Historical Events
Sports History
Apr 3 Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it, title awarded to Russian Anatoly Karpov
- Apr 4 138 killed as a USAF plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashes on approach during an emergency landing at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base in South Vietnam
- Apr 4 British sitcom "The Good Life" starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith debuts on BBC One
Founding of Microsoft
Apr 4 Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800
Music History
Apr 4 Steve Miller is arrested for burning his girlfriend's clothes
- Apr 5 129th Grand National: Irish combination of jockey Tommy Carberry aboard L'Escargot wins by 15 lengths from 7/2 favourite and 1973-74 winner Red Rum
Sports History
Apr 5 American tennis #1 Chris Evert wins her 3rd WTA Tour Championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena; beats Martina Navratilova 6-4, 6-2
- Apr 5 Robert Wilson and Alan Lloyd's musical theatre work "A Letter for Queen Victoria" closes at ANTA Theater, NYC, after 18 performances
- Apr 5 Soyuz 18A launch aborted short of orbit; cosmonauts return safely
- Apr 6 "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 45 performances
- Apr 6 Bundy victim Denise Oliverson disappears from Grand Junction, Colorado
- Apr 6 Fastest hat trick by a Wash Cap 3 mins 26 secs (Stan Gilbertson)
- Apr 6 Harry Chapin's musical revue "The Night That Made America Famous" closes at Barrymore Theatre, NYC, after 75 performances
- Apr 7 Preliminary meeting in Paris on world economic crisis between oil-exporting, oil-importing, and non-oil Third World countries
Academy Awards
Apr 8 47th Academy Awards: "The Godfather Part II", Ellen Burstyn & Art Carney win
Sports History
Apr 8 Frank Robinson debuts as 1st African American baseball manager (Cleveland Indians beat New York Yankees, 5-3)
Baseball Trade
Apr 11 Hank Aaron returns to County Stadium as a Milwaukee player after his off-season trade from the Atlanta Braves; Brewers beat Cleveland Indians, 6-2
- Apr 11 J. P. Parisé scores an 11 sec OT goal, to see the NY Islanders eliminate the NY Rangers in their ever 1st playoff advance
- Apr 12 Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
US Masters Golf
Apr 13 39th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jack Nicklaus wins his 5th Masters title, 1 stroke ahead of Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf; Lee Elder, first African-American to compete in the tournament
- Apr 13 Chad military coup by General Odingar
- Apr 13 Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war
- Apr 15 1st appearance of San Diego Chicken
- Apr 15 Gabon amends constitution
- Apr 16 Cambodian Red Khmer occupy Phnom Penh
- Apr 17 The Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh, Cambodia marking the end of the Cambodian Civil war (Kampuchea National Day)
Music Concert
Apr 18 John Lennon gives what becomes his final public performance at a gala salute to British media mogul Lew Grade at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, NYC; he performed 3 songs - Little Richard’s “Slippin’ and Slidin’”, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”, and closed with his own “Imagine”
Boston Marathon
Apr 21 79th Boston Marathon: American Bill Rodgers wins men's section in race record 2:09:55; Liane Winter of West Germany women's champion in 2:42:24 (female world record)
Event of Interest
Apr 21 Last South Vietnam President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigns after 10 years in power
No Man's Land
Apr 23 Harold Pinter's play "No Man's Land" premieres in London
Free Election in Portugal
Apr 25 Mário Soares' Socialist Party wins Portugal's first free election since 1925 following the Carnation Revolution of 1974
- Apr 25 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Apr 25 West German embassy blown up in Stockholm, Sweden
Baseball Record
Apr 26 Phillies Mike Schmidt's 2 HRs ties NL record of 11 HRs in April
- Apr 27 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
TV Show Appearance
Apr 28 Ringo Starr appears on "The Smothers Brothers Show", singing Hoyt Axton's "No No Song", and John Lennon is the guest on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" program, in what turns out to be his final television interview; both on NBC-TV
- Apr 28 South-Vietnam Gen Duong Van Minh sworn in as president till April 30
- Apr 29 Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge are the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War
- Apr 29 Ethiopia nationalizes all land
The Fall of Saigon
Apr 29 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war
- Apr 30 North Vietnamese troops capture Saigon, ending the Vietnam War
Famous Birthdays
- Apr 1 John Butler, American-Australian singer, songwriter, and music producer (John Butler Trio), born in Torrance, California
- Apr 1 Kristine Quance, American swimmer (Olympics gold 4×100m medley relay 1996), born in Northridge, California
- Apr 1 Magdalena Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player (10 x WTA titles; World #4 1996), born in Sofia, Bulgaria
