Wednesday, 1st April 2026 in Stockholm

Welcome to your daily snapshot of Stockholm! It's April Fools' Day and World Autism Awareness Day. Explore 57 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Stockholm. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Stockholm brings cloudy with temperatures between 0°C and 12°C. Tonight's moon is in its waning crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Aries. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Wednesday, 1st April in Stockholm, SE.

Stockholm
Steven Lek – CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is situated across fourteen islands in the country's southeast region. The weather on 1st April 2026 is cloudy. Astrologically, this date falls within the Aries sign, characterised by its association with initiative and determination. The moon is in its waning crescent phase, approximately two to three days before the new moon.

On this day

The Netherlands achieved a significant milestone on 1st April 2001 when it became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. This landmark legislative change preceded similar measures in other nations by several years and reflected evolving attitudes towards marriage equality in Dutch society.

On the same date in 2001, an international incident unfolded in the skies above the South China Sea when an American Lockheed EP-3 aircraft collided with a Chinese Shenyang J-8 fighter jet off the coast of Hainan. The collision triggered a diplomatic dispute between the United States and China that would occupy international relations for weeks. Meanwhile, European history recorded significant moments on this date, including the establishment of the Royal Air Force by the United Kingdom on 1st April 1918 near the end of the First World War, marking the creation of what would become one of the world's oldest independent air forces.

April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day is observed on 1st April each year as a day for playing pranks and practical jokes. The origins of the tradition are debated among historians, with theories linking it to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century and earlier medieval celebrations of spring. The day has been documented in various forms for several centuries, becoming a widespread cultural phenomenon particularly in Western countries during the 20th century.

World Autism Awareness Day

World Autism Awareness Day is marked on 1st April to raise awareness and acceptance of autistic individuals. The date was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, establishing it as an international observance. The day aims to promote understanding of autism spectrum disorder and celebrate the strengths and contributions of autistic people.

DayAtlas provides detailed information for any selected date and location, including weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths.

Find out what's happening today in Stockholm.

What the Weather Had in Store for Stockholm on 1st April 2026

Cloudy

Sunrise 06:13
Sunset 19:29
Sunshine duration 12:18 hours
Daylight duration 13:16 hours

Maximum temperature 12.1°C
Minimum temperature 0.6°C

Wind speed 16.4km/h from SSW
Precipitation 0mm

Athletes learn that struggle precedes strength, never follows.

Fortune of the Day

1st April in the Stars – Star Sign Aries

Today, the zodiac sign Aries celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on April 1st embody pure Aries fire: vibrant, courageous, and spirited. They dive headfirst into new ventures with contagious enthusiasm and relish any challenge. Their impulsive nature makes them natural pioneers and trailblazers.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths include boldness, initiative, and unwavering optimism. However, impatience and hasty decisions can backfire. They benefit from thinking before acting and cultivating strategic restraint.

Love These people are passionate and direct about their feelings in relationships. They need partners who match their energy and respect their independence. Boredom is their greatest enemy in love.

Caree & Finance Careers in leadership, sports, or entrepreneurship suit them perfectly. They drive projects forward and inspire teams through sheer force of will. Financially, they should curb impulsive spending and embrace long-term planning.

Health These active individuals need regular physical exercise to manage stress effectively. Without outlets, headaches and tension can emerge. Meditation helps them maintain inner calm and focus.


That night, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.


Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 1st April

Name Days in Your Language: April, Arden, Argus, Aries, Diamond, Paris


Someone born on this day would be just 64 days old today — roughly 1,547 hours, 92,846 minutes, or 5,570,818 seconds spent on Earth so far.


It's the 91. day of the year. In 2026, 1st April falls on a Wednesday.


There are 274 days still to come.


We’re currently in Week 14 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 1st April

On this day, 217 notable people were born on 1st April — spanning from 1220 to 2000. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

01/04/2000

Rhian Brewster, English footballer

Rhian Joel Brewster is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for EFL Championship club Derby County. In 2017, he was part of the England squad which won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India and was awarded the Golden Boot award for ending as the competition's leading goalscorer.


01/04/1999

Gabe Davis, American football player

Gabriel Davis is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the UCF Knights and was selected by the Bills in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft. Davis has been nicknamed "Big-Game Gabe" due to his performance in important games, particularly his four touchdowns in the 2021 AFC Divisional playoff game.


01/04/1998

King Combs, American rapper

Christian Casey "King" Combs is an American rapper and model. The son of rapper Sean Combs and model Kim Porter, Combs began his recording career with the release of his 2017 single "Type Different". His debut extended play, Cyncerely, C3 (2019), was released by his father's label Bad Boy Records. In the wake of his father's sexual misconduct trial, Combs released an extended play, Never Stop (2025), where Combs expressed support for him.


Mitchell Robinson, American basketball player

Mitchell Robinson III is an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected with the 36th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft. Before beginning his professional career, he gained national coverage for withdrawing from his commitment to attend Western Kentucky University to instead dedicate the entire 2017–18 season for training on his own, being the first player to make such a decision.


01/04/1997

Asa Butterfield, English actor

Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield is an English actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Butterfield first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). He continued to headline films during the 2010s, starring in the adventure drama Hugo (2011), the science-fiction film Ender's Game (2013), the drama X+Y (2014), the fantasy Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and the romantic science-fiction The Space Between Us (2017). From 2019 to 2023, Butterfield portrayed the lead of the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education.


Álex Palou, Spanish racing driver

Álex Palou Montalbo is a Spanish racing driver who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series, where he won the 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025 championships and the 2025 Indianapolis 500. Palou is the first Spanish racing driver to win a national championship in American open-wheel racing history and also the first Spaniard to win in the Indianapolis 500 and the GP3 Series.


01/04/1996

Sophia Hutchins, American socialite

Sophia Hutchins was an American socialite, media personality, businesswoman, charity executive and model. She was best known as the manager of Caitlyn Jenner, the chief executive officer and director of the Caitlyn Jenner Foundation, and the founder CEO of the sunscreen company LUMASOL.


01/04/1995

Jofra Archer, Barbadian-English cricketer

Jofra Chioke Archer is an English cricketer who represents England in all formats as a right-arm fast bowler. In domestic cricket he plays for Sussex as well as a number of T20 franchises. Archer was a member of the England squad that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In April 2020, Archer was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.


Logan Paul, American YouTuber, actor and wrestler

Logan Alexander Paul is an American influencer, professional wrestler, entrepreneur, boxer, singer and actor. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Logan Paul Vlogs and has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest-paid YouTube creators in 2017, 2018, and 2021. He is the co-founder of beverage company Prime and snack brand Lunchly. Paul has also run the Impaulsive podcast since November 2018, which has over four million YouTube subscribers. In December 2025, Paul was appointed General Partner of the venture capital firm Anti Fund, which was co-founded by his brother Jake Paul. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE since June 2022, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is a member of The Vision stable and is one-third of the World Tag Team Champions with stablemates Austin Theory in their first reign, both as a team and individually. He is also a former one-time WWE United States Champion.


01/04/1992

Deng Linlin, Chinese gymnast

Deng Linlin is a Chinese retired gymnast. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the team gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, People's Republic of China, and is a three-time World Cup gold medalist. She is the 2009 World and 2012 Olympic champion on balance beam.


01/04/1991

Duván Zapata, Colombian footballer

Duván Esteban Zapata Banguero is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains Serie A club Torino.


01/04/1990

Julia Fischer, German discus thrower

Julia Harting is a German athlete who specialises in the discus throw. She won the silver medal at the 2016 European Championships, and has represented Germany at two Olympics.


01/04/1989

Jan Blokhuijsen, Dutch speed skater

Jan Blokhuijsen is an Olympic award-winning Dutch long-track speed skater who until 2013 skated for the commercial TVM team.


David Ngog, French footballer

David Philippe Henri Ngog is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker.


Christian Vietoris, German racing driver

Christian Johannes Vietoris is a German retired racing driver. He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, most recently for HWA Team. Vietoris has also been a part of the revitalized Mercedes-Benz Junior Team, together with Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi. Vietoris made his debut in the DTM in 2011, driving for Persson Motorsport, before being promoted to HWA for the 2012 DTM season.


01/04/1988

Brook Lopez, American basketball player

Brook Robert Lopez is a Cuban-American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Splash Mountain", he was named an NBA All-Star as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, and was voted twice to the NBA All-Defensive Team while with the Milwaukee Bucks. He won an NBA championship with Milwaukee in 2021.


Robin Lopez, American basketball player

Robin Byron Lopez is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected with the 15th pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, was traded to the New Orleans Hornets in 2012 and was traded to Portland in 2013. He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal alongside his twin brother Brook Lopez. He played for nine NBA teams, including a three-year stint with the Chicago Bulls and two stints with the Milwaukee Bucks.


01/04/1987

Vitorino Antunes, Portuguese footballer

Vitorino Gabriel Pacheco Antunes is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a left-back.


Ding Junhui, Chinese professional snooker player

Ding Junhui is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships, and in 2014, became the first Asian world number one. He has twice reached the final of the Masters, winning once in 2011. In 2016, he became the first Asian player to reach the final of the World Championship.


Gianluca Musacci, Italian footballer

Gianluca Musacci is an Italian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie D club U.S.D. Real Forte dei Marmi-Querceta.


Oliver Turvey, English racing driver

Oliver Jonathan Turvey is a British professional racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula E, and is currently signed to DS Penske as a reserve driver and a sporting advisor. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner. His career has been supported by the Racing Steps Foundation.


01/04/1986

Nikolaos Kourtidis, Greek weightlifter

Nikolaos Kourtidis is a Greek weightlifter of Georgian origin. At age eighteen, Kourtidis made his official debut for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, representing the host nation Greece. He successfully lifted 377.5 kg in the men's middle-heavyweight category (94 kg), finishing in eleventh place.


Hillary Scott, American country singer-songwriter

Hillary Dawn Scott-Tyrrell is an American singer and songwriter who rose to fame as the co-lead vocalist of the country music group Lady A. She is signed to Big Machine Records.


01/04/1985

Daniel Murphy, American baseball player

Daniel Thomas Murphy is an American former professional baseball second baseman and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, and Colorado Rockies. While primarily a second baseman, he also played first base, third base, and left field. Murphy was an MLB All-Star in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Internationally, Murphy represents the United States. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he helped win Team USA's first gold medal in a WBC tournament.


Beth Tweddle, English gymnast

Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle is a retired English artistic gymnast. Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, she was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the European Championships, World Championships, and Olympic Games. Tweddle, known for her consistency and longevity as an elite gymnast, is regarded as a pioneer of the renaissance of British gymnastics at the beginning of the twenty-first century that saw the country's gymnastics programme progress from 'also ran' to consistent global competitiveness, and along with peers such as Vanessa Ferrari of Italy and Isabelle Severino of France, helped begin a period of significant success for western European gymnasts globally.


01/04/1984

Gilberto Macena, Brazilian footballer

Gilberto Macedo da Macena, commonly known as Gilberto Macena, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Rasisalai United of the Thai League 2.


01/04/1983

Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer

Ólafur Ingi Skúlason is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of Iceland national under-19 football team and the Iceland national under-15 women's team.


Sean Taylor, American football player (died 2007)

Sean Michael Maurice Taylor was an American professional football player who was a safety for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected fifth overall in the 2004 NFL draft by the Redskins, where he played four seasons until his murder in 2007.


01/04/1982

Taran Killam, American actor, voice artist, comedian, and writer

Taran Hourie Killam is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his brief stint on the Fox comedy series MADtv during its seventh season between 2001 and 2002, followed by his wider success as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2010 to 2016. He has also appeared in other television series such as Wild 'n Out, The Amanda Show, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and in the main cast of Single Parents. Killam is also known for his portrayal of a teen pop star in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. He voiced the title character on the PBS children's cartoon series Nature Cat.


Andreas Thorkildsen, Norwegian javelin thrower

Andreas Thorkildsen is a retired Norwegian track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He was the Olympic Champion in 2004 and 2008, European Champion in 2006 and 2010, and World Champion in 2009. He is the first male javelin thrower in history to simultaneously be European, World and Olympic Champion. He was also a three-time silver medalist at the World Championships, placing second in 2005, 2007 and 2011. His personal best of 91.59 m, set in 2006, is the Norwegian record.


