Events

Pre-1600

• AD 65 The freedman Milichus betrays Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all of the conspirators are arrested.

• 531 Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).

• 1024 Election of Pope John XIX following the death of his brother Pope Benedict VIII.

• 1042 Following the attempt of Byzantine Emperor Michael V Kalaphates to depose his wife and empress Zoe Porphyrogenita, a popular uprising in Constantinople breaks out with the intention to restore her.

• 1506 The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which about two thousand Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity are slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.

• 1529 Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protest the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.

• 1539 The Treaty of Frankfurt between Protestants and the Holy Roman Emperor is signed.

• 1572 England and France sign an alliance against Spain in the treaty of Blois.

1601–1900

• 1608 In Ireland, O'Doherty's Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.

• 1677 The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.

• 1713 With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born until 1717.

• 1770 Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

• 1770 Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.

• 1775 American Revolutionary War: The war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world".

• 1775 American Revolutionary War: Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.

• 1782 John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

• 1809 An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

• 1810 Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.

• 1818 French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.

• 1839 The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.

• 1861 American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

1901–present

• 1903 The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

• 1925 Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the Deportes Magallanes club.

• 1927 Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

• 1936 The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

• 1942 World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

• 1943 World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

• 1956 Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

• 1960 Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

• 1971 Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

• 1971 Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

• 1971 Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

• 1973 The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.

• 1975 India's first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.

• 1975 South Vietnamese forces withdraw from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.

• 1976 A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least by the tornado and survived uninjured.

• 1985 Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

• 1989 A gun turret explodes on the , killing 47 sailors.

• 1993 The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.

• 1995 Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, US, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.

• 1999 The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

• 2000 Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.

• 2001 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.

• 2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

• 2008 The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.

• 2011 Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

• 2013 Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

• 2020 A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.

• 2021 The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.

Births

Pre-1600

• 1452 Frederick IV, King of Naples (died 1504)

• 1593 Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet, English politician (died 1647)

1601–1900

• 1603 Michel Le Tellier, French politician, French Minister of Defence (died 1685)

• 1613 Christoph Bach, German musician (died 1661)

• 1633 Willem Drost, Dutch painter (died 1659)

• 1655 George St Lo(e), Royal Navy officer and administrator (died 1718)

• 1658 Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, German husband of Archduchess Maria Anna Josepha of Austria (died 1716)

• 1665 Jacques Lelong, French author (died 1721)

• 1686 Vasily Tatishchev, Russian ethnographer and politician (died 1750)

• 1715 James Nares, English organist and composer (died 1783)

• 1721 Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician (died 1793)

• 1734 Karl von Ordóñez, Austrian violinist and composer (died 1786)

• 1757 Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, English admiral and politician (died 1833)

• 1758 William Carnegie, 7th Earl of Northesk, Scottish admiral (died 1831)

• 1785 Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French pianist and composer (died 1858)

• 1787 Deaf Smith, American soldier (died 1837)

• 1793 Ferdinand I of Austria (died 1875)

• 1806 Sarah Bagley, American labor organizer (died 1889)

• 1814 Louis Amédée Achard, French journalist and author (died 1875)

• 1831 Mary Louise Booth, American writer, editor and translator (died 1889)

• 1832 José Echegaray, Spanish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916)

• 1835 Julius Krohn, Finnish poet and journalist (died 1888)

• 1861 Amalie Andersen, Norwegian actress (died 1924)

• 1863 Hemmo Kallio, Finnish actor (died 1940)

• 1872 Alice Salomon, German social reformer (died 1948)

• 1873 Sydney Barnes, English cricketer (died 1967)

• 1874 Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (died 1952)

• 1877 Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American engineer, invented the outboard motor (died 1934)

• 1879 Arthur Robertson, Scottish runner (died 1957)

• 1882 Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 14th President of Brazil (died 1954)

• 1883 Henry Jameson, American soccer player (died 1938)

• 1883 Richard von Mises, Austrian-American mathematician and physicist (died 1953)

