April Events and Observances
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This set covers significant historical events and interesting trivia associated with dates and observances throughout the month of April.
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- April 1 - April Fools' Day origins
- One popular theory traces it to France's 1564 Edict of Roussillon, which moved New Year's Day from late March to January 1, mocking those who forgot.
- April 1, 1976 - Apple Computer founded
- Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple; Wayne sold his 10 percent stake just twelve days later for 800 dollars.
- April 2 - International Children's Book Day
- Celebrated annually on Hans Christian Andersen's birthday to inspire a love of reading and call attention to children's literature.
- April 2, 1513 - Juan Ponce de León sights Florida
- He named the land 'La Florida' in honor of Pascua Florida (Spain's Easter floral festival) rather than a search for a fountain of youth.
- April 3, 1860 - Pony Express begins service
- The mail service dramatically cut delivery time between Missouri and California to 10 days, but operated for only 18 months before bankruptcy.
- April 3, 1973 - First handheld mobile phone call
- Motorola engineer Martin Cooper placed the first public cell call to his chief rival, Joel Engel at Bell Labs, while walking in New York.
- April 4, 1968 - Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
- Robert F. Kennedy broke the news to a crowd in Indianapolis, giving an impromptu speech that helped keep the city calm amid nationwide riots.
- April 4, 1949 - NATO treaty signed
- Twelve founding nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C., creating a mutual defense pact against Soviet expansion.
- April 5, 1722 - European discovery of Easter Island
- Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen sighted the isolated island on Easter Sunday, giving Rapa Nui its common European name.
- April 6, 1896 - First modern Olympic Games open
- Held in Athens, the first modern Olympics awarded winners silver medals and olive branches; runners-up received bronze medals and laurel.
- April 6, 1917 - U.S. enters World War I
- The United States formally declared war on Germany following the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram and renewed submarine warfare.
- April 7 - World Health Day
- Established by the inaugural World Health Assembly in 1948 to mark the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO).
- April 8, 1974 - Hank Aaron breaks home run record
- Aaron hit his 715th career home run in Atlanta, surpassing Babe Ruth's longstanding record despite facing months of racist death threats.
- April 9, 1865 - Lee surrenders at Appomattox
- Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, whose first home was damaged at Bull Run.
- April 10, 1912 - RMS Titanic sets sail
- Titanic departed Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage with over 2,200 passengers and crew bound for New York City.
- April 11, 1970 - Apollo 13 launches
- An oxygen tank explosion two days later crippled the spacecraft, prompting the famous line 'Houston, we've had a problem here.'
- April 12, 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes first human in space
- His single orbit around Earth aboard Vostok 1 lasted 108 minutes, during which he was not allowed to manually control the spacecraft.
- April 12, 1861 - American Civil War begins
- Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor; remarkably, nobody was killed during the 34-hour bombardment.
- April 13, 1742 - Handel's 'Messiah' premieres
- First performed in Dublin, Ireland, the concert raised money to release 142 men from debtors' prison.
- April 14, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln shot at Ford's Theatre
- Actor John Wilkes Booth timed his gunshot to a punchline in 'Our American Cousin,' hoping audience laughter would muffle the blast.
- April 14, 1935 - Black Sunday dust storm
- One of the worst dust storms in American history displaced an estimated 300 million tons of topsoil from the Great Plains in a single day.
- April 15, 1912 - Sinking of the Titanic
- The liner sank less than three hours after hitting an iceberg; the ship carried lifeboats for only about half the people aboard.
- April 15, 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks MLB color barrier
- Starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era.
- April 16, 1943 - Albert Hofmann discovers LSD's effects
- The Swiss chemist accidentally absorbed a microscopic amount through his fingertips, leading to the world's first recorded acid trip.
- April 17, 1961 - Bay of Pigs invasion begins
- A CIA-sponsored group of Cuban exiles landed in southwestern Cuba in a botched attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's government.
- April 17, 1964 - Ford Mustang introduced
- Unveiled at the New York World's Fair, Ford expected to sell 100,000 in the first year but reached that total in just three months.
- April 18, 1775 - Paul Revere's midnight ride
- Revere never shouted 'The British are coming!'; the mission was discreet, and colonists still considered themselves culturally British.
- April 18, 1906 - Great San Francisco earthquake
- Rupturing nearly 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault, the disaster destroyed over 80 percent of the city, mostly from subsequent fires.
- April 19, 1775 - Battles of Lexington and Concord
- The 'shot heard 'round the world' began the American Revolutionary War, though historians still debate which side fired first.
- April 19, 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing
- The domestic terror attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people, including 19 children in a day care center.
- April 20, 1902 - Discovery of radium isolation
- Marie and Pierre Curie successfully refined and isolated radium chloride salts after processing several tons of pitchblende ore.
- April 21, 753 BC - Traditional founding of Rome
- Roman mythology dates the founding to Romulus killing his twin Remus after a dispute over which hill to settle.
- April 21, 1836 - Battle of San Jacinto
- Texian forces under Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna's Mexican army in just 18 minutes, securing Texas independence.
- April 22 - Earth Day established in 1970
- U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded it after witnessing the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill; 20 million Americans mobilized for the first event.
- April 22, 1915 - Second Battle of Ypres begins
- German forces launched the first large-scale use of lethal poison gas (chlorine) on the Western Front during World War I.
- April 23 - World Book and Copyright Day
- Chosen by UNESCO because April 23 marks the death anniversary of both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes in 1616.
- April 23, 1985 - Coca-Cola introduces 'New Coke'
- The reformulated soda caused massive public backlash, forcing the company to bring back the original formula as 'Coca-Cola Classic' 79 days later.
- April 24 - Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
- Commemorates the 1915 deportation and execution of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.
- April 24, 1990 - Hubble Space Telescope launches
- Initial images were blurry due to a flaw in its primary mirror ground too flat by 2 micrometers, later fixed in a 1993 shuttle mission.
- April 25 - ANZAC Day
- Commemorates the 1915 landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, Turkey, forging national identity in both countries.
- April 25, 1953 - DNA double helix structure published
- James Watson and Francis Crick published their groundbreaking paper in Nature, heavily reliant on Rosalind Franklin's Photo 51.
- April 25, 1974 - Carnation Revolution in Portugal
- A military coup toppled the authoritarian Estado Novo regime almost bloodlessly; citizens placed red carnations into soldiers' rifle barrels.
- April 26, 1986 - Chernobyl nuclear disaster
- A flawed reactor design and operator errors during a safety test caused explosions that spewed radioactive material across Europe.
- April 26, 1937 - Bombing of Guernica
- German and Italian planes bombed the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, inspiring Pablo Picasso's famous anti-war masterpiece.
- April 27, 1994 - South Africa holds first multiracial elections
- Millions of citizens cast ballots ending apartheid, leading to Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the nation's first Black president.
- April 28, 1789 - Mutiny on the HMS Bounty
- Fletcher Christian led a revolt against Lieutenant William Bligh, setting Bligh and 18 loyal crew members adrift in an open boat.
- April 29, 1945 - Dachau concentration camp liberated
- U.S. Seventh Army troops liberated Dachau, the first regular concentration camp established by the Nazi regime in 1933.
- April 30, 1789 - George Washington inaugurated
- He took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, which served as the first capital under the Constitution.
- April 30, 1975 - Fall of Saigon
- North Vietnamese forces captured the capital of South Vietnam, prompting Operation Frequent Wind and effectively ending the Vietnam War.
- April 30 - Walpurgis Night
- A traditional northern European festival on the eve of May Day celebrating Saint Walpurga, historically believed to ward off evil spirits.