01/04/1981

Antonis Fotsis, Greek basketball player

Antonis Fotsis is a Greek professional basketball player for Ilysiakos. His height is of 2.09-metre tall. During his professional career he was also the captain of the senior Greek national team. In most of his playing career, he played primarily as a power forward, but he could also sometimes be used as a small ball center, or even as a small forward, if needed. Fotsis was inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame in 2022.


Bjørn Einar Romøren, Norwegian ski jumper

Bjørn Einar Romøren is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed at World Cup level from 2001 to 2014. His career highlights include eight individual World Cup wins, two ski flying world records, and a team bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Bjørn Einar is the younger brother of Jan-Erik Romøren, best known by the stage name Nag, frontman of black metal band Tsjuder.


01/04/1980

Dennis Kruppke, German footballer

Dennis Kruppke is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or forward.


Randy Orton, American wrestler

Randal Keith Orton is an American professional wrestler. He has been signed to WWE since 2000, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of WWE's greatest professional wrestlers, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in history, and a career spanning over 20 years.


Bijou Phillips, American actress and model

Bijou Mary Phillips is an American model, socialite, and actress and singer. The daughter of musicians John Phillips and Geneviève Waïte, she began her career as a model. Phillips made her singing debut with I'd Rather Eat Glass (1999), and since her first major film appearance in Black and White (1999), she has acted in Almost Famous (2000), Bully (2001), The Door in the Floor (2004), Havoc (2005), Hostel: Part II (2007), and Choke (2008). From 2010 to 2013, she played the recurring role of Lucy Carlyle on the television series Raising Hope.


01/04/1979

Ruth Beitia, Spanish high jumper

Ruth Beitia Vila is a Spanish retired high jumper who was the 2016 Olympic champion in the women's high jump. She was also a politician in the Partido Popular and a member of the Parliament of Cantabria.


01/04/1978

Antonio de Nigris, Mexican footballer (died 2009)

Antonio de Nigris Guajardo was a Mexican professional footballer who played as a striker.


Mirka Federer, Slovak-Swiss tennis player

Miroslava "Mirka" Federer is a Swiss former professional tennis player of Slovak origin.


Anamaria Marinca, Romanian-English actress

Anamaria Marinca is a Romanian actress. She made her screen debut with the Channel 4 film Sex Traffic, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Marinca is also known for her performance in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, earning several awards for her performance, and was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress, London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. In 2008, at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, she was presented the Shooting Stars Award by the European Film Promotion.


Etan Thomas, American basketball player

Dedrick Etan Thomas is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a published poet, freelance writer, activist, and motivational speaker, as well as a co-host of Centers of Attention, a sports talk show on ESPN Radio Syracuse in Syracuse, New York, alongside former professional basketball player Danny Schayes.


01/04/1977

Vitor Belfort, Brazilian-American boxer and mixed martial artist

Vítor Vieira Belfort is a Brazilian-American professional boxer and retired mixed martial artist who competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, and Middleweight divisions. He is the UFC 12 Heavyweight Tournament Champion, as well as a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and Cage Rage World Light Heavyweight Champion. Known for his explosive knockout power, Belfort is tied for fifth for the most finishes in UFC history with 14. Belfort also competed for MMA promotions Pride FC, Strikeforce, and Affliction.


Haimar Zubeldia, Spanish cyclist

Haimar Zubeldia Agirre is a Spanish former road racing cyclist from the Basque Country, who competed professionally between 1998 and 2017 for the Euskaltel–Euskadi, Astana, Team RadioShack and Trek–Segafredo teams. During his career, Zubeldia recorded five top-ten finishes in the Tour de France, and one in the Vuelta a España.


01/04/1976

Hazem El Masri, Lebanese-Australian rugby league player and educator

Hazem El Masri is a Lebanese Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a winger in the 1990s and 2000s. An international representative for Australia and Lebanon, and a New South Wales State of Origin representative goal-kicking wing, he played his entire club football career in Sydney with Canterbury with whom he won the 2004 NRL Premiership. In 2009 El Masri took the record for the highest-ever point scorer in premiership history and for a record sixth time was the NRL's top point scorer for the season. He also became only the seventh player in history to score over 150 NRL tries, having primarily played on the wing, but also at fullback.


David Gilliland, American race car driver

David Leonard Gilliland is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and team owner. Since 2017, he has operated Tricon Garage, a team that races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team has also competed in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series West, ARCA Menards Series East, and CARS Tour.


Gábor Király, Hungarian footballer

Gábor Ferenc Király is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.


David Oyelowo, English actor

David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo is a Nigerian-British actor, director, and producer. His accolades include a Critics' Choice Award and two NAACP Image Awards as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award. In 2016, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama.


Clarence Seedorf, Dutch-Brazilian footballer and manager

Clarence Clyde Seedorf is a Dutch former professional football manager and player. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. He is currently working primarily remotely as a senior sports advisor and senior consultant for Esteghlal Tehran Football Club of the Persian Gulf Pro League.


Yuka Yoshida, Japanese tennis player

Yuka Kaneko is a former professional tennis player from Japan.


01/04/1975

John Butler, American-Australian singer-songwriter and producer

John Charles Wiltshire-Butler, professionally known as John Butler, is an Australian singer, songwriter and music producer. He is best known for his time as the eponymous frontman of the John Butler Trio, a roots rock and jam rock band that formed in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1998.


Magdalena Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player

Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles.


01/04/1974

Hugo Ibarra, Argentinian footballer and manager

Hugo Benjamín Ibarra nicknamed "Negro," is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a right back. He last managed Boca Juniors.


01/04/1973

Christian Finnegan, American comedian and actor

Fletcher Christian Finnegan, better known as Christian Finnegan, is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in New York City.


Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricketer and coach

Stephen Paul Fleming is a cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team. He was a left-handed opening batter and an occasional right arm slow medium bowler. He is New Zealand's second-most capped Test cricketer with 111 appearances. He is also the team's longest-serving and most successful captain with 28 test victories and led the team to win the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the team's first International Cricket Council trophy. Fleming captained New Zealand in the first ever Twenty20 International against Australia in 2005.


Rachel Maddow, American journalist and author

Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. She hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MS NOW, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010.


01/04/1972

Darren McCarty, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster

Darren Douglas McCarty is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward and professional wrestler, best known for his years playing with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). McCarty has been known for taking on the role of the Red Wings enforcer most of his career, a role in which he played in five Stanley Cup Finals and won the Stanley Cup four times in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008, the last of which after resurrecting his career in the Red Wings minor league system.


Jesse Tobias, American guitarist and songwriter

Jesse Tobias is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and co-songwriter for Morrissey since 2004. Tobias first gained fame during a brief tenure with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993, although he was replaced by Dave Navarro within a month after joining the band. Before he joined the Chili Peppers, he briefly played with the band Mother Tongue. In 1995, Tobias joined the touring band for Alanis Morissette, and from 1999 to 2005 he was a member of the musical duo Splendid alongside his then-wife Angie Hart.


01/04/1971

Sonia Bisset, Cuban javelin thrower

Sonia Bisset Poll is a retired Cuban track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw.


Shinji Nakano, Japanese racing driver

Shinji Nakano is a Japanese professional racing driver.


01/04/1970

Brad Meltzer, American author, screenwriter, and producer

Brad Meltzer is an American novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator, and comic book author. His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, while he has also written superhero comics for DC Comics, and periodically Marvel Comics, and a series of short biographies of prominent people for young readers.


01/04/1969

Lev Lobodin, Ukrainian-Russian decathlete

Lev Alekseyevich Lobodin is a male decathlete from Russia, having changed nationality from Ukraine at the end of 1996. His best achievement was the silver medal at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.


Andrew Vlahov, Australian basketball player

Andrew Mitchell Vlahov is an Australian retired professional basketball player. He played his entire eleven-year professional career for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL), with whom he won three championships in 1991, 1995 and 2000.


Dean Windass, English footballer and manager

Dean Windass is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played spells at Bradford City and contributed to his hometown team Hull City's promotion to the Premier League in 2008.


01/04/1968

Mike Baird, Australian politician, 44th Premier of New South Wales

Michael Bruce Baird is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party from April 2014 to January 2017.


Andreas Schnaas, German actor and director

Andreas Schnaas is a German director and actor working exclusively in the horror genre. Since he first appeared on the film scene in 1989, he has become a leader in Germany's ultra-violent low-budget horror film industry. He was the one of the first in a series of maverick directors making underground movies who began a sustained revival of German horror cinema post World War II.


Alexander Stubb, Finnish academic and politician, 43rd Prime Minister of Finland and 13th President of Finland

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician serving as the president of Finland since 2024. A member of the National Coalition Party, he previously served as prime minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015 and has held several senior ministerial posts since 2008.


01/04/1967

Nicola Roxon, Australian lawyer and politician, 34th Attorney-General for Australia

Nicola Louise Roxon is an Australian former politician. After politics, she has worked as a company director and academic.


01/04/1966

Chris Evans, English radio and television host

Christopher James Evans is an English television presenter, radio DJ, and producer for radio and television.


Mehmet Özdilek, Turkish footballer and manager

"Şifo" Mehmet Özdilek is a Turkish football manager and former player. He is nicknamed "Şifo" after Belgian star Enzo Scifo with whom he shared a similar playing style.


01/04/1965

Jane Adams, American film, television, and stage actress

Jane Adams is an American actress and screenwriter. Known for her work in independent cinema, her acting credits include Light Sleeper (1992), Happiness (1998), Mumford (1999), Songcatcher (2000), The Anniversary Party (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Children (2006), All the Light in the Sky (2012), and She Dies Tomorrow (2020).


Mark Jackson, American basketball player and coach

Mark A. Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1987 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He played in the NBA for the Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, and Houston Rockets in a career spanning from 1987 to 2004.


01/04/1964

Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager

Erik Breukink is a former Dutch professional road racing cyclist. In 1988, Breukink won the youth competition in the Tour de France. In 1990, finished 3rd in the 1990 Tour de France. Most recently, he served as the manager of the Rabobank team.


Kevin Duckworth, American basketball player (died 2008)

Kevin Jerome Duckworth was an American professional basketball player who played as center in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A native of Illinois, he played college basketball for the Eastern Illinois Panthers before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 1986 NBA draft. Before completing his rookie season with the Spurs, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers where he spent most of his six seasons and was named the NBA's Most Improved Player and a two-time All-Star. After playing with three more teams he retired in 1997 and returned to Oregon where he would later work for the Trail Blazers' organization.


John Morris, English cricketer

John Edward Morris is an English former cricketer, who played for England in three Test matches and eight One Day Internationals in 1990 and 1991. He played first-class cricket for Derbyshire from 1982 to 1993, for Durham from 1994 to 1999 and for Nottinghamshire in 2000 and 2001.


José Rodrigues dos Santos, Portuguese journalist, author, and educator

José António Afonso Rodrigues dos Santos is a Portuguese journalist, novelist and university lecturer. He has been one of the presenters of Telejornal, the evening news program on the Portuguese public television channel RTP1, since 1991. Since the 2000s he has published several thriller and historical fiction novels, becoming a best-selling author in Portugal.


01/04/1963

Teodoro de Villa Diaz, Filipino guitarist and songwriter (died 1988)

Teodoro "Teddy" de Villa Diaz was a Filipino musician and songwriter, best known as the founder and original guitarist of the Dawn.


Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, American aerospace engineer

Aprille Joy Ericsson is an American aerospace engineer who had served as the assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. Ericsson is the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).


01/04/1962

Mark Shulman, American author

Mark Shulman is an American children's author who has written more than 200 books. He is the founder of Oomf, Inc., a book production company.


Chris Grayling, English journalist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

Christopher Stephen Grayling, Baron Grayling,, is a British politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2015, Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell from 2001 to 2024. Before entering politics, Grayling worked in the television and film industry.


