1820 – Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist, dies at 48
1853 – Jan Willem Pieneman, Dutch historical painter (Battle at Waterloo), dies at 73
1899 – John Wesley Turner, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), dies at 65
1936 – Robert Bárány, Austrian physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1876)
1981 – Norman Taurog, American film director (Skippy), dies at 82
1992 – Nelson Olmsted [or Olmstead], American voice actor (Sleep No More) dies at 78
1997 – Charles Hayes, American politician (Rep-D-IL, 1983-93), dies at 79
2007 – Sol LeWitt, American artist (b. 1928)
2013 – Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister (1979 – 1990) dies aged 87
2017 – Brian Matthew, British disc jockey (Saturday Club), dies at 88
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 8th April 2020
1149 – Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum
1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of the Book of the Law
1953 – Jomo Kenyatta convicted of involvement with the Mau Mau rebellion and sentenced to 7 years jail in Kenya
1966 – AFL chooses 36 year old Al Davis as commissioner
1967 – 121st Grand National: John Buckingham aboard rank 100/1 outsider Foinavon avoids famous carnage to win by 15 lengths from favourite Honey End
1974 – Discovery Island opens at Walt Disney World, Florida
1980 – Islander Potvin’s 2 shorthanded goals tie NHL record vs Kings and set NHL rec of 2 shorthanded playoff goals in 1 period
1994 – Atlanta Brave Kent Mercker no-hits Dodgers, 6-0
2003 – 22nd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Tennessee, 73-68; UConn guard Diana Taurasi is named Most Outstanding Player
2019 – 600 million birds die each year in the US after striking tall buildings with Chicago the worst city, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Today in History for 8th April 2020
Historical Events
1866 – Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary.
1924 – South African State pass the Industrial Conciliation Act No 11: provides for job reservation, excluded blacks from membership of registered trade unions, prohibited registration of black trade unions
1943 – Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Detroit Red Wings beat Boston Bruins, 2-0 for a 4-0 series sweep and their 3rd SC Championship
1967 – 12th Eurovision Song Contest: Sandie Shaw for United Kingdom wins singing “Puppet on a String” in Vienna
1991 – “I Hate Hamlet” opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC for 88 performances
1995 – Oliver McCall beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
Famous Birthdays
1908 – Neil Lawson, British high court judge
1928 – Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (d. 2000)
1929 – Walter Berry, Austria singer/ex husband of Christa Ludwig
1943 – Carol Lavell, Fairfax Vt, equestrian dressage (Olympic bronze 1992, 96)
1973 – Khaled Badra, Tunisian footballer
1979 – Alexi Laiho, Finnish guitarist and singer (Children of Bodom, Sinergy, Kylähullut)
Famous Deaths
1857 – Mangal Pandey, Indian Sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (B.N.I.) regiment of the British East India Company, hanged at 29
1897 – George Garrett, English composer, dies at 62
1898 – William Polk Hardeman, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 81
1986 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese idol singer, dies at 18
1996 – Charles Donald Adams, singer, dies at 67
1996 – Basil Hembry, farmer/campaigner, dies at 80
Famous Deaths for 7th April 2020
30 – Jesus Christ is crucified, according to astronomer Schaefer
1719 – Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French priest and saint of the Catholic Church, dies at 67
1850 – William Lisle Bowles, English poet (14 Sonnets), dies at 87
1868 – Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and Father of Confederation, dies at 42
1900 – Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River Sch), dies at 73
1943 – Jovan Ducic, Serbian poet (Blue Legends), dies at 72
1971 – Charles F Pahud de Mortanges, (Olympic gold 1928, 32), dies at 74
1989 – Alberto Morin, Puerto Rican actor (Two Mules for Sister Sara, Rio Grande), dies at 86
1994 – Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda (1993-94) and one of the 1st female political figures in Africa, assassinated by the presidential guard in the opening stages of the Rwandan Genocide at 40
1998 – Broery Marantika, Indonesian singer
Historical Events for 7th April 2020
1625 – Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed German supreme commander
1890 – Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal, Japan
1906 – The world’s 1st animated cartoon “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” by J. Stuart Blackton is released
1943 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg
1946 – 10th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: American Herman Keiser wins his only major title, 1 stroke ahead of tour money-leader Ben Hogan; first Masters in 4 years because of World War II
1977 – German Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.
