Tag: april

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2026 (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 2026, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 are also available.

Each edition is available in British and U.S. versions. Both have the same content, but with different date formats and spellings. If you click on the links above, you should be directed to the correct version, based on your location. We’ve taken the anniversaries below from the British version.

1 Apr 1826 – 200 years ago
American inventor Samuel Morey was granted a U.S. patent for one of the first internal combustion engines. His engine worked in a different way to modern ones, and was more complex and less efficient. (U.S. Patent 4,378.)

2 Apr 1926 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jack Brabham, Australian racing driver. Formula One world champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966. Founder of the Brabham racing team. The only driver to win the Formula One world championship in one of his own cars. (Died 2014.)

3 Apr 1901 – 125 years ago
Death of Richard D’Oyly Carte, British theatrical impresario. He built the Savoy Theatre and the Palace Theatre in London, managed some of the most important theatrical stars of the era, founded a touring opera company, and owned a chain of luxury hotels.

4 Apr 1826 – 200 years ago
Birth of Zénobe Gramme, Belgian electrical engineer. Best known for inventing the Gramme machine, the first successful industrial electric motor. It was also reversible and could function as a dynamo.

5 Apr 1976 – 50 years ago
Death of Howard Hughes, American business tycoon, record-breaking aviator, Hollywood film producer and philanthropist. One of the world’s richest people. Noted for his eccentric/reclusive lifestyle in later years.

6 Apr 1926 – 100 years ago
United Airlines was founded in the USA (as Varney Air Lines).
It became Boeing Air Transport in 1927 and United Air Lines in 1931.

7 Apr 1986 – 40 years ago
British home computer pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair sold his entire computer product range and the Sinclair brand name to Amstrad for £5 million ($6.73 million).

8 Apr 1946 – 80 years ago
Électricité de France (EDF), the world’s largest utility company, was founded when around 1,700 French energy producers, transporters and distributors were nationalised.

9 Apr 1626 – 400 years ago
Death of Francis Bacon, 1^st Viscount St Alban, English philosopher and politician. Attorney General of England and Wales (1613–17), Lord High Chancellor of England (1617–21). He is known as the ‘Father of empiricism’ and his works influenced the scientific revolution in Europe.

10 Apr 1966 – 60 years ago
Death of Evelyn Waugh, British satirical novelist, biographer and travel writer (Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust, Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour).

11 Apr 1951 – 75 years ago
Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in Korea for insubordination. MacArthur retired from the military on 19^th April. In his speech to Congress he said, ‘Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.’

12 Apr 1961 – 65 years ago
The first person in space.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and the first to orbit the Earth, in Vostok I.
He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union.

13 Apr 1986 – 40 years ago
The first recorded papal visit to a synagogue. Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in Italy.

14 Apr 1956 – 70 years ago
Ampex Corporation demonstrated the world’s first commercially successful videotape recorder (the VRX-1000) at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
It was first used on the CBS Evening News in November 1956 to time delay the New York-based show by three hours for the West Coast. It cost $50,000, which only networks and large TV stations could afford.

15 Apr 1901 – 125 years ago
Birth of Joe Davis, British snooker and billiards player. He co-founded the World Snooker Championship in 1927, and won the first 15 championships. He was also the first recorded snooker player to score a maximum break (147).

16 Apr 1996 – 30 years ago
France Télécom launched its Wanadoo internet service. It took over the British service Freeserve in 2000 and was rebranded as Orange in 2006.

17 Apr 1951 – 75 years ago
The Peak District National Park was established. It was Britain’s first national park.

18 Apr 1946 – 80 years ago
Nuclear physicists John von Neumann from Hungary and Klaus Fuchs from Germany invented the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. (Secret U.S. Patent S-5292X.)

