Events

Up to 1900 
 69 - Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Roman Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.
 70 - Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital, with four Roman legions.
 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (Balkan peninsula).
 966 - Mieszko I of Poland converts to Christianity.
 1028 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor is elected King of Germany.
 1205 - Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.
 1434 - The foundation stone is laid for St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Nantes, France.
 1471 – Yorkists under Edward IV defeat Lancastrians under Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. The Earl of Warwick is killed and Edward IV becomes King.
 1775 - The first abolition society in North America is founded.
 1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
 1849 – Hungary declares independence, with Lajos Kossuth as regent.
 1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
 1862 – Australian bushranger Ben Hall takes part in his first robbery.
 1865 – US President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln dies the next day, of his injuries.
 1865 – United States Secretary of State William H. Seward is attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
 1890 - The Pan-American Union is founded by the first International Conference of American States in Washington, DC.
 1894 - The first-ever commercial movie house opens in New York City.

1901  2000 
 1903 – Turkey is hit by an earthquake, killing 1,700 people.
 1909 – A massacre is organized by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia
 1912 – The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg, and sinks on April 15th in the early morning.
 1927 – The first Volvo makes its debut in Gothenburg in Sweden.
 1928 - The Bremen, a German Junkers W33 type aircraft, reaches Greenly Island, East of Canada, the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.
 1931 - The first edition of the Highway Code is published in the United Kingdom.
 1931 – Spanish Cortes depose King Alfonso XIII, and proclaim the 2nd Republic.
 1935 – In the Dust Bowl, the Black Sunday storm strikes parts of the Central United States. Worst affected is Oklahoma, where settlers are forced to leave, as crops are destroyed.
 1939 - The Grapes of Wrath, a novel by John Steinbeck, is published for the first time.
 1942 - Malta receives the George Cross for bravery during World War II.
 1944 – Carrying explosives, British freight ship Port Stikine explodes in Bombay harbour, killing over 1,000 people and injuring around 3,000.
 1945 – World War II: Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from Fascist rule.
 1956 - Videotape is first demonstrated in Chicago.
 1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit around the Earth, after 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.
 1967 – Gnassingbe Eyadema installs himself as President of Togo, a post he holds until his death in February 2005.
 1969 - At the Academy Awards, there is a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand for Best Actress.
 1975 – In a referendum, voters in Sikkim vote in favour of Union with India.
 1978 – Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to  change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
 1980 - The movie version of the Günter Grass novel The Tin Drum wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 
 1981 - STS-1 mission, on Space Shuttle Columbia, is completed.
 1985 - Bernhard Langer becomes the first German golfer to win the US Masters at Augusta, Georgia, United States.
 1986 – 1 kilogram hailstones fall in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92 people. They are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
 1999 – Sydney, Australia is hit by a severe hailstorm.

From 2001 
 2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office, three days after being ousted and arrested by the military in a US-backed coup.
 2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
 2003 – US troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of a Palestinian group that killed a US citizen on the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
 2008 – Silvio Berlusconi is elected to replace Romano Prodi as Prime Minister of Italy.
 2010 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Yushu district in China's Qinghai province, killing almost 2,700 people.
 2010 – The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland begins to shut down air travel in Europe.
 2014 - Bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, kill dozens of people.
 2014 - Boko Haram militants abduct 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. International campaigns are soon launched to find them, including #BringBackOurGirls.
 2015 - Around 400 people are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.
 2016 - The first quake (magnitude 6.5) of Kumamoto earthquakes happens (quakes happen to April 16 when that of magnitude 7.0 is observed).
 2018 - The United States, United Kingdom and France carry out air strikes in Syria in response to a suspected chemical attack.
 2019 - Tiger Woods wins The Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, United States, winning a major golf competition for the first time in almost 11 years.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1126 - Averroes, Arab Spanish polymath (d. 1198)
 1336 - Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan (d. 1374)
 1527 - Abraham Ortelius, Flemish mapmaker (d. 1598).
 1572 - Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician (d. 1632)
 1578 – King Philip III of Spain (d. 1621)
 1629 – Christiaan Huygens, Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist (d. 1695)
 1668 - Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general and politician (d. 1741)
 1678 - Abraham Darby, English engineer (d. 1717)
 1738 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1809)
 1741 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)
 1765 – Landgravine Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt, Queen of Bavaria (d. 1796)
 1773 - Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, French statesman (d. 1854)
 1788 - David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1870)
 1814 - Dimitri Kipiani, Georgian politician and writer (d. 1887)
 1818 - Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover (d. 1907)
 1852 - Meijer de Haan, Dutch painter (d. 1895)
 1857 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (d. 1944)
 1862 – Pyotr Stolypin, Russian statesman (d. 1911)
 1866 – Anne Sullivan, American teacher of Helen Keller (d. 1936)
 1868 – Peter Behrens, German architect (d. 1940)
 1870 - Syd Gregory, Australian cricketer (d. 1929)
 1870 - Victor Boris-Musatov, Russian painter (d. 1905)
 1872 - Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-Islamic scholar and translator (d. 1953)
 1879 - James Branch Cabell, American writer (d. 1958)
 1881 - Husain Salaahudin, Maldivian poet and scholar (d. 1948)
 1882 – Moritz Schlick, German philosopher (d. 1936)
 1889 – Arnold Joseph Toynbee, English historian (d. 1975)
 1889 – Efim Bogolyubov, Ukrainian chess player (d. 1952)
 1891 – B. R. Ambedkar, Indian social activist (d. 1956)
 1892 - Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1963)
 1892 – Claire Windsor, American actress (d. 1972)

