11th APRIL
Margaret of Angouleme (b. 1492)
Christopher Smart (b. 1722)
James Parkinson (b. 1755)
Jean-Baptiste Isabey (b. 1767)
George Canning (b. 1770)
Sir Henry Rawlinson (b. 1810)
Sir Charles Hallé (b. 1819)
Sergei Prokofiev (b. OS 1891)
Dan Maskell (b. 1908)
Milly Good (b. 1913)
Ronald Fraser (b. 1930)
Richard Berry (b. 1935)
Stuart Adamson (b. 1958)
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Wales (d. 1240)
Sir Thomas Wyatt (d. 1554)
John Merrick (Elephant Man) (d. 1890)
Sir Gerald du Maurier (d. 1934)
John O'Hara (d. 1970)
Josephine Baker (d. 1975)
Jacques Prévert (d. 1977)
Dolores Del Rio (d. 1983)
Enver Hoxha (d. 1985)
Primo Levi (d. 1987)
Erskine Caldwell (d. 1987)
Francis Durbridge (d. 1998)
André Deutsch (d. 2000)
Sir Harry Secombe (d. 2001)
Junior Delgado (d. 2005)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr (d. 2007)
Battle of Selby, English Civil War, 1644
William III & Mary II crowned King & Queen of Britain, 1689
France gives Gibraltar, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia & Hudson Bay to UK, Utrecht, 1713
Napoleon abdicates as Emperor and is banished to Elba, 1814
Treaty of Fontainebleau signed, 1814
Erebus and Terror abandoned by Franklin Expedition, King William's Island, 1848
1st pillar-boxes appear in London, 1855
1st incandescent street-lamps introduced, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1881
Uganda declared a British Protectorate, 1894
Ratification of secession by Spain of Puerto Rico to US, 1899
Einstein announces his Theory of Relativity, 1905
Gustav Hamel flies non-stop Dover-Dunkirk and back, 1913
1st sports commentary broadcast, of a boxing match, Pittsburgh PA, 1921
Iowa becomes 1st state to impose cigarette tax, 1921
Popeye 1st appears in a cartoon strip, New York, 1929
Daily Express becomes 1st newspaper to publish TV listings, 1931
Major German air raid made over Coventry, 1941
Buchenwald concentration camp liberated by US forces, 1945
Stone of Scone found at an abbey, Fonfar, Angus, 1951
Trial of Adolf Eichmann opens, Jerusalem, 1961
Dylan's 1st professional engagement, with John Lee Hooker, Gerde's Folk City, 1961
Rude Dutschke shot by would-be assassin, Berlin, 1968
Apollo 13 launched, 1330 LT, Cape Kennedy, 1970
Grateful Dead play City Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1972
Skeleton discovered in Berlin stated to be that of Martin Bormann, 1974
Riots in Brixton begin, 1981
Transglobal expedition completes 1st world circumnavigation via Poles, N Pole, 1982
Gandhi wins 8 Oscars, record for a UK film, Academy Awards, 1983
Chernenko named as chief of state, USSR, 1984
The Chart Show 1st broadcast, C4, 1986
1st Oasis single, Supersonic, released, UK, 1994

12th APRIL
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (b. 1550)
Henri (Bluebeard) Landru (b. 1869)
Robert Delauney (b. 1885)
Imogen Holst (b. 1907)
Georges Franju (b. 1912)
Kim Il-sung (b. 1912)
Hound Dog Taylor (b. 1917)
Ann Miller (b. 1919)
Tiny Tim (b. 1922)
Bobby Moore (b. 1941)
Howard Sasportas (b. 1948)
Jeremy Beadle (b. 1948)
Nicolò Amati (d. 1684)
Claude Prosper Crébillon (d. 1777)
Feodor Chaliapin (d. 1938)
Franklin D Roosevelt (d. 1945)
Arthur Freed (d. 1973)
Joe Louis (d. 1981)
Abbie Hoffman (d. 1989)
Sugar Ray Robinson (d. 1989)
Jimmy Logan (d. 2001)
Constantinople (Istanbul) captured in Fourth Crusade, 1204
