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1888

May 9 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.
  • 1271 – Ninth Crusade, Edward I of England disembarks at Acre.
  • 1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force.
  • 1450 – ‘Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
  • 1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.
  • 1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.
  • 1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England’s Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
  • 1726 – Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap’s molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
  • 1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac’s War against British forces.
  • 1864 – Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.
  • 1865 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama.
  • 1865 – American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.
  • 1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
  • 1874 – The first horsebus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling two routes.
  • 1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
  • 1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
  • 1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opens in London.
  • 1901 – Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne.
  • 1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h).
  • 1911 – The works of Gabriele D’Annunzio are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican.
  • 1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
  • 1918 – World War I: Germany repels Britain’s second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
  • 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk.
  • 1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd’s diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.)
  • 1927 – Old Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.
  • 1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
  • 1940 – World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
  • 1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
  • 1942 – Holocaust: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported.
  • 1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.
  • 1945 – World War II: The German occupation of the Channel Islands comes to an end.
  • 1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.
  • 1948 – Czechoslovakia’s Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.
  • 1949 – Rainier III becomes Prince of Monaco.
  • 1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the “Schuman Declaration”, is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
  • 1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
  • 1958 – Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo has world premiere in San Francisco.
  • 1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle’s Enovid, making Enovid the world’s first approved oral contraceptive pill.
  • 1961 – FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gives his Wasteland Speech.
  • 1964 – Ngô Đình Cẩn, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under his brother President Ngô Đình Diệm before the family’s toppling, is executed.
  • 1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
  • 1970 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House.
  • 1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
  • 1977 – Hotel Polen fire: A disastrous fire burns down the Hotel Polen in Amsterdam causing 33 deaths and 21 severe injuries.
  • 1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.
  • 1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.
  • 1980 – In Norco, California, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.
  • 1987 – LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kościuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board.
  • 1988 – New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.
  • 1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
  • 1992 – Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada.
  • 1994 – Disappearance of Cleashindra Hall in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
  • 2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
  • 2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
  • 2012 – A Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crashes into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia, killing 45 people.
  • 2015 – An Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft crashes near the Spanish city of Seville with three people on board killed.
  • 2015 – Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.
  • 2018 – The historic defeat for Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country’s independence in 1957 in 2018 Malaysian general election.
  • 2018 – At the height of the 2018 East Africa floods, the Patel dam breaks in Solai, Kenya, killing 48 people and displacing another 2000.

Births on May 9

  • 1147 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (d. 1199)
  • 1170 – Valdemar II of Denmark (d. 1241)
  • 1540 – Maharana Pratap, Indian ruler (d. 1597)
  • 1555 – Jerónima de la Asunción, Spanish Catholic nun and founder of the first monastery in Manila (d. 1630)
  • 1594 – Louis Henry, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years’ War (d. 1662)
  • 1617 – Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege (d. 1655)
  • 1740 – Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer and educator (probable; d. 1816)
  • 1746 – Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1818)
  • 1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian-Austrian poet and author (d. 1845)
  • 1800 – John Brown, American activist (d. 1859)
  • 1801 – Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, English politician, founded the town of Fleetwood (d. 1866)
  • 1814 – John Brougham, Irish-American actor and playwright (d. 1880)
  • 1823 – Frederick Weld, English-New Zealand politician, 6th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891)
  • 1824 – Jacob ben Moses Bachrach, Polish apologist and author (d. 1896)
  • 1825 – James Collinson, Victorian painter (d. 1881)
  • 1836 – Ferdinand Monoyer, French ophthalmologist, invented the Monoyer chart (d. 1912)
  • 1837 – Adam Opel, German engineer, founded the Opel Company (d. 1895)
  • 1845 – Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer and businessman (d. 1913)
  • 1850 – Edward Weston, English-American chemist (d. 1936)
  • 1855 – Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch composer (d. 1932)
  • 1860 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (d. 1937)
  • 1866 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian economist and politician (d. 1915)
  • 1870 – Harry Vardon, British golfer (d. 1937)
  • 1873 – Anton Cermak, Czech-American captain and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
  • 1874 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (d. 1939)
  • 1882 – George Barker, American painter (d. 1965)
  • 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, American shipbuilder and businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards (d. 1967)
  • 1883 – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, author, and critic (d. 1955)
  • 1884 – Valdemar Psilander, Danish actor (d. 1917)
  • 1885 – Gianni Vella, Maltese artist (d. 1977)
  • 1888 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (d. 1918)
  • 1888 – Rolf de Maré, Swedish art collector (d. 1964)
  • 1892 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1989)
  • 1893 – William Moulton Marston, American psychologist and author (d. 1947)
  • 1895 – Richard Barthelmess, American actor (d. 1963)
  • 1895 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (d. 1961)
  • 1895 – Frank Foss, American pole vaulter (d. 1989)
  • 1896 – Richard Day, Canadian-American art director and set decorator (d. 1972)
  • 1900 – Maria Malicka, Polish stage and film actress (d. 1992)
  • 1904 – Conrad Bernier, Canadian-American organist, composer, and educator (d. 1988)
  • 1905 – Lilí Álvarez, Spanish tennis player, author, and feminist (d. 1998)
  • 1906 – Eleanor Estes, American librarian, author, and illustrator (d. 1988)
  • 1907 – Jackie Grant, Trinidadian cricketer (d. 1978)
  • 1907 – Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist and author (d. 1976)
  • 1907 – Baldur von Schirach, German politician (d. 1974)
  • 1909 – Don Messer, Canadian violinist (d. 1973)
  • 1909 – Gordon Bunshaft, American architect, designed the Solow Building (d. 1990)
  • 1911 – Harry Simeone, American music arranger, conductor, and composer (d. 2005)
  • 1912 – Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican-American actor (d. 1963)
  • 1912 – Per Imerslund, Norwegian-German soldier and author (d. 1943)
  • 1912 – Géza Ottlik, Hungarian mathematician and theorist (d. 1990)
  • 1914 – Patricia Swift Blalock, American librarian (d.2011)
  • 1914 – Denham Fouts, American prostitute (d. 1948)
  • 1914 – Thanat Khoman, Thai politician and diplomat (d. 2016)
  • 1914 – Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian conductor and director (d. 2005)
  • 1914 – Hank Snow, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
  • 1916 – William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (d. 1993)
  • 1917 – Fay Kanin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
  • 1918 – Moisis Michail Bourlas, Greek soldier and educator (d. 2011)
  • 1918 – Orville Freeman, American soldier and politician, 16th United States Secretary of Agriculture (d. 2003)
  • 1918 – Mike Wallace, American journalist, media personality and one-time game show host (d. 2012)
  • 1919 – Clifford Chadderton, Canadian soldier and journalist (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – William Tenn, English-American author and academic (d. 2010)
  • 1920 – Richard Adams, English novelist (d. 2016)
  • 1921 – Daniel Berrigan, American priest, poet, and activist (d. 2016)
  • 1921 – Sophie Scholl, German activist (d. 1943)
  • 1921 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet and academic (d. 2004)
  • 1923 – Johnny Grant, American radio host and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1924 – Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer, poet, and author (d. 1997)
  • 1926 – John Middleton Murry, Jr., English soldier, pilot, and author (d. 2002)
  • 1927 – Manfred Eigen, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
  • 1928 – Ralph Goings, American painter (d. 2016)
  • 1928 – Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (d. 1995)
  • 1928 – Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater (d. 2012)
  • 1930 – Joan Sims, English actress (d. 2001)
  • 1930 – Kalifa Tillisi, Libyan historian and linguist (d. 2010)
  • 1931 – Vance D. Brand, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut
  • 1932 – Conrad Hunte, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1999)
  • 1934 – Alan Bennett, English screenwriter, playwright, and novelist
  • 1935 – Nokie Edwards, American guitarist (d. 2018)
  • 1935 – Roger Hargreaves, English author and illustrator (d. 1988)
  • 1936 – Terry Downes, British boxer and former world middle-weight champion (d. 2017)
  • 1936 – Albert Finney, English actor (d. 2019)
  • 1936 – Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
  • 1937 – Sonny Curtis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1937 – Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect, designed the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and Valladolid Science Museum
  • 1937 – Dave Prater, American singer (d. 1988)
  • 1938 – Charles Simić, Serbian-American poet and editor
  • 1939 – Ralph Boston, American long jumper
  • 1939 – Ion Țiriac, Romanian tennis player and manager
  • 1939 – Ken Warby, Australian motorboat racer
  • 1939 – Giorgio Zancanaro, Italian baritone
  • 1939 – John Ogbu, Nigerian-American anthropologist and professor (d. 2003)
  • 1940 – James L. Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1941 – Dorothy Hyman, English sprinter
  • 1941 – Danny Rapp, American musician (d. 1983)
  • 1942 – John Ashcroft, American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General
  • 1942 – Tommy Roe, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1943 – Vince Cable, English economist and politician, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
  • 1943 – Anders Isaksson, Swedish historian and journalist (d. 2009)
  • 1943 – Colin Pillinger, English astronomer, chemist, and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1944 – Richie Furay, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1945 – Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian journalist and author (d. 2015)
  • 1945 – Jupp Heynckes, German footballer and manager
  • 1945 – Steve Katz, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
  • 1946 – Candice Bergen, American actress and producer
  • 1946 – Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Turkish author and activist (d. 2002)
  • 1947 – Yukiya Amano, Japanese diplomat (d. 2019)
  • 1948 – Hans Georg Bock, German mathematician, computer scientist, and academic
  • 1948 – John Mahaffey, American golfer
  • 1948 – Steven W. Mosher, American social scientist and author
  • 1948 – Calvin Murphy, American basketball player and radio host
  • 1949 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist
  • 1949 – Richard S. Williamson, American lawyer and diplomat, 17th Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (d. 2013)
  • 1951 – Alley Mills, American actress
  • 1953 – Bruno Brokken, Belgian high jumper
  • 1955 – Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (d. 2012)
  • 1955 – Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish soprano and actress
  • 1956 – Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress and producer
  • 1956 – Jana Wendt, Australian television host
  • 1958 – Graham Smith, Canadian swimmer
  • 1959 – Andrew Jones, New Zealand cricketer
  • 1960 – Tony Gwynn, American baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1961 – Sean Altman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1961 – John Corbett, American actor
  • 1962 – Dave Gahan, English singer-songwriter
  • 1962 – Paul Heaton, English singer-songwriter
  • 1963 – Joe Cirella, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1965 – Ken Nomura, Japanese race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1965 – Steve Yzerman, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
  • 1966 – Mark Tinordi, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1968 – Masahiko Harada, Japanese ski jumper
  • 1968 – Graham Harman, American philosopher and academic
  • 1968 – Ruth Kelly, British economist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
  • 1968 – Marie-José Pérec, French sprinter
  • 1968 – Neil Ruddock, English international footballer and television personality
  • 1970 – Doug Christie, American basketball player
  • 1970 – Hao Haidong, Chinese footballer & all time top scorer for Chinese national team
  • 1970 – Ghostface Killah, American rapper and actor
  • 1971 – Jason Lee, English footballer and manager
  • 1971 – Dan Chiasson, American poet and critic
  • 1972 – Megumi Odaka, Japanese actress and singer
  • 1973 – Tegla Loroupe, Kenyan runner
  • 1973 – Leonard Myles-Mills, Ghanaian sprinter
  • 1975 – Tamia, Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
  • 1975 – Brian Deegan, American motocross rider
  • 1977 – Averno, Mexican wrestler
  • 1977 – Marek Jankulovski, Czech footballer
  • 1977 – Svein Tuft, Canadian cyclist
  • 1978 – Leandro Cufré, Argentinian footballer
  • 1978 – Santiago Dellapè, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
  • 1978 – Aaron Harang, American baseball player
  • 1978 – Marwan al-Shehhi, Emirati terrorist (d. 2001)
  • 1979 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1979 – Rosario Dawson, American actress
  • 1979 – Andrew W.K., American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, motivational speaker, and music producer
  • 1980 – Grant Hackett, Australian swimmer
  • 1980 – Angela Nikodinov, American figure skater
  • 1980 – Tony Schmidt, German race car driver
  • 1980 – Jo Hyun-jae, South Korean actor
  • 1981 – Bill Murphy, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Evangelos Tsiolis, Greek footballer
  • 1983 – Giacomo Brichetto, Italian footballer
  • 1983 – Alan Campbell, British sculler
  • 1983 – Christos Marangos, Cypriot footballer
  • 1983 – Ryuhei Matsuda, Japanese actor
  • 1983 – Gilles Müller, Luxembourgian tennis player
  • 1983 – Tyler Lumsden, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Leandro Rinaudo, Italian footballer
  • 1984 – Prince Fielder, American baseball player
  • 1984 – Chase Headley, American baseball player
  • 1985 – Jake Long, American football player
  • 1985 – Henrique Andrade Silva, Brazilian footballer
  • 1987 – Scott Bolton, Australian rugby league player
  • 1987 – Kevin Gameiro, French footballer
  • 1987 – Vitaliy Pushkar, Ukrainian race car driver
  • 1988 – J. R. Fitzpatrick, Canadian race car driver
  • 1989 – Ellen White, English footballer
  • 1991 – Majlinda Kelmendi, Kosovar judoka
  • 1992 – Dan Burn, English footballer
  • 1996 – Saron Läänmäe, Estonian footballer
  • 1996 – Grace Reid, Scottish diver

Deaths on May 9

  • 729 – Osric, king of Northumbria
  • 893 – Shi Pu, warlord of the Tang Dynasty
  • 909 – Adalgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen
  • 934 – Wang Sitong, Chinese general and governor (b. 892)
  • 1280 – Magnus VI of Norway
  • 1315 – Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1282)
  • 1329 – John Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells
  • 1443 – Niccolò Albergati, Italian Cardinal and diplomat (b. 1373)
  • 1446 – Mary of Enghien (b. 1368)
  • 1590 – Charles de Bourbon French cardinal and pretender to the throne (b. 1523)
  • 1657 – William Bradford, English-American politician, 2nd Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1590)
  • 1707 – Dieterich Buxtehude, German-Danish organist and composer (b. 1637)
  • 1736 – Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Portuguese judge and politician (b. 1658)
  • 1745 – Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1663)
  • 1747 – John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish field marshal and diplomat, British Ambassador to France (b. 1673)
  • 1760 – Nicolaus Zinzendorf, German bishop and saint (b. 1700)
  • 1789 – Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (b. 1715)
  • 1790 – William Clingan, American politician (b. 1721)
  • 1791 – Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (b. 1737)
  • 1805 – Friedrich Schiller, German poet, playwright, and historian (b. 1759)
  • 1850 – Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (b. 1778)
  • 1850 – Garlieb Merkel, Estonian author and activist (b. 1769)
  • 1861 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (b. 1805)
  • 1864 – John Sedgwick, American general and educator (b. 1813)
  • 1889 – William S. Harney, American general (b. 1800)
  • 1906 – Oscar von Gebhardt, German theologian and academic (b. 1844)
  • 1914 – C. W. Post, American businessman, founded Post Foods (b. 1854)
  • 1915 – François Faber, Luxembourgian-French cyclist and soldier (b. 1887)
  • 1915 – Anthony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player and cricketer (b. 1883)
  • 1918 – George Coșbuc, Romanian journalist and poet (b. 1866)
  • 1931 – Albert Abraham Michelson, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
  • 1933 – John Arthur Jarvis, English swimmer (b. 1872)
  • 1935 – Ernst Bresslau, German zoologist (b. 1877)
  • 1938 – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (b. 1866)
  • 1942 – Józef Cebula, Polish priest and saint (b. 1902)
  • 1944 – Han Yong-un, Korean poet and social reformer (b. 1879)
  • 1949 – Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)
  • 1950 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (b. 1883)
  • 1957 – Ernest de Silva, Sri Lankan banker and businessman (b. 1887)
  • 1957 – Ezio Pinza, Italian actor and singer (b. 1892)
  • 1959 – Bhaurao Patil, Indian activist and educator (b. 1887)
  • 1965 – Leopold Figl, Austrian engineer and politician, 18th Chancellor of Austria (b. 1902)
  • 1968 – Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (b. 1893)
  • 1968 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie (b. 1894)
  • 1968 – Marion Lorne, American actress (b. 1883)
  • 1968 – Finlay Currie, British actor (b. 1878)
  • 1970 – Walter Reuther, American union leader (b. 1907)
  • 1976 – Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1920)
  • 1976 – Ulrike Meinhof, German militant, co-founded the Red Army Faction (b. 1934)
  • 1977 – James Jones, American novelist (b. 1921)
  • 1978 – Giuseppe Impastato, Italian journalist and activist (b. 1948)
  • 1978 – Aldo Moro, Italian lawyer and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1916)
  • 1979 – Cyrus S. Eaton, Canadian-American banker, businessman, and philanthropist (b. 1883)
  • 1979 – Eddie Jefferson, American singer and lyricist (b. 1918)
  • 1980 – Kate Molale, South African activist (b. 1928)
  • 1981 – Nelson Algren, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1909)
  • 1983 – Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (b. 1891)
  • 1985 – Edmond O’Brien, American actor and director (b. 1915)
  • 1986 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountaineer (b. 1914)
  • 1987 – Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (b. 1909)
  • 1993 – Penelope Gilliatt, English novelist, short story writer, and critic (b. 1932)
  • 1994 – Elias Motsoaledi, South African activist (b. 1924)
  • 1997 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (b. 1926)
  • 1997 – Marco Ferreri, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
  • 1998 – Alice Faye, American actress and singer (b. 1915)
  • 1998 – Talat Mahmood, Indian singer and actor (b. 1924)
  • 2003 – Russell B. Long, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (b. 1918)
  • 2004 – Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen cleric and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic (b. 1951)
  • 2004 – Alan King, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1927)
  • 2004 – Brenda Fassie, South African singer (b. 1964)
  • 2007 – Dwight Wilson, Canadian soldier (b. 1901)
  • 2008 – Jack Gibson, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1929)
  • 2008 – Baptiste Manzini, American football player (b. 1920)
  • 2008 – Nuala O’Faolain, Irish journalist and producer (b. 1942)
  • 2008 – Pascal Sevran, French singer, television host, and author (b. 1945)
  • 2009 – Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
  • 2010 – Lena Horne, American singer, actress, and activist (b. 1917)
  • 2010 – Otakar Motejl, Czech lawyer and politician (b. 1932)
  • 2011 – Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (b. 1984)
  • 2012 – Bertram Cohler, American psychologist, psychoanalyst, and academic (b. 1938)
  • 2012 – Geoffrey Henry, Cook Islander lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (b. 1940)
  • 2012 – Vidal Sassoon, English-American hairdresser and businessman (b. 1928)
  • 2013 – Ramón Blanco Rodríguez, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1952)
  • 2013 – George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1918)
  • 2013 – Humberto Lugo Gil, Mexican lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Hidalgo (b. 1933)
  • 2013 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (b. 1921)
  • 2014 – Giacomo Bini, Italian priest and missionary (b. 1938)
  • 2014 – Harlan Mathews, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
  • 2014 – Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Indian politician, 12th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Mary Stewart, English-Scottish author and poet (b. 1916)
  • 2015 – Edward W. Estlow, American football player and journalist (b. 1920)
  • 2015 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (b. 1917)
  • 2015 – Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (b. 1921)
  • 2017 – Robert Miles, a Swiss-born Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ (b. 1969)
  • 2018 – Per Kirkeby, Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor (b. 1938)
  • 2019 – Freddie Starr, English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor (1943)
  • 2020 – Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1932)

Holidays and observances on May 9

  • Anniversary of Dianetics (Church of Scientology)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Beatus of Lungern
    • Beatus of Vendome
    • Christopher (Eastern Orthodox Church)
    • George Preca
    • Gerontius of Cervia
    • Gregory of Nazianzen (The Episcopal Church (US) and traditional Roman Catholic calendar)
    • Nicolaus Zinzendorf (Lutheran)
    • Pachomius the Great
    • Tudy of Landevennec
    • May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances:
    • Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. (Guernsey and Jersey)
    • National Day (Alderney)
  • Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union)
  • Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)
    • Victory and Peace Day, marks the capture of Shusha (1992) in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the end of World War II. (Armenia)
    • Victory Day over Nazism in World War II (Ukraine)

May 9 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

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

On This Day /
  • 1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.
  • 1536 – The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.
  • 1536 – King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose.
  • 1542 – Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
  • 1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
  • 1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.
  • 1757 – Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years’ War.
  • 1757 – The end of Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740–1757).
  • 1757 – English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
  • 1782 – Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
  • 1801 – Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.
  • 1835 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
  • 1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
  • 1857 – The East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British in the lead up to the War of Indian Independence.
  • 1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by the Army of Northern Virginia.
  • 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
  • 1882 – Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
  • 1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
  • 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
  • 1906 – The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23 by the Julian calendar).
  • 1910 – George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII.
  • 1915 – Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.
  • 1916 – Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs’ Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.
  • 1916 – Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while calling upon the people to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Réunion island.
  • 1933 – The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.
  • 1935 – New Deal: Under the authority of the newly-enacted Federal Emergency Relief Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration.
  • 1937 – Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
  • 1940 – John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
  • 1941 – At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
  • 1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
  • 1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
  • 1945 – World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
  • 1945 – World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
  • 1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
  • 1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
  • 1960 – More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
  • 1966 – Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.
  • 1972 – Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.
  • 1975 – During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.
  • 1976 – The 6.5 Mw  Friuli earthquake affected Northern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 900–978 dead and 1,700–2,400 injured.
  • 1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts.
  • 1984 – One hundred three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul.
  • 1988 – All thirty-six passengers and crew were killed when Widerøe Flight 710 crashed into Mt. Torghatten in Brønnøy.
  • 1994 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
  • 1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
  • 1997 – The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.
  • 1998 – Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.
  • 1998 – Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac.
  • 1999 – The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held.
  • 2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
  • 2002 – Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum.
  • 2010 – In just 36 minutes, the Dow-Jones average plunged nearly 1000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash.
  • 2013 – Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

