April 5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
April 5 is the 96th day of the year (97th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 269 days remaining after April 5 until the end of the year.
[change] Births
- 1472 – Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan and wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1510)
- 1479 – Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru (died 1574)
- 1588 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (died 1679)
- 1649 – Elihu Yale, American University benefactor (died 1721)
- 1692 – Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (died 1730)
- 1732 – Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French artist (died 1806)
- 1784 – Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (died 1859)
- 1816 – Samuel Freeman Miller, United States Supreme Court justice (died 1890)
- 1820 – Nadar, French photographer, writer and balloonist (died 1910)
- 1827 – Joseph Lister, English surgeon (died 1912)
- 1837 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (died 1909)
- 1856 – Booker T. Washington, American educator (died 1915)
- 1857 – Alexander of Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria (died 1893)
- 1863 – Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (died 1950)
- 1871 – Mirko Seljan, Croatian explorer
- 1875 – Mistinguett, French vaudeville performer (died 1956)
- 1877 – Walter Sutton, American geneticist (died 1916)
- 1900 – Spencer Tracy, American actor (died 1967)
- 1901 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (died 1981)
- 1905 – Bill Raisch, American actor (died 1984)
- 1908 – Bette Davis, American actress (died 1989)
- 1908 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (died 1989)
- 1909 – Albert R. Broccoli, American film producer (died 1996)
- 1912 – John Le Mesurier, British actor (died 1983)
- 1916 – Gregory Peck, American actor (died 2003)
- 1917 – Robert Bloch, American author (died 1994)
- 1920 – Arthur Hailey, American writer (died 2004)
- 1922 – Gale Storm, American singer and actress
- 1922 – Christopher Hewett, British actor (died 2001)
- 1923 – Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnamese president (died 2001)
- 1923 – Michael Gazzo, American actor (died 1995)
- 1926 – Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and writer
- 1929 – Hugo Claus, Belgian writer (died 2008)
- 1929 – Ivar Giaever, Norwegian physicist
- 1929 – Nigel Hawthorne, British actor (died 2001)
- 1931 – Boris Strugatsky, Russian author (died 1991)
- 1933 – Larry Felser, American sports columnist and writer
- 1934 – Frank Gorshin, American actor (died 2005)
- 1934 – Roman Herzog, German politician, former President of Germany
- 1937 – Colin Powell, former United States Secretary of State
- 1939 – Crispian St. Peters, British singer
- 1941 – Michael Moriarty, American actor and political activist
- 1942 – Pascal Couchepin, Swiss politician
- 1942 – Peter Greenaway, Welsh film director
- 1943 – Max Gail, American actor
- 1946 – Jane Asher, British actress, writer
- 1947 – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th President of the Philippines
- 1949 – Judith Resnik, astronaut (died 1986)
- 1950 – Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer (ABBA)
- 1954 – Stan Ridgway, American musician
- 1962 – Lana Clarkson, American actress (died 2003)
- 1965 – Mike McCready, American musician (Pearl Jam)
- 1972 – Paul Okon, Australian footballer
- 1973 – Pharrell Williams, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)
- 1975 – John Hartson, Welsh footballer
- 1976 – Kim Collins, Saint Kitts and Nevis athlete
- 1976 – Simone Inzaghi, Italian footballer
- 1976 – Fernando Morientes, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Franziska van Almsick, German swimmer
- 1978 – Stephen Jackson, American basketball player
- 1979 – Timo Hildebrand, German footballer, goalkeeper
- 1980 – Joris Mathijsen, Dutch footballer
- 1982 – Hayley Atwell, British actress
- 1982 – Thomas Hitzlsperger, German footballer
- 1982 – Matt Pickens, American footballer
[change] Deaths
- 1697 – King Charles IX of Sweden (b. 1655)
- 1717 – Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
- 1945 – Karl Otto Koch, SS officer (b. 1897)
- 1964 – Douglas MacArthur, American general (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist (b. 1890)
- 1975 – Chiang Kai-shek, President of the Republic of China (b. 1887)
- 1975 – John A. Burns, Governor of Hawaii (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Sam Walton, American businessman (b. 1918)
- 1994 – Kurt Cobain, American singer/songwriter, frontman of Nirvana. (b. 1967)
- 1997 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
- 2004 – Heiner Zieschang, German mathematician (b. 1936)
- 2005 – Saul Bellow, Canadian writer (b. 1915)
- 2006 – Gene Pitney, American singer (b. 1940)
- 2008 – Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Vitali Sevastyanov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1935)
[change] Events
- 1242 – During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forces rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
- 1614 – In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
- 1621 – The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
- 1654 – The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.
- 1690 – Patrizio Cardinal Ficca is eleceted pope and takes the name Patricius I.
- 1722 – Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen reaches an island in the South Pacific Ocean, on Easter Sunday, as he names it Easter Island. He is the first European to visit the island.
- 1792 – United States President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
- 1804 – The first recorded meteorite falls in Possil, Scotland (High Possil Meteorite).
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown. The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia.
- 1879 – Chile declares war on Peru and Bolivia.
- 1908 – The Germany national football team played its first-ever match, losing 5-3 to the Switzerland national football team, which recorded its first-ever win.
- 1923 – Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires.
- 1930 – In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
- 1936 – Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: A F5 tornado slams into the north side of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 233. It is the 4th deadliest tornado in United States history.
- 1942 – Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- 1945 – Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR allowing "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
- 1949 – Fireside Theatre debuts on television.
- 1949 – A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people.
- 1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
- 1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
- 1956 – In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a lanslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister.
- 1957 – In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad sworn in as the first chief minister.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.
- 1971 – In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
- 1972 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
- 1973 – Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1976 – In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident.
- 1986 – Bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin, Germany, kills three.
- 1991 – ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard.
- 1992 – Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
- 1992 – Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protestor Suada Dilberovic on the Skenderija Bridge.
- 1993 – The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.
- 1998 – In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
- 1999 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- 1999 – In Laramie, Wyoming, United States, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
- 2005 – ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announces on World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It would be his last on-air appearance.
- 2009 – North Korea launches the Kwangmyongsong rocket, which passed over Japan, and led to international condemnation.