19 Apr 1951 – 75 years ago
The first Miss World beauty contest was held, in London, UK.

20 Apr 1951 – 75 years ago
Whirlwind I, the first real-time digital computer began operating. It was the first computer to allow interactive computing via a keyboard and visual display unit. It was built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the U.S. Navy, who wanted it to control a flight simulator. It was also connected to a radar system and used for tracking aircraft and warning of air attacks.

21 Apr 1966 – 60 years ago
Grounation Day. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Jamaica. This day is now celebrated annually by the Rastafari movement as one of their most important holy days.

22 Apr 2001 – 25 years ago
The world premiere of the computer-animated comedy film Shrek, in Westwood, California, USA.
Released USA: 18^th May. UK: 29^th June.

23 Apr 1951 – 75 years ago
The Associated Press began using the first teletypesetter. It allowed newspapers to automatically set type directly from wire transmissions.

24 Apr 1926 – 100 years ago
The Treaty of Berlin was signed by Germany and the Soviet Union. They pledged to remain neutral in the event of an attack on the other country by a third party during the next five years.
The treaty was renewed in 1931, but relations broke down after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.

25 Apr 1961 – 65 years ago
American engineer Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor was granted a U.S. patent for the integrated circuit. (U.S. Patent 2,981,877.)

26 Apr 1956 – 70 years ago
The world’s first commercially successful container ship went into service, launching a revolution in transportation. The SS Ideal X was a converted WWII oil tanker, which carried 58 containers from Newark, New Jersey to Houston, Texas on its first voyage.
(It was not the first container ship. The first was the Clifford J. Rodgers, which went into service in 1955.)

27 Apr 1956 – 70 years ago
American heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retired undefeated: 49 wins and no losses.

28 Apr 2001 – 25 years ago
American businessman Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist. He travelled on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a seven-day visit to the International Space Station. He paid $20 million (£12.5 million).

29 Apr 1946 – 80 years ago
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was convened to try Japanese war criminals following the end of WWII. Those indicted included former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 28 other leaders.

30 Apr 1961 – 65 years ago
The Soviet submarine K-19 was commissioned. It was the first Soviet nuclear submarine to be equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles. It remained in service until 1990, but experienced several breakdowns and accidents while in service.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2026.

The 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 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, in British or U.S. versions.

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!

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 4^th 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: 19^th 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 8^th May. Soviet forces captured the Reichstag (parliament building) on 30^th 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.

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!

Share this:

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2024 (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 picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch (an attempted revolution in November 1923). He used his time in prison to write his famous memoir Mein Kampf. He was released after eight months.

2 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
Death of Georges Pompidou, President of France (1969–74 – died in office).
Succeeded by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on 27^th May.

3 Apr 1934 – 90 years ago
British inventor Percy Shaw patented the Cat’s Eye reflective road stud.
He set up a company to manufacture them in 1935, and in 1937 he was awarded a government contract to mass produce them for national use.

4 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The first BBC radio broadcast for schools: the composer Sir Walford Davies gave a talk on music.
Regular schools broadcasting began in 1928.

5 Apr 1874 – 150 years ago
Austrian composer Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus was performed for the first time, in Vienna.

6 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
The Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo.
It was the first time that Sweden won the contest.
ABBA went on to be one of the most successful groups in music history.

7 Apr 1724 – 300 years ago
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion was performed for the first time, at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig.

8 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
The song Band on the Run by Paul McCartney and Wings was released. It was the title track of their 1973 album.

9 Apr 1024 – 1000 years ago
Death of Pope Benedict VIII. Succeeded by John XIX.

10 Apr 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: two Slovak Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and wrote a report (the Vrba–Wetzler report) which detailed for (possibly) the first time the extent of the atrocities taking place there.

11 Apr 1899 – 125 years ago
Spanish–American War: the Treaty of Paris came into effect, officially marking the end of the war and the end of the Spanish Empire. Spain relinquished its sovereignty of Cuba, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the USA.
This marked the USA’s beginning as a world power.