Samboy Lim, Filipino basketball player and manager (died 2023)

Avelino "Samboy" Borromeo Lim Jr., nicknamed "The Skywalker", was a Filipino professional basketball player of the Philippine Basketball Association and the national team in the 1980s and 1990s.


Phillip Schofield, English television host

Phillip Bryan Schofield is an English television presenter. He began his UK television career as a Children's BBC continuity announcer from 1985 to 1987, and went on to present a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ITV, including Going Live! (1987–1993), This Morning (2002–2023), Dancing on Ice , All Star Mr & Mrs (2008–2016), and The Cube.


01/04/1961

Susan Boyle, Scottish singer

Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got Talent, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. As of 2021, Boyle had sold 25 million records. Her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream (2009), is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and was the best-selling album internationally in 2009. In 2011, Boyle made UK music history by becoming the first female artist to achieve three successive albums debuting at No.1 in less than two years. As of May 2025, her estimated net worth was £22 million.


Sergio Scariolo, Italian professional basketball head coach

Sergio Scariolo is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Real Madrid of the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. During his club coaching career, Scariolo has won a EuroCup title, three national league championships, and an NBA championship as an assistant coach. Moreover, having won four EuroBasket championships and a World Cup at the head of Spain, Scariolo is one of the most successful coaches in the history of international competitions, and according to many players, journalists and commentators, he is regarded as the greatest national team coach of all time.


Mark White, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Mark Andrew White is an English singer, songwriter, composer, musician and record producer.


01/04/1959

Helmut Duckadam, Romanian footballer (died 2024)

Helmut Duckadam was a Romanian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.


01/04/1958

D. Boon, American singer and musician (died 1985)

Dennes Dale Boon, commonly known as D. Boon, was an American musician, best known as the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the punk rock trio Minutemen.


01/04/1957

John Farragher, Australian rugby league player (died 2025)

John Wayne Farragher was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s. He played for the Penrith Panthers as a prop.


David Gower, English cricketer and sportscaster

David Ivon Gower is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Test matches and 114 One Day Internationals (ODI) scoring 8,231 and 3,170 runs, respectively. He was one of the most capped and high-scoring players for England during this period, and only Jack Hobbs made more runs against Australia than Gower's 3,269. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.


Denise Nickerson, American actress (died 2019)

Denise Marie Nickerson was an American former actress. Starting her career as a child actress, at the age of 13, she starred as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. She later played Allison on The Electric Company, and had recurring roles as Amy Jennings, Nora Collins, and Amy Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows and many numerous appearances on television and films. She later worked as a receptionist and office manager.


01/04/1955

Don Hasselbeck, American football player and sportscaster

Donald William Hasselbeck was an American professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, and the New York Giants. He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes, earning second-team All-American honors in 1975. Hasselbeck was selected in the second round of the 1977 NFL draft. He won a Super Bowl with the Raiders in the 1983 season.


Humayun Akhtar Khan, Pakistani politician, 5th Commerce Minister of Pakistan

Humayun Akhtar Khan is a Pakistani politician, business tycoon and actuary. He has been elected as a member of the National Assembly four consecutive times between 1990 and 2007, having served as Federal Minister for Trade and Commerce from 2002 to 2007 and as Chairman Board of Investment / Minister of State for Investment from 1997 to 1999.


01/04/1954

Jeff Porcaro, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (died 1992)

Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was an American drummer and songwriter. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but he is also one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the US as the drummer on the Steely Dan album Katy Lied (1975).


01/04/1953

Barry Sonnenfeld, American cinematographer, director, and producer

Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing comedy films like The Addams Family (1991), the Men in Black trilogy (1997–2012), Wild Wild West (1999), and RV (2006).


Alberto Zaccheroni, Italian footballer and manager

Alberto Zaccheroni is an Italian former football manager, formerly in charge of the United Arab Emirates and Japan national football teams.


01/04/1952

Annette O'Toole, American actress

Annette O'Toole is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.


Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher and academic (died 2020)

Bernard Stiegler was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also founder of the political and cultural group Ars Industrialis in 2005. In 2010, he established the philosophy school, pharmakon.fr, held at Épineuil-le-Fleuriel. He co-founded Collectif Internation, a group of "politicised researchers" in 2018. His best known work is Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus.


01/04/1951

John Abizaid, American general

John Philip Abizaid is a retired United States Army general and former United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021.


01/04/1950

Samuel Alito, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated to the high court by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served on it since January 31, 2006. After Antonin Scalia, Alito is the second Italian American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.


Loris Kessel, Swiss racing driver (died 2010)

Loris Kessel was a racing driver from Switzerland.


Daniel Paillé, Canadian academic and politician

Daniel Paillé is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Prévost in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 1996 as a member of the Parti Québécois, and represented the district of Hochelaga in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Bloc Québécois. He was elected leader of the Bloc Québécois with 62 percent of the vote on December 11, 2011. Paillé stepped down as leader on December 16, 2013, for health reasons.


01/04/1949

Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman

Gérard Mestrallet is a French manager who was chairman and CEO of Engie 2008 to 2016. He is also the chairman of Suez.


Paul Manafort, American lobbyist, political consultant, and convicted felon

Paul John Manafort Jr. is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served as an adviser to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole. In 1980, he co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, along with principals Charles R. Black Jr. and Roger Stone, joined by Peter G. Kelly in 1984. Manafort often lobbied on behalf of foreign leaders, including former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, former dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko, and Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi. Lobbying to serve the interests of foreign governments requires registration with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); on June 27, 2017, he retroactively registered as a foreign agent.


Sammy Nelson, Northern Irish footballer and coach

Samuel Nelson is a former footballer who played as a left back in the Football League for Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion. He was capped 51 times for Northern Ireland and played at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.


Gil Scott-Heron, American singer-songwriter and author (died 2011)

Gilbert Scott-Heron was an American jazz poet, singer, musician and author, known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.


01/04/1948

Javier Irureta, Spanish footballer and manager

Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano, Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager.


Peter Law, Welsh politician and independent Member of Parliament (died 2006)

Peter John Law was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent member of Parliament (MP) and AM for the same constituency.


01/04/1947

Alain Connes, French mathematician and academic

Alain Connes is a French mathematician, known for his contributions to the study of operator algebras and noncommutative geometry. He was a professor at the Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982.


01/04/1946

Nikitas Kaklamanis, Greek academic and politician, Greek Minister of Health and Social Security

Nikitas Michail Kaklamanis is a Greek politician who has served as President of the Hellenic Parliament since 2025, and has been a member of parliament from Athens A multiple times since 1990.


Ronnie Lane, English bass player, songwriter, and producer (died 1997)

Ronald Frederick Lane was an English musician and songwriter who was the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Small Faces (1965–1969) and Faces (1969–1973).


Arrigo Sacchi, Italian footballer, coach, and manager

Arrigo Sacchi is an Italian former football executive and manager, best known for having managed AC Milan and the Italy national team. Regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, his Milan side (1987–1991) is widely regarded to be one of the greatest club squads of all time.


01/04/1943

Dafydd Wigley, Welsh academic and politician

Dafydd Wynne Wigley, Baron Wigley, is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2000. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon from 1974 to 2001 and as the Member of the Welsh Assembly for Caernarfon from 1999 to 2003. In 2010, Wigley was granted life peerage, taking his seat in the House of Lords in 2011, making him one of the party's only two Lords in the HOL.


Titina Silá, Bissau-Guinean revolutionary (died 1973)

Ernestina "Titina" Silá was a Bissau-Guinean revolutionary. Recruited into the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), while she was a young woman, she joined in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence against the Portuguese Empire.


01/04/1942

Samuel R. Delany, American author and critic

Samuel R. "Chip" Delany is an African American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction, memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society.


Richard D. Wolff, American economist and academic

Richard David Wolff is an American Marxian economist known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs at The New School. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City College of New York, University of Utah, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and The Brecht Forum in New York City.


01/04/1941

Gideon Gadot, Israeli journalist and politician (died 2012)

Gideon Gadot was an Israeli journalist and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1984 and 1992.


Ajit Wadekar, Indian cricketer, coach, and manager (died 2018)

Ajit Laxman Wadekar was an Indian international cricketer who played for the Indian national team between 1966 and 1974. Described as an "aggressive batsman", Wadekar made his first-class debut in 1958, before making his foray into international cricket in 1966. He batted at number three and was considered to be one of the finest slip fielders. Wadekar also captained the Indian cricket team which won series in the West Indies and England in 1971. The Government of India honoured him with the Arjuna Award (1967) and Padmashri (1972), India's fourth highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honour Indian board can bestow on a former player.


01/04/1940

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)

Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.


01/04/1939

Ali MacGraw, American model and actress

Elizabeth Alice MacGraw is an American actress. For her role in Goodbye, Columbus (1969) she won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She then starred in Love Story (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female film star in the world and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having made just three films. She went on to star in The Getaway (1972), Convoy (1978), Players (1979), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and The Winds of War (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, Moving Pictures.


Phil Niekro, American baseball player and manager (died 2020)

Philip Henry Niekro, nicknamed "Knucksie", was an American baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. Niekro is generally regarded as the greatest knuckleball pitcher of all time.


01/04/1937

Jordan Charney, American actor

Jordan Charney is an American character actor known for Ghostbusters (1984), Network (1976) and Hill Street Blues (1981).


Yılmaz Güney, Palme d'Or award-winning Kurdish film director, scenarist, actor, novelist and activist (died 1984)

Yılmaz Güney was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, actor and communist political activist. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were made from a far-left perspective and devoted to the plight of working-class people in Turkey. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for the film Yol which he co-directed with Şerif Gören. He was at constant odds with the Turkish government over the portrayal of Kurdish culture, people and language.


Lynn Garrison, Canadian aviator, political advisor, and mercenary

Lynn Garrison is a Canadian pilot and political adviser. He was a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot in the 403 City of Calgary Squadron, before holding jobs as a commercial pilot, film producer, director and mercenary. Garrison has also accumulated a substantial collection of classic aircraft, flying many of these as well as organising their restoration and preservation. He participated in the Nigerian Civil War as a mercenary, assisting the military of Biafra.


01/04/1936

Peter Collinson, English-American director and producer (died 1980)

Peter Collinson was a British film director whose notable credits include The Italian Job (1969).


Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Swiss politician, 80th President of the Swiss Confederation (died 1998)

Jean-Pascal Delamuraz was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1983–1998).


Tarun Gogoi, Indian politician, 14th Chief Minister of Assam (died 2020)

Tarun Gogoi was an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 13th Chief Minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of Assam. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He is the father of Deputy Leader of the Opposition of the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi.


Abdul Qadeer Khan, Indian-Pakistani physicist, chemist, and engineer (died 2021)

Abdul Qadeer Khan was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer. He is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program".


01/04/1935

Cyril Karabus, South African paediatric oncologist

Cyril Karabus is a South African paediatric oncologist. Karabus was initially well-recognised in South Africa for his work with black cancer patients during apartheid. In 2012, Karabus gained international attention after he was detained in the United Arab Emirates for a manslaughter and forgery conviction in absentia from 2004, which he was not aware of. Following boycotts in South Africa against the UAE, and government pressure, the UAE acquitted him of all charges in March 2013, and he returned to South Africa in May of that year.


Larry McDonald, American physician and politician (died 1983)

Lawrence Patton McDonald was an American physician, politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 until he was killed as a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors.


01/04/1934

Vladimir Posner, French-American journalist and radio host

Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, sometimes Vladimir Pozner, Jr., is a French-born Russian-American journalist and presenter. In the West he represented and explained the views of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He was a spokesman for the Soviets, in part because he grew up in the United States and speaks fluent English, Russian, and French. Pozner later described his role as propaganda.


01/04/1933

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Algerian-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji is a French physicist at the École normale supérieure in Paris. He is known for his experiments in laser cooling. He was the first to show that it is possible to cool far beyond the limit expected by sub-Doppler cooling, below the recoil temperature.


Dan Flavin, American sculptor and educator (died 1996)

Daniel Nicholas Flavin Jr. was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.


