Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2025 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more.
(Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly selected an anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2025, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are also available.
1 Apr 1925 – 100 years ago
Danmarks Radio (now DR), the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, was founded.
2 Apr 1725 – 300 years ago
Birth of Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer.
Noted for his many affairs with women.
3 to 26 Apr 1975 – 50 years ago
Vietnam War: Operation Babylift.
The USA evacuated more than 3,300 orphaned children from South Vietnam to the USA, Canada, Australia, France and West Germany, where they were adopted. The first mission, on 4th April, crashed shortly after take-off when the locks on the loading bay door failed, causing explosive decompression. 138 people were killed, including 78 children.
4 Apr 1975 – 50 years ago
Microsoft, the computer software/hardware company, was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
5 Apr 1900 – 125 years ago
Birth of Spencer Tracy, American stage and film actor.
One of the greatest Hollywood actors.
6 Apr 1925 – 100 years ago
Imperial Airways introduced in-flight movies on scheduled flights.
The first film shown was The Lost World on a flight from London to Paris.
(The first in-flight movie was shown in the USA when Aeromarine Airways passengers flying around Chicago, Illinois were shown a film called Howdy Chicago.)
7 Apr 1955 – 70 years ago
Death of Theda Bara, (‘The Vamp’), American stage and silent film actress.
One of cinema’s first sex symbols.
8 Apr 1950 – 75 years ago
Death of Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer.
His career was ended by schizophrenia.
9 Apr 1965 – 60 years ago
The Beatles’ song Ticket to Ride was released in UK. (USA: 19th April.)
10 Apr 1925 – 100 years ago
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby was published.
11 Apr 1945 – 80 years ago
Holocaust: U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
12 Apr 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Oliver Postgate, British animator, puppeteer and writer.
He co-founded Smallfilms with Peter Firmin, and created, wrote and narrated several popular children’s television shows including Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, The Clangers, and Pogles’ Wood. (Died 2008.)
13 Apr 2000 – 25 years ago
The American rock band Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster, Inc., a file-sharing company that distributed MP3 music files online.
The band claimed that Napster was guilty of copyright infringement and racketeering. Napster lost the case and shut down its network in July 2001. It was also ordered to pay $26 million to copyright holders. Napster was forced into liquidation in September 2002. Its brand and logo were sold at auction, and the current Napster has no connection with the original company.
14 Apr 1775 – 250 years ago
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society was established in the USA (as the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage). It was the first abolition society in North America.
15 Apr 1850 – 175 years ago
The city of San Francisco, California, USA was incorporated.
Its population at that time was about 25,000. It is now around 875,000.
16 Apr to 2 May 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Berlin, Germany.
Soviet victory resulting in the surrender of German forces in the city, Hitler’s suicide, and the end of WWII in Europe on 8th May. Soviet forces captured the Reichstag (parliament building) on 30th April.
17 Apr 1875 – 150 years ago
The game of snooker was invented by British Army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain while he was stationed in India.
18 Apr 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolutionary War: American silversmith and folk hero Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride on horseback from Charleston to Lexington to warn residents that the British were about to attack. (Numerous other riders also helped spread the word.)
19 Apr 1965 – 60 years ago
Moore’s Law: in an article published in Electronics Magazine in the USA, Gordon Moore, the Head of Research and Development at Fairchild Semiconductor, predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year for the next ten years. His prediction proved correct, and the number continues to double roughly every two years.
20 Apr 1935 – 90 years ago
The first episode of Your Hit Parade was broadcast on NBC radio in the USA.
It ran until 1953. A television version ran from 1950 to 1959.
21 Apr 1985 – 40 years ago
Death of Tancredo Neves, President-elect of Brazil.
He became seriously ill on the eve of his inauguration and never took office. Vice-President-elect José Sarney became President in his place.
22 Apr 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Aaron Spelling, American film and television producer.
The leading TV producer of his era (Charlie’s Angels, T. J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Charmed, and more).
23 Apr 1775 – 250 years ago
Birth of J. M. W. Turner, British artist.
Known for his landscapes and turbulent marine paintings.
24 Apr 2005 – 20 years ago
Birth of Snuppy, the world’s first cloned dog, at Seoul National University, South Korea.
25 Apr 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II: Elbe Day.
An important milestone near the end of the war in Europe. U.S. forces advancing from the west and Soviet forces advancing from the east met at the River Elbe, effectively cutting Nazi Germany in two.
26 Apr 1900 – 125 years ago
Birth of Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist.
Best known for creating the Richter scale which measured the magnitude of earthquakes.
The Richter scale was superseded by the moment magnitude scale in 1979.
27 Apr 1950 – 75 years ago
Apartheid in South Africa. The Group Areas Act was passed, formally segregating races and barring people from living, operating businesses or owning land outside the areas designated for their race.
28 Apr 1945 – 80 years ago
Death of Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister/fascist dictator of Italy (1922–43).
(Executed by partisans, along with his mistress, Clara Petacci.)
29 Apr to 7 May 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II – Operation Manna. The British RAF dropped thousands of tons of food into the German-occupied Netherlands to help feed starving civilians. The U.S. Air Force also took part – Operation Chowhound. Both operations proved insufficient and were supplemented by Operation Faust, in which 1,000 tons of food per day were sent by truck from the non-occupied section of the Netherlands.
30 Apr 1975 – 50 years ago
The Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon.
South Vietnam surrendered to the North. North Vietnam established the Republic of South Vietnam. Vietnam was reunified as a communist state on 2nd July 1976.
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2025.
The 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 editions are also available if you work further ahead.
Each edition is available as a PDF ebook (with a free Excel spreadsheet) or as a printed paperback book.
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Highly recommended for research or if you’re just curious about ‘on this day’ type history.”
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How to use the anniversaries:
How can you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines, newspapers and websites? How do you get paid for writing them, and how can you make a great living from it?
Download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job. It tells you everything you need to know!