Events in History
- Apr 1 Royal Canadian Mint formally forms as a Crown Corporation
- Apr 1 The Hawker Siddeley Harrier (vertical take-off fighter) enters service with the RAF.
- Apr 3 Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start a policy of "Vietnamization", reducing American involvement
- Apr 4 Haskell Karp receives the 1st temporary artificial heart, implanted by surgeon Denton Cooley at Texas Heart Institute in Houston
- Apr 5 Massive anti-Vietnam War demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities
- Apr 7 Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material
- Apr 7 The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1
- Apr 9 1st flight of Concorde 002 (Filton-Bristol)
- Apr 13 Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
- Apr 14 Student Afro-American Society seized at Columbia College
- Apr 14 Tornado strikes Dacca, East Pakistan killing 540
- Apr 15 North Korea shoots at US airplane above Japanese sea
Event of Interest
Apr 17 Alexander Dubček forced to resign as first secretary of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party
- Apr 17 People's Democracy activist Bernadette Devlin becomes the youngest woman Member of Parliament ever elected to Westminster at 21 years old
Event of Interest
Apr 17 Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy
- Apr 19 Serious rioting in the Bogside area of Derry following clashes between Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marchers and Loyalists and members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- Apr 20 Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh
- Apr 21 The Ministry of Defence in London announces that British troops would be used in Northern Ireland to guard key public installations following a series of bombings
- Apr 22 1st human eye transplant performed
- Apr 22 Bernadette Devlin, the youngest woman ever to be elected to Westminster, makes a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons concerning the situation in Northern Ireland
- Apr 23 Over 1000 square miles flooded in Shantung Province, China
- Apr 23 Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for killing US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (later commuted to a life sentence)
- Apr 23 The Unionist Parliamentary Party votes by 28 to 22 to introduce universal adult suffrage in local government elections in Northern Ireland; the demand for 'one man, one vote' had been one of the most powerful slogans of the civil rights movement
- Apr 24 Car firm British Leyland launch the Austin Maxi in Oporto Portugal
- Apr 24 Lebanese army in battle with Palestinians
- Apr 24 Loyalist members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) explode a bomb at a water pipeline between Lough Neagh and Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Apr 24 Marshall Lin Biao named Mao's designated successor as the sole Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China
- Apr 24 US B-52's drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary
- Apr 25 5,400th & last episode of BBC Radio serial "The Dales" (formerly "Mrs Dale's Diary")
- Apr 26 Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won by Jim Godman
Event of Interest
Apr 28 Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France
Event of Interest
Apr 28 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill resigns and is replaced later by James Chichester-Clark
Birthdays in History
Mellody Hobson (54 years old)
Apr 3 American businesswoman (Chairman of Dreamworks Animation), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Apr 5 Rochelle Walensky, American physician and medical researcher (Director of the CDC 2021-2023), born in Peabody, Massachusetts
- Apr 6 Jack Canfora, American playwright
- Apr 18 Sayako Kuroda, Japanese Imperial Shinto priestess and Supreme Priestess of the Ise Grand Shrine who gave up her imperial title for marriage, born in Chiyoda, Tokyo
- Apr 21 Robin Meade, American reporter
- Apr 25 Jon Olsen, American 100m freestyle/400m/800m medley (Olymp-gold-1992, 96), born in New Britain, Connecticut
- Apr 27 Cory Booker, American politician (Senator-D-NJ 2013-, Mayor of Newark 2006-13), born in Washington, D.C.
Weddings in History
F. W. de Klerk
Apr 11 Future South African president F. W. de Klerk marries Marike Willemse
Deaths in History
- Apr 5 Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (b. 1903)
- Apr 5 Gabriel M-E-R Chevallier, French author (La Peur), dies at 73
- Apr 5 Rómulo Gallegos, 48th President of Venezuela (1948), dies at 84
- Apr 8 Haskell Karp, American heart transplant patient, who received 1st fully artificial heart, dies after 65 hours at 48
- Apr 10 Harley Earl, American automobile designer (1st head of design at General Motors), dies at 75
- Apr 15 Victoria von Battenberg, Queen of Spain, wife of King Alfonso XIII, dies at 81
- Apr 26 Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido, dies at 85
- Apr 27 René Barrientos, President of Bolivia, dies at 49
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists