April 8

Events
Up to 1900
217 - Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
1093 - The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated.
1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.
1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
1740 - War of Jenkins' Ear: Three British ships capture the Spanish third-rate HMS Princess.
1742 - The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah, in Dublin.
1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom fell to Burmese invaders.
1784 - William Herschel discovers six Galaxies.
1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
1832 - Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
1866 - Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.
1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
1893 - First recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania when the Geneva College Covenanters defeated the New Brighton YMCA.
1899 - Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
1901 2000
1904 - France and the United Kingdom sign the Entente cordiale.
1904 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
1906 - Auguste Deter, the first-recorded Alzheimer's disease patient, dies at the age of 56.
1908 - Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
1910 - The Los Angeles Motordome opened near Playa del Rey, California.
1911 - Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
1913 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators.
1916 - In Corona, California, auto racer Bob Burman crashed through a crowd barrier at the last Boulevard Race, killing himself, his mechanic and a track policeman, and badly injuring five spectators.
1918 - World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.
1924 - Sharia courts are banned in Turkey, as part of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's reforms.
1929 - Indian independence movement: At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts, and bombs in a corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest.
1933 - A majority of voters in Western Australia chooses to secede from Australia in a referendum; the result is not recognised.
1935 - The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
1952 - In a radio address to the nation from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the United States in order to prevent a nationwide strike.
1953 - Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
1954 - A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard aircraft collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadian North Star aircraft over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.
1954 - South African Airways Flight 201 crashes into the sea near Naples, Italy, killing 21 people.
1960 - The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch.
1961 - A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf kills 238 people.
1967 - In Vienna, Austria, Sandie Shaw wins the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Puppet on a String".
1970 - Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school, killing 46 children.
1971 - a 6-pound meteorite struck a house on Spring Street in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
1973 - Painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso dies in Mougins, France, at the age of 91.
1974 - At the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron breaks baseball great's Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.
1975 - Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians manages his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
1975 - Vietnam War: After spending a week in South Vietnam, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand gives a report to the U.S. Congress that South Vietnam will fall without additional military aid.
1985 - Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
1986 - Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California receiving 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election).
1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
1989 - South Africa In Johannesburg, the Progressive Federal Party, Independent party, National Democratic Movement and the force of "Ontevrede Afrikaners" or dissatisfied Afrikaners merged to form the Democratic Party.
1990 - Twin Peaks premieres.
1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces to the world that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
1993 - The Republic of Macedonia joins the UN.
1994 - The body of Kurt Cobain is discovered in his Washington home. He was 27 years old.
2000 - A U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey crashes during landing at Marana, Arizona killing 19.
From 2001
2002 - Ed McMahon files a US$20 million lawsuit against his insurance company and others regarding a toxic mold infecting McMahon's Beverly Hills, California home.
2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
2005 - Funeral of Pope John Paul II.
2008 - Yo So-yeon becomes the first Korean woman in space.
2013 - Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies aged 87 of complications from a stroke. See Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher.
2013 - The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist group is created.
2018 - A suspected chemical attack in Douma, Syria, kills at least 50 people.
2018 - Hungary's general election results in Viktor Orban winning a third term in office as Prime minister.
Births
Up to 1900
563 BC - Gautama Buddha, religious leader (d. 483 BC)
1320 - King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
1533 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (d. 1604)
1536 - Barbara of Hesse (d. 1597)
1541 - Michele Mercati, Italian physician (d. 1593)
1605 - King Philip IV of Spain (d. 1665)
1641 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (d. 1704)
1692 - Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer (d. 1770)
1732 - David Rittenhouse, American astronomer, inventor and mathematician (d. 1796)
1761 - William Joseph Chaminade, French priest (d. 1850)
1783 - John Claudius Loudon, Scottish botanist and garden designer (d. 1843)
