 – Isaac K. Funk, American minister, lexicographer, and publisher, co-founded Funk & Wagnalls (b. 1839)
1919 – William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
1919 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese saint (b. 1908)
1923 – John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher, created the Venn diagram (b. 1834)
1929 – Karl Benz, German engineer and businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz (b. 1844)
1931 – André Michelin, French businessman, co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company (b. 1853)
1932 – Wilhelm Ostwald, Latvian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
1933 – Elizabeth Bacon Custer, American author and educator (b. 1842)
1941 – Emine Nazikedâ Kadınefendi, the first wife and chief consort of Sultan Mehmed VI (b. 1866)
1944 – Morris H. Whitehouse, American architect (b. 1878)^[14]
1951 – George Albert Smith, American religious leader, 8th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
1953 – Carol II of Romania (b. 1893)
1957 – E. Herbert Norman, Canadian historian and diplomat (b. 1909)
1958 – Johnny Stompanato, American soldier and bodyguard (b. 1925)
1961 – Harald Riipalu, Estonian military commander (b. 1912)
1961 – Simion Stoilow, Romanian mathematician and academic (b. 1873)
1967 – Al Lewis, American songwriter (b. 1901)
1967 – Héctor Scarone, Uruguayan footballer and manager (b. 1898)
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr., American minister and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (assassinated)(b. 1929)
1972 – Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., American pastor and politician (b. 1908)
1972 – Stefan Wolpe, German-American composer and academic (b. 1902)
1976 – Harry Nyquist, Swedish engineer and theorist (b. 1889)
1977 – Andrey Dikiy, Ukrainian-American journalist, historian, and politician (b. 1893)
1979 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani lawyer and politician, 4th President of Pakistan (b. 1928)
1979 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
1980 – Red Sovine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1917)
1983 – Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1899)
1983 – Bernard Vukas, Croatian football player, played for 1953 FIFA’s “Rest of the World” team against England at Wembley (b. 1927)
1984 – Oleg Antonov, Russian-Ukrainian engineer and businessman, founded Antonov (b. 1906)
1985 – Kate Roberts, Welsh author and activist (b. 1891)
1987 – C. L. Moore, American author and academic (b. 1911)
1987 – Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan guru, poet, and scholar (b. 1939)
1987 – Sachchidananda Vatsyayan, Indian journalist and author (b. 1911)
1991 – Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (b. 1920)
1991 – Max Frisch, Swiss playwright and novelist (b. 1911)
1991 – H. John Heinz III, American soldier and politician (b. 1938)
1991 – Graham Ingels, American illustrator (b. 1915)
1992 – Yvette Brind’Amour, Canadian actress and director (b. 1918)
1992 – Jack Hamilton, Australian footballer (b. 1928)
1992 – Arthur Russell, American singer-songwriter and cellist (b. 1951)
1993 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American game designer, invented Scrabble (b. 1899)
1993 – Douglas Leopold, Canadian radio and television host (b. 1947)
1995 – Kenny Everett, English radio and television host (b. 1944)
1995 – Priscilla Lane, American actress (b. 1915)
1996 – Barney Ewell, American runner and long jumper (b. 1918)
1996 – Boone Guyton, American lieutenant and pilot (b. 1913)
1997 – Leo Picard, German-Israeli geologist and academic (b. 1900)
1997 – Alparslan Türkeş, Turkish colonel and politician, 39th Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1917)
1999 – Lucille Lortel, American actress, artistic director and producer (b. 1900)
1999 – Early Wynn, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1920)
2001 – Liisi Oterma, Finnish astronomer (b. 1915)
2001 – Ed Roth, American illustrator and engineer (b. 1932)
2001 – Maury Van Vliet, American-Canadian academic (b. 1913)
2003 – Anthony Caruso, American actor (b. 1916)
2004 – Briek Schotte, Belgian cyclist and coach (b. 1919)
2005 – Edward Bronfman, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1924)
2007 – Bob Clark, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1941)
2007 – Karen Spärck Jones, English computer scientist and academic (b. 1935)
2008 – Francis Tucker, South African race car driver (b. 1923)
2009 – Maxine Cooper, American actress, activist and photographer (b. 1924)
2011 – Scott Columbus, American drummer (b. 1956)
2011 – Juliano Mer-Khamis, Israeli actor, director, and activist (b. 1958)
2012 – A. Dean Byrd, American psychologist and academic (b. 1948)
2012 – Anne Karin Elstad, Norwegian author and educator (b. 1938)
2012 – Claude Miller, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1942)
2012 – Dubravko Pavličić, Croatian footballer (b. 1967)
2012 – Roberto Rexach Benítez, American-Puerto Rican academic and politician, 10th President of the Senate of Puerto Rico (b. 1929)
2013 – Bengt Blomgren, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
2013 – Roger Ebert, American journalist, critic, and screenwriter (b. 1942)
2013 – Carmine Infantino, American illustrator (b. 1925)
2013 – Tommy Tycho, Hungarian-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1928)
2013 – Ian Walsh, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1933)
2013 – Noboru Yamaguchi, Japanese author (b. 1972)
2014 – İsmet Atlı, Turkish wrestler and trainer (b. 1931)
2014 – Wayne Henderson, American trombonist and producer (b. 1939)
2014 – Kumba Ialá, Bissau-Guinean soldier and politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1953)
2014 – Margo MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician (b. 1943)
2014 – Curtis Bill Pepper, American journalist and author (b. 1917)
2014 – Muhammad Qutb, Egyptian author and academic (b. 1919)
2015 – Jamaluddin Jarjis, Malaysian engineer and politician (b. 1951)
2015 – Elmer Lach, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1918)
2015 – Donald N. Levine, American sociologist and academic (b. 1931)
2015 – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish author and poet (b. 1931)
2016 – Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances on April 4

Children’s Day (Hong Kong, Taiwan)
Christian feast day:
- Benedict the Moor
- Gaetano Catanoso
- Isidore of Seville
- Martin Luther King Jr. (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Reginald Heber (Anglican Church of Canada)
- Tigernach of Clones
- April 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Senegal from France (1960).
Peace Day (Angola)^[15]
One of the possible days for Qingming Festival.

April 4 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

March 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1430 – The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice.
1461 – Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England, bringing a temporary stop to the Wars of the Roses.
1500 – Cesare Borgia is given the title of Captain-General and Gonfalonier by his father Rodrigo Borgia after returning from his conquests in the Romagna.
1549 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1632 – Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm’s Royal Opera 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
1809 – King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d’état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland’s four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
1831 – Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniaks rebel against Turkey.
1847 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
1849 – The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
1857 – Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company’s rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.
1865 – American Civil War: Federal forces under Major General Philip Sheridan move to flank Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee as the Appomattox Campaign begins.
1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1.
1871 – Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
1882 – The Knights of Columbus is established.
1886 – John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta.
1911 – The M1911 .45 ACP pistol becomes the official U.S. Army side arm.
1927 – Sunbeam 1000hp breaks the land speed record at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1930 – Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.
1936 – Adolf Hitler receives 99% of the votes in the 1936 German parliamentary election and referendum.
1941 – The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time.
1941 – World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesian coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
1942 – The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
1945 – World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.
1945 – World War II: The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
1946 – Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, one of Mexico’s leading universities, is founded.
1947 – Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar.
1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.
1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
1962 – Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina’s armed forces, ending an 11¹⁄₂ day constitutional crisis.
1971 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
1973 – Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.
1974 – NASA’s Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
1974 – Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
1982 – The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.
1984 – The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis.
1990 – The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War.
1993 – Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province.
1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
1999 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in India strikes the Chamoli district in Uttar Pradesh, killing 103.
2002 – In reaction to the Passover massacre two days prior, Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian militants, its largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
2010 – Two suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40.
2013 – At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.