Maud Heath sponsors creation of Causeway, Chippenham, 1474
Union Jack 1st adopted as flag of England, Wales & Scotland, 1606
Tatler 1st published, 1709
Battle of the Saints, West Indies, 1782
Battle of Tugela, 1838
1st shots of American Civil War fired, Fort Sumter SC, 1861
Viaduct Tavern is 1st electrically lit public house, Holborn, 1882
1st successful East-West transatlantic flight begun, 1928
Truman becomes president, US, 1945
Bill Haley records Rock Around The Clock & Shake Rattle & Roll, 1954
Wankel Rotary Engine invented, 1954
Yuri Gagarin becomes 1st astronaut, in Vostok I, Tyuratam, 1961
Poitier becomes 1st black to win Oscar for best actor, Lilies Of The Field, 1964
Jan Berry paralysed driving Corvette into parked truck, 1966
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead premiered, National Theatre, 1967
Amin deposed as president as rebels and exiles seize control, Uganda, 1979
Columbia space shuttle 1st launched into space, Cape Canaveral FL, 1981
Jake Garn becomes 1st senator to fly in space, in Discovery, Cape Canaveral FL, 1985
Sea daisy, new form of marine life, discovered, Tasman Sea, 1986
USSR admits 1940 massacre of 15,000 Polish officers at Katyn, 1990
Euro-Disney opened, Marne-La-Vallee, France, 1992

13th APRIL
Catherine de Médici (b. 1519)
John Hanson (b. 1721)
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guildford (b. 1732)
Sir Thomas Lawrence (b. 1769)
Richard Trevithick (b. 1771)
Josephine Butler (b. 1828)
Frank W Woolworth (b. 1852)
James Ensor (b. 1860)
Butch Cassidy (b. 1866)
György Lukács (b. 1885)
Jacques Lacan (b. 1901)
Samuel Beckett (b. 1906)
Howard Keel (b. 1919)
Roberto Calvi (b. 1920)
John Braine (b. 1922)
Maurice Ronet (b. 1927)
Alan Clark (b. 1928)
Guy Stevens (b. 1943)
Lowell George (b. 1945)
Jean de La Fontaine (d. 1695)
Christmas Humphreys (d. 1983)
Sir Ian MacGregor (d. 1998)
Caron Keating (d. 2004)
Dame Muriel Spark (d. 2006)
Edict of Nantes issued, 1598
John Dryden appointed 1st Poet Laureate, 1668
Royal Military Academy established, Woolwich, 1741
Handel's Messiah 1st performance, Dublin, 1742
Battle of Millesimo begins, 1796
Catholic Emancipation Act becomes law, 1829
Sicily becomes independent of Naples, 1848
Metropolitan Museum of Art founded, New York NY, 1870
Anti-Semitic League founded, Prussia, 1882
The Campanali collapses, Venice, 1903
Royal Flying Corps constituted, 1912
Amritsar Massacre takes place, Punjab, 1919
London-Australia airline service started by Imperial Airways/QANTAS, 1935
Joe Payne scores record 10 goals on debut as Luton Town centre-forward, 1936
HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier launched, Birkenhead, 1937
Stone of Scone returned to Westminster Abbey, 1951
Ian Smith becomes prime minister, South Rhodesia, 1964
Sidney Poitier is 1st black to win Oscar as best actor, for Lilies of the Field, 1964
Largest UK cavern discovered, Mynydd-dhu, 1966
Rolling Stones 1st play behind Iron Curtain, Palace of Culture, Warsaw, 1967
Conflict between Christians and Moslems breaks out, Beirut, Lebanon, 1975
Tiger Woods becomes youngest person to win Masters Tournament, 1997
Jack Kervorkian sentenced for assisted suicide of Thomas Youk, Pontiac MI, 1999
Jessica Lynch returns after treatment at a US military hospital in Germany, US, 2003

14th APRIL
Ortelius (b. 1527)
