harry truman

  • May 3 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances 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

  • April 11 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.
    • 1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.
    • 1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix win the Battle of Ravenna.
    • 1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, but fails to exploit its victory.
    • 1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain.
    • 1713 – War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War): Treaty of Utrecht.
    • 1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
    • 1809 – An incomplete British victory over the French fleet at the Battle of the Basque Roads results in the court-martial of James, Lord Gambier.
    • 1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.
    • 1856 – Second Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaría burns down the hostel where William Walker’s filibusters are holed up.
    • 1868 – Former shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.
    • 1876 – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.
    • 1881 – Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.
    • 1908 – SMS Blücher, the last armored cruiser to be built by the Imperial German Navy, is launched.
    • 1909 – The city of Tel Aviv is founded.
    • 1921 – Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.
    • 1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
    • 1951 – Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
    • 1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.
    • 1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
    • 1957 – United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.
    • 1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
    • 1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.
    • 1964 – Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco is elected President by the National Congress.
    • 1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.
    • 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
    • 1968 – Assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement.
    • 1970 – Apollo 13 is launched.
    • 1976 – The Apple I is created.
    • 1977 – London Transport’s Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched.
    • 1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
    • 1981 – A massive riot in Brixton, south London results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.
    • 1986 – FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle in broad daylight in Dade County, Florida between two bank/armored car robbers and pursuing FBI agents. During the firefight, FBI agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan were killed, while five other agents were wounded. As a result, the popular .40 S&W cartridge was developed.
    • 1987 – The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.
    • 1990 – Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, seize what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
    • 1993 – Four hundred fifty prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.
    • 2001 – The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, China after a collision with a J-8 fighter, is released.
    • 2002 – The Ghriba synagogue bombing by al-Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.
    • 2002 – Over two hundred thousand people march in Caracas towards the Presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Hugo Chávez. Nineteen protesters are killed.
    • 2006 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces Iran’s claim to have successfully enriched uranium.
    • 2007 – Algiers bombings: Two bombings in Algiers kill 33 people and wound a further 222 others.
    • 2011 – An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others.
    • 2012 – A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake was VII (Very strong). Ten were killed, twelve were injured, and a non-destructive tsunami was observed on the island of Nias.
    • 2018 – An Ilyushin Il-76 which was owned and operated by the Algerian Air Force crashes near Boufarik, Algeria, killing 257.

