1895 – Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices
1927 – Johnny Weissmuller sets world records in both the 100m and 200m free style swimming events
1946 – 100th Grand National: Capt. Robert Petre wins aboard 25/1 shot Lovely Cottage; first true GN since 1940 due to World War II; last on a Friday
1956 – Ceylon’s Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike wins the general elections in a landslide
1965 – 37th Academy Awards: “My Fair Lady”, Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady) and Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) win
1990 – NY Rangers beat NY Islanders 2-1 in 1st game of preliminary
1994 – Miami Heat beat NY Knicks ending 15 game NBA winning streak
2012 – A three-run homer by J.P. Arencibia off Jairo Asencio gives the Toronto Blue Jays a 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians; 16 inning game duration a MLB Opening Day record
2012 – International internet group Anonymous hack several Chinese bureaus in opposition to censorship
2021 – India records over 100,000 new daily COVID cases for the first time, more than half in the state of Maharashtra, which begins a new lockdown
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 4th April 2024
1081 – Alexius I Comnenus occupies Byzantine throne
1905 – Earthquake in Kangra India, kills 20,000
1912 – Army fires on striking mine workers at Lena-gold fields in Siberia
1949 – WKRC TV channel 12 in Cincinnati, OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
1958 – The CND Peace Symbol displayed in public for the first time in London
1960 – Senegal declares independence from France
1973 – World Trade Center, then the world’s tallest building, opens in New York (110 stories). Later destroyed in 9/11 terrorist attacks.
1986 – Wayne Gretzky sets NHL record with 213th point of season
1994 – American actor Tony Curtis (68) undergoes heart-bypass surgery
2012 – Somalia’s National Theater is struck by a suicide bomber killing ten people including the presidents of the Somali Olympic Committee and Football Federation
Historical Events for 3rd April 2024
1559 – Spain and France sign 2nd Treaty of Le Cateau-Cambrésis
1856 – Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes badly damaged by gunpowder explosion, kills 4,000 on island of Rhodes
1868 – A Hawaiian surfs on highest wave ever – a 50-foot tidal wave
1925 – Netherlands and Belgium sign accord of Westerschelde
1948 – US male Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1969 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start a policy of “Vietnamization”, reducing American involvement
1986 – Maureen O’Boyle (future host of “A Current Affair”) is raped
2016 – ANA Inspiration Women’s Golf, Mission Hills CC: Lydia Ko of New Zealand wins by 1 from Charley Hull and Chun In-gee for her second major title
2019 – Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak goes on trial for the 1MDB corruption scandal in Kuala Lumpur, pleads not guilty
2022 – Return engagement of David Byrne’s musical revue “American Utopia” closes at St. James Theatre, NYC, after 134 performances
Historical Events for 2nd April 2024
1877 – 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
1917 – Jeannette Rankin (Rep-R-Montana) begins her term as 1st woman member of US House of Reps
1932 – “Tarzan the Ape Man” released starring Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the first of his 12 Tarzan films
1944 – Dmitri Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony premieres in NY
1960 – Cuba buys oil from USSR
1993 – 1st test flight of Fokker 70 (Amsterdam)
1996 – Vancouver Grizzlies beat Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-103 at General Motors Place Arena to end their NBA single-season record 23-game consecutive loss streak
2017 – 36th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: South Carolina defeats Mississippi State, 67-55; Gamecocks power forward A’ja Wilson, 23 points
2019 – NASA states it wants to send astronauts to Mars by 2033, and land on the Moon again in 2024
2020 – Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro downplays the COVID-19 pandemic saying “its not all its being made out to be”
Historical Events for 1st April 2024
1862 – Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson’s Battle of Woodstock, Virginia
1905 – British East African Protectorate becomes colony of Kenya
1931 – Earthquake devastate Managua Nicaragua, kills 2,000
1934 – Clyde Barrow kills two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at the intersection of Route 114 near Grapevine, Texas. Bonnie Parker’s role in the murders helps turn public perception against the gang for good
1948 – “Big Bang” theory proposed in scientific journal “Physical Review” by American cosmologists Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow
1957 – Trial begins in Budapest against participants of the Hungarian Uprising of October 1956
1976 – Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S..
1983 – Anti-nuclear demonstrators link arms in 14-mile human chain in England
1999 – Philadelphia 76ers head coach Larry Brown wins his 900th pro game with an 88-84 win over Miami Heat; Brown record: 671-547 NBA, 229-107 ABA, combined 900-654
2009 – Croatia and Albania join NATO
Historical Events for 31st March 2024
1877 – The family with samurai antecedents who responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu rebels.