Edward Gresham (b. 1565)
Christiaan Huygens (b. 1629)
William Bentinck, Duke of Portland (b. 1738)
Augustus Pitt-Rivers (b. 1827)
Michael Fokine (b. OS 1880)
Sigismund Payne Best (b. 1885)
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (b. 1889)
Sir John Gielgud (b. 1904)
François Duvalier (Papa Doc) (b. 1907)
Robert Doisneau (b. 1912)
Valerie Hobson (b. 1917)
Rod Steiger (b. 1925)
Dany Robin (b. 1927)
Godwin, Earl of the West Saxons (d. 1053)
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (d. 1471)
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell (d. 1578)
Thomas Otway (d. 1685)
George Frederick Handel (d. 1759)
William Whitehead (d. 1785)
LL Zamenhof (d. 1917)
Vladimir Mayakovsky (d. 1930)
Ernest Bevin (d. 1951)
Fredric March (d. 1975)
FR Leavis (d. 1978)
Elisabeth Lutyens (d. 1983)
Pete Farndon (d. 1983)
Noele Gordon (d. 1985)
Simone de Beauvoir (d. 1986)
John Stonehouse (d. 1988)
Burl Ives (d. 1995)
Anthony Newley (d. 1999)
Seige of Masada ends with mass self-destruction of the Jews inside, 73
Black Monday, "so full dark of mist and hail" that many die from the cold, 1360
Henry VI deposed after Battle of Barnet, 1471
Edward IV recovers throne, 1471
Town's College awarded charter by James VI, Edinburgh, 1582
Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush form 1st abolition society, Philadelphia PA, 1775
Sweeney Todd's second murder reported in Daily Courant, 1785
Webster's American Dictionary of English Language published, 1828
Battle of Fort Sumter ends, 1861
Lincoln shot by Booth during Our American Cousin, Ford's Theater, Washington DC, 1865
Pan American Union established, 1890
1st film show for paying customers takes place, Kinetoscope Parlor, Broadway, 1894
Typhus vaccine dicovered by Harry Plotz, New York NY, 1903
Titanic hits iceberg on maiden voyage, 2340 LT, nr Newfoundland, 1912
New Statesman 1st published, 1913
Dixieland Jazz Band make 1st live jazz broadcast, 1923
Monaco Grand Prix 1st run, Monte Carlo, 1929
1st Highway Code issued by Ministry of Transport, 1931
Alfonso XIII abdicates in favour of revolutionary provisional government, Spain, 1931
John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes Of Wrath published, 1939
Ampex Corp demonstrate 1st commercial videotape recorder, US, 1956
Sputnik II disintegrates, 1958
John Lennon records The Ballad Of John And Yoko, 1969
1st quintuplets in Scotland born, to Linda Bostock, 1972
1st UK promotional music video commercially available, by Gary Numan, 1980
1st cordless telephone, Fidelity Wanderer, introduced, UK, 1983
Robin Knox-Johnston completes record catamaran crossing of Atlantic, Plymouth, 1985
75 die when NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees, 1999

15th APRIL
Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452)
Nának (b. 1469)
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (b. 1721)
Friedrich Struve (b. 1793)
Sir James Clark Ross (b. 1800)
Théodore Rousseau (b. 1812)
Henry James (b. 1843)
AP Carter (b. 1891)
Bessie Smith (b. 1894)
Helene Hanff (b. 1916)
Rikki Fulton (b. 1924)
Albert Goldman (b. 1927)
Elizabeth Montgomery (b. 1933)
Bob Luman (b. 1937)
Dodi Fayed (b. 1955)
Lorenzo Lippi (d. 1664)
Madame de Pompadour (d. 1764)
Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
Matthew Arnold (d. 1888)
John Singer Sargent (d. 1925)