    Births on April 11

    • 145 – Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (probable; d. 211)
    • 1184 – William of Winchester, Lord of Lüneburg (d. 1213)
    • 1348 – Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1385)
    • 1357 – John I of Portugal (d. 1433)
    • 1370 – Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (d. 1428)
    • 1374 – Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the throne of England (d. 1398)
    • 1493 – George I, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1531)
    • 1591 – Bartholomeus Strobel, Silezian painter (d. 1650)
    • 1592 – John Eliot, English lawyer and politician (d. 1632)
    • 1644 – Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, Duchess of Savoy (d. 1724)
    • 1658 – James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish peer (d. 1712)
    • 1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, French composer and conductor (d. 1738)
    • 1715 – John Alcock, English organist and composer (d. 1806)
    • 1721 – David Zeisberger, Czech-American clergyman and missionary (d. 1808)
    • 1722 – Christopher Smart, English actor, playwright, and poet (d. 1771)
    • 1749 – Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, French miniaturist and portrait painter (d. 1803)
    • 1755 – James Parkinson, English surgeon, geologist, and paleontologist (d. 1824)
    • 1770 – George Canning, Irish-English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1827)
    • 1794 – Edward Everett, English-American educator and politician, 15th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1865)
    • 1798 – Macedonio Melloni, Italian physicist and academic (d. 1854)
    • 1819 – Charles Hallé, German-English pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
    • 1825 – Ferdinand Lassalle, German philosopher and jurist (d. 1864)
    • 1827 – Jyotirao Phule, Indian scholar, philosopher, and activist (d. 1890)
    • 1854 – Hugh Massie, Australian cricketer (d. 1938)
    • 1856 – Arthur Shrewsbury, English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1903)
    • 1859 – Stefanos Thomopoulos, Greek historian and author (d. 1939)
    • 1862 – William Wallace Campbell, American astronomer and academic (d. 1938)
    • 1862 – Charles Evans Hughes, American lawyer and politician, 44th United States Secretary of State (d. 1948)
    • 1864 – Johanna Elberskirchen, German author and activist (d. 1943)
    • 1866 – Bernard O’Dowd, Australian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1953)
    • 1867 – Mark Keppel, American educator (d. 1928)
    • 1869 – Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor, designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal (d. 1943)
    • 1871 – Gyula Kellner, Hungarian runner (d. 1940)
    • 1873 – Edward Lawson, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1955)
    • 1876 – Paul Henry, Irish painter (d. 1958)
    • 1876 – Ivane Javakhishvili, Georgian historian and academic (d. 1940)
    • 1879 – Bernhard Schmidt, Estonian-German astronomer and optician (d. 1935)
    • 1887 – Jamini Roy, Indian painter (d. 1972)
    • 1893 – Dean Acheson, American lawyer and politician, 51st United States Secretary of State (d. 1971)
    • 1896 – Léo-Paul Desrosiers, Canadian journalist and author (d. 1967)
    • 1899 – Percy Lavon Julian, African-American chemist and academic (d. 1975)
    • 1900 – Sándor Márai, Hungarian journalist and author (d. 1989)
    • 1903 – Misuzu Kaneko, Japanese poet (d. 1930)
    • 1904 – K. L. Saigal, Indian singer and actor (d. 1947)
    • 1905 – Attila József, Hungarian poet and educator (d. 1937)
    • 1906 – Dale Messick, American author and illustrator (d. 2005)
    • 1907 – Paul Douglas, American actor (d. 1959)
    • 1908 – Jane Bolin, American lawyer and judge (d. 2007)
    • 1908 – Masaru Ibuka, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (d. 1997)
    • 1908 – Dan Maskell, English tennis player and sportscaster (d. 1992)
    • 1908 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (d. 1997)
    • 1910 – António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician, 14th President of Portugal (d. 1996)
    • 1912 – John Levy, American bassist and businessman (d. 2012)
    • 1913 – Oleg Cassini, French-American fashion designer (d. 2006)
    • 1914 – Norman McLaren, Scottish-Canadian animator, director, and producer (d. 1987)
    • 1914 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician, 17th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2003)
    • 1914 – Dorothy Lewis Bernstein, American mathematician (d. 1988)
    • 1916 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentinian-Swiss pianist and composer (d. 1983)
    • 1916 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (d. 2001)
    • 1917 – David Westheimer, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 2005)
    • 1918 – Richard Wainwright, English soldier and politician (d. 2003)
    • 1919 – Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1920 – Emilio Colombo, Italian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2013)
    • 1920 – William Royer, American soldier and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1921 – Jim Hearn, American baseball player (d. 1998)
    • 1921 – Jack Rayner, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 2008)
    • 1922 – Arved Viirlaid, Estonian-Canadian soldier and author (d. 2015)
    • 1923 – George J. Maloof, Sr., American businessman (d. 1980)
    • 1924 – Mohammad Naseem, Pakistani-English activist and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Yuriy Lituyev, Russian hurdler and commander (d. 2000)
    • 1925 – Viola Liuzzo, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
    • 1925 – Viktor Masing, Estonian botanist and ecologist (d. 2001)
    • 1925 – Pierre Péladeau, Canadian businessman, founded Quebecor (d. 1997)
    • 1926 – David Manker Abshire, American commander and diplomat, United States Permanent Representative to NATO (d. 2014)
    • 1926 – Victor Bouchard, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 2011)
    • 1926 – Karl Rebane, Estonian physicist and academic (d. 2007)
    • 1927 – Lokesh Chandra, Indian historian
    • 1928 – Ethel Kennedy, American philanthropist
    • 1928 – Edwin Pope, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
    • 1928 – Tommy Tycho, Hungarian-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2013)
    • 1930 – Nicholas F. Brady, American businessman and politician, 68th United States Secretary of the Treasury
    • 1930 – Walter Krüger, German javelin thrower (d. 2018)
    • 1930 – Anton LaVey, American occultist, founded the Church of Satan (d. 1997)
    • 1931 – Lewis Jones, Welsh rugby player and coach
    • 1932 – Joel Grey, American actor, singer, and dancer
    • 1933 – Tony Brown, American journalist and academic
    • 1934 – Mark Strand, Canadian-born American poet, essayist, and translator (d. 2014)
    • 1934 – Ron Pember, English actor, director and playwright
    • 1935 – Richard Berry, American singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
    • 1936 – Brian Noble, English bishop (d. 2019)
    • 1937 – Jill Gascoine, English actress and author
    • 1938 – Gerry Baker, American soccer player and manager (d. 2013)