1901  1950 
 1902 - Sylvio Mantha, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and referee (d. 1974)
 1903 - Henry Corbin, French philosopher and educator (d. 1978)
 1904 – John Gielgud, British actor (d. 2000)
 1905 - Jean Pierre-Bloch, French activist, politician and writer (d. 1999)
 1905 - Elizabeth Huckaby, American educator (d. 1999)
 1907 – François Duvalier (Papa Doc), President of Haiti (d. 1971)
 1912 – Robert Doisneau, French photographer (d. 1994)
 1918 - Mary Healy, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
 1919 - Shamshan Begum, Indian singer (d. 2013)
 1920 - Ivor Guest, English ballet historian and lawyer
 1920 - Schubert Gambetta, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1991)
 1921 – Thomas Schelling, American economist (d. 2016)
 1922 - Audrey Long, American actress (d. 2014)
 1923 - Roberto De Vicenzo, Argentine golfer (d. 2017)
 1924 - Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, British philosopher (d. 2019)
 1925 – Abel Muzorewa, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (d. 2010)
 1925 - Gene Ammons, American saxophonist (d. 1974)
 1925 - Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
 1926 – Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 2008)
 1926 - Gloria Jean, American actress
 1927 – Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist (d. 2007)
 1929 – Chadli Bendjedid, former President of Algeria (d. 2012)
 1929 - Gerry Anderson, British writer, director and producer (d. 2012)
 1931 - Dimitar Dobrev, Bulgarian wrestler (d. 2019)
 1932 – Atef Ebeid, former Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 2014)
 1932 – Loretta Lynn, American country musician and singer
 1933 - Boris Strugatsky, Russian writer (d. 2012)
 1933 - Paddy Hopkirk, Northern Irish racing driver
 1934 - Fredric Jameson, American philosopher and theorist
 1935 - Susan Cunliffe-Lister, British paralympian and disabled rights campaigner
 1935 – Erich von Daniken, Swiss writer
 1936 - Ivan Dias, Indian cardinal (d. 2017)
 1936 - Bobby Nichols, American golfer
 1936 - Arlene Martel, American actress (d. 2014)
 1936 - Kenneth Mars, American actor (d. 2011)
 1937 - Sepp Mayerl, Austrian mountaineer (d. 2012)
 1940 – Julie Christie, British actress
 1941 - Pete Rose, American baseball player and manager
 1942 – Valentin Lebedev, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut
 1942 - Valeriy Brumel, Soviet-Russian Olympic athlete (d. 2003)
 1943 – Nikolay Petrov, Russian pianist (d. 2011)
 1944 – John Sergeant, English journalist
 1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist (Deep Purple)
 1945 - Uwe Beyer, German hammer thrower
 1945 - Roger Frappier, Canadian actor, director, producer and screenwriter
 1945 – Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, Samoan Prime Minister
 1947 - Dominique Baudis, French journalist and politician (d. 2014)
 1948 - Berry Berenson, American photographer, actress and model (d. 2001)
 1949 – Chris Langham, British actor
 1949 – John Shea, American actor
 1949 - Eric Cunningham, Canadian politician (d. 2015)
 1950 - Francis Collins, American physician and geneticist

