April 8

April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). There are 267 days remaining in the year.

Events

• 217 Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus
• 1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
• 1742 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah, in Dublin.
• 1767 – Ayutthaya kingdom fell to Burmese invaders.
• 1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
• 1832 – Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield – Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
• 1893 – First recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania when the Geneva College Covenanters defeated the New Brighton YMCA.
• 1899 – Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
• 1904 – France and the United Kingdom sign the Entente cordiale.
• 1904 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• 1910 – The Los Angeles Motordome opened near Playa del Rey, California.
• 1913 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators.
• 1916 – In Corona, California, auto racer Bob Burman crashed through a crowd barrier at the last Boulevard Race, killing himself, his mechanic and a track policeman, and badly injuring five spectators.
• 1918 – World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York, New York's financial district.
• 1929 – Indian Independence Movement At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts, and bombs in a corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest.
• 1935 – The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
• 1942 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad – Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
• 1945 – At the POW camp at Flossenbürg, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged.
• 1952 – In a radio address to the nation from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the United States in order to prevent a nationwide strike.
• 1953 – Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
• 1967 – In Vienna, Austria, Sandie Shaw wins the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Puppet on a String".
• 1971 – a 6 pound meteorite struck the home of Robert and Wanda Donahue in Wethersfield, Connecticut
• 1974 – At the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron breaks baseball great's Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.
• 1975 – Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians manages his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
• 1975  – Vietnam War: After spending a week in South Vietnam, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand gives a report to the U.S. Congress that South Vietnam will fall without additional military aid.
• 1985 – Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
• 1986 – Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California receiving 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election).
• 1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
• 1989 – South Africa In Johannesburg, the Progressive Federal Party, Independent party, National Democratic Movement and the force of "Ontevrede Afrikaners" or dissatisfied Afrikaners merged to form the Democratic Party.
• 1990 – Twin Peaks premieres.
• 1992 – Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces to the world that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
• 1994 – Body of Kurt Cobain discovered in his Washington home.
• 2000 – A U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey crashes during landing at Marana, Arizona killing 19.
• 2002 – Ed McMahon files a US$20 million lawsuit against his insurance company and others regarding a toxic mold infecting McMahon's Beverly Hills, California home.
• 2004 – Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
• 2005 – Funeral of Pope John Paul II

Births

• 563 BC – Gautama Buddha, religious leader (d. 483 BC)
• 1320 – King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
• 1842 – Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer
• 1859 – Edmund Husserl, philosopher (d. 1938)
• 1865 – Charles W. Woodworth, Entomologist (d. 1940)
• 1868 – King Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
• 1872 – Ivan Bloch, physician (d. 1922)
• 1874 – Stanisław Taczak, Polish general, commander-in-chief of the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) against the Germans (d.1960)
• 1875 – King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
• 1889 – Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
• 1892 – Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder (d. 1979)
• 1905 – Helen Joseph, SA anti-apartheid activist (d. 1992)
• 1910 – George Musso, American football player (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Emil Cioran, philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist, 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1997)
• 1912 – Sonja Henie, Olympic and World Champion figure skater (d. 1969)
• 1912 – Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi (date of death unknown)
• 1914 – María Félix, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
• 1918 – Betty Ford, former First Lady of the United States
• 1919 – Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• 1919 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1921 – Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
• 1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (d. 1997)
• 1926 – Jürgen Moltmann, theologian
• 1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian
• 1928 – John Gavin, actor
• 1928 – Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin (d. 2000)
• 1929 – Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (d. 2000)
• 1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer and composer (d. 1978)
• 1933 – Fred Ebb, composer (d. 2004)
• 1938 – Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General
• 1940 – John Havlicek, basketball star
• 1941 – Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
• 1943 – Miller Farr, American football player
• 1943 – Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, theater director (d. 1987)
• 1946 – Catfish Hunter, baseball pitcher
• 1946 – Tim Thomerson, American actor
• 1947 – Tom DeLay, American politician
• 1949 – John Madden, director
• 1954 – Gary Carter, baseball catcher
• 1955 – Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
• 1960 – John Schneider, actor
• 1963 – Julian Lennon, musician and singer
• 1966 – Robin Wright Penn, actress
• 1968 – Patricia Arquette, actress
• 1977 – Mark Spencer, computer programmer
• 1980 – Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
• 1982 – Judy Star, pornographic film actress
• 1984 – Taran Noah Smith, actor

Deaths

• 217 – Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 186)
• 956 – Gilbert of Chalon, Duke of Burgundy
• 1143 – John II Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1087)
• 1364 – King John II of France (b. 1319)
• 1492 – Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of the Florentine Republic (b. 1449)
• 1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
• 1920 – Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884)
• 1936 – Robert Bárány, Nobel Prize recipient in medicine (b. 1876)
• 1938 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (b. 1885)
• 1950 – Vaslav Nijinsky, ballet dancer (b. 1890)
• 1973 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (b. 1881)
• 1978 – Ford Frick, baseball commissioner
• 1981 – Omar Bradley, general (b. 1893)
• 1990 – Ryan White, AIDS activist (b. 1971)
• 1993 – Marian Anderson, singer (b. 1897)
• 1996 – Ben Johnson, actor (b. 1918)
• 1997 – Laura Nyro, singer and composer (b. 1947)
• 2000 – Claire Trevor, actress (b. 1910)
• 2002 – Maria Felix, Mexican actress
• 2003 – Anita Borg, computer scientist
• 2004 – Bruce Edwards, golf caddy (b. 1954)

Holidays and observances

• Worldwide Roma Nation Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 7 – April 9 – March 8 – May 8 — listing of all days