Events in History
Historic Event
Apr 4 French General Charles de Gaulle forms new regime in exile, with communists
Historic Event
Apr 12 Lillian Hellman's "Searching Wind" premieres in NYC
- Apr 13 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
Historic Event
Apr 14 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force
Historic Event
Apr 22 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini meet at Salzburg
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
- 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 7 Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
- Apr 8 Christoph Hein, German writer and translator, born in Heinzendorf, Germany
- 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 film director (When It Rains; Glass Shield), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi
Robert Hanssen
Apr 18 Robert Hanssen, American FBI agent and Soviet spy, born in Chicago, Illinois
- 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 and second daughter of Frederick IX, born in Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 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, French critic and 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 (Republican VP candidate 1936), newspaper editor and Secretary of the Navy during World War II, 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