Births on March 29

1001 – Sokkate, king of the Pagan dynasty of Burma (d. 1044)
1187 – Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (d. 1203)
1373 – Marie d’Alençon, French princess (d. 1417)
1517 – Carlo Carafa, Italian cardinal (d. 1561)
1553 – Vitsentzos Kornaros, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1614)
1561 – Santorio Santorio, Italian biologist (d. 1636)
1584 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (d. 1648)
1602 – John Lightfoot, English priest, scholar, and academic (d. 1675)
1620 – Edward Digges, English barrister and colonist
1629 – Alexis of Russia, Tsar of Russia (d. 1676)
1713 – John Ponsonby, Irish politician (d. 1789)
1735 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German author (d. 1787)
1747 – Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer (d. 1822)
1769 – Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France (d. 1851)
1780 – Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer (d. 1841)
1790 – John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862)
1799 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1869)
1802 – Johann Moritz Rugendas, German landscape painter of Spanish America (d. 1858)
1816 – 10th Dalai Lama (d. 1837)
1824 – Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist, physician, and philosopher (d. 1899)
1826 – Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (d. 1900)
1862 – Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter (d. 1947)
1863 – Walter James, Australian politician, 5th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1943)
1867 – Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (d. 1955)
1869 – Aleš Hrdlička, Czech-American anthropologist and scholar (d. 1943)
1869 – Sir Edwin Lutyens, British architect (d. 1944)
1870 – Pavlos Melas, French-Greek captain (d. 1904)
1871 – Tom Hayward, English cricketer (d. 1939)
1872 – Hal Colebatch, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1953)
1873 – Tullio Levi-Civita, Jewish-Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1941)
1874 – Lou Henry Hoover, American wife of Herbert Hoover, 33rd First Lady of the United States (d. 1944)
1876 – Friedrich Traun, German sprinter and tennis player (d. 1908)
1884 – Ed Archibald, Canadian pole vaulter (d. 1965)
1885 – Dezső Kosztolányi, Hungarian author and poet (d. 1936)
1888 – Enea Bossi, Sr., Italian-American engineer, designed the Budd BB-1 Pioneer and Bossi-Bonomi Pedaliante (d. 1963)
1889 – Warner Baxter, American actor (d. 1951)
1889 – Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor (d. 1968)
1890 – Bert Bliss, English international footballer, inside forward (d. 1968)
1891 – Yvan Goll, French-German poet and playwright (d. 1950)
1891 – Alfred Neubauer, Austrian race car driver and manager (d. 1980)
1892 – József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (d. 1975)
1893 – Astrid Holm, Danish actress (d. 1961)
1895 – Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author (d. 1998)
1896 – Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)
1899 – Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (d. 1953)
1900 – Bill Aston, English race car driver (d. 1974)
1900 – John McEwen, Australian farmer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1980)
1902 – Marcel Aymé, French author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1967)
1902 – Don Miller, American football player and coach (d. 1979)
1902 – William Walton, English composer (d. 1983)
1903 – Douglas Harkness, Canadian colonel and politician, 14th Canadian Minister of National Defence (d. 1999)
1906 – James Bausch, American decathlete and football player (d. 1974)
1907 – Braguinha, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2006)
1908 – Arthur O’Connell, American actor (d. 1981)
1908 – Dennis O’Keefe, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968)
1909 – Moon Mullican, American country and western singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1967)
1912 – Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (d. 1979)
1914 – Phil Foster, American actor (d. 1985)
1914 – Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author (d. 2014)
1916 – Peter Geach, English philosopher and academic (d. 2013)
1916 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (d. 2005)
1917 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (d. 2008)
1918 – Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (d. 1990)
1918 – Lê Văn Thiêm, Vietnamese mathematician and academic (d. 1991)
1918 – Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam’s Club (d. 1992)
1919 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 – John M. Belk, American businessman and politician (d. 2007)
1920 – Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic (d. 2014)
1920 – Pierre Moinot, French author (d. 2007)
1920 – Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge (d. 2000)
1921 – Sam Loxton, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician (d. 2011)
1923 – Geoff Duke, English-Manx motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
1923 – Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (d. 2012)
1923 – Bob Haymes, American singer-songwriter, and actor (d. 1989)
1926 – Moshe Sanbar, Hungarian-Israeli banker and economist (d. 2012)
1927 – John McLaughlin, American journalist and producer (d. 2016)
1927 – John Vane, English pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1928 – Romesh Bhandari, Pakistani-Indian politician, 13th Foreign Secretary of India (d. 2013)
1928 – Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic (d. 2018)
1928 – Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster (d. 2005)
1929 – Sheila Kitzinger, English activist, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1929 – Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic
1929 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (d. 2006)
1929 – Utpal Dutt, Indian Bengali actor, director and playwright (d. 1993)
1930 – Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Mauritius
1931 – Ștefan Andrei, Romanian politician, 87th Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2014)
1931 – Sopubek Begaliev, Kyrgyzstani economist and politician (d. 2002)
1931 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2015)
1931 – Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1933 – Jacques Brault, Canadian poet and academic
1934 – Shahryar Khan, Indian-Pakistani politician and diplomat, 20th Foreign Secretary of Pakistan
1936 – Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator (d. 2012)
1936 – Mogens Camre, Danish politician (d. 2016)
1936 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
1936 – Judith Guest, American author and screenwriter
1936 – Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (d. 2014)
1937 – Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (d. 2013)
1937 – Smarck Michel, Haitian businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Haiti (d. 2012)
1937 – Gordon Milne, English footballer
1938 – Bert de Vries, Dutch politician
1939 – Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (d. 2008)
1939 – Terence Hill, Italian actor, director, and producer
1939 – Hanumant Singh, Indian cricketer (d. 2006)
1940 – Ray Davis, American bass singer (d. 2005)
1940 – Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian singer-songwriter
1940 – John Suchet, English journalist and game show host
1941 – Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr., American astrophysicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate
1942 – Bob Lurtsema, American football player
1942 – Scott Wilson, American actor (d. 2018)
1943 – Vangelis, Greek keyboard player and songwriter
1943 – Chad Allan, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Eric Idle, English actor and comedian
1943 – John Major, English banker and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1944 – Terry Jacks, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1944 – Denny McLain, American baseball player and sportscaster
1944 – Lynne Segal, Australian-British feminist academic and activist
1945 – Walt Frazier, American basketball player and sportscaster
1945 – Speedy Keen, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2002)
1946 – Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2007)
1946 – Segun Bucknor, Nigerian musician and journalist (d. 2017)
1947 – Inge Bödding, German sprinter
1947 – Robert Gordon, American singer and actor
1947 – Bobby Kimball, American singer-songwriter
1948 – Bud Cort, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1948 – Piet Souer, Dutch record producer, songwriter and arranger
1949 – Michael Brecker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2007)
1949 – Dave Greenfield, English musician (d. 2020)
1949 – Pauline Marois, Canadian social worker and politician, 30th Premier of Quebec
1949 – Keith Simpson, English historian and politician
1951 – William Clarke, American harmonica player (d. 1996)
1951 – Geoff Howarth, New Zealand cricketer
1951 – Tina Monzon-Palma, Filipino journalist
1952 – Rainer Bonhof, German footballer
1952 – Russell Fairfax, Australian rugby player and coach
1952 – John Hendricks, American businessman, founded Discovery Communications
1952 – Teófilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer and engineer (d. 2012)
1953 – Tõnis Palts, Estonian politician, 39th Mayor of Tallinn
1955 – Earl Campbell, American football player
1955 – Brendan Gleeson, Irish actor
1955 – Marina Sirtis, British-American actress
1956 – Patty Donahue, American singer (d. 1996)
1957 – Elizabeth Hand, American author
1957 – Christopher Lambert, American-born French actor
1958 – Pedro Bial, Brazilian journalist and producer
1958 – Travis Childers, American businessman and politician
1958 – Nouriel Roubini, Turkish-American economist and academic
1958 – Victor Salva, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1958 – Marc Silvestri, American publisher, founded Top Cow Productions
1959 – Barry Blanchard, Canadian mountaineer
1959 – Perry Farrell, American singer-songwriter
1959 – Brad McCrimmon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2011)
1960 – Wayne Pearce, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster
1961 – Gary Brabham, English-Australian race car driver
1961 – Mike Kingery, American baseball player
1961 – Amy Sedaris, American actress and comedian
1961 – Michael Winterbottom, English director and producer
1962 – Billy Beane, American baseball player and manager
1962 – Ted Failon, Filipino journalist and politician
1962 – Kirk Triplett, American golfer
1964 – Catherine Cortez Masto, American attorney and politician
1964 – Jill Goodacre, American model and actress
1964 – Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress
1964 – Ming Tsai, American chef and television host
1965 – Emilios T. Harlaftis, Greek astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic (d. 2005)
1965 – William Oefelein, American commander, pilot, and astronaut
1965 – Voula Patoulidou, Greek hurdler, long jumper, and politician
1966 – Krasimir Balakov, Bulgarian footballer and manager
1966 – Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch politician
1966 – Eric Gunderson, American baseball player
1966 – Sigrid Kirchmann, Austrian high jumper
1967 – Ainars Bagatskis, Latvian basketball player and coach
1967 – Michel Hazanavicius, French director, producer, and screenwriter
1967 – Brian Jordan, American baseball player and sportscaster
1968 – Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress
1969 – Kim Batten, American hurdler
1969 – Shinichi Mochizuki, Japanese mathematician
1969 – Jimmy Spencer, American football player and coach
1971 – Robert Gibbs, American political adviser, 28th White House Press Secretary
1971 – Lara Logan, South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent
1971 – Hidetoshi Nishijima, Japanese actor
1972 – Rui Costa, Portuguese footballer
1972 – Piet-Hein Geeris, Dutch field hockey player
1972 – Alex Ochoa, Cuban-American baseball player and coach
1972 – Priti Patel, British Indian politician, Secretary of State for the Home Department
1973 – Marc Overmars, Dutch footballer and coach
1973 – Sebastiano Siviglia, Italian footballer
1973 – Steve Smith, English high jumper
1974 – Miguel Gómez, Colombian-American photographer and educator
1976 – Igor Astarloa, Spanish cyclist
1976 – Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player
1978 – Aaron Persico, New Zealand-Italian rugby player
1980 – Bill Demong, American skier
1980 – Bruno Silva, Uruguayan footballer
1981 – Jlloyd Samuel, Trinidadian footballer (d. 2018)
1982 – Jēkabs Rēdlihs, Latvian ice hockey player
1983 – Darius Draudvila, Lithuanian decathlete
1984 – Juan Mónaco, Argentinian tennis player
1985 – Fernando Amorebieta, Venezuelan international footballer, central defender
1985 – Maxim Lapierre, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Mickey Pimentel, American football player
1986 – Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, English footballer
1986 – Ivan Ukhov, Russian high jumper
1987 – Gianluca Freddi, Italian footballer
1987 – Dimitri Payet, French footballer
1987 – Romain Hamouma, French footballer
1988 – Esther Cremer, German runner
1988 – Jesús Molina, Mexican footballer
1988 – Jürgen Zopp, Estonian tennis player
1989 – James Tomkins, English footballer
1990 – Carlos Peña, Mexican footballer
1990 – Teemu Pukki, Finnish footballer
1990 – Lyle Taylor, English footballer
1991 – Irene, South Korean idol, actress and television host
1991 – Fabio Borini, Italian footballer
1991 – N’Golo Kanté, French footballer
1993 – Thorgan Hazard, Belgian footballer

