1943 – German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested by the Gestapo
1951 – China seizes the assets of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government’s requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao
1965 – Malta becomes 18th member of Council of Europe
1971 – Boeing receives contract for Mariner 10, Mercury exploration
1982 – American mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski murders pharmacist Paul Hoffman by beating him with a tire iron
1997 – MLB Kansas City Royals Chili Davis is 75th to hit 300 HRs
2005 – New Zealand’s first civil union takes place
2016 – Canadian musician Drake releases “Views”, his 4th studio album
2019 – Indonesia announces plan to relocate its capital from Jakarta due to the city sinking, according to a government minister
2023 – 72-hour ceasefire in Sudan breaks down between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, as air and artillery strikes on Khartoum resume
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 28th April 2025
1728 – 82 survivors of the Dutch ship Zeewijk sail into Batavia on a hand-built boat, ten months after being shipwrecked off the western coast of Australia
1930 – 1st night organized baseball game played in Independence, Kansas
1965 – “My Name is Barbra”, Barbra Streisand’s first television special, premieres on CBS
1965 – William F. Raborn Jr. replaces John A. McCone as 7th head of CIA
1967 – Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army and stripped of boxing title
1980 – US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigns in protest over the Iran hostage rescue attempt
1993 – Zambian national football team dies in a plane crash near Libreville, Gabon that kills 30 people
1995 – Gas explosion in South Korean metro, 103 die
2018 – Danny DeVito Day declared in Jersey for 17th November by Mayor John Moor of Asbury Park
2019 – American diver Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds a plastic bag
Historical Events for 27th April 2025
1667 – Blind and impoverished, English poet John Milton sells the copyright of “Paradise Lost” for £10
1813 – Americans under General Zebulon Pike capture York (now Toronto) from British regulars, militia and Ojibwe natives forcing a British withdrawal to Kingston; Pike is killed
1893 – Richard “King Dick” Seddon succeeds John Balance as premier of New Zealand and leader of Liberal Party
1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore (for the time being) of the United States Senate
1935 – Yanks pull a 1st inning triple-play and beat Philadelphia A’s 9-8
1959 – The last Canadian missionary leaves the People’s Republic of China.
1964 – John Lennon’s book of poetry and sketches “In His Own Write” is published in US
1972 – NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported
2017 – NFL Draft: Texas AandM defensive end Myles Garrett first pick by Cleveland Browns
2022 – SpaceX, launches its Crew Dragon capsule with four astronauts, including Jessica Watkins – becomes 1st black woman to serve extended mission on International Space Station
Historical Events for 26th April 2025
1677 – Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
1947 – Vivian Ellis and A. P. Herbert’ musical “Bless the Bride” opena at the Adelphia Theatre in London; runs for 886 performances
1971 – Turkey state of siege proclaimed
1971 – San Francisco lightship replaced by automatic buoy
1974 – Malta adopts constitution
1990 – Danny Wood of New Kids, steps on a stuffed animal and twists his ankle
1992 – Revival of Henrik Ibsen’s stage drama “The Master Builder”, directed by Tony Randall, closes at Belasco Theater, NYC, after 45 performances
1995 – Baseball season begins after lengthy strike
2012 – NFL Draft: Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck first pick by Indianapolis Colts
2019 – Waorani people of Pastaza win landmark environmental case against the Ecuadorian government to protect half a million acres of their territory in the Amazon rainforest
Historical Events for 25th April 2025
1449 – Anti-pope Felix V resigns
1684 – Patent granted for thimble
1849 – The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal’s English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1966 – Rare daylight meteor observed from New Jersey, US to Quebec, Canada in the early evening
1970 – Lance Mulcahy and Paul Cherry’s musical “Park” closes at John Golden Theater, NYC, after 5 performances
1976 – Portugal adopts new constitution
1988 – American news program “Nightline” goes on location to Jerusalem Israel
1990 – Hubble space telescope is placed into orbit by space shuttle Discovery
2009 – Elijah Wood is honored with the Midnight Award by the San Francisco International Film Festival
2015 – 7.8-magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu in Nepal, killing 8000, leaving over 100,000 homeless, destroying many historic sites
Historical Events for 24th April 2025
1942 – 2nd night Exeter bombed by German Luftwaffe