1940 – Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956)
1945 – 3rd Algerian division crosses the Rhine
1955 – Merger of Chase National Bank (3rd largest bank) and Bank of the Manhattan Company (15th largest bank) forms Chase Manhattan
1969 – George Harrison and Pattie Boyd are fined £250 each for illegal drugs
1988 – Pulitzer prize awarded to Toni Morrison for her novel “Beloved”
1994 – Actor James Farentino pleads no contest to stalking ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra
1995 – Second time in tennis history, world #1 and #2 ranked players play in the same Davis Cup team; Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi score victories in US quarter-final win against Italy in Palermo
1995 – Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of US District Court in NYC issues an injunction against Major League Baseball owners in move that effectively ends 232-day strike
2012 – Fiji Floods kill 2 people and force thousands to be evacuated
Historical Events for 30th March 2024
1822 – Congress combines East and West Florida into Florida Territory
1865 – -4] Battle at 5 Forks, Virginia
1910 – Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi
1923 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority formed at Howard U in 1920 incorporates
1939 – Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph
1963 – 117th Grand National: 19-year old jockey Pat Buckley aboard 66/1 outsider Ayala wins by 3/4 of a length from Carrickbeg
1972 – North Vietnam launches a major conventional offensive against South Vietnam
1972 – Revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical-comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, starring Phil Silvers, opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC; runs for 156 performances and wins 2 Tony Awards
2008 – WrestleMania XXIV, Florida Citrus Bowl, Orlando, FL: Kane defeats Chavo Guerrero; Randy Orton beats Triple H and John Cena in a title Triple Threat match; The Undertaker downs Edge
2022 – State memorial service held for Australian cricketing great Shane Warne at Melbourne Cricket Ground, attended by 50,000
Historical Events for 29th March 2024
1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway
1852 – Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day
1867 – US Congress first approves building of Lincoln Memorial
1912 – Captain Robert Falcon Scott, storm-bound in a tent near the South Pole, makes last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”
1960 – Darius Milhaud’s 9th Symphony, premieres
1982 – 54th Academy Awards: “Chariots of Fire”, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn win
1992 – Ice Dance Championship in Oakland, California won by Klimova and Ponomarenko (CIS)
1993 – Actress Elizabeth Taylor presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her AIDS/HIV activism at 65th Academy Awards
1996 – NY Yankees beats NY Mets 7-3 in an exhibition game
2015 – WrestleMania XXXI, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA (76,976): Seth Rollins beats Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns in impromptu triple threat match to capture WWE Heavyweight title
Historical Events for 28th March 2024
1860 – First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins in New Zealand
1957 – 1st National Curling Championship held
1979 – British government of Prime Minister Jim Callaghan (Labour Party) falls
1982 – JN Duartes’ Christian Democrats win elections in El Salvador
1990 – Michael Jordan scores 69 points, 4th time he scores 60 pts in a game
1997 – “City” soap opera’s final episode on ABC-TV
2009 – The first cases of H1N1 swine flu in the United States occur in two people in California
2014 – Russia increases the price of gas to Ukraine by 80%
2019 – European parliament bans single-use plastics, including cutlery and straws by 2021
2022 – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs so called “Don’t Say Gay” bill limiting LGBTQ classroom instruction
Historical Events for 27th March 2024
1668 – English King Charles II grants Royal Charter giving control of Bombay, India to the English East India Company
1936 – 95th Grand National: Fulke Walwyn scores back-to-back GN victories aboard Reynoldstown at 10/1
1953 – 21 die in a train crash in Conneaut, Ohio
1964 – The Great Alaska Earthquake (9.2 magnitude) and resulting tsunami kill 139 people in the largest US earthquake and second largest ever recorded
1972 – Ulster Vanguard organise industrial strike against the imposition of direct rule on Northern Ireland by Westminster
1972 – Venera 8 launches to explore Venus
1991 – New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, arrested on arson charges in Kentucky
1994 – Nabisco Dinah Shore Women’s Golf, Mission Hills CC: Donna Andrews wins her only major title by 1 over British runner-up Laura Davies; Andrews birdies final hole while Davies makes bogey.
2019 – US Special Council Robert S. Mueller writes a letter to US Attorney William Barr regarding Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report stating Barr’s letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the findings. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
2023 – At least 40 people are killed and 28 injured in a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican US border, amid large numbers of migrants gathering on the Mexican border