1793 - Karl Zell, German statesman and philologist (d. 1873)
1798 - Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet (d. 1857)
1815 - Andrew Graham, Irish astronomer (d. 1908)
1818 - King Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
1818 - August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist (d. 1892)
1826 - Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican soldier (d. 1890)
1827 - Ramon Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, doctor and diplomat (d. 1898)
1842 - Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer (d. 1933)
1859 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian-German philosopher (d. 1938)
1865 - Charles W. Woodworth, Entomologist (d. 1940)
1869 - Harvey Williams Cushing, American neurologist (d. 1939)
1871 - Clarence Hudson White, American photographer (d. 1925)
1872 - Ivan Bloch, physician (d. 1922)
1874 - Stanislaw Taczak, Polish general (d. 1960)
1875 - King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
1885 - Dimitrios Levidis, Greek composer (d. 1951)
1888 - Dennis Chavez, American politician (d. 1962)
1889 - Blanche Stuart Scott, American pilot (d. 1970)
1889 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
1892 - Mary Pickford, Canadian-born actress, studio founder (d. 1979)
1892 - Richard Neutra, Austrian architect (d. 1970)
1898 - Achille Van Acker, 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1969)
1899 - John Christie, English serial killer (d. 1953)
1901 1950
1902 - Andrew Irvine, British mountaineer (d. 1924)
1904 - Ron Hicks, British economist (d. 1989)
1904 - Yves Congar, French cardinal (d. 1995)
1905 - Helen Joseph, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1992)
1908 - Hugo Fregonese, Argentine director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1910 - George Musso, American football player (d. 2000)
1911 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
1911 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist, 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1997)
1912 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian Olympic and World Champion figure skater (d. 1969)
1912 - Julian Berrendero, Spanish cyclist (d. 1995)
1912 - Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi (date of death unknown, possibly 2001, 2009 or 2010)
1913 - Sourou-Migan Apithy, President of Benin (d. 1989)
1914 - Maria Felix, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
1915 - Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, philosopher and activist (d. 2007)
1917 - Hubertus Ernst, Dutch bishop (d. 2017)
1917 - Grigori Kuzmin, Russian-Estonian astronomer (d. 1988)
1918 - Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)
1919 - Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007)
1919 - Virginia O'Brien, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 - Carmen McRae, American singer, composer, pianist and actress (d. 1994)
1921 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
1923 - Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (d. 1997)
1923 - George Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
1926 - Jurgen Moltmann, German theologian
1926 - Shecky Greene, American comedian
1926 - Henry N. Cobb, American architect
1926 - Jean-Jacques Pauvert, French publisher and author (d. 2014)
1928 - Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin (d. 2000)
1929 - Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (d. 2000)
1929 - Jacques Brel, Belgian singer and composer (d. 1978)
1929 - Renzo De Felice, Italian historian (d. 1996)
1930 - Carlos-Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2010)
1930 - Miller Williams, American poet (d. 2015)
1931 - John Gavin, American actor and diplomat (d. 2018)
1932 - Iskandar of Johor, 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia (d. 2010)
1932 - Jozsef Antall, Hungarian politician (d. 1993)
1933 - Fred Ebb, composer (d. 2004)
1934 - Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (d. 2007)
1938 - Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, former United Nations Secretary-General (d. 2018)
1938 - John Hamm, Canadian physician and politician, 25th Premier of Nova Scotia
1939 - Edwin Frederick O'Brien, American cardinal
1939 - Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (d. 1989)
1940 - John Havlicek, American basketball player (d. 2019)
1941 - Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
1942 - Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer and special effects artist
1943 - Miller Farr, American football player
1943 - Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, theater director (d. 1987)
1943 - Tony Banks, British politician (d. 2006)
1943 - James Herbert, British writer (d. 2013)
1944 - Tariana Turia, New Zealand politician
1944 - Hywel Bennett, Welsh actor (d. 2017)
1946 - Catfish Hunter, American baseball pitcher (d. 1999)
1946 - Tim Thomerson, American actor
1947 - Tom DeLay, American politician
1947 - Steve Howe, English rock guitarist
1947 - Robert Kiyosaki, American author
1947 - Pascal Lamy, French politician
1947 - Larry Norman, American musician (d. 2008)
1948 - Danuta Hubner, Polish politician
1949 - John Madden, director
1949 - Joe Royle, English footballer and manager
1950 - Grzegorz Lato, Polish footballer
1951 1975
1951 - Geir Haarde, former Prime Minister of Iceland
1951 - Joan Sebastian, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2015)
1954 - Gary Carter, American baseball catcher
1955 - Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
1955 - Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
1955 - Jim Fleeting, Scottish footballer
1955 - Kane Hodder, American stuntman and actor
1957 - Andrea Ypsilanti, German politician
1960 - John Schneider, actor
1960 - Gordon Chisholm, Scottish footballer and manager
1961 - Brian McDermott, English footballer and manager
1962 - Izzy Stradlin, American musician
1963 - Julian Lennon, English musician and singer
1963 - Alec Stewart, English cricketer
1964 - Dordi Nordby, Norwegian curler
1966 - Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand-Australian television personality (d. 2014)
1966 - Robin Wright, American actress
1966 - Mazinho, Brazilian footballer
1966 - Iveta Bartosova, Czech singer and actress (d. 2014)
1968 - Patricia Arquette, American actress
1968 - Susana Harp, Mexican musician
1970 - Care Santos, Catalan writer
1972 - Lisa Cameron, Scottish politician
1972 - Paul Gray, American musician (Slipknot) (d. 2010)
1972 - Sergei Magnitsky, Russian lawyer (d. 2009)
1973 - Khaled Badra, Tunisian footballer
1973 - Emma Caulfield, American actress
1974 - Holger Hott, Norwegian orienteering competitor
1974 - Nnedi Okorafor, Nigerian-American writer
1975 - Anouk, Dutch singer
From 1976
1977 - Mark Spencer, computer programmer
1980 - Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
1980 - Katee Sackhoff, American actress
1981 - Nikolay Kruglov, Jr., Russian biathlete
1981 - Taylor Kitsch, Canadian actor and model
1981 - Kelly Schafer, Scottish curler
1982 - Gennady Golovkin, Kazakhstani boxer
1983 - Allu Arjun, Indian actor
1983 - Edson Braafheid, Dutch footballer
1984 - Taran Noah Smith, American actor
1986 - Erika Sawajiri, Japanese actress and model
1986 - Bridget Kelly, American singer and songwriter
1986 - Igor Akinfeev, Russian footballer
1987 - Royston Drenthe, Dutch footballer
1987 - Dario Vidosic, Australian footballer
1987 - Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Belgian-Moroccan terrorist (d. 2015)
1988 - Jenni Asserholt, Swedish ice hockey player
1989 - Hitomi Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
1989 - Gabriella Wilde, English actress and model
1990 - Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor (d. 2017)
1990 - Karim Bellarabi, German footballer
1991 - Minami Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
1993 - Trent Sullivan, Australian actor
1994 - Sonya Singha, Thai actress
1999 - Ty Panitz, American actor
2002 - Skai Jackson, American actress
Deaths
Up to 1900
217 - Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 188)
622 - Prince Shotoku of Japan (b. 574)
632 - Charibert, Frankish king (b. 607)
956 - Gilbert, Duke of Burgundy
1143 - John II Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1087)
1364 - King John II of France (b. 1319)
1450 - Sejong the Great, King of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (b. 1397)
1461 - Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
1551 - Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (b. 1510)
1586 - Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer and theologian (b. 1522)
1612 - Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (b. 1575)
1691 - Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1611)
1704 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (b. 1641)
1735 - Francis II Rakoczi, Hungarian aristocrat (b. 1676)
1835 - Wilhelm von Humboldt, Prussian statesman (b. 1757)
1848 - Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
1861 - Elisha Otis, American inventor (b. 1811)
1870 - Charles Auguste de Beriot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
1894 - Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian author (b. 1838)
1901 2000
1906 - Auguste Deter, first-recorded victim of Alzheimer's disease (b. 1850)
1919 - Lorand Eotvos, Hungarian physicist (b. 1848)
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (b. 1864)
1936 - Robert Barany, Austrian doctor, won the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1876)
1950 - Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish-Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1890)
1958 - Ethel Turner, Australian writer (b. 1872)
1962 - Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1892)
1973 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1881)
1974 - Ferruccio Novo, Italian football manager (b. 1899)
1978 - Ford Frick, American baseball commissioner (b. 1894)
1981 - Omar Bradley, American general (b. 1893)
1983 - Isamu Kosuga, Japanese actor and director (b. 1904)
1984 - Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist (b. 1894)
1986 - Yukiko Okada, Japanese actress, singer and model (b. 1967)
1990 - Ryan White, American activist (b. 1971)
1992 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss pharmacologist (b. 1907)
1993 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
1994 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer, pianist and composer (b. 1967)
From 2001
2002 - Maria Felix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
2009 - Piotr Morawski, Polish mountaineer (b. 1976)
2010 - Malcolm McLaren, British music manager (b. 1946)
2010 - Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1924)
2012 - Jack Tramiel, Polish-born American entrepreneur and computer pioneer (b. 1928)
2013 - Sara Montiel, Spanish actress and singer (b. 1928)
2013 - Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
2013 - Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (b. 1942)
2014 - Karlheinz Deschner, German writer and activist (b. 1924)
2014 - Emmanuel III Delly, Iraqi Patriarch (b. 1927)
2014 - The Ultimate Warrior, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)
2015 - Jayakanthan, Indian Tamil author (b. 1934)
2015 - Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (b. 1936)
2016 - Mircea Albulescu, Romanian actor and writer (b. 1934)
2016 - Wei Chueh, Taiwanese Buddhist monk (b. 1928)
2016 - Dick Alban, American football player (b. 1929)
2017 - Fishman, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1951)
2017 - Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1931)
2017 - Brian Matthew, English radio and television presenter (b. 1928)
2017 - Donald Sarason, American mathematician (b. 1933)
2018 - Leila Abashidze, Georgian actress, film director and screenwriter (b. 1929)
2018 - Michael Goolaerts, Belgian racing cyclist (b. 1994)
2018 - Juraj Herz, Slovakian film director, actor and screenwriter (b. 1934)
2018 - Chuck McCann, American actor (b. 1934)
2018 - John Miles, British racing driver (b. 1943)
2019 - Josine Ianco-Starrels, Romanian-American art curator (b. 1926)
2019 - Vasily Likhachyov, Russian politician (b. 1952)
2019 - Nadja Regin, Serbian actress (b. 1931)
2020 - Rick May, Canadian-American actor and voice actor (b. 1940)
Observances
Buddha's Birthday (Japan)
International Day of the Roma
April 08