Births on May 6

  • 973 – Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1024)
  • 1464 – Sophia Jagiellon, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Polish princess (d. 1512)
  • 1493 – Girolamo Seripando, Italian theologian and cardinal (d. 1563)
  • 1501 – Marcellus II, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1555)
  • 1574 – Innocent X, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1655)
  • 1580 – Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, French noble (d. 1637)
  • 1635 – Johann Joachim Becher, German physician and alchemist (d. 1682)
  • 1668 – Alain-René Lesage, French author and playwright (d. 1747)
  • 1680 – Jean-Baptiste Stuck, Italian-French cellist and composer (d. 1755)
  • 1713 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher and academic (d. 1780)
  • 1714 – Anton Raaff, German tenor (d. 1797)
  • 1742 – Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor and physiologist (d. 1809)
  • 1758 – André Masséna, French general (d. 1817)
  • 1758 – Maximilien Robespierre, French lawyer and politician (d. 1794)
  • 1769 – Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
  • 1769 – Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician and academic (d. 1834)
  • 1781 – Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher and author (d. 1832)
  • 1797 – Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (d. 1882)
  • 1800 – Roman Sanguszko, Polish general (d. 1881)
  • 1827 – Hermann Raster, German-American journalist and politician (d. 1891)
  • 1836 – Max Eyth, German engineer and author (d. 1906)
  • 1843 – Grove Karl Gilbert, American geologist and academic (d. 1918)
  • 1848 – Henry Edward Armstrong, English chemist and academic (d. 1937)
  • 1851 – Aristide Bruant, French singer and actor (d. 1925)
  • 1856 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst (d. 1939)
  • 1856 – Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (d. 1920)
  • 1861 – Motilal Nehru, Indian lawyer and politician, President of the Indian National Congress (d. 1931)
  • 1868 – Gaston Leroux, French journalist and author (d. 1927)
  • 1869 – Junnosuke Inoue, Japanese businessman and central banker, 8th and 11th Governor of the Bank of Japan (d. 1932)
  • 1870 – Walter Rutherford, Scottish golfer (d. 1936)
  • 1871 – Victor Grignard, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
  • 1871 – Christian Morgenstern, German author and poet (d. 1914)
  • 1872 – Willem de Sitter, Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1934)
  • 1872 – Djemal Pasha, Ottoman general (d. 1922)
  • 1879 – Bedřich Hrozný, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
  • 1879 – Hendrik van Heuckelum, Dutch footballer (d. 1929)
  • 1880 – Winifred Brunton, English-South African painter and illustrator (d. 1959)
  • 1880 – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German-Swiss painter (d. 1938)
  • 1883 – Alberto Collo, Italian actor (d. 1955)
  • 1895 – Júlio César de Mello e Souza, Brazilian mathematician and author (d. 1974)
  • 1895 – Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian soldier and politician, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture (d. 1946)
  • 1895 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
  • 1896 – Rolf Maximilian Sievert, Swedish physicist and academic (d. 1966)
  • 1897 – Paul Alverdes, German author and poet (d. 1979)
  • 1898 – Konrad Henlein, Czech soldier and politician (d. 1945)
  • 1902 – Harry Golden, Ukrainian-American journalist and author (d. 1981)
  • 1902 – Max Ophüls, German-American director and screenwriter (d. 1957)
  • 1903 – Toots Shor, American businessman, founded Toots Shor’s Restaurant (d. 1977)
  • 1904 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (d. 1984)
  • 1904 – Catherine Lacey, English actress (d. 1979)
  • 1904 – Harry Martinson, Swedish novelist, essayist, and poet Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
  • 1905 – Philip N. Krasne, American lawyer and producer (d. 1999)
  • 1906 – André Weil, French mathematician and academic (d. 1998)
  • 1907 – Weeb Ewbank, American football player and coach (d. 1998)
  • 1911 – Guy des Cars, French journalist and author (d. 1993)
  • 1913 – Carmen Cavallaro, American pianist (d. 1989)
  • 1913 – Stewart Granger, English-American actor (d. 1993)
  • 1915 – Orson Welles, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1985)
  • 1915 – Theodore H. White, American historian, journalist, and author (d. 1986)
  • 1916 – Robert H. Dicke, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1997)
  • 1917 – Kal Mann, American songwriter (d. 2001)
  • 1918 – Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, emir of Abu Dhabi and first president of the United Arab Emirates (d. 2004)
  • 1919 – André Guelfi, French race car driver (d. 2016)
  • 1920 – Kamisese Mara, Fijian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Fiji (d. 2004)
  • 1920 – Marguerite Piazza, American soprano and actress (d. 2012)
  • 1921 – Erich Fried, Austrian-German author, poet, and translator (d. 1988)
  • 1922 – Camille Laurin, Canadian psychiatrist and politician, 7th Deputy Premier of Quebec (d. 1999)
  • 1923 – Harry Watson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2002)
  • 1924 – Nestor Basterretxea, Spanish painter and sculptor (d. 2014)
  • 1924 – Patricia Helen Kennedy, American socialite, activist, and author (d. 2006)
  • 1924 – Denny Wright, English guitarist, composer, and producer (d. 1992)
  • 1926 – Gilles Grégoire, Canadian politician, co-founded the Parti Québécois (d. 2006)
  • 1929 – Rosemary Cramp, English archaeologist and academic
  • 1929 – Paul Lauterbur, American chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
  • 1929 – John Taylor, English bishop and theologian (d. 2016)
  • 1931 – Willie Mays, American baseball player and coach
  • 1931 – Louis Gambaccini, American government official (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – Ahmet Haxhiu, Kosovan activist (d. 1994)
  • 1932 – Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, English lieutenant and politician (d. 2020)
  • 1934 – Richard Shelby, American lawyer and politician
  • 1937 – Rubin Carter, American-Canadian boxer (d. 2014)
  • 1938 – Jean Garon, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician (d. 2014)
  • 1939 – Eddie C. Campbell, American singer and guitarist (d. 2018)
  • 1939 – Chet Allen, American child actor (d. 1984)
  • 1942 – Ariel Dorfman, Argentinian author, playwright, and academic
  • 1943 – Andreas Baader, German terrorist, co-founded the Red Army Faction (d. 1977)
  • 1943 – Milton William Cooper, American theorist and author (d. 2001)
  • 1943 – Wolfgang Reinhardt, German pole vaulter (d. 2011)
  • 1943 – James Turrell, American sculptor and illustrator
  • 1944 – Anton Furst, English-American production designer and art director (d. 1991)
  • 1944 – Masanori Murakami, Japanese baseball player and coach
  • 1945 – Jimmie Dale Gilmore, American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer
  • 1945 – Bob Seger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Alan Dale, New Zealand actor
  • 1947 – Martha Nussbaum, American philosopher and author
  • 1947 – Ljubomir Vračarević, Serbian martial artist, founded Real Aikido (d. 2013)
  • 1948 – Frankie Librán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (d. 2013)
  • 1950 – Jeffery Deaver, American journalist and author
  • 1951 – Samuel Doe, Liberian sergeant and politician, 21st President of Liberia (d. 1990)
  • 1952 – Gerrit Zalm, Dutch economist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands
  • 1953 – Alexander Akimov, Ukrainian Chernobyl worker (d. 1986)
  • 1953 – Tony Blair, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  • 1953 – Michelle Courchesne, Canadian urban planner and politician, Deputy Premier of Quebec
  • 1953 – Ülle Rajasalu, Estonian politician
  • 1953 – Graeme Souness, Scottish international footballer and manager
  • 1953 – Lynn Whitfield, American actress and producer
  • 1954 – Tom Abernethy, American basketball player
  • 1954 – Dora Bakoyannis, Greek politician, 120th Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • 1954 – Angela Hernández Nuñez, Dominican author and poet
  • 1954 – Ain Lutsepp, Estonian actor and politician
  • 1955 – Nicholas Alexander, 7th Earl of Caledon, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Armagh
  • 1955 – Tom Bergeron, American television host
  • 1955 – John Hutton, Baron Hutton of Furness, English academic and politician, Secretary of State for Defence
  • 1956 – Lakis Lazopoulos, Greek actor and screenwriter
  • 1956 – Cindy Lovell, American educator and writer
  • 1956 – Roland Wieser, German race walker and coach
  • 1958 – Randall Stout, American architect, designed the Taubman Museum of Art (d. 2014)
  • 1959 – Andreas Busse, German runner
  • 1959 – Charles Hendry, English politician
  • 1960 – Lyudmila Andonova, Bulgarian high jumper
  • 1960 – Keith Dowding, English political scientist, philosopher, and academic
  • 1960 – Roma Downey, Irish-American actress and producer
  • 1960 – John Flansburgh, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1960 – Aleksei Lotman, Estonian biologist and politician
  • 1960 – Anne Parillaud, French actress
  • 1961 – Oleksandr Apaychev, Ukrainian decathlete and coach
  • 1961 – George Clooney, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1961 – Tom Hunter, Scottish businessman and philanthropist
  • 1961 – Gina Riley, Australian actress, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1961 – Frans Timmermans, Dutch politician and diplomat, First Vice President of the European Commission
  • 1962 – Tom Brake, English politician
  • 1962 – Brad Izzard, Australian rugby league player
  • 1963 – Alessandra Ferri, Italian ballerina
  • 1965 – Leslie Hope, Canadian actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1968 – Worku Bikila, Ethiopian runner
  • 1968 – Lætitia Sadier, French singer and keyboard player
  • 1969 – Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer and manager
  • 1970 – Roland Kun, Nauruan politician
  • 1970 – Kavan Smith, Canadian actor
  • 1971 – Chris Shiflett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1972 – Martin Brodeur, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1972 – Naoko Takahashi, Japanese runner
  • 1974 – Bernard Barmasai, Kenyan runner
  • 1974 – Daniela Bártová, Czech pole vaulter and gymnast
  • 1975 – Alan Richardson, English cricketer and coach
  • 1976 – Dean Chandler, English footballer
  • 1976 – Iván de la Peña, Spanish footballer
  • 1977 – Christophe Brandt, Belgian cyclist
  • 1977 – Marc Chouinard, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1977 – Mark Eaton, American ice hockey player and coach
  • 1977 – Chantelle Newbery, Australian diver
  • 1978 – John Abraham, American football player
  • 1978 – Tony Estanguet, French slalom canoeist
  • 1978 – Fredrick Federley, Swedish journalist and politician
  • 1978 – Alexandr Fedorov, Russian bodybuilder
  • 1979 – Gerd Kanter, Estonian discus thrower
  • 1979 – Jan Erik Mikalsen, Norwegian composer
  • 1979 – Jon Montgomery, Canadian skeleton racer and television host
  • 1980 – Brooke Bennett, American swimmer
  • 1980 – Dimitris Diamantidis, Greek professional basketball player
  • 1980 – Ricardo Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
  • 1980 – Matthew Whiley, English cricketer
  • 1982 – Jason Witten, American football player
  • 1983 – Dani Alves, Brazilian footballer
  • 1983 – Ingrid Jonach, Australian author
  • 1983 – Gabourey Sidibe, American actress
  • 1983 – Trinley Thaye Dorje, Tibetan religious leader, the 17th Karmapa Lama
  • 1983 – Fredrik Sjöström, Swedish ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Anton Babchuk, Ukrainian ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Juan Pablo Carrizo, Argentinian footballer
  • 1985 – Chris Paul, American basketball player
  • 1986 – Goran Dragic, Slovenian basketball player
  • 1987 – Dries Mertens, Belgian footballer
  • 1987 – Meek Mill, American rapper
  • 1987 – Adrienne Warren, American actress
  • 1988 – Ryan Anderson, American basketball player
  • 1988 – Dakota Kai, New Zealander profesional wrestler
  • 1989 – Dominika Cibulková, Slovak tennis player
  • 1989 – Jesse Hughes, Canadian DJ and producer
  • 1990 – José Altuve, Venezuelan baseball player
  • 1992 – Brendan Gallagher, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1992 – Byun Baekhyun, South Korean musician and actor
  • 1992 – Jonas Valančiūnas, Lithuanian professional basketball player
  • 1993 – Gustavo Gómez, Paraguayan footballer
  • 1994 – Mateo Kovačić, Austrian-Croatian footballer
  • 1997 – Duncan Scott, Scottish swimmer
  • 2019 – Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, British royal

Deaths on May 6

  • 698 – Eadberht, bishop of Lindisfarne
  • 850 – Ninmyō, Japanese emperor (b. 808)
  • 932 – Qian Liu, Chinese warlord and king (b. 852)
  • 988 – Dirk II, count of Frisia and Holland
  • 1002 – Ealdwulf, Archbishop of York, Abbot of Peterborough and Bishop of Worcester
  • 1187 – Ruben III, Prince of Armenia (b. 1145)
  • 1236 – Roger of Wendover, Benedictine monk and chronicler
  • 1471 – Edmund Beaufort, English commander (b. 1438)
  • 1471 – Thomas Tresham, Speaker of the House of Commons
  • 1475 – Dieric Bouts, Flemish painter (b. 1415)
  • 1483 – Queen Jeonghui, Korean regent (b. 1418)
  • 1502 – James Tyrrell, English knight (b. 1450)
  • 1527 – Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne (b.1490)
  • 1540 – Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar (b. 1492)
  • 1596 – Giaches de Wert, Flemish-Italian composer (b. 1535)
  • 1631 – Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington, English historian and politician, founded the Cotton library (b. 1570)
  • 1638 – Cornelius Jansen, Dutch-French bishop and theologian (b. 1585)
  • 1708 – François de Laval, French-Canadian bishop (b. 1623)
  • 1757 – Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1683)
  • 1757 – Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684)
  • 1782 – Christine Kirch, German astronomer and academic (b. 1696)
  • 1840 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (b. 1792)
  • 1859 – Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer and explorer (b. 1769)
  • 1862 – Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (b. 1817)
  • 1877 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Swedish-Finnish poet and hymn-writer (b. 1804)
  • 1882 – Thomas Henry Burke, Irish civil servant (b. 1829)
  • 1882 – Lord Frederick Cavendish, British politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (b. 1836)
  • 1902 – Bret Harte, American author and poet (b. 1836)
  • 1905 – Robert Herbert, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (b. 1831)
  • 1907 – Emanuele Luigi Galizia, Maltese architect and civil engineer (b. 1830)
  • 1910 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
  • 1919 – L. Frank Baum, American novelist (b. 1856)
  • 1939 – Konstantin Somov, Russian-French painter and illustrator (b. 1869)
  • 1949 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian-French poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
  • 1951 – Élie Cartan, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1869)
  • 1952 – Maria Montessori, Italian-Dutch physician and educator (b. 1870)
  • 1959 – Maria Dulęba, Polish actress (b. 1881)
  • 1959 – Ragnar Nurkse, Estonian-American economist and academic (b. 1907)
  • 1961 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (b. 1895)
  • 1963 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (b. 1881)
  • 1963 – Ted Weems, American violinist, trombonist, and bandleader (b. 1901)
  • 1963 – Monty Woolley, American raconteur, actor, and director (b. 1888)
  • 1967 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese author and translator (b. 1885)
  • 1970 – Alexander Rodzyanko, Russian general (b. 1879)
  • 1973 – Ernest MacMillan, Canadian conductor and composer (b. 1893)
  • 1975 – József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1892)
  • 1980 – María Luisa Bombal, Chilean writer (b. 1910)
  • 1983 – Ezra Jack Keats, American author and illustrator (b. 1916)
  • 1983 – Kai Winding, Danish-American trombonist and composer (b. 1922)
  • 1984 – Mary Cain, American journalist and politician (b. 1904)
  • 1984 – Bonner Pink, English politician (b. 1912)
  • 1987 – William J. Casey, American politician, 13th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1913)
  • 1989 – Earl Blaik, American football player and coach (b. 1897)
  • 1990 – Charles Farrell, American actor (b. 1901)
  • 1991 – Wilfrid Hyde-White, English actor (b. 1903)
  • 1992 – Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer (b. 1901)
  • 1993 – Ann Todd, English actress and producer (b. 1909)
  • 1995 – Noel Brotherston, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1956)
  • 2000 – Gordon McClymont, Australian ecologist and academic (b. 1920)
  • 2002 – Murray Adaskin, Canadian violinist, composer, conductor, and educator (b. 1906)
  • 2002 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1932)
  • 2002 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician (b. 1948)
  • 2002 – Bjørn Johansen, Norwegian saxophonist (b. 1940)
  • 2003 – Art Houtteman, American baseball player and journalist (b. 1927)
  • 2004 – Virginia Capers, American actress and singer (b. 1925)
  • 2004 – Philip Kapleau, American monk and educator (b. 1912)
  • 2004 – Barney Kessel, American guitarist and composer (b. 1923)
  • 2006 – Grant McLennan, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
  • 2006 – Lorne Saxberg, Canadian journalist (b. 1958)
  • 2007 – Enéas Carneiro, Brazilian physician and politician (b. 1938)
  • 2007 – Curtis Harrington, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
  • 2009 – Kevin Grubb, American race car driver (b. 1978)
  • 2010 – Robin Roberts, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – James R. Browning, American lieutenant, lawyer, and judge (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – James Isaac, American director and producer (b. 1960)
  • 2012 – Jean Laplanche, French psychoanalyst and author (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian journalist and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1919)
  • 2013 – Severo Aparicio Quispe, Peruvian bishop (b. 1923)
  • 2013 – Michelangelo Spensieri, Italian-Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1949)
  • 2014 – Wil Albeda, Dutch economist and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – William H. Dana, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Jimmy Ellis, American boxer (b. 1940)
  • 2014 – Billy Harrell, American baseball player and scout (b. 1928)
  • 2014 – Antony Hopkins, English pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1921)
  • 2014 – Maria Lassnig, Austrian painter and academic (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Farley Mowat, Canadian environmentalist and author (b. 1921)
  • 2015 – Novera Ahmed, Bangladeshi sculptor (b. 1930)
  • 2015 – Denise McCluggage, American race car driver and journalist (b. 1927)
  • 2015 – Jim Wright, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1922)
  • 2016 – Patrick Ekeng, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1990)
  • 2016 – Reg Grundy, Australian businessman (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances on May 6

  • Christian Feast Day:
    • Dominic Savio
    • Evodius of Antioch (Roman Catholic Church)
    • François de Laval
    • Gerard of Lunel
    • Lucius of Cyrene
    • Petronax of Monte Cassino
    • St George’s Day related observances (Eastern Orthodox Church):
      • Day of Bravery, also known as Gergyovden (Bulgaria)
      • Đurđevdan (Gorani, Roma)
      • Police Day (Georgia)
      • Yuri’s Day in the Spring (Russian Orthodox Church)
    • St John before the Latin Gate
    • May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which Military Spouse Day can fall, while May 12 is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Mother’s Day (United States)
  • International No Diet Day
  • Martyrs’ Day (Gabon)
  • Martyrs’ Day (Lebanon and Syria)
  • Teachers’ Day (Jamaica)
  • The first day of Hıdırellez (Turkey)

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

On This Day

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

On This Day /
  • 1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
  • 1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.
  • 1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
  • 1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.
  • 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
  • 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
  • 1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
  • 1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
  • 1799 – Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.
  • 1814 – Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
  • 1814 – King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.
  • 1836 – Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians
  • 1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England.
  • 1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate is fought in Japan.
  • 1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
  • 1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
  • 1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
  • 1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
  • 1912 – Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.
  • 1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
  • 1926 – The United Kingdom general strike begins.
  • 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.
  • 1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
  • 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
  • 1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
  • 1945 – World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany.
  • 1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot.
  • 1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.
  • 1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
  • 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.
  • 1961 – American civil rights movement: The “Freedom Riders” begin a bus trip through the South.
  • 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km).
  • 1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.
  • 1972 – The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to “Greenpeace Foundation”.
  • 1978 – The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.
  • 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • 1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.
  • 1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
  • 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal.
  • 1990 – Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.
  • 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
  • 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
  • 2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London).
  • 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
  • 2014 – Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.

Births on May 4

  • 1006 – Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Persian mystic and poet (d. 1088)
  • 1008 – Henry I, king of France (d. 1060)
  • 1559 – Alice Spencer, English noblewoman (d. 1637)
  • 1634 – Katherine Ferrers, English aristocrat and heiress (d. 1660)
  • 1649 – Chhatrasal, Indian ruler (d. 1731)
  • 1654 – Kangxi Emperor, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
  • 1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian instrument maker, invented the piano (d. 1731)
  • 1677 – Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, French noblewoman (d.1749)
  • 1715 – Richard Graves, English minister and author (d. 1804)
  • 1733 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (d. 1799)
  • 1752 – John Brooks, American soldier and politician, 11th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1825)
  • 1757 – Manuel Tolsá, Spanish sculptor and first director of the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City (d. 1816)
  • 1767 – Tyagaraja, Indian composer (d. 1847)
  • 1770 – François Gérard, French painter (d. 1837)
  • 1772 – Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823)
  • 1796 – Horace Mann, American educator and politician (d. 1859)
  • 1796 – William Pennington, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1862)
  • 1796 – William H. Prescott, American historian and scholar (d. 1859)
  • 1820 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
  • 1820 – John Whiteaker, American soldier, judge, and politician, 1st Governor of Oregon (d. 1902)
  • 1822 – Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Canadian physician and politician, 3rd Premier of Quebec (d. 1915)
  • 1825 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist, anatomist, and academic (d. 1895)
  • 1825 – Augustus Le Plongeon, English-American historian, photographer, and academic (d. 1908)
  • 1826 – Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
  • 1827 – John Hanning Speke, English soldier and explorer (d. 1864)
  • 1851 – Thomas Dewing, American painter (d. 1938)
  • 1852 – Alice Liddell, English model (d. 1934)
  • 1855 – Greyfriars Bobby, faithful dog (d. 1872)
  • 1883 – Wang Jingwei, Chinese politician (d. 1944)
  • 1884 – Richard Baggallay, English army officer and cricketer (d. 1975)
  • 1887 – Andrew Dasburg, French-American painter (d. 1979)
  • 1889 – Francis Spellman, American cardinal (d. 1967)
  • 1890 – Franklin Carmichael, Canadian painter (d. 1945)
  • 1902 – Ronnie Aird, English cricketer and administrator (d. 1986)
  • 1902 – Cola Debrot, Dutch physician, lawyer, and politician (d. 1981)
  • 1903 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)
  • 1903 – Paul Demel, Czech actor (d. 1951)
  • 1905 – Al Dexter, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1984)
  • 1906 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1987)
  • 1907 – Lincoln Kirstein, American soldier and playwright, co-founded the New York City Ballet (d. 1996)
  • 1907 – Walter Walsh, American target shooter and FBI agent (d. 2014)
  • 1908 – Wolrad Eberle, German decathlete (d. 1949)
  • 1911 – Evald Seepere, Estonian boxer (d. 1990)
  • 1913 – John Broome, American author (d. 1999)
  • 1913 – Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (d. 2007)
  • 1914 – Maedayama Eigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (d. 1971)
  • 1916 – Jane Jacobs, American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist (d. 2006)
  • 1916 – Richard Proenneke, American soldier, carpenter, and meteorologist (d. 2003)
  • 1917 – Edward T. Cone, American pianist and composer (d. 2004)
  • 1917 – Nick Joaquin, Filipino writer, journalist and historian (d. 2004)
  • 1918 – Tom Mead, Australian journalist and politician (d. 2004)
  • 1918 – Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese soldier and politician, 64th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1993)
  • 1919 – Dory Funk, American wrestler and trainer (d. 1973)
  • 1919 – Basil Yamey, South African-English economist and academic
  • 1921 – Patsy Garrett, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
  • 1921 – John van Kesteren, Dutch-American tenor and actor (d. 2008)
  • 1921 – Edo Murtić, Croatian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2005)
  • 1922 – Paul-Émile Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 2014)
  • 1922 – Eugenie Clark, American biologist and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1923 – Stanley Biber, American soldier and physician (d. 2006)
  • 1923 – Ed Cassidy, American jazz and rock drummer (d. 2012)
  • 1923 – Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer and producer (d. 1986)
  • 1923 – Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian (d. 2012)
  • 1923 – John Toner, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1925 – Jenő Buzánszky, Hungarian footballer and coach (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman and philanthropist
  • 1926 – David Stoddart, Baron Stoddart of Swindon, English politician
  • 1928 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian trumpet player and bandleader (d. 2006)
  • 1928 – Thomas Kinsella, Irish poet, translator, and publisher
  • 1928 – Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian air marshal and politician, 4th President of Egypt (d. 2020)
  • 1928 – Betsy Rawls, American golfer
  • 1928 – Wolfgang von Trips, German race car driver (d. 1961)
  • 1929 – Manuel Contreras, Chilean general (d. 2015)
  • 1929 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-British actress and humanitarian (d. 1993)
  • 1930 – Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the Jackson family
  • 1930 – Roberta Peters, American soprano (d. 2017)
  • 1931 – Jan Pesman, Dutch speed skater (d. 2014)
  • 1931 – Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian conductor and educator (d. 2018)
  • 1931 – Thomas Stuttaford, English physician, journalist, and politician (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – Harlon Hill, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1932 – Alexander MacAra, Scottish epidemiologist and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1933 – J. Fred Duckett, American journalist and educator (d. 2007)
  • 1936 – El Cordobés, Spanish bullfighter
  • 1936 – Med Hondo, Mauritanian filmmaker and actor (d. 2019)
  • 1937 – Ron Carter, American bassist and educator
  • 1937 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (d. 2019)
  • 1937 – Wim Verstappen, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
  • 1938 – Tyrone Davis, American blues and soul singer (d. 2005)
  • 1938 – Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican journalist, author, and critic (d. 2010)
  • 1938 – Gillian Tindall, English historian and author
  • 1939 – Neil Fox, English rugby league player and coach
  • 1939 – Amos Oz, Israeli journalist and author (d. 2018)
  • 1939 – Leon Rochefort, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1940 – Robin Cook, American physician and author
  • 1940 – Peter Gregg, American race car driver and businessman (d. 1980)
  • 1941 – George Will, American journalist and author
  • 1942 – Nickolas Ashford, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2011)
  • 1943 – Georgi Asparuhov, Bulgarian footballer (d. 1971)
  • 1943 – Mihail Chemiakin, Russian painter and sculptor
  • 1943 – Prasanta Pattanaik, Indian economist and academic
  • 1944 – Steve Liebmann, Australian radio and television host
  • 1944 – Russi Taylor, American voice actress (d. 2019)
  • 1945 – Jan Mulder, Dutch footballer and journalist
  • 1946 – John Barnard, English car designer
  • 1946 – Gary Bauer, American political activist
  • 1946 – John Watson, British race car driver
  • 1947 – John Bosley, Canadian businessman and politician, 31st Canadian Speaker of the House of Commons
  • 1947 – Ronald Sørensen, Dutch historian and politician
  • 1947 – Trivimi Velliste, Estonian politician, 17th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • 1948 – Alison Britton, English sculptor and educator
  • 1948 – Hurley Haywood, American race car driver
  • 1948 – King George Tupou V of Tonga, (d. 2012)
  • 1949 – Graham Swift, English novelist and short story writer
  • 1950 – Darryl Hunt, English bass player
  • 1951 – Colin Bass, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1951 – Colleen Hanabusa, American lawyer and politician
  • 1951 – Jackie Jackson, American singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1952 – Belinda Green, Australian beauty queen and 1972 Miss World
  • 1953 – Pia Zadora, American actress and singer
  • 1954 – Ryan Cayabyab, Filipino pianist, composer, and conductor
  • 1956 – Michael L. Gernhardt, American astronaut and engineer
  • 1956 – David Guterson, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist
  • 1956 – Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player and coach
  • 1957 – Jaak Huimerind, Estonian architect
  • 1957 – Kathy Kreiner, Canadian skier
  • 1957 – Peter Sleep, Australian cricketer
  • 1957 – Marijke Vos, Dutch educator and politician
  • 1958 – Delbert Fowler, American football player
  • 1958 – Keith Haring, American painter (d. 1990)
  • 1958 – Jane Kennedy, English politician
  • 1958 – Caroline Spelman, English politician, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  • 1959 – Valdemaras Chomičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
  • 1959 – Randy Travis, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1959 – Bob Tway, American golfer
  • 1960 – Werner Faymann, Austrian politician, 28th Chancellor of Austria
  • 1961 – Jay Aston, English singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1964 – Silvia Costa, Cuban high jumper
  • 1966 – Gary Elkins, English footballer and manager
  • 1966 – Jane McGrath, English-Australian activist, co-founded the McGrath Foundation (d. 2008)
  • 1967 – Kate Garraway, English journalist
  • 1967 – Ana Gasteyer, American actress and singer
  • 1969 – Micah Aivazoff, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1969 – Franz Resch, Austrian footballer and manager
  • 1970 – Gregg Alexander, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1970 – Will Arnett, Canadian actor and producer
  • 1970 – Giovanni Mirabassi, Italian jazz musician
  • 1970 – Dawn Staley, American basketball player
  • 1970 – Paul Wiseman, New Zealand cricketer and coach
  • 1971 – Joe Borowski, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1971 – Miles Stewart, Australian triathlete
  • 1972 – Manny Aybar, Dominican baseball player
  • 1972 – Mike Dirnt, American bass player and songwriter
  • 1973 – Matthew Barnaby, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
  • 1973 – Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Argentinian footballer and coach
  • 1973 – John Madden, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1974 – Miguel Cairo, Venezuelan baseball player and coach
  • 1974 – Tony McCoy, Northern Irish jockey and sportscaster
  • 1976 – Ben Grieve, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Rory Hamill, Northern Irish international footballer
  • 1976 – Jason Michaels, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Indrek Visnapuu, Estonian basketball player and coach
  • 1977 – John Tripp, Canadian-German ice hockey player
  • 1978 – Erin Andrews, American sportscaster and journalist
  • 1978 – Igor Biscan, Croatian footballer
  • 1978 – Brett Burton, Australian footballer
  • 1978 – Vladimíra Uhlířová, Czech tennis player
  • 1979 – Lance Bass, American singer, dancer, and producer
  • 1979 – Kristin Harmel, American journalist and author
  • 1979 – Marie Poissonnier, French pole vaulter
  • 1979 – Lesley Vainikolo, Tongan rugby player
  • 1980 – Andrew Raycroft, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1981 – Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer
  • 1981 – Dallon Weekes, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1982 – Kleopas Giannou, Greek footballer
  • 1982 – Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
  • 1982 – Giorgos Tsiaras, Greek basketball player
  • 1983 – Dan Christian, Australian cricketer
  • 1983 – Derek Roy, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1983 – Robert Zwinkels, Dutch footballer
  • 1984 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (d. 2007)
  • 1984 – Brad Maddox, American wrestler and referee
  • 1984 – Sarah Meier, Swiss figure skater
  • 1984 – Montell Owens, American football player
  • 1984 – Kevin Slowey, American baseball player
  • 1985 – Ravi Bopara, English cricketer
  • 1985 – Anthony Fedorov, Ukrainian-born American singer and actor
  • 1985 – Fernandinho, Brazilian footballer
  • 1985 – Lester “Bo” McCalebb, American-Macedonian professional basketball player
  • 1985 – Jamie Adenuga, English MC and rapper
  • 1986 – Devan Dubnyk, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1986 – George Hill, American basketball player
  • 1987 – Cesc Fàbregas, Spanish footballer
  • 1987 – Jorge Lorenzo, Spanish motorcycle racer
  • 1988 – Radja Nainggolan, Belgian footballer
  • 1989 – Dániel Gyurta, Hungarian swimmer
  • 1989 – Henna Lindholm, Finnish figure skater
  • 1989 – Rory McIlroy, Northern Irish golfer
  • 1989 – Aris Tatarounis, Greek basketball player
  • 1989 – James van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey player
  • 1990 – Irina Falconi, American tennis player
  • 1990 – Ryan Morgan, Australian rugby league player
  • 1990 – Duvashen Padayachee, Australian race car driver
  • 1990 – Andrea Torres, Filipino actress and model
  • 1991 – Brianne Jenner, Canadian women’s ice hockey player
  • 1992 – Victor Oladipo, American basketball player
  • 1993 – Jānis Bērziņš, Latvian basketball player
  • 1994 – Abi Masatora, Japanese sumo wrestler
  • 1994 – Joseph Tapine, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1996 – Pelayo Roza, Spanish sprint canoeist

