Pazzi Conspiracy
1478 Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill Giuliano de' Medici in Florence
Copernicus Observes Saturn
1514 Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
Shakespeare Baptized
1564 William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
- 1607 Jamestown expedition makes first landing in America at a place named Cape Henry, in what would become Virginia, but they quickly depart for a better site
- 1654 Jews are expelled from Brazil
- 1655 Dutch West Indies Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam colony
- 1677 Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
- 1755 1st Russian university opens in Moscow
- 1777 Sybil Ludington aged 16, rides 40 miles in New York to warn her father's militia of the approach of the British
- 1803 Meteorites fall in L'Aigle, France
Louis XVIII Lands at Calais
1814 King Louis XVIII lands at Calais from England
Alfred Wallace for South America
1848 Alfred Russel Wallace departs the U.K. for South America, beginning four years of travel, collecting, and research in the region
- 1853 Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
- 1859 US Congressman Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted in the murder Philip Barton Key, on grounds of "temporary insanity" - 1st time this defense used successfully in the US [1]
- 1865 Confederate General J E Johnston surrenders remaining forces to Union General William Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, ending the US Civil War
- 1879 National Park (later renamed Royal National Park) established south of Sydney, Australia. World's second-oldest national park.
- 1887 Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
- 1893 1st Cleveland Board of Park Commissioners forms
- 1904 Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia
1904 General Kuroko leads the Japanese Army against the large Russian force at the Yalu river during the Russo-Japanese War
Sun Yet San Calls for Revolt
1913 Sun Yet San calls for revolt against President Yuan Shikai in China
- 1915 Italy secretly signs the "Treaty of London" with Britain, France and Russia, bringing Italy into World War I on the Allied side
- 1920 Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold the "Great Debate" on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Diego Rivera Leaves Communist Party
1925 Artist Diego Rivera resigns from the Mexican Communist Party
- 1925 Pulitzer prize awarded to Edna Ferber for "So big"
- 1926 Germany & Russia sign neutrality peace treaty
- 1926 Karachai Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1943)
Madame Tussauds Reopens
1928 Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition reopens in London after a fire
- 1929 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
The Ermine
1932 Jean Anouilh's play "L'Hermine (The Ermine)" premieres in Paris
- 1933 Jewish students are barred from school in Germany
- 1937 German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in Spain
- 1938 Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks
- 1941 Potatoes rationed in Holland
- 1942 Coal mine explosion kills 1,549 at Honkeiko, Manchuria
- 1944 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter shot down
- 1944 Papandreou government in Greece forms
Pétain Arrested for Treason
1945 Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for treason
- 1945 World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht
- 1949 Transjordan is officially renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Brielsche Mausoleum
1951 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands opens Brielsche Mausoleum
Anti-Polio Vaccine Trial Begins
1954 Mass trials of Jonas Salk's anti-polio vaccine begin; the first shot is delivered in Fairfax County, Virginia; more than 443,000 children receive shots over three months
- 1954 USSR Supreme Soviet transfer the Crimean oblast from Russian SFSR to Ukrainian SSR
- 1956 First modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas
- 1957 Jamestown, Virginia 350th Anniversary Festival opens
- 1961 French paratroopers' revolt suppressed in Algeria
- 1962 1st Lockheed A-12 flies
- 1962 Ariel 1 Launch (1st UK Satellite)
- 1962 Ranger 4 crash lands on (backside of) Moon
- 1962 US and UK launch Ariel; 1st international payload
- 1964 Tanganyika & Zanzibar form The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar
- 1966 An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- 1967 San Marco 2 Launch (1st Equatorial Launch)
- 1968 Students seize administration building at Ohio State
- 1968 US underground nuclear test, "Boxcar," 1 megaton device
- 1969 Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won by Jim Godman
- 1971 Heaviest rains ever in Bahia district of Brazil, 15" in 24 hrs
- 1971 San Francisco lightship replaced by automatic buoy
- 1971 Turkey state of siege proclaimed
- 1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1974 Landslide in Huancavelica Province Peru creates a natural dam
- 1974 Malta adopts constitution
- 1976 Pan Am begins non-stop flights NYC-Tokyo
- 1977 Opening of Studio 54 in New York, N.Y.
