April 8
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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.
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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
- 1963 - Alec Stewart, English cricketer
- 1964 - Biz Markie (born Marcel Hall), rapper and DJ
- 1966 - Robin Wright Penn, actress
- 1968 - Patricia Arquette, actress
- 1977 - Mark Spencer, computer programmer
- 1980 - Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
- 1980 - Katee Sackhoff, American actress
- 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)
- 1586 - Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer and theologian (b. 1522)
- 1848 - Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
- 1920 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884)
- 1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (b. 1864)
- 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 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/8)
- Today in History: April 8 (http://www.tnl.net/when/4/8)
April 7 - April 9 - March 8 - May 8 -- listing of all days
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