Historical Events
- Apr 5 The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh & Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.
- Apr 8 British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of the Book of the Law
- Apr 8 Entente Cordiale between Britain and France
- Apr 8 Great Britain and France establish their Entente Cordiale, a technical treaty settling long-standing disagreements over Morocco, Egypt, Africa, and the Pacific
- Apr 8 New York City changes the name of Longacre Square to Times Square, in honor of The New York Times’s move to the area
- Apr 13 A squadron of the Russian fleet is decoyed out of Port Arthur by Japanese maneuvers, when they realize they are sailing into a trap; their battleship Petropavlovsk hits a mine and sinks, with a loss of 700 men
- Apr 13 Battle of Oviumbo (in modern Namibia): Herero tribesmen rise up against German colonists
Lewis and Clark Expo Gold Dollar
Apr 13 US Congress authorizes Lewis and Clark Exposition $1 gold coin
Chesbro's 1st Win
Apr 14 NY Highlanders' future Baseball HOF pitcher Jack Chesbro's first of 41 wins this season; pitches complete game and beats Boston Americans, 8-2 at Hilltop Park, NYC
- Apr 23 American Academy of Arts & Letters forms
French President Snubs Pope
Apr 24 President Loubet of France visits King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and pointedly ignores the Pope, exacerbating relations between France and the Roman Catholic Church
- Apr 26 Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia
Apr 26 General Kuroko leads the Japanese Army against the large Russian force at the Yalu river during the Russo-Japanese War
First Labour Government
Apr 27 The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first Labor government in the world
- Apr 30 Ice cream cone makes its debut at St. Louis World's Fair invented by Ernest A. Hamwi (independently of other claimant Italo Marchiony in NY)
Famous Birthdays
- Apr 1 Juan Gil-Albert, Spanish poet and writer, born in Alcoy (d. 1994)
- Apr 3 Peter Van Steeden, composer and orchestra leader (Break the Bank), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1990)
- Apr 3 Russel Wright, American industrial designer, born in Lebanon, Ohio (d. 1976)
- Apr 3 Sally Rand, American burlesque dancer, vedette, and actress known for her ostrich feather fan and balloon bubble dances, born in Elkton, Missouri (d. 1979)
- Apr 6 Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician and author (Chancellor of West Germany 1966-69, born in Ebingen, Kingdom of Württemberg (d. 1988)
- Apr 6 William Challee, American stage and screen actor (Desperate; Five Easy Pieces; Moonchild), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1989)
- Apr 8 John Antill, Australian composer (Corroboree; New Guinea Patrol), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1986)
- Apr 8 John R. Hicks, British economist (Value and Capital), (Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science 1972), born in Warwick, England (d. 1989)
- Apr 9 Joseph "Sharkey" Bonano, American Dixieland jazz trumpeter and singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1972)
- Apr 9 Lyle Latell, American actor (Not of This Earth; Dick Tracy's Dilemma; Sky Dragon), born in Alma, Iowa (d. 1967)
- Apr 10 Nick Stuart, Romanian-born American bandleader and actor (Secrets of Chinatown), born in Abrudbánya, Alsó-Fehér County, Austria-Hungary (d. 1973)
- Apr 11 Arthur Ernest Mourant, British hematologist, born in La Hougue Bie, Jersey (d. 1994)
- Apr 11 Paul McGrath, American actor (Witness, No Time for Love), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1978)
- Apr 12 Frankie Masters [Masterman], American banjo player, guitarist, vocalist and big band bandleader ("Scatter-Brain"), born in St. Marys, West Virginia (d. 1990)
- Apr 12 Harald Penrose, British test pilot, born in Hereford, England (d. 1996)
- Apr 13 Georges Yves Marie Congar, Dominican theologian cardinal, born in Sedan, Ardennes, France (d. 1995)
John Gielgud (1904-2000)
Apr 14 British stage and screen actor and director (Arthur, Hamlet, Ages of Man), born in London
- Apr 14 Lionel Birkett, West Indian cricket batsman (4 Tests, 1 x 50; Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago), born in Saint Michael, Barbados (d. 1998)
- Apr 14 Reinout Willem van Bemmelen, Dutch geologist, born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (d. 1983)
- Apr 14 Sonia Gaskell, Russian-Dutch choreographer (Diaghilev), born in Vilkaviškis, Lithuania (d. 1974)
- Apr 15 Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American abstract painter, born in Khorgom, Vilayet of Van, Ottoman Empire (d. 1948)
- Apr 16 Clifford P. Case, American lawyer and politician, U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey, born in Franklin Park, New Jersey (d. 1982)
- Apr 16 Fifi D'Orsay [Yvonne Lussier] Canadian-American vaudeville and film actress and singer known as the "French Bombshell" (The Life Jimmy Dolan; Dixie Jamboree), born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 1983)
- Apr 17 Edward Chodorov, Broadway playwright and director (Story of Louis Pasteur), born in New York City (d. 1988)
- Apr 17 Naoomal Jeoomal, Indian cricket batsman (3 Tests, Sind), born in Karachi, British India (d. 1980)
- Apr 18 Pigmeat [Dewey] Markham, American comedian (Here Comes da Judge-Laugh In), born in Durham, North Carolina (d. 1981)
- Apr 20 Bruce Cabot, American actor (Diamonds are Forever, King Kong), born in Carlsbad, New Mexico (d. 1972)
- Apr 20 George Stibitz, American mathematician and scientist (father of the modern digital computer), born in York, Pennsylvania (d. 1995) [1]
- Apr 21 Gijs van Hall, Dutch politician and Mayor of Amsterdam (1957-67), born in Amsterdam (d. 1977)
Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)
Apr 22 American theoretical physicist known as the father of the atomic bomb (Manhattan Project), born in New York City
- Apr 23 Duncan Renaldo, Spanish actor (The Cisco Kid, The Gay Amigo), born in Oancea, Romania (d. 1980)
- Apr 23 Leslie French, British actor and singer (Death in Venice; More than a Miracle), born in Bromley, Kent, England (d. 1999)
- Apr 24 Willem De Kooning, Dutch artist (North Atlantic Light), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1997)
- Apr 26 Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop (Montreal), born in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada (d. 1991)
- Apr 27 Arthur F. Burns, American economist and chairman (Federal Reserve Board), born in Stanislau, Austria-Hungary (d. 1987)
- Apr 27 Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet (British Poet Laureate 1968-72) and detective writer (Nicholas Blake), born in Ballintubbert, Queen's County (d. 1972)
- Apr 29 Enrico Mattei, Italian oil magnate (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), born in Acqualagna, Italy (d. 1962)
- Apr 29 Russ Morgan, American orchestra leader (Welcome Aboard), born in Scranton, Pennsylvania (d. 1969)
Famous Deaths
- Apr 9 Isabella II, Queen of Spain (1833-68), dies at 73
- Apr 13 Vasily Vereshchagin, Russian painter (War & Peace), dies at 61
- Apr 16 Maximilian Kronberger, German poet, dies at 16
- Apr 16 Samuel Smiles, Scottish writer (Self Help), dies at 91
- Apr 24 Friedrich Siemens, German industrialist, dies at 77
