Events

Up to 1900 
 257 BC – A solar eclipse is seen over southern Gaul and Tuscany.
 33 – Crucifixion of Jesus (traditional date)
 1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.
 1559 – The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
 1764 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned Roman-German King in Frankfurt.
 1834 – The Generals in the Greek War of Independence stand trial for treason.
 1860 – The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California is started (completed on April 13).
 1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the break-away Confederate States of America.
 1881 - The Greek island of Chios is hit by a major earthquake. People do not return to the island until 1911.
 1882 - American Old West: Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
 1884 - Belgian passenger ship Daniel Steinmann sinks in a storm of Halifax, Nova Scotia, killing 121 people.
 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
 1895 - The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins. It eventually leads to imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
 1896 - La Gazzetta dello Sport first goes on sale in Italy. It is the world's oldest sports paper.

1901  2000 
 1905 – Boca Juniors football club is founded in Buenos Aires.
 1922 – Joseph Stalin succeeds Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union.
 1926 - Honduras introduces the Lempira as its currency.
 1933 - The first flight over Mount Everest occurs, as part of a British expedition led by Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.
 1941 – Hungarian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.
 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
 1944 - A mine explosion in Heessen, Westphalia, Germany, kills 169 miners.
 1946 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
 1948 – President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
 1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, a civil war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins.
 1954 - Oxford University wins the 100th Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.
 1956 - A deadly Force 5 tornado hits the western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
 1961 - Leadbeater's Possum is re-discovered in Australia, after 72 years.
 1968 – Elvis Presley sings Heartbreak Hotel on the Milton Berle Show with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing.
 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
 1973 – The first ever Mobile phone call is placed by Martin Cooper, in New York City
 1974 – The Super Outbreak occurred. 148 tornadoes affected 13 states and 1 Canadian province in 18 hours. It was the biggest tornado outbreak in the planet's recorded history. 315 people die, nearly 5,500 are injured.
 1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, who wins the world championship by default as a result.
 1979 - Spain holds its first local elections since the death of Francisco Franco.
 1981 - Osborne 1, the first-ever portable computer, is unveiled in San Francisco.
 1984 - Lansana Conté comes to power in Guinea through a military coup.
 1986 – IBM unveils the PC Convertible, their first laptop computer.
 1991 - Miguel Trovoada becomes President of São Tomé and Príncipe.
 1992 – Albania's last Communist leader Ramiz Alia resigns.
 1996 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
 1997 – Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 people living in Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
 2000 – Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.

From 2001 
 2004 – Islamist terrorists blow themselves up in Madrid, after a shootout with police.
 2007 – A new speed record is set by a TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line in France.
 2008 – ATA Airlines files for bankruptcy.
 2010 – South African far-right politician Eugene Terre'Blanche is beaten to death on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp.
 2013 - Over 50 people are killed in floods in Buenos Aires and La Plata in Argentina.
 2016 - Panama Papers: A leak of 11 million legal documents related to the firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies, involving many rich and famous people, including political leaders, businessmen and celebrities.
 2017 - 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing: A bomb is detonated in the subway system in Saint Petersburg, Russia, killing 14 people.
 2018 - YouTube headquarters shooting: Nasim Najafi Aghdam injures several people at the headquarters of YouTube in San Bruno, California, before turning the gun on herself.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1151 - Igor Svyatoslavich, Kievan Rus Prince (d. 1202)
 1245 – King Philip III of France (d. 1285)
 1367 – King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
 1529 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1581)
 1593 - George Herbert, Welsh-born English poet (d. 1633)
 1639 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
 1643 - Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1690)
 1683 – Mark Catesby, English naturalist (d. 1749)
 1715 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (d. 1787)
 1764 - John Abernethy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
 1769 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish-Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
 1770 - Theodoros Kolokstronis, Greek general (d. 1843)
 1781 - Swaminarayan, Indian religious leader (d. 1830)
 1783 – Washington Irving, American writer (d. 1859)
 1798 – Charles Wilkes, American navy officer and polar explorer (d. 1877)
 1806 – Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (d. 1856)
 1807 - Jane Digby, English aristocrat and adventuress (d. 1881)
 1814 – Lorenzo Snow, American Mormon leader (d. 1901)
 1822 - Edward Everett Hale, American writer (d. 1909)
 1823 - William M. Tweed, American politician (d. 1878)
 1843 – Knut Ekvall, Swedish artist (d. 1912)
 1848 - Arturo Prat, Chilean lawyer and naval officer (d. 1879)
 1861 - Frederik van Eeden, Dutch writer and psychiatrist (d. 1932)
 1863 - Henry van de Velde, Belgian architect and designer (d. 1957)
 1876 - Margaret Anglin, Canadian Broadway actress (d. 1958)
 1876 - Celso Constantini, Italian cardinal (d. 1958)
 1880 - Jorge Brown, Argentine footballer and cricketer (d. 1936)
 1880 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (d. 1903)
 1881 – Alcide De Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1954)
 1882 - Philippe Desranleau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1952)
 1883 - Ikki Kita, Japanese philosopher and author (d. 1937)
 1885 - Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 1954)
 1885 - Allan Dwan, American director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
 1887 - Otori Tanigoro, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1956)
 1889 - Grigoras Dinicu, Romanian composer and violinist (d. 1949)
 1893 - Leslie Howard, British actor (d. 1943)
 1895 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
 1898 – Henry Luce, American publisher (d. 1967)
 1898 - George Jessel, American actor, singer and producer (d. 1981)
 1899 – David Jack, English footballer (d. 1958)
 1899 - Maria Redaelli, Italian supercentenarian (d. 2013)
 1900 - Camille Chamoun, President of Lebanon (d. 1987)