    • 1938 – Michael Deaver, American politician, Deputy White House Chief of Staff (d. 2007)
    • 1938 – Reatha King, American chemist and businesswoman
    • 1939 – Luther Johnson, American singer and guitarist
    • 1939 – Louise Lasser, American actress
    • 1940 – Col Firmin, Australian politician (d. 2013)
    • 1940 – Thomas Harris, American author and screenwriter
    • 1940 – Władysław Komar, Polish shot putter and actor (d. 1998)
    • 1941 – Ellen Goodman, American journalist and author
    • 1941 – Shirley Stelfox, English actress (d. 2015)
    • 1942 – Anatoly Berezovoy, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2014)
    • 1942 – Hattie Gossett, American writer
    • 1942 – James Underwood, English pathologist and academic
    • 1943 – John Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich, English businessman and politician
    • 1943 – Harley Race, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2019)
    • 1944 – Peter Barfuß, German footballer
    • 1944 – John Milius, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1945 – John Krebs, Baron Krebs, English zoologist and academic
    • 1946 – Chris Burden, American sculptor, illustrator, and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1946 – Bob Harris, English journalist and radio host
    • 1947 – Lev Bulat, Ukrainian-Russian physicist and academic (d. 2016)
    • 1947 – Uli Edel, German director and screenwriter
    • 1947 – Frank Mantooth, American pianist and composer (d. 2004)
    • 1947 – Peter Riegert, American actor, screenwriter and film director
    • 1947 – Michael T. Wright, English engineer and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1949 – Bernd Eichinger, German director and producer (d. 2011)
    • 1950 – Bill Irwin, American actor and clown
    • 1951 – Paul Fox, English singer and guitarist (d. 2007)
    • 1952 – Nancy Honeytree, American singer and guitarist
    • 1952 – Indira Samarasekera, Sri Lankan engineer and academic
    • 1952 – Peter Windsor, English-Australian journalist and sportscaster
    • 1953 – Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium
    • 1953 – Andrew Wiles, English mathematician and academic
    • 1954 – Abdullah Atalar, Turkish engineer and academic
    • 1954 – Aleksandr Averin, Azerbaijani cyclist and coach
    • 1954 – Francis Lickerish, English guitarist and composer
    • 1954 – David Perrett, Scottish psychologist and academic
    • 1954 – Ian Redmond, English biologist and conservationist
    • 1954 – Willie Royster, American baseball player (d. 2015)
    • 1955 – Kevin Brady, American lawyer and politician
    • 1955 – Michael Callen, American singer-songwriter and AIDS activist (d. 1993)
    • 1955 – Micheal Ray Richardson, American basketball player and coach
    • 1958 – Stuart Adamson, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
    • 1958 – Lyudmila Kondratyeva, Russian sprinter
    • 1959 – Pierre Lacroix, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1959 – Ana María Polo, Cuban-American lawyer and judge
    • 1959 – Zahid Maleque, Bangladeshi politician
    • 1960 – Jeremy Clarkson, English journalist and television presenter
    • 1961 – Vincent Gallo, American actor, director, producer, and musician
    • 1961 – Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1993)
    • 1961 – Nobuaki Kakuda, Japanese martial artist
    • 1962 – Franck Ducheix, French fencer
    • 1962 – Mark Lawson, English journalist and author
    • 1963 – Billy Bowden, New Zealand cricketer and umpire
    • 1963 – Waldemar Fornalik, Polish footballer and manager
    • 1963 – Elizabeth Smylie, Australian tennis player
    • 1964 – Steve Azar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1964 – John Cryer, English journalist and politician
    • 1964 – Johann Sebastian Paetsch, American cellist
    • 1964 – Bret Saberhagen, American baseball player and coach
    • 1964 – Patrick Sang, Kenyan runner
    • 1966 – Steve Scarsone, American baseball player and manager
    • 1966 – Shin Seung-hun, South Korean singer-songwriter
    • 1966 – Lisa Stansfield, English singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1968 – Sergei Lukyanenko, Kazakh-Russian journalist and author
    • 1969 – Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer-songwriter
    • 1969 – Michael von Grünigen, Swiss skier
    • 1970 – Trevor Linden, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
    • 1970 – Delroy Pearson, English singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1971 – John Leech, English politician
    • 1971 – Oliver Riedel, German bass player
    • 1972 – Balls Mahoney, American wrestler (d. 2016)
    • 1972 – Allan Théo, French singer
    • 1972 – Jason Varitek, American baseball player and manager
    • 1973 – Jennifer Esposito, American actress
    • 1973 – Olivier Magne, French rugby player
    • 1974 – Àlex Corretja, Spanish tennis player and coach
    • 1974 – Ashot Danielyan, Armenian weightlifter
    • 1974 – David Jassy, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1974 – Zöe Lucker, English actress
    • 1974 – Tom Thacker, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1974 – Trot Nixon, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1975 – Olga Hostáková, Czech tennis player
    • 1975 – Walid Soliman, Tunisian author and translator
    • 1976 – Kelvim Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1977 – Ivonne Teichmann, German runner
    • 1978 – Josh Hancock, American baseball player (d. 2007)
    • 1979 – Malcolm Christie, English footballer
    • 1979 – Sebastien Grainger, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1979 – Michel Riesen, Swiss ice hockey player
    • 1979 – Josh Server, American actor
    • 1980 – Keiji Tamada, Japanese footballer
    • 1980 – Mark Teixeira, American baseball player
    • 1981 – Alessandra Ambrosio, Brazilian model
    • 1981 – Alexandre Burrows, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1981 – Veronica Pyke, Australian cricketer
    • 1982 – Ian Bell, English cricketer
    • 1982 – Peeter Kümmel, Estonian skier
    • 1983 – Jennifer Heil, Canadian skier
    • 1983 – Rubén Palazuelos, Spanish footballer
    • 1983 – Nicky Pastorelli, Dutch race car driver
    • 1984 – Kelli Garner, American actress
    • 1984 – Nikola Karabatić, French handball player
    • 1985 – Pablo Hernández Domínguez, Spanish footballer
    • 1985 – Will Minson, Australian footballer
    • 1986 – Sarodj Bertin, Haitian model and human rights lawyer
    • 1986 – Dai Greene, Welsh hurdler
    • 1986 – Lena Schöneborn, German pentathlete
    • 1987 – Joss Stone, English singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1987 – Lights, Canadian singer-songwriter
    • 1988 – Leland Irving, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1989 – Torrin Lawrence, American sprinter (d. 2014)
    • 1989 – Zola Jesus, American singer
    • 1990 – Dimitrios Anastasopoulos, Greek footballer
    • 1990 – Thulani Serero, South African footballer
    • 1991 – Thiago Alcântara, Spanish footballer
    • 1991 – Brennan Poole, American racing driver
    • 1996 – Dele Alli, English international footballer
    • 1997 – Georgia Bohl, Australian swimmer
    • 1997 – Miriam Kolodziejová, a Czech tennis player

