April 8
day of the year
April 8 is the 98th day of the year (99th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 267 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events change
Up to 1900 change
- 217 – Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
- 1093 - The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated.
- 1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.
- 1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
- 1740 - War of Jenkins' Ear: Three British ships capture the Spanish third-rate HMS Princess.
- 1742 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah, in Dublin.
- 1767 – Ayutthaya kingdom fell to Burmese invaders.
- 1784 - William Herschel discovers six Galaxies.
- 1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
- 1832 – Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
- 1866 - Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.
- 1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
- 1893 – First recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania when the Geneva College Covenanters defeated the New Brighton YMCA.
- 1899 – Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
1901 – 2000 change
- 1904 – France and the United Kingdom sign the Entente cordiale.
- 1904 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
- 1906 - Auguste Deter, the first-recorded Alzheimer's disease patient, dies at the age of 56.
- 1908 - Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
- 1910 – The Los Angeles Motordome opened near Playa del Rey, California.
- 1911 - Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
- 1913 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators.
- 1916 – In Corona, California, auto racer Bob Burman crashed through a crowd barrier at the last Boulevard Race, killing himself, his mechanic and a track policeman, and badly injuring five spectators.
- 1918 – World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.
- 1924 - Sharia courts are banned in Turkey, as part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's reforms.
- 1929 – Indian independence movement: At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts, and bombs in a corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest.
- 1933 - A majority of voters in Western Australia chooses to secede from Australia in a referendum; the result is not recognised.
- 1935 – The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
- 1942 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
- 1952 – In a radio address to the nation from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the United States in order to prevent a nationwide strike.
- 1953 – Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
- 1954 - A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard aircraft collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadian North Star aircraft over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.
- 1954 - South African Airways Flight 201 crashes into the sea near Naples, Italy, killing 21 people.
- 1960 - The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch.
- 1961 - A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf kills 238 people.
- 1967 – In Vienna, Austria, Sandie Shaw wins the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Puppet on a String".
- 1970 - Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school, killing 46 children.
- 1971 – a 6-pound meteorite struck a house on Spring Street in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
- 1973 - Painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso dies in Mougins, France, at the age of 91.
- 1974 – At the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron breaks baseball great's Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.
- 1975 – Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians manages his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: After spending a week in South Vietnam, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand gives a report to the U.S. Congress that South Vietnam will fall without additional military aid.
- 1985 – Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
- 1986 – Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California receiving 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election).
- 1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
- 1989 – South Africa In Johannesburg, the Progressive Federal Party, Independent party, National Democratic Movement and the force of "Ontevrede Afrikaners" or dissatisfied Afrikaners merged to form the Democratic Party.
- 1990 – Twin Peaks premieres.
- 1992 – Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces to the world that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
- 1993 - The Republic of Macedonia joins the UN.
- 1994 – The body of Kurt Cobain is discovered in his Washington home. He was 27 years old.
- 2000 – A U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey crashes during landing at Marana, Arizona killing 19.
From 2001 change
- 2002 – Ed McMahon files a US$20 million lawsuit against his insurance company and others regarding a toxic mold infecting McMahon's Beverly Hills, California home.
- 2004 – Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
- 2005 – Funeral of Pope John Paul II.
- 2008 – Yo So-yeon becomes the first Korean woman in space.
- 2013 - Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies aged 87 of complications from a stroke. See Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher.
- 2013 - The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist group is created.
- 2018 - A suspected chemical attack in Douma, Syria, kills at least 50 people.
- 2018 - Hungary's general election results in Viktor Orbán winning a third term in office as Prime minister.
