On this day in History - Apr. 15

• 1053 - Godwin, Earl of Wessex dies (b. 1001).
• 1220 - Adolf of Altena dies (b. 1355). Archbishop of Cologne.
• 1415 - Manuel Chrysoloras dies. Greek humanist.
• 1446 - Filippo Brunelleschi dies (b. 1377). Italian architect.
• 1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in northern France.
• 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci [Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci] was born (d. 2 May 1519). Florentine painter and inventor (Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne).
• 1469 - Guru Nanak Dev was born (d. 1539). Founder of Sikhism.
• 1489 - Sinan was born (d. 1588). Ottoman architect.
• 1521 - Morte de D. Carlos (filho de D. Manuel I e infanta D. Leonor de Castela).
• 1552 - Pietro Cataldi was born (d. 1626). Italian mathematician.
• 1565 -Diogo Jacome dies. Portuguese religious.
• 1588 - Claudius Salmasius was born (d. 1653). French classical scholar.
• 1610 - Robert Parsons dies (b. 1546). English Jesuit priest.
• 1621 - John Carver dies (b. 1576). First governor of Plymouth Colony.
• 1622 - Leandro Bassano da Ponte dies (b. 10 Jun 1557). Venetian Mannerist painter born on 10 June 1557, on of the four sons of Jacopo Bassano [1510 – 13 Feb 1592] .
• 1632 - Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
• 1632 - George Calvert dies (b. 1580). Proprietor of the Avalon (Maryland) Colony.
• 1641 - Robert Sibbald was born (d. 1722). Scottish physician.
• 1641 - Domenico Zampieri dies (b. 1581). Italian painter.
• 1642 - Sultan Suleiman II was born (d. 1691). Ottoman Empire.
• 1646 - King Christian V of Denmark was born (d. 1699).
• 1646 - Pierre Poiret was born (d. 1719). French mystic.
• 1651 - Robert Sibbald was born. Scottish physician.
• 1652 - Patriarch Joseph dies. Head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
• 1659 - Simon Dach dies (b. 1605). German poet.
• 1682 - Jan van Huysum was born (d. 07 Feb 1749). Dutch painter who was with Rachel Ruysch [1664 – 12 Aug 1750], the most distinguished flower painter of his day.
• 1684 - Catherine I of Russia was born (d. 1727).
• 1688 - Johann Friedrich Fasch was born (d. 1758). German composer.
• 1700 - Giovanni Maria Viani dies (b. 11 Sep 1636). Bolognese artist.
• 1704 - Johann van Waveren Hudde dies (b. 1628). Dutch mathematician.
• 1707 - Leonhard Euler was born (d. 18 Sep 1783). Swiss mathematician and physicist, one of the founders of pure mathematics.
• 1710 - William Cullen was born (d. 1790). Scottish physician.
• 1712 - Jan Antoon Garemijn was born (d. 23 Jun 1799). Bruges Flemish painter and draftsman.
• 1715 - Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
• 1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony dies (b. 1793). Croatian geographer.
• 1719 - Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon dies (b. 1635). Second wife of Louis XIV of France.
• 1721 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland was born (d. 1765). English military leader.
• 1738 - Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
• 1741 - Charles Willson Peale was born (d. 22 Feb 1827). American painter, soldier and naturalist.
• 1754 - Jacopo Riccati dies (b. 1676). Italian mathematician.
• 1755 - Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
• 1757 - Rosalba Carriera dies (b. 07 Oct 1675). Venetian pastelist and painter. Along with her long-time friend, Antoine Watteau, whom she portrayed in pastels, she was considered one of the leading portrait artists of the Rococo era.
• 1761 - Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll dies (b. 1682). Scottish politician.
• 1761 - William Oldys dies (b. 1696). English antiquarian and bibliographer.
• 1764 - Madame de Pompadour dies (b. 1721). Mistress of King Louis XIV of France.
• 1764 - Peder Horrebow dies (b. 1679). Danish astronomer.
• 1765 - Mikhail Lomonosov dies (b. 1711). Russian scientist and writer.
• 1772 - Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was born (d. 1844). French naturalist.
• 1783 - Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
• 1788 - Giuseppe Bonno dies (b. 1711). Austrian composer.
• 1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve was born (d. 1864). German astronomer.
• 1793 - Ignacije Szentmartony dies (b. 1718). Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer.
• 1794 - Jean Pierre Flourens was born (d. 1867). French physiologist.
• 1800 - James Clark Ross was born (d. 1862). English explorer.
• 1802 - William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy come across a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
• 1804 - Charles Pichegru dies strangled in prison (b. 1761). French general.
• 1808 - Hubert Robert dies (b. 22 May 1733). French landscape painter.
• 1809 - Hermann Grassmann was born (d. 1877). German mathematician.
• 1812 - Pierre Etienne-Théodore Rousseau, was born in Paris (d. 22 Dec 1867). French painter, specialized in landscapes. He was considered the leader of the Romantic-Naturalist artists of the Barbizon School, but he also had the unhappy distinction of being known as ‘le grand refusé’, because of his systematic exclusion from the Paris Salon between 1836 and 1841 and his abstention between 1842 and 1849.
• 1815 - Mary Ann Day Brown was born (d. 1884). Wife of John Brown.
• 1828 - Francisco de Goya dies (b. 1746). Spanish painter.
• 1832 - Wilhelm Busch was born (d. 09 Jan 1908). German draftsman, painter and poet.
• 1841 - Joseph E. Seagram was born (d. 1919). Canadian distillery founder.
• 1843 - Henry James was born (d. 1916). American author.
• 1843 - Noah Webster dies (b. 1758). American lexicographer.
• 1850 - The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
• 1854 - Arthur Aikin dies (b. 1773). English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer.
• 1856 – Jean Moréas was born (d. 1910). Greek poet.
• 1858 - Émile Durkheim was born (d. 1917). French sociologist.
• 1859 - Abbott Fuller Graves was born (d. 1936). US Impressionist painter.
• 1860 - Edward Arthur Walton was born (d. 18 Mar 1922). British painter.
• 1861 - USA: three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.
• 1861 - Bliss Carman was born (d. 1929). Canadian poet.
• 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies (b. 1809) after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth and Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
• 1865 - Olga Boznanska was born (d. 26 Oct 1940). Polish painter.
• 1868 - Francisco Braga was born. Brazilian composer.
• 1868 - Gaston Leroux dies (b. 1927). French writer.
• 1874 - George Harrison Shull was born (d. 1954). American plant geneticist.
• 1874 - Johannes Stark was born (d. 1957). German physicist, Nobel laureate.
• 1875 - James J. Jeffries was born (d. 1953). American heavyweight boxer.
• 1876 - Theude Grönland dies (b. 31 Aug 1817). German artist born.
• 1878 - Robert Walser was born (d. 1956). Swiss lyricist and narrator.
• 1879 - Melville Henry Cane was born (d. 1980). American lawyer.
• 1883 - Stanley Bruce was born (d. 1967). Eighth Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1885 - Tadeusz Kutrzeba was born (d. 1947). Polish general.
• 1886 - Amédée Ozenfant was born (d. 04 May 1966). French painter, writer, and teacher.
• 1886 – Nikolay Gumilyov was born (d. 1921). Russian poet.
• 1888 - Maximilian Kronberger was born (d. 1904). German poet.
• 1888 - Matthew Arnold dies (b. 1822). English poet.
• 1889 – A. Philip Randolph was born (d. 1979). American activist.
• 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton was born (d. 19 Jan 1975). American painter, illustrator, and lithographer.
• 1889 – Father Damien dies (b. 1840). Belgian missionary.
• 1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui dies. Maori military leader.
• 1891 - Criação por Leopoldo II da Bélgica da Companhia do Catanga.
• 1892 - The General Electric Company forms.
• 1892 - Corrie ten Boom was born (d. 1983). Dutch author and Holocaust survivor.
• 1892 - Theo Osterkamp was born (d. 1975). World War I and World War II German fighter pilot.
• 1894 - Bessie Smith was born (d. 26 Sep 1937). "Empress of the Blues": American blues singer (sang with Louis Armstrong in 1925: early version of St. Louis Blues, My Man’s Blues, Dixie Flyer Blues, I Ain’t Got Nobody, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Poor Man’s Blues).
• 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev was born (d. 1971). Premier of the Soviet Union.
  1894 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
• 1895 - Clark McConachy was born (d. 1980). New Zealand billiards and snooker player.
• 1896 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov was born (d. 25 Sep 1986). Soviet physical chemist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Sir Cyril Hinshelwood for research in chemical kinetics. He was the second Soviet citizen (after the émigré writer Ivan Bunin) to receive a Nobel Prize.
• 1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui dies. Maori military leader.
• 1901 - Abgar Renault was born in Barbacena, Minas Gerais (d. 31 Dec. 1995). Brazilian poet, translator, essayst and politician.
• 1901 - Juan Manuel Blanes dies (b. 08 Jun 1830). Uruguayan painter and draftsman.
• 1901 - Joe Davis was born (d. 1978). English snooker player.
• 1902 - Fernando Pessa was born (d. 2002). Portuguese journalist. "E esta hem?!".
• 1904 - Vosdanig Manoog Adoian, Arshile Gorky, was born. Armenian-born US painter, forerunner of Abstract Expressionism, who commited suicide on 21 July 1948. Implicit in Gorky unquestioninly accepted art as developing in history. To Gorky, progress of art itself was not the erratic course of unrelated inspirations, but an evolution.
• 1906 - The Armenian organization, AGBU is established.
• 1907 - Nikolaas Tinbergen was born (d. 21 Dec 1988). Dutch-born English ethologist, a zoologist who studied the behavior of animals in their natural habitats, who shared (with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973 "for their discoveries concerning "organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns."
• 1908 - Eden Ahbez was born (d. 1995). American songwriter.
• 1908 – Lita Grey was born (d. 1995). American actress.
• 1910 – Miguel Najdorf was born (d. 1997). Argentine chess grandmaster.
• 1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg two and a half hours earlier, the previous day. 1517 lives were lost at sea.
• 1912 - Kim Il-sung was born (d. 1994). President of North Korea.
• 1912 – Edward Smith dies (b. 1850). Captain of the RMS Titanic.
• 1912 – Jack Phillips dies (b. 1887). British wireless telegraphist.
• 1912 – John Jacob Astor IV dies (b. 1864). Billionaire businessman.
• 1912 – Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder) dies (b. 1873). Irish-born businessman and shipbuilder.
• 1912 – William T. Stead dies (b. 1849). American author and journalist.
• 1912 - Benjamin Guggenheim dies (b. 1865). Businessman.
• 1912 - Francis Davis Millet dies (b. 03 Nov 1846). US painter mostly of genre scenes, decorative artist, and writer, drowns as the Titanic sinks, after he helped women and children into the too few lifeboats and gave his life jacket to another passenger.
• 1913 - Raul Rêgo was born in Morais, Macedo de Cavaleiros (d. 1 Fev 2002). Portuguese politician and journalist.
• 1915 - The Armenian Genocide began when the Ottoman Empire undertook the systematic annihilation of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Empire.
• 1916 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale was born (d. 1982). American businessman.
• 1916 - Helene Hanff was born (d. 1997). American writer.
• 1917 - Hans Conried was born (d. 05 Jan 1982). American actor (My Friend Irma, Bus Stop, Oh! God: Book 2, Tut & Tuttle, The Monster that Challenged the World; host: Fractured Flickers TV Series).
• 1917 - James Kee was born (d. 1989). American politician.
• 1919 - O Comité Olímpico Internacional decide que os Jogos Olímpicos de 1920 seriam na Antuérpia.
• 1919 - Alberto Breccia was born. Argentine historian.
• 1919 - Fernando Namora was born (d. 31 Jan 1989). Portuguese writer / Nasce em Condeixa Fernando Namora (d. 31 Jan 1989) . Escritor português.
• 1920 - Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
• 1920 - España: fundación del Partido Comunista Español, que al año siguiente se uniría al Partido Comunista Obrero Español para fundar el Partido Comunista de España.
• 1920 - Jim Timmens was born. Grammy Award-winning composer [Aren’t You Glad You’re You (1977: Best Recording For Children, w/Christopher Cerf); jazz musician, musical director of New York’s Radio City Music Hall].