    Deaths on April 11

    • 618 – Yang Guang, Chinese emperor of the Sui Dynasty (b. 569)
    • 678 – Donus, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 610)
    • 924 – Herman I, chancellor and archbishop of Cologne
    • 1034 – Romanos III Argyros, Byzantine emperor (b. 968)
    • 1077 – Anawrahta, king of Burma and founder of the Pagan Empire (b. 1014)
    • 1079 – Stanislaus of Szczepanów, bishop of Kraków (b. 1030)
    • 1165 – Stephen IV, king of Hungary and Croatia
    • 1240 – Llywelyn the Great, Welsh prince (b. 1172)
    • 1447 – Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1377)
    • 1512 – Gaston de Foix, French military commander (b. 1489)
    • 1554 – Thomas Wyatt the Younger, English rebel leader (b. 1521)
    • 1587 – Thomas Bromley, English lord chancellor (b. 1530)
    • 1609 – John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, English noble (b. 1533)
    • 1612 – Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian and author (b. 1535)
    • 1612 – Edward Wightman, English minister and martyr (b. 1566)
    • 1626 – Marino Ghetaldi, Ragusan mathematician and physicist (b. 1568)
    • 1712 – Richard Simon, French priest and critic (b. 1638)
    • 1723 – John Robinson, English bishop and diplomat (b. 1650)
    • 1783 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Polish-Russian politician, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1718)
    • 1798 – Karl Wilhelm Ramler, German poet and academic (b. 1725)
    • 1856 – Juan Santamaría, Costa Rican soldier (b. 1831)
    • 1861 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet and composer (b. 1824)
    • 1873 – Edward Canby, American general (b. 1817)
    • 1890 – David de Jahacob Lopez Cardozo, Dutch Talmudist (b. 1808)
    • 1890 – Joseph Merrick, English man with severe deformities (b. 1862)
    • 1894 – Constantin Lipsius, German architect and theorist (b. 1832)
    • 1895 – Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist (b. 1830)
    • 1902 – Wade Hampton III, American general and politician, 77th Governor of South Carolina (b. 1818)
    • 1903 – Gemma Galgani, Italian mystic and saint (b. 1878)
    • 1906 – James Anthony Bailey, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (b. 1847)
    • 1906 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American journalist and publisher, co-founded Armed Forces Journal and The Galaxy Magazine (b. 1839)
    • 1908 – Henry Bird, English chess player and author (b. 1829)
    • 1916 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (b. 1864)
    • 1918 – Otto Wagner, Austrian architect and urban planner (b. 1841)
    • 1926 – Luther Burbank, American botanist and academic (b. 1849)
    • 1939 – Kurtdereli Mehmet, Turkish wrestler (b. 1864)
    • 1953 – Kid Nichols, American baseball player and manager (b. 1869)
    • 1954 – Paul Specht, American violinist and bandleader (b. 1895)
    • 1958 – Konstantin Yuon, Russian painter and educator (b. 1875)
    • 1960 – Rosa Grünberg, Swedish actress (b. 1878)
    • 1962 – Ukichiro Nakaya, Japanese physicist and academic (b. 1900)
    • 1962 – George Poage, American hurdler and educator (b. 1880)
    • 1967 – Thomas Farrell, American general (b. 1891)
    • 1967 – Donald Sangster, Jamaican lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1911)
    • 1970 – Cathy O’Donnell, American actress (b. 1923)
    • 1970 – John O’Hara, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1905)
    • 1974 – Ernst Ziegler, German actor (b. 1894)
    • 1977 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (b. 1900)
    • 1977 – Phanishwar Nath ‘Renu’, Indian author and activist (b. 1921)
    • 1980 – Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Turkish journalist and producer (b. 1935)
    • 1981 – Caroline Gordon, American author and critic (b. 1895)
    • 1983 – Dolores del Río, Mexican actress (b. 1904)
    • 1984 – Edgar V. Saks, Estonian historian and politician, Estonian Minister of Education (b. 1910)
    • 1985 – Bunny Ahearne, Irish-born English businessman (b. 1900)
    • 1985 – John Gilroy, English artist and illustrator (b. 1898)
    • 1985 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian educator and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1908)
    • 1987 – Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1903)
    • 1987 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (b. 1919)
    • 1990 – Harold Ballard, Canadian businessman (b. 1903)
    • 1991 – Walker Cooper, American baseball player and manager (b. 1915)
    • 1991 – Bruno Hoffmann. German glass harp player (b. 1913)
    • 1992 – James Brown, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
    • 1992 – Eve Merriam, American author and poet (b. 1916)
    • 1992 – Alejandro Obregón, Colombian painter, sculptor, and engraver (b. 1920)
    • 1996 – Jessica Dubroff, American pilot (b. 1988)
    • 1997 – Muriel McQueen Fergusson, Canadian lawyer and politician, Canadian Speaker of the Senate (b. 1899)
    • 1997 – Wang Xiaobo, contemporary Chinese novelist and essayist (b. 1952)
    • 1999 – William H. Armstrong, American author and educator (b. 1911)
    • 2000 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (b. 1945)
    • 2001 – Harry Secombe, Welsh-English actor (b. 1921)
    • 2003 – Cecil Howard Green, English-American geophysicist and businessman, founded Texas Instruments (b. 1900)
    • 2005 – André François, Romanian-French cartoonist, painter, and sculptor (b. 1915)
    • 2005 – Lucien Laurent, French footballer and coach (b. 1907)
    • 2006 – June Pointer, American singer (b. 1953)
    • 2006 – DeShaun Holton, American rapper and actor (b. 1973)
    • 2007 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor and director (b. 1922)
    • 2007 – Loïc Leferme, French diver (b. 1970)
    • 2007 – Janet McDonald, American lawyer and author (b. 1954)
    • 2007 – Ronald Speirs, Scottish-American colonel (b. 1920)
    • 2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1922)
    • 2008 – Merlin German, American sergeant (b. 1985)
    • 2009 – Gerda Gilboe, Danish actress and singer (b. 1914)
    • 2009 – Vishnu Prabhakar, Indian author and playwright (b. 1912)
    • 2009 – Corín Tellado, Spanish author (b. 1927)
    • 2010 – Julia Tsenova, Bulgarian pianist and composer (b. 1948)
    • 2011 – Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager (b. 1981)
    • 2012 – Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian soldier and politician, 1st President of Algeria (b. 1916)
    • 2012 – Roger Caron, Canadian criminal and author (b. 1938)
    • 2012 – Tippy Dye, American basketball player and coach (b. 1915)
    • 2012 – Hal McKusick, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and flute player (b. 1924)
    • 2012 – Agustin Roman, American bishop (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – Don Blackman, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1953)
    • 2013 – Grady Hatton, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1922)
    • 2013 – Thomas Hemsley, English actor and singer (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish-American virologist and immunologist (b. 1916)
    • 2013 – Gilles Marchal, French singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
    • 2013 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (b. 1925)
    • 2013 – Clorindo Testa, Italian-Argentinian architect (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – Jonathan Winters, American comedian, actor and screenwriter (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (b. 1926)
    • 2014 – Edna Doré, English actress (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Bill Henry, American baseball player (b. 1927)
    • 2014 – Lou Hudson, American basketball player and sportscaster (b. 1944)
    • 2014 – Myer S. Kripke, American rabbi and scholar (b. 1914)
    • 2014 – Sergey Nepobedimy, Russian engineer (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Jesse Winchester, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1944)
    • 2015 – Jimmy Gunn, American football player (b. 1948)
    • 2015 – Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Bangladeshi journalist and politician (b. 1952)
    • 2015 – François Maspero, French journalist and author (b. 1932)
    • 2015 – Hanut Singh, Indian general (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Tekena Tamuno, Nigerian historian and academic (b. 1932)
    • 2017 – J. Geils, American singer and guitarist (b. 1946)
    • 2017 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (b. 1945)
    • 2020 – John Horton Conway, English mathematician (b. 1937)

    Holidays and observances on April 11

    • Christian feast day:
      • Antipas of Pergamum (Greek Orthodox Church)
      • Gemma Galgani
      • Godeberta
      • Guthlac of Crowland
      • George Selwyn (Anglicanism)
      • Stanislaus of Szczepanów
      • April 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Juan Santamaría Day, anniversary of his death in the Second Battle of Rivas. (Costa Rica)
    • International Louie Louie Day
    • World Parkinson’s Day

  • April 8 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 217 – Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated. He is succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
    • 632 – King Charibert II is assassinated at Blaye (Gironde), along with his infant son Chilperic.
    • 876 – The Battle of Dayr al-‘Aqul saves Baghdad from the Saffarids.
    • 1093 – The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by Walkelin.
    • 1139 – Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated.
    • 1149 – Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum.
    • 1232 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols begin their siege on Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty.
    • 1271 – In Syria, sultan Baibars conquers the Krak des Chevaliers.
    • 1665 – English colonial patents are granted for the establishment of the Monmouth Tract, for what would eventually become Monmouth County in northeastern New Jersey.
    • 1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
    • 1740 – War of Jenkins’ Ear: Three British ships capture the Spanish third-rate Princesa, taken into service as HMS Princess.
    • 1808 – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore is promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
    • 1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.
    • 1832 – Black Hawk War: Around three-hundred United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield: Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana.
    • 1866 – Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.
    • 1886 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.
    • 1895 – In Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.
    • 1904 – The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale.
    • 1904 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
    • 1906 – Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dies.
    • 1908 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
    • 1908 – Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
    • 1911 – Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
    • 1913 – The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.
    • 1916 – In Corona, California, race car driver Bob Burman crashes, killing three (including himself), and badly injuring five spectators.
    • 1918 – World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City’s financial district.
    • 1924 – Sharia courts are abolished in Turkey, as part of Atatürk’s Reforms.
    • 1929 – Indian independence movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.
    • 1935 – The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
    • 1942 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad: Soviet forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
    • 1942 – World War II: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines.
    • 1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.
    • 1943 – Otto and Elise Hampel are executed in Berlin for their anti-Nazi activities.
    • 1945 – World War II: After an air raid accidentally destroys a train carrying about 4,000 Nazi concentration camp internees in Prussian Hanover, the survivors are massacred by Nazis.
    • 1946 – Électricité de France, the world’s largest utility company, is formed as a result of the nationalisation of a number of electricity producers, transporters and distributors.
    • 1950 – India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat–Nehru Pact.
    • 1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills in an attempt to prevent the 1952 steel strike.
    • 1953 – Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by British Kenya’s rulers.
    • 1954 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.
    • 1954 – South African Airways Flight 201 A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 crashes into the sea during night killing 21 people.
    • 1959 – A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.
    • 1959 – The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank.
    • 1960 – The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung.
    • 1961 – A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf kills 238.
    • 1964 – The Gemini 1 test flight is conducted.
    • 1968 – BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after takeoff. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.
    • 1970 – Bahr El-Baqar primary school bombing: Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school. Forty-six children are killed.
    • 1974 – At Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run to surpass Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old record.
    • 1975 – Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball’s first African American manager.
    • 1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid controversy over racially charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
    • 1992 – Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
    • 1993 – The Republic of North Macedonia joins the United Nations.
    • 1999 – Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.
    • 2004 – War in Darfur: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
    • 2006 – Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Shedden, Elgin County, Ontario. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
    • 2008 – The construction of the world’s first skyscraper to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain.
    • 2013 – The Islamic State of Iraq enters the Syrian Civil War and begins by declaring a merger with the Al-Nusra Front under the name Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham.

