On this day in History - Apr. 20

0121 - Marcus Aurelius was born (d. 0180). 16th Roman emperor, philosopher. He authored the “Meditations.”
0571 - Muhammad was born (d. 0634) Founder of Islam / Data em que algumas tradições islâmicas fixam o nascimento do profeta Maomé
0702 - Jafar Sadiq was born (d. 0765). Muslim scholar.
1176 - Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke dies (b. 1130). English soldier.
1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
1314 - Pope Clement V [Bertrand Got] dies (b. 1264). Pope (1305- 1314) who moved papacy to Avignon.
1317 - Agnes van Montepulciano dies. Italian mystic and saint
1442 - Edward IV was born. King of England (1461-83).
1453 – The last naval battle in Byzantine history occurs, as three Genoese galleys escorting a Byzantine transport fight their way through the huge Ottoman blockade fleet and into the Golden Horn.
1494 - Johannes Agricola was born (d. 1566). German protestant reformer
1521 - Zhengde dies (b. 1491). Emperor of China.
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador.
1534 - Elizabeth Barton, the mystical "Nun of Kent", is executed at Tyburn. Christian prophet, visionary (b. 1506) .
1535 – The Sun Dog phenomenon observed over Stockholm and depicted in the famous painting "Vädersolstavlan".
1558 - Johannes Bugenhagen dies (b. 1485). German reformer.
1586 - Saint Rose of Lima was born (d. 1617). Peruvian saint.
1592 - John Eliot, St Germans Cornwall was born . English MP/author.
1594 - Matthaus Apelles von Lowenstern was born. Composer.
1632 - Nicolas Antione, converted to Judaism, was burned at the stake.
1633 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan was born (d. 1654).
1643 - Christoph Demantius dies (b. 1567). German composer.
1650 - William Bedloe was born (d. 1680). English informer.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell disbands Parliament.
1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1657 - Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1668 - Yuri Troubetzkoy was born (d. 1739). Governor of Belgorod.
1677 - Mathieu Le Nain “le Chevalier” dies (b. 1607). French Baroque painter, younger brother of Antoine Le Nain [1588 – 25 May 1648] and Louis Le Nain [1593 – 23 May 1648]. All three worked together and their individual works cannot be distinguished.
1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
1693 - Claudio Coello dies (b. 1642). Spanish Baroque painter and draftsman.
1703 - Lancelot Addison dies (b. 1632). English royal chaplain.
1705 - Balthasar Schmid was born. Composer.
1709 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão ensaia, no Terreiro do Paço em Lisboa, o seu aeróstato.
1718 - David Brainerd was born (d. 1747). American missionary.
1723 - Cornelius Harnett was born (d. 1781). American delegate to the Continental Congress.
1724 - Pedro António Joaquim Correia Garção was born in Lisbon (d. 10 Nov 1772). Portuguese poet. [ver estudo em português sobre Correia Garção by Susana Rosa].
1725 - Johann Friedrich Kloffler was born. Composer.
1726 - Jozef de Ferraris was born (d. 1814). French/Austrian earl, general, cartographer .
1743 - Alexandre-François Desportes dies (b. 24 Feb 1661). He was the most eminent painter of dogs, game, emblems of the hunt, and still-lifes in late 17th- and early 18th-century France.
1745 - Philippe Pinel was born (d. 1826). Physician, founder of psychiatry .
1748 - Georg Michael Telemann was born. Composer .
1748 - Guillaume Albert Teniers was born. Composer .
1761 - Johann Gottlieb Karl Spazier was born. Composer .
1762 - Philippe-Auguste Hennequin was born (d. 12 May 1833). French painter.
1765 - Abigail Williams dies (b. 1674). American accuser in the Salem witch trials.
1768 - Giovanni Antonio Canal, called "Canaletto" dies (b. 18 Oct 1697). Italian artist. ( The Doge Visiting the Church and Scuola di San Rocco; The Doge Visiting the Church and Scuola di San Rocco). Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Piazzetta.
1769 - Pontiac dies murdered by an Indian in Cahokia (b. ~1720) .Chief of the Ottawa tribe.
1770 - Lieutenant James Cook's expedition (first voyage) makes first sighting of eastern Australian coastline, naming the spot Cape Hicks. His logbook recorded the date as April 19, but the 20th was the actual calendar date.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: British troops begin siege of Boston, Massachusetts.
1777 - New York adopted a new constitution as an independent state.
1792 - France declares war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
1806 - Franz Xavier Winterhalter was born (d. 09 Jul 1873). German academic painter.