• 1920 - Richard von Weizäcker was born. President of Germany 1984-1994.
• 1920 – Thomas Szasz was born. Hungarian-American psychiatrist.
• 1921 – Black Friday, mine owners announce increase in wages and price cuts leading to the threat of a strike all across England.
• 1921 - Georgi Beregovoi was born (d. 1995). Soviet cosmonaut.
• 1922 - Harold Washington was born (d. 1987). American politician.
• 1922 - Michael Ansara was born. Syrian-American actor.
• 
  
• 1923 - Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics.
• 1924 - Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
• 1924 - Sir Neville Marriner was born. English conductor and violinist.
• 1925 - Eduardo Alberto Ferro Rodrigues was born (d. 15 Feb. 2006). Portuguese theatre author and radio producer.
• 1925 - John Singer Sargent dies (b. 12 Jan 1856). US painter specialized in portraits.
• 1925 - Execução do 'serial killer' alemão Fritz Haarmann, o 'Açougueiro de Hanover' (27 assassinatos).
• 1926 - Robertson Aircraft, one of the companies that later developed into American Airlines, flew its first mail route, between Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri, with Charles A. Lindbergh as the pilot.
• 1927 - Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Norma and Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
• 1927 - Robert Mills was born (d. 1999). American physicist.
• 1927 - Gaston Leroux dies (b. 1868). French writer.
• 1928 - Vida Alves was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1930 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was born. Former President of Iceland.
• 1930 - Herb Pomero was born. Musician: trumpet: teacher at Berklee in Boston, bandleader; directed radio Malaysia Orchestra.
• 1931 - Raymond McNally was born (d. 2002). Author.
• 1933 – Boris Strugatsky was born. Russian author.
• 1933 - David Hamilton was born. British photographer, film director and producer.
• 1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery was born (d. 1995). American actress.
• 1933 - Mel Kenyon was born. Auto racer; legendary NAMARS champ.
• 1933 – Roy Clark was born. American musician: guitar, banjo; CMA Entertainer of the Year [1973], Comedian of the Year [1970, 1971, 1972], co-host: Hee Haw; country singer: Tips of My Fingers, Through the Eyes of a Fool, Yesterday, When I Was Young, Come and Live with Me, Somewhere Between Love and Tomorrow, Thank God and Greyhound [You’re Gone].
• 1936 - Raymond Poulidor was born. French cyclist.
• 1937 - Bob Luman was born in Blackjack, east Texas (d. 27 Dec 1978). American singer (Let’s Think About Living, Every Day I Have to Cry Some, The Pay Phone, Proud of You Baby).
• 1938 - Claudia Cardinale was born. Italian actress (The Pink Panther, Once Upon a Time in The West, Jesus of Nazareth, Henry thr IV, A man in Love).
• 1938 - Hso Khan Pha was born. Burmese politician.
• 1938 - César Vallejo dies (b. 1892). Peruvian poet.
• 1939 - Claudia Cardinale was born. Tunisian-born actress.
• 1939 - Jaime Paz Zamora was born. President of Bolivia (1989-1993).
• 1939 - Marty Wilde was born. British singer.
• 1940 - The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.
• 1940 - Jeffrey Archer was born. British author, Member of Parliament.
• 1940 – Robert Lacroix was born. French Canadian professor of economics.
• 1940 – Robert Walker Jr. was born. American actor.
• 1940 - Willie Davis (William Henry Davis) was born. American baseball player: LA Dodgers [World Series: 1963, 1965, 1966/all-star: 1971, 1973], Montreal Expos, SL Cardinals, Texas Rangers, SD Padres, California Angels.
• 1940 - Woodie Fryman was born. American baseball player - pitcher: Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies [all-star: 1968], Detroit Tigers, Montreal Expos [all-star: 1976], Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs.
• 1940 - Cristóbal Toral Ruiz was born. Spanish painter.
• 1941 - In the Belfast Blitz two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked Belfast, Northern Ireland. Killing one thousand people.
• 1941 - Howard Berman was born. American politician.
• 1942 - George Cross awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta - its people and defenders" by King George VI.