Wallace Beery (d. 1949)
Emil Nolde (d. 1956)
Michael Flanders (d. 1975)
Jean-Paul Sartre (d. 1980)
Arthur Lowe (d. 1982)
Sir William Empson (d. 1984)
Tommy Cooper (d. 1984)
Jean Genet (d. 1986)
Kenneth Williams (d. 1988)
Greta Garbo (d. 1990)
Leslie Charteris (d. 1993)
John Curry (d. 1994)
Stavros Niarchos (d. 1996)
Pol Pot (d. 1998)
Joey Ramone (d. 2001)
Henry IV signs Edict of Nantes, 1598
Bach's Passion According To St Matthew 1st performed, Leipzig, 1729
Dr Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary, UK, 1755
1st £5 note issued by Bank of England, 1793
Naval mutiny takes place, Spithead, 1797
Building of new House of Lords completed, London, 1845
City of San Francisco incorporated, 1850
Screw-top for bottles patented by Francois Joseph Belzung, Paris, 1852
Andrew Johnson sworn in as president on death of Lincoln, US, 1865
Thomas Edison conducts 1st showing of his Kinetoscope, New York NY, 1891
Motor hearse 1st used at a funeral, Coventry, 1901
Metal skewer 1st registered at patent office, 1902
1,513 die when Titanic sinks on maiden voyage, nr Newfoundland, 1912
Daily Herald 1st published, UK, 1912
1st public sound-on-film performance, Rialto Th, New York NY, 1923
Ulster Parliament opened by Governor of Northern Ireland, 1925
Barrie donates copyright fee of Peter Pan to Gt Ormand St Hospital, 1929
1st TV serial, Vine Street, broadcast, Los Angeles CA, 1938
George VI awards George Cross to Malta, 1942
Embroidery banned on women's undergarments and nightwear, UK, 1942
Bergen-Belsen camp liberated, 1945
Battle of Berlin begins, 1945
Dan Dare makes 1st appearance in 1st edition of The Eagle, 1950
McDonald's chain founded by Ray Kroc, Chicago IL, 1955
Desmond Dekker's Israelites becomes 1st reggae single to top UK charts, 1969
American F-111 aircraft, some from UK bases, bomb Tripoli and Bengazi, 1986
95 die in football crowd crush, Hillsborough, 1989
BBC World Service Television satellite service begins, 1991

16th APRIL
Frans van Mieris the Elder (b. 1635)
Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660)
Charles Montagu (b. 1661)
John Hadley (b. 1682)
Sir John Franklin (b. 1786)
Ford Madox Brown (b. 1821)
Anatole France (b. 1844)
Wilbur Wright (b. 1867)
John Millington Synge (b. 1871)
Sir Charles Chaplin (b. 1889)
Sir Ove Arup (b. 1895)
Guy Burgess (b. 1911)
John Halas (b. 1912)
Sir Spike Milligan (b. 1918)
Sir Peter Ustinov (b. 1921)
Sir Kingsley Amis (b. 1922)
Henry Mancini (b. 1924)
Sir John Harvey-Jones (b. 1924)
Dusty Springfield (b. 1940)
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1687)
Aphra Behn (d. 1689)
Henry Fuseli (d. 1825)
Francisco de Goya (d. 1828)
Marie Tussaud (d. 1850)
St Bernadette of Lourdes (d. 1879)
Samuel Smiles (d. 1904)
Bertram Mills (d. 1938)
Eddie Cochran (d. 1960)
Sir David Lean (d. 1991)
Chaim Herzog (d. 1994)
Skip Spence (d. 1999)
Martin Luther arrives, Diet of Worms, 1521
Capt Smith lands with 1st English colonists to settle in America, Cape Henry VA, 1607
Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated at last battle on UK soil, Culloden, 1746
Vaudeville Th, 1st building, opened, Strand, 1870
1st book of stamps issued, US, 1900
Harriet Quimby becomes 1st woman to fly English Channel, Dover-Hardelot, 1912
2nd Battle of the Aisne River begins, 1917
Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio formed, Hollywood CA, 1924
