What Happened in April 1894

Historical Events

Apr 9 1st performance of Anton Bruckner's 5th Symphony in B in Graz

Apr 14 1st public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope (moving pictures)

Apr 19 Jules Massenet's opera "Werther" premieres in NYC

Apr 21 George Bernard Shaw's play "Arms and the Man" premieres in London becoming his first public success

Apr 22 The very first Venice Biennale opens in Venice, Italy, as a biennial exhibition of Italian art [1]

Apr 24 French cyclist Henri Desgrange rides 100km in a world record time of 2:39:18

Apr 24 Phillies Lave Cross hits for cycle vs Bkln Dodgers
Apr 29 The 500-strong Commonwealth of Christ (Coxey's Army) arrives in Washington, D.C., to protest against unemployment; Coxey arrested for trespassing at Capitol

Apr 2 Rudolph Cleveringa, Dutch anti-nazi lawyer and professor of Law at Leiden University, born in Appingedam, Netherlands (d. 1980)
Apr 2 Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer (Swiss Air), born in St. Gallen, Switzerland (d. 1937)
Apr 6 Gertrude Baines, American supercentenarian who was the oldest person in the world and the last person known to be born in 1894, born in Shellman, Georgia (d. 2009)
Apr 7 Gerald Brenan, English writer
Apr 9 Ernest Kanitz, Austrian-American composer, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1978)
Apr 9 Edmund Jenkins, American clarinetist and composer (Charlestonia; Afram), born Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1926) [1]
Apr 10 Ben Nicholson, English painter and sculptor (Circle), born in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England (d. 1982)
Apr 10 Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator, born in Pilani, Rajputana, India (d. 1983)
Apr 12 Francisco Craveiro Lopes, 12th President of Portugal (1951-58), born in Lisbon, Portugal (d. 1964)
Apr 12 Fred Barratt, English cricket fast bowler (5 Tests, 5 wickets; Nottinghamshire), born in Annesley, England (d. 1947)
Apr 13 Ludvig Irgens-Jensen, Norwegian composer, born in Oslo, Norway (d. 1969)

Apr 15 Bessie Smith, American blues singer known as the "Empress of the Blues" (recorded over 200 songs), born in Chattanooga, Tennessee (d. 1937)

Apr 15 Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953-64), born in Kalinovka, Russia (d. 1971)

Apr 20 Martinus Nijhoff, Dutch poet and linguistic (spelling), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1953)
Apr 23 Basil Sydney, British actor (Hamlet, Jassy, Simba, Farmer's Wife), born in St. Osyth, Essex, England (d. 1968)
Apr 23 George Renevant [Georges de Cheux], French actor (Moulin Rouge, Scotland Yard, Comrade X), born in Paris, France (d. 1969)
Apr 23 Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport, American boogie-woogie and blues musician, born in Anniston, Alabama (d. 1955)

Apr 26 Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941), born in Alexandria, Egypt (d. 1987)

Apr 27 Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-American, pianist, conductor, musicologist (Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns; Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians), and composer, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1995)
Apr 27 George Petty, American pin-up artist, born in Abbeville, Louisiana (d. 1975)

Apr 8 Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Indian novelist (Mrinalini, Anandamath), dies at 55
Apr 11 Constantin Lipsius, German architect (b. 1832)
Apr 14 Adolf Friedrich von Schack, German poet, dies at 78