Pedro Pascal (49 years old)
Apr 2 Chilean-American actor (Game of Thrones; Narcos; The Mandalorian), born in Santiago, Chile
- Apr 2 Adam Rodriguez, American actor (Eric Delko-CSI: Miami) and director, born in Yonkers, New York
- Apr 2 Deedee Magno Hall, Filipino-American rocker (Party-Rodeo, That's Why), born in Portsmouth, Virginia
- Apr 2 Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, German rower (Olympic gold quad sculls 1996, single sculls 2004), born in Waren, Germany
- Apr 2 Shawn Rhoden, Jamaican bodybuilder (Mr. Olympia 2018), born in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 2021)
- Apr 3 Aries Spears, American comedian (MadTV), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Apr 3 Koji Uehara, Japanese professional baseball pitcher, born in Neyagawa, Osaka, Japan
- Apr 3 Mickey Beyer Clausen, Danish entrepreneur and philanthropist (Trunk Archive), born in Copenhagen
- Apr 3 Thomas Hamilton, American NBA center (Boston Celtics), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Apr 3 Yoshinobu Takahashi, Japanese professional baseball player, born in Chūō-ku, Chiba, Japan
- Apr 4 Delphine Arnault, French businesswoman (Louis Vuitton), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
- Apr 4 Kisha Ford, American WNBA guard and forward (NY Liberty), born in Baltimore, Maryland
- Apr 4 Pamela Ribon, American screenwriter and author, born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
- Apr 4 Thobias Fredriksson, Swedish cross-country skier, born in Dals Rostock, Sweden
- Apr 5 Caitlin Moran, English journalist and broadcaster (Celebrity Watch), born in Brighton, England
- Apr 5 John Hartson, Welsh footballer
Juicy J (49 years old)
Apr 5 American rapper, songwriter, and record producer (Three 6 Mafia), born in Memphis, Tennessee
- Apr 6 Dannon Phillip Pampolina, rAmerican apper and drummer (The Party), born in Houston, Texas
Zach Braff (49 years old)
Apr 6 American actor (Dr. John Dorian-Scrubs), born in South Orange, New Jersey
- Apr 7 John Cooper, American contemporary Christian rock musician (Skillet), born in Memphis, Tennessee
- Apr 7 Ronde Barber, Pro Football HOF cornerback (Super Bowl XXXVII; First-team All-Pro 2001, 04, 05; 5 × Pro Bowl; Tampa Bay Buccaneers), born in Roanoke, Virginia
- Apr 7 Ronnie Belliard, American baseball player
- Apr 7 Tiki Barber, running back (NY Giants)
- Apr 8 Anouk [Schemmekes, née Teeuwe], Dutch rock singer-songwriter (Three Days In a Row), born in The Hague, Netherlands
- Apr 9 David Gordon Green, American filmmaker (George Washington), born in Little Rock, Arkansas
- Apr 9 Robbie Fowler, English soccer striker (26 caps; Liverpool FC 236 games), born in Toxteth, Liverpool, England
- Apr 10 Chris Carrabba, American rock singer and guitarist (Dashboard Confessional - "Stolen"; "Vindicated"), born in West Hartford, Connecticut
- Apr 10 David Harbour, American actor (Stranger Things), born in White Plains, New York
- Apr 10 Floris, Prince of Netherlands, son of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and Pieter van Vollenhoven, born in Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Apr 10 Steve Washburn, Canadian NHL center (Florida Panthers), born in Ottawa, Ontario
- Apr 11 Walid Soliman, Tunisian author, born in Tunis, Tunisia
- Apr 12 Marcie Alberts, American basketball player (Cleveland Rockers), born in Wooster, Ohio
- Apr 13 Angus MacLane, American animator, screenwriter, and film director (Pixar; Lightyear), born in Riverside County, California
- Apr 13 Bruce Dyer, English footballer, born in Ilford, England
Lou Bega (49 years old)
Apr 13 German mambo musician (Mambo No. 5), and artist, born in Munich, Germany
- Apr 14 Amy Dumas, American professional wrestler, born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Apr 14 Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist (longest UFC title streak at 2,547 days), born in São Paulo, Brazil
- Apr 14 Avner Dorman, Israeli composer (Variations Without A Theme; Dialogues of Love), conductor, and educator, born in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
- Apr 14 Petra Begerow, German tennis star (1996 quarter Hilton Head), born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany
- Apr 14 Veronika Zemanová, Czech model, born in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia
- Apr 16 Joanna Ławrynowicz, Polish classical pianist, born in Warsaw, Poland [1]
- Apr 16 Nick Pickard, British actor, born in Surrey, United Kingdom
- Apr 16 Nicky Sualua, American NFL fullback (Dallas Cowboys), born in Santa Ana, California
- Apr 16 Sean Maher, American actor, born in Pleasantville, New York
- Apr 17 Gabriel Soto, Mexican actor and model, born in Mexico City
- Apr 17 Trifun Živanović, American-Serbian figure skater (1995 Pac Coast Jr champ), born in Santa Monica, California
- Apr 19 Jason Gillespie, Australian cricket fast bowler (first Aboriginal male to play Test cricket for Australia; 71 Tests, 259 wickets, BB 7/39, HS 201no; South Australia CA, Yorkshire CCC, Sussex CCC), born in Sydney, Australia
- Apr 19 Jussi Jääskeläinen, Finnish footballer (Finland national team) and coach, born in Mikkeli, Finland