Bengt Holbek, Danish folklorist (died 1992)

Bengt Holbek was a Danish folklorist known for his unorthodox approach to folklore theory. He wrote one of the definitive works of fairy tale scholarship entitled Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987).


01/04/1932

Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2016)

Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer with her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy, The Catered Affair, and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which she performed the song "Tammy", which topped the Billboard music charts. In 1959, she starred in The Mating Game with Tony Randall, and released Debbie, her first pop music album. She starred in Singin' in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly, How the West Was Won (1962), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), where her performance as the boisterous Titanic passenger Margaret "Molly" Brown earned Reynolds an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her other films include: The Singing Nun (1966), Divorce American Style (1967), What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Mother and In & Out (1997). She was known for voicing Charlotte A. Cavatica in Charlotte's Web (1973). Reynolds was also a cabaret performer; in 1979, she opened the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood.


01/04/1931

George Baker, Bulgarian-English actor and screenwriter (died 2011)

George Morris Baker was an English actor and writer. He was best known for portraying Tiberius in I, Claudius, and Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.


Rolf Hochhuth, German author and playwright (died 2020)

Rolf Hochhuth was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy, which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial figure both for his plays and other public comments and for his 2005 defense of British Holocaust denier David Irving.


01/04/1930

Grace Lee Whitney, American actress and singer (died 2015)

Grace Lee Whitney was an American actress and singer. Her entertainment career spanned over a half century in a variety of capacities in radio, on stage, in music as a singer and songwriter, in television and in movies. She played Janice Rand on the original Star Trek television series and subsequent Star Trek films.


Ásta Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic writer and visual artist (died 1971)

Ásta Sigurðardóttir was an Icelandic writer and visual artist recognized for her pioneering contributions to modernist short fiction. Her work is notably characterized by its depiction of urban marginalization in mid-twentieth-century Reykjavík.


01/04/1929

Jonathan Haze, American actor, producer, screenwriter, and production manager (died 2024)

Jonathan Haze was an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic The Little Shop of Horrors, in which he played florist's assistant Seymour Krelboined.


Milan Kundera, Czech-French novelist, poet, and playwright (died 2023)

Milan Kundera was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.


Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator and director (died 2010)

Payut Ngaokrachang was a Thai cartoonist and animator. He created Thai cinema's first cel-animated feature film, The Adventure of Sudsakorn.


Jane Powell, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2021)

Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).


01/04/1927

Walter Bahr, American soccer player, coach, and manager (died 2018)

Walter Alfred Bahr was an American professional soccer player, considered one of the greatest ever in the United States. He was the long-time captain of the U.S. men's national team and played in the 1950 FIFA World Cup when the U.S. defeated England 1–0. Bahr's three sons Casey, Chris, and Matt, all played professional soccer in the defunct North American Soccer League. Casey and Chris also played for the U.S. Olympic team, and Chris and Matt later became placekickers in the National Football League, each earning two Super Bowl rings.


Amos Milburn, American R&B singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1980)

Joseph Amos Milburn was an American R&B singer and pianist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. One commentator noted, "Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a vibrant sense of humour and double entendre, as well as vivid, down-home imagery in his lyrics."


Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer and manager (died 2006)

Ferenc Puskás was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, the greatest Hungarian footballer of all time, and the sport's first international superstar. A forward and an attacking midfielder, he scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary and later played four international matches for Spain as well. He is the European all-time top assist provider in international football (53). He became an Olympic champion in 1952 and led his nation to the final of the 1954 World Cup. He won three European Cups, ten national championships and eight top individual scoring honors. Known as the "Galloping Major", in 1995, he was recognized as the greatest top division scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS. Scoring 802 goals in 792 official games during his career, he is the seventh top goal scorer of all time by the RSSSF.


01/04/1926

Anne McCaffrey, American-Irish author (died 2011)

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.


01/04/1924

Brendan Byrne, American lieutenant, judge, and politician, 47th Governor of New Jersey (died 2018)

Brendan Thomas Byrne was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.


01/04/1922

Duke Jordan, American pianist and composer (died 2006)

Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.


William Manchester, American historian and author (died 2004)

William Raymond Manchester was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.


01/04/1921

William Bergsma, American composer and educator (died 1994)

William Laurence Bergsma was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music school until 1971.


Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, American guitarist, fiddler, and composer (died 2014)

Arthur Smith was an American musician, composer, and record producer, as well as a radio and TV host. He produced radio and TV shows; The Arthur Smith Show was the first nationally syndicated country music show on television. After moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, Smith developed and ran the first commercial recording studio in the Southeast.


01/04/1920

Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (died 1997)

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played heroic characters and was noted for his commanding screen presence in the Japanese film industry.


01/04/1919

Joseph Murray, American surgeon and soldier, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012)

Joseph Edward Murray was an American plastic surgeon who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 with E. Donnall Thomas for "their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease."


01/04/1917

Sydney Newman, Canadian screenwriter and producer, co-created Doctor Who (died 1997)

Sydney Cecil Newman was a Canadian television producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State.


Melville Shavelson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2007)

Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987.


01/04/1916

Sheila May Edmonds, British mathematician (died 2002)

Sheila May Edmonds was a British mathematician, a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and Vice-Principal of Newnham College from 1960 to 1981.


01/04/1915

O. W. Fischer, Austrian-Swiss actor and director (died 2004)

Otto Wilhelm Fischer was an Austrian film and theatre actor, a leading man of West German cinema during the Wirtschaftswunder era of the 1950s and 1960s.


01/04/1913

Memos Makris, Greek sculptor (died 1993)

Memos Makris was a prominent Greek sculptor. He spent his early childhood in Patras but his family moved to Athens in 1919. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and soon became involved in the artistic and cultural life of the 1930s. During the German Occupation Makris joined the National Resistance. After the liberation he continued his studies in Paris. He was deported from France in 1950 due to his political allegiance to the Left and sought political asylum in Hungary. In Hungary he became an important figure in the country's political and cultural life. In 1964 he was deprived of his Greek nationality, which he regained in 1975 after the restoration of democracy in Greece. In 1979 his first retrospective exhibition in Greece took place in the National Art Gallery.


01/04/1911

Augusta Braxton Baker, African American librarian (died 1998)

Augusta Braxton Baker was an American librarian and storyteller. She was known for her contributions to children's literature, especially regarding the portrayal of Black Americans in works for children.


01/04/1910

Harry Carney, American saxophonist and clarinet player (died 1974)

Harry Howell Carney was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments, but primarily performed on the baritone saxophone, being a critical influence on the instrument in jazz.


Bob Van Osdel, American high jumper and soldier (died 1987)

Bob Van Osdel was an American athlete who competed mainly in the high jump.


01/04/1909

Abner Biberman, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1977)

Abner Warren Biberman was an American actor, director, and screenwriter.


Eddy Duchin, American pianist and bandleader (died 1951)

Edwin Frank Duchin, commonly known as Eddy Duchin or alternatively Eddie Duchin, was an American popular music pianist and bandleader during the 1930s and 1940s.


01/04/1908

Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic (died 1970)

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.


Harlow Rothert, American shot putter, lawyer, and academic (died 1997)

Harlow Phelps Rothert was an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.


01/04/1907

Shivakumara Swami, Indian religious leader and philanthropist (died 2019)

Shivakumara Swami was an Indian humanitarian, spiritual leader, educator and supercentenarian. He was a Veerashaiva religious figure. Swami joined the Siddaganga Matha in 1930 Karnataka and became head seer in 1941. He also founded the Sri Siddaganga Education Society. Described as the most esteemed adherent of Lingayatism (Veerashaivism), he was referred to as Nadedaaduva Devaru in the state. In 2015, Dr Shivakumara Swamiji was awarded by the Government of India the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award.


01/04/1906

Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer, founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau (died 1989)

Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev was a Soviet aeronautical engineer. He designed the Yakovlev military aircraft and founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Yakovlev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1938.


01/04/1905

Gaston Eyskens, Belgian economist and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1988)

Gaston François Marie, Viscount Eyskens was a Christian democratic politician and prime minister of Belgium. He was also an economist and member of the Belgian Christian Social Party (CVP-PSC).


Paul Hasluck, Australian historian, poet, and politician, 17th Governor-General of Australia (died 1993)

Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a Liberal Party politician, holding ministerial office continuously from 1951 to 1969.


01/04/1902

Maria Polydouri, Greek poet (died 1930)

Maria Polydouri was a Greek poet who belonged to the school of Neo-romanticism.


01/04/1901

Whittaker Chambers, American journalist and spy (died 1961)

Whittaker Chambers was an American author, journalist, and spy. After dropping out of Columbia University, Chambers joined the open Communist Party in 1925. He wrote and edited for the New Masses and the Daily Worker, before being ordered to go underground as a secret agent for the Soviet intelligence services. From 1932 to 1938 he was part of the clandestine "Ware Group", based in Washington, D.C. Disillusioned by Joseph Stalin's rule and by Communism more broadly, Chambers defected from the Soviet spy ring and eventually found employment at Time magazine, where he rose to become a senior editor.


01/04/1900

Stefanie Clausen, Danish Olympic diver (died 1981)

Anna Stefanie Nanna Fryland Clausen was a Danish diver. She was a gold medalist at the 1920 Summer Olympics.


01/04/1899

Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian academic and politician (died 1968)

Gustavs Celmiņš was a Latvian politician, who was the founder of the ultranationalist, Anti-Baltic German, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party Pērkonkrusts.


01/04/1898

William James Sidis, Ukrainian-Russian Jewish American mathematician, anthropologist, and historian (died 1944)

William James Sidis was an American child prodigy whose exceptional abilities in mathematics and languages made him one of the most famous intellectual prodigies of the early 20th century. Born to Boris Sidis, a prominent psychiatrist, and Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, a physician, Sidis demonstrated extraordinary intellectual capabilities from infancy. Enrolled at Harvard University at age 11, he delivered a widely publicized lecture on four-dimensional geometry at age 12 and graduated cum laude in 1914 at 16.


01/04/1895

Alberta Hunter, African-American singer-songwriter and nurse (died 1984)

Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977.


01/04/1893

Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-English actress (died 1980)

Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.


01/04/1889

K. B. Hedgewar, Indian physician and activist (died 1940)

Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was an Indian physician who founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation, in Nagpur in 1925. He was also known as Doctorji.


01/04/1885

Wallace Beery, American actor (died 1949)

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as the pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934) for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.


Clementine Churchill, English wife of Winston Churchill (died 1977)

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While she was legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility makes her paternity uncertain.


01/04/1883

Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1930)

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".


Edvard Drabløs, Norwegian actor and director (died 1976)

Edvard Drabløs was a Norwegian actor and theatre director.


Laurette Taylor, Irish-American actress (died 1946)

Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film star who is particularly well known for originating the role of Amanda Wingfield in the first production of Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie.


01/04/1881

Octavian Goga, Romanian Prime Minister (died 1938)

Octavian Goga was a Romanian far-right politician, poet, and writer who served as Prime Minister of Romania.


01/04/1879

Stanislaus Zbyszko, Polish wrestler and strongman (died 1967)

Stanisław Jan Cyganiewicz, better known by his ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko, was a Polish strongman, catch wrestler, and professional wrestler. He was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion in the United States during the 1920s.


01/04/1878

C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist (died 1958)

Vidhva Shiromani Brahma Sri C. Ganesha Iyer was a Ceylonese Tamil philologist from Jaffna.


01/04/1875

Edgar Wallace, English journalist, author, and playwright (died 1932)

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction.


01/04/1874

Ernest Barnes, English mathematician and theologian (died 1953)

Ernest William Barnes was a British mathematician and scientist who later became a liberal theologian and bishop.


Prince Karl of Bavaria (died 1927)

Prince Karl of Bavaria was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a Major General in the Bavarian Army.


01/04/1873

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1943)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, dense contrapuntal textures, and rich orchestral colours. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output and he used his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.


01/04/1871

F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor (died 1955)

Fredrik Melius Christiansen was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition. He is most notable for his many a cappella choral arrangements, and for founding The St. Olaf Choir in 1912.


01/04/1868

Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright (died 1918)

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques (1894), was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy The Fantasticks.


