1883 – French troops under lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes occupy Bamako Senegal
1926 – Dutch Catholic Radio Broadcast (KRO) forms
1942 – Japan kills about 400 Filipino officers in Bataan
1946 – Syria gains independence from France
1953 – KFDX TV channel 3 in Wichita Falls, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 – 8th NBA Championship: Min Lakers beat Syracuse Nationals, 4 games to 3
1954 – 18th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Sam Snead wins his 3rd and final Masters by 1 stroke in an 18-hole playoff with Ben Hogan
2012 – Civilian rule in Mali is returned after Dioncounda Traore is sworn in as interim president
2012 – A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect
2016 – Breakthrough Starshot: Scientists and internet entrepreneurs, including Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg, announce interstellar project to send robot spacecraft to Alpha Centauri
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 11th April 2020
1750 – Jack Slack retains Champion of England boxing title, beats Frenchman Jean Petit in 7 rounds in Harlston, England; acknowledged as first international prize fight
1924 – 1st men’s college swimming championships begin
1941 – Germany blitzes Coventry, England
1956 – Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater in racial incident
1961 – Bob Dylan makes his 1st appearance at Folk City, Greenwich Village
1972 – Benjamin L Hooks named to FCC
1984 – Chinese troops invade Vietnam
1990 – Angels Mark Langston and Mike Witt, no-hit Seattle, 1-0
2004 – 68th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Phil Mickelson claims his first major title with a birdie on the final hole to win by 1 stroke over Ernie Els of South Africa
2016 – UN-backed ceasefire comes into effect in Yemen conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and government forces
Historical Events for 10th April 2020
1407 – Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma
1516 – 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area
1710 – The first law regulating copyright is issued in Great Britain
1816 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge recites his poem “Kubla Khan” to fellow poet Lord Byron, who persuades him to publish it
1925 – Tsaritsyn re-named Stalingrad (now Volgograd)
1954 – KRGV TV channel 5 in Weslaco, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
1968 – Ferry Wahine sinks in Wellington harbour, New Zealand on route from Lyttelton (51 killed)
1974 – Magicians Penn and Teller 1st meet
1986 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
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
Historical Events for 9th April 2020
1440 – Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark (1440-48)
1948 – Massacre at Deir Yassin.
1950 – Bob Hope’s 1st TV appearance
1950 – 14th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jimmy Demaret becomes the first 3-time Masters champion by 2 strokes ahead of Australian Jim Ferrier
1957 – Howard Hanson’s “Song of Democracy” premieres in Washington, D.C.
1965 – 1st game at Astrodome, Houston beats Yankees 2-1 in exhibition as Mickey Mantle hits 1st indoor homerun
1968 – Ralph Aberbathy elected to head So Christian Leadership Conference
1978 – 42nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: 42 year old Gary Player shoots a record-tying final round 64 (−8) to win by 1 stroke from Rod Funseth, Tom Watson and Hubert Green
1980 – Soyuz 35 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6
2013 – 37 people are killed and 850 are injured after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Iran
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
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
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.
Historical Events for 5th April 2020
456 – Saint Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop
1764 – British Parliament passes the Sugar Tax on the American colonies, introduced by Prime Minister George Grenville
1901 – Under threats from the Ottoman Turkish Government, Bulgaria is forced to arrest the leaders of the Macedonian Committee
1952 – 106th Grand National: Jockey Arthur Thompson and trainer Neville Crump combine for their second GN with Teal winning at odds of 100/7
1962 – Herb Gardner’s “Thousand Clowns” premieres in NYC
1975 – Soyuz 18A launch aborted short of orbit; cosmonauts return safely
1992 – Serbian troops begin besieging Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which would become the longest siege in modern warfare
1992 – The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Lee Trevino win his second Champions Tour major by 1 stroke from Jack Nicklaus
2005 – 24th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Baylor beats Michigan State, 84-62; Bears’ small forward Sophia Young is named Most Outstanding Player
2063 – Earth’s 1st contact with the extra-terrestrial Vulcan species in the Star Trek universe
Historical Events for 4th April 2020
1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of St. Petersburg
1900 – Assassination attempt on Prince of Wales, later British King Edward VII when shot by Jean-Baptiste Sipido in protest over Boer war
1917 – US Senate agrees (82-6) to participate in WWI
1938 – 5th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Henry Picard wins his only Masters, 2 strokes ahead of runners-up Harry Cooper and Ralph Guldahl
1958 – The CND Peace Symbol displayed in public for the first time in London
1970 – Firestone World Tournament of Champions won by Don Johnson
1990 – Security law violator Ivan Boesky is released from federal custody
1994 – Largest Opening Day crowd at Yankee Stadium, 56,706
2007 – 15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran are released by the Iranian President.
2012 – Boris Tadić, President of Serbia, resigns
Historical Events for 3rd April 2020
1721 – Robert Walpole becomes Britain’s 1st Lord of the Treasury – effective Prime Minister, although that term was never officially used (indeed, it was considered an insult) until much later
1913 – British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst sentenced to 3 years in jail
1926 – Second flight of a liquid-fueled rocket by Robert Goddard
1949 – KQW-AM in San Francisco CA changes call letters to KCBS
1955 – Baltimore Orioles pull their 1st triple play (3-6-2 vs KC Athletics)
1962 – American jockey Eddie Arcaro retires after 31 years (24,092 races)
1966 – Soviet Luna 10 completes its first orbit of the Moon
1978 – Larry King moves his radio show from Miami to Washington, D.C.
1982 – 136th Grand National: 48 year old Dick Saunders wins aboard 7/1 favourite Grittar; oldest jockey to win the event
2012 – US President Barack Obama officially secures Democratic presidential nomination