1869 – North Carolina legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan Law
1931 – Spanish voters reject the monarchy
1946 – LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her first major title by 2 strokes from Eileen Stulb
1955 – Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be ‘safe and effective’ and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
1957 – Jim Spalding set a 2,088 pin nine-game bowling record
1961 – Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into space and orbit Earth, aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft
1975 – Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
1980 – Milwaukee beats Boston Red Sox, 18-1 (Cooper and Money hit grand slams)
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 11th April 2026
1926 – Flemish Economic Covenant (VEV) forms in Ghent
1941 – Nazi occupiers in Netherlands confiscate Jewish assets
1952 – The Battle of Nanri island takes place.
1955 – Garfield Sobers starts run of 85 uninterrupted Test Cricket appearances for West Indies
1993 – 450 prisoners riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continue for ten days, citing grievances about prison conditions and the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis)
1996 – Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I”, starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy, premieres at Neil Simon Theater, NYC; runs for 781 performances
2021 – 74th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) held virtually: “Nomadland” best film, Chloé Zhao best director, Frances McDormand, Anthony Hopkins best acting awards
2024 – Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan sentenced to death for embezzlement, bribery and banking violations worth 304 trillion dong ($12.46 billion), the country’s largest-ever fraud case
Historical Events for 10th April 2026
1589 – Spanish troops conquer Geertruidenberg after the garrison of English and Dutch troops surrenders
1957 – Jordan’s Arabist government of Suleiman Nabulsi is forced to resign after escalating policy disputes with the royal family
1964 – Demolition begins in Upper Manhattan, New York City on Polo Grounds sports stadium (home to MLB Giants, 1891-1957, Mets, 1962-63, and NFL Jets, 1960-63) to clear way for housing project
1968 – 40th Academy Awards: “In the Heat of the Night”, Rod Steiger and Katharine Hepburn win
1979 – Soyuz 33 launched with a Russian and a Bulgarian
2005 – At 16 years, 271 days James Vaughan scores for Everton in a 4-0 win against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park; becomes youngest goalscorer in EPL history
2016 – 80th US Masters Tournament: England’s Danny Willett wins his first major title, 3 strokes ahead of Lee Westwood and defending champion Jordan Spieth
2024 – South Korea’s liberal opposition party wins landslide majority in the country’s general election – a defeat for President Yoon Suk Yeol, amid claims he was brought down by a spring onion
Historical Events for 9th April 2026
1917 – Battle of Arras begins
1973 – Otto Kerner, former governor of Illinois, convicted for his role in an illegal racetrack scheme
1980 – Los Angeles Kings tie NHL record with two shorthanded playoff goals (vs NY Islanders)
1984 – 56th Academy Awards: “Terms of Endearment”, Robert Duvall and Shirley Maclaine win
1992 – Record 18 golfers shoot in 60s in Masters round 1 (old record 12)
1992 – William O Studeman, becomes deputy director of CIA
2021 – Uganda opposition party National Unity Platform Party, headed by Bobi Wine, claims 623 people have been abducted and tortured by the government of President Yoweri Museveni
2023 – Kuwaiti media outlet, Kuwaiti News unveils virtual news presenter on Twitter speaking Arabic, using artificial intelligence (although China was the 1st in 2018)
Historical Events for 8th April 2026
1759 – British troops chase French out of Masulipatam, India
1933 – Manchester Guardian warns of unknown Nazi terror
1939 – King Zog I of Albania flees after Italy invades
1941 – In his 4th title defense in 9 weeks Joe Louis beats Tony Musto by TKO in the 9th round at the Arena, Saint Louis, Missouri to retain NYSAC heavyweight boxing crown
1972 – Alvin Kallicharran scores 100* in his 1st Test Cricket innings v NZ
1983 – In front of a live audience of 20 tourists, David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear
1989 – California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott, born without his right hand, makes MLB debut, lasting only 4 2/3 innings
2018 – 82nd US Masters Tournament: Patrick Reed wins his first major title, 1 stroke ahead of fellow American Rickie Fowler
Historical Events for 7th April 2026