Walter Mead, English cricketer (died 1954)

Walter Mead was the principal bowler for Essex during their first two decades as a first-class county. As a member of the Lord’s ground staff, he was also after J.T. Hearne the most important bowler for MCC and Ground, who in those days played quite a number of first-class matches.


01/04/1866

William Blomfield, New Zealand cartoonist and politician (died 1938)

William Blomfield was a New Zealand cartoonist and local politician. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 1 April 1866. Between 1914 and 1921 he was the second Mayor of Takapuna.


Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1924)

Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.


Ève Lavallière, French actress (died 1929)

Ève Lavallière was a French stage actress and later a noteworthy Catholic penitent and member of the Secular Franciscan Order.


01/04/1865

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1929)

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was an Austrian-born chemist. He was known for his research in colloids, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925, as well as for co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope, and different membrane filters. The crater Zsigmondy on the Moon is named in his honour.


01/04/1858

Columba Marmion, Irish Benedictine abbot (died 1923)

Columba Marmion, O.S.B was an Irish Benedictine monk and the third abbot of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium. Beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000, Columba was one of the most popular and influential Catholic authors of the 20th century. His books are considered spiritual classics.


01/04/1852

Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter and illustrator (died 1911)

Edwin Austin Abbey was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects, as well as for his painting of Edward VII's coronation. His most famous set of murals, The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail, adorns the Boston Central Library.


01/04/1834

James Fisk, American businessman (died 1872)

James Fisk Jr. was an American stockbroker and corporate executive who was one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. He achieved much ill-fame for his role in Black Friday in 1869, where he and his partner Jay Gould befriended the unsuspecting President Ulysses S. Grant in an attempt to use the President's good name in a scheme to corner the gold market in New York City. On January 7, 1872, Fisk was assassinated in New York City by his former mistress's new lover, who was trying to blackmail him.


01/04/1824

Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, Canadian bishop (died 1901)

Louis-Zéphirin Moreau was a Canadian Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1875 until his death in 1901. He was also the cofounder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Hyacinthe with Élisabeth Bergeron, and the founder of the Sisters of Sainte Martha.


01/04/1823

Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Kentucky (died 1891)

Simon Bolivar Buckner was an American soldier, Confederate military officer, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the 30th governor of Kentucky.


01/04/1815

Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (died 1898)

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as its first chancellor from 1871 to 1890. Bismarck's Realpolitik and firm governance earned him the nickname Iron Chancellor.


Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (died 1880)

Edward Clark was an American politician, slaveowner, and the eighth governor of Texas. When Governor Sam Houston refused to serve the Confederate States of America following the state's secession from the United States in February, 1861, he was removed from office and Clark replaced Houston as governor. Clark's term coincided with the outbreak of the American Civil War.


01/04/1786

William Mulready, Irish genre painter (died 1863)

William Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticising depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp.


01/04/1776

Sophie Germain, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (died 1831)

Marie-Sophie Germain was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Despite initial opposition from her parents and difficulties presented by society, she gained education from books in her father's library, including ones by Euler, and from correspondence under the pseudonym of Monsieur Le Blanc with famous mathematicians, such as Lagrange, Legendre, and Gauss. One of the pioneers of elasticity theory, she won the grand prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her essay on the subject. Her work on Fermat's Last Theorem provided a foundation for mathematicians exploring the subject for hundreds of years after. Because of prejudice against her sex, she was unable to make a career out of mathematics, but she worked independently throughout her life. Before her death, Gauss had recommended that she be awarded an honorary degree, but that never occurred. On 27 June 1831, she died from breast cancer. At the centenary of her life, a street and a girls' school were named after her. The Academy of Sciences established the Sophie Germain Prize in her honour.


01/04/1765

Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver and etcher (died 1810)

Luigi Schiavonetti was an Italian reproductive engraver and etcher.


01/04/1753

Joseph de Maistre, French philosopher, lawyer, and diplomat (died 1821)

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher. He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism.


01/04/1741

George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor (died 1825)

George Dance the Younger RA was an English architect, surveyor and painter who specialised in portrait painting. The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists and dramatists. He was described by Sir John Summerson as "among the few really outstanding architects of the century", but few of his buildings remain.


01/04/1721

Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer (died 1799)

Pieter Hellendaal was a Dutch composer, organist and violinist.


01/04/1697

Antoine François Prévost, French novelist and translator (died 1763)

Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles, usually known simply as the Abbé Prévost, was a French priest, author, and novelist. He is best remembered for Manon Lescaut (1731), a romance and adventure novel, the most reprinted novel in French literary history.


01/04/1647

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet and courtier (died 1680)

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court, who reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied a novel rebellion against the puritan programme, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection at the age of 33.


01/04/1640

Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician and academic (died 1697)

Jørgen Mohr was a Danish mathematician, known for being the first to prove the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, which states that any geometric construction which can be done with compass and straightedge can also be done with compasses alone.


01/04/1629

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, French organist and composer (died 1691)

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert was a French composer, harpsichordist and organist. He was one of the foremost keyboard composers of his day.


01/04/1610

Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier and critic (died 1703)

Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond was a French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic. After 1661, he lived in exile, mainly in England, as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659). He is one of the few foreigners to be buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. He wrote for his friends and did not intend his work to be published, although a few of his pieces were leaked in his lifetime. The first full collection of his works was published in London in 1705, after his death.


01/04/1578

William Harvey, English physician and academic (died 1657)

William Harvey was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation as well as the specific process of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart.


01/04/1543

François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières (died 1626)

François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières was a French soldier of the French Wars of Religion and Constable of France, and one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France.


01/04/1328

Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans (died 1382)

Blanche of France was the posthumous daughter of King Charles IV of France and his third wife, Joan of Évreux. She was the last direct Capetian and the last-surviving member of her family, and her marriage to her second cousin, Philip, Duke of Orléans, proved childless. With Blanche's death in 1393, the House of Capet continued to exist only via its numerous cadet branches.


01/04/1282

Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1347)

Louis IV, called the Bavarian, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328 until his death in 1347.


01/04/1220

Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (died 1272)

Emperor Go-Saga was the 88th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1242 through 1246.


Lives Remembered on 1st April

On 1st April, 90 remarkable people passed away — from 996 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

01/04/2025

Val Kilmer, American actor (born 1959)

Val Edward Kilmer was an American actor. Initially a stage actor, he later found fame as a leading man in films in a wide variety of genres, including comedies, dramas, action adventures, westerns, historical films, crime dramas, science fiction films, and fantasy films. Films in which Kilmer appeared grossed more than $3.85 billion worldwide. In 1992, the film critic Roger Ebert remarked, "if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it".


Johnny Tillotson, American singer-songwriter (born 1938)

Johnny Tillotson was an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary Billboard charts, including "Poetry in Motion", the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'", "Talk Back Trembling Lips" and "Without You".


01/04/2024

Lou Conter, American naval commander (born 1921)

Louis Anthony Conter was an American naval officer who was a lieutenant commander and naval aviator in the United States Navy. At the time of his death, he was the last living survivor of the sinking of the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.


Vontae Davis, American football player (born 1988)

Vontae Ottis Davis was an American professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini and was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. Davis also played for the Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills. He made two Pro Bowls in his career.


Joe Flaherty, American actor, writer, and comedian (born 1941)

Joseph Flaherty was an American actor, writer, and comedian. In television, Flaherty starred on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999). His film roles include the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).


Sami Michael, Iraqi-born Israeli writer and human rights activist (born 1926)

Sami Michael was an Iraqi-Israeli author, having migrated from Iraq to Israel at the age of 23. From 2001, Michael was the President of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).


Ed Piskor, American comic book artist (born 1982)

Edward R. Piskor Jr. was an American alternative comics cartoonist. Piskor was known primarily for his work on Hip Hop Family Tree, X-Men: Grand Design, and the Red Room trilogy. Piskor also co-hosted the YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe with fellow Pittsburgh native cartoonist Jim Rugg. In March 2024, Piskor was accused via social media of sexual misconduct. Piskor died on April 1, 2024, at the age of 41, hours after posting a suicide note via social media, defending himself against the allegations leveled against him.


Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Iranian senior military officer (born 1960)

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was an Iranian military officer. A senior figure within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he had previously commanded the IRGC Aerospace Force and the IRGC Ground Forces, and was commanding the Quds Force unit 18000 in Lebanon and Syria at the time of his death.


01/04/2019

Vonda N. McIntyre, American science fiction author (born 1948)

Vonda Neel McIntyre was an American science fiction writer and biologist.


01/04/2018

Steven Bochco, American television writer and producer (born 1943)

Steven Ronald Bochco was an American television writer and producer. He developed a number of television series, mostly crime dramas, including Hill Street Blues; L.A. Law; Doogie Howser, M.D.; Cop Rock; and NYPD Blue.


01/04/2017

Lonnie Brooks, American blues singer and guitarist (born 1933)

Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."


Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Soviet and Russian poet and writer (born 1932)

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko was a Soviet and Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor, university professor, and director of several films.


01/04/2015

Nicolae Rainea, Romanian footballer and referee (born 1933)

Nicolae Rainea, nicknamed The Locomotive of the Carpathians, was a Romanian football referee and player. Among the most highly regarded referees of his generation, he is considered one of the best international officials of the 70s and 80s and, arguably, the finest Romanian referee of all time.


01/04/2014

King Fleming, American pianist and bandleader (born 1922)

Walter "King" Fleming was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was born in Chicago, Illinois.


Jacques Le Goff, French historian and author (born 1924)

Jacques Le Goff was a French historian and prolific author specializing in the Middle Ages, particularly the 12th and 13th centuries.


Rolf Rendtorff, German theologian and academic (born 1925)

Rolf Rendtorff was Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg from 1963 to 1990. He was one of the more significant German Old Testament scholars from the latter half of the twentieth-century and published extensively on various topics related to the Hebrew Bible. Rendtorff was especially notable for his contributions to the question of the origins of the Pentateuch, his adoption of a "canonical approach" to Old Testament theology, and his concerns over the relationship between Jews and Christians.


01/04/2013

Moses Blah, Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (born 1947)

Moses Zeh Blah was a Liberian politician. He served as the 28th vice president of Liberia under President Charles Taylor and became the 23rd president of Liberia on 11 August 2003, following Taylor's resignation. He served as president for two months, until 14 October 2003, when a United Nations-backed transitional government, headed by Gyude Bryant, was established.


Karen Muir, South African swimmer and physician (born 1952)

Karen Muir was a South African competitive swimmer. Born and raised in Kimberley, she attended the Diamantveld High School, where she matriculated in 1970.


01/04/2012

Lionel Bowen, Australian soldier, lawyer, and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (born 1922)

Lionel Frost Bowen AC was an Australian politician. He was the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1977 to 1990 and served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Australia in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1990.


Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian-American soccer player and radio host (born 1947)

Giorgio Chinaglia was an Italian footballer who played as a striker. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales, and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. He later returned to Italy to play for Massese, Internapoli and S.S. Lazio in 1969. Chinaglia led Lazio to the club's first league championship in the 1973–74 season, during which he was also the league's leading scorer. He played international football for Italy, making 14 appearances and scoring 4 goals between 1972 and 1975, including two appearances at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Chinaglia was the first player in Italian football history to be called up internationally from the second division.


Miguel de la Madrid, Mexican banker, academic, and politician, 52nd President of Mexico (born 1934)

Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was a Mexican politician and lawyer affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 59th president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.


01/04/2010

John Forsythe, American actor (born 1918)

John Lincoln Forsythe was an American stage, film/television actor, producer, narrator, and drama teacher whose career spanned six decades. He also appeared as a guest on several talk and variety shows and as a panelist on numerous game shows.


Tzannis Tzannetakis, Greek soldier and politician, 175th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1927)

Tzannis Tzannetakis was a Greek politician who was briefly Prime Minister of Greece during the political crisis of 1989. He also served as a submarine commander in the Hellenic Navy.


01/04/2006

In Tam, Cambodian general and politician, 26th Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1916)

In Tam was a Cambodian politician who once served as the prime minister of the Khmer Republic. He served in that position from 6 May 1973 to 9 December 1973, and had a long career in Cambodian politics.