Deaths on March 29

87 BC – Emperor Wu of Han of China (b. 157 BC)
AD 57 – Emperor Guangwu of Han (b. 5 BC)
500 – Gwynllyw, Welsh king and religious figure
1058 – Pope Stephen IX (b. 1020)
1075 – Ottokar I of Styria, German noble
1368 – Emperor Go-Murakami of Japan (b. 1328)
1461 – Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (b. 1421)
1461 – Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles
1467 – Matthew Palaiologos Asen, Byzantine aristocrat and official
1578 – Louis I, Cardinal of Guise (b. 1527)
1578 – Arthur Champernowne, English admiral and politician (b. 1524)
1628 – Tobias Matthew, English archbishop and academic (b. 1546)
1629 – Jacob de Gheyn II, Dutch painter and engraver (b. 1565)
1692 – Nicolaus Bruhns, Danish-German organist, violinist, and composer (b. 1665)
1703 – George Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, (b. 1678)
1751 – Thomas Coram, English captain and philanthropist, founded Foundling Hospital (b. 1668)
1772 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (b. 1688)
1788 – Charles Wesley, English missionary and poet (b. 1707)
1792 – Gustav III of Sweden (b. 1746)
1800 – Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French general and engineer (b. 1714)
1803 – Gottfried van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian librarian and diplomat (b. 1733)
1826 – Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet, translator, and academic (b. 1751)
1829 – Cornelio Saavedra, Argentinian general and politician (b. 1759)
1848 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman (b. 1763)
1855 – Henri Druey, Swiss politician, 2nd President of the Swiss Confederation (b. 1799)
1873 – Francesco Zantedeschi, Italian priest and physicist (b. 1797)
1877 – Inazuma Raigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 7th Yokozuna (b. 1802)
1888 – Charles-Valentin Alkan, French pianist and composer (b. 1813)
1891 – John Plankinton, American businessman and industrialist, also noted for philanthropy (b. 1820)
1891 – Georges Seurat, French painter (b. 1859)
1900 – Cyrus K. Holliday, American businessman (b. 1826)
1905 – William Plankinton, American businessman, industrialist and banker (b. 1843)
1906 – Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (b. 1878)
1911 – Alexandre Guilmant, French organist and composer (b. 1837)
1912 – Henry Robertson Bowers, Scottish lieutenant and explorer (b. 1883)
1912 – Robert Falcon Scott, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1868)
1912 – Edward Adrian Wilson, English physician and explorer (b. 1872)
1924 – Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer and conductor (b. 1852)
1934 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German-American banker and philanthropist (b. 1867)
1937 – Karol Szymanowski, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1882)
1940 – Alexander Obolensky, Russian-English rugby player and soldier (b. 1916)
1948 – Harry Price, English parapsychologist and author (b. 1881)
1957 – Joyce Cary, Anglo-Irish novelist (b. 1888)
1959 – Barthélemy Boganda, African priest and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1910)
1963 – Gaspard Fauteux, Canadian dentist and politician, 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1898)
1963 – August Rei, Estonian soldier, journalist, and politician, 12th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1886)
1970 – Anna Louise Strong, American journalist and author (b. 1885)
1971 – Dhirendranath Datta, Pakistani lawyer and politician (b. 1886)
1972 – J. Arthur Rank, English businessman, founded Rank Organisation (b. 1888)
1980 – Mantovani, Italian-English conductor and composer (b. 1905)
1981 – Eric Williams, Trinidadian historian and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1911)
1982 – Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, 1st President of the European Commission (b. 1901)
1982 – Carl Orff, German composer and educator (b. 1895)
1982 – Nathan Farragut Twining, American general (b. 1897)
1985 – Luther Terry, American physician and academic, 9th Surgeon General of the United States (b. 1911)
1988 – Maurice Blackburn, Canadian composer and conductor (b. 1914)
1988 – Ted Kluszewski, American baseball player and coach (b. 1924)
1991 – Guy Bourdin, French photographer (b. 1928)
1992 – Paul Henreid, American actor (b. 1908)
1994 – Bill Travers, English actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
1995 – Mort Meskin, American illustrator (b. 1916)
1995 – Terry Moore, American baseball player and coach (b. 1912)
1996 – Frank Daniel, Czech-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
1996 – Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1944)
1997 – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer and coach (b. 1935)
1999 – Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer (b. 1915)
1999 – Joe Williams, American jazz singer (b. 1918)
2001 – Helge Ingstad, Norwegian lawyer, academic, and explorer (b. 1899)
2001 – John Lewis, American pianist and composer (b. 1920)
2003 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician and microbiologist (b. 1956)
2004 – Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born SOE agent, war hero (b. 1905)
2004 – Joel Feinberg, American philosopher and academic (b. 1926)
2005 – Miltos Sachtouris, Greek poet and author (b. 1919)
2006 – Salvador Elizondo, Mexican author and poet (b. 1932)
2007 – Larry L’Estrange, English rugby player and soldier (b. 1934)
2009 – Vladimir Fedotov, Russian footballer and manager (b. 1943)
2009 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (b. 1975)
2011 – Ângelo de Sousa, Portuguese painter and sculptor (b. 1938)
2011 – Iakovos Kambanellis, Greek author, poet, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
2012 – Pap Cheyassin Secka, Gambian lawyer and politician (b. 1942)
2012 – Bill Jenkins, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1930)
2013 – Reginald Gray, Irish-French painter (b. 1930)
2013 – Brian Huggins, English-Canadian journalist and actor (b. 1931)
2013 – Liu Kang, Chinese footballer and manager (b. 1961)
2013 – Ralph Klein, Canadian journalist and politician, 12th Premier of Alberta (b. 1942)
2013 – Art Phillips, Canadian businessman and politician, 32nd Mayor of Vancouver (b. 1930)
2014 – Marc Platt, American actor and dancer (b. 1913)
2014 – Ruth A. M. Schmidt, American geologist and paleontologist (b. 1916)
2015 – William Delafield Cook, Australian-English painter (b. 1926)
2015 – Gerry Hardstaff, English cricketer (b. 1940)
2016 – Patty Duke, American actress (b. 1946)
2017 – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian physicist (b. 1928)
2019 – Agnès Varda, French film director (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances on March 29

Christian feast day:
- Berthold
- Eustace of Luxeuil
- Gwladys
- Gwynllyw
- Hans Nielsen Hauge (Lutheran)
- John Keble (commemoration, Anglicanism)
- March 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which the Octave Day of Easter can fall, while May 2 is the latest; observed on the Sunday after Easter. (Christianity)
Boganda Day (Central African Republic)
Commemoration of the 1947 Rebellion (Madagascar)
National Vietnam War Veterans Day (United States of America)
Day of the Young Combatant (Chile)
Youth Day (Taiwan)

March 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

March 19- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

1277 – The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire.
1279 – A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China.
1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.
1563 – The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.
1649 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it “useless and dangerous to the people of England”.
1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
1812 – The Cortes of Cádiz promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812.
1853 – The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.
1861 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
1863 – The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
1885 – Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion.
1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.
1918 – The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
1920 – The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).
1921 – Irish War of Independence: One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them.
1931 – Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
1943 – Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
1944 – World War II: The German army occupies Hungary.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power.
1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his “Nero Decree” ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
1946 – French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
1954 – Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in colour.
1954 – Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio, setting a record that remains unbroken.
1958 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured.
1962 – Highly influential artist Bob Dylan releases his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.
1962 – The Algerian War of Independence ends.
1964 – Over 500,000 Brazilians attend the March of the Family with God for Liberty, in protest against the government of João Goulart and against communism.
1965 – The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.
1966 – 1965–66 Texas Western Miners men’s basketball team wins the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
1969 – The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.
1979 – The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
1982 – Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.
1987 – Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.
1989 – The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba, marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six Days War in 1967 and the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in 1979.
1990 – The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.
1998 – An Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Kabul International Airport, killing all 45 on board.
2002 – Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.
2004 – Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work.
2004 – March 19 Shooting Incident: The Republic of China(Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian was shot just before the country’s presidential election on March 20.
2008 – GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.
2011 – Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.
2013 – A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.
2016 – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.
2016 – An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.
2018 – The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, dies, ensuring a chance of extinction for the species.