1951  1975 
 1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, British cellist
 1954 - Katsuhiro Otomo, Japanese artist, screenwriter and director
 1954 - Bruce Sterling, American science fiction author
 1955 - Aleksey Lebed, Russian military officer and politician (d. 2019)
 1956 - Barbara Bonney, American soprano
 1957 - Richard Jeni, American comedian and actor (d. 2007)
 1957 - Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, composer and conductor
 1958 – Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor and director
 1959 - Steve Byrnes, American sports announcer (d. 2015)
 1960 – Brad Garrett, American actor
 1961 – Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor
 1964 – Gina McKee, English actress
 1966 - Lloyd Owen, English actor
 1967 - Nicola Berti, Italian footballer
 1967 - Francis Tsai, American comic book, movie and video game concept artist (d. 2015)
 1967 - Steve Chiasson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)
 1967 - Julie Zemio, French-Australian actress and singer
 1968 - Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
 1971 - Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer (d. 2012)
 1972 - Dean Potter, American rock climber and BASE jumper (d. 2015)
 1973 - David Miller, American tenor (Il Divo)
 1973 – Roberto Ayala, Argentine footballer
 1973 – Adrien Brody, American actor
 1975 - Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist
 1975 - Amy Birnbaum, American voice actress

From 1976 
 1976 - Georgina Chapman, English model, actress and fashion designer
 1976 - Francoise Mbango Etone, Cameroonian athlete
 1976 - Kyle Farnsworth, American baseball player
 1977 – Cristiano Zanetti, Italian footballer
 1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress
 1980 - Win Butler, American-Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1980 - Steven Holcomb, American bobsledder (d. 2017)
 1981 - Amy Leach, English director
 1982 - Ugur Boral, Turkish footballer
 1983 – James McFadden, Scottish footballer
 1983 – Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Georgian basketball player
 1984 - Harumafuji Kohei, Mongolian sumo wrestler
 1986 – Matt Derbyshire, English footballer
 1986 – Anne Watanabe, Japanese model
 1987 – Erwin Hoffer, Austrian footballer
 1987 - Wilson Kiprop, Kenyan long-distance runner
 1989 - Aleksei Alekseyev, Russian footballer
 1989 - Dafina Zeqiri, Albanian-Kosovan-Swedish singer and dancer
 1993 - Vivien Cardone, American actress
 1993 - Graham Phillips, American actor and singer
 1994 - Skyler Samuels, American actress
 1996 – Abigail Breslin, American actress
 1999 - Anita Simoncini, Sammarinese singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1132 - Mstislav I of Kiev (b. 1076)
 1471 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English kingmaker (b. 1428)
 1574 - Louis of Nassau (b. 1538)
 1578 - James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots
 1721 - Michel Chamillart, French statesman (b. 1652)
 1758 – Clara, famous rhinoceros
 1759 – George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)
 1785 - William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
 1792 - Maximilian Hell, Hungarian astronomer (b. 1720)
 1816 - Bussa, African-born Barbadian slave and national hero of Barbados
 1843 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian violinist and composer (b. 1801)
 1895 - James Dwight Dana, American geologist, mineralogist and zoologist (b. 1813)

