History of 4 April
1902 – British Financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will that would provide scholarships for Americans to Oxford University in England.
1905 – In Kangra, India, an earthquake killed 370,000 people.
1914 – The first known serialized moving picture opened in New York City, NY. It was “The Perils of Pauline”.
1917 – The U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on the Allied side.
1918 – The Battle of Somme, an offensive by the British against the German Army ended.
1932 – After five years of research, professor C.G. King, of the University of Pittsburgh, isolated vitamin C.
1945 – Hungary was liberated from Nazi occupation.
1945 – During World War II, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
1949 – Twelve nations signed a treaty to create The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
1953 – Fifteen doctors were released by Soviet leaders. The doctors had been arrested before Stalin had died and were accused of plotting against him.
1967 – The U.S. lost its 500th plane over Vietnam.
1967 – Johnny Carson quit “The Tonight Show.” He returned three weeks later after getting a raise of $30,000 a week.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39.
1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.
1971 – Veterans stadium in Philadelphia, PA, was dedicated this day.
1973 – In New York, the original World Trade Center twin towers opened. At the time they were the tallest building in the world.
1974 – Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s major league baseball home-run record with 714.
1975 – More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed just after takeoff from Saigon.
1979 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the president of Pakistan, was executed. He had been convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent.
1981 – Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city, which was San Antonio, TX.
1983 – At Cape Canaveral, the space shuttle Challenger took off on its first flight. It was the sixth flight overall for the shuttle program.
1984 – U.S. President Reagan proposed an international ban on chemical weapons.
1985 – In Sudan, a coup ousted President Nimeiry and replaced him with General Dahab.
1986 – Wayne Gretzky set an NHL record with his 213th point of the season.
1987 – The U.S. charged the Soviet Union with wiretapping a U.S. Embassy.
1988 – Arizona Governor Evan Mecham was voted out of office by the Arizona Senate. Mecham was found guilty of diverting state funds to his auto business and of trying to impede an investigation into a death threat to a grand jury witness.
1990 – In the U.S., securities law violator Ivan Boesky was released from federal custody.
1991 – Pennsylvanian Senator John Heinz and six others were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz’s plane over a schoolyard in Merion, PA.
1992 – Sali Berisha became the first non-Marxist president of Albania since World War II.
1994 – Netscape Communications (Mosaic Communications) was founded.
1995 – U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato ridiculed judge Lance Ito using a mock Japanese accent on a nationally syndicated radio program. D’Amato apologized two days later for the act.
1999 – The Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres played the first major league season opener to be held in Mexico. The Rockies beat the Padres 8-2.
2002 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.
2009 – France returns to being a member of NATO.
2013 – More than 70 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Currensy, American rapper
- 1981 – Eduardo Luís Carloto, Brazilian footballer
- 1981 – Casey Daigle, American baseball player
- 1981 – Anna Pyatykh, Russian triple jumper
- 1981 – Ned Vizzini, American author, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1982 – Justin Cook, American voice actor, and producer
- 1982 – Magnus Lindgren, Swedish chef (d. 2012)
- 1983 – Evgeny Artyukhin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Eric Andre, American comedian
- 1983 – Ben Gordon, American basketball player
- 1983 – Doug Lynch, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Natalie Pike, Scottish-English model, and actress
- 1983 – Amanda Righetti, American actress
- 1984 – Sean May, American basketball player
- 1984 – Arkady Vyatchanin, Russian swimmer
- 1985 – Rudy Fernandez, Spanish basketball player
- 1985 – Dudi Sela, an Israeli tennis player
- 1985 – Ricardo Vilar, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Eunhyuk, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1986 – Cameron Barker, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Maurice Manificat, French skier
- 1986 – Aiden McGeady, Scottish-born Irish footballer
- 1986 – Alexander Tettey, Norwegian footballer
- 1987 – Sami Khedira, German footballer
- 1987 – McDonald Mariga, Kenyan footballer
- 1987 – Cameron Maybin, American baseball player
- 1987 – Marcos Vellidis, Greek footballer
- 1987 – Sarah Gadon, Canadian actress
- 1988 – Frank Fielding, English footballer
- 1989 – Vurnon Anita, Dutch footballer
- 1989 – Steven Finn, English cricketer
- 1989 – Chris Herd, Australian footballer
- 1991 – Yui Koike, Japanese singer, and actress
- 1991 – Justin O’Neill, Australian rugby league player
- 1991 – Jamie Lynn Spears, American actress and singer
- 1991 – Marlon Stöckinger, Filipino race car driver
- 1992 – Lucy May Barker, English actress and singer
- 1992 – Christina Metaxa, Cypriot singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Ricky Dillon, American youtuber and singer
- 1993 – Samir Carruthers, English footballer
- 1993 – Frank Kaminsky, American basketball player
- 1994 – Shunsuke Nishikawa, Japanese actor
- 1994 – Risako Sugaya, Japanese singer and actress
- 1996 – Austin Mahone, American singer-songwriter and actor