1991 – Compton Gamma Ray Observatory orbits Earth
1996 – Pakistan beat Sri Lanka to win Singer Cup in Singapore
2012 – Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi
2017 – US President Donald Trump orders missile strike on Syrian airfield after chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun
Today in History for 7th April 2020
Historical Events
1625 – Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed German supreme commander
1923 – Workers Party of America (NYC) becomes official communist party
1944 – World War II: General Montgomery speaks to generals at St. Paul’s School about his vision for the upcoming D-Day landings
1965 – Bevan Congdon makes a stumping as 12th man NZ v Pakistan
1980 – Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis
1987 – Al Campanis, Dodger executive for more than 40 years, resigns, after making racial remarks on “Nightline”
Famous Birthdays
1897 – Walter Winchell, Harlem newscaster/columnist (Untouchables), born in NYC, New York
1926 – Johannes Rood, Dutch immunologist (Eurotransplant)
1939 – Gary Kellgren, American music producer who cofounded The Record Plant studios, born in Shenandoah, Iowa (d. 1977)
1956 – Christopher Darden, American O.J. Simpson prosecutor
1963 – Jaime de Marichalar, duke of Lugo, Spanish royalty
1972 – Shana Williams, Bridgeton NJ, long jumper/heptathlete
Famous Deaths
1789 – Peter Camper, anatomist/animal scholar, dies at 66
1789 – Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)
1877 – Errico Petrella, Italian composer, dies at 63
1880 – Isaac M. St. John, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 52
1987 – Maxine Sullivan [Marietta Williams], American jazz vocalist and performer (Going Places), dies following a seizure at 75
1996 – John Evan “Jasper” Weston-Davies [pen name Berkley Mather], English writer, dies at 87
Famous Deaths for 6th April 2020
912 – Nottker “the Stamelaar”, benedictine monk/poet, dies at about 71
1605 – John Stow, English historian (Survey of London), dies
1655 – David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1591)
1953 – Whirlaway, American thoroughbred racehorse (Triple Crown 1941), dies at 15
1963 – Otto Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1897)
1974 – Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and businessman (b.1895)
1986 – Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-born Italian soccer winger (13 caps Argentina, 35 Italy; Independiente, Juventus), dies at 84
1991 – Bill Ponsford, cricketer (Test avg 48 22, 1st-class avg 65 18), dies
1995 – Vieno J Sukselainen, Prime Minister of Finland (1959-61), dies
2007 – Luigi Comencini, Italian film director (L’imperatore di Capri), dies at 90
Historical Events for 6th April 2020
1886 – City of Vancouver BC incorporated
1909 – North Pole reached by Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson
1912 – Electric starter 1st appeared in cars
1936 – 3rd Augusta National Invitation Tournament (Masters) Golf: Horton Smith wins his second Masters, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Harry Cooper, with defending champion Gene Sarazen 3rd
1941 – Italian forces holding Addis Ababa surrender to British and Ethiopian forces
1952 – 16th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Sam Snead wins his second green jacket by 4 strokes over Jack Burke Jr
1982 – Largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Minnesota 52,279
1986 – Nabisco Dinah Shore Women’s Golf, Mission Hills CC: Pat Bradley wins the 4th of her 6 major titles, 2 strokes ahead of runner-up Val Skinner
1994 – Palestinian suicide bomber kills 7 Israelis and himself
1994 – Rwandan Genocide begins with the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira with their plane being shot down by surface-to-air missiles, abruptly ending peace negotiations. Those responsible have never been identified.
Today in History for 6th April 2020
Historical Events
1782 – Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Siam (modern day Thailand), who is overthrown in a coup d’état
1909 – 1st credit union forms in US
1941 – 8th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Craig Wood wins his first major title, 3 strokes ahead of runner-up Byron Nelson; Masters’ first wire-to-wire champion
1958 – 22nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Arnold Palmer wins the first of his 4 Masters titles, 1 stroke ahead of Doug Ford and Fred Hawkins; first of his 7 major titles
1965 – Intelsat 1 (“Early Bird”) 1st commercial geosynchronous communications satellite launched
1972 – The Scarman Tribunal Report, an inquiry into the causes of violence during the summer of 1969 in N Ireland, is published, finding that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been seriously at fault
Famous Birthdays
1815 – Friedrich Robert Volkmann, German composer, born in Lommatzsch, Saxony (d. 1883)
1819 – Johann A H Scheler, Belgian librarian
1892 – Lowell Thomas, Woodington Ohio, newscaster (High Adventure)
1902 – Veniamin Kaverin, Russian writer (d. 1989)
1940 – Donald Myrick, American saxophonist (“If Leaving Me Is Easy, One More Night), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1993)
1988 – Fabrice Muamba, Anglo-Congolese footballer
Famous Deaths
912 – Nottker “the Stamelaar”, benedictine monk/poet, dies at about 71
1605 – John Stow, English historian (Survey of London), dies
1975 – Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (1928-1975), dies at 87
1985 – Mark Lothar, German composer (The Story of the Lazy Bear), dies at 82
1993 – Divya Bharati, “Baby Doll” Indian Bollywood actress (Diwana), dies at 19 by mysteriously falling from her husband’s apartment
1996 – Greer Garson, British actress (Goodbye Mr Chips, Mrs Miniver), dies at 92
Famous Deaths for 5th April 2020
1693 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (Grand Mademoiselle), dies at 65
1717 – Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
1732 – Johann Christian Schieferdecker, German composer, dies at 52
1765 – Edward Young, English poet (Love of Fame), dies at 81
1939 – William Cooper, cricketer (two Tests for Australia 1882-84), dies
1954 – Claude Delvincourt, composer, dies at 66
1981 – Bob “Bear” Hite, rocker (Canned Heat), dies of a heart attack at 36
1984 – Theo Koomen, Dutch sportscaster, dies in auto-accident at 54
1994 – Aubrey Joseph Watson Sr., bishop, dies at 65
2005 – Debralee Scott, American actress (Cathy-Mary Hartman, Angie), dies at 52