    Births on April 8

    • 1320 – Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
    • 1408 – Jadwiga of Lithuania, Polish princess (d. 1431)
    • 1435 – John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, English noble (d. 1461)
    • 1533 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (d. 1604)
    • 1536 – Barbara of Hesse (d. 1597)
    • 1541 – Michele Mercati, Italian physician and archaeologist (d. 1593)
    • 1580 – William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, English noble, courtier and patron of the arts (d. 1630)
    • 1596 – Juan van der Hamen, Spanish artist (d. 1631)
    • 1605 – Philip IV of Spain (d. 1665)
    • 1605 – Mary Stuart, English-Scottish princess (d. 1607)
    • 1641 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (d. 1704)
    • 1692 – Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1770)
    • 1726 – Lewis Morris, American judge and politician (d. 1798)
    • 1732 – David Rittenhouse, American astronomer and mathematician (d. 1796)
    • 1761 – William Joseph Chaminade, French priest, founded the Society of Mary (d. 1850)
    • 1770 – John Thomas Campbell, Irish-Australian banker and politician (d. 1830)
    • 1798 – Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet and author (d. 1857)
    • 1818 – Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
    • 1818 – August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist and academic (d. 1892)
    • 1826 – Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican soldier (d. 1890)
    • 1827 – Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican ophthalmologist, journalist, and politician (d. 1898)
    • 1842 – Elizabeth Bacon Custer, American author and educator (d. 1933)
    • 1859 – Edmund Husserl, German Jewish-Austrian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1938)
    • 1864 – Carlos Deltour, French rower and rugby player (d. 1920)
    • 1867 – Allen Butler Talcott, American painter and educator (d. 1908)
    • 1869 – Harvey Cushing, American surgeon and academic (d. 1939)
    • 1871 – Clarence Hudson White, American photographer and educator (d. 1925)
    • 1874 – Manuel Díaz, Cuban fencer (d. 1929)
    • 1874 – Stanisław Taczak, Polish general (d. 1960)
    • 1875 – Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
    • 1882 (O.S. 27 March) – Dmytro Doroshenko, Lithuanian-Ukrainian historian and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Prime Minister of Ukraine (d. 1951)
    • 1883 – R. P. Keigwin, English cricketer and academic (d. 1972)
    • 1883 – Julius Seljamaa, Estonian journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (d. 1936)
    • 1885 – Dimitrios Levidis, Greek-French soldier, composer, and educator (d. 1951)
    • 1886 – Margaret Ayer Barnes, American author and playwright (d. 1967)
    • 1888 – Dennis Chávez, American journalist and politician (d. 1962)
    • 1889 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
    • 1892 – Richard Neutra, Austrian-American architect, designed the Los Angeles County Hall of Records (d. 1970)
    • 1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded United Artists (d. 1979)
    • 1896 – Yip Harburg, American composer (d. 1981)
    • 1900 – Marie Byles, Australian solicitor (d. 1979)
    • 1902 – Andrew Irvine, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1924)
    • 1902 – Maria Maksakova Sr., Russian soprano (d. 1974)
    • 1904 – John Hicks, English economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
    • 1904 – Hirsch Jacobs, American horse trainer (d. 1970)
    • 1905 – Joachim Büchner, German sprinter and graphic designer (d. 1978)
    • 1905 – Helen Joseph, English-South African activist (d. 1992)
    • 1905 – Erwin Keller, German field hockey player (d. 1971)
    • 1906 – Raoul Jobin, Canadian tenor and educator (d. 1974)
    • 1908 – Hugo Fregonese, Argentinian director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
    • 1909 – John Fante, American author and screenwriter (d. 1983)
    • 1910 – George Musso, American football player and police officer (d. 2000)
    • 1911 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
    • 1911 – Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and academic (d. 1995)
    • 1912 – Alois Brunner, Austrian-German SS officer (d. 2001 or 2010)
    • 1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian-American figure skater and actress (d. 1969)
    • 1914 – María Félix, Yaqui/Basque-Mexican actress (d. 2002)
    • 1915 – Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, philosopher and writer (d. 2007)
    • 1917 – Winifred Asprey, American mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2007)
    • 1917 – Lloyd Bott, Australian public servant (d. 2004)
    • 1917 – Hubertus Ernst, Dutch bishop (d. 2017)
    • 1917 – Grigori Kuzmin, Russian-Estonian astronomer (d. 1988)
    • 1918 – Betty Ford, American wife of Gerald Ford, 40th First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)
    • 1918 – Glendon Swarthout, American author and academic (d. 1992)
    • 1919 – Ian Smith, Zimbabwean lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007)
    • 1921 – Franco Corelli, Italian tenor and actor (d. 2003)
    • 1921 – Jan Novák, Czech composer (d. 1984)
    • 1921 – Herman van Raalte, Dutch footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Carmen McRae, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (d. 1994)
    • 1923 – George Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
    • 1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish-American actor (d. 1997)
    • 1924 – Frédéric Back, German-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – Anthony Farrar-Hockley, English general and historian (d. 2006)
    • 1924 – Kumar Gandharva, Hindustani classical singer (d. 1992)
    • 1924 – Sara Northrup Hollister, American occultist (d. 1997)
    • 1926 – Henry N. Cobb, American architect and academic, co-founded Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (d. 2020)
    • 1926 – Shecky Greene, American actor
    • 1926 – Jürgen Moltmann, German theologian and academic
    • 1927 – Tilly Armstrong, English author (d. 2010)
    • 1927 – Ollie Mitchell, American trumpet player and bandleader (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Fred Ebb, American lyricist (d. 2004)
    • 1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1978)
    • 1929 – Renzo De Felice, Italian historian and author (d. 1996)
    • 1930 – Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma (d. 2010)
    • 1931 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Mexico (d. 2018)
    • 1932 – Iskandar of Johor (d. 2010)
    • 1933 – James Lockhart, American scholar of colonial Latin America, especially Nahua peoples (d. 2014)
    • 1934 – Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect, designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower and Singapore Flyer (d. 2007)
    • 1935 – Oscar Zeta Acosta, American lawyer and politician (d. 1974)
    • 1935 – Albert Bustamante, American soldier, educator, and politician
    • 1937 – Tony Barton, English footballer, outside right and manager (d. 1993)
    • 1937 – Seymour Hersh, American journalist and author
    • 1937 – Momo Kapor, Serbian author and painter (d. 2010)
    • 1938 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian economist and diplomat, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (d. 2018)
    • 1938 – John Hamm, Canadian physician and politician, 25th Premier of Nova Scotia
    • 1938 – Mary W. Gray, American mathematician, statistician, and lawyer
    • 1939 – John Arbuthnott, Scottish microbiologist and academic
    • 1939 – Trina Schart Hyman, American author and illustrator (d. 2004)
    • 1940 – John Havlicek, American basketball player (d. 2019)
    • 1941 – J. J. Jackson, American soul/R&B singer, songwriter, and arranger
    • 1941 – Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
