April 2002 in History

Events in History

Apr 9 Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother at Westminster Abbey UK. More than a million people line the streets

Apr 11 An attempted coup d'état takes place in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez.

Apr 11 The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia
Apr 12 Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
Apr 12 Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chávez.
Apr 13 Pedro Carmona, interim president of Venezuela, resigns one day after taking office
Apr 14 Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military
Apr 15 An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.
Apr 17 Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War

Apr 23 Pope John Paul II meets with U.S. Catholic Church leaders at Vatican regarding sexual abuse of minors

Apr 26 Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Apr 27 The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10
Apr 29 The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years

Apr 30 A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf for another five years

Apr 1 Simo Hayha, Finnish marksman (b. 1905)
Apr 2 Henry Slesar, American writer and playwright (The Edge of Night), dies at 74
Apr 9 Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
Apr 15 Damon Francis Knight, American sci-fi author (CV, Beyond the Barrier), dies at 79
Apr 16 Ruth Fertel, American restaurateur (Ruth's Chris Steak House in Louisiana), dies at 75

Apr 18 Norwegian anthropologist and explorer (Kon Tiki, Aku-Aku), dies of a brain tumor at 87

Apr 23 Gopal Baratham, Singaporean author and neurosurgeon, dies at 66
Apr 23 Manfred Bieler, German writer (The Rabbit is Me), dies at 67
Apr 25 Indra Devi, yoga teacher (b. 1899)
Apr 26 Robert Steinhäuser, German spree killer, dies at 19
Apr 27 George Alec Effinger, American author, dies at 55
Apr 27 Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Dutch-Swiss industrialist, dies at 81
Apr 27 Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (invented the Barbie doll), dies of cancer at 85
Apr 28 Alexander Lebed, Russian general, dies at 52
Apr 29 Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist, dies at 100
Apr 30 Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, founder of the Gründerzeit Museum in Berlin-Mahlsdorf. (b. 1928)
Apr 30 Leslie Melville, Australian economist and public servant who helped develop the country's central banking system, dies at 100