Deaths on May 4

  • 408 – Venerius, archbishop of Milan
  • 784 – Arbeo, bishop of Freising
  • 1003 – Herman II, duke of Swabia
  • 1038 – Gotthard of Hildesheim, German bishop (b. 960)
  • 1406 – Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence (b. 1331)
  • 1436 – Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Swedish rebel leader
  • 1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, son and heir of Henry VI of England (b. 1453)
  • 1471 – Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset (b. 1438)
  • 1483 – George Neville, Duke of Bedford (b. 1457)
  • 1506 – Husayn Mirza Bayqara, Timurid ruler of Herat (b. 1438)
  • 1519 – Lorenzo de’ Medici, duke of Urbino (b. 1492)
  • 1535 – John Houghton, Carthusian monk and saint
  • 1562 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian Protestant theologian (b. 1525)
  • 1566 – Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1490)
  • 1571 – Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian and reformer (b. 1511)
  • 1604 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (b. 1533)
  • 1605 – Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian naturalist (b. 1522)
  • 1615 – Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish priest and mathematician (b. 1561)
  • 1626 – Arthur Lake, English bishop and scholar (b. 1569)
  • 1677 – Isaac Barrow, English mathematician and theologian (b. 1630)
  • 1684 – John Nevison, English criminal (b. 1639)
  • 1729 – Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (b. 1651)
  • 1734 – James Thornhill, English painter and politician (b. 1675)
  • 1737 – Eustace Budgell, English journalist and politician (b. 1686)
  • 1774 – Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick, Prussian nobleman (b. 1714)
  • 1776 – Jacques Saly, French painter and sculptor (b. 1717)
  • 1790 – Matthew Tilghman, American politician (b. 1718)
  • 1799 – Tipu, ruler of Mysore (b. 1750)
  • 1811 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b. 1776)
  • 1816 – Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
  • 1824 – Joseph Joubert, French author (b. 1754)
  • 1826 – Sebastián Kindelán y O’Regan, colonial governor of East Florida, Santo Domingo and Cuba (b. 1757)
  • 1839 – Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (b. 1784)
  • 1858 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (b. 1773)
  • 1859 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (b. 1771)
  • 1880 – Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
  • 1901 – John Jones Ross, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Premier of Quebec (b. 1831)
  • 1903 – Gotse Delchev, Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary IMRO (b. 1872)
  • 1912 – Nettie Stevens, American geneticist credited with discovering sex chromosomes (b. 1861)
  • 1916 – Ned Daly, Irish rebel commander (Easter Rising) (b. 1891)
  • 1916 – John Murray, Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Victoria (b. 1851)
  • 1916 – Joseph Plunkett, Irish rebel and writer (b. 1887)
  • 1916 – Willie Pearse, Irish rebel (b. 1891)
  • 1919 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general and politician (b. 1880)
  • 1922 – Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian politician (b. 1888)
  • 1923 – Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1877)
  • 1924 – E. Nesbit, English author and poet (b. 1858)
  • 1938 – Kanō Jigorō, Japanese founder of judo (b. 1860)
  • 1938 – Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
  • 1941 – Chris McKivat, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1880)
  • 1945 – Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (b. 1880)
  • 1953 – Alexandre Pharamond, French rugby player (b. 1876)
  • 1955 – George Enescu, Romanian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1881)
  • 1964 – Karl Robert Pusta, Estonian politician, 4th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1883)
  • 1969 – Osbert Sitwell, English-Italian author and poet (b. 1892)
  • 1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
  • 1973 – Jane Bowles, American author and playwright (b. 1917)
  • 1975 – Moe Howard, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1897)
  • 1976 – Frank Strahan, Australian public servant (b. 1886)
  • 1980 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav field marshal and politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
  • 1981 – C. Loganathan, Sri Lankan banker (b. 1913)
  • 1983 – Nino Sanzogno, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1911)
  • 1984 – Diana Dors, English actress (b. 1931)
  • 1985 – Fikri Sönmez, Turkish tailor and politician (b. 1938)
  • 1985 – Clarence Wiseman, English-Canadian 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)
  • 1987 – Paul Butterfield, American singer and harmonica player (b. 1942)
  • 1987 – Cathryn Damon, American actress (b. 1930)
  • 1988 – Lillian Estelle Fisher, American historian of Spanish America (b. 1891)
  • 1990 – Emily Remler, American guitarist (b. 1957)
  • 1991 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer-songwriter and mandolin player (b. 1902)
  • 1992 – Gregor Mackenzie, Scottish politician (b. 1927)
  • 1993 – France Štiglic, Slovenian film director and screenwriter (b. 1919)
  • 1995 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (b. 1922)
  • 2000 – Hendrik Casimir, Dutch physicist and academic (b. 1909)
  • 2001 – Bonnie Lee Bakley, American model, wife of Robert Blake (b. 1956)
  • 2004 – David Reimer, Canadian victim of a botched circumcision and transgender reassignment surgery (b. 1965)
  • 2005 – David Hackworth, American colonel and journalist (b. 1930)
  • 2008 – Fred Baur, American chemist and founder of Pringles (b. 1918)
  • 2009 – Dom DeLuise, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1933)
  • 2011 – Sammy McCrory, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Mort Lindsey, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Bob Stewart, American television producer, founded Stewart Tele Enterprises (b. 1920)
  • 2012 – Adam Yauch, American rapper and director (b. 1964)
  • 2012 – Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (b. 1963)
  • 2013 – Otis R. Bowen, American physician and politician, 44th Governor of Indiana (b. 1918)
  • 2013 – Christian de Duve, English-Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
  • 2013 – Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian sociologist and politician (b. 1948)
  • 2013 – Mario Machado, Chinese-American journalist and actor (b. 1935)
  • 2013 – Morgan Morgan-Giles, English admiral and politician (b. 1914)
  • 2013 – César Portillo de la Luz, Cuban guitarist and composer (b. 1922)
  • 2014 – Dick Ayers, American author and illustrator (b. 1924)
  • 2014 – Elena Baltacha, Ukrainian-Scottish tennis player (b. 1983)
  • 2014 – Edgar Cortright, American scientist and engineer (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Helga Königsdorf, German physicist and author (b. 1938)
  • 2014 – Ross Lonsberry, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1947)
  • 2014 – Jean-Paul Ngoupandé, Central African politician, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1948)
  • 2015 – William Bast, American screenwriter and author (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Ellen Albertini Dow, American actress (b. 1913)
  • 2015 – Marv Hubbard, American football player (b. 1946)
  • 2016 – Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, Burundian politician (b. 1946)
  • 2020 – Don Shula, American football player and coach (b. 1930)
  • 2020 – Greg Zanis, American carpenter and activist (b. 1950)

Holidays and observances on May 4

  • Anti-Bullying Day (United Nations)
  • Bird Day (United States)
  • Cassinga Day (Namibia)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla
    • Blessed Michal Giedroyc
    • English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era (Church of England)
    • F. C. D. Wyneken (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod)
    • Florian
    • Gotthard of Hildesheim
    • José María Rubio
    • Judas Cyriacus
    • Monica of Hippo (1960 Roman Catholic Calendar)
    • Sacerdos of Limoges
    • Venerius of Milan
    • May 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Dave Brubeck Day
  • Death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik Day (Slovakia)
  • Greenery Day (Japan)
  • International Firefighters’ Day
  • May Fourth Movement commemorations:
    • Literary Day (Republic of China)
    • Youth Day (China)
  • Remembrance Day for Martyrs and Disabled (Afghanistan)
  • Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands)
  • Restoration of Independence day (Latvia)
  • Star Wars Day (International observance)
  • World Give Day
  • World Naked Gardening Day
  • Youth Day (Fiji)

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

On This Day

May 3 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico assumes the throne.
  • 1294 – John II becomes Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg.
  • 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
  • 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptized by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
  • 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends French civil war.
  • 1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.
  • 1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  • 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District’s founding government. The “City of Washington” is given a mayor-council form of government.
  • 1808 – Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.
  • 1808 – Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill.
  • 1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.
  • 1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.
  • 1837 – The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.
  • 1848 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.
  • 1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49.
  • 1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
  • 1860 – Charles XV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
  • 1867 – The Hudson’s Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
  • 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
  • 1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
  • 1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
  • 1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.
  • 1921 – The Government of Ireland Act 1920 is passed, dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
  • 1928 – The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.
  • 1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
  • 1942 – World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
  • 1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
  • 1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
  • 1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
  • 1951 – London’s Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain.
  • 1951 – The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
  • 1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
  • 1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
  • 1957 – Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
  • 1960 – The Off-Broadway musical comedy The Fantasticks opens in New York City’s Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
  • 1960 – The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  • 1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the “Birmingham campaign” protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement.
  • 1971 – Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989
  • 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.
  • 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
  • 1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
  • 1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
  • 1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).
  • 1999 – Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side resulted into the kargil war.
  • 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
  • 2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
  • 2002 – An Indian Air Force MiG-21 crashes into a bank in Jalandhar, killing eight and injuring 17.
  • 2007 – The 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history”.
  • 2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
  • 2016 – Eighty-eight thousand people were evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire ripped through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.

Births on May 3

  • 490 – K’an Joy Chitam I, ruler of Palenque (d. 565)
  • 612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (d. 641)
  • 1238 – Emilia Bicchieri, Italian saint (d. 1314)
  • 1276 – Louis, Count of Évreux, son of King Philip III of France (d. 1319)
  • 1415 – Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (d. 1495)
  • 1428 – Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal (d. 1495)
  • 1446 – Margaret of York (d. 1503)
  • 1461 – Raffaele Riario, Italian cardinal (d. 1521)
  • 1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and philosopher (d. 1527)
  • 1479 – Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1552)
  • 1481 – Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez, Spanish abbess of the Franciscan Third Order Regular (d. 1534)
  • 1536 – Stephan Praetorius, German theologian (d. 1603)
  • 1632 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French-Canadian nurse and saint, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (d. 1668)
  • 1662 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect, designed the Pillnitz Castle (d. 1736)
  • 1678 – Amaro Pargo, Spanish corsair (d. 1747)
  • 1695 – Henri Pitot, French physicist and engineer, invented the Pitot tube (d. 1771)
  • 1729 – Florian Leopold Gassmann, Czech composer (d. 1774)
  • 1761 – August von Kotzebue, German playwright and author (d. 1819)
  • 1764 – Princess Élisabeth of France (d. 1794)
  • 1768 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and businessman (d. 1838)
  • 1783 – José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (d. 1858)
  • 1814 – Adams George Archibald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 4th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (d. 1892)
  • 1826 – Charles XV of Sweden (d. 1872)
  • 1844 – Richard D’Oyly Carte, English talent agent and composer (d. 1901)
  • 1849 – Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (d. 1914)
  • 1849 – Bernhard von Bülow, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
  • 1854 – George Gore, American baseball player and manager (d. 1933)
  • 1859 – August Herrmann, American executive in Major League Baseball (d.1931)
  • 1860 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1940)
  • 1867 – Andy Bowen, American boxer (d. 1894)
  • 1867 – J. T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)
  • 1870 – Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1948)
  • 1871 – Emmett Dalton, American criminal (d. 1937)
  • 1873 – Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1945)
  • 1874 – François Coty, French businessman and publisher, founded Coty, Inc. (d. 1934)
  • 1874 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (d. 1954)
  • 1877 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1925)
  • 1879 – Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman and soldier, co-founded Qantas (d. 1950)
  • 1886 – Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (d. 1971)
  • 1887 – Marika Kotopouli, Greek actress (d. 1954)
  • 1889 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)
  • 1889 – Gottfried Fuchs, German-Canadian Olympic soccer player (d. 1972)
  • 1891 – Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet and critic (d. 1969)
  • 1891 – Eppa Rixey, American baseball pitcher (d. 1963)
  • 1892 – George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
  • 1892 – Jacob Viner, Canadian-American economist and academic (d. 1970)
  • 1893 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (d. 1975)
  • 1895 – Cornelius Van Til, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and apologist (d. 1987)
  • 1896 – Karl Allmenröder, German soldier and pilot (d. 1917)
  • 1896 – V. K. Krishna Menon, Indian lawyer, jurist, and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (d. 1974)
  • 1896 – Dodie Smith, English author and playwright (d. 1990)
  • 1897 – William Joseph Browne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Solicitor General of Canada (d. 1989)
  • 1898 – Septima Poinsette Clark, American educator and activist (d. 1987)
  • 1898 – Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
  • 1902 – Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
  • 1903 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
  • 1905 – Edmund Black, American hammer thrower (d. 1996)
  • 1905 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (d. 1988)
  • 1905 – Red Ruffing, American baseball pitcher and coach (d. 1986)
  • 1906 – Mary Astor, American actress (d. 1987)
  • 1906 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (d. 1997)
  • 1906 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist and author (d. 1975)
  • 1906 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican journalist, author, and playwright (d. 2005)
  • 1910 – Norman Corwin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2011)
  • 1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (d. 1980)
  • 1912 – May Sarton, American poet, novelist and memoirist (d. 1995)
  • 1913 – William Inge, American playwright and novelist (d. 1973)
  • 1914 – Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, French journalist, author, and poet (d. 2018)
  • 1915 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer, founded Stampede Wrestling (d. 2003)
  • 1915 – Richard Lippold, American sculptor and academic (d. 2002)
  • 1916 – Léopold Simoneau, Canadian tenor and actor (d. 2006)
  • 1917 – Betty Comden, American screenwriter and librettist (d. 2006)
  • 1917 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (d. 2016)
  • 1918 – Ted Bates, English footballer and manager (d. 2003)
  • 1919 – John Cullen Murphy, American soldier and illustrator (d. 2004)
  • 1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (d. 2014)
  • 1920 – John Lewis, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
  • 1921 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
  • 1922 – Len Shackleton, English footballer and journalist (d. 2000)
  • 1923 – George Hadjinikos, Greek pianist, conductor, and educator (d. 2015)
  • 1923 – Ralph Hall, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Yehuda Amichai, German-Israeli author and poet (d. 2000)
  • 1924 – Ken Tyrrell, English race car driver, founded Tyrrell Racing (d. 2001)
  • 1925 – Jean Séguy, French sociologist and author (d. 2007)
  • 1926 – Matt Baldwin, Canadian curler and engineer
  • 1928 – Dave Dudley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
  • 1928 – Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (d. 2001)
  • 1929 – Denise Lor, American singer and actress (d. 2015)
  • 1930 – Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – David Harrison, English chemist and academic
  • 1931 – Vasily Rudenkov, Belarusian hammer thrower (d. 1982)
  • 1931 – Sait Maden, Turkish translator, poet, painter and graphic designer (d. 2013)
  • 1932 – Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (d. 2017)
  • 1933 – James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
  • 1933 – Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1934 – Henry Cooper, English boxer and sportscaster (d. 2011)
  • 1934 – Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Frankie Valli, American singer and actor
  • 1935 – Ron Popeil, American businessman, founded the Ronco Company
  • 1937 – Nélida Piñon, Brazilian author and academic
  • 1938 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist
  • 1938 – Chris Cannizzaro, American baseball player
  • 1938 – Napoleon XIV, American singer, songwriter and record producer
  • 1939 – Jonathan Harvey, English composer and educator (d. 2012)
  • 1940 – David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist (d. 2019)
  • 1940 – Clemens Westerhof, Dutch footballer and manager
  • 1941 – Alexander Harley, English general
  • 1941 – Edward Malloy, American priest and academic
  • 1942 – Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast and coach (d. 2016)
  • 1942 – Dave Marash, American journalist and sportscaster
  • 1942 – Butch Otter, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Idaho
  • 1943 – Yukio Hashi, Japanese singer and actor
  • 1943 – Jim Risch, American lawyer and politician, 31st Governor of Idaho
  • 1943 – Vicente Saldivar, Mexican boxer (d. 1985)
  • 1944 – Peter Doyle, English bishop
  • 1944 – Pete Staples, English bass player
  • 1945 – Jörg Drehmel, German triple jumper and coach
  • 1945 – Davey Lopes, American baseball player, coach, and manager
  • 1946 – Norm Chow, American football player and coach
  • 1946 – Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
  • 1946 – Greg Gumbel, American sportscaster
  • 1947 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
  • 1948 – Denis Cosgrove, British-American academic and geographer (d. 2008)
  • 1948 – Chris Mulkey, American actor
  • 1949 – Liam Donaldson, English physician and academic
  • 1949 – Ruth Lister, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, English academic and politician
  • 1949 – Ron Wyden, American academic and politician
  • 1950 – Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter
  • 1950 – Dag Arnesen, Norwegian pianist and composer
  • 1951 – Alan Clayson, English singer-songwriter and journalist
  • 1951 – Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1951 – Ashok Gehlot, Indian politician, 21st Chief Minister of Rajasthan
  • 1951 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian author and publicist
  • 1952 – Chuck Baldwin, American pastor and politician
  • 1952 – Caitlin Clarke, American actress (d. 2004)
  • 1952 – Joseph W. Tobin, American cardinal
  • 1953 – Bruce Hall, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
  • 1953 – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2014)
  • 1954 – Angela Bofill, American singer-songwriter
  • 1954 – Jean-Marc Roberts, French author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
  • 1955 – Stephen D. M. Brown, British geneticist
  • 1955 – Colin Deans, Scottish rugby player
  • 1955 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2004)
  • 1955 – Seishirō Nishida, Japanese actor
  • 1956 – Marc Bellemare, Canadian lawyer and politician
  • 1957 – Alain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1957 – Rod Langway, Taiwanese-American ice hockey player and coach
  • 1958 – Bill Sienkiewicz, American author and illustrator
  • 1958 – Sandi Toksvig, Danish-English comedian, writer, and broadcaster
  • 1959 – David Ball, English keyboard player and producer
  • 1959 – Uma Bharti, Indian activist and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
  • 1959 – Ben Elton, English actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1960 – Kathy Smallwood-Cook, English sprinter and educator
  • 1961 – Steve McClaren, English footballer and manager
  • 1961 – David Vitter, American lawyer and politician
  • 1961 – Leyla Zana, Kurdish activist and politician
  • 1962 – Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
  • 1963 – Jeff Hornacek, American basketball player and coach
  • 1963 – Mona Siddiqui, Pakistani-Scottish journalist and academic
  • 1964 – Sterling Campbell, American drummer and songwriter
  • 1964 – Ron Hextall, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
  • 1965 – Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian patriarch
  • 1965 – Mark Cousins, Northern Irish director, writer, cinematographer
  • 1965 – John Jensen, Danish footballer and coach
  • 1965 – Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian businessman
  • 1966 – Giorgos Agorogiannis, Greek footballer
  • 1966 – Frank Dietrich, German politician (d. 2011)
  • 1967 – Daniel Anderson, Australian rugby league coach and manager
  • 1967 – Kenneth Joel Hotz, Canadian producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian
  • 1968 – Viliami Ofahengaue, Tongan-Australian rugby player
  • 1971 – Douglas Carswell, British politician, the first elected MP for the UK Independence Party
  • 1972 – Stephen Barclay, English lawyer and politician
  • 1973 – Jamie Baulch, Welsh sprinter and television host
  • 1975 – Willie Geist, American television journalist and host
  • 1976 – Jeff Halpern, American ice hockey player
  • 1976 – Brad Scott, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1976 – Chris Scott, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1977 – Eric Church, American country music singer-songwriter
  • 1977 – Ryan Dempster, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1977 – Tyronn Lue, American basketball player and coach
  • 1977 – Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician (d. 2017)
  • 1977 – Ben Olsen, American soccer player and coach
  • 1978 – Christian Annan, Ghanaian-Hong Kong footballer
  • 1978 – Paul Banks, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1978 – Dai Tamesue, Japanese hurdler
  • 1978 – Lawrence Tynes, American football player
  • 1979 – Steve Mack, American wrestler
  • 1979 – Anastasiya Shvedova, Belarusian pole vaulter
  • 1980 – Zuzana Ondrášková, Czech tennis player
  • 1982 – Igor Olshansky, Ukrainian-American football player
  • 1982 – Nick Stavinoha, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Joseph Addai, American football player
  • 1983 – Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer
  • 1983 – Jérôme Clavier, French pole vaulter
  • 1983 – Márton Fülöp, Hungarian footballer (d. 2015)
  • 1985 – Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentinian footballer
  • 1985 – Kadri Lehtla, Estonian biathlete
  • 1985 – Miko Mälberg, Estonian swimmer
  • 1986 – Moon Byung-woo, South Korean footballer
  • 1987 – Lina Grinčikaitė, Lithuanian sprinter
  • 1988 – Ben Revere, American baseball player
  • 1988 – Paddy Holohan, Irish mixed martial artist
  • 1989 – Jesse Bromwich, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1989 – Katinka Hosszú, Hungarian swimmer
  • 1990 – Brooks Koepka, American golfer
  • 1991 – Samuel Seo, South Korean musician
  • 1992 – Aaron Whitchurch, Australian rugby league player
  • 1995 – Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (d. 2016)
  • 1996 – Mary Cain, American runner
  • 1996 – Alex Iwobi, Nigerian football player
  • 1996 – Domantas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
  • 1997 – Desiigner, American rapper
  • 1997 – Dwayne Haskins, American football player
  • 1997 – Ivana Jorović, Serbian tennis player

Deaths on May 3

  • 678 – Tōchi, Japanese princess
  • 738 – Uaxaclajuun Ub’aah K’awiil, Mayan ruler (ajaw)
  • 1152 – Matilda of Boulogne (b. 1105)
  • 1270 – Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206)
  • 1294 – John I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1252)
  • 1330 – Alexios II Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1282)
  • 1410 – Antipope Alexander V
  • 1481 – Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan (b. 1432)
  • 1501 – John Devereux, 8th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, English Baron (b. 1463)
  • 1524 – Richard Grey, 3rd Earl of Kent, English peer (b. 1481)
  • 1534 – Juana de la Cruz Vazquez Gutierrez, Spanish Roman Catholic nun and venerable (b. 1481)
  • 1589 – Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1528)
  • 1606 – Henry Garnet, English priest and author (b. 1555)
  • 1621 – Elizabeth Bacon, English Tudor gentlewoman (b. 1541)
  • 1679 – James Sharp, Scottish archbishop (b. 1613)
  • 1693 – Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)
  • 1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Czech-Austrian violinist and composer (b. 1644)
  • 1724 – John Leverett the Younger, American lawyer, academic, and politician (b. 1662)
  • 1750 – John Willison, Scottish minister and author (b. 1680)
  • 1752 – Samuel Ogle, English-American captain and politician, 5th Governor of Restored Proprietary Government (b. 1692)
  • 1758 – Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
  • 1763 – George Psalmanazar, French-English author (b. 1679)
  • 1764 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher, poet, and critic (b. 1712)
  • 1779 – John Winthrop, American mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1714)
  • 1793 – Martin Gerbert, German historian and theologian (b. 1720)
  • 1839 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (b. 1771)
  • 1856 – Adolphe Adam, French composer and critic (b. 1803)
  • 1856 – Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis, Arab-French servant to Napoleon I (b. 1788)
  • 1882 – Leonidas Smolents, Austrian–Greek general and army minister (b. 1806)
  • 1910 – Howard Taylor Ricketts, American pathologist (b. 1871)
  • 1916 – Tom Clarke, Irish rebel (b. 1858)
  • 1916 – Thomas MacDonagh, Irish poet and rebel (b. 1878)
  • 1916 – Patrick Pearse, Irish teacher and rebel leader (b. 1879)
  • 1918 – Charlie Soong, Chinese businessman and missionary (b. 1863)
  • 1919 – Elizabeth Almira Allen, American educator (b. 1854)
  • 1921 – Théodore Pilette, Belgian race car driver (b. 1883)
  • 1925 – Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (b. 1841)
  • 1932 – Charles Fort, American journalist and author (b. 1874)
  • 1935 – Jessie Willcox Smith, American illustrator (b. 1863)
  • 1939 – Madeleine Desroseaux, French author and poet (b. 1873)
  • 1942 – Thorvald Stauning, Danish politician, 24th Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
  • 1943 – Harry Miller, American engineer (b. 1875)
  • 1948 – Ernst Tandefelt, Finnish assassin of Heikki Ritavuori (b. 1876)
  • 1949 – Fanny Walden, English footballer and cricketer (b. 1888)
  • 1958 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
  • 1969 – Zakir Husain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)
  • 1970 – Cemil Gürgen Erlertürk, Turkish footballer, coach, and pilot (b. 1918)
  • 1972 – Kenneth Bailey, Australian lawyer and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Canada (b. 1898)
  • 1972 – Emil Breitkreutz, American runner and coach (b. 1883)
  • 1972 – Bruce Cabot, American actor (b. 1904)
  • 1978 – Bill Downs, American journalist (b. 1914)
  • 1981 – Nargis, Indian actress (b. 1929)
  • 1986 – Robert Alda, American actor (b. 1914)
  • 1987 – Dalida, Italian singer, actress, dancer, and model (b. 1933)
  • 1988 – Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1908)
  • 1989 – Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman (b. 1926)
  • 1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1933)
  • 1992 – George Murphy, American actor, dancer, and politician (b. 1902)
  • 1996 – Dimitri Fampas, Greek guitarist, composer, and educator (b. 1921)
  • 1996 – Alex Kellner, American baseball player (b. 1924)
  • 1996 – Jack Weston, American actor (b. 1924)
  • 1997 – Sébastien Enjolras, French race car driver (b. 1976)
  • 1997 – Narciso Yepes, Spanish guitarist and composer (b. 1927)
  • 1998 – Gene Raymond, American actor (b. 1908)
  • 1999 – Joe Adcock, American baseball player and manager (b. 1927)
  • 1999 – Steve Chiasson, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1967)
  • 1999 – Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (b. 1920)
  • 2000 – Júlia Báthory, Hungarian glass designer (b. 1901)
  • 2000 – John Joseph O’Connor, American cardinal (b. 1920)
  • 2002 – Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, English politician, First Secretary of State (b. 1910)
  • 2002 – Yevgeny Svetlanov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1928)
  • 2003 – Suzy Parker, American model and actress (b. 1932)
  • 2004 – Ken Downing, English race car driver (b. 1917)
  • 2004 – Darrell Johnson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1928)
  • 2006 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (b. 1921)
  • 2006 – Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)
  • 2006 – Earl Woods, American colonel, baseball player, and author (b. 1932)
  • 2007 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (b. 1913)
  • 2007 – Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923)
  • 2007 – Knock Yokoyama, Japanese politician (b. 1932)
  • 2008 – Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish engineer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1926)
  • 2009 – Renée Morisset, Canadian pianist (b. 1928)
  • 2009 – Ram Balkrushna Shewalkar, Indian author and critic (b. 1931)
  • 2010 – Roy Carrier, American accordion player (b. 1947)
  • 2010 – Peter O’Donnell, English soldier and author (b. 1920)
  • 2010 – Guenter Wendt, German-American engineer (b. 1923)
  • 2011 – Jackie Cooper, American actor, television director, producer and executive (b. 1922)
  • 2011 – Sergo Kotrikadze, Georgian footballer and manager (b. 1936)
  • 2011 – Thanasis Veggos, Greek actor and director (b. 1927)
  • 2012 – Jorge Illueca, Panamanian politician, 30th President of Panama (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – Felix Werder, German-Australian composer, conductor, and critic (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Joe Astroth, American baseball player (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Herbert Blau, American engineer and academic (b. 1926)
  • 2013 – Cedric Brooks, Jamaican-American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1943)
  • 2013 – Keith Carter, American swimmer and soldier (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Brad Drewett, Australian tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1958)
  • 2013 – David Morris Kern, American pharmacist, co-invented Orajel (b. 1909)
  • 2013 – Curtis Rouse, American football player (b. 1960)
  • 2013 – Branko Vukelić, Croatian politician, 11th Minister of Defence for Croatia (b. 1958)
  • 2014 – Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Francisco Icaza, Mexican painter (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Jim Oberstar, American educator and politician (b. 1934)
  • 2015 – Revaz Chkheidze, Georgian director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Danny Jones, Welsh rugby player (b. 1986)
  • 2015 – Warren Smith, American golfer and coach (b. 1915)
  • 2016 – Ian Deans, Canadian politician (b. 1937)
  • 2016 – Jadranka Stojaković, Yugoslav singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
  • 2017 – Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress, singer and model (b. 1942)

Holidays and observances on May 3

  • Christian feast day:
    • Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
    • Antonia and Alexander
    • Juvenal of Narni
    • Moura (Coptic Church)
    • Philip and James the Lesser
    • Pope Alexander I
    • Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church)
    • The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland
    • Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church)
    • May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Constitution Memorial Day (Japan)
  • Constitution Day (Poland)
  • Finding of the Holy Cross-related observances:
    • Fiesta de las Cruces (Spain and Hispanic America)
    • Roodmas, or Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Gallican Rite of the Catholic Church)
  • Sun Day (International)
  • World Press Freedom Day

May 3 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 30 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.
  • 313 – Battle of Tzirallum: Emperor Licinius defeats Maximinus II and unifies the Eastern Roman Empire.
  • 642 – Chindasuinth is proclaimed king by the Visigothic nobility and bishops.
  • 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois.
  • 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
  • 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
  • 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile.
  • 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins the conquest of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.
  • 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
  • 1636 – Eighty Years’ War: Dutch Republic forces recapture a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege.
  • 1671 – Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
  • 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
  • 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
  • 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
  • 1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
  • 1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
  • 1871 – The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
  • 1885 – Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York’s first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use.
  • 1897 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
  • 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
  • 1904 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.
  • 1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity.
  • 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women’s federal prison in the United States.
  • 1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
  • 1937 – The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.
  • 1938 – The animated cartoon short Porky’s Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit, an early version of Bugs Bunny.
  • 1939 – The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair opens.
  • 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s N.Y. World’s Fair opening day ceremonial address.
  • 1943 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans.
  • 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
  • 1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9000 American and British airmen.
  • 1947 – In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam.
  • 1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
  • 1956 – Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.
  • 1957 – Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery entered into force.
  • 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
  • 1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company’s refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
  • 1966 – The Church of Satan is formed in The Black House, San Francisco.
  • 1973 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned.
  • 1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh.
  • 1980 – Beatrix is inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands following the abdication of Juliana.
  • 1980 – The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London.
  • 1982 – The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India.
  • 1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
  • 1994 – Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy.
  • 2000 – Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.
  • 2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
  • 2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
  • 2009 – Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
  • 2009 – Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen’s Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix.
  • 2012 – An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 103 people.
  • 2013 – Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix.
  • 2014 – A bomb blast in Ürümqi, China kills three people and injures 79 others.

Births on April 30

  • 1245 – Philip III of France (d. 1285)
  • 1310 – King Casimir III of Poland (d. 1368)
  • 1331 – Gaston III, Count of Foix (d. 1391)
  • 1383 – Anne of Gloucester, English countess, granddaughter of King Edward III of England (d. 1438)
  • 1425 – William III, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1482)
  • 1504 – Francesco Primaticcio, Italian painter (d. 1570)
  • 1553 – Louise of Lorraine (d. 1601)
  • 1623 – François de Laval, French-Canadian bishop and saint (d. 1708)
  • 1651 – Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French priest and saint (d. 1719)
  • 1662 – Mary II of England (d. 1694)
  • 1664 – François Louis, Prince of Conti (d. 1709)
  • 1710 – Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (d. 1795)
  • 1723 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and philosopher (d. 1806)
  • 1758 – Emmanuel Vitale, Maltese commander and politician (d. 1802)
  • 1770 – David Thompson, English-Canadian cartographer and explorer (d. 1857)
  • 1777 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1855)
  • 1803 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (d. 1879)
  • 1829 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1857 – Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist (d. 1940)
  • 1857 – Walter Simon, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1920)
  • 1865 – Max Nettlau, German historian and academic (d. 1944)
  • 1866 – Mary Haviland Stilwell Kuesel, American pioneer dentist (d. 1936)
  • 1869 – Hans Poelzig, German architect, designed the IG Farben Building and Großes Schauspielhaus (d. 1936)
  • 1870 – Franz Lehár, Hungarian composer (d. 1948)
  • 1870 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1944)
  • 1874 – Cyriel Verschaeve, Flemish priest and author (d. 1949)
  • 1876 – Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist and politician (d. 1937)
  • 1877 – Léon Flameng, French cyclist (d. 1917)
  • 1877 – Alice B. Toklas, American memoirist (d. 1967)
  • 1878 – Władysław Witwicki, Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian (of philosophy and art) and artist (d. 1948)
  • 1880 – Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, Scottish cartoonist (d. 1967)
  • 1883 – Jaroslav Hašek, Czech soldier and author (d. 1923)
  • 1883 – Luigi Russolo, Italian painter and composer (d. 1947)
  • 1884 – Olof Sandborg, Swedish actor (d. 1965)
  • 1888 – John Crowe Ransom, American poet, critic, and academic (d. 1974)
  • 1893 – Harold Breen, Australian public servant (d. 1966)
  • 1893 – Joachim von Ribbentrop, German soldier and politician, 14th German Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1946)
  • 1895 – Philippe Panneton, Canadian physician, academic, and diplomat (d. 1960)
  • 1896 – Reverend Gary Davis, American singer and guitarist (d. 1972)
  • 1896 – Hans List, Austrian scientist and businessman, founded the AVL Engineering Company (d. 1996)
  • 1897 – Humberto Mauro, Brazilian director and screenwriter (d. 1983)
  • 1900 – Erni Krusten, Estonian author and poet (d. 1984)
  • 1901 – Simon Kuznets, Belarusian-American economist, statistician, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
  • 1902 – Theodore Schultz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
  • 1905 – Sergey Nikolsky, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1908 – Eve Arden, American actress (d. 1990)
  • 1908 – Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic professor of law and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1970)
  • 1908 – Frank Robert Miller, Canadian air marshal and politician (d. 1997)
  • 1909 – F. E. McWilliam, Irish sculptor and educator (d. 1992)
  • 1909 – Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)
  • 1910 – Levi Celerio, Filipino pianist, violinist, and composer (d. 2002)
  • 1914 – Charles Beetham, American middle-distance runner (d. 1997)
  • 1914 – Dorival Caymmi, Brazilian singer-songwriter, actor, and painter (d. 2008)
  • 1916 – Paul Kuusberg, Estonian journalist and author (d. 2003)
  • 1916 – Claude Shannon, American mathematician and engineer (d. 2001)
  • 1916 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (d. 1999)
  • 1917 – Bea Wain, American singer (d. 2017)
  • 1920 – Duncan Hamilton, Irish-English race car driver and pilot (d. 1994)
  • 1920 – Tom Moore, British army officer and fundraiser
  • 1921 – Roger L. Easton, American scientist, co-invented the GPS (d. 2014)
  • 1922 – Anton Murray, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
  • 1923 – Percy Heath, American bassist (d. 2005)
  • 1923 – Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (d. 2004)
  • 1924 – Uno Laht, Estonian KGB officer and author (d. 2008)
  • 1925 – Corinne Calvet, French actress (d. 2001)
  • 1925 – Johnny Horton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1960)
  • 1926 – Shrinivas Khale, Indian composer (d. 2011)
  • 1926 – Cloris Leachman, American actress and comedian
  • 1928 – Hugh Hood, Canadian author and academic (d. 2000)
  • 1928 – Orlando Sirola, Italian tennis player (d. 1995)
  • 1930 – Félix Guattari, French psychotherapist and philosopher (d. 1992)
  • 1933 – Charles Sanderson, Baron Sanderson of Bowden, English politician
  • 1934 – Jerry Lordan, English singer-songwriter (d. 1995)
  • 1934 – Don McKenney, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1937 – Tony Harrison, English poet and playwright
  • 1938 – Gary Collins, American actor and talk show host (d. 2012)
  • 1938 – Juraj Jakubisko, Slovak director and screenwriter
  • 1938 – Larry Niven, American author and screenwriter
  • 1940 – Jeroen Brouwers, Dutch journalist and writer
  • 1940 – Michael Cleary, Australian rugby player and politician
  • 1941 – Stavros Dimas, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • 1941 – Max Merritt, New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1942 – Sallehuddin of Kedah, Sultan of Kedah
  • 1943 – Frederick Chiluba, Zambian politician, 2nd President of Zambia (d. 2011)
  • 1943 – Bobby Vee, American pop singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
  • 1944 – Jon Bing, Norwegian author, scholar, and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1944 – Jill Clayburgh, American actress (d. 2010)
  • 1945 – J. Michael Brady, British radiologist
  • 1945 – Annie Dillard, American novelist, essayist, and poet
  • 1945 – Mimi Fariña, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (d. 2001)
  • 1945 – Michael J. Smith, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1986)
  • 1946 – King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
  • 1946 – Bill Plympton, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1946 – Don Schollander, American swimmer
  • 1947 – Paul Fiddes, English theologian and academic
  • 1947 – Finn Kalvik, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Tom Køhlert, Danish footballer and manager
  • 1947 – Mats Odell, Swedish economist and politician, Swedish Minister for Financial Markets
  • 1948 – Wayne Kramer, American guitarist and singer-songwriter
  • 1948 – Pierre Pagé, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1948 – Margit Papp, Hungarian athlete
  • 1949 – Phil Garner, American baseball player and manager
  • 1949 – António Guterres, Portuguese academic and politician, 114th Prime Minister of Portugal and 9th Secretary-General of the United Nations
  • 1949 – Karl Meiler, German tennis player (d. 2014)
  • 1952 – Jacques Audiard, French director and screenwriter
  • 1952 – Jack Middelburg, Dutch motorcycle racer (d. 1984)
  • 1953 – Merrill Osmond, American singer and bass player
  • 1954 – Jane Campion, New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1954 – Kim Darroch, English diplomat, UK Permanent Representative to the European Union
  • 1954 – Frank-Michael Marczewski, German footballer
  • 1955 – Nicolas Hulot, French journalist and environmentalist
  • 1955 – David Kitchin, English lawyer and judge
  • 1955 – Zlatko Topčić, Bosnian writer and screenwriter
  • 1956 – Lars von Trier, Danish director and screenwriter
  • 1957 – Wonder Mike, American rapper and songwriter
  • 1958 – Charles Berling, French actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1959 – Stephen Harper, Canadian economist and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
  • 1960 – Geoffrey Cox, English lawyer and politician
  • 1960 – Kerry Healey, American academic and politician, 70th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
  • 1961 – Arnór Guðjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
  • 1961 – Isiah Thomas, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1963 – Andrew Carwood, English tenor and conductor
  • 1963 – Michael Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Tony Fernandes, Malaysian-Indian businessman, co-founded Tune Group
  • 1964 – Ian Healy, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Lorenzo Staelens, Belgian footballer and manager
  • 1964 – Abhishek Chatterjee, Indian actor
  • 1965 – Daniela Costian, Romanian-Australian discus thrower
  • 1965 – Adrian Pasdar, American actor
  • 1966 – Jeff Brown, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1966 – Dave Meggett, American football player and coach
  • 1967 – Phil Chang, Taiwanese singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1969 – Warren Defever, American bass player and producer
  • 1969 – Justine Greening, English accountant and politician, Secretary of State for International Development
  • 1969 – Paulo Jr., Brazilian bass player
  • 1972 – Takako Tokiwa, Japanese actress
  • 1973 – Leigh Francis, English comedian and actor
  • 1974 – Christian Tamminga, Dutch athlete
  • 1975 – Johnny Galecki, American actor
  • 1976 – Davian Clarke, Jamaican sprinter
  • 1976 – Amanda Palmer, American singer-songwriter and pianist
  • 1976 – Daniel Wagon, Australian rugby league player
  • 1977 – Jeannie Haddaway, American politician
  • 1977 – Meredith L. Patterson, American technologist, journalist, and author
  • 1978 – Liljay, Taiwanese singer
  • 1979 – Gerardo Torrado, Mexican footballer
  • 1980 – Luis Scola, Argentinian basketball player
  • 1980 – Jeroen Verhoeven, Dutch footballer
  • 1981 – Nicole Kaczmarski, American basketball player
  • 1981 – John O’Shea, Irish footballer
  • 1981 – Kunal Nayyar, British-Indian actor
  • 1981 – Justin Vernon, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer
  • 1982 – Kirsten Dunst, American actress
  • 1982 – Drew Seeley, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
  • 1983 – Chris Carr, American football player
  • 1983 – Tatjana Hüfner, German luger
  • 1983 – Marina Tomić, Slovenian hurdler
  • 1983 – Troy Williamson, American football player
  • 1984 – Seimone Augustus, American basketball player
  • 1984 – Shawn Daivari, American wrestler and manager
  • 1984 – Risto Mätas, Estonian javelin thrower
  • 1984 – Lee Roache, English footballer
  • 1985 – Brandon Bass, American basketball player
  • 1985 – Gal Gadot, Israeli actress and model
  • 1985 – Ashley Alexandra Dupré, American journalist, singer, and prostitute
  • 1986 – Dianna Agron, American actress and singer
  • 1986 – Martten Kaldvee, Estonian biathlete
  • 1987 – Alipate Carlile, Australian footballer
  • 1987 – Chris Morris, South African cricketer
  • 1987 – Rohit Sharma, Indian cricketer
  • 1988 – Andy Allen, Australian chef
  • 1988 – Sander Baart, Dutch field hockey player
  • 1988 – Liu Xijun, Chinese singer
  • 1988 – Oh Hye-ri, South Korean taekwondo athlete
  • 1989 – Jang Wooyoung, South Korean singer and actor
  • 1990 – Jonny Brownlee, English triathlete
  • 1990 – Mac DeMarco, Canadian singer-songwriter
  • 1990 – Kaarel Kiidron, Estonian footballer
  • 1991 – Chris Kreider, American ice hockey player
  • 1992 – Travis Scott, American rapper and producer
  • 1992 – Marc-André ter Stegen, German footballer
  • 1993 – Dion Dreesens, Dutch swimmer
  • 1993 – Martin Fuksa, Czech canoeist
  • 1994 – Chae Seo-jin, South Korean actress
  • 1994 – Wang Yafan, Chinese tennis player
  • 1996 – Luke Friend, English singer
  • 1997 – Adam Ryczkowski, Polish footballer
  • 1999 – Jorden van Foreest, Dutch chess grandmaster
  • 2000 – Yui Hiwatashi, Japanese singer
  • 2003 – Jung Yun-Seok, South Korean actor

Deaths on April 30

  • AD 65 – Lucan, Roman poet (b. 39)
  • 125 – An, Chinese emperor (b. 94)
  • 535 – Amalasuntha, Ostrogothic queen and regent
  • 783 – Hildegard of the Vinzgau, Frankish queen
  • 1002 – Eckard I, German nobleman
  • 1030 – Mahmud of Ghazni, Ghaznavid emir (b. 971)
  • 1063 – Ren Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 1010)
  • 1131 – Adjutor, French knight and saint
  • 1305 – Roger de Flor, Italian military adventurer (b. 1267)
  • 1341 – John III, duke of Brittany (b. 1286)
  • 1439 – Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, English commander (b. 1382)
  • 1524 – Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, French soldier (b. 1473)
  • 1544 – Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, English lawyer and judge, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1488)
  • 1550 – Tabinshwehti, Burmese king (b. 1516)
  • 1632 – Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, Bavarian general (b. 1559)
  • 1632 – Sigismund III Vasa, Swedish-Polish son of John III of Sweden (b. 1566)
  • 1637 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyō (b. 1571)
  • 1655 – Eustache Le Sueur, French painter (b. 1617)
  • 1660 – Petrus Scriverius, Dutch historian and scholar (b. 1576)
  • 1672 – Marie of the Incarnation, French-Canadian nun and saint, founded the Ursulines of Quebec (b. 1599)
  • 1696 – Robert Plot, English chemist and academic (b. 1640)
  • 1712 – Philipp van Limborch, Dutch theologian and author (b. 1633)
  • 1736 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and author (b. 1668)
  • 1758 – François d’Agincourt, French organist and composer (b. 1684)
  • 1792 – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1718)
  • 1795 – Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French archaeologist and author (b. 1716)
  • 1806 – Onogawa Kisaburō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 5th Yokozuna (b. 1758)
  • 1841 – Peter Andreas Heiberg, Danish philologist and author (b. 1758)
  • 1847 – Charles, Austrian commander and duke of Teschen (b. 1771)
  • 1863 – Jean Danjou, French captain (b. 1828)
  • 1865 – Robert FitzRoy, English admiral, meteorologist, and politician, 2nd Governor of New Zealand (b. 1805)
  • 1870 – Thomas Cooke, Canadian bishop and missionary (b. 1792)
  • 1875 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French explorer, lithographer, and cartographer (b. 1766)
  • 1879 – Emma Smith, American religious leader (b. 1804)
  • 1883 – Édouard Manet, French painter (b. 1832)
  • 1891 – Joseph Leidy, American paleontologist and author (b. 1823)
  • 1900 – Casey Jones, American engineer (b. 1863)
  • 1903 – Emily Stowe, Canadian physician and activist (b. 1831)
  • 1910 – Jean Moréas, Greek poet and critic (b. 1856)
  • 1936 – A. E. Housman, English poet and scholar (b. 1859)
  • 1939 – Frank Haller, American boxer (b. 1883)
  • 1943 – Otto Jespersen, Danish linguist and academic (b. 1860)
  • 1943 – Beatrice Webb, English sociologist and economist (b. 1858)
  • 1953 – Jacob Linzbach, Estonian linguist and author (b. 1874)
  • 1956 – Alben W. Barkley, American lawyer and politician, 35th Vice President of the United States (b. 1877)
  • 1970 – Jacques Presser, Dutch historian, writer and poet (b. 1899)
  • 1970 – Inger Stevens, Swedish-American actress (b. 1934)
  • 1972 – Gia Scala, English-American model and actress (b. 1934)
  • 1973 – Václav Renč, Czech poet and playwright (b. 1911)
  • 1974 – Agnes Moorehead, American actress (b. 1900)
  • 1980 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican journalist and politician, 1st Governor of Puerto Rico (b. 1898)
  • 1982 – Lester Bangs, American journalist and author (b. 1949)
  • 1983 – George Balanchine, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1904)
  • 1983 – Muddy Waters, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader (b. 1913)
  • 1983 – Edouard Wyss-Dunant, Swiss physician and mountaineer (b. 1897)
  • 1986 – Robert Stevenson, English director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1905)
  • 1989 – Sergio Leone, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
  • 1993 – Tommy Caton, English footballer (b. 1962)
  • 1994 – Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (b. 1960)
  • 1994 – Richard Scarry, American author and illustrator (b. 1919)
  • 1995 – Maung Maung Kha, Burmese colonel and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Burma (b. 1920)
  • 1998 – Nizar Qabbani, Syrian-English poet, publisher, and diplomat (b. 1926)
  • 2000 – Poul Hartling, Danish politician, 36th Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1914)
  • 2002 – Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, German philanthropist, founded the Gründerzeit Museum (b. 1928)
  • 2003 – Mark Berger, American economist and academic (b. 1955)
  • 2003 – Possum Bourne, New Zealand race car driver (b. 1956)
  • 2005 – Phil Rasmussen, American lieutenant and pilot (b. 1918)
  • 2006 – Jean-François Revel, French philosopher (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian author and academic (b. 1925)
  • 2007 – Kevin Mitchell, American football player (b. 1971)
  • 2007 – Tom Poston, American actor, comedian, and game show panelist (b. 1921)
  • 2007 – Gordon Scott, American film and television actor (b. 1926)
  • 2008 – John Cargher, English-Australian journalist and author (b. 1919)
  • 2008 – Juancho Evertsz, Dutch Antillean politician (b. 1923)
  • 2009 – Henk Nijdam, Dutch cyclist (b. 1935)
  • 2011 – Dorjee Khandu, Indian politician, 6th Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (b. 1955)
  • 2011 – Evald Okas, Estonian painter (b. 1915)
  • 2011 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentinian physicist, author, and painter (b. 1911)
  • 2012 – Tomás Borge, Nicaraguan poet and politician, co-founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (b. 1930)
  • 2012 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (b. 1985)
  • 2012 – Giannis Gravanis, Greek footballer (b. 1958)
  • 2012 – Benzion Netanyahu, Russian-Israeli historian and academic (b. 1910)
  • 2012 – Sicelo Shiceka, South African politician (b. 1966)
  • 2013 – Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (b. 1937)
  • 2013 – Shirley Firth, Canadian skier (b. 1953)
  • 2013 – Viviane Forrester, French author and critic (b. 1925)
  • 2013 – Mike Gray, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Khaled Choudhury, Indian painter and set designer (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Julian Lewis, English biologist and academic (b. 1946)
  • 2014 – Carl E. Moses, American businessman and politician (b. 1929)
  • 2014 – Ian Ross, Australian journalist (b. 1940)
  • 2015 – Lennart Bodström, Swedish politician (b. 1928)
  • 2015 – Ben E. King, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1938)
  • 2015 – Steven Goldmann, Canadian director and producer (b. 1961)
  • 2016 – Daniel Berrigan, American priest and activist (b. 1921)
  • 2016 – Harry Kroto, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1939)
  • 2019 – Peter Mayhew, English-American actor (b. 1944)
  • 2020 – Tony Allen, Nigerian drummer and composer (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances on April 30

  • Armed Forces Day (Georgia)
  • Birthday of the King Carl XVI Gustaf, one of the official flag days of Sweden.
  • Camarón Day (French Foreign Legion)
  • Children’s Day (Mexico)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Adjutor
    • Aimo
    • Amator, Peter and Louis
    • Donatus of Evorea
    • Eutropius of Saintes
    • Marie Guyart (Anglican Church of Canada)
    • Marie of the Incarnation (Ursuline)
    • Maximus of Rome
    • Blessed Miles Gerard
    • Pomponius of Naples
    • Pope Pius V
    • Quirinus of Neuss
    • Sarah Josepha Hale (Episcopal Church)
    • Suitbert the Younger
    • April 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Consumer Protection Day (Thailand)
  • Earliest day on which Ascension Day can fall, while June 3 is the latest; celebrated 40 days after Easter (Christianity), and its related observances:
    • Festa della Sensa (Venice)
    • Global Day of Prayer (Western Christianity)
    • Sheep Festival (Cameroon)
  • Honesty Day (United States)
  • International Jazz Day (UNESCO)
  • Martyrs’ Day (Pakistan)
  • May Eve, the eve of the first day of summer in the Northern hemisphere (see May 1):
    • Beltane begins at sunset in the Northern hemisphere, Samhain begins at sunset in the Southern hemisphere. (Neo-Druidic Wheel of the Year)
    • Carodejnice (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
    • Walpurgis Night (Central and Northern Europe)
  • National Persian Gulf Day (Iran)
  • Reunification Day (Vietnam)
  • Russian State Fire Service Day (Russia)
  • Teachers’ Day (Paraguay)

April 30 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day, Uncategorized /
  • 224 – The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V effectively ending the Parthian Empire.
  • 357 – Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius.
  • 1192 – Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
  • 1253 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
  • 1503 – The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.
  • 1611 – Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the largest Catholic university in the world.
  • 1758 – The Marathas defeat the Afghans in the Battle of Attock and capture the city.
  • 1788 – Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution.
  • 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
  • 1792 – France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium and Luxembourg), beginning the French Revolutionary Wars.
  • 1794 – Sardinians, headed by Giovanni Maria Angioy, start a revolution against Savoy domination, expelling Viceroy Balbiano and his officials from Cagliari, the capital and largest city of the island.
  • 1796 – The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
  • 1869 – Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
  • 1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
  • 1887 – A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé is released on order of William I, German Emperor, defusing a possible war.
  • 1910 – Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in England.
  • 1920 – Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
  • 1923 – Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium.
  • 1930 – The Independence Producers hosted the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas.
  • 1941 – The Ustaše massacre nearly 200 Serbs in the village of Gudovac, the first massacre of their genocidal campaign against Serbs of the Independent State of Croatia.
  • 1944 – World War II: Nine German E-boats attacked US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.
  • 1945 – Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement.
  • 1947 – Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
  • 1948 – Igor Stravinsky conducted the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center.
  • 1949 – The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.
  • 1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
  • 1952 – The Treaty of San Francisco comes into effect, restoring Japanese sovereignty and ending its state of war with most of the Allies of World War II.
  • 1952 – The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.
  • 1965 – United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to “forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship” and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.
  • 1967 – Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license.
  • 1969 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
  • 1970 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to take part in the Cambodian campaign.
  • 1973 – The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded in Abbey Road Studios goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run.
  • 1975 – General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on victory.
  • 1977 – The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
  • 1978 – President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
  • 1986 – The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
  • 1986 – High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident.
  • 1988 – Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane’s fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
  • 1993 – A Zambia Air Force DHC-5 Buffalo crashes off the coast of Libreville, Gabon, killing all 30 passengers, which included the entire Zambia national football team.
  • 1994 – Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
  • 1996 – Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
  • 1996 – Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.
  • 2004 – CBS News released evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over Iraqi detainees.

