1387 – Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” characters begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars)
1492 – Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered.
1711 – Charles VI becomes Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his brother Joseph I
1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the largest invasions of Spanish territories in America
1853 – Johan Rudolf Thorbecke’s government in the Netherlands resigns
1860 – Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight out brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw near Farnborough, England; police stop fight acknowledged as first world title bout
1961 – 33rd Academy Awards: “Apartment” wins best film, Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor win best actor, actress
1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes 1st woman to fly solo around the world
1987 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
2015 – Jazz composer and musician John Coltrane is awarded a posthumous Special Citation by the Pulitzer Prize board
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 16th April 2023
1917 – 21st Boston Marathon won by Bill Kennedy in 2:28:37.2
1918 – The British House of Commons passes a new Military Service Bill, taking men up to 55 years old and extending to Ireland
1923 – 27th Boston Marathon won by Clarence DeMar in 2:23:37.4 for second straight year; 3rd race victory
1953 – Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Boston Bruins, 1-0 for a 4-1 series win
1970 – Protestant Unionist Ian Paisley wins seat formerly held by Terence O’Neill in the Stormont (North Ireland Parliament)
1974 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1983 – Steve Garvey sets NL record by playing in 1,118 consecutive games
1984 – 88th Boston Marathon: Englishman Geoff Smith wins men’s event in 2:10:34; Lorraine Moller of New Zealand women’s champion in 2:29:28
1993 – David Lee Roth arrested in NYC for purchasing marijuana for $10
2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide.
Historical Events for 15th April 2023
1895 – Josephine Blatt (US) makes hip-and-harness lift of 3564 lb (record)
1906 – The Armenian organization AGBU is established.
1939 – Albert Lebrun elected president of France
1948 – Indian territory of Himachal Pradesh created
1960 – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), organizes at Shaw U
1968 – Houston Astros beat NY Mets, 1-0, in 24 innings at the Astrodome; starting pitchers Tom Seaver and Don Wilson pitch 10 and 9 innings respectively in game that lasts over 6 hours
1970 – WMGZ TV channel 16 in Mayaguez, PR ([M]) begins broadcasting
1992 – William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley inducted into National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
1992 – The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
2019 – Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof
Historical Events for 14th April 2023
1953 – WHYN (now WGGB) TV channel 40 in Springfield-Holyoke, MA (ABC) begins
1956 – Cole Porter’s final Broadway musical “Silk Stockings”, loosely based on the Melchior Lengyel’s “Ninotchka”, closes at the Imperial Theatre, NYC, after 478 performances
1961 – 1st live television broadcast from Soviet Union
1962 – Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France after the resignation of Michel Debré
1969 – First regular-season MLB game played outside the United States; Montreal Expos beat St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 at Parc Jarry, Montreal
1971 – US President Richard Nixon ends blockade against People’s Republic of China
1996 – 60th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Englishman Nick Faldo wins his 3rd Masters and 6th and final major title, 5 strokes ahead of Greg Norman of Australia
1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed
2012 – J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, launches her website “Pottermore”
2018 – US, UK and French forces carry out airstrikes on sites associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program, in response to Douma gas attack
Historical Events for 13th April 2023
1560 – Giovanni, son of Italian mathematician Girolamo Cardano is executed for poisoning his wife, despite his father’s efforts to save him
1741 – Dutch people protest poor quality of bread
1769 – British ship Endeavour captained by James Cook, arrives in Matavia Bay, Tahiti, with botanist Joseph Banks on board
1924 – Greek plebiscite for a republic
1944 – South Carolina rejects black suffrage
1964 – 36th Academy Awards: “Tom Jones” (Best Film), Patricia Neal (Hud) and Sidney Poitier (Lilies Of The Field) win; Poitier first Black actor in a leading role to win a competitive Oscar
1969 – Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