1655 – Fabio Chigi replaces Pope Innocent X as Pope Alexander VII
1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St John Passion” premieres on Good Friday at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany)
1939 – Italy invades Albania
1978 – Guttenberg bible sells for $2,000,000 in New York City
1984 – Detroit Tiger Jack Morris no-hits Chicago White Sox, 4-0
1999 – The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas
2012 – Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi
2019 – Retiring NBA legends Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas) and Dwyane Wade (Miami) play their final home games, both victories; Magic Johnson sensationally quits as LA Lakers president of basketball operations; Houston Rockets convert NBA record 27 three-point field goals in 149-113 win over Phoenix
Historical Events for 6th April 2026
1634 – Heeren XIX (the directors of the Dutch West India Company) ask “to secure Eylands Curacao”
1843 – William Wordsworth is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria
1973 – Indian troops invade Sikkim
1984 – Members of Cameroon’s Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
1987 – Middleweight World Boxing Championship bout: Sugar Ray Leonard upsets Marvelous Marvin Hagler at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada
2006 – New Zealand Sign Language is made an official language of New Zealand
2014 – 49th Academy of Country Music Awards: George Strait, Jason Aldean, and Miranda Lambert win
2015 – 77th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Duke beats Wisconsin, 68-63; Blue Devils’ point guard Tyus Jones, 23 points
Historical Events for 5th April 2026
1881 – Transvaal regains independence under British suzerainty
1939 – Alexander Gretchaninov’s 5th Symphony premieres at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with Leopold Stowkowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
1949 – 60 year old St Anthony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois, catches fire, killing 77 people
1974 – Last day of Test cricket for Garfield Sobers and Rohan Kanhai
1984 – Galt MacDermot and William Dumaresq’s musical “The Human Comedy”, based on the novel by William Saroyan, opens at Royale Theater, NYC; runs for 13 performances
1992 – WrestleMania VIII, Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, IN (62,167): Hulk Hogan defeats Sid Justice by DQ; Randy Savage beats Ric Flair for WWF Heavyweight title
2004 – 66th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Georgia Tech, 82-73; Huskies’ forward Emeka Okafor named tournament Most Outstanding Player
2021 – 82nd NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Baylor Bears become second consecutive first-time NCAA champions with 86–70 over previously undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs
Historical Events for 4th April 2026
1932 – Charles G. King, University of Pittsburgh isolates Vitamin C, using adrenal samples provided by Hungarian Albert Szent-Györgyi
1945 – The Holocaust: US forces liberate the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany, the first such camp to be liberated by the US Army
1959 – Mali Federation founded, consisting of Senegal and French Sudan (dissolved 1960)
1972 – First electric power plant fueled by garbage begins operating
1988 – Largest crowd (55,438) at an MLB Opening Day game at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium; Reds win over St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 in 12 innings
1992 – 146th Grand National: 14/1 shot Party Politics, ridden by Welsh jockey Carl Llewellyn wins by 2½ lengths from Romany King
1994 – Netscape Communications founded as Mosaic Communications
1997 – Second Defense Meteorological Satellite Program weather satellite is launched aboard a Titan II rocket
Historical Events for 3rd April 2026
1882 – Wood block alarm invented, when alarm rang, it dropped 20 wood blocks
1913 – British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is sentenced to 3 years in jail for incitement to place an explosive in a building at Walton
1927 – Interstate Commerce Commission transfers Ohio to Eastern time zone
1929 – Persia agrees to the Litvinov Protocol
1930 – Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Boston Bruins, 4-3 for a 2-0 series sweep and their 3rd Championship
1957 – Soviet Union conducts atmospheric nuclear test
1984 – Soviet Soyuz T-11 launches carrying three cosmonauts, including the first Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma
2020 – London’s Nightingale hospital opened by Prince Charles (remotely) after nine days with 4,000 beds to treat COVID-19 patients at the ExCeL Centre