01/04/2005

Paul Bomani, Tanzanian politician and diplomat, 1st Tanzanian Minister of Finance (b 1925)

Paul Lazaro Bomani was a Tanzanian politician and ambassador to the United States and Mexico.


Robert Coldwell Wood, American political scientist and academic (born 1923)

Robert Coldwell Wood was an American political scientist, academic and government administrator, and professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From 1965 to 1969, Wood served as the Under Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and for two weeks as the Secretary at the end of the Johnson Administration.


01/04/2004

Ioannis Kyrastas, Greek footballer and manager (born 1952)

Giannis Kyrastas was a Greek footballer and a later manager.


Carrie Snodgress, American actress (born 1945)

Caroline Louise Snodgress was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as well as winning two Golden Globes and two Laurel Awards.


01/04/2003

Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor (born 1956)

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong singer and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Sinophone world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanour, flamboyant screen characters, and avant-garde, androgynous stage presence. Throughout his 26-year career, he released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films.


01/04/2002

Simo Häyhä, Finnish soldier and sniper (born 1905)

Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in World War II. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. Häyhä is believed to have killed more than 500 enemy soldiers during the conflict, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. Consequently, he is generally regarded as the deadliest sniper in history.


01/04/2001

Trịnh Công Sơn, Vietnamese guitarist and composer (born 1939)

Trịnh Công Sơn was a Vietnamese musician, songwriter, painter and poet. He is widely considered to be Vietnam's best songwriter. His music explores themes of love, loss, and anti-war sentiments during the Vietnam War, for which he was censored by both the southern Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many performing artists, most notably Khánh Ly, Hồng Nhung, Trinh Vinh Trinh, and some overseas singers such as Tuan Ngoc, Le Quyen, Le Thu, and Ngoc Lan, have gained popularity in their own right from covering Sơn's songs.


01/04/1999

Jesse Stone, American pianist, songwriter, and producer (born 1901)

Jesse Albert Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres. He also used the pseudonyms Charles Calhoun and Chuck Calhoun. His best-known composition as Calhoun was "Shake, Rattle and Roll".


01/04/1998

Rozz Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1963)

Rozz Williams was an American singer and songwriter known for his work with the bands Christian Death, Shadow Project, and the industrial project Premature Ejaculation. Christian Death is cited by some as a pioneer of the American gothic rock scene as well as deathrock, and is considered to be one of the most influential figures of the scene. However, Williams disliked the "goth" label and actively worked to shed it during the 1980s and 1990s by focusing on punk rock, hard rock, cabaret, and spoken word music. Williams was also involved with his groups Daucus Karota, Heltir, EXP, Bloodflag, and his own version of Christian Death, along with recording a handful of solo albums. In addition to music, Williams was also an avid painter, poet, and collage artist.


01/04/1997

Makar Honcharenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (born 1912)

Makar Mykhaylovych Honcharenko, was a Ukrainian football player and coach. During his career, he played as a forward for a number of clubs, but most noticeably for Dynamo Kyiv. Honcharenko is best known for being the last surviving player of The Death Match.


01/04/1996

Mário Viegas, Portuguese actor and poetry reciter (born 1948)

António Mário Lopes Pereira Viegas was a Portuguese actor, theatre director and reciter. He is considered one of the best actors of his generation and one of Portugal's greatest poetry reciters.


01/04/1995

H. Adams Carter, American mountaineer, journalist, and educator (born 1914)

Hubert Adams "Ad" Carter was an American mountaineer, language teacher and was editor of the American Alpine Journal for 35 years.


Francisco Moncion, Dominican American ballet dancer, choreographer, charter member of the New York City Ballet (born 1918)

Francisco Monción was a Dominican-born American ballet dancer and choreographer who was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his long career, spanning some forty years, he created roles in major works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others. He was also an amateur painter.


Lucie Rie, Austrian-English potter (born 1902)

Dame Lucie Rie, was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unusual decorative techniques.


01/04/1994

Robert Doisneau, French photographer (born 1912)

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and, with Henri Cartier-Bresson, a pioneer of photojournalism.


01/04/1993

Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (born 1954)

Alan Dennis Kulwicki, nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner with Polish origin. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams.


01/04/1992

Michael Havers, Baron Havers, English lawyer and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1923)

Robert Michael Oldfield Havers, Baron Havers,, was a British barrister and Conservative politician. He was knighted in 1972 and appointed a life peer in 1987.


01/04/1991

Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (born 1894)

Martha Graham was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer responsible for creating the Graham technique.


Jaime Guzmán, Chilean lawyer and politician (born 1946)

Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean constitutional law professor, politician, and founding member of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party. In the 1960s, he strongly opposed the University Reform movement and became an active organizer of the Gremialist movement. Guzmán vehemently opposed President Salvador Allende and later became a trusted advisor of General Augusto Pinochet and his dictatorship. As a professor of Constitutional Law, Guzmán played a significant role in drafting the 1980 Chilean Constitution. He briefly served as a senator during the transition to democracy before being assassinated in 1991 by members of the communist urban guerrilla organization, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Autonomous).


01/04/1987

Henri Cochet, French tennis player (born 1901)

Henri Jean Cochet was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.


01/04/1986

Erik Bruhn, Danish actor, director, and choreographer (born 1928)

Erik Belton Evers Bruhn was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, artistic director, actor, and author.


Edwin Boston, English clergyman, author, and railway preservationist

Edwin Richard Boston, known as Teddy Boston, was a Church of England clergyman and author. He built a narrow gauge railway in the grounds of his Rectory at Cadeby, Leicestershire, and was immortalised as the "Fat Clergyman" in The Railway Series children's books by the Rev. W. Awdry.


01/04/1984

Marvin Gaye, American singer-songwriter (born 1939)

Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Commonly referred to as the "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul", he helped to shape the sound of Motown and soul music in the 1960s and 1970s. A cultural icon, Gaye is often considered one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time.


Elizabeth Goudge, English author (born 1900)

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL was an English writer of fiction and children's books. She won the Carnegie Medal for British children's books in 1946 for The Little White Horse. Goudge was long a popular author in the UK and the US and regained attention decades later. In 1993 her book The Rosemary Tree was plagiarised by Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen; the "new" novel set in India was warmly reviewed in The New York Times and The Washington Post before its source was discovered. In 2001 or 2002, J. K. Rowling identified The Little White Horse as one of her favourite books and one of few to have a direct influence on the Harry Potter series.


01/04/1981

Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai singer-songwriter and bandleader (born 1910)

Eua Suntornsanan was a singer, Thai composer and bandleader of the Suntaraporn Band. He was a pioneer in introducing Western music into Thai culture. He started the trend of international style Thai music, or Phleng Thai Sakon. He composed over 2,000 songs that have been popular until today, for example, Rumwong Loy Kratong, many Songkran and New Year songs, and other Thai traditional songs. In 1975, he was given an insignia by the king. In 1981 he died of cancer. In 2007, the Ministry of Culture of Thailand nominated Kru Eua for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) to honor Kru Eua Suntornsanan as Personality of the Year on the list of Anniversary of World Personalities and Historic Events 2010-2011, which was granted in 2010. Received the honor of being Burapasilpin in the performing arts category in 2015.


01/04/1976

Max Ernst, German painter and sculptor (born 1891)

Max Ernst was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, which left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.


01/04/1971

Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish crystallographer and prison reformer (born 1903)

Dame Kathleen Lonsdale was an Irish crystallographer, pacifist, and prison reform activist. She proved, in 1929, that the benzene ring is flat by using X-ray diffraction methods to elucidate the structure of hexamethylbenzene. She was the first to use Fourier spectral methods while solving the structure of hexachlorobenzene in 1931. During her career she attained several firsts for female scientists, including being one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1945, first female professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.


01/04/1968

Lev Landau, Azerbaijani-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1908)

Lev Davidovich Landau was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and made seminal contributions to all branches of physics. He is credited with laying the foundations of twentieth century condensed matter physics, and is also considered arguably the greatest Soviet theoretical physicist.


01/04/1966

Brian O'Nolan, Irish author (born 1911)

Brian O'Nolan, whose pen names included Flann O'Brien, was an Irish Civil Service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His four English-language novels, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), The Hard Life (1961), The Dalkey Archive (1964) and The Third Policeman (1967), were published under the pen name Flann O'Brien. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht (1941), were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.


01/04/1965

Helena Rubinstein, Polish-American businesswoman (born 1870)

Helena Rubinstein was a Polish-American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder and eponym of Helena Rubinstein Incorporated cosmetics company, which made her one of the world's richest women.


01/04/1963

Agnes Mowinckel, Norwegian actress (born 1875)

Agnes Mowinckel was a Norwegian actress and theatre director. Born in Bergen into a distinguished family, she became Norway's first professional stage director. A pioneer in bringing painters to the theatre, she used light as an artistic element, and engaged contemporary composers. She took part in theatrical experiments, worked at small stages in Oslo, and founded her own theatre.


01/04/1962

Jussi Kekkonen, Finnish captain and businessman (born 1910)

Uuno Johannes (Jussi) Kekkonen was a Finnish major, CEO and the younger brother of President of Finland Urho Kekkonen. Jussi Kekkonen fought successfully in the Winter War in the direction of Kuhmo but lost his sight when he was wounded in the early stages of the Continuation War.


01/04/1950

Charles R. Drew, American physician and surgeon (born 1904)

Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of Allied forces' lives during the war. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy until 1950.


Recep Peker, Turkish soldier and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1889)

Mehmet Recep Peker was a Turkish military officer and politician. A heavy-handed modernist, he served in various ministerial posts and finally as the Prime Minister of Turkey between 1946 and 1947.


01/04/1947

George II, king of Greece (born 1890)

George II was King of Greece from 27 September 1922 until 25 March 1924, and again from 25 November 1935 until his death on 1 April 1947.


01/04/1946

Noah Beery, Sr., American actor (born 1882)

Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of character actor Noah Beery Jr. He was billed as either Noah Beery or Noah Beery Sr. depending upon the film.


01/04/1924

Jacob Bolotin, American physician (born 1888)

Jacob W. Bolotin was the world's first totally blind physician.


Lloyd Hildebrand, English cyclist (born 1870)

Lloyd Augustin Biden Hildebrand was a British-born racing cyclist who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hildebrand was still a British citizen in 1900, although he lived in France for much of his life and married a Frenchwoman. He participated in cycling at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, winning the silver medal in the men's 25 kilometre race. as well as the bronze medal 1900 Track Cycling World Championships.


Stan Rowley, Australian sprinter (born 1876)

Stanley Rupert Rowley was an Australian sprinter who won four medals at the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was born in Young, New South Wales and died in Manly, New South Wales.


01/04/1922

Charles I, emperor of Austria (born 1887)

Charles I and IV was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from November 1916 until the monarchy was abolished in November 1918. He was the last of the monarchs belonging to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine to rule over Austria-Hungary. The son of Archduke Otto of Austria and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Charles became heir presumptive of Emperor Franz Joseph when his uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in 1914. In 1911, he married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.


01/04/1920

Walter Simon, German banker and philanthropist (born 1857)

Walter Simon was a German banker, councillor and philanthropist active in Königsberg and Tübingen.


01/04/1917

Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (born 1868)

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.


01/04/1914

Rube Waddell, American baseball player (born 1876)

George Edward "Rube" Waddell was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-hander, he played for 13 years, with the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans in the National League, as well as the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Browns in the American League. Waddell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.


Charles Wells, English founder of Charles Wells Ltd (born 1842)

Captain Charles Wells was the British founder of Charles Wells Ltd, which became the largest privately owned brewery in the United Kingdom, and the progenitor of the Wells Baronets of Felmersham.


01/04/1890

David Wilber, American politician (born 1820)

David Wilber was a United States representative from New York.


Alexander Mozhaysky, Russian soldier, pilot, and engineer (born 1825)

Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaysky was an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, an aviation pioneer, and a researcher and designer of heavier-than-air craft.