    • 1942 – Tony Banks, Baron Stratford, Northern Irish politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics (d. 2006)
    • 1942 – Roger Chapman, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1942 – Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer, and special effects artist
    • 1943 – Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, and director (d. 1987)
    • 1943 – Miller Farr, American football player
    • 1943 – James Herbert, English author and illustrator (d. 2013)
    • 1943 – Chris Orr, English painter and illustrator
    • 1944 – Hywel Bennett, Welsh actor (d. 2017)
    • 1944 – Odd Nerdrum, Swedish-Norwegian painter and illustrator
    • 1945 – Derrick Walker, Scottish businessman
    • 1945 – Jang Yong, South Korean actor
    • 1946 – Catfish Hunter, American baseball player (d. 1999)
    • 1946 – Tim Thomerson, American actor and producer
    • 1947 – Tom DeLay, American lawyer and politician
    • 1947 – Steve Howe, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1947 – Robert Kiyosaki, American businessman, co-founded Cashflow Technologies
    • 1947 – Pascal Lamy, French businessman and politician, European Commissioner for Trade
    • 1947 – Larry Norman, American singer-songwriter, and producer (d. 2008)
    • 1948 – Barbara Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone, Scottish academic and politician
    • 1949 – K. C. Kamalasabayson, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 39th Attorney General of Sri Lanka (d. 2007)
    • 1949 – John Madden, English director and producer
    • 1949 – Brenda Russell, African-American-Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1949 – John Scott, English sociologist and academic
    • 1950 – Grzegorz Lato, Polish footballer and coach
    • 1951 – Gerd Andres, German politician
    • 1951 – Geir Haarde, Icelandic economist, journalist, and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Iceland
    • 1951 – Mel Schacher, American bass player
    • 1951 – Joan Sebastian, Mexican singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2015)
    • 1952 – Ahmet Piriştina, Turkish politician (d. 2004)
    • 1954 – Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (d. 2012)
    • 1954 – Princess Lalla Amina of Morocco (d. 2012)
    • 1954 – G.V. Loganathan, Indian-American engineer and academic (d. 2007)
    • 1955 – Ricky Bell, American football player (d. 1984)
    • 1955 – Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
    • 1955 – Ron Johnson, American businessman and politician
    • 1955 – Barbara Kingsolver, American novelist, essayist and poet
    • 1955 – David Wu, Taiwanese-American lawyer and politician
    • 1956 – Michael Benton, Scottish-English paleontologist and academic
    • 1956 – Christine Boisson, French actress
    • 1956 – Roman Dragoun, Czech singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1956 – Jim Piddock, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Fred Smerlas, American football player and radio host
    • 1958 – Detlef Bruckhoff, German footballer
    • 1958 – Tom Petranoff, American javelin thrower and coach
    • 1959 – Alain Bondue, French cyclist
    • 1960 – John Schneider, American actor and country singer
    • 1961 – Richard Hatch, American reality contestant
    • 1961 – Brian McDermott, English footballer and manager
    • 1962 – Paddy Lowe, English engineer
    • 1962 – Izzy Stradlin, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1963 – Tine Asmundsen, Norwegian bassist
    • 1963 – Julian Lennon, English singer-songwriter
    • 1963 – Terry Porter, American basketball player and coach
    • 1963 – Donita Sparks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1963 – Alec Stewart, English cricketer
    • 1963 – Seth Tobias, American businessman (d. 2007)
    • 1964 – Biz Markie, American rapper, producer, and actor
    • 1964 – John McGinlay, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1965 – Steven Blaney, Canadian businessman and politician, 5th Canadian Minister of Public Safety
    • 1965 – Michael Jones, New Zealand rugby player and coach
    • 1966 – Iveta Bartošová, Czech singer and actress (d. 2014)
    • 1966 – Mark Blundell, English race car driver
    • 1966 – Andy Currier, English rugby league player
    • 1966 – Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand-Australian television host (d. 2014)
    • 1966 – Dalton Grant, English high jumper
    • 1966 – Mazinho, Brazilian footballer, coach, and manager
    • 1966 – Harri Rovanperä, Finnish race car driver
    • 1966 – Evripidis Stylianidis, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister for the Interior
    • 1966 – Robin Wright, American actress, director, producer
    • 1967 – Kenny Benjamin, Antiguan cricketer
    • 1968 – Patricia Arquette, French-Canadian Russian/Polish Jewish-American actress and director
    • 1968 – Patricia Girard, French runner and hurdler
    • 1968 – Tracy Grammer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1971 – Darren Jessee, American singer-songwriter and drummer
    • 1972 – Paul Gray, American bass player and songwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1972 – Sergei Magnitsky, Russian lawyer and accountant (d. 2009)
    • 1973 – Khaled Badra, Tunisian footballer
    • 1973 – Emma Caulfield, American actress
    • 1974 – Toutai Kefu, Tongan-Australian rugby player
    • 1974 – Nnedi Okorafor, Nigerian-American author and educator
    • 1975 – Anouk, Dutch singer
    • 1975 – Francesco Flachi, Italian footballer
    • 1975 – Timo Pérez, Dominican-American baseball player
    • 1975 – Funda Arar, Turkish singer
    • 1977 – Ana de la Reguera, Mexican actress
    • 1977 – Mehran Ghassemi, Iranian journalist and author (d. 2008)
    • 1977 – Mark Spencer, American computer programmer and engineer
    • 1978 – Daigo, Japanese singer-songwriter, actor, and voice actor
    • 1978 – Bernt Haas, Austrian-Swiss footballer
    • 1978 – Rachel Roberts, Canadian model and actress
    • 1978 – Jocelyn Robichaud, Canadian tennis player and coach
    • 1978 – Evans Rutto, Kenyan runner
    • 1979 – Alexi Laiho, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1979 – Amit Trivedi, Indian singer-songwriter
    • 1980 – Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
    • 1980 – Katee Sackhoff, American actress
    • 1980 – Mariko Seyama, Japanese announcer, photographer, and model
    • 1981 – Frédérick Bousquet, French swimmer
    • 1981 – Ofer Shechter, Israeli model, actor, and screenwriter
    • 1982 – Gennady Golovkin, Kazakhstani boxer
    • 1982 – Brett White, Australian rugby league player
    • 1983 – Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, Russian runner
    • 1984 – Michelle Donelan, British politician
    • 1984 – Ezra Koenig, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1984 – Pablo Portillo, Mexican singer and actor
    • 1984 – Taran Noah Smith, American actor
    • 1985 – Patrick Schliwa, German rugby player
    • 1985 – Yemane Tsegay, Ethiopian runner
    • 1986 – Igor Akinfeev, Russian footballer
    • 1986 – Félix Hernández, Venezuelan-American baseball player
    • 1987 – Royston Drenthe, Dutch footballer
    • 1987 – Jeremy Hellickson, American baseball player
    • 1987 – Sam Rapira, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1988 – Jenni Asserholt, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1988 – Kim Myung-sung, South Korean baseball player
    • 1990 – Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer (d. 2017)
    • 1993 – Viktor Arvidsson, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1993 – Zac Santo, Australian rugby league player
    • 1994 – Josh Chudleigh, Australian rugby league player
    • 1995 – Cedi Osman, Turkish professional basketball player
    • 1997 – Saygrace, Australian singer and songwriter
    • 1997 – Arno Verschueren, Belgian professional football player