• 1942 - Julie Sommars was born. Actress ( Sex and the Single Parent, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo).
• 1942 - Francis X. DiLorenzo was born. American Catholic prelate.
• 1942 - Kenneth Lay was born (d. 2006). American businessman.
• 1942 - Walt Hazzard was born. American basketball star: 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist: U.S. team; LA Lakers, Seattle Supersonics, Atlanta Hawks, Buffalo Braves, Golden State Warriors; UCLA coach.
• 1942 - Robert Musil dies (b. 1880). Austrian novelist (The Man Without Qualities).
• 1943 - An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
• 1943 - Mota Amaral was born in Ponta Delgada, Azores. Portuguese politician.
• 1943 - Aristarkh Lentulov dies (b. 1882). Russian artist.
• 1944 - Dave Edmunds was born. Welsh rock-singer and guitarist.
• 1944 - Dzhokhar Dudaev was born (d. 1996). Chechen leader.
• 1945 - During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. / Libertação do campo de concentração de Bergen-Belsen por tropas britânicas e canadianas
• 1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• 1945 - Ted Sizemore was born. Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals; National League Rookie of the Year: LA Dodgers 2B [1969].
• 1945 – Hermann Florstedt dies (b. 1895). Nazi leader.
• 1947 - Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
• 1947 – Cristina Husmark Pehrsson was born. Swedish politician.
• 1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason was born. American writer and television producer.
• 1947 - Lois Chiles was born. American actress.
• 1947 - Mike Chapman was born. British songwriter.
• 1948 - Michael Kamen was born (d. 2003). American composer.
• 1948 - Radola Gajda dies (b. 1892). Czech military commander and politician.
• 1949 – Alla Pugacheva was born. Russian singer.
• 1949 – Craig Zadan was born. American film producer.
• 1949 - Tonio K was born. American singer.
• 1949 - Wallace Beery dies (b. 1885). American actor.
• 1950 - Dick (Richard Louis) Sharon was born. Baseball: Detroit Tigers, SD Padres.
• 1950 - Amy Wright was born in Chicago, Illinois. American actress.
• 1950 - Josiane Balasko was born. French actress, director and screenwriter.
• 1951 - Heloise (Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans) was born. American newspaper columnist, writer: Hints from Heloise; she took over the Heloise empire after her mother, the original Heloise, died in 1977.
• 1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress.
• 1952 - Bengt Gingsjö was born. Swedish swimmer.
• 1952 - Kym Gyngell was born. Australian comedian.
• 1952 - Sam McMurray was born. American actor.
• 1953 – Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou was born. Greek politician.
• 1954 - Seka was born. American pornographic actress.
• 1955 - Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
• 1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed was born (d. 1997). Egyptian businessman.
• 1956 - General Motors announced that the first, free piston automobile had been developed.
• 1956 - Michael Cooper was born. American basketball player.
• 1956 - Emil Hansen “Nolde” dies in Seebüll, West Germany (b. 07 Aug 1867). German Expressionist painter, watercolorist, and printmaker known for his violent religious works and his foreboding landscapes.
• 1957 - White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.
• 1957 - Evelyn Ashford was born. American track athlete: 4-time Olympic gold medalist, a shared record for most gold medals won by a woman: 100 meters [1984], 4 x 100m relay [1984, 1988, 1992] .
• 1957 - Pedro Infante dies (b. 1917). Mexican actor and singer.
• 1958 – Walter O'Malley's Los Angeles Dodgers host the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast of the United States.
• 1958 - Benjamin Zephaniah was born. British writer.
• 1958 - Dolores Gordon-Smith was born. British writer.
• 1958 – Keith Acton was born. Canadian ice hockey player and coach.
• 1958 – Memos Ioannou was born. Greek basketball player.
• 1958 - Noni Ιoannidou was born. Greek fashion model and actress.
• 1959 - Emma Thompson was born. English Academy Award-winning actress: Howard’s End [1992], Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, In the Name of the Father, Look Back in Anger, Henry V; screenwriter: Sense and Sensibility; daughter of producer Eric Thompson.
• 1959 – Fruit Chan was born. Hong Kong film director.
• 1959 - Kevin Lowe was born. Canadian ice hockey player and general manager.
• 1959 – Thomas F. Wilson was born. American actor.
• 1960 - HRH Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant was born. Heir to the Belgian throne
• 1960 - Pedro Delgado was born. Spanish cyclist.
• 1960 - Tony Jones was born. English snooker player.
• 1961 - Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, is awarded the Order of Lenin.
• 1962 - Nawal El Moutawakel was born. Morrocan hurdler .
• 1962 - Surjit Bindrakhia was born. Punjabi Bhangra singer.
• 1962 - Tom Kane was born. American voice actor.
• 1962 – Arsenio Lacson dies (b. 1911). Filipino politician and sportswriter.
• 1962 - Clara Blandick dies (b. 1881). American actress.
• 1963 - Bobby Pepper was born. American journalist.
• 1963 – Edward "Carji" Greeves dies (b. 1903). Australian rules footballer.
• 1964 - O general Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco assume a Presidência do Brasil.
• 1964 - Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens, the longest in the world at 17 1/2 miles.
• 1964 - Rachel Carson dies (b. 1907). American biologist and author.
• 1965 - Linda Perry was born. American musician .
• 1966 - Milton Obote becomes President of Uganda.
• 1966 - Graem Clark was born. Musician: bass: group: Wet Wet Wet: With a Little Help From My Friends, Goodnight Girl, Love is All Around.
• 1966 - Samantha Fox was born. English singer Naughty Girls [Need Love Too].
• 1967 - Scotland defeat rivals England 3-2 at Wembley stadium, causing the Scots fans to jokingly claim their side as "Unofficial world Champions", creating the phenomenon of the Unofficial Football World Championships.
• 1967 - Alt was born. Brazilian comic creator.
• 1967 - Dara Torres was born. American swimmer.
• 1967 - Frankie Poullain was born. British musician (The Darkness).
• 1968 - Ed O'Brien was born. British musician (Radiohead).
• 1968 - Inês de Medeiros was born in Wien. Portuguese actress.
  
• 1968 – Stacey Williams was born. American model.
• 1969 - Jeromy Burnitz was born. American baseball player.
• 1969 – Jimmy Waite was born. Canadian ice hockey goaltender.
• 1969 - Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg dies (b. 1887). Queen consort of Spain.
• 1970 - Flex Alexander was born. American actor.
• 1970 - Ripper Collins dies (b. 1904). Baseball player.
• 1971 - George C. Scott refused the Oscar for his Best Actor performance in Patton at the 43rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony at LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Glenda Jackson, won Best Actress award (Women in Love); Helen Hayes, Best Supporting Actress (Airport); John Mills, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan’s Daughter); Fred Karlin (music), Robb Royer and James Griffin (lyrics), Best Music/Song, For All We Know from Lovers and Other Strangers; and Franklin J. Schaffner, Best Director (Patton) ... Patton (Frank McCarthy, producer) also received the Best Picture honors.
• 1971 - Jason Sehorn was born. American football player.
• 1971 – Kate Harbour was born. English voice actress.
• 1971 - Katy Hill was born. British television presenter.
• 1971 - Sarah Jane Hamilton was born. British pornographic actress.
• 1971 - Dan Reeves dies (b. 1912). Owner of the Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams.
• 1972 - Arturo Gatti was born. Canadian boxer, World champion.
• 1972 - Lou Romano was born. American voice actor.
• 1974 – Danny Pino was born. American actor.
• 1974 – Douglas Spain was born. American actor.
• 1974 - Gabriela Duarte was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1974 – Josh Todd was born. American musician (Buckcherry).
• 1974 – Keith Malley was born. American comedian and podcaster (Keith and The Girl).
• 1974 - Mike Quinn was born. American football player (Quarterback).
• 1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi dies (b. 1906). Italian songwriter.
• 1975 - Paul Dana was born (d. 2006). American race car driver.
• 1975 – Phil Labonte was born. Lead vocalist for Metalcore band All That Remains.
• 
  
• 1975 - Richard Conte dies (b. 1910). American actor.
• 1976 - Jason Bonsignore was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1976 - Susan Ward was born. American actress.