1807 - Aloysius Bertrand ("Gaspard de la Nuit"), French poet, was born.
1808 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) was born (d. 1873) .
1810 - The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain.
1811 - El gobierno de Buenos Aires dicta el primer reglamento sobre libertad de imprenta.
1812 - George Clinton (73), the 4th vice president of the United States, died in Washington, becoming the first vice president to die while in office .
1818 - Heinrich Göbel was born (d. 1893). German-born inventor.
1821 - Franz K. Achard dies (b. 28 Apr 1753). German physicist and chemist.
1826 - Dinah Craik was born (d. 1887). English author.
1828 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter in Timbouctou.
1829 - Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje, was born (d. 06 Feb 1908). Dutch artist. ( A Moment by the Fire; The Butterfly; The Jewel Case )
1831 - Filippo Giuntotardi dies (b. 1768). Italian artist.
1831 - John Abernethy dies (b. 1764). English surgeon.
1832 - Ernst von Leyden was born (d. 1910) Physician.
1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory .
1836 - Johan I Jozef dies at 75. Monarch of Liechtenstein and field marshal.
1841 - The first detective story, Edgar Allen Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue is published in Philadelphia. .
1845 - Thomas Phillips dies (b. 18 Oct 1770). British artist. Byron in Arnaout Dress
1846 - Serpa Pinto was born (d. 28 Dec 1900). Portuguese explorer. / Nascimento, em Tendais, concelho de Cinfães, de Alexandre Alberto da Rocha Serpa Pinto - 1º. Visconde de Serpa Pinto, explorador português e governador colonial.
1850 - Daniel Chester French was born at Exeter, New Hampshire (d.1931). American sculptor of the Concord Minuteman. His work also included the Lincoln Memorial.
1851 - Young Tom Morris was born (d. 1875). Scottish golfer.
1853 - Antonio López de Santa Ana assume (pela 11º vez) a presidência do México .
1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
1868 - Charles Maurras was born (d. 1952). French poet and journalist.
1870 - Maulvi Abdul Haq was born (d. 1961). Father of Urdu, Pakistani scholar.
1871 - Civil Rights Act of 1871
1871 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was born (d. 1922). Croat inventor.
1873 - William Tite dies (b. 1798). English architect.
1874 - Alexander H. Bailey dies (b. 1817). American politician.
1876 - The April Uprising breaks out in Bulgaria.
1878 - Joaquim Nunes Claro was born in Lisbon (d. 5 May 1949). Portuguese poet and physician.
1879 - Paul Poiret was born (d. 1944). French couturier.
1882 - Holland Smith was born (d. 1967). U.S. General.
1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.
1884 - Augusto dos Anjos was born (d. 12 Nov. 1914). Brazilian poet. Ler aqui poemas de Augusto dos Anjos
1885 - Richard Ansdell dies (b. 11 May 1815). British painter (A Ewe with Lambs and a Heron Beside a Loch).
1887 - Muhammad Sharif Pasha dies in Graz, Austria (b. 1826). Egyptian statesman.
1888 - 246 people were reported killed by hail in Moradabad, India.
1889 - Albert Jean Amateau was born (d. 1996). Turkish-born businessman and social activist
1889 - Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau in Upper Austria. Founder and leader of National Socialism (Nazis), and German dictator, "Führer" and Reichskanzler He was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933-1945 and started World War II by invading Poland.
1889 - Otto Heinrich Frank was born (d. 1980). Father of Anne Frank.
1890 - Maurice Duplessis was born (d. 1959). Premier of Québec, known as "Le Chef"
1891 - Caresse Crosby was born (d. 1970). American poet.
1893 – Edna Parker wasd born (d. 2008). American supercentenarian.
1893 - Harold Lloyd was born (d. 1971). American actor, comedian. He is best remembered for his film "Safety Last."
1893 - Joan Miró was born (d. 25 Dec 1983). Joàn Mirò Ferra, was a Catalan Surrealist painter and sculptor. One of the foremost exponents of abstract art and Surrealist fantasy.

1895 - Emile Christian was born (d. 1973). American musician.
1896 - Wop May was born (d. 1952). Canadian aviator.
1899 - Joseph Wolf dies (b. 1820). German artist.
1900 - Fred Raymond was born (d. 1954). Composer.
1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.
1904 - Bruce Cabot was born (d. 1972). American actor.
1904 - George Stibitz was born (d. 1995). American scientist.
1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League .
1908 - Lionel Hampton was born (d. 2002). American musician.
