April 29

Jazz legend Duke Ellington born (1899); HBD singer-songwriter Willie Nelson (1933); RIP film director Alfred Hitchcock (1980); Los Angeles riots begin following acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King (1992); Prince William and Kate Middleton get married (2011).

April 27

Ferdinand Magellan dies (1521); RIP Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882); Author and civil rights activist Coretta Scott King born (1927); Nelson Mandela becomes first black president of South Africa (1994); New York City’s Freedom Tower construction begins (2006).

April 28

“To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee born (1926); Italian dictator Benito Mussolini executed (1945); HBD US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan (1960); Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France (1969).

April 24

HBD US Library of Congress (1800); Easter Rising begins (1916); HBD Barbra Streisand (1942); Hubble Space Telescope is launched (1990); RIP Estée Lauder (2004).

April 23

William Shakespeare born, dies (1564, 1616); Actress and diplomat Shirley Temple born (1928); Rhythm Club fire in Mississippi kills 209 (1940); RIP civil rights activist Cesar Chavez (1993); First YouTube video published (2005).

April 22

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Ellen Glasgow born (1873); Earth Day first celebrated in US (1970); RIP photographer Ansel Adams (1984); RIP President Richard Nixon (1994); Former NFL football player Pat Tillman dies in Iraq War (2004).

April 21

RIP American author Mark Twain (1910); HBD Queen Elizabeth II (1926); 100,000 students begin protests at Tiananmen Square (1989); RIP singer-songwriter Nina Simone (2003); RIP legendary musician Prince (2016).

April 20

Thirteen students murdered in Columbine High School mass shooting (1999); Danica Patrick is first woman to win IndyCar race (2008); RIP Dorothy Height, civil and women’s rights activist (2010); Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes, killing 11 and starting six-month oil spill (2010).

April 17

RIP Benjamin Franklin (1790); Bay of Pigs Invasion begins in Cuba (1961); Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth (1970); HBD Victoria Beckham (1974); RIP Barbara Bush (2018).

April 16

Actor Charlie Chaplin born (1889); Harriet Quimby is first woman to fly across English Channel (1912); HBD Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947); Singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez born (1971); 32 die, 17 injured in Virginia Tech mass shooting (2007).

April 15

Webster’s Dictionary is first published (1828); President Abraham Lincoln is mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth (1865); RIP marine biologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson (1964); Human Genome Project is completed (2003).

April 14

Leonardo da Vinci born (1452); RIP Abraham Lincoln (1865); RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 (1912); HBD actress Emma Watson (1990); Two bombs explode at Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring 264 (2013).

April 13

President Thomas Jefferson born (1743); NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art founded (1870); Author Eudora Welty born (1909); Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American male to win Best Actor at Oscars (1964).

April 10

"The Great Gatsby” published (1925); HBD labor rights activist Dolores Huerta (1930); HBD football personality John Madden (1936); Paul McCartney leaves the Beatles (1970); Good Friday Agreement is signed (1998).

April 8

HBD actress Robin Wright (1966); RIP Pablo Picasso (1973); Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record (1974); Frank Robinson becomes first African American to manage a major league baseball team (1975); RIP Margaret Thatcher (2013).

April 9

RIP Francis Bacon (1626); Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War (1865); Hugh Hefner born (1926); RIP architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1959); HBD “Sex and the City” actress and activist Cynthia Nixon (1966).

April 7

English poet William Wordsworth born (1770); Jazz singer Billie Holiday born (1915); RIP Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford (1947); WHO established (1948); US breaks diplomatic ties with Iran during Iran hostage crisis (1980).

April 6

Renaissance artist Raphael born and dies (1483, 1520); first modern Olympics opens in Athens (1896); US declares war on Germany in World War I (1917); RIP prolific science fiction author Isaac Asimov (1992); RIP country singer Tammy Wynette (1998).

Maya Angelou

Did you know... 

... that today is the birthday of Maya Angelou (1928)? Maya, born Marguerite Ann Johnson, is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.

April 3

American politician Boss Tweed born (1823); Actress Doris Day born (1922); HBD Eddie Murphy (1961); First mobile phone call is made (1973); Apple releases the first iPad (2010).

April 2

Juan Ponce de León is first European in Florida (1513); Singer Marvin Gaye born (1939); Rita Johnston becomes first female premier of a Canadian province (1991); RIP Pope John Paul II (2005); RIP Winnie Mandela, activist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela (2018).

April 1

Actress Debbie Reynolds born (1932); Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (1976); Iran overthrows the Shah, officially becomes an Islamic republic (1979); Singer Marvin Gaye shot and killed by his father (1984).