• 1977 - Brian Pothie was born. American ice hockey player.
• 1978 - Austin Aries was born. American wrestler.
• 1978 – Milton Bradley was born. American baseball player.
• 1978 - Tim Corcoran was born. American baseball player.
• 1979 – A disastrous earthquake (of M 7.1) on Montenegro coast.
• 1979 – Anna Torv was born. Australian actress.
• 1980 – Fränk Schleck was born. Luxembourgish cyclist.
• 1980 - James Foster was born. English cricketer.
• 1980 – Natalie Casey was born. British actress.
• 1980 - Raúl López was born. Spanish basketball player.
• 1980 - Victor Núñez was born. Costa Rican footballer.
• 1980 – Willie Mason was born. Australian Rugby League Player.
• 1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre dies (b. 1905). French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined)
• 1980 – Raymond Bailey dies (b. 1904). American actor.
• 1981 - Andrés d'Alessandro was born. Argentine football player.
• 1981 - Seth Wulsin was born. American artist.
• 1982 – Albert Riera was born. Spanish footballer.
• 1982 - Anthony Green was born. American musician.
• 1982 – Michael Aubrey was born. American baseball player.
• 1982 - Seth Rogen was born. Canadian actor and writer.
• 1982 - The Muslims who murdered President Anwar-al-Sadat of Egypt on 06 Oct 1981 are executed .
• 1982 – Arthur Lowe dies (b. 1915). British actor.
• 1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opens.
• 1983 – Alice Braga was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1983 - Bronson La'Cassie was born. Australian professional golfer.
• 1983 - Dudu Cearense was born. Brazilian footballer.
• 1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk was born. Russian ice hockey player.
• 1983 - Corrie ten Boom dies (b. 1892). Dutch author and Holocaust survivor.
• 1984 - British comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a massive heart attack while live on TV.
• 1984 – Ben Kasica was born. Guitarist of rock band Skillet.
• 1984 – Cam Janssen was born. American ice hockey player.
• 1984 - Rodney Carney was born. NBA athlete.
• 1984 - Alexander Trocchi dies (b. 1925). Scottish writer.
• 1984 - Tommy Cooper dies (b. 1921). Welsh comedy magician.
• 1985 - Marvin Hagler defeats Thomas Hearns by a knockout in round three to retain boxing's worl Middleweight championship at The War.
• 1985 – Aaron Laffey was born. American baseball player.
• 1985 – Amy Reid was born. German pornographic actress.
• 1985 - John Danks was born. American baseball player.
• 1986 - The United States launched Operation El Dorado Canyon, an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed /Caças de guerra norte-americanos bombardeiam o quartel-general do ditador da Líbia Muamar Kadafi. O ataque foi em represália ao atentado em uma discoteca de Berlim Ocidental.
• 1986 - Quincy Owusu-Abeyie was born. Dutch footballer.
• 1986 - Thomas Heaton was born. English footballer.
• 1986 - Jean Genet dies (b. 19 Dec 1910). French author.
• 1987 – Sapphire Elia was born. English actress.
• 1988 - Kenneth Williams dies (b. 1926). English actor and comedian.
• 1988 - Youri Egorov dies (b. 1954). Soviet classical pianist.
• 1989 - Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
• 1989 - The Hillsborough disaster, in Sheffield, one of the biggest tragedies of European football, occurs as Liverpool F.C. fans get involved in a crowd stampede that kills 96 people.
• 1989 - Nesuhi Ertegun dies (b. 1917). American record executive, co-founder of Atlantic Records.
• 1989 - Hu Yaobang dies (b. 1915). Chinese politician.
• 1990 - Emma Watson was born. English actress.
• 1990 - Greta Garbo dies (b. 1905). Swedish actress.
• 1991 – Daiki Arioka was born. Japanese actor and singer.
• 1991 - Dante Milano dies (b. 1899). Brazilian poet.
• 1992 - The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• 1992 - Amy Diamond was born. Swedish singer.
• 1992 – Richard Sandrak was born. American bodybuilder.
• 1992 – Otis Barton dies (b. 1899). American deep-sea diver, inventor and actor.