1901  2000 
 1910 - Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (b. 1856)
 1912 – Henri Brisson, French statesman (b. 1835)
 1914 – Hubert Bland, co-founder of Fabian Society (b. 1855)
 1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto (b. 1859)
 1925 – John Singer Sargent, English artist (b. 1856)
 1930 – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian writer (b. 1893)
 1935 – Amalie Emmy Noether, German mathematician (b. 1882)
 1943 – Yakov Dzhugashvili, son of Joseph Stalin (b. 1907)
 1950 – Ramana Maharshi, Indian guru (b. 1879)
 1951 - Al Christie, Canadian-American director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1881)
 1962 - Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer, scholar and statesman (b. 1860)
 1964 - Tatyana Afanasyeva, Russian-Dutch mathematician (b. 1876)
 1964 – Rachel Carson, American writer (b. 1907)
 1965 - Richard Hickock, American murderer (b. 1931)
 1965 - Perry Edward Smith, American murderer (b. 1928)
 1968 – Al Benton, Major League Baseball player (b. 1911)
 1975 – Fredric March, actor (b. 1897)
 1983 - Pete Farndon, English musician (b. 1952)
 1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (b. 1908)
 1989 – Pete Farndon, British musician (The Pretenders)
 1995 – Burl Ives, American folk singer and actor (b. 1909)
 1999 – Anthony Newley, actor, singer (b. 1931)
 1999 – Ellen Corby, American actress (b. 1911)
 1999 – Bill Wendell, American broadcaster (b. 1931)
 2000 – Phil Katz, American computer programmer (b. 1962)
 2000 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (b. 1918)

From 2001 
 2001 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (b. 1927)
 2001 - Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (b. 1939)
 2007 – Ladislav Adamec, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (b. 1926)
 2009 – Maurice Druon, French writer, dramatist and politician (b. 1918)
 2010 - Israr Ahmed, Pakistani theologian and scholar (b. 1932)
 2010 – Peter Steele, American musician (b. 1962)
 2011 – Walter Breuning, American supercentenarian (b. 1896)
 2011 – William Lipscomb, American chemist (b. 1919)
 2012 – Emile Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
 2012 – Piermario Morosini, Italian footballer (b. 1986)
 2012 - Jonathan Frid, Canadian actor (b. 1924)
 2013 - Colin Davis, British conductor (b. 1927)
 2013 - Armando Villanueva, Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1915)
 2014 - Brian Harradine, Australian politician (b. 1935)
 2014 - Armando Peraza, Cuban-American Latin jazz percussionist (b. 1924)
 2014 - Mick Staton, American politician (b. 1940)
 2014 - Albert Manent, Spanish writer (b. 1930)
 2014 - Manuel Ortega, Spanish painter (b. 1921)
 2015 - Ameril Umbra Kato, Filipino warlord (b. 1946)
 2015 - Percy Sledge, American singer (b. 1941)
 2015 - Norman H. Bangerter, American politician, 13th Governor of Utah (b. 1933)
 2015 - Homaro Cantu, American chef (b. 1976)
 2015 - Klaus Bednarz, German journalist and writer (b. 1942)
 2015 - Meir Rosenne, Israeli lawyer and diplomat (b. 1931)
 2015 - Roberto Tucci, Italian cardinal (b. 1921)
 2016 - Nguyen Anh 9, Vietnamese songwriter and pianist (b. 1940)
 2016 - Ahmed Brahim, Tunisian politician (b. 1946)
 2016 - Malick Sidibé, Malian photographer (b. 1935)
 2016 - Liang Sili, Chinese missile control scientist and academic (b. 1924)
 2016 - David J. C. MacKay, British author, physicist and professor (b. 1967)
 2017 - Henry Hillman, American venture capitalist and philanthropist (b. 1918)
 2017 - Robert Taylor, American computer scientist and internet pioneer (b. 1932)
 2018 - Isabella Biagini, Italian actress (b. 1943)
 2018 - Hal Greer, American basketball player (b. 1936)
 2018 - Jean-Claude Malgoire, French conductor (b. 1940)
 2018 - Jon Michelet, Norwegian author (b. 1944)
 2018 - Gerald Nachman, American critic and author (b. 1938)
 2018 - Robert Holmes, American football player (b. 1945)
 2019 - Bibi Andersson, Swedish actress (b. 1935)
 2019 - Giuseppe Ciarrapico, Italian politician (b. 1934)
 2019 - Colin Collindridge, English footballer (b. 1929)
 2019 - Abdallah Lamrani, Moroccan footballer (b. 1946)
 2019 - Gene Wolfe, American writer (b. 1931)

Observances 
 New Year Festivals in many South and Southeast Asian cultures
 Georgian language Day
 Youth Day (Angola)
 Ambedkar Jayanti (India), celebrating the birthday of social activist B. R. Ambedkar
 Pan-American Day
 Black Day (South Korea)
 Dhivehi language Day (Maldives)

Days of the year