History of 8 April
1911 – The first squash tournament was played at the Harvard Club in New York City.
1913 – The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators.
1935 – The Works Progress Administration was approved by the U.S. Congress.
1939 – Italy invaded Albania.
1942 – The Soviets opened a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad.
1943 – Wendell Wilkie’s “One World” was published for the first time.
1946 – The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.
1947 – The first illustrated insurance policy was issued by the Allstate Insurance Company.
1952 – U.S. President Truman seized steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike.
1953 – The bones of Sitting Bull were moved from North Dakota to South Dakota.
1962 – Bay of Pigs invaders got thirty years imprisonment in Cuba.
1974 – Hank Aaron hits 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth’s record.
1975 – Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became first black manager of a major league baseball team.
1985 – India filed suit against Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster.
1985 – Phyllis Diller underwent a surgical procedure for permanent eyeliner to eliminate the need for eyelid makeup.
1986 – Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA.
1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned over remarks he had made. While on ABC’s “Nightline” Campanis said that blacks “may not have some of the necessities” to hold managerial jobs in major-league baseball.
1988 – Former U.S. President Reagan aid Lyn Nofzinger was sentenced to prison for illegal lobbying for Wedtech Corp.
1990 – In Nepal, King Birendra lifted the 30-year ban on political parties.
1992 – In Britain, the last issue of “Punch Magazine” was published.
1994 – Smoking was banned in the Pentagon and all U.S. military bases.
1998 – The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. presented new evidence in an appeal for a new federal investigation of the assassination of her husband.
2000 – 19 U.S. troops were killed when a Marine V22 Osprey crashed during a training mission in Arizona.
2001 – Microsoft Corp. released Internet Explorer 6.0.
2002 – Ed McMahon filed a $20 million lawsuit against his insurance company, two insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. The suit alleged breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress concerning a toxic mold that had spread through McMahon’s Beverly Hills home.
2002 – Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”
2004 – War in Darfur: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
2006 – Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Shedden, Elgin County, Ontario. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
2008 – The construction of the world’s first skyscraper to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain.
2013 – The Islamic State of Iraq enters the Syrian Civil War and begins by declaring a merger with the Al-Nusra Front under the name Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Frédérick Bousquet, French swimmer
- 1981 – Ofer Shechter, Israeli model, actor, and screenwriter
- 1982 – Gennady Golovkin, Kazakhstani boxer
- 1982 – Brett White, Australian rugby league player
- 1983 – Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, Russian runner
- 1984 – Michelle Donelan, British politician
- 1984 – Ezra Koenig, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1984 – Pablo Portillo, Mexican singer, and actor
- 1984 – Taran Noah Smith, American actor
- 1985 – Patrick Schliwa, German rugby player
- 1985 – Yemane Tsegay, Ethiopian runner
- 1986 – Igor Akinfeev, Russian footballer
- 1986 – Félix Hernández, Venezuelan-American baseball player
- 1987 – Royston Drenthe, Dutch footballer
- 1987 – Jeremy Hellickson, American baseball player
- 1987 – Elton John, Trinidadian footballer
- 1987 – Sam Rapira, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1988 – Jenni Asserholt, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1988 – Kim Myung-sung, South Korean baseball player
- 1990 – Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer (d. 2017)
- 1991 – Dej Loaf, American rapper, singer and songwriter [2]
- 1993 – Viktor Arvidsson, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1993 – Zac Santo, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Josh Chudleigh, Australian rugby league player
- 1995 – Cedi Osman, Turkish professional basketball player
- 1997 – Arno Verschueren, Belgian professional football player