• 1885 Karl Tarvas, Estonian architect (died 1975)

• 1889 Otto Georg Thierack, German jurist and politician (died 1946)

• 1891 Françoise Rosay, French actress (died 1974)

• 1892 Germaine Tailleferre, French composer and educator (died 1983)

• 1894 Elizabeth Dilling, American author and activist (died 1966)

• 1897 Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman and philanthropist (died 1970)

• 1897 Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese super-centenarian, oldest verified man ever (died 2013)

• 1898 Constance Talmadge, American actress and producer (died 1973)

• 1899 George O'Brien, American actor (died 1985)

• 1899 Cemal Tollu, Turkish lieutenant and painter (died 1968)

• 1900 Iracema de Alencar, Brazilian film actress (died 1978)

• 1900 Richard Hughes, English author, poet, and playwright (died 1976)

• 1900 Roland Michener, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Governor General of Canada (died 1991)

• 1900 Rhea Silberta, American Yiddish songwriter and singing teacher (died 1959)

1901–present

• 1902 Veniamin Kaverin, Russian author and screenwriter (died 1989)

• 1903 Eliot Ness, American law enforcement agent (died 1957)

• 1908 Irena Eichlerówna, Polish actress (died 1990)

• 1912 Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999)

• 1913 Ken Carpenter, American discus thrower and coach (died 1984)

• 1917 Sven Hassel, Danish-German soldier and author (died 2012)

• 1920 Marvin Mandel, American lawyer and politician, 56th Governor of Maryland (died 2015)

• 1920 Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (died 2013)

• 1920 Ragnar Ulstein, Norwegian journalist and war historian (died 2019)

• 1921 Anna Lee Aldred, American jockey (died 2006)

• 1921 Leon Henkin, American logician (died 2006)

• 1921 Roberto Tucci, Italian Jesuit leader, cardinal, and theologian (died 2015)

• 1922 Erich Hartmann, German colonel and pilot (died 1993)

• 1925 Hugh O'Brian, American actor (died 2016)

• 1927 Cora Sue Collins, American child actress (died 2025)

• 1928 John Horlock, English engineer and academic (died 2015)

• 1928 Azlan Shah of Perak, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (died 2014)

• 1928 Richard Garwin, American physicist (died 2025)

• 1928 Alexis Korner, British blues musician and radio broadcaster (died 1984)

• 1931 Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist and author (died 2004)

• 1932 Fernando Botero, Colombian painter and sculptor (died 2023)

• 1933 Dickie Bird, English cricketer and umpire (died 2025)

• 1933 Jayne Mansfield, American model and actress (died 1967)

• 1935 Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian, and pianist (died 2002)

• 1936 Wilfried Martens, Belgian politician, 60th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 2013)

• 1937 Antonio Carluccio, Italian-English chef and author (died 2017)

• 1937 Joseph Estrada, Filipino politician, 13th President of the Philippines

• 1939 Clay Shaw, American accountant, judge, and politician (died 2013)

• 1939 Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran (died 2026)

• 1941 Michel Roux, French-English chef and author (died 2020)

• 1943 Margo MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician (died 2014)

• 1944 James Heckman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

• 1944 Bernie Worrell, American keyboard player and songwriter (died 2016)

• 1946 Tim Curry, English actor and singer (died 2026)

• 1951 Jóannes Eidesgaard, Faroese educator and politician, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands

• 1952 Simon Cowell, English conservationist and author (died 2024)

• 1954 Trevor Francis, English footballer and manager (died 2023)

• 1956 Anne Glover, Scottish biologist and academic

• 1957 Mukesh Ambani, Indian businessman, chairman of Reliance Industries

• 1960 Gustavo Petro, Colombian politician, 34th and current President of Colombia

