On April 4th...

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1460 The University of Basle (Switzerland) was established.

1541 Ignatius of Loyola became the first superior-general of Jesuits.

1581 Francis Drake was knighted.

1588 Frederick II, King of Denmark, died.

1617 John Napier, mathematician who invented logarithms, died.

1660 King Charles II of Great Britain issued the Declaration of Breda.

1686 King James II of Great Britain published the Declaration of Indulgence.

1802 Dorothea Lynde Dix, the first female lobbyist of more than local significance in the United States, was born.

1818 The U. S. Congress adopted a flag with 13 stripes and 20 stars.

1828 Casparus van Wooden patented chocolate milk powder.

1841 William Henry Harrison became the first President of the United States to die in office.

1850 The City of Los Angeles, California, was incorporated.

1866 Tsar Alexander II of Russia narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Kiev.

1879 Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, one-time sister-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte, died.

1883 Industrialist/philanthropist Peter Cooper died.

1884 William Procter, co-founder of Procter & Gamble, died.

1887 Argonia, Kansas, elected Susanna Medora Salter as the first woman mayor in the United States.

1888 Baseball player Tris Speaker was born.

1895 Dance school founder Arthur Murray was born.

1896 The discovery of gold in the Yukon was announced.
1896 Playwright Robert E. Sherwood was born.

1900 The Prince of Wales was shot by Jean-Baptiste Sipido.

1902 The Cecil Rhodes Scholarship Fund was formed.

1905 An earthquake in Kangra, India, killed 20,000 people.

1906 Actress Bea Benaderet was born.
1906 Radio and television news personality John Cameron Swayze was born.

1912 The Russian Army fired on striking mine workers at the Lena gold fields in Siberia.

1914 Businessman Frederick Weyerhaeuser died.

1915 Musician Muddy Waters was born.

1917 The U. S. Senate voted 82-6 to declare war on Germany.

1919 Chemist Sir William Crookes died.

1921 The Ottawa Senators defeated the Vancouver Millionaires to win the Stanley Cup.

1924 Baseball player Gil Hodges was born.
1924 Architect Louis Henri Sullivan died.

1926 Theodoros Pangalos was elected President of Greece.

1928 Poet Maya Angelou was born.

1929 Automobile inventor Karl Benz died.

1932 Vitamin C was isolated by C. C. King at the University of Pittsburgh.
1932 Businessman Clive Davis was born.
1932 Actress Estelle Harris was born.
1932 Actor Anthony Perkins was born.

1933 The dirigible Akron crashed off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 persons.
1933 Bill France, Jr., CEO of NASCAR, was born.

1937 Byron Nelson won the Masters Golf Tournament.

1938 Henry Picard won the Masters Golf Tournament.

1939 Faisal II ascended to the throne of Iraq.

1941 German troops captured Benghazi, Libya.

1944 British troops captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1945 Hungary was liberated from the Germans.
1945 U. S. troops liberated the Nazi death camp at Ohrdruf, Germany.

1946 Actor Craig T. Nelson was born.

1947 The International Civil Aviation Organization was formed.

1949 The United States and 11 other nations established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1956 Film and television producer David E. Kelley was born.

1959 Art Wall, Jr., won the Masters Golf Tournament.

1965 Actor Robert Downey, Jr. was born.

1960 France and the Mali Federation signed accords granting independence within the French Community to Senegal and Sudan.

1963 Talk show host Graham Norton was born.
1963 Actor Jason Robards, Sr., died.

1966 Actress Nancy McKeon was born.

1968 Civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969 Dr. Denton A. Cooley performed the first ever implant of an artificial heart into a human patient.

1972 The world's first electric power plant fueled by garbage began operating.
1972 Journalist Hodding Carter died.
1972 U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., died.

1973 The World Trade Center opened in New York City, New York.
1973 Magician David Blaine was born.

1975 A U. S. Air Force transport plane evacuating orphans from Vietnam crashed, killing 155 persons.
1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft.

1979 Actor Heath Ledger was born.
1979 Former Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed.

1980 Country musician Red Sovine died.

1983 North Carolina State defeated Houston 54-52 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.
1983 Actress Gloria Swanson died.

1988 Kansas defeated Oklahoma 83-79 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1991 U. S. Senator John Heinz and six others were killed when a helicopter collided with their plane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.

1993 Texas Tech defeated Ohio State 84-82 for the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

1994 Arkansas defeated Duke 76-72 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1997 The Atlanta Braves officially opened Turner Field with a game against the Chicago Cubs.

1999 Baseball player Early Wynn died.

2003 Actor Anthony Caruso died.

2005 North Carolina defeated Illinois 75-70 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

2006 Maryland defeated Duke 78-75 for the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

2011 Connecticut defeated Butler 53-41 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

2012 A suicide bomber struck Somalia's National Theatre, killing 10 persons.
2012 Boris Tadic resigned as President of Serbia.

2013 An illegally constructed building collapsed in Thane, India, killing 74 persons.

2017 A chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikkhoun, Syria, killed more than 80 civilians.

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This page was last updated on April 03, 2018.