What Happened in April 1894

Historical Events

  • Apr 5 11 strikers killed in riot at Connellsville, Penn
  • Apr 5 Start of Sherlock Holmes' "Adventure of Empty House" (BG)
  • Apr 9 1st performance of Anton Bruckner's 5th Symphony in B in Graz
  • Apr 12 British & Belgian secret accord on dividing Central Africa

Event of interestEvent of Interest

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

Inventor Thomas Edison
Inventor
Thomas Edison
  • Apr 19 Jules Massenet's opera "Werther" premieres in NYC
  • Apr 20 136,000 mine workers strike in Ohio for pay increase

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Apr 21 George Bernard Shaw's "Arms & the Man" premieres in London

Playwright George Bernard Shaw
Playwright
George Bernard Shaw
  • Apr 24 French cyclist Henri Desgrange rides 100km in world record 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

Famous Birthdays

  • 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 Supercentarian
  • Apr 7 Gerald Brenan, English writer
  • Apr 9 Ernest Kanitz, Austrian-American composer, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1978)
  • 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 13 Ludvig Irgens-Jensen, Norwegian composer, born in Oslo, Norway (d. 1969)
  • Apr 15 Bessie Smith, American blues singer nicknamed the "Empress of Blues" (over 200 songs), born in Chattanooga, Tennessee (d. 1937)

Person of interestNikita Khrushchev

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

Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet First Secretary
Nikita Khrushchev
  • 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)

Person of interestRudolf Hess

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

Nazi leader Rudolf Hess
Nazi leader
Rudolf Hess
  • Apr 27 Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-American composer, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1995)
  • Apr 27 George Petty, American pin-up artist, born in Abbeville, Louisiana (d. 1975)

Famous Deaths

  • 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