• 1960 Frank Viola, American baseball player and coach

• 1965 Suge Knight, American record executive

• 1966 Véronique Gens, French soprano and actress

• 1966 Paul Reiffel, Australian cricketer and umpire

• 1968 Ashley Judd, American actress

• 1968 Mswati III, King (Ngwenyama) of Eswatini (Swaziland)

• 1970 Kelly Holmes, English athlete and double Olympic champion

• 1972 Rivaldo Vitor Borba Ferreira, Brazilian footballer

• 1974 Madeleine Peyroux, American French jazz and blues singer-songwriter

• 1975 Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer and coach

• 1976 Michelle Feldman, American bowler

• 1978 James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

• 1978 Amanda Sage, American-Austrian painter and educator

• 1979 Kate Hudson, American actress

• 1981 Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor

• 1981 Lise Klaveness, Norwegian footballer and lawyer, president of the Norwegian Football Federation

• 1981 Troy Polamalu, American football player

• 1982 Samuel C. Morrison, Jr., Liberian-American journalist, producer, and screenwriter

• 1982 Ali Wong, American comedian and actress

• 1983 Joe Mauer, American baseball player

• 1986 Candace Parker, American basketball player

• 1987 Joe Hart, English footballer

• 1987 Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player

• 1989 Simu Liu, Canadian actor

• 1990 Jackie Bradley Jr., American baseball player

• 1990 Kim Chiu, Filipino actress, singer, and dancer

• 1991 Kelly Olynyk, Canadian basketball player

• 1999 Sebastian Kris, Australian-NewZealand rugby league player

• 2001 Dalton Knecht, American basketball player

• 2001 PinkPantheress, British singer-songwriter and record producer

• 2002 Loren Gray, American singer and internet personality

• 2003 Jackson Merrill, American baseball player

• 2007 – Ben Kindel, Canadian ice hockey player

• 2016 The Rizzler, American internet personality

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 843 Judith of Bavaria, Frankish empress

• 1012 Ælfheah of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint (born 954)

• 1013 Hisham II, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (born 966)

• 1044 Gothelo I, duke of Lorraine

• 1054 Leo IX, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1002)

• 1321 Gerasimus I, patriarch of Constantinople

• 1390 Robert II, king of Scotland (born 1316)

• 1405 Thomas West, 1st Baron West, English nobleman (born 1335)

• 1431 Adolph III, count of Waldeck (born 1362)

• 1560 Philip Melanchthon, German theologian and reformer (born 1497)

• 1567 Michael Stifel, German monk and mathematician (born 1487)

• 1578 Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (born 1530)

• 1588 Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (born 1528)

1601–1900

• 1608 Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English poet, playwright, and politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1536)

• 1618 Thomas Bastard, English priest and author (born 1566)

• 1619 Jagat Gosain, Mughal empress (born 1573)

• 1629 Sigismondo d'India, Italian composer (born 1582)

• 1686 Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra, Spanish historian and playwright (born 1610)

• 1689 Christina, queen of Sweden (born 1626)

• 1733 Elizabeth Hamilton, countess of Orkney (born 1657)

• 1739 Nicholas Saunderson, English mathematician and academic (born 1682)

• 1768 Canaletto, Italian painter and etcher (born 1697)

• 1776 Jacob Emden, German rabbi and author (born 1697)

• 1791 Richard Price, Welsh-English preacher and philosopher (born 1723)

• 1813 Benjamin Rush, American physician and educator (born 1745)

• 1824 Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet and playwright (born 1788)

• 1831 Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger, German astronomer and mathematician (born 1765)

• 1833 James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, Bahamian-English admiral and politician, 36th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (born 1756)

• 1840 Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (born 1777)

• 1854 Robert Jameson, Scottish mineralogist and academic (born 1774)

• 1881 Benjamin Disraeli, English journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1804)

• 1882 Charles Darwin, English biologist and theorist (born 1809)

• 1893 Martin Körber, Estonian-German pastor, composer, and conductor (born 1817)

