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).