1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
1912 - Bram Stoker dies (b. 1847). Irish author of Dracula .
1914 - Forty-five men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1914 - Betty Lou Gerson was born (d. 1999). American actress.
1915 - Joseph Wolpe was born (d. 1997). South African-born psychotherapist.
1915 - Aurora Miranda was born. Brazilian actress, sister of Carmen Miranda.
1915 - Santiago Cogorno was born. Argentine painter and sculptor.
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1918 - Edward L. Beach was born (d. 2002). American naval officer, author.
1918 - Kai Siegbahn was born. Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Karl Ferdinand Braun dies (b. 1850). German physicist, 1909 Nobel Prize laureate.
1920 - Olympic Games - 1920 Antwerp - Opening date (closing date 12 Sep 1920)
1920 - John Paul Stevens was born. U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
1920 - Ronald Speirs was born. WWII Veteran.
1920 - Briton Rivière dies (b. 14 Aug 1840). British painter, etcher, and sculptor, specialized in animal paintings. ( The Long Sleep)
1921 - Janine Sutto was born. French Canadian actress
1923 - Mother Angelica was born. American nun and broadcaster
1923 - Tito Puente was born (d. 2000). American musician.
1923 - Rita Frances Rizzo was born in Canton, Ohio. She became Mother Angelica, Foundress of Eternal Word Television Network.
1923 - Suprimida na Itália a festa do 1º de Maio.
1924 - Leslie Phillips was born. English actor.
1925 - Ernie Stautner was born (d. 2006). German-born American football player.
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film
1927 - Alex Müller was born. Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1927 - Karl Alexander Müller was born. Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1927 - Míriam Pires was born (d. 2004). Brazilian actress.
1927 - Phil Hill was born. American race car driver and one-time F1 world champion.
1928 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter in Timbouctou.
1928 - Gerald S. Hawkins was born (d. 2003). English astronomer.
1928 - Johnny Gavin was born (d. 2007). Irish footballer.
1932 - Artur Correia was born. Portuguese film director.
1932 - Giuseppe Peano dies (b. 1858). Italian mathematician.
1932 - Rosa Lobato Faria was born (d. 2010). Portuguese writer and actress.

1936 - Pat Roberts was born. American politician.
1937 - George Takei was born. American actor.
1939 - Johnny Tillotson was born. American singer.
1939 - Gro Harlem Brundtland was born. Prime Minister of Norway.
1939 - Peter S. Beagle was born. American author.
1940 - George Takei was born. American actor (Star Trek).
1941 - Ryan O'Neal was born in Los Angeles, California. American actor.
1943 - John Eliot Gardiner was born. English conductor.
1943 - Edie Sedgwick was born (d. 1971). American actress.
1945 - World War II: U.S. B-29 bombers destroy the Musashi Aircraft plants. Halting production of the Nakajima Ki-84 fighter planes.
1945 - World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 - Mayor of Leipzig, Germany, killed himself along with his wife and daughter.
1945 - Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
1945 - Steve Spurrier was born. American football player and coach.
1945 - Michael Brandon was born. American actor.
1945 - Erwin Bumke dies (b. 1874). German jurist.
1946 - Julien Poulin was born. French Canadian actor.
1946 - Gordon Smiley was born (d. 1982). American racecar driver.
1946 - Mel Winkler was born. American voice actor.
1947 - Björn Skifs was born. Swedish singer (Blue Swede).
1947 - Andrew Tobias was born. American journalist and author.
1947 - David Leland was born. British actor, director and screenwriter.
1947 - King Christian X of Denmark dies (b. 1870).
1948 - Craig Frost was born. American musician (Grand Funk & Bob Seger).
1948 - Adolf Lu Hitler Marak was born. Indian politician.
1948 - Gregory Itzin was born. American actor.
1948 - Rémy Trudel was born. French Canadian politician
1949 - Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced they'd succeeded in synthesizing a hormone found to be useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis; the substance was named "cortisone."
1949 - Jessica Lange was born in Cloquet, Minnesota. American actress (King Kong -1976; The Postman Always Rings Twice -1981; Tootsie -1982; Cape Fear -1991, etc ).
1949 - Massimo D'Alema was born. Prime Minister of Italy.
1949 - Toller Cranston was born. Canadian figure skater and artist.
1949 - Veronica Cartwright was born. American actress
1950 - Humberto Coelho was born. Portuguese footballer and coach.
1950 - Aleksandr Lebed was born (d. 2002). Russian general and politician.
1950 - Chandra Babu Naidu was born. Indian politician.
1950 - Steve Erickson was born. American novelist.