1901–present

• 1901 Alfred Horatio Belo, American publisher, founded The Dallas Morning News (born 1839)

• 1903 Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician, third Premier of Ontario, eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (born 1820)

• 1906 Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)

• 1906 Spencer Gore, English tennis player and cricketer (born 1850)

• 1909 Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer and ethnologist (born 1836)

• 1914 Charles Sanders Peirce, American mathematician and philosopher (born 1839)

• 1915 Thomas Playford, English-Australian politician, 17th Premier of South Australia (born 1837)

• 1916 Ephraim Shay, American engineer, designed the Shay locomotive (born 1839)

• 1926 Alexander Alexandrovich Chuprov, Russian-Swiss statistician and theorist (born 1874)

• 1930 Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian businessman and politician (born 1827)

• 1937 Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, English cartographer and politician (born 1856)

• 1937 William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist and zoologist (born 1865)

• 1940 Jack McNeela, Irish Republican Army, died on hunger strike

• 1941 Johanna Müller-Hermann, Austrian composer (born 1878)

• 1949 Ulrich Salchow, Danish-Swedish figure skater (born 1877)

• 1950 Ernst Robert Curtius, French-German philologist and scholar (born 1886)

• 1952 Steve Conway, British singer (born 1921)

• 1955 Jim Corbett, British-Indian colonel, hunter, and author (born 1875)

• 1960 Beardsley Ruml, American economist and statistician (born 1894)

• 1961 Max Hainle, German swimmer (born 1882)

• 1966 Väinö Tanner, Finnish politician of Social Democratic Party of Finland; the Prime Minister of Finland (born 1881)

• 1967 Konrad Adenauer, German politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (born 1876)

• 1971 Luigi Piotti, Italian race car driver (born 1913)

• 1975 Percy Lavon Julian, American chemist and academic (born 1899)

• 1988 Kwon Ki-ok, Korean pilot (born 1901)

• 1989 Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (born 1907)

• 1991 Stanley Hawes, English-Australian director and producer (born 1905)

• 1992 Frankie Howerd, English actor and screenwriter (born 1917)

• 1993 David Koresh, American cult leader (born 1959)

• 1993 George S. Mickelson, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of South Dakota (born 1941)

• 1998 Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, philosopher, and academic Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)

• 1999 Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (born 1919)

• 2000 Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (born 1918)

• 2002 Reginald Rose, American writer (born 1920)

• 2004 Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (born 1925)

• 2004 John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (born 1920)

• 2004 Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (born 1922)

• 2006 Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (born 1921)

• 2007 Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (born 1932)

• 2009 J. G. Ballard, English novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1930)

• 2011 Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (born 1946)

• 2012 Levon Helm, American musician and actor (born 1940)

• 2013 François Jacob, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

• 2013 Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (born 1924)

• 2015 Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (born 1919)

• 2015 Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (born 1924)

• 2016 Patricio Aylwin, Chilean politician (born 1918)

• 2017 Lu Chao-Hsuan, Taiwanese guitarist, performer and educator. (born 1929)

• 2020 Ian Whitcomb, English singer-songwriter (born 1941)

• 2021 Walter Mondale, American politician, 42nd Vice President of the United States (born 1928)

• 2021 Jim Steinman, American composer, lyricist (born 1947)

• 2022 Kane Tanaka, Japanese supercentenarian (born 1903)

• 2023 Moonbin, South Korean singer and actor (born 1998)

• 2023 Ron Hamilton, American musician (born 1950)

• 2024 Daniel Dennett, American philosopher and author (born 1942)

• 2026 George Ariyoshi, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Hawaii (born 1926)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

• Ælfheah of Canterbury (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox)

• Conrad of Ascoli

• Emma of Lesum

• Expeditus

• George of Antioch

• Olaus and Laurentius Petri (Lutheran)

• Pope Leo IX

• Ursmar

• April 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

References

External links

• BBC: On This Day

• Historical Events on April 19