01/04/1878

John C.W. Daly, English-Canadian soldier and politician (born 1796)

Lieutenant-Colonel John Corry Wilson Daly was a Canadian politician, businessperson, militia officer, and the first Mayor of Stratford, Ontario.


01/04/1872

Frederick Denison Maurice, English theologian and academic (born 1805)

John Frederick Denison Maurice, commonly known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded.


01/04/1865

Antonios Kriezis, Greek Navy officer and Prime Minister of Greece (born 1796)

Antonios Kriezis was a captain of the Hellenic navy during the Greek War of Independence and a Prime Minister of Greece from 1849 to 1854.


Giuditta Pasta, Italian soprano (born 1797)

Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta was an Italian opera singer. A soprano, she has been compared to the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas.


01/04/1839

Benjamin Pierce, American soldier and politician, 11th Governor of New Hampshire (born 1757)

Benjamin Pierce was an American politician who twice served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1827 to 1828 and from 1829 to 1830. Pierce fought during the American Revolutionary War before becoming a Democratic-Republican Party politician. He was the father of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States.


01/04/1787

Floyer Sydenham, English scholar and academic (born 1710)

Floyer Sydenham was an English scholar of Ancient Greek.


01/04/1682

Franz Egon of Fürstenberg, Bavarian bishop (born 1625)

Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg was a German count in the Holy Roman Empire. He was prime minister for Maximilian Henirich, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, and at the same time worked for Louis XIV of France influencing affairs in the Empire. Franz eventually became Prince-Bishop of Strassburg.


01/04/1621

Cristofano Allori, Italian painter and educator (born 1577)

Cristofano Allori was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects.


01/04/1580

Alonso Mudarra, Spanish guitarist and composer (born 1510)

Alonso Mudarra was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance, and also played the vihuela, a guitar-shaped string instrument. He was an innovative composer of instrumental music as well as songs, and was the composer of the earliest surviving music for the guitar.


01/04/1548

Sigismund I, king of Poland (born 1467)

Sigismund I the Old was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. He was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV and younger brother of Kings John I Albert and Alexander Jagiellon. He was nicknamed "the Old" in later historiography to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sigismund II Augustus. Before ascending to the Polish and Lithuanian thrones, he was Duke of Głogów from 1499, Duke of Opava from 1501, and governor of Silesia from 1504 on behalf of his brother, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary.


01/04/1528

Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer (born 1470)

Francisco de Peñalosa was a Spanish composer of the middle Renaissance.


01/04/1455

Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Polish cardinal and statesman (born 1389)

Zbigniew Oleśnicki, known in Latin as Sbigneus, was a high-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman and an influential Polish statesman and diplomat. He served as Bishop of Kraków from 1423 until his death in 1455. He took part in the management of the country's most important affairs, initially as a royal secretary under King Władysław II Jagiełło and later as the effective regent during King Władysław III's minority. In 1439, he became the first native Polish cardinal.


01/04/1441

Blanche I, queen of Navarre and Sicily (born 1387)

Blanche I was Queen of Navarre from the death of her father, King Charles III, in 1425 until her own death. She had been Queen of Sicily from 1402 to 1409 by marriage to King Martin I, serving as regent of Sicily from 1404 to 1405 and from 1408 to 1415.


01/04/1431

Nuno Álvares Pereira, Portuguese general (born 1360)

Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, OCarm, known as Constable of Portugal, was a Portuguese general who played a decisive role in the 1383–1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a mystic and was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1918, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.


01/04/1282

Abaqa Khan, ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate (born 1234)

Abaqa Khan, was the second Mongol ruler (Ilkhan) of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hulagu Khan and Lady Yesünčin and the grandson of Tolui, he reigned from 1265 to 1282 and was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Tekuder. Much of Abaqa's reign was consumed with civil wars in the Mongol Empire, such as those between the Ilkhanate and the northern khanate of the Golden Horde, and the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Abaqa also engaged in unsuccessful attempts at invading Syria under the Mamluk Sultanate, which included the Second Battle of Homs.


01/04/1205

Amalric II, king of Cyprus and Jerusalem

Aimery of Lusignan, erroneously referred to as Amalric in earlier scholarship, was the first king of Cyprus from 1196 and the king of Jerusalem as the husband of Queen Isabella I from 1198 to his death. He was a capable ruler whose reign was a period of peace and stability in both kingdoms, and the progenitor of the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus.


01/04/1204

Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of France and England (born 1122)

Eleanor of Aquitaine was duchess of Aquitaine from 1137 to 1204, queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, and queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II. As the reigning duchess of Aquitaine, she ruled jointly with her husbands and two of her sons, Kings Richard I and John of England. As the heiress of the House of Poitiers, which controlled much of southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages.


01/04/1132

Hugh of Châteauneuf, French bishop (born 1053)

Hugh of Châteauneuf, also called Hugh of Grenoble, was the Bishop of Grenoble from 1080 to his death. He was a partisan of the Gregorian reform and opposed to the Archbishop of Vienne, later Pope Callixtus II.


01/04/1085

Shen Zong, Chinese emperor (born 1048)

Emperor Shenzong of Song, personal name Zhao Xu, was the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty of China. His original personal name was Zhao Zhongzhen but he changed it to "Zhao Xu" after he acceded to the throne. He reigned from 1067 until his death in 1085 and is best known for supporting Wang Anshi's New Policies. He was a particularly active monarch concerned with expanding Song territory and solving its fiscal, bureaucratic, and military problems through major reforms, but his reign remains controversial due to military failures and the varied effects of his changes.


01/04/0996

John XV, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope John XV was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from August 985 until his death. A Roman by birth, he was the first pope who canonized a saint. The origins of the investiture controversy stem from John XV's pontificate, when the dispute about the deposition of Archbishop Arnulf of Reims soured the relationship between the Capetian kings of France and the Holy See.


Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 1st April

Christian feast day: Cellach of Armagh

Cellach of Armagh or Celsus or Celestinus (1080–1129) was Archbishop of Armagh and an important contributor to the reform of the Irish church in the twelfth century. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Cellach. Though a member of the laicised ecclesiastical dynasty of Clann Sínaig, he took holy vows and gained priestly ordination. This put an end to the anomalous state of affairs, in effect since 966, whereby the supreme head of the Irish Church had been a layman. Following the Synod of Ráith Bressail, in which a diocesan structure for Ireland was established, he became the first metropolitan primate of all Ireland.


Christian feast day: Hugh of Grenoble

Hugh of Châteauneuf, also called Hugh of Grenoble, was the Bishop of Grenoble from 1080 to his death. He was a partisan of the Gregorian reform and opposed to the Archbishop of Vienne, later Pope Callixtus II.


Christian feast day: Frederick Denison Maurice (Church of England)

John Frederick Denison Maurice, commonly known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded.


Christian feast day: Mary of Egypt

Mary of Egypt was an Egyptian grazer saint, said to have dwelled in Byzantine-era Palestine in the 5th century AD.


Christian feast day: Melito of Sardis

Melito of Sardis was a Roman Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Sardis, near Smyrna in western Anatolia. He held a foremost place among the early Christian bishops in Roman Asia due to his personal influence and his literary works, most of which have been lost. What has been recovered, however, has provided a great insight into Christianity during the second century.


Christian feast day: Tewdrig

Tewdrig ap Teithfallt, known simply as Tewdrig, was a king of the post-Roman Kingdom of Glywysing. He abdicated in favour of his son Meurig (Maurice) and retired to live a hermitical life, but was recalled to lead his son's army against an intruding Saxon force. He won the battle, but was mortally wounded.


Christian feast day: Theodora

Theodora was a Roman martyr. The little we know about her life is attributed to the Acta of Pope St. Alexander. She was the sister of St. Hermes, to whom she had given aid and care during his difficult time in prison. She was martyred some time after her brother, in 120. The siblings were later buried side by side on the Salarian road outside of Rome.


Christian feast day: Walric, abbot of Leuconay

Saint Walaric, Valery in modern French, was a Christian monk born in 565 and founder of the monastery of Leuconay, known today as Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. He was a follower of Columbanus, who founded monastic communities throughout Merovingian Gaul and continental Europe during the seventh century.


Christian feast day: April 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Mar. 31 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - Apr. 2


April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day is an annual custom in many Western countries on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool[s]!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbor has been relatively common in the world historically.


Odisha Day (Odisha, India)

Odisha Day, also Utkala Dibasa, is celebrated on 1 April in the Indian state of Odisha in memory of the formation of the state as a separate state out of Bihar and Orissa Province with addition of undivided Koraput District and Ganjam District from the Madras Presidency on 1 April 1936. After losing its political identity completely in 1568 following the defeat and demise of the last king Mukunda Dev, efforts resulted in the formation of a politically separate state under British rule on a linguistic basis on 1 April 1936.


Arbor Day (Tanzania)

Arbor Day is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.


Civil Service Day (Thailand)

Public holidays in Thailand are regulated by the government, and most are observed by both the public and private sectors. There are usually nineteen public holidays in a year, but more may be declared by the cabinet. Other observances, both official and non-official, local and international, are observed to varying degrees throughout the country.


Cyprus National Day (Cyprus)


Edible Book Day

The International Edible Book Festival is an annual event usually held on or around April 1, which is also known as Edible Book Day. The global event has been celebrated since 2000 in various parts of the world, where "edible books" are created, displayed, and small events are held. The creations are photographed and then consumed. Regular contributors to the site are groups from Australia, Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, and Hong Kong. The event was initiated by Judith A. Hoffberg and Béatrice Coron in 2000.


Fossil Fools Day

Fossil Fools Day is an international environmental demonstration day on April 1 annually. The name is a play on the terms "Fossil Fuels" and "April Fools' Day."


Kha b-Nisan, the Assyrian New Year (Assyrian people)

Kha b-Nisan, Ha b-Nisin, or Ha b-Nison, also known as Resha d-Sheta, Akitu (ܐܟܝܬܘ), or Assyrian New Year, is the spring festival among the indigenous Assyrians of northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, celebrated on the first day of April.


What Happened on 1st April?

57 significant events took place on Saturday, 1st April — stretching from 285 to 2026. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

01/04/2026

The Artemis II lunar flyby mission launches, marking the first crewed flight above low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis II was a crewed flyby of the Moon. It was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program, the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), and the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the four-person crew.


01/04/2016

The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact.

The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also known as the Four-Day War, April War, or April clashes, began along the former Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on 1 April 2016 with the Artsakh Defence Army, backed by the Armenian Armed Forces, on one side and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the other.


01/04/2011

After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers.

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, United States, announced plans to burn 200 copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The announcement attracted significant media attention and sparked international outrage, particularly throughout the Islamic world. Numerous world leaders urged Jones to cancel the event. His threat led to protests across the Middle East and Asia, resulting in at least 20 deaths. In early September 2010, Jones announced the event was cancelled and pledged not to burn the Quran.


01/04/2006

Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom which existed from 1 April 2006 until 7 October 2013. SOCA was a national law enforcement agency with Home Office sponsorship, established as a body corporate under Section 1 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. It operated within the United Kingdom and collaborated with many foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies.


01/04/2004

Google launches its Email service Gmail.

Google LLC is an American multinational technology corporation focused on information technology, online advertising, search engine technology, email, cloud computing, software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC, and is one of the world's most valuable brands. Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. has been described as a Big Tech company.


01/04/2001

An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained.

The Lockheed EP-3 is an electronic signals reconnaissance variant of the P-3 Orion, primarily operated by the United States Navy.


Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.

The president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the head of state of that country from 14 January 1953 to 4 May 1980. Josip Broz Tito was the only person to occupy the office. Tito was also concurrently President of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Tito was eventually declared president for life and with his death in 1980 the office was discontinued and the new office of President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia took its place.


Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 1 April 2001. A bill for the legalisation of same-sex marriage was passed in the House of Representatives by 109 votes to 33 on 12 September 2000 and by the Senate by 49 votes to 26 on 19 December. The law received royal assent by Queen Beatrix on 21 December, and took effect on 1 April 2001. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Polling suggests that a significant majority of Dutch people support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.


01/04/1999

Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half a century since the province of Newfoundland was admitted in 1949.


01/04/1997

Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.