    Deaths on April 8

    • 217 – Caracalla, Roman emperor (b. 188)
    • 622 – Shōtoku, Japanese prince (b. 572)
    • 632 – Charibert II, Frankish king (b. 607)
    • 894 – Adalelm, Frankish nobleman
    • 944 – Wang Yanxi, Chinese emperor
    • 956 – Gilbert, Frankish nobleman
    • 967 – Mu’izz al-Dawla, Buyid emir (b. 915)
    • 1143 – John II Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1087)
    • 1150 – Gertrude of Babenberg , duchess of Bohemia (b. 1118)
    • 1321 – Thomas of Tolentino, Italian-Franciscan missionary (b. c. 1255)
    • 1338 – Stephen Gravesend, bishop of London
    • 1364 – John II, French king (b. 1319)
    • 1450 – Sejong the Great, Korean king (b. 1397)
    • 1461 – Georg von Peuerbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
    • 1492 – Lorenzo de’ Medici, Italian ruler (b. 1449)
    • 1551 – Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (b. 1510)
    • 1586 – Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran theologian and reformer (b. 1522)
    • 1608 – Magdalen Dacre, English noble (b. 1538)
    • 1612 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (b. 1575)
    • 1691 – Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect, designed the Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto (b. 1611)
    • 1697 – Niels Juel, Norwegian-Danish admiral (b. 1629)
    • 1704 – Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist and philologist (b. 1624)
    • 1704 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English colonel and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1641)
    • 1709 – Wolfgang Dietrich of Castell-Remlingen, German nobleman (b. 1641)
    • 1725 – John Wise, American minister (b. 1652)
    • 1735 – Francis II Rákóczi, Hungarian prince (b. 1676)
    • 1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
    • 1860 – István Széchenyi, Hungarian statesman and reformer (b.1791)
    • 1861 – Elisha Otis, American businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company (b. 1811)
    • 1870 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
    • 1894 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1838)
    • 1906 – Auguste Deter, German woman, first person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (b. 1850)
    • 1919 – Loránd Eötvös, Hungarian physicist, academic, and politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (b. 1848)
    • 1920 – Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (b. 1884)
    • 1931 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
    • 1936 – Róbert Bárány, Austrian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
    • 1936 – Božena Benešová, Czech poet and novelist (b. 1873)
    • 1941 – Marcel Prévost, French novelist and playwright (b. 1862)
    • 1942 – Kostas Skarvelis, Greek guitarist and composer (b. 1880)
    • 1947 – Olaf Frydenlund, Norwegian target shooter (b. 1862)
    • 1950 – Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish dancer and choreographer (b. 1890)
    • 1959 – Marios Makrionitis, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Athens (b. 1913)
    • 1961 – Joseph Carrodus, Australian public servant (b. 1885)
    • 1962 – Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1892)
    • 1965 – Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (b. 1886)
    • 1969 – Zinaida Aksentyeva, Ukrainian astronomer (b. 1900)
    • 1973 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1881)
    • 1974 – James Charles McGuigan, Canadian cardinal (b. 1894)
    • 1979 – Breece D’J Pancake, American short story writer (b. 1952)
    • 1981 – Omar Bradley, American general (b. 1893)
    • 1983 – Isamu Kosugi, Japanese actor and director (b. 1904)
    • 1984 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
    • 1985 – John Frederick Coots, American pianist and composer (b. 1897)
    • 1990 – Ryan White, American activist, inspired the Ryan White Care Act (b. 1971)
    • 1991 – Per Ohlin, Swedish musician (b. 1969)
    • 1992 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss-Italian pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
    • 1993 – Marian Anderson, American operatic singer (b. 1897)
    • 1994 – François Rozet, French-Canadian actor (b. 1899)
    • 1996 – Ben Johnson, American actor and stuntman (b. 1918)
    • 1996 – León Klimovsky, Argentinian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1906)
    • 1996 – Mick Young, Australian politician (b. 1936)
    • 1997 – Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1947)
    • 2000 – František Šťastný, Czech motorcycle racer (b. 1927)
    • 2000 – Claire Trevor, American actress (b. 1910)
    • 2002 – María Félix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
    • 2002 – Harvey Quaytman, American painter (b. 1937)
    • 2004 – Werner Schumacher, German actor (b. 1921)
    • 2005 – Onna White, Canadian choreographer and dancer (b. 1922)
    • 2006 – Gerard Reve, Dutch author and poet (b. 1923)
    • 2007 – Sol LeWitt, American painter and sculptor (b. 1928)
    • 2008 – Kazuo Shiraga, Japanese painter (b. 1924)
    • 2009 – Richard de Mille, American Scientologist, author, investigative journalist, and psychologist (b. 1922)
    • 2009 – Piotr Morawski, Polish mountaineer (b. 1976)
    • 2010 – Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
    • 2010 – Teddy Scholten, Dutch singer (b. 1926)
    • 2011 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (b. 1910)
    • 2012 – Blair Kiel, American football player and coach (b. 1961)
    • 2012 – Jack Tramiel, Polish-American businessman, founded Commodore International (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Janusz K. Zawodny, Polish-American soldier, historian, and political scientist (b. 1921)
    • 2013 – Mikhail Beketov, Russian journalist (b. 1958)
    • 2013 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (b. 1942)
    • 2013 – Sara Montiel, Spanish-Mexican actress and singer (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – José Luis Sampedro, Spanish economist and author (b. 1917)
    • 2013 – Margaret Thatcher, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Emmanuel III Delly, Iraqi patriarch (b. 1927)
    • 2014 – Karlheinz Deschner, German author and activist (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Ivan Mercep, New Zealand architect, designed the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum (b. 1930)
    • 2015 – Jayakanthan, Indian journalist and author (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Rayson Huang, Hong Kong chemist and academic (b. 1920)
    • 2015 – Sergei Lashchenko, Ukrainian kick-boxer (b. 1987)
    • 2015 – David Laventhol, American journalist and publisher (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (b. 1936)

    Holidays and observances on April 8

    • Buddha’s Birthday, also known as Hana Matsuri, “Flower Festival” (Japan)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Anne Ayres (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Constantina
      • Julie Billiart of Namur
      • Perpetuus
      • Walter of Pontoise
      • William Augustus Muhlenberg (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • April 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Fast and Prayer Day can fall, while April 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Friday in April (Liberia)
    • International Romani Day