Births on April 28

  • AD 32 – Otho, Roman emperor (d. 69 AD)
  • 1402 – Nezahualcoyotl, Acolhuan philosopher, warrior, poet and ruler (d. 1472)
  • 1442 – Edward IV, king of England (d. 1483)
  • 1545 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean commander (d. 1598)
  • 1573 – Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême, son of Charles IX (d. 1650)
  • 1604 – Joris Jansen Rapelje, Dutch settler in colonial North America (d. 1662)
  • 1623 – Wilhelmus Beekman, Dutch politician (d. 1707)
  • 1630 – Charles Cotton, English poet and author (d. 1687)
  • 1676 – Frederick I, prince consort and king of Sweden (d. 1751)
  • 1715 – Franz Sparry, Austrian composer and educator (d. 1767)
  • 1758 – James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
  • 1761 – Marie Harel, French cheesemaker (d. 1844)
  • 1765 – Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician and academic (d. 1834)
  • 1819 – Ezra Abbot, American scholar and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1827 – William Hall, Canadian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1904)
  • 1838 – Tobias Asser, Dutch lawyer and scholar, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1913)
  • 1848 – Ludvig Schytte, Danish pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1909)
  • 1854 – Hertha Marks Ayrton, Polish-British engineer, mathematician, and physicist. (d. 1923)
  • 1855 – José Malhoa, Portuguese painter (d. 1933)
  • 1863 – Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician, 7th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1933)
  • 1863 – Nikolai von Meck, Russian engineer (d. 1929)
  • 1865 – Charles W. Woodworth, American entomologist and academic (d. 1940)
  • 1868 – Lucy Booth, English composer (d. 1953)
  • 1868 – Georgy Voronoy, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1908)
  • 1874 – Karl Kraus, Austrian journalist and author (d. 1936)
  • 1874 – Sidney Toler, American actor and director (d. 1947)
  • 1876 – Nicola Romeo, Italian engineer and businessman (d. 1938)
  • 1878 – Lionel Barrymore, American actor and director (d. 1954)
  • 1886 – Erich Salomon, German-born news photographer (d. 1944)
  • 1886 – Art Shaw, American hurdler (d. 1955)
  • 1888 – Walter Tull, English footballer and soldier (d. 1918)
  • 1889 – António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese economist and politician, 100th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1970)
  • 1896 – Na Hye-sok, South Korean journalist, poet, and painter (d. 1948)
  • 1896 – Tristan Tzara, Romanian-French poet and critic (d. 1963)
  • 1897 – Ye Jianying, Chinese general and politician, Head of State of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1986)
  • 1900 – Alice Berry, Australian activist (d. 1978)
  • 1900 – Heinrich Müller, German SS officer (d. 1945)
  • 1900 – Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer and academic (d. 1992)
  • 1901 – H. B. Stallard, English runner and surgeon (d. 1973)
  • 1902 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author and critic (d. 1979)
  • 1906 – Kurt Gödel, Czech-American mathematician, philosopher, and academic (d. 1978)
  • 1906 – Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor and philanthropist (d. 1999)
  • 1908 – Ethel Catherwood, American-Canadian high jumper and javelin thrower (d. 1987)
  • 1908 – Jack Fingleton, Australian cricketer, journalist, and sportscaster (d. 1981)
  • 1908 – Oskar Schindler, Czech-German businessman (d. 1974)
  • 1909 – Arthur Võõbus, Estonian-American theologist and orientalist (d. 1988)
  • 1910 – Sam Merwin, Jr., American author (d. 1996)
  • 1911 – Lee Falk, American director, producer, and playwright (d. 1999)
  • 1912 – Odette Hallowes, French soldier and spy (d. 1995)
  • 1912 – Kaneto Shindō, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
  • 1913 – Rose Murphy, American singer (d. 1989)
  • 1914 – Michel Mohrt, French author, historian (d. 2011)
  • 1916 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, created Lamborghini (d. 1993)
  • 1917 – Robert Cornthwaite, American actor (d. 2006)
  • 1921 – Rowland Evans, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 2001)
  • 1921 – Simin Daneshvar, Iranian author and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1923 – Carolyn Cassady, American author (d. 2013)
  • 1923 – William Guarnere, American sergeant (d. 2014)
  • 1924 – Dick Ayers, American author and illustrator (d. 2014)
  • 1924 – Blossom Dearie, American singer and pianist (d. 2009)
  • 1924 – Kenneth Kaunda, Zambian educator and politician, 1st President of Zambia
  • 1925 – T. John Lesinski, American judge and politician, 51st Lieutenant Governor of Michigan (d. 1996)
  • 1925 – John Leonard Thorn, English lieutenant, author, and academic
  • 1926 – James Bama, American artist and illustrator
  • 1926 – Bill Blackbeard, American historian and author (d. 2011)
  • 1926 – Harper Lee, American novelist (d. 2016)
  • 1926 – Hulusi Sayın, Turkish general (d. 1991)
  • 1928 – Yves Klein, French painter (d. 1962)
  • 1928 – Eugene Merle Shoemaker, American geologist and astronomer (d. 1997)
  • 1930 – James Baker, American lawyer and politician, 61st United States Secretary of State
  • 1930 – Carolyn Jones, American actress (d. 1983)
  • 1933 – Miodrag Radulovacki, Serbian-American neuropharmacologist and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1934 – Lois Duncan, American journalist and author (d. 2016)
  • 1935 – Pedro Ramos, Cuban baseball player
  • 1935 – Jimmy Wray, Scottish boxer and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1936 – Tariq Aziz, Iraqi journalist and politician, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2015)
  • 1937 – Saddam Hussein, Iraqi general and politician, 5th President of Iraq (d. 2006)
  • 1937 – Jean Redpath, Scottish singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
  • 1937 – John White, Scottish international footballer(d. 1964)
  • 1938 – Madge Sinclair, Jamaican-American actress (d. 1995)
  • 1941 – Ann-Margret, Swedish-American actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1941 – Lucien Aimar, French cyclist
  • 1941 – John Madejski, English businessman and academic
  • 1941 – Karl Barry Sharpless, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1941 – Iryna Zhylenko, Ukrainian poet and author (d. 2013)
  • 1942 – Mike Brearley, English cricketer and psychoanalyst
  • 1943 – Aryeh Bibi, Iraqi-born Israeli politician
  • 1944 – Elizabeth LeCompte, American director and producer
  • 1944 – Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician, 10th Minister-President of the Walloon Region
  • 1944 – Alice Waters, American chef and author
  • 1946 – Nour El-Sherif, Egyptian actor and producer (d. 2015)
  • 1946 – Ginette Reno, Canadian singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1946 – Larissa Grunig, American theorist and activist
  • 1947 – Christian Jacq, French historian and author
  • 1947 – Nicola LeFanu, English composer and academic
  • 1947 – Steve Khan, American jazz guitarist
  • 1948 – Terry Pratchett, English journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
  • 1948 – Marcia Strassman, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
  • 1949 – Jeremy Cooke, English lawyer and judge
  • 1949 – Paul Guilfoyle, American actor
  • 1949 – Bruno Kirby, American actor and director (d. 2006)
  • 1950 – Willie Colón, Puerto Rican-American trombonist and producer
  • 1950 – Jay Leno, American comedian, talk show host, and producer
  • 1950 – Steve Rider, English journalist and sportscaster
  • 1951 – Tim Congdon, English economist and politician
  • 1951 – Larry Smith, Canadian football player and politician
  • 1952 – Chuck Leavell, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
  • 1952 – Mary McDonnell, American actress
  • 1953 – Roberto Bolaño, Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist (d. 2003)
  • 1953 – Kim Gordon, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1953 – Brian Greenhoff, English footballer and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1954 – Timothy Curley, American educator
  • 1954 – Michael P. Jackson, American politician, 3rd Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
  • 1954 – Vic Sotto, Filipino actor-producer, singer-songwriter, comedian and television personality
  • 1954 – Ron Zook, American football player and coach
  • 1955 – Eddie Jobson, English keyboard player and violinist
  • 1955 – Dieter Rubach, German bass player
  • 1956 – Jimmy Barnes, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1957 – Wilma Landkroon, Dutch singer
  • 1958 – Hal Sutton, American golfer
  • 1960 – Tom Browning, American baseball player
  • 1960 – Elena Kagan, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  • 1960 – Phil King, English bass player
  • 1960 – Ian Rankin, Scottish author
  • 1960 – Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Icelandic strongman and weightlifter (d. 1993)
  • 1960 – Walter Zenga, Italian footballer and manager
  • 1963 – Sandrine Dumas, French actress, director, and screenwriter
  • 1963 – Lloyd Eisler, Canadian figure skater and coach
  • 1963 – Marc Lacroix, Belgian biochemist and academic
  • 1964 – Stephen Ames, Trinidadian golfer
  • 1964 – Noriyuki Iwadare, Japanese composer
  • 1964 – Ajay Kakkar, Baron Kakkar, English surgeon and academic
  • 1964 – Barry Larkin, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster
  • 1964 – L’Wren Scott, American model and fashion designer (d. 2014)
  • 1965 – Jennifer Rardin, American author (d. 2010)
  • 1966 – John Daly, American golfer
  • 1966 – Too Short, American rapper, producer and actor
  • 1967 – Chris White, English engineer and politician
  • 1968 – Howard Donald, English singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1968 – Andy Flower, South-African-Zimbabwean cricketer and coach
  • 1969 – LeRon Perry Ellis, American basketball player
  • 1970 – Richard Fromberg, Australian tennis player
  • 1970 – Nicklas Lidström, Swedish ice hockey player and scout
  • 1970 – Diego Simeone, Argentinian footballer and manager
  • 1971 – Brad McEwan, Australian journalist
  • 1972 – Violent J, American rapper
  • 1972 – Helena Tulve, Estonian composer
  • 1972 – Jean-Paul van Gastel, Dutch footballer and manager
  • 1973 – Jorge Garcia, American actor and producer
  • 1973 – Earl Holmes, American football player and coach
  • 1973 – Andrew Mehrtens, South African-New Zealand rugby player
  • 1974 – Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress and producer
  • 1974 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
  • 1974 – Richel Hersisia, Dutch boxer
  • 1974 – Vernon Kay, English radio and television host
  • 1974 – Dominic Matteo, Scottish footballer and journalist
  • 1975 – Michael Walchhofer, Austrian skier
  • 1976 – Shane Jurgensen, Australian cricketer
  • 1978 – Lauren Laverne, English singer and television host
  • 1978 – Robert Oliveri, American actor
  • 1978 – Nate Richert, American actor
  • 1979 – Scott Fujita, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1980 – Bradley Wiggins, English cyclist
  • 1981 – Jessica Alba, American model and actress
  • 1981 – Pietro Travagli, Italian rugby player
  • 1982 – Nikki Grahame, English model and journalist
  • 1982 – Chris Kaman, American basketball player
  • 1983 – Josh Brookes, Australian motorcycle racer
  • 1983 – David Freese, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Roger Johnson, English footballer
  • 1983 – Graham Wagg, English cricketer
  • 1983 – Thomas Waldrom, New Zealand-English rugby player
  • 1984 – Dmitri Torbinski, Russian footballer
  • 1985 – Lucas Jakubczyk, German sprinter and long jumper
  • 1985 – Deividas Stagniūnas, Lithuanian ice dancer
  • 1986 – Roman Polák, Czech ice hockey player
  • 1986 – Jenna Ushkowitz, Korean-American actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1987 – Ryan Conroy, Scottish footballer
  • 1987 – Samantha Akkineni, Indian actress and model
  • 1987 – Bradley Johnson, English footballer
  • 1987 – Zoran Tošić, Serbian footballer
  • 1988 – Jonathan Biabiany, French footballer
  • 1988 – Juan Manuel Mata, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Katariina Tuohimaa, Finnish tennis player
  • 1989 – Emil Salomonsson, Swedish footballer
  • 1989 – Kim Sung-kyu, South Korean singer
  • 1990 – Niels-Peter Mørck, Danish footballer
  • 1992 – Blake Bortles, American football player
  • 1992 – DeMarcus Lawrence, American football player
  • 1993 – Craig Garvey, Australian rugby league player
  • 1993 – Eva Samková, Czech snowboarder
  • 1995 – Jonathan Benteke, Belgian footballer
  • 1995 – Melanie Martinez, American singer

Deaths on April 28

  • 224 – Artabanus V of Parthia (b. 191)
  • 948 – Hu Jinsi, Chinese general and prefect
  • 988 – Adaldag, archbishop of Bremen
  • 1109 – Abbot Hugh of Cluny (b. 1024)
  • 1192 – Conrad of Montferrat (b. 1140)
  • 1197 – Rhys ap Gruffydd, prince of Deheubarth (b. 1132)
  • 1257 – Shajar al-Durr, sovereign sultana of Egypt
  • 1260 – Luchesius Modestini, founding member of the Third Order of St. Francis
  • 1400 – Baldus de Ubaldis, Italian jurist (b. 1327)
  • 1489 – Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, English politician (b. 1449)
  • 1533 – Nicholas West, English bishop and diplomat (b. 1461)
  • 1643 – Francisco de Lucena, Portuguese politician (b. 1578)
  • 1710 – Thomas Betterton, English actor and manager (b. 1630)
  • 1716 – Louis de Montfort, French priest and saint (b. 1673)
  • 1726 – Thomas Pitt, English merchant and politician (b. 1653)
  • 1741 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general and politician (b. 1668)
  • 1772 – Johann Friedrich Struensee, German physician and politician (b. 1737)
  • 1781 – Cornelius Harnett, American merchant, farmer, and politician (b. 1723)
  • 1813 – Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (b. 1745)
  • 1816 – Johann Heinrich Abicht, German philosopher, author, and academic (b. 1762)
  • 1841 – Peter Chanel, French priest, missionary, and martyr (b. 1803)
  • 1853 – Ludwig Tieck, German author and poet (b. 1773)
  • 1858 – Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist and anatomist (b. 1801)
  • 1865 – Samuel Cunard, Canadian-English businessman, founded Cunard Line (b. 1787)
  • 1881 – Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon, French sculptor and photographer (b. 1818)
  • 1883 – John Russell, English hunter and dog breeder (b. 1795)
  • 1902 – Cyprien Tanguay, Canadian priest and historian (b. 1819)
  • 1903 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American scientist (b. 1839)
  • 1905 – Fitzhugh Lee, American general and politician, 40th Governor of Virginia (b. 1835)
  • 1925 – Richard Butler, English-Australian politician, 23rd Premier of South Australia (b. 1850)
  • 1928 – May Jordan McConnel, Australian trade unionist and suffragist (b. 1860)
  • 1929 – Hendrik van Heuckelum, Dutch footballer (b. 1879)
  • 1936 – Fuad I of Egypt (b. 1868)
  • 1944 – Mohammed Alim Khan, Manghud ruler (b. 1880)
  • 1944 – Frank Knox, American journalist and politician, 46th United States Secretary of the Navy (b. 1874)
  • 1945 – Roberto Farinacci, Italian soldier and politician (b. 1892)
  • 1945 – Hermann Fegelein, German general (b. 1906)
  • 1945 – Benito Mussolini, Italian journalist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1883)
  • 1946 – Louis Bachelier, French mathematician and academic (b. 1870)
  • 1954 – Léon Jouhaux, French union leader, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
  • 1956 – Fred Marriott, American race car driver (b. 1872)
  • 1957 – Heinrich Bär, German colonel and pilot (b. 1913)
  • 1962 – Bennie Osler, South African rugby player (b. 1901)
  • 1963 – Wilhelm Weber, German gymnast (b. 1880)
  • 1970 – Ed Begley, American actor (b. 1901)
  • 1973 – Clas Thunberg, Finnish speed skater (b. 1893)
  • 1976 – Richard Hughes, American author and poet (b. 1900)
  • 1977 – Ricardo Cortez, American actor (b. 1900)
  • 1977 – Sepp Herberger, German footballer and coach (b. 1897)
  • 1978 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, Afghan commander and politician, 1st President of Afghanistan (b. 1909)
  • 1980 – Tommy Caldwell, American bass player (b. 1949)
  • 1987 – Ben Linder, American engineer and activist (b. 1959)
  • 1991 – Steve Broidy, American film producer (b. 1905)
  • 1992 – Francis Bacon, Irish painter (b. 1909)
  • 1993 – Diva Diniz Corrêa, Brazilian zoologist (b. 1918)
  • 1993 – Jim Valvano, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1946)
  • 1994 – Berton Roueché, American journalist and author (b. 1910)
  • 1996 – Lester Sumrall, American minister, founded LeSEA (b. 1913)
  • 1997 – Ann Petry, American novelist (b. 1908)
  • 1998 – Jerome Bixby, American author and screenwriter (b. 1923)
  • 1999 – Rory Calhoun, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
  • 1999 – Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1927)
  • 1999 – Alf Ramsey, English footballer and manager (b. 1920)
  • 1999 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
  • 2000 – Jerzy Einhorn, Polish-Swedish physician and politician (b. 1925)
  • 2000 – Penelope Fitzgerald, English author and poet (b. 1916)
  • 2002 – Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician (b. 1950)
  • 2002 – Lou Thesz, American wrestler and trainer (b. 1916)
  • 2005 – Percy Heath, American bassist (b. 1923)
  • 2005 – Chris Candido, American wrestler (b. 1971)
  • 2005 – Taraki Sivaram, Sri Lankan journalist and author (b. 1959)
  • 2006 – Steve Howe, American baseball player (b. 1958)
  • 2007 – Dabbs Greer, American actor (b. 1917)
  • 2007 – René Mailhot, Canadian journalist (b. 1942)
  • 2007 – Tommy Newsom, American saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1929)
  • 2007 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (b. 1912)
  • 2007 – Bertha Wilson, Scottish-Canadian lawyer and jurist (b. 1923)
  • 2009 – Ekaterina Maximova, Russian ballerina and actress (b. 1939)
  • 2009 – Richard Pratt, Polish-Australian businessman (b. 1934)
  • 2011 – Erhard Loretan, Swiss mountaineer (b. 1959)
  • 2012 – Fred Allen, New Zealand rugby player and coach (b. 1920)
  • 2012 – Matilde Camus, Spanish poet and author (b. 1919)
  • 2012 – Al Ecuyer, American football player (b. 1937)
  • 2012 – Patricia Medina, English actress (b. 1919)
  • 2012 – Milan N. Popović, Serbian psychiatrist and author (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Aberdeen Shikoyi, Kenyan rugby player (b. 1985)
  • 2013 – Brad Lesley, American baseball player (b. 1958)
  • 2013 – Fredrick McKissack, American author (b. 1939)
  • 2013 – John C. Reynolds, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1935)
  • 2013 – Jack Shea, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
  • 2013 – János Starker, Hungarian-American cellist and educator (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Paulo Vanzolini, Brazilian singer-songwriter and zoologist (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Bernie Wood, New Zealand journalist and author (b. 1939)
  • 2014 – Barbara Fiske Calhoun, American cartoonist and painter (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – William Honan, American journalist and author (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Dennis Kamakahi, American guitarist and composer (b. 1953)
  • 2014 – Edgar Laprade, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Jack Ramsay, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Idris Sardi, Indonesian violinist and composer (b. 1938)
  • 2014 – Frederic Schwartz, American architect, co-designed Empty Sky (b. 1951)
  • 2014 – Ryan Tandy, Australian rugby player (b. 1981)
  • 2015 – Antônio Abujamra, Brazilian actor and director (b. 1932)
  • 2015 – Marcia Brown, American author and illustrator (b. 1918)
  • 2015 – Michael J. Ingelido, American general (b. 1916)
  • 2016 – Jenny Diski, English author and screenwriter (b. 1947)
  • 2017 – Mariano Gagnon, American Catholic priest and author (b. 1929)
  • 2018 – James Hylton, American race car driver (b. 1934)
  • 2019 – Richard Lugar, American politician (b.1932)
  • 2019 – John Singleton, American film director (b. 1968)

Holidays and observances on April 28

  • Christian feast day:
    • Aphrodisius and companions
    • Gianna Beretta Molla
    • Kirill of Turov (Orthodox, added to Roman Martyrology in 1969)
    • Louis de Montfort
    • Pamphilus of Sulmona
    • Peter Chanel
    • Vitalis and Valeria of Milan
    • April 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Lawyers’ Day (Odisha, India)
  • Mujahideen Victory Day (Afghanistan)
  • National Heroes Day (Barbados)
  • Restoration of Sovereignty Day (Japan)
  • Sardinia Day (Sardinia)
  • Workers’ Memorial Day and World Day for Safety and Health at Work (international)
    • National Day of Mourning (Canada)

April 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day, Uncategorized

April 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day, Uncategorized /
  • 33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.
  • 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
  • 629 – Shahrbaraz is crowned as king of the Sasanian Empire.
  • 711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
  • 1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol’s Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
  • 1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
  • 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
  • 1522 – Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
  • 1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
  • 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
  • 1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
  • 1595 – The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
  • 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
  • 1667 – Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers’ Register.
  • 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
  • 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ Hymn).
  • 1813 – War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.
  • 1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
  • 1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.
  • 1906 – The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.
  • 1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
  • 1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
  • 1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.
  • 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
  • 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
  • 1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.
  • 1945 – World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
  • 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
  • 1953 – Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.
  • 1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
  • 1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
  • 1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
  • 1974 – Ten thousand march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
  • 1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
  • 1978 – The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
  • 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
  • 1986 – The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.
  • 1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
  • 1989 – The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
  • 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
  • 1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
  • 1992 – The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
  • 1993 – Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
  • 1994 – South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
  • 2005 – Airbus A380 aircraft had its maiden test flight.
  • 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.
  • 2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
  • 2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.
  • 2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
  • 2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
  • 2018 – The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.

