Events in History
- Apr 1 Japanese troops conquer Jessami, Eastern India
- Apr 2 Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party returns to Italy from the Soviet Union
- Apr 2 Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania
- Apr 3 British dive bombers attack battle cruiser Tirpitz
- Apr 3 US Supreme Court (Smith v Allwright) "white primaries" unconstitutional
- Apr 4 British troops capture Addis Ababa Ethiopia
- Apr 4 De Gaulle forms new regime in exile, with communists
- Apr 4 Allied Bucharest bombings targeting railroads kills 5,000
- Apr 5 140 Lancasters bomb aircraft factory in Toulouse
- Apr 5 World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans
- Apr 6 Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain, France, overrun by Nazis
D-Day
Apr 7 World War II: General Montgomery speaks to generals at St. Paul's School about his vision for the upcoming D-Day landings
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Event of Interest
Apr 12 Lillian Hellman's "Searching Wind" premieres in NYC

Lillian Hellman
- Apr 13 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
- Apr 13 Transport #71 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- Apr 13 Diplomatic relations are established between New Zealand and the Soviet Union
- Apr 14 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz
- Apr 14 Freighter "Fort Stikene" explodes in Bombay India, killing 1,376
Event of Interest
Apr 14 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
Apr 22 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini meet at Salzburg

Benito Mussolini

Adolf Hitler
Meeting of Interest
Apr 28 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meets Polish-American priest Stanislaus Orlemanski in Moscow to discuss religion and the future of post-war Poland

Joseph Stalin
- Apr 28 Exercise "Tiger" ends with 750 US soldiers dead in D-Day rehearsal after their convoy ships were attacked by German torpedo boats off Slapton Sands, Devon.
- Apr 29 Raid by Dutch Resistance on the National Printing Office in The Hague to procure 10,000 Dutch identity cards.
- Apr 30 NY Giant Phil Weintraub gets 11 RBIs
Birthdays in History
- Apr 4 Magda Aelvoet, Belgian politician (Greens), born in Steenokkerzeel, Belgium
- Apr 5 Ann Maxwell, American sci-fi author (Jaws of Menx), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Apr 5 James Buckley, CEO (Baltic Exchange)
- Apr 5 Peter T. King, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from New York, born in Manhattan, New York
- Apr 5 Pedro Rosselló, Puerto Rican politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Puerto Rico, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Apr 6 John Stax, rocker (Pretty Things-Don't Bring Me Down)
- Apr 7 Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
- Apr 8 Anthony Farrar Hockley, military historian
- Apr 8 Christoph Hein, writer
- Apr 8 Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter
- Apr 11 R. J. B Knight, British deputy director (National Maritime Museum)
- Apr 12 Lisa Jardine, British historian and writer, born in Oxford, England (d. 2015)
- Apr 13 Charles Burnett, American director (When it Rains, Glass Shield), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi
- Apr 13 Susan Davis, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Apr 15 Dzhokhar Dudayev, separatist leader and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1991), born in Yalkhori, Chechen-Ingush (d. 1996)
Robert Hanssen
Apr 18 Robert Hanssen, American FBI agent and Soviet spy, born in Chicago, Illinois

Robert Hanssen
- Apr 19 James Heckman, American economist (Nobel Prize 2000), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Apr 22 Steve Fossett, American adventurer (1st person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon), born in Jackson, Tennessee (disappeared 2007)
- Apr 26 David O'Brien Martin, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in St. Lawrence Co., New York
- Apr 26 Amien Rais, Indonesian politician (leader of Muhammadiyah 1995-2000), born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies
- Apr 27 Michael Fish, British TV weatherman, born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England
- Apr 28 Elizabeth LeCompte, American theater director (founding member of The Wooster Group), born in New Jersey
- Apr 28 Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
- Apr 28 Alice Waters, American chef
- Apr 29 Benedikte, Danish princess/daughter of Frederik IX
- Apr 30 Richard Shoff, American rocker (Sandpipers), born in Seattle
Deaths in History
- Apr 4 John Peale Bishop, American poet (Undertaker's Garland), dies at 51
- Apr 5 Isolde Kurz, German writer/poetess (Meine Mutter), dies at 90
- Apr 9 Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (b. 1920)
- Apr 13 Paul Hazard [Paul-Gustave-Marie-Camille Hazard], French critic & literature historian, dies at 65
- Apr 15 Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher (The Doctrine of Fascism), dies at 68
- Apr 19 Tommy Hitchcock, polo player (Westchester Cup 1924, 27), dies at 44
- Apr 24 William Stephens, U.S. political figure (b. 1859)
- Apr 28 Frank Knox, American politician, dies at 70
- Apr 29 Bernardino Machado, President of Portugal (1915–17, 1925–26), dies at 93
- Apr 29 Billy Bitzer, American cinematography pioneer, dies at 72
- Apr 30 Paul Poiret, French couturier, the most fashionable dress designer of pre-World War I, dies at 65