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
Category: Historical Events
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
Historical Events for 19th April 2025
1619 – Theatrum Anatomicum opens in Amsterdam
1861 – Baltimore riots – 4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed
1943 – 47th Boston Marathon won by Gerard Cote of Canada in 2:28:25.8; his 2nd of 4 wins in the event
1947 – Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario: Toronto Maple Leafs edge Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 for a 4-2 series win; first all-Canadian final since 1935
1966 – In 1st regular season game at Anaheim Stadium, Angels lose 3-1 to Chic
1970 – “Look to the Lilies” closes at Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 25 performances
1972 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1991 – Greyhound Bus posts $195 million loss for 1990
1997 – NFL Draft: Ohio State offensive tackle Orlando Pace first pick by St. Louis Rams
Historical Events for 18th April 2025
1899 – John McGraw, at 26, has his managerial debut as Oriole manager
1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1946 – International Court of Justice opens at The Hague Netherlands
1947 – “New Orleans”, an American musical romance film premieres; Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, in her only feature film, play supporting roles
1950 – 1st opening night-game, Cards beat Pirates, 4-2
1970 – France beats England, 35-13 at Stade Colombes, Paris to earn a share of the Five Nations Rugby Championship with Wales
1993 – Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: American Tom Wargo pars second playoff hole to beat Bruce Crampton of Australia and take his first and only major title
2020 – Canada’s worst modern mass shooting as a gunman kills 18 people, including a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, across Nova Scotia
2024 – United States vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution recognising Palestine as a state with the UK and Switzerland abstaining
2024 – Fossil evidence of the largest known snake 11-15 meters long named Vasuki indicus, 66 million years old, published from a mine in Panandhro, western India
Historical Events for 17th April 2025
1875 – Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India
1922 – 26th Boston Marathon won by Clarence DeMar in race record 2:18:10; his 2nd race victory; first of 3 consecutive wins
1927 – Japan’s Wakarsoeki government falls, Baron Tanaka becomes premier
1935 – Provincial-National elections (Musserts NSB achieves 7.9%, 44 chairs)
1942 – POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein
1981 – Carl Gottlieb’s movie “Caveman”, starring Ringo Starr, Shelley Long, Barbara Bach, Dennis Quaid, Jack Gilford, and John Matuszak premieres
1991 – Railroad workers go on strike in US
1999 – NFL Draft: University of Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch first pick by Cleveland Browns
2001 – A letter between Gale Norton and Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction 6 million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico
2023 – New Research shows the Great Pacific Garbage Patch now has coast creatures living and breeding in it, including jellyfish, sponges and worms raising concerns about the spread of invasive species