Tea-bag making machinery patented, 1929
Zoom lens 1st demonstrated, New York NY, 1947
EEC set up, 1948
Royal yacht Britannia launched, 1953
1st stock car race, Old Kent Rd Stadium, New Cross, 1954
Eddie Cochran plays final concert, Hippodrome, Bristol, 1960
Gene Vincent injured in car crash with Eddie Cochran, Chippenham, 1960
Walter Cronkite 1st presents CBS news, US, 1962
Geraldine Monk becomes 1st woman to fly solo around the world, 1964
Apollo 16 launched, 1972
Khmer Rouge seize Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1975
Ian McCulloch marries Lorraine Fox, Liverpool, 1983
President Mahammed Najibullah deposed by his army, Afghanistan, 1992
Phoneday, when British Telecom area codes change, UK, 1995
Duke and Duchess of York announce they are to divorce, 1996

17th APRIL
John Ford (b. 1586)
Henry Vaughan (b. 1622)
Alexander II, Tsar of Russia (b. OS 1818)
Sir Leonard Woolley (b. 1880)
Artur Schnabel (b. 1882)
Lady (Karen) Blixen (b. 1885)
George Adamski (b. 1891)
Thornton Wilder (b. 1897)
William Holden (b. 1918)
Lindsay Anderson (b. 1923)
Billy Fury (b. 1940)
Madame de Sévigné (d. 1696)
Benjamin Franklin (d. 1790)
Al Bowlly (d. 1941)
Felix Pappalardi (d. 1983)
Basil Bunting (d. 1985)
Carlton Barrett (d. 1987)
Arthur Calder-Marshall (d. 1992)
Arthur English (d. 1995)
Linda McCartney (d. 1998)
Jeff Mayo (d. 1998)
Sir J Paul Getty II (d. 2003)
Earl King (d. 2003)
Gwyneth Dunwoody (d. 2008)
100,000 die as sea breaks through dykes, Dordrecht, 1421
Diet of Worms excommunicates Martin Luther, 1521
Verrazano discovers harbour at New York, 1524
Boston News Letter becomes 1st US newspaper to be regularly published, Boston MA, 1704
Pineapple cheese patented by Lewis M Norton, Troy PA, 1810
Anti-Slavery Society founded, 1839
Republic of Guatemala founded, 1839
Leak-proof surgical rubber gloves patented, 1878
Football League 1st meets formally, Manchester, 1888
Wilde's A Woman Of No Importance 1st performed, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 1893
Slavery abolished, Ethiopia, 1932
Yugoslav surrenders to Germany, 1941
Igor Sikorsky pilots 1st helicopter lift-off from water, Stratford CT, 1941
Lita Rosa becomes 1st woman to top record charts, 1953
£1 Premium Bonds 1st introduced, UK, 1956
Makarios returns to Greece after 13 months exile, Athens, 1957
Attempted invasion of Cuba takes place, Bay of Pigs, 1961
London Hilton opened, 1963
Timothy Leary arrested on charges of drug possession, US, 1960
Jerrie Mock becomes 1st woman to complete solo airplane flight around the world, 1964
Sirhan Sirhan found guilty of killing Robert Kennedy, 1969
Minimum voting age for women reduced from 21 to 18, UK, 1969
Apollo 13 astronauts splash down, 4 days after oxygen tank rupture, Pacific, 1970
Cambodian civil war ends when Phnom Penh surrenders to Khmer Rouge, 1975
Rhodesia becomes independent nation of Zimbabwe, 1980
WPC Yvonne Fletcher shot dead from Libyan People's Bureau, London, 1984
John McCarthy taken hostage, Beirut, 1986
Ulysses spacecraft completes 1st 7-yr solar orbit, 1998

18th APRIL
Lucrezia Borgia (b. 1480)
Sir Francis Baring (b. 1740)
Franz von Suppé (b. 1820)
Leopold Stokowski (b. 1882)
Little Brother Montgomery (b. 1906)
Miklós Rózsa (b. 1907)
Wendy Barrie (b. 1912)
Lord Kitchener (b. 1922)
Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown (b. 1924)
Peter Jeffrey (b. 1929)
Skip Spence (b. 1946)
Filippino Lippi (d. 1504)
John Leland (d. 1552)
Lord (George) Jeffreys (d. 1689)
Jacques Cassini (d. 1756)
Jean Baptiste Isabey (d. 1855)
Sir Henry Cole (d. 1882)
Gustave Moreau (d. 1898)
Ottorino Respighi (d. 1936)
Florrie Ford (d. 1940)
Will Hay (d. 1949)
Albert Einstein (d. 1955)
Ben Hecht (d. 1964)
Benny Hill (d. 1992)
Dame Elizabeth Frink (d. 1993)
Bernard Edwards (d. 1996)
Thor Heyerdahl (d. 2002)
Pig sentenced to death for killing a child, Chartres, 1499
Drake leads English armada against Spain and Portugal, 1589
Paul Revere begins his ride, Charleston-Lexington, 1775
1st 2,000 Guineas horse-race run, Newmarket, 1809
Natural History Museum 1st opened in own premises, South Kensington, 1881
Great Earthquake in which 450 die begins, San Francisco CA, 1906
Yankee Stadium opened, New York NY, 1923
Reply-paid envelopes introduced by GPO, 1932
1st washateria or laundromat opened, Fort Worth TX, 1934
Gone With The Wind premiered, UK, 1940
1st Scout Bob-a-Job week begins, UK, 1949
Eire proclaimed Republic of Ireland, 1949
Europe Steel and Coal Community formed, 1951
Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco (civil ceremony), 1956
London Bridge sold to US oil company, 1968
Alexander Dubcek deposed as Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman, 1969
Lulu marries Maurice Gibb, Gerrard's Cross, 1969

19th APRIL
Constance Talmadge (b. 1898)
Nevill Coghill (b. 1899)
Richard Hughes (b. 1900)
Eliot Ness (b. 1903)
Jim Mollison (b. 1905)
Glenn T Seaborg (b. 1912)
Alexis Korner (b. 1928)
Jayne Mansfield (b. 1932)
Dudley Moore (b. 1935)
Ruby Johnson (b. 1936)
Robert II, King of Scotland (d. 1390)
Anthony van Dieman (d. 1645)
Christina, Queen of Sweden (d. 1689)
Lord (George Gordon) Byron (d. 1824)
Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1881)
Charles Darwin (d. 1882)
Warren De la Rue (d. 1889)
John Addington Symonds (d. 1893)
Pierre Curie (d. 1906)
Rosemary Sutcliffe (d. 1964)
Konrad Adenauer (d. 1967)
Willie Mabon (d. 1986)
Dame Daphne du Maurier (d. 1989)
Frankie Howerd (d. 1992)
David Koresh (d. 1993)
Lord (Denis) Howell (d. 1998)
Layne Staley (d. 2002)
Norris McWhirter (d. 2004)
Drake sinks Spanish fleet in harbour, Cadiz, 1587
Amye Everard is 1st woman granted a patent, for saffron & rose essence tincture, 1637
Postmarks introduced by Post Office, UK, 1661
1st battle of War of American Independence, Battle of Lexington, 1775
US Congress announces end of War of American Independence, 1783
Gas meter patented, 1843
Primrose Day instigated to commemorate Disraeli, 1881
Charles Duryea test drives prototype of 1st US-built automobile, US, 1892
1st annual marathon held, Boston MA, 1897
Earthquake and fire in which 452 die ends, San Francisco CA, 1906
Literacy made a condition of immigration to the US, 1912
De Valera elected President of Ireland at 2nd session of Dáil Éireann, 1919
Irish Free State formed, 1921
United States goes off the gold standard, 1933
Surgeon's Photograph of Loch Ness monster supposedly taken by Col Wilson, 1934
Main Greek Army capitulates to Germany, 1941
Albert Hofmann 1st to take LSD, the drug he invented, Switzerland, 1943
US tests atomic bomb, Eniwatok Atoll, Pacific, 1948
Miss Sweden (Kiki Haakonson) wins 1st Miss World contest, Lyceum, London, 1951
Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco (public ceremony), 1956
Bobby Charlton makes 1st of 106 football appearances for England, 1958
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady trial begins, Chester, 1966
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates split up, UK, 1966
1st unmanned space station, Salyut, launched, USSR, 1971
Bangladesh admitted to Commonwealth, 1972
1st REM gig takes place, Athens GA, 1980
Guinness wins majority control of Distillers Co., UK, 1986
Western pop music 1st broadcast by Radio China, 1988
George Carey enthroned as Archbishop, Canterbury, 1991
86 Branch Davidian cult followers perish in seige fire, Waco TX, 1993
207 die when Alfred Murrah Building exploded by car bomb, Oklahoma City OK, 1995
German parliament inaugurates new home in restored Reichstag, Berlin, 1999
The Mel Brooks musical The Producers opened on Broadway, New York NY, 2001
Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican, Rome, 2005

20th APRIL
Johann Agricola (b. 1494)
Napoleon III (b. 1808)
Odilon Redon (b. 1840)
Adolf Hitler (b. 1889)
Joan Miró (b. 1893)
Harold Lloyd (b. 1893)
Sir Donald Wolfit (b. 1902)
Lionel Hampton (b. 1908)
Gerald Hawkins (b. 1928)
Edie Sedgwick (b. 1943)
Luther Vandross (b. 1951)
Johann Cristoph Denner (d. 1707)
Antonio Canaletto (d. 1768)
Pontiac (d. 1769)
Bram Stoker (d. 1912)
Archibald MacLeish (d. 1982)
Don Siegel (d. 1991)
Steve Marriott (d. 1991)
Seán O'Faoláin (d. 1991)
Johnny Shines (d. 1992)
Cantinflas (d. 1993)
Jean Carmet (d. 1994)
RES Wyatt (d. 1995)
Most Rev Sir Trevor Huddleston (d. 1998)
Jacques Cartier reaches coast of Labrador, 1534
Oliver Cromwell dissolves Long Parliament, 1653
Battle of Santa Cruz, 1657
Siege of Londonderry begins, 1689
Capt Cook discovers Australia, New South Wales, NS 1770
Territory of Wisconsin established by Congress, 1836
1st modern detective novel, Poe's Murder In The Rue Morgue, published, US, 1841
Births, marriages & deaths move to front page, Times, 1854
Robert E Lee resigns from army to lead Confederates, 1861
Sainsbury's officially founded, UK, 1869
Georges Bouton is only entrant in 1st motor race, Paris, 1887
Hedda Gabler 1st produced in England, 1891
Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive element radium, 1902
2nd Battle of Aisne River ends, 1917
1st UK radio sports broadcast takes place, 1923
1st exclusively Fascist Italian Parliament opened, 1929
Scottish National Party formed, 1934
Electron microscope 1st demonstrated, Philadelphia PA, 1940
German massacre of the Jews, Warsaw, 1943
1st 3-day Badminton horse trials held, Badminton, 1949
BBC2 opening night blacked out by electrical failure, 1964
Caballé makes debut, in Lucrezia Borgia, Carnegie Hall, New York NY, 1965
Pierre Trudeau becomes prime minister, Canada, 1968
British Army units made available for "guard duty", Northern Ireland, 1969
Orion, lunar module of Apollo 16, lands on Moon, Descartes, 1972
Steve Davis becomes World Snooker champion, 1981
Fukashi Kazami is 1st person to reach N Pole on a motorcycle, 1987
400 million ton asteroid narrowly misses Earth, 1989
Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert held to benefit AIDS research, Wembley Stadium, 1992
Dylan Klebold & Eric Harris kill 11 at Columbine High School, Littleton CO, 1999

Last updated: May 05, 2008