Births change
Up to 1900 change
- 563 BC – Gautama Buddha, religious leader (d. 483 BC)
- 1320 – King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
- 1533 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (d. 1604)
- 1536 - Barbara of Hesse (d. 1597)
- 1541 - Michele Mercati, Italian physician (d. 1593)
- 1605 – King Philip IV of Spain (d. 1665)
- 1641 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (d. 1704)
- 1692 - Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer (d. 1770)
- 1732 - David Rittenhouse, American astronomer, inventor and mathematician (d. 1796)
- 1761 - William Joseph Chaminade, French priest (d. 1850)
- 1783 - John Claudius Loudon, Scottish botanist and garden designer (d. 1843)
- 1793 - Karl Zell, German statesman and philologist (d. 1873)
- 1798 - Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet (d. 1857)
- 1815 - Andrew Graham, Irish astronomer (d. 1908)
- 1818 – King Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
- 1818 - August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist (d. 1892)
- 1826 - Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican soldier (d. 1890)
- 1827 - Ramon Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, doctor and diplomat (d. 1898)
- 1842 – Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer (d. 1933)
- 1859 – Edmund Husserl, Austrian-German philosopher (d. 1938)
- 1865 – Charles W. Woodworth, Entomologist (d. 1940)
- 1869 - Harvey Williams Cushing, American neurologist (d. 1939)
- 1871 - Clarence Hudson White, American photographer (d. 1925)
- 1872 – Ivan Bloch, physician (d. 1922)
- 1874 – Stanisław Taczak, Polish general (d. 1960)
- 1875 – King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
- 1885 - Dimitrios Levidis, Greek composer (d. 1951)
- 1888 - Dennis Chavez, American politician (d. 1962)
- 1889 - Blanche Stuart Scott, American pilot (d. 1970)
- 1889 – Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
- 1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-born actress, studio founder (d. 1979)
- 1892 - Richard Neutra, Austrian architect (d. 1970)
- 1898 - Achille Van Acker, 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1969)
- 1899 - John Christie, English serial killer (d. 1953)
1901 – 1950 change
- 1902 – Andrew Irvine, British mountaineer (d. 1924)
- 1904 – Ron Hicks, British economist (d. 1989)
- 1904 - Yves Congar, French cardinal (d. 1995)
- 1905 – Helen Joseph, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1992)
- 1908 - Hugo Fregonese, Argentine director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
- 1910 – George Musso, American football player (d. 2000)
- 1911 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
- 1911 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist, 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1997)
- 1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian Olympic and World Champion figure skater (d. 1969)
- 1912 - Julian Berrendero, Spanish cyclist (d. 1995)
- 1912 – Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi (date of death unknown, possibly 2001, 2009 or 2010)
- 1913 – Sourou-Migan Apithy, President of Benin (d. 1989)
- 1914 – María Félix, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
- 1915 - Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, philosopher and activist (d. 2007)
- 1917 - Hubertus Ernst, Dutch bishop (d. 2017)
- 1917 - Grigori Kuzmin, Russian-Estonian astronomer (d. 1988)
- 1918 – Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)
- 1919 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1920 - Carmen McRae, American singer, composer, pianist and actress (d. 1994)
- 1921 – Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (d. 1997)
- 1923 - George Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
- 1926 – Jürgen Moltmann, German theologian
- 1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian
- 1926 - Henry N. Cobb, American architect
- 1926 - Jean-Jacques Pauvert, French publisher and writer (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin (d. 2000)
- 1929 – Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (d. 2000)
- 1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer and composer (d. 1978)
- 1929 - Renzo De Felice, Italian historian (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Carlos-Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2010)
- 1930 - Miller Williams, American poet (d. 2015)
- 1931 - John Gavin, American actor and diplomat (d. 2018)