1951 - Luther Vandross was born New York, New York (d. 2005). American singer.
1951 - Ivanoe Bonomi dies (b. 1873). Former Prime Minister of Italy.
1952 - Božidar Maljković was born. Serbian basketball coach.
1953 - Project BLUEBIRD turns into Project MKULTRA.
1953 - The Boston marathon was won by Keizo Yamada with a record time of 2:18:51.
1953 - Sebastian Faulks was born. British novelist.
1953 - Michael Q. Schmidt was born. American actor and model.
1954 - Gilles Lupien was born. French Canadian ice hockey player.
1956 - Beatrice Ask was born. Swedish politician.
1957 - Geraint Wyn Davies was born. American actor.
1957 - Bryndís Áslaug Óttarsdóttir was born. Bókasafnsstjóri í Sólheimasafni.
1958 - Viacheslav Fetisov was born. Russian ice hockey player.
1960 - Inauguration of Brasilia.
1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba.
1961 - Don Mattingly was born. American baseball player.
1961 - Konstantin Lavronenko was born. Russian actor.
1962 - First production of Bentlage brand cigars, Habana, Cuba.
1962 - Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf was born (d. 2001). Radio and television personality.
1962 - The Secret Army Organization (OAS) leader and ex-general Salan was arrested in Algiers
1963 - Aubrey de Grey was born. British biomedical gerontologist.
1963 - Mauricio Gugelmin was born. Brazilian racing driver.
1964 - BBC Two launches with the power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.
1964 - Crispin Glover was born. American actor.
1964 - Rosalynn Sumners was born. American figure skater.
1964 - Andy Serkis was born. English actor.
1964 - Eddie Dyer dies (b. 1899). Baseball player.
1965 - Ralph Cirella was born. Stylist and friend of Howard Stern.
1965 - Adrian Fernández was born. Mexican racing driver.
1965 - Kostas Hatzidakis was born. Greek politician
1967 - A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126.
1967 - U.S. planes bombed Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War.
1967 - Raymond van Barneveld was born. Dutch darts player
1967 - Mike Portnoy was born. American drummer (Dream Theater)
1967 - Lara Jill Miller was born. American actress
1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa killing 122
1968 - Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.
1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes controversial Rivers of Blood Speech
1970 - Bruno Kreisky became the 1st socialist chancellor of Austria.
1970 - Paul Celan (49), Romanian-born poet, drowned himself in the Seine. English translations of his poems were published in 2001.
1970 - Regine Velasquez was born. Filipina singer and actress
1970 - Adriano Moraes was born. Brazilian rodeo performer
1970 - Shemar Moore was born. American actor
1971 - Carla Geurts was born. Dutch swimmer
1971 - Allan Houston was born. Basketball player
1971 - Tina Cousins was born. English singer
1971 - Fallece en Buenos Aires el pintor Mario Darío Grandi (n. 28 Oct 1918). Lo más característico de su obra son sus figuras al pastel, alargadas y espiritualizadas, de gran fineza lírica y notable sutileza de color.
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
1972 - Carmen Electra was born. American actress.
1972 - Le Huynh Đuc was born. Vietnamese footballer
1972 - Stephen Marley was born. Jamaican musician
1973 - Geoff Lloyd was born. British radio presenter
1975 - Brillante celebración de su aniversario número 50 tuvo Colo Colo, al ganar por 1-0 a Aviación e inaugurar su estadio que recibió a más de 40.000 espectadores
1976 - Joey Lawrence was born. American actor.
1976 - Shay Given was born. Irish footballer.
1977 - Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli was born. Professional wrestler.
1977 - Sepp Herberger dies (b. 1897). German football coach.
1978 - Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.
1978 - Mirei Kuroda was born. Japanese gravure idol
1979 - President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Swamp Rabbit while on vacation in Plains, Georgia.
1980 - Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested.
1980 - Jasmin Wagner was born. German singer.
1981 - Matus Valent was born. Male fitness model.
1981 - Paulo Almeida Santos was born in Itarantim. Brazilian football player.
1982 - Archibald MacLeish dies (b. 1892). American poet and Librarian of Congress.
1983 - Terrence J was born. American television host.
1983 - Miranda Kerr was born. Australian supermodel.
1984 - Nélson Évora was born. Portuguese triple-jumper, Olympic Champion.
1984 - Tyson Griffin was born. American mixed martial artist.
1984 - Hristo Prodanov dies (b. 1943). Bulgarian mountaineer.