- 1978 France sends troops to Chad
- 1978 NASA launches space vehicle S-201
- 1980 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1980 Iran begins scattering US hostages from US Embassy
- 1980 Longest jump by a jet boat is set at 120 feet
Argentina Surrenders South Georgia Island
1982 Argentina surrenders to Great Britain on South Georgia Island, near the Falkland Islands
Chinese History
1984 US President Ronald Reagan visits China
- 1986 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Marshall Holman
- 1986 France performs nuclear test
- 1986 Game between Angels & Twins delayed for 9 minutes by strong winds
Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Explodes
1986 World's worst nuclear disaster: The fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union explodes, 31 die and radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe.
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
1992 Alex Haley (Roots) wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
- 1993 Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, kills 56
- 1993 STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
- 1994 1st day of voting in first ever multi-racial elections in South Africa, Dr Nomaza Paintin in NZ is 1st black South African to vote
- 1994 26.9°C in Prestebakke Norway (Norwegian April high temperature record)
- 1994 Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
- 1994 Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, 262 killed
- 1995 Coors Field, opens in Denver, Rockies beat Mets 11-9 in 14 innings
- 1996 Shaun Pollock takes 4 wkts in 4 balls for Warwickshire in B&H
- 1996 Sotherby ends 4 day auction of Jackie O stuff-take in $34.5 million
- 2002 Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
- 2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of the country
- 2007 Queen's Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong Government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, in order to facilitate land reclamation in Hong Kong's Central district
- 2012 70 people are killed by rocket attacks by the Syrian Army on the city of Hama
- 2012 Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California
- 2013 30 people are killed after a bus crashes following a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan
Election of Interest
2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote
- 2016 CEO of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, announces that he will be giving his employees 10% of the shares in Chobani
- 2018 Serial killer "Golden State Killer" identified after 40 years as a former police officer, responsible for 12 killings, 50 rapes in California
- 2019 "No religion" tops survey of American religious identity for the first time at 23.1% edging out Catholics 23.0% and evangelicals 22.5%, in long-running General Social Survey
- 2019 Six suspected militants connected to Sri Lankan terror attacks killed along with ten others in a shootout with police in Sainthamaruthu
- 2019 Waorani people of Pastaza win landmark environmental case against the Ecuadorian government to protect half a million acres of their territory in the Amazon rainforest
- 2021 The US, the EU and other countries announce they are sending pandemic aid to India as it's COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen
- 2021 US Census results shows its population growth second slowest in recorded history, population at 331,449,281 with only 7.4% increase on 2010 [1]
- 2022 Russia says it will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria, after the countries refused to pay in rubles, escalating the energy supply standoff between Russia and Europe [1]
US Leaves Pandemic Phase
2022 US infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the country is out of the "Pandemic Phase" - for the moment [1]
- 2022 World Bank warns the war in Ukraine will cause the "largest commodity shock" since the 1970s, with large economic and humanitarian effects [1]
E. Jean Carroll Trial
2023 Writer E. Jean Carroll testifies in a NY court that Donald Trump raped her in a department store in the 1990s [1]
Articles on Events in April
Hitler's Diaries Fail Forensic Tests
German Magazine revealed the scoop of the century on this day but it's “Hitler’s Diaries” sensation failed a forensic test and was quickly proved a hoax.
April 25, 1983
Oscar Wilde Presses Self-Destruct Button
When Oscar Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel over a sodomite slur, he opened the door to social and financial ruin that would lead to his death.
April 26, 1895
Record-Breaking Sheila, the High-Flying Aviator
The Sky's was the limit for Sheila Scott who made three solo flights around the world and was the first pilot, male or female, to fly over the North Pole.
April 27, 1922
Great Sacrifice of a Plague-Ridden Village
William Mompesson, a clergyman born on this day, created a legend when he persuaded the people in a plague-ridden village to sacrifice their lives to save others.
April 28, 1639