1901  1950 
 1903 - Lili Kraus, Hungarian-American pianist (d. 1986)
 1904 - Sally Rand, American Burlesque dancer (d. 1979)
 1905 - Robert Sink, American military officer (d. 1965)
 1907 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (d. 1999)
 1911 – Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish athlete (d. 1980)
 1912 - Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek politician, physician and athlete (d. 1963)
 1913 – Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 2005)
 1915 – Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2016)
 1918 - Mary Anderson, American actress (d. 2014)
 1919 - Ervin Drake, American songwriter and composer (d. 2015)
 1920 – Stan Freeman, American composer and lyricist (d. 2001)
 1920 – John Demjanjuk, Ukrainian convicted Nazi war criminal (d. 2012)
 1920 - Yoshibayama Junnosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1977)
 1922 - Doris Day, American actress (d. 2019)
 1922 - José Hierro, Spanish poet (d. 2002)
 1922 - Carlo Lizzani, Italian movie director, screenwriter and actor (d. 2013)
 1924 – Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
 1925 – Tony Benn, British politician (d. 2014)
 1926 – Gus Grissom, American astronaut (d. 1967)
 1926 - Timothy Bateson, English actor (d. 2009)
 1928 - Earl Lloyd, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1928 - Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Senegalese writer
 1929 - Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese actress (d. 2007)
 1929 - Poul Schlüter, former Prime Minister of Denmark
 1930 – Helmut Kohl, former Chancellor of Germany (d. 2017)
 1930 - Lawton Chiles, 41st Governor of Florida (d. 1998)
 1930 - Mario Menéndez, Argentine general and politician (d. 2015)
 1933 - Bob Dornan, American politician
 1933 - Fu Da-ren, Taiwanese sports broadcaster and assisted suicide activist (d. 2018)
 1934 – Jane Goodall, English zoologist
 1935 - Salvatore Senese, Italian magistrate and politician (d. 2019)
 1936 – Reginald Hill, English crime fiction writer (d. 2012)
 1936 - Harold Vick, American jazz saxophonist and flautist (d. 1987)
 1942 - Wayne Newton, American singer and actor
 1942 - Billy Joe Royal, American singer (d. 2015)
 1942 - Marsha Mason, American actress
 1943 - Mario Lavista, Mexican composer
 1943 - Jonathan Lynn, English actor, director and screenwriter
 1945 - Bernie Parent, Canadian ice hockey player
 1945 - Catherine Spaak, French actress
 1946 - Dee Murphy, English musician (d. 1992)
 1946 - Marisa Paredes, Spanish actress
 1946 - Hanna Suchocka, 5th Prime Minister of Poland
 1948 – Carlos Salinas de Gortari, former President of Mexico
 1948 – Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch politician and former NATO Secretary-General
 1948 - Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, German footballer
 1949 – Daniel Catan, Mexican composer (d. 2011)
 1949 - A. C. Grayling, British philosopher
 1950 - Sally Thomsett, English actress

1951  1975 
 1953 - Wakanohana Kanji II, Japanese sumo wrestler
 1956 - Miguel Bosé, Spanish singer and actor
 1957 - Yves Chaland, French cartoonist (d. 1990)
 1958 - Francesca Woodman, American photographer (d. 1981)
 1958 – Alec Baldwin, American actor
 1959 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor
 1960 - Elizabeth Gracen, American actress and model
 1960 - Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Dutch singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
 1961 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
 1962 – Jennifer Rubin, American actress
 1964 – Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
 1964 – Andy Robinson, English rugby player and coach
 1964 - Nigel Farage, English politician, former leader of UKIP
 1965 - Katsumi Oenoki, Japanese footballer
 1966 – Mina Tominaga, Japanese voice actress
 1966 - Michael Mittermeier, German comedian
 1968 – Sebastian Bach, Canadian singer
 1968 - Charlotte Coleman, English actress (d. 2001)
 1968 - Jamie Hewlett, English comic creator
 1970 - Donald-Olivier Sié, Ivorian footballer
 1971 - Robert da Silva Almeida, Brazilian footballer
 1971 – Vitalijs Astafjevs, Latvian footballer
 1971 - Picabo Street, American skier
 1972 – Kenny Logan, Scottish rugby player
 1972 - Lola Pagnani, Italian movie actress
 1972 - Jennie Garth, American actress
 1972 - Leigh-Allyn Baker, American actress
 1972 - Catherine McCormack, English actress
 1973 - Prabhu Deva, Indian dancer, choreographer, movie director and actor
 1973 – Jamie Bamber, English actor
 1975 - Shawn Bates, American ice hockey player

From 1976 
 1976 – Drew Shirley, American musician
 1976 – Will Mellor, English actor
 1978 – Matthew Goode, English actor
 1978 – Tommy Haas, German tennis player
 1978 – John Smit, South African rugby player
 1980 – Suella Braverman, English politician
 1981 – Aaron Bertram, American trumpeter (Suburban Legends)
 1982 – Cobie Smulders, Canadian actress
 1983 – Ben Foster, English footballer
 1985 – Leona Lewis, English singer
 1986 – Amanda Bynes, American actress
 1986 – Coleen Rooney, English celebrity
 1987 – Park Jung-min, South Korean singer, dancer and actor
 1987 – Martyn Rooney, English sprinter
 1988 – Tim Krul, Dutch footballer
 1989 – Israel Folau, Australian rugby player
 1990 – Sotiris Ninis, Greek footballer
 1990 – Karim Ansarifard, Iranian footballer
 1991 – Hayley Kiyoko, American singer, dancer and actress
 1992 – Simone Benedetti, Italian footballer
 1992 – Yuliya Yefimova, Russian swimmer
 1992 – Juan Cazares, Ecuadorean footballer
 1993 – Pape Moussa Konaté, Senegalese footballer
 1994 – Dylann Roof, American murderer, perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting
 1995 – William de Asevedo Furtado, Brazilian footballer
 1997 – Gabriel Jesus, Brazilian footballer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 963 – William III, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 915)
 1203 - Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (b. 1196)
 1287 - Pope Honorius IV (b. 1240)
 1350 - Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1295)
 1617 – John Napier, Scottish mathematician (b. 1550)
 1680 - Shivaji, Indian founder of the Maratha Empire (b. 1608)
 1682 – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish painter (b. 1618)
 1691 - Jean Petitot, French-Swiss painter (b. 1608)
 1717 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
 1849 – Juliusz Slowacki, Polish poet (b. 1809)
 1857 - Federico de Roncali, 1st Count of Alcoy, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1809)
 1868 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and inventor (b. 1796)
 1882 – Jesse James, American outlaw (b. 1847)
 1897 – Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)