12 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
The first mass commercial spam campaign was launched.
U.S. lawyers Canter & Siegel flooded around 6,000 Usenet message boards with ads for their services in connection with a Green Card Lottery. Their internet service was swiftly terminated, but they said they gained 1,000 new clients from the campaign and made $100,000 from it.

13 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in the film Lilies of the Field.

14 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of Louis Sullivan, American architect. Regarded as ‘the father of modern American architecture’ and ‘the father of skyscrapers’.

15 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The first Rand McNally Road Atlas was published in the USA (as the Rand McNally Auto Chum).

16 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
The Rolling Stones released their first album The Rolling Stones in the UK.
(USA: May 30^th with the sub-title England’s Newest Hit Makers.)

17 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) was founded when Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged.

18 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The Cross Word Puzzle Book was published in the USA by Simon & Schuster. It was the world’s first crossword puzzle book, and the company’s first publication. The book contained a compilation of crossword puzzles from the New York World newspaper. It was an instant success and helped establish Simon & Shuster, which became one of the world’s largest publishing companies.

19 Apr 1824 – 200 years ago
Death of Lord Byron, British poet and politician. One of the greatest British poets, and a leading figure of the Romantic movement. Father of Ada Lovelace, who is considered the first computer programmer.
(Died of sepsis/fever while fighting for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, aged 36.)

20 Apr 1999 – 25 years ago
The Columbine High School massacre, Colorado, USA.
Two students went on a shooting spree, killing 12 students and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.

21 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
American astronomer Alexander Wolszczan announced the discovery of the first exoplanets (planets outside our solar system).
They orbited the pulsar PSR B1257+12.

22 Apr 1724 – 300 years ago
Birth of Immanuel Kant, German philosopher. One of the leading philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment.

23 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The British Empire Exhibition opened in Wembley, London.

24 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
Death of Bud Abbott, American comedian and actor (Abbott & Costello).

25 Apr 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Guglielmo Marconi, Italian electrical engineer and inventor who developed long-distance radio transmission.
Joint winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing wireless telegraphy.

26 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
The first post-apartheid multiracial elections were held in South Africa, with 18 million blacks eligible to vote for the first time.
Nelson Mandela was elected president and took office on 10^th May.

27 Apr 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: Exercise Tiger – a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.
The exercise took place on Slapton Sands in Devon, UK, and involved the use of live ammunition to acclimatise 30,000 Allied servicemen to battle conditions. Due to coordination and communication issues, up to 450 U.S. servicemen were killed in ‘friendly fire’ incidents. During the exercise, their boats were also torpedoed by German forces, and at least 749 U.S. servicemen were killed.

28 Apr 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Francis Baily, British astronomer. Best known for his observations of Baily’s Beads, which can be seen during a total solar eclipse. He was also a co-founder and president of the Royal Astronomical Society.

29 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Soviet Union, reported to the U.S. State Department in Washington that hidden microphones had been planted in the Embassy. The Embassy set about finding and removing them all, and found more than 40 over the next month.
(A similar incident happened when Soviet contractors built a new U.S. Embassy, starting in 1979, and packed it with listening devices.)

30 Apr 2004 – 20 years ago
The Sasser computer worm was created and released.
It affected unpatched versions of Microsoft’s Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems.
It had significant effects on computer systems worldwide, including halting France’s news agency, causing the cancellation of Delta Air Lines transatlantic flights, halting the work of banks, insurance offices and the European Commission, and disabling the British Coastguard’s mapping system and a number of X-ray machines.
A German student, Sven Jaschan, was arrested for creating it. He received a 21-month suspended sentence.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2023 (so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, biographies and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, and editors and producers love them. They’re easy to research too. And you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, TV/radio features, films, documentaries, and more.

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which features more than 3,000 anniversaries. . The 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

1 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The Big Bang theory was first proposed in a paper by the Russian-born American theoretical physicist and cosmologist George Gamow and his associates. It was published in the magazine Physical Review.