Comet Hale–Bopp is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.


01/04/1993

NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top-ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe.


01/04/1989

Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), is introduced in Scotland.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.


01/04/1986

Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) was an underground communist party in Nepal. CPN (Mashal) was formed in November 1984, following a split in the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal). The new party was founded at a congress (labelled the 'fifth congress') in Gorakhpur, India. It was difficult to identify any major ideological difference between the two factions, and probably the split was caused by dissatisfaction with Singh's authoritarian leadership methods. Mohan Baidya (alias 'Kiran') became general secretary of the new party. Other Central Committee members elected at the Gorakhpur conference were Chitra Bahadur K.C., Ramsingh Shris, Bhairav Regmi, Govindsingh Thapa, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Khambasingh Kubar, Bachaspati Devkota, C.P. Gajurel, Dev Gurung, Ishwari Dahal, Bishnu Pokhrel and Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha.


01/04/1984

Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.

Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Commonly referred to as the "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul", he helped to shape the sound of Motown and soul music in the 1960s and 1970s. A cultural icon, Gaye is often considered one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time.


01/04/1979

Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, historically known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. With a population of over 92 million, Iran ranks 17th globally in both geographic size and population. It is divided into five regions with 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's capital and largest city and serves as its primary economic centre.


01/04/1976

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor. A pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. with his early business partner Steve Wozniak as Apple Computer Company in 1976. After the company's board of directors fired him in 1985, he founded NeXT the same year and purchased Pixar in 1986, becoming its chairman and majority shareholder until 2007. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as CEO, where he was closely involved with the creation and promotion of many of the company's most influential products until his resignation in 2011.


01/04/1974

The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect.

The Local Government Act 1972 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Government of 1970–74.


01/04/1973

Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.

Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered tiger. The project was initiated in 1973 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India. As of March 2025, there are 58 protected areas that have been designated as tiger reserves under the project. As of 2022, there were 3,682 wild tigers in India, which is almost 75% of the world's wild tiger population.


01/04/1971

Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh with the help of India. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against East Pakistanis on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the Bangladesh genocide.


01/04/1970

President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.


A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61.

Royal Air Maroc is the Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country's largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa.


01/04/1969

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force.

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British jet-powered attack aircraft designed and produced by the British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley. It was the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) capabilities and the only truly successful V/STOL design of its era.


01/04/1964

The British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry are replaced by a unified Defence Council of the United Kingdom.

The Admiralty was a department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and from 1801 of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department.


01/04/1960

The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.

Television InfraRed Observation Satellite (TIROS) is a series of early weather satellites launched by the United States, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth, enabling scientists to view the Earth from a new perspective: space. The program, promoted by Harry Wexler, proved the usefulness of satellite weather observation, at a time when military reconnaissance satellites were secretly in development or use. TIROS demonstrated at that time that "the key to genius is often simplicity". TIROS is an acronym of "Television InfraRed Observation Satellite" and is also the plural of "tiro" which means "a young soldier, a beginner".


01/04/1955

The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.

The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of British rule in Cyprus, and for eventual union with Greece.


01/04/1954

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. His successful leadership in Operation Torch (1942–1943) and Operation Overlord was pivotal to the Allied victory in World War II.


01/04/1949

The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years.

The Government of Canada, formally His Majesty's Government, is the federal executive of Canada, which includes ministers of the Crown and the federal civil service ; it is corporately branded as the Government of Canada. There are over 100 departments and agencies, as well as over 300,000 persons employed in the Government of Canada. These institutions carry out the programs and enforce the laws established by the Parliament of Canada.


01/04/1948

Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.


Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark.

The Faroe Islands, also known as the Faroes, are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and a rigsdel of the Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the Hebrides and Shetland isles of Scotland, the islands have a population of 54,870 as of November 2025 and a land area of 1,393 km2 (538 sq mi). The official language is Faroese, which is partially mutually intelligible with Icelandic. The terrain is rugged, dominated by fjords and cliffs with sparse vegetation and few trees. As a result of their proximity to the Arctic Circle, the islands experience perpetual civil twilight during summer nights and very short winter days; nevertheless, they experience a subpolar oceanic climate and mild temperatures year-round due to the Gulf Stream. The capital, Tórshavn, receives the fewest recorded hours of sunshine of any city in the world at only 840 per year.


01/04/1947

The only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy begins.

During April 1947, the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) experienced a series of non-violent mutinies amongst the enlisted sailors of four ships and two shore bases. Over 20 per cent of the RNZN's enlisted personnel were punished or discharged for their involvement. The main cause was the poor rates of pay compared to the rest of the New Zealand Defence Force and equivalent civilian wages, exacerbated by the release of a long overdue government review which failed to address the issue. Sailors saw the new pay rates as still inferior to the other branches of the military, with the increases being consumed by taxes, inflation, and the cancellation of allowances and benefits. The poor living and working conditions aboard RNZN ships was another issue, compounded by sailors having no effective way to make dissatisfaction known to the higher ranks. Dissatisfaction with peacetime duties and opportunities also contributed, with many sailors locked into enlistment periods of up to 12 years, and demobilisation efforts prioritising those enlisted specifically for the duration of the Second World War.


01/04/1946

The 8.6 Mw  Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands resulting in dozens of deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii.

The 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska on April 1, 1946. The shock measured 8.6, Mt 9.3 or 7.4. It had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). The seafloor along the fault was elevated, triggering a Pacific-wide tsunami with multiple destructive waves at heights ranging from 45–138 ft (14–42 m), resulting in 165–173 casualties and over US$26 million in damage. The tsunami obliterated the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island, Alaska among others, and killed all five lighthouse keepers. Despite the damage to the Aleutian Island Unimak, the tsunami had an almost imperceptible effect on the Alaskan mainland.


The Malayan Union is established. Protests from locals led to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya two years later.

The Malayan Union was a union of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It was the successor to British Malaya and was conceived to unify the Malay Peninsula under a single government to simplify administration. Following opposition by the ethnic Malays, the union was reorganised as the Federation of Malaya in 1948.


01/04/1945

World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa.

The Tenth United States Army was the last army level command established during the Pacific War during World War II, and included divisions from both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps.


01/04/1944

World War II: Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.


01/04/1941

Fântâna Albă massacre: Between two hundred and two thousand Romanian civilians are killed by Soviet Border Troops.

The Fântâna Albă massacre took place on 1 April 1941 in Northern Bukovina when up to 200 civilians were killed by Soviet Border Troops as they attempted to cross the border from the Soviet Union to Romania near the village of Fântâna Albă, now Staryi Vovchynets in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine. Although according to Soviet official reports, no more than 44 civilians were killed, but local witnesses assert a much higher toll, stating that survivors were tortured, killed, or buried in mass graves. Others were taken away to be tortured and killed at the hands of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Some sources have referred to the massacre as "the Romanian Katyn".


A military coup in Iraq overthrows the regime of 'Abd al-Ilah and installs Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister.

The 1941 Iraqi coup d'état, also called the Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup or the Golden Square coup, was a nationalist coup d'état in Iraq on 1 April 1941 that overthrew the pro-British regime of Regent 'Abd al-Ilah and his Prime Minister Nuri al-Said and installed Sharaf bin Rajeh as Regent and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister.


01/04/1939

Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.

Generalissimo, also generalissimus, is a military rank of the highest degree, superior to field marshal and other five-star ranks in the states where they are used.


01/04/1937

Aden becomes a British crown colony.

Aden is an ancient port city in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea, and has been the de facto capital of Yemen since 2014. It is approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. With its strategic location on the coastline, Aden serves as a gateway between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, making it a crucial maritime hub connecting Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.


The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, becoming an independent air force on 1 April 1937.


01/04/1935

India's central banking institution, the Reserve Bank of India, is formed.

The Reserve Bank of India,, is the central bank of India, regulatory body for the Indian banking system and Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance, Government of the Republic of India, it is responsible for the control, issue, and supply of the Indian rupee. It also manages the country's main payment systems.


01/04/1933

The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts.

Nazism, formally named National Socialism (NS), is the far-right, ultranationalist, totalitarian ideology associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequently called Hitlerism. Nazism is a form of fascism that emphasizes pseudo-scientific theories of racial hierarchy which identify ethnic Germans and Nordic Aryans as a master race. The term "neo-Nazism" is applied to far-right groups formed after World War II with a similar ideology.


01/04/1924

Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years fortress confinement for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" but spends only nine months in jail.

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the genocide of about six million Jews in the Holocaust as well as the deaths of millions of other victims.


The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2020, the Royal Canadian Air Force consists of 12,074 Regular Force and 1,969 Primary Reserve personnel, supported by 1,518 civilians, and operates 258 manned aircraft and nine unmanned aerial vehicles. Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Chief of the Air Force Staff.


01/04/1922

In newly formed Northern Ireland, six Catholics are murdered in the Arnon Street killings, one week after six others were killed in the McMahon killings.

Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. At the 2021 census, its population was 1,903,175, making up around 3% of the UK's population and 27% of the population on the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly, established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. The government of Northern Ireland cooperates with the government of Ireland in several areas under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The Republic of Ireland also has a consultative role on non-devolved governmental matters through the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference.


01/04/1918

The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918 through the merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world. Since its formation, the RAF has played a significant role in British military history. In particular, during the Second World War, the RAF defeated the German Luftwaffe's efforts to establish air superiority over England during the Battle of Britain, and played a key role in the Combined Bomber Offensive alongside the USAAF.


01/04/1908

The Territorial Force (renamed Territorial Army in 1920) is formed as a volunteer reserve component of the British Army.

The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation was created by the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, which consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry into a unified auxiliary, commanded by the War Office and administered by local county territorial associations. The Territorial Force was designed to reinforce the regular army in expeditionary operations abroad, but because of political opposition it was assigned to home defence. Members were liable for service anywhere in the UK and could not be compelled to serve overseas unless they volunteered to do so.


01/04/1900

Prince George becomes absolute monarch of the Cretan State.

Prince George of Greece and Denmark was the second son and child of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia. He served as high commissioner of the Cretan State during its transition towards independence from Ottoman rule and union (Enosis) with Greece.


01/04/1873

The White Star steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547 in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.

The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between the British Empire and the United States. While many other shipping lines focused primarily on speed, White Star branded their services by focusing more on providing comfortable passages for both upper class travellers and immigrants.


01/04/1867

Singapore becomes a British crown colony.

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. Its territory comprises a main island, over 60 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. The country is about one degree of latitude north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north.


01/04/1865

American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line during the Siege of Petersburg.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.


01/04/1833

The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin.

The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers of Mexican Texas, was a successor to the Convention of 1832, whose requests had not been addressed by the Mexican government. Despite the political uncertainty succeeding from a recently concluded civil war, 56 delegates met in San Felipe de Austin to draft a series of petitions to the Alamo. The volatile William H. Wharton presided over the meeting.


01/04/1789

In New York City, the United States House of Representatives achieves its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker.

The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of the U.S. Constitution in enumerated matters to pass or defeat federal legislation, known as bills. Those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for signature or veto. The House's exclusive powers include initiating all revenue bills, impeaching federal officers, and electing the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.


01/04/1725

J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.


01/04/1572

In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Seventeen Provinces, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.

The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.


01/04/1081

Alexios I Komnenos overthrows the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and, after his troops spend three days extensively looting Constantinople, is formally crowned on April 4.

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurping the throne he was faced with a collapsing empire and constant warfare throughout his reign. Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Seljuk Turks were the catalyst that sparked the First Crusade. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne.


01/04/0527

Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are included, to the exclusion of junior co-emperors who never attained the status of sole or senior ruler, as well as of the various usurpers or rebels who claimed the imperial title.


01/04/0285

Roman emperor Diocletian names Maximian his co-emperor ("Augustus").

The Roman emperor was the ruler and monarchical head of state of the Roman Empire, starting with the granting of the title augustus to Octavian in 27 BC. The title of imperator, originally a military honorific, was usually used alongside caesar, originally a cognomen. When a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it generally reflects his accession as augustus, and later as basileus. Early emperors also used the title princeps alongside other Republican titles, notably consul and pontifex maximus.