Births on March 19

1206 – Güyük Khan, Mongol ruler, 3rd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1248)
1434 – Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1443)
1488 – Johannes Magnus, Swedish archbishop and theologian (d. 1544)
1534 – José de Anchieta, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1597)
1542 – Jan Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (d. 1605)
1601 – Alonzo Cano, Spanish painter, sculptor, and architect (d. 1667)
1604 – John IV of Portugal (d. 1656)
1641 – Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Syrian author and scholar (d. 1731)
1661 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer and educator (d. 1727)
1684 – Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (d. 1766)
1721 – Tobias Smollett, Scottish-Italian poet and author (d. 1771) (baptised on this day)
1734 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania (d. 1817)
1739 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French lawyer and politician (d. 1824)
1742 – Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian rebel leader (d. 1781)
1748 – Elias Hicks, American farmer, minister, and theologian (d. 1830)
1778 – Edward Pakenham, Anglo-Irish general and politician (d. 1815)
1809 – Fredrik Pacius, German composer and conductor (d. 1891)
1813 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
1816 – Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1891)
1821 – Richard Francis Burton, English soldier, geographer, and diplomat (d. 1890)
1823 – Arthur Blyth, English-Australian politician, 9th Premier of South Australia (d. 1891)
1824 – William Allingham, Irish poet, author, and scholar (d. 1889)
1829 – Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish businessman (d. 1901)
1844 – Minna Canth, Finnish journalist, playwright, and activist (d. 1897)
1847 – Albert Pinkham Ryder, American painter (d. 1917)
1848 – Wyatt Earp, American police officer (d. 1929)
1849 – Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral and politician (d. 1930)
1858 – Kang Youwei, Chinese scholar and politician (d. 1927)
1860 – William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician, 41st United States Secretary of State (d. 1925)
1861 – Lomer Gouin, Canadian lawyer and politician, 13th Premier of Quebec (d. 1929)
1864 – Charles Marion Russell, American painter and sculptor (d. 1926)
1865 – William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, and academic (d. 1937)
1868 – Senda Berenson Abbott, Lithuanian-American basketball player and educator (d. 1954)
1871 – Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and coach (d. 1921)
1872 – Anna Held, Polish singer (d. 1918)
1873 – Max Reger, German pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1916)
1875 – Zhang Zuolin, Chinese warlord (d. 1928)
1876 – Felix Jacoby, German philologist (d. 1959)
1880 – Ernestine Rose, American librarian and advocate (d. 1961)
1881 – Edith Nourse Rogers, American social worker and politician (d. 1960)
1882 – Gaston Lachaise, French-American sculptor (d. 1935)
1883 – Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
1883 – Joseph Stilwell, American general (d. 1946)
1885 – Attik, Greek composer (d. 1944)
1888 – Josef Albers, German-American painter and educator (d. 1976)
1888 – Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (d. 1969)
1891 – Earl Warren, American lieutenant, jurist, and politician, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
1892 – Theodore Sizer, American professor of the history of art (d. 1967)
1892 – Ado Vabbe, Estonian painter (d. 1961)
1892 – James Van Fleet, American general and diplomat (d. 1992)
1894 – Moms Mabley, American comedian and singer (d. 1975)
1900 – Carmen Carbonell, Spanish stage and film actress (d. 1988)
1900 – Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
1901 – Jo Mielziner, French-American set designer (d. 1976)
1904 – John Sirica, American lawyer and judge (d. 1992)
1905 – Joe Rollino, American weightlifter and boxer (d. 2010)
1905 – Albert Speer, German architect and politician (d. 1981)
1906 – Adolf Eichmann, German SS officer (d. 1962)
1906 – Clara Breed, American librarian and activist (d. 1994)
1909 – Louis Hayward, South African-born American actor (d. 1985)
1910 – Joseph Carroll, American general (d. 1991)
1912 – Hugh Watt, Australian-New Zealand engineer and politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1980)
1914 – Leonidas Alaoglu, Canadian-American mathematician and theorist (d. 1981)
1914 – Jay Berwanger, American football player and coach (d. 2002)
1915 – Robert G. Cole, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1944)
1915 – Patricia Morison, American actress and singer (d. 2018)
1916 – Eric Christmas, English-Canadian actor (d. 2000)
1916 – Irving Wallace, American journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1917 – Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (d. 1998)
1919 – Lennie Tristano, American pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1978)
1920 – Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author, poet, and painter (d. 2002)
1921 – Tommy Cooper, British magician and prop comedian (d. 1984)
1922 – Guy Lewis, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1922 – Hiroo Onoda, Japanese lieutenant (d. 2014)
1923 – Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)
1923 – Benito Jacovitti, Italian illustrator (d. 1997)
1923 – Henry Morgentaler, Polish-Canadian physician and activist (d. 2013)
1924 – Joe Gaetjens, Haitian footballer (d. 1964)
1925 – Brent Scowcroft, American general and diplomat, 9th United States National Security Advisor
1927 – Richie Ashburn, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1997)
1928 – Hans Küng, Swiss theologian and author
1928 – Patrick McGoohan, Irish-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1931 – Emma Andijewska, Ukrainian poet, writer and painter
1932 – Gay Brewer, American golfer (d. 2007)
1932 – Peter Hall, English geographer, author, and academic (d. 2014)
1932 – Gail Kobe, American actress and producer (d. 2013)
1933 – Phyllis Newman, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
1933 – Philip Roth, American novelist (d. 2018)
1933 – Renée Taylor, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1933 – Richard Williams, Canadian-English animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1935 – Nancy Malone, American actress, director, and producer (d. 2014)
1936 – Ursula Andress, Swiss model and actress
1936 – Ben Lexcen, Australian sailor and architect (d. 1988)
1937 – Clarence “Frogman” Henry, American R&B singer and pianist
1937 – Egon Krenz, German politician
1938 – Joe Kapp, American football player, coach, and actor
1942 – Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (d. 2014)
1943 – Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1943 – Mario Monti, Italian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Italy
1943 – Vern Schuppan, Australian race car driver
1944 – Said Musa, Belizean lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Belize
1945 – John Holder, English cricketer and umpire
1945 – Modestas Paulauskas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
1946 – Ruth Pointer, American musician
1947 – Glenn Close, American actress, singer, and producer
1947 – Marinho Peres, Brazilian footballer and coach
1948 – David Schnitter, American saxophonist and educator
1949 – Blase J. Cupich, American theologian and cardinal
1950 – José S. Palma, Filipino archbishop
1952 – Warren Lees, New Zealand cricketer and coach
1952 – Martin Ravallion, Australian economist and academic
1952 – Harvey Weinstein, American director and producer
1953 – Ian Blair, English police officer
1953 – Peter Hendy, English businessman
1953 – Ricky Wilson, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1985)
1954 – Cho Kwang-rae, South Korean footballer, coach, and manager
1955 – Bruce Willis, German-American actor and producer
1956 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (d. 2009)
1958 – Andy Reid, American football player and coach
1960 – Eliane Elias, Brazilian singer-songwriter and pianist
1962 – Iván Calderón, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (d. 2003)
1963 – Neil LaBute, American director and screenwriter
1964 – Yoko Kanno, Japanese pianist and composer
1964 – Jake Weber, English actor
1966 – Michael Crockart, Scottish police officer and politician
1966 – Olaf Marschall, German footballer and manager
1966 – Andy Sinton, English international footballer, midfielder and manager
1967 – Vladimir Konstantinov, Russian-American ice hockey player
1968 – Tyrone Hill, American basketball player and coach
1970 – Harald Johnsen, Norwegian bassist and composer (d. 2011)
1970 – Michael Krumm, German race car driver
1973 – Ashley Giles, English cricketer and coach
1975 – Antonio Daniels, American basketball player
1975 – Matthew Richardson, Australian footballer and sportscaster
1976 – Andre Miller, American basketball player
1976 – Alessandro Nesta, Italian footballer and manager
1978 – Cydonie Mothersille, Jamaican-Caymanian sprinter
1979 – Sheldon Brown, American football player
1979 – Hee-seop Choi, South Korean-American baseball player
1979 – Ivan Ljubičić, Croatian tennis player
1979 – Christos Patsatzoglou, Greek footballer
1979 – Hedo Türkoğlu, Turkish basketball player
1980 – Luca Ferri, Italian footballer
1980 – Taichi Ishikari, Japanese wrestler
1980 – Mikuni Shimokawa, Japanese singer-songwriter
1981 – Steve Cummings, English cyclist
1981 – Kolo Touré, Ivorian footballer
1982 – Jonathan Fanene, American football player
1982 – Brad Jones, Australian footballer
1982 – Eduardo Saverin, Brazilian-Singaporean businessman
1982 – Yoshikaze Masatsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler
1985 – Inesa Jurevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater
1986 – Tyler Bozak, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Michal Švec, Czech footballer
1987 – Miloš Teodosić, Serbian basketball player
1988 – Clayton Kershaw, American baseball player
1991 – Aleksandr Kokorin, Russian footballer
1993 – Mateusz Szwoch, Polish footballer
1993 – Hakim Ziyech, Moroccan footballer
1995 – Alexei Sintsov, Russian figure skater
1995 – Héctor Bellerín, Spanish footballer
1996 – Barbara Haas, Austrian tennis player