Births on April 27

  • 85 BC – Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Roman politician and general (d. 43 BC)
  • 1468 – Frederick Jagiellon, Primate of Poland (d. 1503)
  • 1564 – Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (d. 1632)
  • 1556 – François Béroalde de Verville, French writer (d. 1626)
  • 1593 – Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (d. 1631)
  • 1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670-1699) (d. 1714)
  • 1654 – Charles Blount, English deist and philosopher (d. 1693)
  • 1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
  • 1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American surveyor and lawyer (d. 1790)
  • 1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek-French philosopher and scholar (d. 1833)
  • 1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (d. 1836)
  • 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (d. 1797)
  • 1788 – Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect, archaeologist, and writer (d. 1863)
  • 1791 – Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (d. 1872)
  • 1812 – William W. Snow, American lawyer and politician (d. 1886)
  • 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
  • 1820 – Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1903)
  • 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
  • 1840 – Edward Whymper, English-French mountaineer, explorer, author, and illustrator (d. 1911)
  • 1848 – Otto of Bavaria (d. 1916)
  • 1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general and politician (d. 1921)
  • 1853 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (d. 1914)
  • 1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1914)
  • 1861 – William Arms Fisher, American composer and music historian (d. 1948)
  • 1866 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (d. 1916)
  • 1875 – Frederick Fane, Irish-born, English cricketer (d. 1960)
  • 1880 – Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1958)
  • 1882 – Jessie Redmon Fauset, American author and poet (d. 1961)
  • 1887 – Warren Wood, American golfer (d. 1926)
  • 1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
  • 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1953)
  • 1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (d. 1946)
  • 1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1939)
  • 1894 – George Petty, American painter and illustrator (d. 1975)
  • 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1995)
  • 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1963)
  • 1896 – William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (d. 1978)
  • 1896 – Wallace Carothers, American chemist and inventor of nylon (d. 1937)
  • 1898 – Ludwig Bemelmans, Italian-American author and illustrator (d. 1962)
  • 1899 – Walter Lantz, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1994)
  • 1900 – August Koern, Estonian politician and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs in exile (d. 1989)
  • 1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, Malian educator and activist (d. 1942)
  • 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (d. 1972)
  • 1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
  • 1905 – John Kuck, American javelin thrower and shot putter (d. 1986)
  • 1906 – Yiorgos Theotokas, Greek author and playwright (d. 1966)
  • 1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
  • 1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 2009)
  • 1911 – Chris Berger, Dutch sprinter and footballer (d. 1965)
  • 1912 – Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, French author and politician (d. 2001)
  • 1912 – Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2014)
  • 1913 – Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (d. 2004)
  • 1913 – Irving Adler, American mathematician, author, and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1913 – Luz Long, German long jumper and soldier (d. 1943)
  • 1916 – Robert Hugh McWilliams, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and judge (d. 2013)
  • 1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (d. 2002)
  • 1917 – Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (d. 2001)
  • 1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
  • 1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
  • 1920 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Ukrainian mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
  • 1920 – James Robert Mann, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 2010)
  • 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
  • 1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor (d. 2012)
  • 1922 – Sheila Scott, English nurse and pilot (d. 1988)
  • 1923 – Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, Seminole chief (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (d. 2013)
  • 1925 – Derek Chinnery, English broadcaster (d. 2015)
  • 1926 – Tim LaHaye, American minister, activist, and author (d. 2016)
  • 1926 – Basil A. Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 59th Secretary of State of New York (d. 2014)
  • 1926 – Alan Reynolds, English painter and educator (d. 2014)
  • 1927 – Coretta Scott King, African-American activist and author (d. 2006)
  • 1927 – Joe Moakley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2001)
  • 1929 – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower and coach (d. 2016)
  • 1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist and educator
  • 1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
  • 1932 – Pik Botha, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 8th South African Ambassador to the United States (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey, music historian, radio celebrity, and voice actor; co-created American Top 40 (d. 2014)
  • 1932 – Chuck Knox, American football coach (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – Derek Minter, English motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
  • 1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
  • 1933 – Peter Imbert, Baron Imbert, English police officer and politician, Lord Lieutenant for Greater London (d. 2017)
  • 1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
  • 1935 – Ron Morris, American pole vaulter and coach
  • 1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator (d. 2016)
  • 1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
  • 1937 – Robin Eames, Irish Anglican archbishop
  • 1937 – Richard Perham, English biologist and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler and sportscaster (d. 2001)
  • 1938 – Alain Caron, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
  • 1939 – Judy Carne, English actress and comedian (d. 2015)
  • 1939 – Stanisław Dziwisz, Polish cardinal
  • 1941 – Fethullah Gülen, Turkish preacher and theologian
  • 1941 – Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Indian archaeologist
  • 1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
  • 1942 – Ruth Glick, American author
  • 1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer
  • 1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver and manager
  • 1944 – Michael Fish, English meteorologist and journalist
  • 1944 – Cuba Gooding Sr., American singer (d. 2017)
  • 1944 – Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1945 – Martin Chivers, English footballer and manager
  • 1945 – Jack Deverell, English general
  • 1945 – Helen Hodgman, Scottish-Australian author
  • 1945 – Terry Willesee, Australian journalist and television host
  • 1945 – August Wilson, American author and playwright (d. 2005)
  • 1946 – Franz Roth, German footballer
  • 1947 – G. K. Butterfield, African-American soldier, lawyer, and politician
  • 1947 – Nick Greiner, Hungarian-Australian politician, 37th Premier of New South Wales
  • 1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
  • 1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
  • 1947 – Ann Peebles, American soul singer-songwriter
  • 1948 – Frank Abagnale Jr., American security consultant and criminal
  • 1948 – Josef Hickersberger, Austrian footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and bass player
  • 1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian businessman and politician
  • 1950 – Jaime Fresnedi, Filipino politician
  • 1950 – Paul Lockyer, Australian journalist (d. 2011)
  • 1951 – Ace Frehley, American guitarist and songwriter
  • 1952 – Larry Elder, American lawyer and talk show host
  • 1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
  • 1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish race car driver and politician
  • 1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French-American actress and model
  • 1954 – Frank Bainimarama, Fijian commander and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Fiji
  • 1954 – Herman Edwards, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1954 – Mark Holden, Australian singer, actor, and lawyer
  • 1955 – Gudrun Berend, German hurdler (d. 2011)
  • 1955 – Eric Schmidt, American engineer and businessman
  • 1956 – Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
  • 1956 – Jeff Probyn, English rugby player, coach, and manager
  • 1957 – Willie Upshaw, American baseball player and manager
  • 1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish-American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
  • 1959 – Marco Pirroni, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1961 – Andrew Schlafly, American lawyer and activist, founded Conservapedia
  • 1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentinian footballer and manager
  • 1962 – Seppo Räty, Finnish javelin thrower and coach
  • 1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter
  • 1962 – Andrew Selous, English soldier and politician
  • 1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh screenwriter and producer
  • 1965 – Anna Chancellor, English actress
  • 1966 – Peter McIntyre, Australian cricketer
  • 1966 – Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese illustrator
  • 1967 – Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands
  • 1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish saxophonist, composer, and educator
  • 1967 – Erik Thomson, Scottish-New Zealand actor
  • 1967 – Jason Whitlock, American football player and journalist
  • 1968 – Dana Milbank, American journalist and author
  • 1969 – Cory Booker, African-American lawyer and politician
  • 1969 – Darcey Bussell, English ballerina
  • 1971 – Olari Elts, Estonian conductor
  • 1972 – Nigel Barker, English photographer and author
  • 1972 – Almedin Civa, Bosnian footballer and coach
  • 1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
  • 1973 – Sharlee D’Angelo, Swedish bass player and songwriter
  • 1973 – Sébastien Lareau, Canadian tennis player
  • 1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
  • 1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
  • 1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American football player
  • 1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player and manager
  • 1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
  • 1975 – Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese ski jumper
  • 1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter and cellist
  • 1976 – Sally Hawkins, English actress
  • 1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
  • 1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian director, screenwriter, and critic
  • 1979 – Will Boyd, American bass player
  • 1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netball player
  • 1979 – Vladimir Kozlov, Ukrainian wrestler
  • 1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
  • 1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
  • 1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
  • 1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
  • 1982 – François Parisien, Canadian cyclist
  • 1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
  • 1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress and producer
  • 1983 – Martin Viiask, Estonian basketball player
  • 1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player
  • 1984 – Patrick Stump, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1985 – José António de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
  • 1985 – Meselech Melkamu, Ethiopian runner
  • 1986 – Jenna Coleman, English actress
  • 1986 – Hayley Mulheron, Scottish netball player
  • 1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
  • 1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
  • 1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
  • 1987 – William Moseley, English actor
  • 1987 – Wang Feifei, Chinese singer and actress
  • 1988 – Joeri Dequevy, Belgian footballer
  • 1988 – Kris Thackray, English footballer
  • 1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
  • 1988 – Lizzo, American singer and rapper
  • 1989 – Lars Bender, German footballer
  • 1989 – Sven Bender, German footballer
  • 1989 – Tim Glasby, Australian rugby league player
  • 1989 – Dmytro Kozban, Ukrainian footballer
  • 1990 – Trude Raad, Norwegian deaf track and field athlete
  • 1991 – Isaac Cuenca, Spanish footballer
  • 1991 – Eric Fukusaki, Peruvian singer
  • 1991 – Lara Gut, Swiss skier
  • 1992 – Keenan Allen, American football player
  • 1994 – Corey Seager, American baseball player
  • 1995 – Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player
  • 1997 – Josh Onomah, English footballer

Deaths on April 27

  • 630 – Ardashir III of Persia (b. 621)
  • 1160 – Rudolf I, Count of Bregenz (b. 1081)
  • 1272 – Zita, Italian saint (b. 1212)
  • 1321 – Nicolò Albertini, Italian cardinal statesman (b. c. 1250)
  • 1353 – Simeon of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir
  • 1403 – Maria of Bosnia, Countess of Helfenstein (b. 1335)
  • 1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
  • 1463 – Isidore of Kiev (b. 1385)
  • 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese sailor and explorer (b. 1480)
  • 1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
  • 1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
  • 1607 – Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell, Governor of Lecale (b. 1560)
  • 1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish priest and missionary (b. 1532)
  • 1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1596)
  • 1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
  • 1695 – John Trenchard, English politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1640)
  • 1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
  • 1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (b. 1710)
  • 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (b. 1779)
  • 1873 – William Macready, English actor and manager (b. 1793)
  • 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (b. 1803)
  • 1893 – John Ballance, Irish-born New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1839)
  • 1896 – Henry Parkes, English-Australian businessman and politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1815)
  • 1915 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman (b. 1838)
  • 1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1872)
  • 1932 – Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
  • 1936 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician and academic (b. 1857)
  • 1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian sociologist, linguist, and politician (b. 1891)
  • 1938 – Edmund Husserl, Czech mathematician and philosopher (b. 1859)
  • 1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician and statistician (b. 1865)
  • 1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)
  • 1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bangladeshi-Pakistani lawyer and politician, Pakistani Minister of the Interior (b. 1873)
  • 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
  • 1967 – William Douglas Cook, New Zealand farmer, founded the Eastwoodhill Arboretum (b. 1884)
  • 1969 – René Barrientos, Bolivian soldier, pilot, and politician, 55th President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
  • 1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish rebel and actor (b. 1896)
  • 1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian politician, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
  • 1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentinian race car driver and polo player (b. 1914)
  • 1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1915)
  • 1988 – Fred Bear, American hunter and author (b. 1902)
  • 1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese businessman, founded Panasonic (b. 1894)
  • 1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French organist and composer (b. 1908)
  • 1992 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist and astronomer (b. 1927)
  • 1995 – Katherine DeMille, Canadian-American actress (b. 1911)
  • 1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch author, poet, and playwright (b. 1921)
  • 1996 – William Colby, American diplomat, 10th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1920)
  • 1996 – Gilles Grangier, French director and screenwriter (b. 1911)
  • 1998 – John Bassett, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1915)
  • 1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American anthropologist and author (b. 1925)
  • 1998 – Anne Desclos, French journalist and author (b. 1907)
  • 1998 – Browning Ross, American runner and soldier (b. 1924)
  • 1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpet player and bandleader (b. 1922)
  • 1999 – Dale C. Thomson, Canadian historian, author, and academic (b. 1923)
  • 1999 – Cyril Washbrook, English cricketer (b. 1914)
  • 2002 – George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
  • 2002 – Ruth Handler, American inventor and businesswoman, created the Barbie doll (b. 1916)
  • 2005 – Red Horner, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1909)
  • 2006 – Julia Thorne, American author (b. 1944)
  • 2007 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
  • 2009 – Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1914)
  • 2009 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress (b. 1983)
  • 2009 – Feroz Khan (actor), Indian Actor, Film Director & Producer (b. 1939)
  • 2011 – Marian Mercer, American actress and singer (b. 1935)
  • 2012 – Daniel E. Boatwright, American soldier and politician (b. 1930)
  • 2012 – Bill Skowron, American baseball player (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – Aída Bortnik, Argentinian screenwriter (b. 1938)
  • 2013 – Lorraine Copeland, Scottish archaeologist (b. 1921)
  • 2013 – Antonio Díaz Jurado, Spanish footballer (b. 1969)
  • 2013 – Jérôme Louis Heldring, Dutch journalist and author (b. 1917)
  • 2013 – Aloysius Jin Luxian, Chinese bishop (b. 1916)
  • 2013 – Mutula Kilonzo, Kenyan lawyer and politician, Kenyan Minister of Justice (b. 1948)
  • 2014 – Yigal Arnon, Israeli lawyer (b. 1929)
  • 2014 – Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1931)
  • 2014 – Daniel Colchico, American football player and coach (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Harry Firth, Australian race car driver and manager (b. 1918)
  • 2015 – Gene Fullmer, American boxer (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Verne Gagne, American football player, wrestler, and trainer (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Alexander Rich, American biologist, biophysicist, and academic (b. 1924)
  • 2017 – Vinod Khanna, Indian actor, producer and politician (b. 1946)
  • 2017 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances on April 27

  • Christian feast days:
    • Anthimus of Nicomedia
    • Assicus
    • Floribert of Liège
    • John of Constantinople
    • Liberalis of Treviso
    • Pollio
    • Rafael Arnáiz Barón
    • Virgin of Montserrat
    • Zita
    • April 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Day of Russian Parliamentarism (Russia)
  • Day of the Uprising Against the Occupying Forces (Slovenia)
  • Flag Day (Moldova)
  • Freedom Day (South Africa)
    • UnFreedom Day (South Africa, unofficial)
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Sierra Leone from United Kingdom in 1961.
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Togo from France in 1960.
  • King’s Day (Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten) (celebrated on April 26 if April 27 falls on a Sunday)
  • National Veterans’ Day (Finla

April 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day, Uncategorized

April 25 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 404 BC – Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion.
  • 775 – The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate. Muslim control over Transcaucasia is solidified and its Islamization begins, while several major Armenian nakharar families lose power and their remnants flee to the Byzantine Empire.
  • 799 – After mistreatment and disfigurement by the citizens of Rome, pope Leo III flees to the Frankish court of king Charlemagne at Paderborn for protection.
  • 1134 – The name Zagreb was mentioned for the first time in the Felician Charter relating to the establishment of the Zagreb Bishopric around 1094.
  • 1607 – Eighty Years’ War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
  • 1644 – The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming dynasty China, commits suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
  • 1707 – A coalition of Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal is defeated by a Franco-Spanish army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
  • 1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
  • 1792 – “La Marseillaise” (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
  • 1804 – The western Georgian kingdom of Imereti accepts the suzerainty of the Russian Empire.
  • 1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.
  • 1846 – Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.
  • 1849 – The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal’s English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
  • 1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
  • 1862 – American Civil War: Forces under U.S. Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Marks’ Mills.
  • 1882 – French and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small force of marine infantry.
  • 1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
  • 1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
  • 1915 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins: The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by British, French, Indian, Newfoundland, Australian and New Zealand troops, begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
  • 1916 – Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove.
  • 1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopt a resolution to determine the allocation of Class “A” League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
  • 1938 – U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
  • 1940 – Merkið, the flag of the Faroe Islands is approved by the British occupation government.
  • 1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
  • 1945 – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two.
  • 1945 – Liberation Day (Italy): The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini is captured after trying to escape. This day was set as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation of Italy.
  • 1945 – United Nations Conference on International Organization: Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
  • 1945 – The last German troops retreat from Finland’s soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland.
  • 1951 – Korean War: Assaulting Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong.
  • 1953 – Francis Crick and James Watson publish “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.
  • 1954 – The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.
  • 1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
  • 1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
  • 1961 – Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
  • 1972 – Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive: The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.
  • 1974 – Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal overthrows the authoritarian-conservative Estado Novo regime and establishes a democratic government.
  • 1975 – As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
  • 1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of at the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
  • 1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
  • 1983 – Cold War: American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
  • 1983 – Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto’s orbit.
  • 1986 – Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II.
  • 1988 – In Israel, John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
  • 1990 – Violeta Chamorro takes office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position.
  • 2001 – Michele Alboreto is killed while testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring in Germany.
  • 2004 – The March for Women’s Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. to protest the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on abortion.
  • 2005 – The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.
  • 2005 – Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.
  • 2007 – Boris Yeltsin’s funeral: The first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.
  • 2015 – Nearly 9,100 are killed after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal.

Births on April 25

  • 1214 – Louis IX of France (d. 1270)
  • 1228 – Conrad IV of Germany (d. 1254)
  • 1284 – Edward II of England (d. 1327)
  • 1287 – Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1330)
  • 1502 – Georg Major, German theologian and academic (d. 1574)
  • 1529 – Francesco Patrizi, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1597)
  • 1599 – Oliver Cromwell, English general and politician, Lord Protector of Great Britain (d. 1658)
  • 1621 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, English soldier and politician (d. 1679)
  • 1666 – Johann Heinrich Buttstett, German organist and composer (d. 1727)
  • 1694 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect and politician, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland (d. 1753)
  • 1710 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer and author (d. 1776)
  • 1723 – Giovanni Marco Rutini, Italian composer (d. 1797)
  • 1725 – Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral and politician (d. 1786)
  • 1767 – Nicolas Oudinot, French general (d. 1847)
  • 1770 – Georg Sverdrup, Norwegian philologist and academic (d. 1850)
  • 1776 – Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (d. 1857)
  • 1843 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (d. 1878)
  • 1849 – Felix Klein, German mathematician and academic (d. 1925)
  • 1850 – Luise Adolpha Le Beau, German composer and educator (d. 1927)
  • 1851 – Leopoldo Alas, Spanish author, critic, and academic (d. 1901)
  • 1854 – Charles Sumner Tainter, American engineer and inventor (d. 1940)
  • 1862 – Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, English ornithologist and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 1933)
  • 1868 – John Moisant, American pilot and engineer (d. 1910)
  • 1871 – Lorne Currie, French-English sailor (d. 1926)
  • 1872 – C. B. Fry, English cricketer, footballer, educator, and politician (d. 1956)
  • 1873 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (d. 1956)
  • 1873 – Howard Garis, American author, creator of the Uncle Wiggily series of children’s stories (d. 1962)
  • 1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian businessman and inventor, developed Marconi’s law, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
  • 1874 – Ernest Webb, English-Canadian race walker (d. 1937)
  • 1876 – Jacob Nicol, Canadian publisher, lawyer, and politician (d. 1958)
  • 1878 – William Merz, American gymnast and triathlete (d. 1946)
  • 1882 – Fred McLeod, Scottish golfer (d. 1976)
  • 1887 – Kojo Tovalou Houénou, Beninese lawyer and critic (d. 1936)
  • 1892 – Maud Hart Lovelace, American author (d. 1980)
  • 1896 – Fred Haney, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1977)
  • 1897 – Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (d. 1965)
  • 1900 – Gladwyn Jebb, English politician and diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (d. 1996)
  • 1900 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-Swiss-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
  • 1902 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and academic (d. 1964)
  • 1902 – Mary Miles Minter, American actress (d. 1984)
  • 1903 – Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1987)
  • 1905 – George Nepia, New Zealand rugby player and referee (d. 1986)
  • 1906 – William J. Brennan Jr., American colonel and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1997)
  • 1908 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)
  • 1909 – William Pereira, American architect, designed the Transamerica Pyramid (d. 1985)
  • 1910 – Arapeta Awatere, New Zealand interpreter, military leader, politician, and murderer (d. 1976)
  • 1911 – Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1912 – Earl Bostic, African-American saxophonist (d. 1965)
  • 1913 – Nikolaos Roussen, Greek captain (d. 1944)
  • 1914 – Ross Lockridge Jr., American author and academic (d. 1948)
  • 1915 – Mort Weisinger, American journalist and author (d. 1978)
  • 1916 – Jerry Barber, American golfer (d. 1994)
  • 1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (d. 1996)
  • 1917 – Jean Lucas, French racing driver (d. 2003)
  • 1918 – Graham Payn, South African-born English actor and singer (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Gérard de Vaucouleurs, French-American astronomer and academic (d. 1995)
  • 1918 – Astrid Varnay, Swedish-American soprano and actress (d. 2006)
  • 1919 – Finn Helgesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 2011)
  • 1921 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter and sculptor (d. 2006)
  • 1923 – Francis Graham-Smith, English astronomer and academic
  • 1923 – Melissa Hayden, Canadian ballerina (d. 2006)
  • 1923 – Albert King, African-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1992)
  • 1924 – Ingemar Johansson, Swedish race walker (d. 2009)
  • 1924 – Franco Mannino, Italian pianist, composer, director, and playwright (d. 2005)
  • 1924 – Paulo Vanzolini, Brazilian singer-songwriter and zoologist (d. 2013)
  • 1925 – Tony Christopher, Baron Christopher, English trade union leader and businessman
  • 1925 – Sammy Drechsel, German comedian and journalist (d. 1986)
  • 1925 – Louis O’Neil, Canadian academic and politician (d. 2018)
  • 1926 – Johnny Craig, American author and illustrator (d. 2001)
  • 1926 – Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner, Austrian politician (d. 2008)
  • 1926 – Patricia Castell, Argentine actress (d. 2013)
  • 1927 – Corín Tellado, Spanish author (d. 2009)
  • 1927 – Albert Uderzo, French author and illustrator (d. 2020)
  • 1928 – Cy Twombly, American-Italian painter and sculptor (d. 2011)
  • 1929 – Yvette Williams, New Zealand long jumper, shot putter, and discus thrower (d. 2019)
  • 1930 – Paul Mazursky, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – Godfrey Milton-Thompson, English admiral and surgeon (d. 2012)
  • 1930 – Peter Schulz, German lawyer and politician, Mayor of Hamburg (d. 2013)
  • 1931 – Felix Berezin, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 1980)
  • 1931 – David Shepherd, English painter and author (d. 2017)
  • 1932 – Nikolai Kardashev, Russian astrophysicist (d. 2019)
  • 1932 – Meadowlark Lemon, African-American basketball player and minister (d. 2015)
  • 1932 – Lia Manoliu, Romanian discus thrower and politician (d. 1998)
  • 1933 – Jerry Leiber, American songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
  • 1933 – Joyce Ricketts, American baseball player (d. 1992)
  • 1934 – Peter McParland, Northern Irish footballer and manager
  • 1935 – Bob Gutowski, American pole vaulter (d. 1960)
  • 1935 – Reinier Kreijermaat, Dutch footballer (d. 2018)
  • 1936 – Henck Arron, Surinamese banker and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of Suriname (d. 2000)
  • 1938 – Roger Boisjoly, American aerodynamicist and engineer (d. 2012)
  • 1938 – Ton Schulten, Dutch painter and graphic designer
  • 1939 – Tarcisio Burgnich, Italian footballer and manager
  • 1939 – Michael Llewellyn-Smith, English academic and diplomat
  • 1939 – Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky, English historian and academic
  • 1939 – Veronica Sutherland, English academic and British diplomat
  • 1940 – Al Pacino, American actor and director
  • 1941 – Bertrand Tavernier, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1942 – Jon Kyl, American lawyer and politician
  • 1943 – Tony Christie, English singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1944 – Len Goodman, English dancer
  • 1944 – Mike Kogel, German singer-songwriter
  • 1944 – Stephen Nickell, English economist and academic
  • 1944 – Bruce Ponder, English geneticist and cancer researcher
  • 1945 – Stu Cook, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1945 – Richard C. Hoagland, American theorist and author
  • 1945 – Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1946 – Talia Shire, American actress
  • 1946 – Peter Sutherland, Irish lawyer and politician, Attorney General of Ireland
  • 1946 – Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian colonel, lawyer, and politician
  • 1947 – Johan Cruyff, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 2016)
  • 1947 – Jeffrey DeMunn, American actor
  • 1948 – Mike Selvey, English cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1948 – Yu Shyi-kun, Taiwanese politician, 39th Premier of the Republic of China
  • 1949 – Vicente Pernía, Argentinian footballer and race car driver
  • 1949 – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French economist, lawyer, and politician, French Minister of Finance
  • 1949 – James Fenton, English poet, journalist and literary critic
  • 1950 – Donnell Deeny, Northern Irish lawyer and judge
  • 1950 – Steve Ferrone, English drummer
  • 1950 – Peter Hintze, German politician (d. 2016)
  • 1950 – Valentyna Kozyr, Ukrainian high jumper
  • 1951 – Ian McCartney, Scottish politician, Minister of State for Trade
  • 1952 – Ketil Bjørnstad, Norwegian pianist and composer
  • 1952 – Vladislav Tretiak, Russian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1952 – Jacques Santini, French footballer and coach
  • 1953 – Ron Clements, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1953 – Gary Cosier, Australian cricketer
  • 1953 – Anthony Venables, English economist, author, and academic
  • 1954 – Melvin Burgess, English author
  • 1954 – Randy Cross, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1954 – Róisín Shortall, Irish educator and politician
  • 1955 – Américo Gallego, Argentinian footballer and coach
  • 1955 – Parviz Parastui, Iranian actor and singer
  • 1955 – Zev Siegl, American businessman, co-founded Starbucks
  • 1956 – Dominique Blanc, French actress, director, and screenwriter
  • 1956 – Abdalla Uba Adamu, Nigerian professor, media scholar
  • 1957 – Theo de Rooij, Dutch cyclist and manager
  • 1958 – Fish, Scottish singer-songwriter
  • 1958 – Misha Glenny, British journalist
  • 1959 – Paul Madden, English diplomat, British High Commissioner to Australia
  • 1959 – Daniel Kash, Canadian actor and director
  • 1959 – Tony Phillips, American baseball player (d. 2016)
  • 1960 – Paul Baloff, American singer (d. 2002)
  • 1960 – Robert Peston, English journalist
  • 1960 – Bruce Redman, Australian director, producer, and critic
  • 1961 – Dinesh D’Souza, Indian-American journalist and author
  • 1961 – Miran Tepeš, Slovenian ski jumper
  • 1962 – Foeke Booy, Dutch footballer and manager
  • 1963 – Joy Covey, American businesswoman (d. 2013)
  • 1963 – Dave Martin, English footballer
  • 1963 – David Moyes, Scottish footballer and manager
  • 1963 – Bernd Müller, German footballer and manager
  • 1963 – Paul Wassif, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1964 – Hank Azaria, American actor, voice artist, comedian and producer
  • 1964 – Andy Bell, English singer-songwriter
  • 1965 – Eric Avery, American bass player and songwriter
  • 1965 – Mark Bryant, American basketball player and coach
  • 1965 – John Henson, American puppeteer and voice actor (d. 2014)
  • 1966 – Diego Domínguez, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
  • 1966 – Femke Halsema, Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician
  • 1966 – Darren Holmes, American baseball player and coach
  • 1966 – Erik Pappas, American baseball player and coach
  • 1967 – Angel Martino, American swimmer
  • 1968 – Vitaliy Kyrylenko, Ukrainian long jumper
  • 1968 – Thomas Strunz, German footballer
  • 1969 – Joe Buck, American sportscaster
  • 1969 – Martin Koolhoven, Dutch director and screenwriter
  • 1969 – Jon Olsen, American swimmer
  • 1969 – Darren Woodson, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1969 – Renée Zellweger, American actress and producer
  • 1970 – Jason Lee, American skateboarder, actor, comedian and producer
  • 1971 – Sara Baras, Spanish dancer
  • 1971 – Brad Clontz, American baseball player
  • 1973 – Carlota Castrejana, Spanish triple jumper
  • 1973 – Fredrik Larzon, Swedish drummer
  • 1973 – Barbara Rittner, German tennis player
  • 1975 – Jacque Jones, American baseball player and coach
  • 1976 – Gilberto da Silva Melo, Brazilian footballer
  • 1976 – Tim Duncan, American basketball player
  • 1976 – Breyton Paulse, South African rugby player
  • 1976 – Rainer Schüttler, German tennis player and coach
  • 1977 – Constantinos Christoforou, Cypriot singer-songwriter
  • 1977 – Ilias Kotsios, Greek footballer
  • 1977 – Marguerite Moreau, American actress and producer
  • 1977 – Matthew West, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1978 – Matt Walker, English swimmer
  • 1980 – Ben Johnston, Scottish drummer and songwriter
  • 1980 – James Johnston, Scottish bass player and songwriter
  • 1980 – Daniel MacPherson, Australian actor and television host
  • 1980 – Bruce Martin, New Zealand cricketer
  • 1980 – Kazuhito Tadano, Japanese baseball player
  • 1980 – Alejandro Valverde, Spanish cyclist
  • 1981 – Dwone Hicks, American football player
  • 1981 – Felipe Massa, Brazilian racing driver
  • 1981 – John McFall, English sprinter
  • 1981 – Anja Pärson, Swedish skier
  • 1982 – Brian Barton, American baseball player
  • 1982 – Monty Panesar, English cricketer
  • 1982 – Marco Russo, Italian footballer
  • 1983 – Johnathan Thurston, Australian rugby league player
  • 1983 – DeAngelo Williams, American football player
  • 1984 – Robert Andino, American baseball player
  • 1984 – Isaac Kiprono Songok, Kenyan runner
  • 1985 – Giedo van der Garde, Dutch racing driver
  • 1986 – Alexei Emelin, Russian ice hockey player
  • 1986 – Thin Seng Hon, Cambodian Paralympic athlete
  • 1986 – Gwen Jorgensen, American triathlete
  • 1986 – Claudia Rath, German heptathlete
  • 1987 – Razak Boukari, Togolese footballer
  • 1987 – Jay Park, American-South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1987 – Johann Smith, American soccer player
  • 1988 – James Sheppard, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1989 – Marie-Michèle Gagnon, Canadian skier
  • 1989 – Michael van Gerwen, Dutch darts player
  • 1989 – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, one of the highest-ranking spiritual leaders in Tibet
  • 1990 – Jean-Éric Vergne, French racing driver
  • 1990 – Taylor Walker, Australian footballer
  • 1991 – Alex Shibutani, American ice dancer
  • 1993 – Alex Bowman, American race car driver
  • 1993 – Daniel Norris, American baseball player
  • 1994 – Omar McLeod, Jamaican hurdler
  • 1995 – Lewis Baker, English footballer
  • 1996 – Mack Horton, Australian swimmer
  • 1997 – Julius Ertlthaler, Austrian footballer