1950 – US President Harry Truman denies there are communists in the US government
1950 – Jordan formally annexes the West Bank
1954 – Australia and USSR break diplomatic relations
1959 – WICD TV channel 15 in Champaign, IL (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1982 – 150 Khomeini followers assault student dormitory in West Germany
1993 – Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by George Branham
1994 – NY Rangers sweep NY Islanders in NHL playoffs
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and takes the name Pope Benedict XVI
2024 – Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser”, previously though lost, sells for a record Austrian auction price of 30 million euros
Historical Events for 23rd April 2025
1795 – William Hastings acquitted in England of high treason
1962 – Ranger 4, 1st US satellite to reach Moon launched from Cape Canaveral
1964 – Houston Colt 45s Ken Johnson becomes 1st major league pitcher to lose a 9 inning no-hitter, Reds win 1-0
1965 – American composer Randall Thompson marks his retirement from the Harvard faculty conducting the debut of his orchestrated arrangement of “Frostiana: Seven Country Songs” with the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society singing poetry of Robert Frost
1965 – Launch of 1st Soviet communications satellite
1969 – The Unionist Parliamentary Party votes by 28 to 22 to introduce universal adult suffrage in local government elections in Northern Ireland; the demand for ‘one man, one vote’ had been one of the most powerful slogans of the civil rights movement
1985 – Brooklyn College soccer team wins Nepal’s invitational
1991 – USSR grants republics right to secede under certain conditions
2012 – Rangers F.C. owner, Craig Whyte, is banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football
2024 – Details of ancient Greek philosopher Plato’s last night and burial place revealed by deciphering a carbonized scroll from Herculaneum, using new technologies including AI
Historical Events for 22nd April 2025
1453 – Ottoman Turks transport their first ships overland into the Golden Horn, bypassing the chain barrier protecting Constantinople
1793 – President Washington attends opening of Rickett’s, 1st circus in US
1954 – USSR joins UNESCO
1959 – Chicago White Sox beat KC Athletics 20-6, in 1 inning Sox score 11 runs on 1 hit, 10 walks, and 3 errors
1981 – MLB Los Angeles Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela tosses his 3rd shutout in 4 starts
1984 – CBS premiere of TV film “Pope John Paul II”, starring Albert Finney in title role
2006 – Nepali security forces open fire on Pro-democracy protesters demonstrating against King Gyanendra, injuring hundreds. The protesters go on to secure the restoration of Parliament and a federal state.
2012 – TV political comedy “Veep” created by Armando Iannucci, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Anna Chlumsky premieres on HBO
2014 – David Moyes is sacked as manager of Manchester United
2024 – Britain’s Parliament approves a controversial bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
Historical Events for 21st April 2025
1863 – Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, enters the garden of Rivden near Baghdad. He makes his declaration as a Messenger of God during the 12 days he spends there.
1954 – USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
1958 – 62nd Boston Marathon won by Franjo Mihalić of Yugoslavia in 2:25:54
1961 – French army revolts in Algeria
1962 – 9th National Film Awards (India): “Bhagini Nivedita” wins the Golden Lotus
1972 – John Young and Charles Duke explore the moon as part of NASA mission Apollo 16
1977 – Billy Martin pulls Yankee line-up out of a hat, beats Blue Jays 8-6
1984 – Centers for Disease Cont says virus discovered in France causes AIDS
1988 – Barbra Streisand records “You’ll Never Know”
1991 – Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: Jack Nicklaus wins his 4th of 8 Champions Tour majors by 6 strokes from Bruce Crampton of Australia
Historical Events for 20th April 2025
1290 – Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king
1884 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical “On Freemasonry”
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day
1920 – Phillies manager Gravvy Cravath puts himself in as pinch hitter, his 3- run homer beats NY Giants 3-0
1935 – “Your Hit Parade” begins broadcasting (becomes #1 quickly)
1986 – Michael Jordan sets NBA playoff record with 63 points in a game
1993 – Mercury Nashville Records releases “Shania Twain”, the debut studio album by Shania Twain
1997 – Mark McGwire is 4th to HR on Detroit Tiger left field roof (others are Frank Howard, Harmon Killibrew, and Cecil Fielder)
2021 – Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in a case that prompted huge nationwide racial justice protests
2023 – Colombian President Gustavo Petro meets with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington