- Apr 1 14th Easter Seal Telethon raises $24,600,000
- Apr 1 8 men record longest distance (13 miles) rowed in 24 hours
- Apr 1 3rd NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: USC goes back-to-back; beats Tennessee, 72-61; Cheryl Miller 2nd consecutive MOP award
PGA Players Championship
Apr 1 PGA Tournament Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: 24-year old Fred Couples finishes at 277 (-11), 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Lee Trevino
Fred Couples
Event of Interest
Apr 2 46th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Georgetown beats Houston, 84-75; Hoyas center Patrick Ewing tournament MOP; John Thompson first African-American head coach to lead his team to any NCAA Division I title
Patrick Ewing
Event of Interest
Apr 4 Winston Smith in Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" begins his secret diary in defiance of the totalitarian government of Oceania
George Orwell
- Apr 5 "Human Comedy" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 13 performances
NBA Record
Apr 5 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Apr 6 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41-C)-Challenger 5 is launched
- Apr 6 1st time 11 people in space
- Apr 6 Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
- Apr 7 Detroit Tiger Jack Morris no-hits Chicago White Sox, 4-0
- Apr 8 4th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Lonely Lady" wins
Golf Major
Apr 8 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Juli Inkster wins the first of her 7 major titles in a sudden-death playoff with Pat Bradley, with a par on the 1st extra hole
Pat Bradley
Academy Awards
Apr 9 56th Academy Awards: "Terms of Endearment", Robert Duvall & Shirley MacLaine win
Shirley MacLaine
Robert Duvall
Appointment of Interest
Apr 11 General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko named President of the Soviet Union
Konstantin Chernenko
US Masters Golf
Apr 15 48th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Ben Crenshaw wins the first of his 2 green jackets, 2 strokes ahead of 1977 & 1981 champion Tom Watson
Tom Watson
- Apr 15 Extremist Sikhs plunder 40 stations in Punjab India
- Apr 15 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Apr 16 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
- Apr 16 Oakland A's Dave Kingman hits 3 HRs including a grand slam
- Apr 16 Pulitzer prize awarded to Mary Oliver for "American Primitive"
- Apr 17 Braves pitcher Pascual Perez suspended due to cocaine usage
- Apr 17 During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, British police officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead
- Apr 18 Space Shuttle Challenger flies back to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly Air Force Base
- Apr 18 Joan Benoit runs world record female marathon (2:22:43)
- Apr 19 Nemesis, death star of dinosaurs 1st appears in print (Nature magazine)
- Apr 19 Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, with green and gold the national colors
- Apr 20 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghanistan
- Apr 21 "Nightline" reverts back from 1 hour to ½ hour
Event of Interest
Apr 21 After 37 weeks Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" is knocked off as top album by "Footloose"
Michael Jackson
Television Premiere
Apr 22 CBS premiere of TV film "Pope John Paul II", starring Albert Finney in title role
John Paul II
Event of Interest
Apr 26 President Reagan visits China
Ronald Reagan
- Apr 27 Cleveland Indians beat Detroit Tigers, 8-4, in 19 innings
- Apr 27 Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake Montana
- Apr 28 "La Tragedie de Carmen" closes at Beaumont Theater NYC after 187 performances
- Apr 29 "Oliver!" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 17 performances
- Apr 30 1,700 skiers participate in an alpine event at Are, Sweden
- Apr 30 Strong winds cause a 30 min delay in Toronto Blue Jays game