- Apr 19 Temoc Suarez, American soccer forward (Olympic gold 1996), born in Greenwood, South Carolina
- Apr 21 Danyon Loader, New Zealand 200m and 400m swimmer (2 Olympic gold medals 1996), born in Dunedin, New Zealand
- Apr 22 Carlos Sastre, Spanish cyclist
- Apr 22 Greg Moore, Canadian race car driver (d. 1999)
- Apr 23 Jón Þór Birgisson, Icelandic musician and singer (Sigur Rós), born in Iceland
- Apr 24 Michael Stewart, American basketball NBA center (Sacramento Kings), born in Cucq-Trepied-Stella-Plage, France
- Apr 24 Sam Doumit, American actress (Shameless), born in Sacramento, California
- Apr 25 Emily Bergl, English-American actress (The rage : Carrie 2), born in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England
- Apr 25 Jacque Jones, American baseball outfielder (Olympic bronze 1996), born in San Diego, California
- Apr 25 Ruben Gomez, American rocker (Menudo-Cannonball), born in Brooklyn, New York
- Apr 26 Joey Jordison, American drummer (Slipknot, 1995-2013 - "All Hope Is Gone"), born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 2021)
- Apr 26 Nerina Pallot, British pop-rock singer-songwriter ("Sophia"; "Everybody's Gone To War"), born in London
- Apr 27 Chris Carpenter, American baseball pitcher (NL Cy Young Award 2005; 3 × MLB All-Star; World Series 2006, 11 St. Louis Cardinals; Toronto Blue Jays), born in Exeter, New Hampshire
- Apr 27 Michael Booker, American football cornerback (Atlanta Falcons), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Apr 27 Rabih Abdullah, American National Football League player, born in Martinsville, Virginia
- Apr 28 James Thrash, American football wide receiver (Washington Redskins)
- Apr 29 Béres Zoo, Hungarian radio shock jock DJ, born in Budapest, Hungary
- Apr 29 John Macready, American gymnast (Olympic 5th 1996), born in Los Angeles, California
- Apr 29 Rafael Betancourt, Venezuelan MLB player, born in Cumaná, Venezuela
- Apr 30 Elliott Sadler, American race car driver and 1 of 31 drivers to have a victory in NASCAR's three top racing series, born in Emporia, Virginia
Johnny Galecki (48 years old)
Apr 30 American actor (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory), born in Bree, Belgium
- Apr 30 Mike Chat, American actor
Famous Weddings
Jane Curtin
Apr 2 Actress Jane Curtin (27) weds television producer Patrick Lynch
Famous Deaths
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)
Apr 5 Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (1928-75), dies at 87
- Apr 5 Inez Courtney, American stage and screen actress (The 13th Man; Crime Ring; The Raven), dies at 77
- Apr 5 Victor Marijnen, Dutch politician (Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1963-65), dies at 58
- Apr 10 Marjorie Main [Mary Tomlinson], American vaudeville and screen actress (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films; Another Thin Man), dies of lung cancer at 85
- Apr 10 Sophia JW "Sophie" Hermse, actress (But a Dream), dies at 86
- Apr 10 Walker Evans, American photographer (Fortune Magazine), dies at 71
- Apr 11 Dorothy Patten, American actress, dies at 70
Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Apr 12 American-French song and dance revue artist (Folies-Bergere), actress, and civil rights activist, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 68
François Tombalbaye (1918-1975)
Apr 13 Dictator and 1st President of Chad (1960-75), dies at 56
- Apr 13 Larry Parks [Samuel Lawrence Parks], American actor (The Jolson Story, Love Is Better Than Ever), dies of a heart attack at 60
Fredric March (1897-1975)
Apr 14 American actor (Inherit the Wind), dies of prostate cancer at 77
- Apr 15 John B. McKay, American test pilot (X-15), dies at 52
- Apr 15 Richard Conte, American actor (The Godfather, Tony Rome, Hotel), dies from a heart attack at 65
- Apr 17 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and leader, Second President of India (1962-67), dies at 86
- Apr 18 Rob Touber [Noordervliet], Dutch television music and variety director, and record producer, dies of a heart attack at 38
Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975)
Apr 19 African American chemist who received 130 patents, pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants, dies at 76
- Apr 21 Jack Westrup, English composer, dies at 70
- Apr 22 Mary Philips, American actress (Farewell to Arms), dies at 75
- Apr 23 R D Brinkmann, writer, dies
- Apr 23 William Hartnell, English actor (first Doctor in Dr Who), dies at 67
- Apr 24 Pete Ham, Welsh rock singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Badfinger - "Without You"; "No Matter What"; Day After Day"), takes his own life at 27
- Apr 25 Mike Brant, Israeli pop singer ("Laisse-moi t'aimer" ("Let Me Love You")), commits suicide at 28
- Apr 27 Nicholas Soussanin, Russian-American actor (Last Command, Captain Fury), dies at 86
- Apr 28 Jan A. de Jonge, Dutch historian, dies at 48
- Apr 29 Darwin Judge, USMC-corporal, 1 of last US soldiers killed in Vietnam
- Apr 29 Michael John Shea, USMC-lt/pilot, 1 of last soldiers killed in Vietnam
- Apr 29 William Craig Nystul, USMC capt, 1 of last US soldiers killed in Vietnam