Deaths on April 25

  • 501 – Rusticus, saint and archbishop of Lyon (b. 455)
  • 775 – Smbat VII Bagratuni, Armenian prince
  • 775 – Mushegh VI Mamikonian, Armenian prince
  • 908 – Zhang Wenwei, Chinese chancellor
  • 1074 – Herman I, Margrave of Baden
  • 1077 – Géza I of Hungary (b. 1040)
  • 1185 – Emperor Antoku of Japan (b. 1178)
  • 1217 – Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia
  • 1228 – Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem (b. 1212)
  • 1243 – Boniface of Valperga, Bishop of Aosta
  • 1264 – Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, medieval English nobleman; Earl of Winchester (b. 1195)
  • 1295 – Sancho IV of Castile (b. 1258)
  • 1342 – Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285)
  • 1397 – Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, English nobleman
  • 1472 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian author, poet, and philosopher (b. 1404)
  • 1516 – John Yonge, English diplomat (b. 1467)
  • 1566 – Louise Labé, French poet and author (b. 1520)
  • 1566 – Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II of France (b. 1499)
  • 1595 – Torquato Tasso, Italian poet and songwriter (b. 1544)
  • 1605 – Naresuan, Siamese King of Ayutthaya Kingdom (b. c. 1555)
  • 1644 – Chongzhen Emperor of China (b. 1611)
  • 1660 – Henry Hammond, English cleric and theologian (b. 1605)
  • 1690 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter and educator (b. 1610)
  • 1744 – Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (b. 1701)
  • 1770 – Jean-Antoine Nollet, French minister, physicist, and academic (b. 1700)
  • 1800 – William Cowper, English poet (b. 1731)
  • 1840 – Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1781)
  • 1873 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter and sculptor (b. 1783)
  • 1875 – 12th Dalai Lama (b. 1857)
  • 1878 – Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)
  • 1890 – Crowfoot, Canadian tribal chief (b. 1830)
  • 1891 – Nathaniel Woodard, English priest and educator (b. 1811)
  • 1892 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (b. 1840)
  • 1892 – Karl von Ditmar, Estonian-German geologist and explorer (b. 1822)
  • 1906 – John Knowles Paine, American composer and educator (b. 1839)
  • 1911 – Emilio Salgari, Italian journalist and author (b. 1862)
  • 1913 – Joseph-Alfred Archambeault, Canadian bishop (b. 1859)
  • 1915 – Frederick W. Seward, American journalist, lawyer, and politician, 6th United States Assistant Secretary of State (b. 1830)
  • 1919 – Augustus D. Juilliard, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1836)
  • 1923 – Louis-Olivier Taillon, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)
  • 1928 – Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian general (b. 1878)
  • 1941 – Salih Bozok, Turkish commander and politician (b. 1881)
  • 1943 – Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Russian director, producer, and playwright (b. 1858)
  • 1944 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (b. 1880)
  • 1944 – Tony Mullane, Irish-American baseball player (b. 1859)
  • 1944 – William Stephens, American engineer and politician, 24th Governor of California (b. 1859)
  • 1945 – Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (b. 1903)
  • 1961 – Robert Garrett, American discus thrower and shot putter (b. 1875)
  • 1970 – Anita Louise, American actress (b. 1915)
  • 1972 – George Sanders, English actor (b. 1906)
  • 1973 – Olga Grey, Hungarian-American actress (b. 1896)
  • 1974 – Gustavo R. Vincenti, Maltese architect and developer (b. 1888)
  • 1975 – Mike Brant, Israeli singer and songwriter (b.1947)
  • 1976 – Carol Reed, English director and producer (b. 1906)
  • 1976 – Markus Reiner, Israeli engineer and educator (b. 1886)
  • 1982 – John Cody, American cardinal (b. 1907)
  • 1983 – William S. Bowdern, American priest and author (b. 1897)
  • 1988 – Carolyn Franklin, American singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
  • 1988 – Clifford D. Simak, American journalist and author (b. 1904)
  • 1990 – Dexter Gordon, American saxophonist, composer, and actor (b. 1923)
  • 1992 – Yutaka Ozaki, Japanese singer-songwriter (b. 1965)
  • 1995 – Art Fleming, American game show host (b. 1925)
  • 1995 – Ginger Rogers, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
  • 1995 – Lev Shankovsky, Ukrainian military historian (b. 1903)
  • 1996 – Saul Bass, American graphic designer and director (b. 1920)
  • 1998 – Wright Morris, American author and photographer (b. 1910)
  • 1999 – Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, Irish journalist and author (b. 1914)
  • 1999 – Roger Troutman, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1951)
  • 2000 – Lucien Le Cam, French mathematician and statistician (b. 1924)
  • 2000 – David Merrick, American director and producer (b. 1911)
  • 2001 – Michele Alboreto, Italian racing driver (b. 1956)
  • 2002 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper and dancer (b. 1971)
  • 2003 – Samson Kitur, Kenyan runner (b. 1966)
  • 2004 – Thom Gunn, English-American poet and academic (b. 1929)
  • 2005 – Jim Barker, American politician (b. 1935)
  • 2005 – Swami Ranganathananda, Indian monk and educator (b. 1908)
  • 2006 – Jane Jacobs, American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist (b. 1916)
  • 2006 – Peter Law, Welsh politician and independent member of parliament (b. 1948)
  • 2007 – Alan Ball Jr., English footballer and manager (b. 1945)
  • 2007 – Arthur Milton, English footballer and cricketer (b. 1928)
  • 2007 – Bobby Pickett, American singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
  • 2008 – Humphrey Lyttelton, English trumpet player, composer, and radio host (b. 1921)
  • 2009 – Bea Arthur, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
  • 2010 – Dorothy Provine, American actress and singer (b. 1935)
  • 2010 – Alan Sillitoe, English novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet (b. 1928)
  • 2011 – Poly Styrene, British musician (b. 1957)
  • 2012 – Gerry Bahen, Australian footballer (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Denny Jones, American rancher and politician (b. 1910)
  • 2012 – Moscelyne Larkin, American ballerina and educator (b. 1925)
  • 2012 – Louis le Brocquy, Irish painter and illustrator (b. 1916)
  • 2013 – Brian Adam, Scottish biochemist and politician (b. 1948)
  • 2013 – Jacob Avshalomov, American composer and conductor (b. 1919)
  • 2013 – György Berencsi, Hungarian virologist and academic (b. 1941)
  • 2013 – Rick Camp, American baseball player (b. 1953)
  • 2014 – Dan Heap, Canadian priest and politician (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – William Judson Holloway Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and judge (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Earl Morrall, American football player and coach (b. 1934)
  • 2014 – Tito Vilanova, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1968)
  • 2014 – Stefanie Zweig, German journalist and author (b. 1932)
  • 2015 – Jim Fanning, American-Canadian baseball player and manager (b. 1927)
  • 2015 – Matthias Kuhle, German geographer and academic (b. 1948)
  • 2015 – Don Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and novelist (b. 1922)
  • 2015 – Mike Phillips, American basketball player (b. 1956)
  • 2016 – Tom Lewis, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of New South Wales (b. 1922)
  • 2018 – Madeeha Gauhar, Pakistani actress, playwright and director of social theater, and women’s rights activist (b. 1956)
  • 2019 – John Havlicek, American basketball player (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances on April 25

  • Anniversary of the First Cabinet of Kurdish Government (Iraqi Kurdistan)
  • Anzac Day (Australia, New Zealand)
  • Arbor Day (Germany)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Giovanni Battista Piamarta
    • Major Rogation (Western Christianity)
    • Mark the Evangelist
    • Maughold
    • Philo and Agathopodes
    • Anianus of Alexandria
    • April 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • DNA Day
  • Flag Day (Faroe Islands)
  • Freedom Day (Portugal)
  • Liberation Day (Italy)
  • Liberation Day (South Georgia)
  • Military Foundation Day (North Korea)
  • Parental Alienation Awareness Day
  • Red Hat Society Day
  • Sinai Liberation Day (Egypt)
  • World Malaria Day

April 25 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty).
  • 1183 BC – Traditional reckoning of the Fall of Troy marking the end of the legendary Trojan War, given by chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria Erastothenes, among others.
  • 1547 – Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League.
  • 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
  • 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
  • 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.
  • 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
  • 1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
  • 1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop “Spray”.
  • 1913 – The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened.
  • 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
  • 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
  • 1916 – Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.
  • 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
  • 1918 – World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
  • 1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
  • 1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
  • 1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
  • 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
  • 1944 – World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.
  • 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
  • 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
  • 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
  • 1963 – Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d’état against Juan Bosch.
  • 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
  • 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily”.
  • 1970 – China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
  • 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
  • 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
  • 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
  • 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
  • 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.
  • 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
  • 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
  • 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
  • 2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.
  • 2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.
  • 2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China’s Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

Births on April 24

  • 1086 – Ramiro II of Aragon (d. 1157)
  • 1492 – Sabina of Bavaria, Bavarian duchess and noblewoman (d. 1564)
  • 1532 – Thomas Lucy, English politician (d. 1600)
  • 1533 – William I of Orange, founding father of the Netherlands (d. 1584)
  • 1538 – Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (d. 1587)
  • 1545 – Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, English Earl (d. 1581)
  • 1562 – Xu Guangqi, Ming Dynasty Chinese politician, scholar and lay Catholic leader (d. 1633)
  • 1581 – Vincent de Paul, French priest and saint (d. 1660)
  • 1608 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, third son of King Henry IV of France (d. 1660)
  • 1620 – John Graunt, English demographer and statistician (d. 1674)
  • 1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1780)
  • 1718 – Nathaniel Hone the Elder, Irish-English painter and educator (d. 1784)
  • 1743 – Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman and engineer, invented the power loom (d. 1823)
  • 1784 – Peter Vivian Daniel, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1860)
  • 1815 – Anthony Trollope, English novelist, essayist, and short story writer (d. 1882)
  • 1823 – Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, Mexican politician, President of Mexico (d. 1889)
  • 1845 – Carl Spitteler, Swiss poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
  • 1856 – Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (d. 1951)
  • 1860 – Queen Marau, last Queen of Tahiti (d.1935)
  • 1862 – Tomitaro Makino, Japanese botanist (d. 1957)
  • 1868 – Sandy Herd, Scottish golfer (d. 1944)
  • 1876 – Erich Raeder, German admiral (d. 1960)
  • 1878 – Jean Crotti, Swiss-French painter (d. 1958)
  • 1879 – Susanna Bokoyni, Hungarian-American circus performer (d. 1984)
  • 1880 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer and businessman, developed the zipper (d. 1954)
  • 1880 – Josef Müller, Croatian entomologist (d. 1964)
  • 1882 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish-English air marshal (d. 1970)
  • 1885 – Thomas Cronan, American triple jumper (d. 1962)
  • 1885 – Con Walsh, Irish-Canadian hammer thrower and footballer (d. 1961)
  • 1887 – Denys Finch Hatton, English hunter (d. 1931)
  • 1888 – Pe Maung Tin, Burma-based scholar and educator (d. 1973)
  • 1889 – Stafford Cripps, English academic and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1952)
  • 1889 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter and academic (d. 1924)
  • 1897 – Manuel Ávila Camacho, Mexican colonel and politician, 45th President of Mexico (d. 1955)
  • 1897 – Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist, anthropologist, and engineer (d. 1941)
  • 1899 – Oscar Zariski, Russian-American mathematician and academic (d. 1986)
  • 1900 – Elizabeth Goudge, English author and educator (d. 1984)
  • 1903 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician, founded the Falange (d. 1936)
  • 1904 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter and educator (d. 1997)
  • 1905 – Al Bates, American long jumper (d. 1999)
  • 1905 – Robert Penn Warren, American novelist, poet, and literary critic (d. 1989)
  • 1906 – William Joyce, American-born Irish-British Nazi propaganda broadcaster (d. 1946)
  • 1906 – Mimi Smith, English nurse (d. 1991)
  • 1907 – Gabriel Figueroa, Mexican cinematographer (d. 1997)
  • 1908 – Marceline Day, American actress (d. 2000)
  • 1908 – Inga Gentzel, Swedish runner (d. 1991)
  • 1908 – Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor (d. 1963)
  • 1912 – Ruth Osburn, American discus thrower (d. 1994)
  • 1913 – Dieter Grau, German-American scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
  • 1914 – William Castle, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1977)
  • 1914 – Phil Watson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1991)
  • 1914 – Justin Wilson, American chef and author (d. 2001)
  • 1916 – Lou Thesz, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2002)
  • 1919 – David Blackwell, American mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
  • 1919 – Glafcos Clerides, Cypriot lawyer and politician, 4th President of Cyprus (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – Gino Valenzano, Italian race car driver (d. 2011)
  • 1922 – Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Canadian anthropologist and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1923 – Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2005)
  • 1923 – Doris Burn, American author and illustrator (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – Clement Freud, German-English radio host, academic, and politician (d. 2009)
  • 1924 – Ruth Kobart, American actress and singer (d. 2002)
  • 1925 – Franco Leccese, Italian sprinter (d. 1992)
  • 1926 – Marilyn Erskine, American actress
  • 1926 – Thorbjörn Fälldin, Swedish farmer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 2016)
  • 1927 – Josy Barthel, Luxembourgian runner and politician, Luxembourgian Minister for Energy (d. 1992)
  • 1928 – Tommy Docherty, Scottish footballer and manager
  • 1928 – Johnny Griffin, American saxophonist (d. 2008)
  • 1928 – Anahit Perikhanian, Russian-born Armenian Iranologist (d. 2012)
  • 1929 – Dr. Rajkumar, Indian actor and singer (d. 2006)
  • 1930 – Jerome Callet, American instrument designer, educator, and author (d. 2019)
  • 1930 – Richard Donner, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1930 – José Sarney, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 31st President of Brazil
  • 1931 – Abdelhamid Kermali, Algerian footballer and manager (d. 2013)
  • 1931 – Bridget Riley, English painter and illustrator
  • 1934 – Jayakanthan, Indian journalist and author (d. 2015)
  • 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1936 – David Crombie, Canadian educator and politician, 56th Mayor of Toronto
  • 1936 – Jill Ireland, English actress (d. 1990)
  • 1937 – Joe Henderson, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2001)
  • 1940 – Sue Grafton, American author (d. 2017)
  • 1941 – Richard Holbrooke, American journalist, banker, and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2010)
  • 1941 – John Williams, Australian-English guitarist and composer
  • 1942 – Richard M. Daley, American lawyer and politician, 54th Mayor of Chicago
  • 1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, activist, and producer
  • 1943 – Richard Sterban, American country & gospel bass singer
  • 1943 – Gordon West, English footballer (d. 2012)
  • 1944 – Peter Cresswell, English judge
  • 1944 – Maarja Nummert, Estonian architect
  • 1944 – Tony Visconti, American record producer, musician and singer
  • 1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer and songwriter
  • 1946 – Doug Christie, Canadian lawyer and activist (d. 2013)
  • 1947 – Josep Borrell, Spanish engineer and politician, 22nd President of the European Parliament
  • 1947 – João Braz de Aviz, Brazilian cardinal
  • 1947 – Claude Dubois, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Denise Kingsmill, Baroness Kingsmill, New Zealand-English lawyer and politician
  • 1947 – Roger D. Kornberg, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1948 – Paul Cellucci, American soldier and politician, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2013)
  • 1948 – Eliana Gil, Ecuadorian-American psychiatrist, therapist, and author
  • 1949 – Eddie Hart, American sprinter
  • 1949 – Véronique Sanson, French singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1950 – Rob Hyman, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1951 – Ron Arad, Israeli architect and academic
  • 1951 – Christian Bobin, French author and poet
  • 1951 – Nigel Harrison, English bass player and songwriter
  • 1951 – Enda Kenny, Irish educator and politician, 13th Taoiseach of Ireland
  • 1952 – Jean Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer
  • 1952 – Ralph Winter, American film producer
  • 1953 – Eric Bogosian, American actor and writer
  • 1954 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist, activist, and convicted murderer
  • 1954 – Jack Blades, American singer-songwriter and bass player
  • 1955 – Marion Caspers-Merk, German politician
  • 1955 – John de Mol Jr., Dutch businessman, co-founded Endemol
  • 1955 – Eamon Gilmore, Irish trade union leader and politician, 25th Tánaiste of Ireland
  • 1955 – Margaret Moran, British politician and criminal
  • 1955 – Guy Nève, Belgian race car driver (d. 1992)
  • 1955 – Michael O’Keefe, American actor
  • 1955 – Bill Osborne, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1956 – James A. Winnefeld, Jr., American admiral
  • 1957 – Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed, Pakistani-English businessman and politician
  • 1958 – Brian Paddick, English police officer and politician
  • 1959 – Paula Yates, British-Australian television host and author (d. 2000)
  • 1961 – Andrew Murrison, English physician and politician, Minister for International Security Strategy
  • 1962 – Clemens Binninger, German politician
  • 1962 – Stuart Pearce, English footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1962 – Steve Roach, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1963 – Paula Frazer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1963 – Billy Gould, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1963 – Mano Solo, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2010)
  • 1964 – Helga Arendt, German sprinter (d. 2013)
  • 1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian, actor, and producer
  • 1964 – Djimon Hounsou, Beninese-American actor and producer
  • 1964 – Witold Smorawiński, Polish guitarist, composer, and educator
  • 1965 – Jeff Jackson, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
  • 1966 – Pierre Brassard, Canadian comedian and actor
  • 1966 – Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1966 – David Usher, English-Canadian singer-songwriter
  • 1967 – Dino Rađa, Croatian basketball player
  • 1967 – Omar Vizquel, Venezuelan-American baseball player and coach
  • 1968 – Aidan Gillen, Irish actor
  • 1968 – Todd Jones, American baseball player
  • 1968 – Roxanna Panufnik, English composer
  • 1968 – Hashim Thaçi, Kosovan soldier and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Kosovo
  • 1969 – Elias Atmatsidis, Greek footballer
  • 1969 – Rory McCann, Scottish actor
  • 1969 – Eilidh Whiteford, Scottish academic and politician
  • 1970 – Damien Fleming, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1971 – Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lankan cricketer and umpire
  • 1971 – Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1972 – Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer
  • 1972 – Chipper Jones, American baseball player
  • 1972 – Jure Košir, Slovenian skier and singer
  • 1973 – Gabby Logan, English gymnast, television and radio host
  • 1973 – Damon Lindelof, American screenwriter and producer
  • 1973 – Brian Marshall, American bass player and songwriter
  • 1973 – Eric Snow, American basketball player and coach
  • 1973 – Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
  • 1973 – Toomas Tohver, Estonian footballer
  • 1973 – Lee Westwood, English golfer
  • 1974 – Eric Kripke, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1974 – Stephen Wiltshire, English illustrator
  • 1975 – Dejan Savić, Yugoslavian and Serbian water polo player
  • 1976 – Steve Finnan, Irish international footballer
  • 1976 – Frédéric Niemeyer, Canadian tennis player and coach
  • 1977 – Carlos Beltrán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
  • 1977 – Diego Placente, Argentine footballer
  • 1978 – Diego Quintana, Argentine footballer
  • 1980 – Fernando Arce, Mexican footballer
  • 1980 – Karen Asrian, Armenian chess player (d. 2008)
  • 1981 – Taylor Dent, American tennis player
  • 1981 – Yuko Nakanishi, Japanese swimmer
  • 1982 – Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
  • 1982 – David Oliver, American hurdler
  • 1982 – Simon Tischer, German volleyball player
  • 1983 – Hanna Melnychenko, Ukrainian heptathlete
  • 1985 – Mike Rodgers, American sprinter
  • 1986 – Aaron Cunningham, American baseball player
  • 1987 – Ben Howard, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1987 – Kris Letang, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1987 – Rein Taaramäe, Estonian cyclist
  • 1987 – Jan Vertonghen, Belgian international footballer
  • 1987 – Varun Dhawan, Indian actor
  • 1989 – Elīna Babkina, Latvian basketball player
  • 1989 – David Boudia, American diver
  • 1989 – Taja Mohorčič, Slovenian tennis player
  • 1990 – Kim Tae-ri, South Korean actress
  • 1990 – Jan Veselý, Czech basketball player
  • 1991 – Sigrid Agren, French-Swedish model
  • 1991 – Morgan Ciprès, French figure skater
  • 1991 – Batuhan Karadeniz, Turkish footballer
  • 1992 – Joe Keery, American actor
  • 1992 – Laura Kenny, English cyclist
  • 1993 – Ben Davies, Welsh international footballer
  • 1994 – Jordan Fisher, American singer, dancer, and actor
  • 1994 – Caspar Lee, British-South African Youtuber
  • 1996 – Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player
  • 1997 – Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer
  • 1997 – Veronika Kudermetova, Russian tennis player
  • 1998 – Ryan Newman, American actress
  • 1999 – Jerry Jeudy, American football player