1970 – Apollo 13 announces “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here”, as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
1980 – US and its allies boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan
1991 – BPAA US Open by Pete Weber
Historical Events for 12th April 2023
1204 – 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople
1787 – Philadelphia’s Free African Society forms
1864 – Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, Tennessee
1909 – Philadelphia’s Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), baseball’s first steel and concrete stadium, opens; Athletics win 8-1 against Boston Red Sox
1935 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim
1938 – 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (NY)
1955 – 1st game in KC, KC A’s beat Detroit Tigers, 6-2
1966 – 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
1990 – Anime TV series “Moomin”, based on Moomin children’s books by Tove Jansson 1st appears on Tokyo TV
2022 – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologies and is fined for attending parties during COVID-19 lockdown – first premier to be sanctioned for breaking the law
Historical Events for 11th April 2023
1689 – King William III and Queen Mary II crowned as joint rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland
1909 – Establishment of Tel Aviv by Jewish settlers (named 1910)
1941 – Jewish Weekly newspaper taken control by Nazis
1941 – Germany blitzes Coventry, England
1953 – Oveta Culp Hobby becomes 1st at Health, Education, and Welfare
1959 – Dutch Prince Bernhard visits Lockheed factory
1983 – 3rd Golden Raspberry Awards: “Inchon!” wins
1991 – Space Shuttle STS 37 (Atlantis 8) lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California
2001 – Detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People’s Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter are released
2019 – Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft, the first privately-funded mission to the moon, crashes on the moon
Historical Events for 10th April 2023
1877 – Federal troops withdrawn from Columbia, SC
1896 – High jumper Ellery Clark leads an American sweep of the placings with a leap of 1.81m at the Athens Olympics; his 2nd victory of the Games after taking out the long jump
1940 – Vidkun Quisling forms Norwegian “national government”
1945 – German troops attack Ijsselbrug
1974 – American Boccaccio Association forms
1981 – France performs nuclear test
1991 – LA King Wayne Gretzky scores NHL record 93rd playoff goal
1994 – “Les Miserables” opens at Hiten Theatre, Osaka
2021 – China orders Alibaba pay a record fine of 18.2 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) after anti-trust regulations say it has been acting as a monopoly
2022 – 86th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: World #1 golfer Scottie Scheffler wins first career major title; beats Irishman Rory McIlroy by 3 strokes for record $2.7m payout
Historical Events for 9th April 2023
1691 – French troops occupy Mons
1768 – John Hancock refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies
1838 – UK National Gallery re-opens in its new dedicated building in Trafalgar Square, London
1931 – Chicago Cy Wentworth beats Montreal Canadiens at 13:50 of 6th period
1945 – Liberty ship at Bari Italy carrying aerial bombs explodes, kills 360
1988 – US imposes economic sanctions on Panama
1988 – 142nd Grand National: Irish jockey Brendan Powell wins aboard 10/1 shot Rhyme ‘n’ Reason by 4 lengths from Durham Edition
1995 – 59th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Ben Crenshaw wins his 2nd Masters title, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Davis Love III
1999 – Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, President of Niger, is assassinated at the airport in Niamey, Niger
2011 – 164th Grand National: Jason Maguire wins aboard Irish 14/1 shot Ballabriggs; first GN win for trainer Donald McCain Jr., son of 4-time winning trainer Ginger McCain
Historical Events for 8th April 2023
1232 – Mongol army under General Subedei begins the siege of Chinese Jin capital of Kaifeng – 1st occasion gunpowder used in a major engagement
1500 – Battle of Novara: King Louis XII of France defeats Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan
1866 – Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary.
1879 – Milk sold in glass bottles for 1st time
1886 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.
1935 – Béla Bartók’s 5th String quartet premieres in Washington, D.C.
1969 – Expansion teams Royals, Expos, Padres and Pilots win their 1st games
1979 – People’s Republic of China joins IOC
1985 – Amdahl releases UTS/V, 1st mainframe Unix
1990 – “Twin Peaks” created by David Lynch and starring Kyle MacLachlan premieres on ABC-TV