Deaths on March 19

235 – Severus Alexander, Roman emperor (b. 208)
953 – Al-Mansur Billah, caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate (b. 913)
968 – Emma of Paris, duchess of Normandy (b. 943)
1238 – Henry the Bearded, Polish duke and son of Bolesław I the Tall (b. 1163)
1263 – Hugh of Saint-Cher, French cardinal (b. 1200)
1279 – Zhao Bing, Chinese emperor (b. 1271)
1286 – Alexander III, king of Scotland (b. 1241)
1330 – Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1301)
1372 – John II, marquess of Montferrat (b. 1321)
1533 – John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, English baron and statesman (b. 1467)
1534 – Michael Weiße, German theologian (b. c. 1488)
1539 – Lord Edmund Howard, English nobleman (b. c. 1478)
1563 – Arthur Brooke, English poet
1568 – Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell, English noblewoman (b.c. 1518)
1581 – Francis I, duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (b. 1510)
1612 – Sophia Olelkovich Radziwill, Belarusian saint (b. 1585)
1637 – Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1570)
1649 – Gerhard Johann Vossius, German scholar and theologian (b. 1577)
1683 – Thomas Killigrew, English playwright and manager (b. 1612)
1687 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French-American explorer (b. 1643)
1697 – Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (b. 1665)
1711 – Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (b. 1637)
1717 – John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish soldier (b. 1636)
1721 – Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)
1783 – Frederick Cornwallis, English archbishop (b. 1713)
1790 – Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha, Ottoman general and politician, 182nd Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1713)
1797 – Philip Hayes, English organist and composer (b. 1738)
1816 – Philip Mazzei, Italian-American physician and philosopher (b. 1730)
1871 – Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (b. 1795)
1897 – Antoine Thomson d’Abbadie, Irish-French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer (b. 1810)
1900 – John Bingham, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Ambassador to Japan (b. 1815)
1900 – Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (b. 1819)
1914 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest, geologist, and volcanologist (b. 1850)
1919 – Emma Bell Miles, American writer, poet, and artist of Appalachia (b. 1879)
1930 – Arthur Balfour, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1848)
1930 – Henry Lefroy, Australian politician, 11th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1854)
1942 – Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist, ornithologist, and entomologist (b. 1855)
1944 – William Hale Thompson, American rancher and politician, 41st Mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)
1949 – James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (b. 1882)
1949 – James Newland, Australian soldier and policeman (b. 1881)
1950 – Edgar Rice Burroughs, American soldier and author (b. 1875)
1950 – Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
1951 – Dmytro Doroshenko, Ukrainian historian and politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (b. 1882)
1976 – Albert Dieudonné, French actor and author (b. 1889)
1976 – Paul Kossoff, English guitarist and songwriter (b. 1950)
1977 – William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-born American journalist and author (b. 1888)
1978 – M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (b. 1891)
1982 – J. B. Kripalani, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1888)
1982 – Randy Rhoads, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1956)
1984 – Garry Winogrand, American photographer (b. 1928)
1986 – Sabino Barinaga, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1922)
1987 – Louis de Broglie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1988 – Bun Cook, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1904)
1990 – Andrew Wood, American singer-songwriter (b. 1966)
1993 – Henrik Sandberg, Danish production manager and producer (b. 1915)
1996 – Lise Østergaard, Danish psychologist and politician (b. 1924)
1996 – Virginia Henderson, American nurse, researcher, theorist and author (b. 1897)
1997 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter and educator (b. 1904)
1997 – Eugène Guillevic, French poet and author (b. 1907)
1998 – E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian theorist and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Kerala (b. 1909)
1999 – Tofilau Eti Alesana, Samoan politician, 5th Prime Minister of Samoa (b. 1924)
2000 – Joanne Weaver, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2000 – Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Pakistani physician and author (b. 1920)
2003 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (b. 1926)
2004 – Mitchell Sharp, Canadian economist and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Finance (b. 1911)
2005 – John DeLorean, American engineer and businessman, founded the DeLorean Motor Company (b. 1925)
2008 – Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer (b. 1917)
2008 – Hugo Claus, Belgian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1929)
2008 – Paul Scofield, English actor (b. 1922)
2009 – Maria Bergson, Austrian-American architect and interior designer (b. 1914)
2011 – Kym Bonython, Australian drummer and radio host (b. 1920)
2012 – Jim Case, American director and producer (b. 1927)
2012 – Ulu Grosbard, Belgian-American director and producer (b. 1929)
2012 – Hugo Munthe-Kaas, Norwegian intelligence agent (b. 1922)
2014 – Patrick Joseph McGovern, American businessman, founded IDG (b. 1937)
2014 – Fred Phelps, American lawyer, pastor, and activist, founded the Westboro Baptist Church (b. 1929)
2014 – Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (b. 1942)
2014 – Robert S. Strauss, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Russia (b. 1918)
2014 – Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (b. 1912)
2014 – Joseph F. Weis, Jr., American lawyer and judge (b. 1923)
2015 – Gus Douglass, American farmer and politician (b. 1927)
2015 – Safet Plakalo, Bosnian author and playwright (b. 1950)
2015 – Danny Schechter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1942)
2016 – Roger Agnelli, Brazilian banker and businessman (b. 1959)
2016 – Jack Mansell, English footballer and manager (b. 1927)
2019 – William Whitfield, British architect (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances on March 19

Christian feast day:
- Alkmund of Derby
- Saint Joseph (Western Christianity; if this date falls on Sunday, the feast is moved to Monday March 20)
- March 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Maundy Thursday can fall, while April 22 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday before Easter (Christianity)
Minna Canth’s Birthday (Finland)
Kashubian Unity Day (Poland)
St Joseph’s Day (Roman Catholicism and Anglican Communion) related observances:
- Falles, celebrated on the week leading to March 19 (Valencia)
- Father’s Day (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Honduras, and Bolivia)
- “Return of the Swallow”, annual observance of the swallows’ return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California

March 19- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

March 15- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

In the Roman calendar, March 15 was known as the Ides of March.

March 15 in History

474 BC – Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years’ truce.
44 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and his fellow conspirators, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators, march to the Capitol following the assassination of Julius Caesar, but there is no response to their appeals to the population, who have left the streets in fear. Caesar’s body remains in its place
351 – Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
493 – Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.
856 – Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos) with support of the Byzantine nobility.
933 – After a ten-year truce, German King Henry the Fowler defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.
1147 – Conquest of Santarém: The forces of Afonso I of Portugal capture Santarém.
1311 – Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V, Count of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
1564 – Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes “jizya” (per capita tax).
1672 – Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.
1783 – In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’état never takes place.
1819 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel is adjudged the winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences for his “Memoir on the Diffraction of Light”, which verifies the Fresnel integrals, accounts for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishes Newton’s initial objection to the wave theory of light.
1820 – Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
1827 – University of Toronto is founded.
1848 – A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.
1874 – France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
1875 – Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
1877 – First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
1878 – Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy, broken off back in 1603.
1888 – Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888.
1895 – Heian Shrine is founded.
1906 – Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
1916 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.
1921 – Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian Genocide is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian.
1922 – After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
1926 – The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
1927 – The first Women’s Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
1931 – SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 onboard.
1933 – Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.
1939 – Germany occupies Czechoslovakia.
1939 – Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day.
1941 – Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.
1943 – World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov: The Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.
1951 – the Iranian oil industry is nationalized.
1952 – In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16).
1961 – At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.
1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress “We shall overcome” while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
1978 – Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
1986 – Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.
1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
1991 – Cold War: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.
2008 – Stockpiles of obsolete ammunition explode at an ex-military ammunition depot in the village of Gërdec, Albania, killing 26 people.
2011 – Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.
2019 – Fifty-one people are killed in the Christchurch mosque shootings.
2019 – Beginning of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
2019 – Approximately 1.4 million young people in 123 countries go on strike to protest climate change.

Births on March 15

270 – Saint Nicholas, Greek bishop and saint (d. 343)
1097 – Fujiwara no Tadamichi, Japanese noble (d. 1164)
1275 – Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant (d. 1333)
1407 – Jacob, Margrave of Baden-Baden (d. 1453)
1444 – Francesco Gonzaga, Catholic cardinal (d. 1483)
1493 – Anne de Montmorency, French captain and diplomat (d. 1567)
1513 – Hedwig Jagiellon, Electress of Brandenburg (d. 1573)
1516 – Alqas Mirza, Safavid prince (d. 1550)
1582 – Daniel Featley, English theologian and controversialist (d. 1645)
1584 – Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1663)
1591 – Alexandre de Rhodes, French missionary and lexicographer (d. 1660)
1611 – Jan Fyt, Flemish painter (d. 1661)
1638 – Shunzhi Emperor of China (d. 1661)
1666 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (d. 1738)
1754 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (d. 1842)
1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)
1779 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1848)
1790 – Ludwig Immanuel Magnus, German mathematician and academic (d. 1861)
1791 – Charles Knight, English author and publisher (d. 1873)
1809 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian historian and politician, 1st President of Liberia (d. 1876)
1809 – Karl Josef von Hefele, German bishop and theologian (d. 1893)
1813 – John Snow, English physician and epidemiologist (d. 1858)
1818 – Mariano Álvarez, Filipino general and politician (d. 1924)
1821 – Johann Josef Loschmidt, Austrian physicist and chemist (d. 1895)
1821 – William Milligan, Scottish theologian, author, and educator (d. 1892)
1824 – Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (d. 1907)
1830 – Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
1830 – Élisée Reclus, French geographer and academic (d. 1905)
1831 – Saint Daniele Comboni, Italian missionary and saint (d. 1881)
1835 – John Henry Kagi, American lawyer and activist (d. 1859)
1835 – Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1916)
1838 – Karl Davydov, Russian cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1889)
1851 – John Sebastian Little, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Arkansas (d. 1916)
1851 – William Mitchell Ramsay, Scottish archaeologist and scholar (d. 1939)
1852 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish landowner, playwright, and translator (d. 1932)
1854 – Emil von Behring, German physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
1857 – Christian Michelsen, Norwegian businessman and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1925)
1858 – Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist and academic, co-founded the American Society for Horticultural Science (d. 1954)
1860 – Waldemar Haffkine, Russian-Swiss bacteriologist and microbiologist (d. 1930)
1864 – Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian violinist, composer, and conductor (Oslo Philharmonic) (d. 1935)
1865 – Manuk Abeghian, Armenian author and scholar (d. 1944)
1866 – Matthew Charlton, Australian miner and politician (d. 1948)
1866 – Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor, often erroneously identified as the inventor of the Paper clip (d. 1910)
1868 – Grace Chisholm Young, English mathematician (d. 1944)
1869 – Stanisław Wojciechowski, Polish scholar and politician, 2nd President of the Republic of Poland (d. 1953)
1874 – Eugène Fiset, Canadian physician, general, and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 1951)
1874 – Harold L. Ickes, American journalist and politician, 32nd United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1952)
1878 – Reza Shah, Iranian king (d. 1944)
1886 – Wladimir Burliuk, Ukrainian-Greek painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
1887 – Marjorie Merriweather Post, American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded General Foods (d. 1973)
1887 – Lütfi Kırdar, Turkish physician and politician, Turkish Minister of Health (d. 1961)
1879 – Benjamin R. Jacobs, American biochemist (d. 1963)
1890 – Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician and mountaineer (d. 1980)
1892 – James Basevi Ord, Mexican-American colonel (d. 1938)
1897 – Jackson Scholz, American runner (d. 1986)
1900 – Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian and writer (d. 1987)
1904 – George Brent, Irish-American actor (d. 1979)
1904 – J. Pat O’Malley, English-American actor (d. 1985)
1905 – Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German lawyer and judge (d. 1944)
1907 – Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (d. 1981)
1909 – Jaroslava Muchová Syllabová, Czech painter (d. 1986)
1912 – Lightnin’ Hopkins, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)
1912 – Louis Paul Boon, Flemish journalist and author (d. 1979)
1913 – Macdonald Carey, American actor (d. 1994)
1913 – Jack Fairman, English race car driver (d. 2002)
1916 – Frank Coghlan, Jr., American actor and pilot (d. 2009)
1916 – Fadil Hoxha, Kosovar commander and politician, 2nd President of Kosovo (d. 2001)
1916 – Harry James, American trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (d. 1983)
1918 – Richard Ellmann, American author and critic (d. 1987)
1918 – Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1987)
1919 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
1920 – E. Donnall Thomas, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
1921 – Madelyn Pugh, American television writer and producer (d. 2011)
1922 – Eddie Calvert, English trumpeter (d. 1978)
1926 – Ben Johnston, American composer and academic (d. 2019)
1926 – Norm Van Brocklin, American football player and coach (d. 1983)
1927 – Christian Marquand, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1927 – Carl Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010)
1928 – Bob Wilber, American clarinetist and saxophonist (d. 2019)
1930 – Zhores Alferov, Belarusian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
1932 – Alan Bean, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2018)
1932 – Arif Mardin, Turkish-American record producer (d. 2006)
1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and judge
1933 – Philippe de Broca, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1934 – Richard Layard, Baron Layard, English economist and academic
1934 – Kanshi Ram, Indian politician (d. 2006)
1935 – David Andrews, Irish politician, 21st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ireland
1935 – Judd Hirsch, American actor
1935 – Jimmy Swaggart, American pastor and television host
1935 – Leonid Yengibarov, Russian-Armenian clown and boxer (d. 1972)
1936 – Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (d. 1986)
1937 – Marcus Raichle, American neurologist and physiologist
1937 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian environmentalist and author (d. 2015)
1938 – Charles Lloyd, American saxophonist and flute player
1939 – Ted Kaufman, American engineer and politician
1939 – Robert Nye, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 2016)
1939 – Julie Tullis, English mountaineer (d. 1986)
1940 – Frank Dobson, English politician, Secretary of State for Health (d. 2019)
1940 – Phil Lesh, American bassist
1941 – Mike Love, American singer-songwriter and musician
1941 – Carolyn Hansson, Canadian materials engineer
1943 – David Cronenberg, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
1943 – Lynda La Plante, English actress, screenwriter, and author
1943 – Michael Scott-Joynt, English bishop (d. 2014)
1943 – Sly Stone, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1943 – The Iron Sheik, Iranian-American wrestler and actor
1944 – Chi Cheng, Taiwanese runner and politician
1944 – Jacques Doillon, French director and screenwriter
1944 – Francis Mankiewicz, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
1944 – A. K. Faezul Huq, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
1945 – Mark J. Green, American lawyer and politician
1946 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
1946 – John Dempsey, English born Irish international footballer, centre-back and manager
1947 – Ry Cooder, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Gino Ferrin, German footballer and manager
1947 – Juraj Kukura, Slovak-German actor
1948 – Kate Bornstein, American author and activist
1948 – Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (d. 2003)
1950 – Jørgen Olsen, Danish singer-songwriter
1950 – Kurt Koch, Swiss cardinal
1951 – David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, English educator and politician
1952 – Howard Devoto, English singer-songwriter
1952 – Philip Green, English businessman
1952 – Howard Koh, American physician and politician, 14th United States Assistant Secretary for Health
1953 – Richard Bruton, Irish economist and politician, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
1953 – Heather Graham Pozzessere, American author
1953 – Kumba Ialá, Bissau-Guinean educator and politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (d. 2014)
1954 – Massimo Bubola, Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Isobel Buchanan, Scottish soprano and actress
1954 – Bob Budiansky, American author and illustrator
1954 – Henry Marsh, American runner and businessman, co-founded MonaVie
1954 – Craig Wasson, American actor
1955 – Mohsin Khan, Pakistani cricketer
1955 – Dee Snider, American singer-songwriter and actor
1956 – Clay Matthews, Jr., American football player and coach
1957 – Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese-American actor
1957 – Víctor Muñoz, Spanish footballer and manager
1957 – David Silverman, American animator, director, and screenwriter
1958 – Anne Davies, English television presenter and newsreader
1959 – Harold Baines, American baseball player and coach
1959 – Renny Harlin, Finnish director and producer
1959 – Lisa Holton, American journalist and author
1959 – Ben Okri, Nigerian poet and author
1960 – Mike Pagliarulo, American baseball player and coach
1960 – Phil Walsh, Australian rules footballer and coach (d. 2015)
1961 – Terry Cummings, American basketball player and singer
1961 – Craig Ludwig, American ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Terence Trent D’Arby, American singer-songwriter
1962 – Jimmy Baio, American actor
1963 – Bret Michaels, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1964 – Davide Pinato, Italian footballer
1964 – Rockwell, American singer-songwriter and musician
1965 – Sunetra Gupta, Indian epidemiologist, author, and academic
1965 – Robyn Malcolm, New Zealand actress
1967 – Naoko Takeuchi, Japanese manga artist, creator of Sailor Moon
1968 – Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer
1968 – Mark McGrath, American singer-songwriter and television host
1968 – Terje Riis-Johansen, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy
1968 – Sabrina Salerno, Italian singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
1969 – Rona Ambrose, Canadian journalist and politician, former Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
1969 – Gianluca Festa, Italian footballer and coach
1969 – Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey
1970 – Christine Anu, Australian singer
1970 – Naka Drotske, South African rugby player
1970 – Derek Parra, American speed skater and coach
1971 – Penny Lancaster, English model and photographer
1971 – Joanne Wise, English long jumper
1972 – Mark Hoppus, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1972 – Holger Stromberg, German chef
1972 – Mike Tomlin, American football player and coach
1973 – Robin Hunicke, American video game designer and producer
1973 – Masayuki Naruse, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
1974 – Robert Fick, American baseball player
1975 – Eva Longoria, American actress and producer
1975 – Veselin Topalov, Bulgarian chess player
1975 – Darcy Tucker, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – will.i.am, American rapper, producer, and actor
1976 – Katherine Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1976 – Abhay Deol, Indian actor
1976 – Cara Pifko, Canadian actress
1977 – Joe Hahn, American DJ, producer, and director
1977 – Brian Tee, Japanese-American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1978 – Takeru Kobayashi, Japanese competitive eater
1979 – Kyle Mills, New Zealand cricketer
1979 – Kevin Youkilis, American baseball player and scout
1980 – Freddie Bynum, American baseball player
1980 – Eric Grothe, Jr. Australian rugby league player and guitarist
1980 – Claudiney Ramos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
1981 – Young Buck, American rapper, producer, and actor
1981 – Mikael Forssell, German-Finnish footballer
1981 – Veronica Maggio, Swedish singer-songwriter
1981 – Jens Salumäe, Estonian skier
1982 – Tom Budge, Australian actor
1982 – Emily Dunn, American actress and dancer
1982 – Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, Kenyan runner
1983 – Sean Biggerstaff, Scottish actor
1983 – Umut Bulut, Turkish footballer
1983 – Ben Hilfenhaus, Australian cricketer
1983 – Kostas Kaimakoglou, Greek basketball player
1983 – Golda Marcus, Salvadoran swimmer
1983 – Daryl Murphy, Irish footballer
1983 – Heiko Niidas, Estonian basketball player
1983 – Ricky Sekhon, English actor
1983 – Yo Yo Honey Singh, Indian music producer
1984 – Badradine Belloumou, French-Algerian footballer
1984 – Malin Buska, Swedish actress
1984 – Olivier Jean, Canadian speed skater
1984 – Kostas Vasileiadis, Greek basketball player
1984 – Wilson Aparecido Xavier Júnior, Brazilian footballer
1987 – Eric Decker, American football player
1988 – Éver Guzmán, Mexican footballer
1988 – James Reimer, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Jolo Revilla, Filipino actor and politician
1988 – Alexander Sims, English race car driver
1989 – Sam Baldock, English footballer
1989 – Bryce Gibbs, Australian footballer
1989 – Sandro, Brazilian international footballer, midfielder
1989 – Gil Roberts, American sprinter
1989 – Adrien Silva, Portuguese footballer
1989 – Caitlin Wachs, American actress
1990 – Siobhan Magnus, American singer-songwriter
1991 – Tavon Austin, American footballer
1991 – Kurt Baptiste, Australian rugby league player
1991 – Xavier Henry, American basketball player
1996 – Seonaid McIntosh, Scottish sports shooter
2000 – Kristian Kostov, Russian-Bulgarian singer-songwriter

Deaths on March 15

44 BC – Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (b. 100 BC)
220 – Cao Cao, Chinese general, warlord and statesman (b. 155)
493 – Odoacer, the first king of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (b. 433)
752 – Pope Zachary
963 – Romanos II, Byzantine emperor (b. 938)
990 – Siegfried I (the Older), German nobleman
1086 – Richilde, Countess of Hainaut, Flemish consort and regent (b. c. 1018)
1124 – Ernulf, Bishop of Rochester (b. c. 1040)
1190 – Isabella of Hainault, queen of Philip II of France (b. 1170)
1311 – Walter V, Count of Brienne (b. 1275)
1311 – Thomas III d’Autremencourt, Lord of Salona, Marshal of Achaea
1311 – Albert Pallavicini, Margrave of Bodonitza
1311 – George I Ghisi, Triarch of Euboea, Baron of Chalandritsa, Lord of Tinos, Mykonos, Serifos and Keos
1327 – Albert of Schwarzburg, grand preceptor of the Knights Hospitaller
1346 – Shah Jalal, Sufi saint of Bengal (b. 1271).
1536 – Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, Ottoman politician, 35th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1493)
1575 – Annibale Padovano, Italian organist and composer (b. 1527)
1644 – Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau (b. 1576)
1657 – David Pardo, Dutch rabbi and scholar (b. 1591)
1673 – Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet (b. 1615)
1711 – Eusebio Kino, Italian priest and missionary (b. 1645)
1820 – Clement Mary Hofbauer, Austrian priest and saint (b. 1751)
1832 – Otto Wilhelm Masing, Estonian linguist and clergyman (b. 1763)
1842 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1760)
1849 – Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, Italian cardinal and linguist (b. 1774)
1891 – Joseph Bazalgette, English engineer and academic (b. 1819)
1897 – James Joseph Sylvester, English mathematician and academic (b. 1814)
1898 – Henry Bessemer, English engineer and businessman (b. 1813)
1921 – Talaat Pasha, Ottoman politician, 281st Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1874)
1927 – Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1858)
1933 – Gustavo Jiménez, Peruvian colonel and politician, 73rd President of Peru (b. 1886)
1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, and novelist (b. 1890)
1938 – Nikolai Bukharin, Russian journalist, and politician (b. 1888)
1939 – Luis Barceló, Spanish colonel (b. 1896)
1941 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian-German painter (b. 1864)
1944 – Otto von Below, Prussian general (b. 1857)
1951 – John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (b. 1889)
1957 – Ernst Nobs, Swiss politician (b. 1886)
1959 – Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1909)
1962 – Charles Bartliff, American soccer player (b. 1886)
1962 – Arthur Compton, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1966 – Abe Saperstein, American basketball player and coach (b. 1902)
1969 – Miles Malleson, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1888)
1969 – Musashiyama Takeshi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 33rd Yokozuna (b. 1909)
1970 – Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian author and poet (b. 1897)
1971 – Jean-Pierre Monseré, Belgian cyclist (b. 1948)
1972 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter and educator (b. 1910)
1975 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek-Argentinian businessman (b. 1906)
1977 – Hubert Aquin, Canadian author and activist (b. 1929)
1977 – Antonino Rocca, Italian-American wrestler and referee (b. 1921)
1981 – René Clair, French director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
1983 – Coloman Braun-Bogdan, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1905)
1983 – Rebecca West, English author and critic (b. 1892)
1985 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and author (b. 1921)
1986 – Alexandru Giugaru, Romanian actor (b. 1897)
1987 – Douglas Abbott, Canadian lawyer and politician, 10th Canadian Minister of National Defence (b. 1899)
1988 – Dmitri Polyakov, Ukrainian general and spy (b. 1926)
1989 – Muhammad Jameel Didi, Maldivian poet and politician (b. 1915)
1990 – Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-English journalist (b. 1958)
1990 – Tom Harmon, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1919)
1991 – Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1906)
1992 – Rahi Masoom Raza, Indian Urdu poet (b.1927)
1997 – Gail Davis, American actress (b. 1925)
1997 – Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-French painter (b. 1906)
1998 – Tim Maia, Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
1998 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (b. 1903)
1999 – Guy D’Artois, Canadian soldier (b. 1917)
2001 – Gaetano Cozzi, Italian historian and academic (b. 1922)
2001 – Ann Sothern, American actress and singer (b. 1909)
2003 – Thora Hird, English actress (b. 1911)
2003 – Paul Stojanovich, American television producer, created World’s Wildest Police Videos (b. 1956)
2004 – Philippe Lemaire, French actor (b. 1927)
2004 – Bill Pickering, New Zealand-American scientist and engineer (b. 1910)
2004 – John Pople, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
2005 – Bob Bellear, Australian engineer and judge (b. 1944)
2005 – Otar Korkia, Georgian basketball player and coach (b. 1923)
2005 – Shoji Nishio, Japanese martial artist (b. 1927)
2006 – Georgios Rallis, Greek lieutenant and politician, 173rd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1918)
2006 – Red Storey, Canadian football player and referee (b. 1918)
2007 – Charles Harrelson, American murderer (b. 1938)
2007 – Bowie Kuhn, American lawyer and businessman (b. 1926)
2007 – Stuart Rosenberg, American director and producer (b. 1927)
2008 – Mikey Dread, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1954)
2008 – Vytautas Kernagis, Lithuanian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1951)
2008 – G. David Low, American astronaut and engineer (b. 1956)
2008 – Ken Reardon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
2008 – Sarla Thakral, First Indian woman to earn a pilot’s license. (b. 1914)
2009 – Ron Silver, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1946)
2011 – Nate Dogg, American rapper (b. 1969)
2011 – Smiley Culture, English singer and DJ (b. 1963)
2012 – Mervyn Davies, Welsh rugby player (b. 1946)
2012 – Eb Gaines, American businessman and diplomat (b. 1927)
2012 – Luis Gonzales, Filipino actor (b. 1928)
2012 – Bernardino González Ruíz, Panamanian physician and politician, President of Panama (b. 1911)
2012 – Fran Matera, American illustrator (b. 1924)
2012 – Dave Philley, American baseball player and manager (b. 1920)
2013 – James Bonk, American chemist and academic (b. 1931)
2013 – Booth Gardner, American businessman and politician, 19th Governor of Washington (b. 1936)
2013 – Hardrock Gunter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)
2013 – Shannon Larratt, Canadian publisher, founded BMEzine (b. 1973)
2013 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player (b. 1935)
2013 – Leverne McDonnell, Australian actress (b. 1963).
2013 – Masamichi Noro, Japanese-French martial artist, founded Kinomichi (b. 1935)
2013 – Kallam Anji Reddy, Indian engineer and businessman, founded Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (b. 1940)
2013 – Peter Worsley, English sociologist (b. 1924)
2013 – Felipe Zetter, Mexican footballer (b. 1923)
2014 – Scott Asheton, American drummer (b. 1949).
2014 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (b. 1936)
2014 – Bo Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (b. 1927)
2014 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (b. 1947)
2014 – Everett L. Fullam, American priest and scholar (b. 1930)
2014 – Cees Veerman, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1943)
2015 – Collins Chabane, South African politician (b. 1960)
2015 – Robert Clatworthy, English sculptor and educator (b. 1928)
2015 – Narayan Desai, Indian author and activist (b. 1924)
2015 – Sally Forrest, American actress and dancer (b. 1928)
2015 – Curtis Gans, American political scientist and author (b. 1937)
2015 – Mike Porcaro, American bass player (b. 1955)
2016 – Sylvia Anderson, English voice actress and television and film producer (b. 1927)
2016 – Asa Briggs, English historian and academic (b. 1921)
2016 – Daryl Coley, American singer and pastor (b. 1955)
2016 – Seru Rabeni, Fijian rugby player (b. 1978)
2019 – Larry DiTillio, American film and TV series writer (b. 1948)
2020 – Vittorio Gregotti, Italian architect (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances on March 15

Christian feast day:
- Aristobulus of Britannia
- Clemens Maria Hofbauer
- Leocritia
- Longinus
- Louise de Marillac
- Raymond of Fitero
- March 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Belarus)
Earliest day on which Birth of Benito Juárez can fall, while March 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday of March. (Mexico)
Earliest day on which Palm Sunday can fall, while April 18 is the latest; celebrated on the sixth Sunday of Lent. (Christianity)
Hōnen Matsuri (Japan)
International Day Against Police Brutality (International)
J. J. Roberts’ Birthday (Liberia)
National Day, celebrating the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (Hungary)
World Consumer Rights Day (International)
World Contact Day
World Day of Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film (International)
World Speech Day
Youth Day (Palau)

March 15- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

March 14- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion.
1647 – Thirty Years’ War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1663 – According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book De Vacuo.
1674 – The Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of Ronas Voe results in the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam being captured with a death toll of up to 300 Dutch crew and soldiers.
1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans.
1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London.
1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
1903 – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.
1920 – In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany.
1926 – The El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica, kills 248 people and wounds another 93 when a train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás.
1931 – Alam Ara, India’s first talking film, is released.
1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
1942 – Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead.
1943 – The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed.
1945 – The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.
1951 – Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time.
1961 – A USAF B-52 bomber crashes near near Yuba City, California whilst carrying nuclear weapons.
1964 – Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.
1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
1978 – The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon.
1980 – LOT Flight 7 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
1982 – The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.
1988 – In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
1995 – Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
2006 – The 2006 Chadian coup d’état attempt ends in failure.
2007 – The Nandigram violence in Nandigram, West Bengal results in the deaths of at least 14 people.
2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet.
2019 – Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1000 deaths.

Births on March 14

1638 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)
1790 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver (d. 1863)
1800 – James Bogardus, American inventor and architect (d. 1874)
1801 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet (d. 1822)
1804 – Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1849)
1813 – Joseph P. Bradley, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1892)
1820 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (d. 1878)
1822 – Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1889)
1823 – Théodore de Banville, French poet and critic (d. 1891)
1833 – Frederic Shields, English painter and illustrator (d. 1911)
1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, American dentist and educator (d. 1910)
1835 – Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (d. 1910)
1836 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (d. 1865)
1837 – Charles Ammi Cutter, American librarian (d. 1903)
1844 – Umberto I of Italy (d. 1900)
1844 – Arthur O’Shaughnessy, English poet and herpetologist (d. 1881)
1847 – Castro Alves, Brazilian poet and playwright (d. 1871)
1853 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
1854 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1915)
1854 – John Lane, English publisher, co-founded The Bodley Head (d. 1925)
1854 – Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian author and poet (d. 1920)
1854 – Thomas R. Marshall, American lawyer and politician, 28th Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1925)
1862 – Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist and meteorologist (d. 1951)
1863 – Casey Jones, American engineer (d. 1900)
1868 – Emily Murphy, Canadian jurist, author, and activist (d. 1933)
1869 – Algernon Blackwood, English author and playwright (d. 1951)
1874 – Anton Philips, Dutch businessman, co-founded Philips Electronics (d. 1951)
1879 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
1882 – Wacław Sierpiński, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1969)
1885 – Raoul Lufbery, French-American soldier and pilot (d. 1918)
1886 – Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (d. 1964)
1887 – Sylvia Beach, American-French publisher, founded Shakespeare and Company (d. 1962)
1898 – Reginald Marsh, French-American painter and illustrator (d. 1954)
1899 – K. C. Irving, Canadian businessman, founded Irving Oil (d. 1992)
1901 – Sid Atkinson, South African hurdler and long jumper (d. 1977)
1903 – Adolph Gottlieb, American painter and sculptor (d. 1974)
1904 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress and dancer (d. 2010)
1905 – Raymond Aron, French journalist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1983)
1906 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Turkish composer and educator (d. 1972)
1908 – Ed Heinemann, American designer of military aircraft (d. 1991)
1908 – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher and academic (d. 1961)
1908 – Philip Conrad Vincent, English engineer and businessman, founded Vincent Motorcycles (d. 1979)
1911 – Akira Yoshizawa, Japanese origamist (d. 2005)
1912 – Cliff Bastin, English footballer (d. 1991)
1912 – Les Brown, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2001)
1912 – W. Graham Claytor, Jr. American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1994)
1912 – W. Willard Wirtz, American lawyer and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Labor (d. 2010)
1914 – Lee Hays, American singer-songwriter (d. 1981)
1914 – Bill Owen, English actor and songwriter (d. 1999)
1914 – Lee Petty, American race car driver and businessman, founded Petty Enterprises (d. 2000)
1915 – Alexander Brott, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2005)
1916 – Horton Foote, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1917 – Alan Smith, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 2013)
1918 – Zoia Horn, American librarian (d. 2014)
1919 – Max Shulman, American author and screenwriter (d. 1988)
1920 – Hank Ketcham, American author and cartoonist, created Dennis the Menace (d. 2001)
1920 – Dorothy Tyler-Odam, English high jumper (d. 2014)
1921 – S. Truett Cathy, American businessman, founded Chick-fil-A (d. 2014)
1921 – Ada Louise Huxtable, American author and critic (d. 2013)
1922 – Les Baxter, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
1923 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)
1925 – William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (d. 2014)
1925 – Joseph A. Unanue, American sergeant and businessman (d. 2013)
1926 – François Morel, Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, and educator (d. 2018)
1928 – Frank Borman, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1928 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (d. 1980)
1929 – Bob Goalby, American golfer
1932 – Mark Murphy, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2015)
1932 – Naina Yeltsina, Russian wife of Boris Yeltsin, First Lady of Russia
1933 – Michael Caine, English actor and author
1933 – Quincy Jones, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer
1934 – Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017)
1934 – Paul Rader, American 15th General of The Salvation Army
1936 – Bob Charles, New Zealand golfer
1937 – Peter van der Merwe, South African cricketer and referee (d. 2013)
1938 – Eleanor Bron, English actress and screenwriter
1938 – Jan Crouch, American televangelist, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (d. 2016)
1938 – John Gleeson, Australian cricketer (d. 2016)
1939 – Raymond J. Barry, American actor
1939 – Bertrand Blier, French director and screenwriter
1939 – Yves Boisset, French director and screenwriter
1941 – Wolfgang Petersen, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1942 – Rita Tushingham, English actress
1943 – Anita Morris, American actress and singer (d. 1994)
1944 – Boris Brott, Canadian composer and conductor
1944 – Václav Nedomanský, Czech ice hockey player and manager
1944 – Bobby Smith, English footballer and manager
1944 – Tom Stannage, Australian historian and academic (d. 2012)
1945 – Jasper Carrott, English comedian, actor, and game show host
1945 – Michael Martin Murphey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 – Walter Parazaider, American saxophonist
1946 – William Lerach, American securities and class action attorney
1946 – Wes Unseld, American basketball player, coach, and manager
1947 – Roy Budd, English pianist and composer (d. 1993)
1947 – William J. Jefferson, American lawyer and politician
1947 – Jona Lewie, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1948 – Tom Coburn, American physician and politician (d. 2020)
1948 – Billy Crystal, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1948 – Theo Jansen, Dutch sculptor
1950 – Rick Dees, American actor and radio host
1951 – Jerry Greenfield, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Ben & Jerry’s
1953 – Nick Keir, Scottish singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1955 – Jonathan Kaufer, American director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1956 – Alexey Pajitnov, Russian video game designer and computer engineer, creator of Tetris
1956 – Butch Wynegar, American baseball player and coach
1957 – Tad Williams, American author
1958 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
1959 – Laila Robins, American actress
1959 – Tamara Tunie, American actress
1960 – Heidi Hammel, American astronomer and academic
1961 – Garry Jack, Australian rugby league player and coach
1961 – Mike Lazaridis, Turkish–Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded BlackBerry Limited
1963 – Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer and coach
1965 – Kevin Brown, American baseball player and coach
1965 – Aamir Khan, Indian film actor, producer, and director
1965 – Billy Sherwood, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1965 – Kevin Williamson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1966 – Jonas Elmer, Danish actor, director, and screenwriter
1966 – Elise Neal, American actress and producer
1968 – Megan Follows, Canadian-American actress
1969 – Larry Johnson, American basketball player and actor
1970 – Kristian Bush, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1972 – Irom Chanu Sharmila, Indian poet and activist
1973 – Rohit Shetty, Indian film director and producer
1974 – Patrick Traverse, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Steve Harper, English footballer and referee
1975 – Dmitri Markov, Belarusian-Australian pole vaulter
1976 – Phil Vickery, English rugby player and sportscaster
1977 – Vadims Fjodorovs, Latvian footballer and coach
1977 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (d. 2011)
1977 – Jeremy Paul, New Zealand-Australian rugby player
1978 – Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer
1979 – Nicolas Anelka, French footballer and manager
1979 – Chris Klein, American actor
1979 – Sead Ramović, German-Bosnian footballer
1980 – Aaron Brown, English footballer and coach
1980 – Ben Herring, New Zealand rugby player
1981 – Bobby Jenks, American baseball player
1981 – George Wilson, American football player
1982 – Carlos Marinelli, Argentinian footballer
1982 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (d. 2008)
1983 – Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
1986 – Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwean cricketer
1986 – Jessica Gallagher, Australian skier and cyclist
1986 – Andy Taylor, English footballer
1988 – Stephen Curry, American basketball player
1988 – Rico Freimuth, German decathlete
1989 – Kevin Lacroix, Canadian race car driver
1990 – Joe Allen, Welsh footballer
1990 – Tamás Kádár, Hungarian footballer
1990 – Haru Kuroki, Japanese actress
1990 – Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Icelandic footballer
1991 – Emir Bekrić, Serbian hurdler
1991 – László Szűcs, Hungarian footballer
1991 – Steven Zellner, German footballer
1993 – Philipp Ziereis, German footballer
1994 – Ansel Elgort, American actor and DJ
1996 – Batuhan Altıntaş, Turkish footballer
1997 – Simone Biles, American gymnast
2008 – Abby Ryder Fortson, American actress

Deaths on March 14

840 – Einhard, Frankish scholar
968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, Saxon queen (b. c. 896)
1555 – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (b. 1485)
1647 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)
1648 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (b. 1584)
1696 – Jean Domat, French lawyer and jurist (b. 1625)
1748 – George Wade, Irish field marshal and politician (b. 1673)
1757 – John Byng, British admiral and politician, 11th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1704)
1791 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and critic (b. 1725)
1803 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (b. 1724)
1811 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1735)
1823 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general and politician, French Minister of War (b. 1739)
1860 – Carl Ritter von Ghega, Italian engineer, designed the Semmering railway (b. 1802)
1877 – Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentinian general and politician, 17th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (b. 1793)
1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher and theorist (b. 1818)
1884 – Quintino Sella, Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Finances (b. 1827)
1932 – George Eastman, American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (b. 1854)
1953 – Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovak Communist politician and 14th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1896)
1957 – Evagoras Pallikarides, Cypriot activist (b. 1938)
1965 – Marion Jones Farquhar, American tennis player (b. 1879)
1968 – Erwin Panofsky, German historian and academic (b. 1892)
1969 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-American painter, illustrator, and educator (b. 1898)
1973 – Howard H. Aiken, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1900)
1973 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
1975 – Susan Hayward, American actress (b. 1917)
1976 – Busby Berkeley, American director and choreographer (b. 1895)
1977 – Fannie Lou Hamer, American activist and philanthropist (b. 1917)
1980 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Indonesia (b. 1902)
1980 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (b. 1928)
1984 – Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet (b. 1915)
1989 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (b. 1892)
1991 – Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (b. 1950)
1995 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
1997 – Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (b. 1907)
1999 – Kirk Alyn, American actor (b. 1910)
1999 – John Broome, American author (b. 1913)
2003 – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-American painter (b. 1945)
2003 – Jean-Luc Lagardère, French engineer and businessman (b. 1928)
2006 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (b. 1929)
2007 – Lucie Aubrac, French educator and activist (b. 1912)
2008 – Chiara Lubich, Italian activist, co-founded the Focolare Movement (b. 1920)
2010 – Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
2012 – Pierre Schoendoerffer, French director and screenwriter (b. 1928)
2012 – Ċensu Tabone, Maltese general and politician, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
2013 – Jack Greene, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1930)
2013 – Aramais Sahakyan, Armenian poet and author (b. 1936)
2013 – Ieng Sary, Vietnamese-Cambodian politician, Cambodian Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1925)
2014 – Tony Benn, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
2014 – Meir Har-Zion, Israeli commander (b. 1934)
2016 – John W. Cahn, German-American metallurgist and academic (b. 1928)
2016 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor (b. 1934)
2016 – Suranimala Rajapaksha, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (b. 1949)
2018 – Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality (b. 1937)
2018 – Marielle Franco, Brazilian politician and human rights activist (b. 1979)
2018 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (b. 1942)
2018 – Liam O’Flynn, Irish uileann piper (b. 1945)
2019 – Jake Phelps, American skateboarder and Thrasher editor-in-chief (b. 1962)

Holidays and observances on March 14

Christian feast day:
- Leobinus
- March 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Andorra)
Heroes’ Day (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
Mother Tongue Day (Estonia)
Nanakshahi New Year, first day of the month of Chet (Sikhism)
Pi Day
Summer Day (Albania)
White Day on which men give gifts to women; complementary to Valentine’s Day (Japan and other Asian nations)

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