• 1993 - Madeleine Martin was born. American television actress.
• 1993 – John Tuzo Wilson dies (b. 1908). Canadian geologist.
• 1993 - Leslie Charteris dies (b. 1907). Singapore-born author.
• 1994 - Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
• 1994 - John Curry dies (b. 1949). English figure skater.
• 1995 - Harry Shoulberg dies (b. 1903). American painter, serigrapher.
• 1996 - Portugal: Eduardo Lourenço receives the Pessoa Prize /O escritor português Eduardo Lourenço recebe o Prémio Pessoa.
• 1996 - Beatriz Costa dies (b. 14 Dec 1907). Portuguese actress.
• 1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
• 1997 - Zoë Virant was born. American singer
• 1998 - Pol Pot dies (b. 1925). Cambodian dictator the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge.
• 1999 - Paavo Lipponen assume (pela 2ª vez) o cargo de primeiro-ministro da Finlândia.
• 1999 - Harvey Postlethwaite dies (b. 1944). British engineer and racing car designer.
• 2000 - U. S. President Bill Clinton established the Giant Sequoia National Monument, a preserve near Sequoia National Park covering more than 500 square miles (1,300 square km) of Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada of California.
• 2000 - Edward Gorey dies (b. 1925). American illustrator.
• 2000 - Henrique Santos dies. Portuguese actor.
• 2001 - Joey Ramone dies (b. 1951). American musician and singer (The Ramones).
• 2001 - Jack Elway dies (b. 1932). Father of John Elway.
• 2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.
• 2002 - Damon Knight dies (b. 1922). American science fiction author.
• 2002 - Byron White dies (b. 1917). American football player and U. S. Supreme Court justice.
• 2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq had fallen as a result of the Second Persian Gulf War and the following day asked the United Nations to lift sanctions against Iraq.
• 2003 - A actriz Nicole Kidman é eleita a mulher mais elegante de Hollywood.
• 2003 - Renúncia do primeiro-ministro do Líbano, Rafik Hariri.
• 2003 - Erin Fleming dies (b. 1941). Canadian actress.
• 2003 - Reg Bundy dies (b. 1941). British performer.
• 2004 - 18ª Bienal do Livro de São Paulo, Brasil.
• 2004 - Comissão de Direitos Humanos da ONU exorta Israel a destruir muro em territórios ocupados.
• 2004 - Miguel de Guzmán Ozámiz dies. Spanish mathematicien.
• 2004 - Ray Condo dies (b. 1950). Canadian rockabilly musician.
• 2005 - Porto, Portugal: Inauguração Oficial da Casa da Música na cidade do Porto, pelo Presidente da República, Dr. Jorge Sampaio.
• 2005 - John Fred dies (b. 1941). American singer.
• 2007 - Brant Parker dies (b. 1920). American cartoonist.
• 2008 – 6 Students and 1 teacher from Elim Christian College situated in Auckland, New Zealand tragically drowned in a flash flood in the Mangetepopo River.
• 2008 – Benoît Lamy dies (b. 1945). Belgian movie director.
• 2008 – Krister Stendahl dies (b. 1921). Swedish Lutheran theologian and bishop.
• 2008 - Renata Fronzi dies (b. 1925). Brazilian actress.
• 2008 – Sean Costello dies (b. 1979). American blues musician.
  
• 2009 – Ed Blake dies (b. 1925). American baseball player.
  
• 2009 – Clement Freud dies (b. 1924). British writer, broadcaster and former liberal MP.
• 2009 – László Tisza dies (b. 1907). Hungarian-born American physicist.
  
• Ancient Latvia — Tipsa Diena was observed.
• Hawai'i - Father Damien Day — celebrated annually.
• North Korea - Arirang Festival held to commemorate Kim Il-sung's birth.
• New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures. Called Vishu in Malayalam, this time Kerala new year falls on April 15 instead of regular April 14 (see April 14)
• Roman Empire — the Fordicia was celebrated in honor of Terra.
• Translation of relics of Goeric of Metz.
• Don't forget to submit the income tax formulary (April 15 is the official deadline for filing an individual tax return (or requesting an extension) in most areas of USA).