Deaths on April 24

  • 624 – Mellitus, saint, and archbishop of Canterbury
  • 1149 – Petronille de Chemillé, abbess of Fontevrault
  • 1288 – Gertrude of Austria (b. 1226)
  • 1338 – Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (b. 1291)
  • 1479 – Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet (b. 1440)
  • 1513 – Şehzade Ahmet, Ottoman prince (b. 1465)
  • 1617 – Concino Concini, Italian-French politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1575)
  • 1622 – Fidelis of Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (b. 1577)
  • 1656 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
  • 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English journalist, novelist, and spy (b. 1660)
  • 1748 – Anton thor Helle, German-Estonian clergyman and translator (b. 1683)
  • 1779 – Eleazar Wheelock, American minister and academic, founded Dartmouth College (b. 1711)
  • 1794 – Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish field marshal and politician (b. 1719)
  • 1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and translator (b. 1783)
  • 1889 – Zulma Carraud, French author (b. 1796)
  • 1891 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (b. 1800)
  • 1924 – G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and academic (b. 1844)
  • 1931 – David Kldiashvili, Georgian author and playwright (b. 1862)
  • 1935 – Anastasios Papoulas, Greek general (b. 1857)
  • 1938 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)
  • 1939 – Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881)
  • 1941 – Karin Boye, Swedish author and poet (b. 1900)
  • 1942 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)
  • 1944 – Charles Jordan, American magician (b. 1888)
  • 1945 – Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician (b. 1899)
  • 1947 – Hans Biebow, German SS officer (b. 1902)
  • 1947 – Willa Cather, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1873)
  • 1948 – Jāzeps Vītols, Latvian composer (b. 1863)
  • 1954 – Guy Mairesse, French race car driver (b. 1910)
  • 1960 – Max von Laue, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
  • 1961 – Lee Moran, American actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1888)
  • 1962 – Milt Franklyn, American composer (b. 1897)
  • 1964 – Gerhard Domagk, German pathologist and bacteriologist (b. 1895)
  • 1965 – Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)
  • 1966 – Simon Chikovani, Georgian poet and author (b. 1902)
  • 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)
  • 1967 – Robert Richards, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of South Australia (b. 1885)
  • 1968 – Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
  • 1970 – Otis Spann, American singer and pianist (b. 1930)
  • 1972 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
  • 1974 – Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (b. 1895)
  • 1975 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
  • 1976 – Mark Tobey, American-Swiss painter and educator (b. 1890)
  • 1980 – Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban musicologist and author (b. 1904)
  • 1982 – Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (b. 1896)
  • 1983 – Erol Güngör, Turkish sociologist, psychologist, and academic (b. 1938)
  • 1983 – Rolf Stommelen, German race car driver (b. 1943)
  • 1984 – Rafael Pérez y Pérez, Spanish author (b. 1891)
  • 1993 – Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer and activist (b. 1917)
  • 1993 – Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher and theorist (b. 1917)
  • 1995 – Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (b. 1903)
  • 1997 – Allan Francovich, American director and producer (b. 1941)
  • 1997 – Pat Paulsen, American comedian and activist (b. 1927)
  • 1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (b. 1922)
  • 2001 – Josef Peters, German race car driver (b. 1914)
  • 2001 – Johnny Valentine, American wrestler (b. 1928)
  • 2002 – Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgian sculptor (b. 1908)
  • 2004 – José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and producer (b. 1923)
  • 2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906)
  • 2005 – Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (b. 1924)
  • 2005 – Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
  • 2006 – Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)
  • 2006 – Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi and author (b. 1914)
  • 2008 – Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, and saxophonist, and composer (b. 1921)
  • 2011 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philanthropist (b. 1926)
  • 2014 – Hans Hollein, Austrian architect, designed Haas House (b. 1934)
  • 2014 – Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer and manager (b. 1948)
  • 2014 – Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1968)
  • 2014 – Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1921)
  • 2015 – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1922)
  • 2016 – Tommy Kono, American weightlifter and coach (b. 1930)
  • 2017 – Robert Pirsig, American author and philosopher (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances on April 24

  • Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Armenia, France)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Benedict Menni
    • Dermot of Armagh
    • Dyfnan of Anglesey
    • Ecgberht of Ripon
    • Fidelis of Sigmaringen
    • Gregory of Elvira
    • Ivo of Ramsey
    • Johann Walter (Lutheran)
    • Mary of Clopas
    • Mary Euphrasia Pelletier
    • Mellitus
    • Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur
    • Salome (disciple)
    • Wilfrid (Church of England)
    • William Firmatus
    • April 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Concord Day (Niger)
  • Democracy Day (Nepal)
  • Earliest day on which Arbor Day can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Friday in April. (United States)
  • Earliest day on which Turkmen Racing Horse Festival can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in April. (Turkmenistan)
  • Fashion Revolution Day, and its related observances:
    • Labour Safety Day (Bangladesh, proposed)
  • Kapyong Day (Australia, Canada)
  • National Panchayati Raj Day (India)
  • St Mark’s Eve
  • Republic Day (The Gambia)
  • World Day for Laboratory Animals

April 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
  • 599 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul attacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico, defeating queen Yohl Ik’nal and sacking the city.
  • 711 – Dagobert III succeeds his father King Childebert III as King of the Franks.
  • 1014 – Battle of Clontarf: High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
  • 1016 – Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as King of England.
  • 1343 – St. George’s Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia.
  • 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George’s Day.
  • 1516 – The Munich Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) takes effect in all of Bavaria.
  • 1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
  • 1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.
  • 1655 – The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later.
  • 1660 – Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland.
  • 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
  • 1815 – The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.
  • 1879 – Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, which prompts the construction of the third, and current, Main Building with its golden dome.
  • 1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago.
  • 1918 – World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.
  • 1920 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara. The assembly denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution.
  • 1927 – Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.
  • 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
  • 1940 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.
  • 1941 – World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.
  • 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz: German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
  • 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler’s designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Hitler that the telegram is treasonous.
  • 1946 – Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
  • 1949 – Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
  • 1951 – Cold War: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
  • 1961 – Algiers putsch by French generals.
  • 1967 – Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1) a manned spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov is launched into orbit.
  • 1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
  • 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
  • 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
  • 1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
  • 1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
  • 1993 – Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province.
  • 1999 – NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia, as part of their aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
  • 2005 – The first ever YouTube video, titled “Me at the zoo”, was published by co-founder Jawed Karim.
  • 2013 – At least 28 people are killed and more than 70 are injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq.
  • 2018 – A vehicle-ramming attack kills 10 people and injures 16 in Toronto. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested.
  • 2019 – The 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse in Myanmar kills four miners and two rescuers.

Births on April 23

  • 1141 (probable) – Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)
  • 1185 – Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1223)
  • 1408 – John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (d. 1462)
  • 1420 – George of Poděbrady, King of Bohemia (d. 1471)
  • 1464 – Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (d. 1505)
  • 1464 – Robert Fayrfax, English Renaissance composer (d. 1521)
  • 1484 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian physician and scholar (d. 1558)
  • 1500 – Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian and academic (d. 1565)
  • 1500 – Johann Stumpf, Swiss writer (d. 1576)
  • 1512 – Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, Chancellor of the University of Oxford (d. 1580)
  • 1516 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian, and archaeologist (d. 1571)
  • 1598 – Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral (d. 1653)
  • 1621 – William Penn, English admiral and politician (d. 1670)
  • 1628 – Johannes Hudde, Dutch mathematician and politician (d. 1704)
  • 1661 – Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, merchant and diplomat (d. 1730)
  • 1715 – Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer and conductor (d. 1797)
  • 1720 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi and author (d. 1797)
  • 1744 – Princess Charlotte Amalie Wilhelmine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (d. 1770)
  • 1748 – Félix Vicq-d’Azyr, French physician and anatomist (d. 1794)
  • 1791 – James Buchanan, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
  • 1792 – Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
  • 1794 – Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar and author (d. 1856)
  • 1805 – Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher and academic (d. 1879)
  • 1812 – Frederick Whitaker, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891)
  • 1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, American educator and politician, 7th Illinois Secretary of State (d. 1861)
  • 1813 – Frédéric Ozanam, Italian-French historian and scholar (d. 1853)
  • 1818 – James Anthony Froude, English historian, novelist, biographer and editor (d. 1894)
  • 1819 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1901)
  • 1853 – Winthrop M. Crane, American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1920)
  • 1856 – Granville Woods, American inventor and engineer (d. 1910)
  • 1857 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (d. 1919)
  • 1858 – Max Planck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
  • 1860 – Justinian Oxenham, Australian public servant (d. 1932)
  • 1861 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, English field marshal and diplomat, British High Commissioner in Egypt (d. 1936)
  • 1861 – John Peltz, American baseball player and manager (d. 1906)
  • 1865 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general (d. 1943)
  • 1867 – Johannes Fibiger, Danish physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
  • 1876 – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, German historian and author (d. 1925)
  • 1880 – Michel Fokine, Russian dancer and choreographer (d. 1942)
  • 1882 – Albert Coates, English composer and conductor (d. 1953)
  • 1888 – Georges Vanier, Canadian general and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
  • 1889 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)
  • 1893 – Frank Borzage, American actor and director (d. 1952)
  • 1895 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author and director (d. 1982)
  • 1897 – Folke Jansson, American general (d. 1965)
  • 1897 – Lester B. Pearson, Canadian historian and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
  • 1898 – Lucius D. Clay, American general (d. 1978)
  • 1899 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
  • 1899 – Minoru Shirota, Japanese physician and microbiologist, invented Yakult (d. 1982)
  • 1900 – Jim Bottomley, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1959)
  • 1900 – Joseph Green, Polish-American actor and director (d. 1996)
  • 1901 – E. B. Ford, English biologist and geneticist (d. 1988)
  • 1902 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
  • 1903 – Guy Simonds, English-Canadian general (d. 1974)
  • 1904 – Clifford Bricker, Canadian long-distance runner (d. 1980)
  • 1904 – Louis Muhlstock, Polish-Canadian painter (d. 2001)
  • 1904 – Duncan Renaldo, American actor (d. 1985)
  • 1907 – Lee Miller, American model and photographer (d. 1977)
  • 1907 – Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor, designed the Wotruba Church (d. 1975)
  • 1908 – Myron Waldman, American animator and director (d. 2006)
  • 1910 – Sheila Scott Macintyre, Scottish mathematician (d. 1960)
  • 1910 – Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005)
  • 1911 – Ronald Neame, English-American director, cinematographer, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1913 – Diosa Costello, Puerto Rican-American entertainer, producer and club owner (d. 2013)
  • 1915 – Arnold Alexander Hall, English engineer, academic, and businessman (d. 2000)
  • 1916 – Yiannis Moralis, Greek painter and educator (d. 2009)
  • 1916 – Sinah Estelle Kelley, American chemist (d. 1982)
  • 1917 – Dorian Leigh, American model (d. 2008)
  • 1917 – Tony Lupien, American baseball player and coach (d. 2004)
  • 1918 – Maurice Druon, French author and screenwriter (d. 2009)
  • 1919 – Oleg Penkovsky, Russian colonel (d. 1963)
  • 1920 – Eric Grant Yarrow, 3rd Baronet, English businessman (d. 2018)
  • 1921 – Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States (d. 2012)
  • 1921 – Cleto Bellucci, Italian archbishop (d. 2013)
  • 1921 – Janet Blair, American actress and singer (d. 2007)
  • 1921 – Warren Spahn, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
  • 1923 – Dolph Briscoe, American lieutenant and politician, 41st Governor of Texas (d. 2010)
  • 1923 – Avram Davidson, American soldier and author (d. 1993)
  • 1924 – Chuck Harmon, American baseball player and scout (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Bobby Rosengarden, American drummer and bandleader (d. 2007)
  • 1926 – J.P. Donleavy, American-Irish novelist and playwright (d. 2017)
  • 1926 – Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (d. 1990)
  • 1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat (d. 2014)
  • 1929 – George Steiner, French-American philosopher, author, and critic (d. 2020)
  • 1932 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
  • 1932 – Jim Fixx, American runner and author (d. 1984)
  • 1933 – Annie Easley, American computer scientist, mathematician, and engineer (d. 2011)
  • 1934 – George Canseco, Filipino composer and producer (d. 2004)
  • 1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter (d. 1988)
  • 1937 – Victoria Glendinning, English author and critic
  • 1937 – David Mills, English cricketer (d. 2013)
  • 1937 – Barry Shepherd, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
  • 1939 – Jorge Fons, Mexican director and screenwriter
  • 1939 – Bill Hagerty, English journalist
  • 1939 – Lee Majors, American actor
  • 1939 – Ray Peterson, American pop singer (d. 2005)
  • 1940 – Michael Copps, American academic and politician
  • 1940 – Dale Houston, American singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
  • 1940 – Michael Kadosh, Israeli footballer and manager (d. 2014)
  • 1941 – Jacqueline Boyer, French singer and actress
  • 1941 – Arie den Hartog, Dutch road bicycle racer (d. 2018)
  • 1941 – Paavo Lipponen, Finnish journalist and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Finland
  • 1941 – Michael Lynne, American film producer, co-founded New Line Cinema
  • 1941 – Ed Stewart, English radio and television host (d. 2016)
  • 1941 – Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer and engineer (d. 2016)
  • 1942 – Sandra Dee, American model and actress (d. 2005)
  • 1943 – Gail Goodrich, American basketball player and coach
  • 1943 – Tony Esposito, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager
  • 1943 – Frans Koppelaar, Dutch painter
  • 1943 – Hervé Villechaize, French actor (d. 1993)
  • 1944 – Jean-François Stévenin, French actor and director
  • 1946 – Blair Brown, American actress
  • 1946 – Carlton Sherwood, American soldier and journalist (d. 2014)
  • 1947 – Robert Burgess, English sociologist and academic
  • 1947 – Glenn Cornick, English bass player (d. 2014)
  • 1947 – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Irish civil rights leader and politician
  • 1948 – Pascal Quignard, French author and screenwriter
  • 1948 – Serge Thériault, Canadian actor
  • 1949 – Paul Collier, English economist and academic
  • 1949 – David Cross, English violinist
  • 1949 – John Miles, British rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist
  • 1950 – Rowley Leigh, English chef and journalist
  • 1950 – Barbara McIlvaine Smith, Sac and Fox Nation Native American politician
  • 1951 – Martin Bayerle, American treasure hunter
  • 1952 – Narada Michael Walden, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer
  • 1953 – James Russo, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1954 – Stephen Dalton, English air marshal
  • 1954 – Michael Moore, American director, producer, and activist
  • 1955 – Judy Davis, Australian actress
  • 1955 – Tony Miles, English chess player (d. 2001)
  • 1955 – Urmas Ott, Estonian journalist and author (d. 2008)
  • 1957 – Neville Brody, English graphic designer, typographer, and art director
  • 1957 – Jan Hooks, American actress and comedian (d. 2014)
  • 1958 – Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Icelandic composer and producer
  • 1958 – Ryan Walter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1959 – Unity Dow, Botswanan judge, author, and rights activist
  • 1960 – Valerie Bertinelli, American actress
  • 1960 – Steve Clark, English guitarist and songwriter (d. 1991)
  • 1960 – Barry Douglas, Irish pianist and conductor
  • 1960 – Léo Jaime, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1960 – Claude Julien, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1961 – George Lopez, American comedian, actor, and talk show host
  • 1961 – Pierluigi Martini, Italian race car driver
  • 1962 – John Hannah, Scottish actor and producer
  • 1962 – Shaun Spiers, English businessman and politician
  • 1963 – Paul Belmondo, French race car driver
  • 1963 – Robby Naish, American windsurfer
  • 1964 – Gianandrea Noseda, Italian pianist and conductor
  • 1965 – Leni Robredo, Filipina human rights lawyer, 14th Vice President of the Philippines
  • 1966 – Jörg Deisinger, German bass player
  • 1966 – Matt Freeman, American bass player
  • 1966 – Lembit Oll, Estonian chess Grandmaster (d. 1999)
  • 1967 – Rheal Cormier, Canadian baseball player
  • 1967 – Melina Kanakaredes, American actress
  • 1968 – Bas Haring, Dutch philosopher, writer, television presenter and professor.
  • 1968 – Ken McRae, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1968 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist, Oklahoma City bombing co-perpetrator (d. 2001)
  • 1969 – Martín López-Zubero, American-Spanish swimmer and coach
  • 1969 – Yelena Shushunova, Russian gymnast
  • 1970 – Egemen Bağış, Turkish politician, 1st Minister of European Union Affairs
  • 1970 – Dennis Culp, American singer-songwriter and trombonist
  • 1970 – Andrew Gee, Australian rugby league player and manager
  • 1970 – Hans Välimäki, Finnish chef and author
  • 1970 – Tayfur Havutçu, Turkish international footballer and manager
  • 1971 – Uli Herzner, German-American fashion designer
  • 1972 – Pierre Labrie, Canadian poet and playwright
  • 1972 – Peter Dench, English photographer and journalist
  • 1972 – Amira Medunjanin, singer from Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 1973 – Patrick Poulin, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1974 – Carlos Dengler, American bass player
  • 1974 – Michael Kerr, New Zealand-German rugby player
  • 1975 – Bobby Shaw, American football player
  • 1976 – Aaron Dessner, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
  • 1977 – John Cena, American professional wrestler and actor
  • 1977 – David Kidwell, New Zealand rugby league player and coach
  • 1977 – Willie Mitchell, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1977 – John Oliver, English comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1977 – Kal Penn, Indian-American actor
  • 1977 – Bram Schmitz, Dutch cyclist
  • 1977 – Lee Young-pyo, South Korean international footballer
  • 1978 – Gezahegne Abera, Ethiopian runner
  • 1979 – Barry Hawkins, English snooker player
  • 1979 – Jaime King, American actress and model
  • 1979 – Joanna Krupa, Polish-American model and television personality
  • 1979 – Samppa Lajunen, Finnish skier
  • 1982 – Tony Sunshine, American singer-songwriter
  • 1983 – Leon Andreasen, Danish international footballer
  • 1983 – Daniela Hantuchová, Slovak tennis player
  • 1983 – Ian Henderson, English rugby league player
  • 1984 – Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player
  • 1984 – Jesse Lee Soffer, American actor
  • 1985 – Angel Locsin, Filipino actress, producer, and fashion designer
  • 1986 – Sven Kramer, Dutch speed skater
  • 1986 – Alysia Montaño, American runner
  • 1986 – Rafael Fernandes, Brazilian baseball player
  • 1987 – Michael Arroyo, Ecuadorian footballer
  • 1987 – John Boye, Ghanaian footballer
  • 1987 – Emily Fox, American basketball player
  • 1988 – Victor Anichebe, Nigerian footballer
  • 1988 – Alistair Brownlee, English triathlete
  • 1988 – Signe Ronka, Canadian figure skater
  • 1988 – Lenka Wienerová, Slovak tennis player
  • 1989 – Nicole Vaidišová, Czech tennis player
  • 1990 – Rui Fonte, Portuguese footballer, winger
  • 1990 – Dev Patel, English actor
  • 1991 – Nathan Baker, English footballer
  • 1991 – Caleb Johnson, American singer-songwriter
  • 1991 – Paul Vaughan, Australian-Italian rugby league player
  • 1994 – Patrick Olsen, Danish footballer
  • 1994 – Song Kang, South Korean actor
  • 1995 – Gigi Hadid, American fashion model and television personality
  • 1997 – Zach Apple, American swimmer

Deaths on April 23

  • 303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr (b. 275)
  • 711 – Childebert III, Frankish king (b. 670)
  • 725 – Wihtred of Kent (b. 670)
  • 871 – Æthelred of Wessex (b. 837)
  • 915 – Yang Shihou, Chinese general
  • 944 – Wichmann the Elder, Saxon nobleman
  • 990 – Ekkehard II, Swiss monk and abbot
  • 997 – Adalbert of Prague, Czech bishop, missionary, and saint (b. 956)
  • 1014 – Brian Boru, Irish king (b. 941)
  • 1014 – Domnall mac Eimín, Mormaer of Mar
  • 1016 – Æthelred the Unready, English son of Edgar the Peaceful (b. 968)
  • 1124 – Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)
  • 1151 – Adeliza of Louvain (b. 1103)
  • 1170 – Minamoto no Tametomo, Japanese samurai (b. 1139)
  • 1196 – Béla III of Hungary (b. c.1148)
  • 1200 – Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher (b. 1130)
  • 1217 – Inge II of Norway (b. 1185)
  • 1262 – Aegidius of Assisi, companion of Saint Francis of Assisi
  • 1307 – Joan of Acre (b. 1272)
  • 1400 – Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford, English politician and nobleman (b. c. 1338)
  • 1407 – Olivier de Clisson, French soldier (b. 1326)
  • 1501 – Domenico della Rovere, Catholic cardinal (b. 1442)
  • 1554 – Gaspara Stampa, Italian poet (b. 1523)
  • 1605 – Boris Godunov, Russian ruler (b. 1551)
  • 1616 – William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet (b. 1564)
  • 1625 – Maurice, Prince of Orange (b. 1567)
  • 1695 – Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet and author (b. 1621)
  • 1702 – Margaret Fell, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (b. 1614)
  • 1781 – James Abercrombie, Scottish general and politician (b. 1706)
  • 1784 – Solomon I of Imereti (b. 1735)
  • 1792 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and author (b. 1741)
  • 1794 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French lawyer and politician (b. 1721)
  • 1827 – Georgios Karaiskakis, Greek general (b. 1780)
  • 1839 – Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French admiral and explorer (b. 1768)
  • 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet and author (b. 1770)
  • 1889 – Jules Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly, French author and critic (b. 1808)
  • 1895 – Carl Ludwig, German physician and physiologist (b. 1815)
  • 1905 – Gédéon Ouimet, Canadian politician, 2nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1823)
  • 1907 – Alferd Packer, American prospector (b. 1842)
  • 1915 – Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
  • 1936 – Teresa de la Parra, French-Venezuelan author (b. 1889)
  • 1951 – Jules Berry, French actor and director (b. 1883)
  • 1951 – Charles G. Dawes, American banker and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1865)
  • 1959 – Bak Jungyang, Korean politician
  • 1965 – George Adamski, Polish-American ufologist and author (b. 1891)
  • 1966 – George Ohsawa, Japanese founder of the Macrobiotic diet (b. 1893)
  • 1981 – Josep Pla, Catalan journalist and author (b. 1897)
  • 1983 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (b. 1908)
  • 1984 – Red Garland, American pianist (b. 1923)
  • 1985 – Sam Ervin, American lawyer and politician (b. 1896)
  • 1985 – Frank Farrell, Australian rugby league player and policeman (b. 1916)
  • 1986 – Harold Arlen, American composer (b. 1905)
  • 1986 – Jim Laker, English cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1922)
  • 1986 – Otto Preminger, Ukrainian-American actor, director, and producer (b. 1906)
  • 1990 – Paulette Goddard, American actress (b. 1910)
  • 1991 – Johnny Thunders, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952)
  • 1992 – Satyajit Ray, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
  • 1992 – Tanka Prasad Acharya, Nepalese politician, 27th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1912)
  • 1993 – Cesar Chavez, American activist, co-founded the United Farm Workers (b. 1927)
  • 1995 – Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian farmer and politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (b. 1895)
  • 1995 – Howard Cosell, American lawyer and journalist (b. 1918)
  • 1995 – Riho Lahi, Estonian journalist (b. 1904)
  • 1995 – John C. Stennis, American lawyer and politician (b. 1904)
  • 1996 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (b. 1913)
  • 1996 – P. L. Travers, Australian-English author and actress (b. 1899)
  • 1997 – Denis Compton, English cricketer and footballer (b. 1918)
  • 1998 – Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek lawyer and politician, 172nd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1907)
  • 1998 – James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928)
  • 1998 – Thanassis Skordalos, Greek singer-songwriter and lyra player (b. 1920)
  • 2003 – Fernand Fonssagrives, French-American photographer (b. 1910)
  • 2004 – Herman Veenstra, Dutch water polo player (b. 1911)
  • 2005 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
  • 2005 – Robert Farnon, Canadian-English trumpet player, composer and conductor (b. 1917)
  • 2005 – Al Grassby, Australian journalist and politician (b. 1928)
  • 2005 – John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
  • 2005 – Romano Scarpa, Italian author and illustrator (b. 1927)
  • 2005 – Earl Wilson, American baseball player, coach and educator (b. 1934)
  • 2006 – Phil Walden, American record producer and manager, co-founder of Capricorn Records (b. 1940)
  • 2007 – Paul Erdman, Canadian-American economist and author (b. 1932)
  • 2007 – David Halberstam, American journalist, historian and author (b. 1934)
  • 2007 – Peter Randall, English sergeant (b. 1930)
  • 2007 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (b. 1931)
  • 2010 – Peter Porter, Australian-born British poet (b. 1929)
  • 2011 – James Casey, English comedian, radio scriptwriter and producer (b. 1922)
  • 2011 – Tom King, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1943)
  • 2011 – Geoffrey Russell, 4th Baron Ampthill, English businessman and politician (b. 1921)
  • 2011 – Max van der Stoel, Dutch politician and Minister of State (b. 1924)
  • 2011 – John Sullivan, English screenwriter and producer (b. 1946)
  • 2012 – Lillemor Arvidsson, Swedish trade union leader and politician, 34th Governor of Gotland (b. 1943)
  • 2012 – Billy Bryans, Canadian drummer, songwriter and producer (b. 1947)
  • 2012 – Chris Ethridge, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1947)
  • 2012 – Raymond Thorsteinsson, Canadian geologist and paleontologist (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – LeRoy T. Walker, American football player and coach (b. 1918)
  • 2013 – Bob Brozman, American guitarist (b. 1954)
  • 2013 – Robert W. Edgar, American educator and politician (b. 1943)
  • 2013 – Tony Grealish, English footballer (b. 1956)
  • 2013 – Antonio Maccanico, Italian banker and politician (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Frank W. J. Olver, English-American mathematician and academic (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Kathryn Wasserman Davis, American philanthropist and scholar (b. 1907)
  • 2014 – Benjamín Brea, Spanish-Venezuelan saxophonist, clarinet player, and conductor (b. 1946)
  • 2014 – Michael Glawogger, Austrian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (b. 1959)
  • 2014 – Jaap Havekotte, Dutch speed skater and producer of ice skates (b. 1912)
  • 2014 – Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player and coach (b. 1911)
  • 2014 – F. Michael Rogers, American general (b. 1921)
  • 2014 – Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (b. 1951)
  • 2014 – Patric Standford, English composer and educator (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – Richard Corliss, American journalist and critic (b. 1944)
  • 2015 – Ray Jackson, Australian activist (b. 1941)
  • 2015 – Pierre Claude Nolin, Canadian lawyer and politician, Speaker of the Canadian Senate (b. 1950)
  • 2015 – Jim Steffen, American football player (b. 1936)
  • 2015 – Francis Tsai, American author and illustrator (b. 1967)
  • 2016 – Inge King, German-born Australian sculptor (b. 1915)
  • 2016 – Banharn Silpa-archa, Thai politician, Prime Minister from 1995–1996 (b. 1932)
  • 2019 – Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick, American soprano singer and presenter (b.1983)

Holidays and observances on April 23

  • Castile and León Day (Castile and León)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Adalbert of Prague
    • Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilleus
    • George
    • Blessed Giles of Assisi
    • Gerard of Toul
    • Ibar of Beggerin (Meath)
    • Toyohiko Kagawa (Episcopal and Lutheran Church)
    • April 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which the first day of Children’s Day can fall, while April 29 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday of April. (Colombia)
  • Independence Day (Conch Republic, Key West, Florida)
  • International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day
  • Khongjom Day (Manipur)
  • National Sovereignty and Children’s Day (Turkey and Northern Cyprus)
  • Navy Day (China)
  • St George’s Day (England) and its related observances:
    • Canada Book Day (Canada)
    • La Diada de Sant Jordi (Catalonia, Spain)
    • World Book Day
  • UN English Language Day (United Nations)

April 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

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