2 Apr 1963 – 60 years ago
The Soviet Union launched its Luna 4 spacecraft on a mission to the Moon. It missed the Moon by over 5,000 miles after failing to make a mid-course correction.

3 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The USA’s Marshall Plan for European recovery after WWII went into effect.

4 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of John Venn, British logician and philosopher. Best known for inventing the Venn diagram.

5 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of George Herbert, 5^th Earl of Carnarvon, British aristocrat and Egyptologist who financed the search/excavation of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

6 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
Tomsk-7 nuclear accident, Seversk, Russia. A tank at a nuclear waste reprocessing facility exploded while being cleaned, releasing a cloud of highly radioactive gas. Several villages became permanently uninhabitable as a result.

7 Apr 1933 – 90 years ago
Prohibition in the USA: the Cullen–Harrison Act came into effect, legalising the sale of low alcohol beer and wine (up to 3.2% alcohol by weight) for the first time since 1920.

8 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist. Co-founder of the Cubism movement. One of the greatest artists of the 20^th century.

9 Apr 1963 – 60 years ago
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was proclaimed the first Honorary Citizen of the United States.

10 Apr 1998 – 25 years ago
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland.

11 Apr 1958 – 65 years ago
Birth of Stuart Adamson, Scottish punk/rock/new wave singer, guitarist and songwriter (Skids, Big Country). (Died 2001.)

12 Apr 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of Lily Pons, French-born American operatic soprano.

13 Apr 1873 – 150 years ago
The Colfax Massacre, Louisiana, USA. More than 60 black men (some sources say 150) were killed by a white Southern militia in a racially motivated attack.

14 Apr 2003 – 20 years ago
The Human Genome Project was successfully completed, with over 99% of the human genome sequenced and mapped, including all of the genes.

15 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Insulin became generally available for the treatment of diabetes.

16 Apr 1943 – 80 years ago
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD after accidentally absorbing some through his fingertips during an experiment at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory. On 19^th April he deliberately took the drug to determine its true effects, but underestimated its potency and experienced an intense psychotic reaction.

17 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
FedEx, the courier service, began operating (as Federal Express).

18 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
The première of the dystopian thriller film Soylent Green in Los Angeles, California, USA. (New York première: 19^th April, released: 9th May. UK: June 1973.)

19 Apr 1943 to 16 May – 80 years ago
Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Poland. The Jewish resistance revolted against Nazi Germany’s efforts to transport those who remained in the ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp.

20 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Tito Puente, American Latin jazz/mambo musician, songwriter and record producer. He helped popularise Latin dance music and jazz in the USA.

21 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Sir John Mortimer, British barrister, playwright, novelist, screenwriter and short story writer. Best known for creating Rumpole of the Bailey, and for the stage play A Voyage Round My Father. (Died 2009.)

22 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Aaron Spelling, American television and film producer (Charlie’s Angels, T. J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210 and many more). (Died 2006.)

23 Apr 1998 – 25 years ago
Death of James Earl Ray, American criminal convicted of assassinating the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

24 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
An IRA truck bomb exploded in the Bishopsgate financial district in London. One person was killed (a press photographer) and 44 injured. It was the last major IRA bombing in England. Reconstruction cost £350 million.

25 Apr 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Walter de la Mare, British poet, children’s writer, short story writer and novelist.

26 Apr 1933 – 90 years ago
The Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police force, was established.

27 Apr 1848 – 175 years ago
Slavery was abolished in the French colonies.

28 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Wembley Stadium in London opened (as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium, commonly known as the Empire Stadium). It was demolished in 2003. The new Wembley Stadium opened on the same site in March 2007.

29 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
Queen Elizabeth II announced that Buckingham Palace would open to the public for the first time, to raise funds to repair fire damage at Windsor Castle.

30 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The Land Rover, a British all-terrain vehicle, was officially launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in the Netherlands.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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