1985 - ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
1985 - In Roterdan, the Portuguese athlete Carlos Lopes establishes a new world record in Marathon
1985 - Tony Craig was born. English footballer.
1985 - Charles Francis Richter dies (b. 1900). American sismologist.
1986 - Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years. The concert was viewed by millions on television.
1986 - Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in a NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics.
1986 - Cameron Duncan was born (d. 2003). New Zealand director.
1986 - Sibte Hassan dies (b. 1916). Pakistani activist, journalist and writer.
1987 - Sri Lanka: Tamils shot 122 Singhalese dead.
1987 - John Patrick Amedori was born. American actor.
1988 - Gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria. An agreement also freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15-day siege in which two passengers were slain.
1989 - Doru Davidovici dies (b. 1945). Romanian writer and Fighter Pilot.
1991 - Steve Marriott dies (b. 1945). British musician and actor.
1991 - Don Siegel dies (b. 1912). American film director.
1992 - An all-star concert in memory of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium in London .
1992 - Expo Sevilla is inaugurated by Don Juan Carlos
1992 - Benny Hill dies (b. 1924). British comedian.
1993 - Mario Moreno (b. 1911), the Mexican comedian known as Cantinflas, dies in Mexico City.
1994 - Serbian army bombed a hospital in Gorazde, Bosnia, and 47 were killed.
1994 - Jean Carmet dies (b. 1920). French actor.
1996 - Christopher Robin Milne dies (b. 1920). Son of A.A. Milne, basis for the Winnie the Pooh character Christopher Robin.
1997 - The San Diego Padres face the St. Louis Cardinals in the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Hawaii
1997 - Lameck Aguta of Kenya won the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:10:34. Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba won the women’s best time at 2:26:24.
1998 - German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
1998 - TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
1998 - Moses Tanui of Kenya won of Kenya won the 102nd Boston Marathon in 2 hrs, 7 min. and 43 sec. Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia won among the women in 2:23:21.
1999 - Columbine High School massacre: Two gunmen kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.
1999 - Madejczyk Massacre Averted, Bridgman, Michigan school shooting plot .
1999 - Largest bombing of Kosovo by the United States in the Kosovo War.
1999 - Rick Rude dies (b. 1958). American professional wrestler.
1999 - Señor Wences dies (b. 1896). Spanish ventriloquist and comedian.
2000 - Funny Cide was born. Racehorse, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
2001 - China removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
2001 - In Peru an air force jet shot down a Cessna 185 carrying US missionaries. Veronica Bowers (35) and her infant daughter, Charity, were killed when the plane crash landed in the Amazon River. The plane was identified by a US surveillance plane and was believed to be trafficking in narcotics.
2001 - The anti-globalization movement holds a People's Summit and large protest marches, some of which are forcibly put down by police, against the FTAA summit in Quebec City, Quebec .
2001 - Giuseppe Sinopoli dies (b. 1946). Italian conductor and composer.
2002 - The body of Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley is found in his Seattle apartment after dying from an apparent speedball overdose on April 5.
2002 - Alan Dale dies (b. 1925). American singer.
2003 - Daijiro Kato dies (b. 1976). Japanese motorcycle racer.
2003 - Bernard Katz dies (b. 1911). German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
2003 - Ruth Hale dies (b. 1908). American playwright and actress.
2003 - Bernard Katz dies (b. 1911). German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2004 - Severe thunderstorms strike Chicagoland, USA. An F3 tornado touches down in Utica, Illinois, claiming 9 lives.
2004 - WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy renamed as MCI.
2004 - In Argentina a federal judge issued an international arrest warrant for former President Carlos Menem who has refused to appear for questioning in a corruption probe.
2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
2005 - Alfredo Palacio becomes President of Ecuador.
2005 - Fumio Niwa dies (b. 1904). Japanese novelist.
2005 - Zygfryd Blaut dies (b. 1943). Polish football player.
2006 - Anna Svidersky dies (b. 1988).
2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
2007 - Andrew Hill dies (b. 1931). American jazz composer and pianist.
2007 - Michael Fu Tieshan dies (b. 1931). Chinese bishop.
2008 - Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.
2008 – Monica Lovinescu dies (b. 1923). Romanian essayist, literary critic and journalist.
2008 - VL Mike dies (b. 1976). American rapper.
2009 – Beata Asimakopoulou dies (b. 1932). Greek actress.

Ridván begins at sunset (Bahá'í Faith).
National Smoke Marijuana Day: Many cannabis users smoke marijuana on April 20th, in keeping with the expression four-twenty. This has become a way to protest for the legalization of marijuana use and possession.