1901  2000 
 1901 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, British talent agent, impresario, composer and hotelier (b. 1844)
 1936 – Bruno Hauptmann, German, convicted for the murder of Charles Lindbergh III (b. 1899)
 1941 – Pal Teleki, Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1879)
 1941 - Tachiyama Mineemon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1877)
 1943 - Conrad Veidt, German-American actor (b. 1893)
 1950 – Kurt Weill, German composer (b. 1900)
 1950 - Carter G. Woodson, American historian, writer and journalist (b. 1875)
 1952 – Miina Sillanpaa, Finnish politician (b. 1866)
 1954 - Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat (b. 1885)
 1975 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (b. 1933)
 1978 - Ray Noble, English bandleader, actor and composer (b. 1903)
 1982 - Warren Oates, American actor (b. 1928)
 1986 – Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
 1990 – Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer and pianist (b. 1924)
 1991 – Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
 1994 – Frank Wells, American businessman, President of the Walt Disney Company (b. 1932)
 1996 - Ron Brown, American politician (b. 1941)
 1999 – Lionel Bart, English composer (b. 1930)

From 2001 
 2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer (b. 1942)
 2004 - Gabriella Ferri, Italian singer (b. 1942)
 2007 – Nina Wang, Asia's richest woman (b. 1937)
 2008 – Hrvoje Custic, Croatian footballer (b. 1983)
 2010 – Eugene Terre'Blanche, South African far-right politician (b. 1941)
 2012 - Xenia Stade-de Jong, Dutch athlete (b. 1922)
 2013 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-born novelist, short story writer and screenwriter (b. 1927)
 2014 - Régine Deforges, French author, playwright and director (b. 1935)
 2014 - Fred Kida, American illustrator (b. 1920)
 2014 - Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, American guitarist, fiddler and composer (b. 1921)
 2014 - Paul Salamunovich, American choral director and movie scorer (b. 1927)
 2014 - Virginie Korte-van Hemel, Dutch politician (b. 1929)
 2014 - Edvard Grimstad, Norwegian politician (b. 1933) 
 2014 - Tommy Lynn Sells, American serial killer (b. 1964)
 2015 - Nigel Boocock, British speedway rider (b. 1937)
 2015 - Shmuel Wosner, Austrian-Israeli rabbi (b. 1913)
 2015 - Sarah Brady, American gun control campaigner (b. 1942)
 2015 - Kayahan, Turkish pop singer (b. 1949)
 2015 - Robert Rietti, British-Italian actor (b. 1923)
 2015 - Vivian Nathan, American actress (b. 1916)
 2015 - Bob Burns, American drummer (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1950)
 2016 - Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (b. 1932)
 2016 - Joe Medicine Crow, American historian (b. 1913)
 2016 - Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer (b. 1936)
 2016 - Martin Lampkin, British motorcycle rider (b. 1950)
 2016 - Lola Novakovic, Serbian singer (b. 1935)
 2016 - Erik Bauersfeld, American radio dramatist and voice actor (b. 1922)
 2016 - Don Francks, Canadian jazz singer and actor (b. 1932)
 2016 - Rowley Habib, New Zealand writer (b. 1933)
 2016 - Clarence Clifton Young, American politician (b. 1922)
 2016 - Jules Schelvis, Dutch historian and Holocaust survivor (b. 1921)
 2017 - John Chrispinsson, Swedish journalist (b. 1956)
 2017 - Akbarzhan Jalilov, Kyrgyz-born Russian terrorist (b. 1995)
 2017 - Roy Sievers, American baseball player (b. 1926)
 2017 - Michel Arrivé, French linguist and novelist (b. 1936)
 2017 - Stella Turk, British zoologist, naturalist and conservationist (b. 1925)
 2018 - Lill-Babs, Swedish singer (b. 1938)
 2018 - Nasim Najafi Aghdam, Iranian-American animal rights and internet personality (b. 1979)
 2018 - Arrigo Petacco, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1929)
 2018 - Jacques Tixier, French archaeologist and prehistorian
 2019 - Maurice Pon, French lyricist (b. 1921)
 2019 - Aleksey Buldakov, Russian actor (b. 1951)
 2019 - Gabriel Piroird, French bishop (b. 1932)
 2019 - Carmelita Pope, American actress (b. 1924)

April 03