- 1932 – Iskandar of Johor, 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia (d. 2010)
- 1932 - József Antall, Hungarian politician (d. 1993)
- 1933 – Fred Ebb, composer (d. 2004)
- 1934 - Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (d. 2007)
- 1938 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, former United Nations Secretary-General (d. 2018)
- 1938 - John Hamm, Canadian physician and politician, 25th Premier of Nova Scotia
- 1939 - Edwin Frederick O'Brien, American cardinal
- 1939 - Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (d. 1989)
- 1940 – John Havlicek, American basketball player (d. 2019)
- 1941 – Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
- 1942 - Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer and special effects artist
- 1943 – Miller Farr, American football player
- 1943 – Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, theater director (d. 1987)
- 1943 – Tony Banks, British politician (d. 2006)
- 1943 - James Herbert, British writer (d. 2013)
- 1944 - Tariana Turia, New Zealand politician
- 1944 - Hywel Bennett, Welsh actor (d. 2017)
- 1946 – Catfish Hunter, American baseball pitcher (d. 1999)
- 1946 – Tim Thomerson, American actor
- 1947 – Tom DeLay, American politician
- 1947 - Steve Howe, English rock guitarist
- 1947 - Robert Kiyosaki, American writer
- 1947 - Pascal Lamy, French politician
- 1947 - Larry Norman, American musician (d. 2008)
- 1948 - Danuta Hübner, Polish politician
- 1949 – John Madden, director
- 1949 - Joe Royle, English footballer and manager
- 1950 – Grzegorz Lato, Polish footballer
1951 – 1975 change
- 1951 – Geir Haarde, former Prime Minister of Iceland
- 1951 - Joan Sebastian, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2015)
- 1954 – Gary Carter, American baseball catcher
- 1955 – Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
- 1955 – Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
- 1955 - Jim Fleeting, Scottish footballer
- 1955 - Kane Hodder, American stuntman and actor
- 1957 – Andrea Ypsilanti, German politician
- 1960 – John Schneider, actor
- 1960 - Gordon Chisholm, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1961 - Brian McDermott, English footballer and manager
- 1962 – Izzy Stradlin, American musician
- 1963 – Julian Lennon, English musician and singer
- 1963 – Alec Stewart, English cricketer
- 1964 - Dordi Nordby, Norwegian curler
- 1966 - Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand-Australian television personality (d. 2014)
- 1966 – Robin Wright, American actress
- 1966 – Mazinho, Brazilian footballer
- 1966 - Iveta Bartosova, Czech singer and actress (d. 2014)
- 1968 – Patricia Arquette, American actress
- 1968 - Susana Harp, Mexican musician
- 1970 - Care Santos, Catalan writer
- 1972 - Lisa Cameron, Scottish politician
- 1972 – Paul Gray, American musician (Slipknot) (d. 2010)
- 1972 - Sergei Magnitsky, Russian lawyer (d. 2009)
- 1973 - Khaled Badra, Tunisian footballer
- 1973 - Emma Caulfield, American actress
- 1974 - Holger Hott, Norwegian orienteering competitor
- 1974 - Nnedi Okorafor, Nigerian-American writer
- 1975 - Anouk, Dutch singer
From 1976 change
- 1977 – Mark Spencer, computer programmer
- 1980 – Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
- 1980 - Katee Sackhoff, American actress
- 1981 - Nikolay Kruglov, Jr., Russian biathlete
- 1981 – Taylor Kitsch, Canadian actor and model
- 1981 - Kelly Schafer, Scottish curler
- 1982 - Gennady Golovkin, Kazakhstani boxer
- 1983 - Allu Arjun, Indian actor
- 1983 – Edson Braafheid, Dutch footballer
- 1984 – Taran Noah Smith, American actor
- 1986 - Erika Sawajiri, Japanese actress and model
- 1986 - Bridget Kelly, American singer and songwriter
- 1986 – Igor Akinfeev, Russian footballer
- 1987 – Royston Drenthe, Dutch footballer
- 1987 - Dario Vidosic, Australian footballer
- 1987 - Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Belgian-Moroccan terrorist (d. 2015)
- 1988 - Jenni Asserholt, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1989 - Hitomi Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
- 1989 - Gabriella Wilde, English actress and model
- 1990 - Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor (d. 2017)
- 1990 - Karim Bellarabi, German footballer
- 1991 - Minami Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
- 1993 - Trent Sullivan, Australian actor
- 1994 – Sonya Singha, Thai actress
- 1999 - Ty Panitz, American actor
- 2002 - Skai Jackson, American actress
Deaths change
Up to 1900 change
- 217 – Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 188)
- 622 - Prince Shotoku of Japan (b. 574)
- 632 - Charibert, Frankish king (b. 607)
- 956 - Gilbert, Duke of Burgundy
- 1143 - John II Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1087)
- 1364 - King John II of France (b. 1319)
- 1450 - Sejong the Great, King of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (b. 1397)
- 1461 - Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
- 1551 - Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (b. 1510)
- 1586 - Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer and theologian (b. 1522)
- 1612 - Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (b. 1575)
- 1691 - Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1611)
- 1704 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (b. 1641)
- 1735 - Francis II Rakoczi, Hungarian aristocrat (b. 1676)
- 1835 - Wilhelm von Humboldt, Prussian statesman (b. 1757)
- 1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
- 1861 - Elisha Otis, American inventor (b. 1811)
- 1870 - Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
- 1894 - Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian writer (b. 1838)
1901 – 2000 change
- 1906 – Auguste Deter, first-recorded victim of Alzheimer's disease (b. 1850)
- 1919 - Lorand Eotvos, Hungarian physicist (b. 1848)
- 1931 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (b. 1864)
- 1936 – Robert Bárány, Austrian doctor, won the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1876)
- 1950 - Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish-Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1890)
- 1958 - Ethel Turner, Australian writer (b. 1872)
- 1962 - Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1892)
- 1973 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1881)
- 1974 - Ferruccio Novo, Italian football manager (b. 1899)
- 1978 - Ford Frick, American baseball commissioner (b. 1894)
- 1981 – Omar Bradley, American general (b. 1893)
- 1983 - Isamu Kosuga, Japanese actor and director (b. 1904)
- 1984 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist (b. 1894)
- 1986 - Yukiko Okada, Japanese actress, singer and model (b. 1967)
- 1990 - Ryan White, American activist (b. 1971)
- 1992 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss pharmacologist (b. 1907)
- 1993 – Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
- 1994 – Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
- 1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer, pianist and composer (b. 1967)
From 2001 change
- 2002 - María Félix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
- 2009 – Piotr Morawski, Polish mountaineer (b. 1976)
- 2010 – Malcolm McLaren, British music manager (b. 1946)
- 2010 – Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1924)
- 2012 - Jack Tramiel, Polish-born American entrepreneur and computer pioneer (b. 1928)
- 2013 - Sara Montiel, Spanish actress and singer (b. 1928)
- 2013 - Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
- 2013 - Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (b. 1942)
- 2014 - Karlheinz Deschner, German writer and activist (b. 1924)
- 2014 - Emmanuel III Delly, Iraqi Patriarch (b. 1927)
- 2014 - The Ultimate Warrior, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)
- 2015 - Jayakanthan, Indian Tamil writer (b. 1934)
- 2015 - Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (b. 1936)
- 2016 - Mircea Albulescu, Romanian actor and writer (b. 1934)
- 2016 - Wei Chueh, Taiwanese Buddhist monk (b. 1928)
- 2016 - Dick Alban, American football player (b. 1929)
- 2017 - Fishman, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1951)
- 2017 - Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1931)
- 2017 - Brian Matthew, English radio and television presenter (b. 1928)
- 2017 - Donald Sarason, American mathematician (b. 1933)
- 2018 - Leila Abashidze, Georgian actress, film director and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 2018 - Michael Goolaerts, Belgian racing cyclist (b. 1994)
- 2018 - Juraj Herz, Slovakian film director, actor and screenwriter (b. 1934)
- 2018 - Chuck McCann, American actor (b. 1934)
- 2018 - John Miles, British racing driver (b. 1943)
- 2019 - Josine Ianco-Starrels, Romanian-American art curator (b. 1926)
- 2019 - Vasily Likhachyov, Russian politician (b. 1952)
- 2019 - Nadja Regin, Serbian actress (b. 1931)
- 2020 - Rick May, Canadian-American actor and voice actor (b. 1940)