April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). There are 267 days remaining.

Events

up to 19th century

• 1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
• 1742 - The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah, in Dublin.
• 1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom fell to Burmese invaders.
• 1832 - Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
• 1899 - Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.

20th century

1900s-1940s

• 1904 - France and the United Kingdom sign the Entente cordiale.
• 1904 _ Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• 1910 - The Los Angeles Motordome opened near Playa del Rey, California.
• 1913 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators.
• 1916 - In Corona, California, auto racer Bob Burman crashed through a crowd barrier at the last Boulevard Race, killing himself, his mechanic and a track policeman, and badly injuring five spectators.
• 1918 - World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York, New York's financial district.
• 1929 - Indian Independence Movement At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts, and bombs in a corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest.
• 1935 - The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - railway link to Leningrad.
• 1945 - At the POW camp at Flossenbürg, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged.

1950s-1980s

• 1952 - In a radio address to the nation from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the United States in order to prevent a nationwide strike.
• 1953 - Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
• 1967 - In Vienna, Austria, Sandy Shaw wins the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Puppet on a String".
• 1974 - At the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron breaks baseball great's Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.
• 1975 - Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians manages his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: After spending a week in South Vietnam, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand gives a report to the U.S. Congress that South Vietnam will fall without additional military aid.
• 1985 - Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
• 1986 - Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California receiving 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election).
• 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
• 1989 - South Africa In Johannesburg, the Progressive Federal Party, Independent party, National Democratic Movement and the force of “Ontevrede Afrikaners” or dissatisfied Afrikaners merged to form the Democratic Party.

1990s

• 1990 - Twin Peaks premieres.
• 1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces to the world that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
• 1994 - Body of Kurt Cobain discovered in his Washington home.

21st century

• 2000 - A U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey crashes during landing at Marana, Arizona killing 19.
• 2002 - Ed McMahon files a US$20 million lawsuit against his insurance company and others regarding a toxic mold infecting McMahon's Beverly Hills, California home.
• 2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.

Births

up to 19th century

• 563 BC - Gautama Buddha, religious leader (d. 483 BC)
• 1320 - King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
• 1842 - Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer
• 1859 - Edmund Husserl, philosopher (d. 1938)
• 1868 - King Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
• 1872 - Ivan Bloch, physician (d. 1922)
• 1874 - Stanisław Taczak, Polish general, commander-in-chief of the Greater Poland Uprising (1918_1919) against the Germans (d.1960)
• 1875 - King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
• 1889 - Sir Adrien Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
• 1892 - Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder (d. 1979)

20th century

• 1905 - Helen Joseph, SA anti-apartheid activist (d. 1992)
• 1911 - Emil Cioran, philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
• 1912 - Sonja Henie, Olympic and World Champion figure skater (d. 1969)
• 1918 - Betty Ford, former First Lady of the United States
• 1919 - Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• 1921 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Jürgen Moltmann, theologian
• 1928 - John Gavin, actor
• 1929 - Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (d. 2000)
• 1929 - Jacques Brel, French singer and composer (d. 1978)
• 1933 - Fred Ebb, composer
• 1938 - Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General
• 1940 - John Havlicek, basketball star
• 1943 - Miller Farr, American football player
• 1944 - Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
• 1946 - Catfish Hunter, baseball pitcher
• 1949 - John Madden, director
• 1954 - Gary Carter, baseball catcher
• 1960 - John Schneider, actor
• 1963 - Julian Lennon, musician and singer
• 1966 - Robin Wright Penn, actress
• 1968 - Patricia Arquette, actress
• 1977 - Mark Spencer, computer programmer
• 1980 - Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
• 1982 - Judy Star, pornographic film actress
• 1984 - Taran Noah Smith, actor

Deaths

• 217 - Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 186)
• 956 - Gilbert of Chalon, Duke of Burgundy
• 1143 - John II Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1087)
• 1492 - Lorenzo de Medici, Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic (b. 1449)
• 1848 - Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
• 1936 - Robert Bárány, Nobel Prize winner in medicine (b. 1876)
• 1938 - Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (b. 1885)
• 1950 - Vaslav Nijinsky, ballet dancer (b. 1890)
• 1973 - Pablo Picasso, artist (b. 1881)
• 1983 - Omar Bradley, general (b. 1893)
• 1990 - Ryan White, AIDS activist (b. 1971)
• 1993 - Marian Anderson, singer (b. 1897)
• 1996 - Ben Johnson, actor (b. 1918)
• 1997 - Laura Nyro, singer, composer (b. 1947)
• 2000 - Claire Trevor, actress (b. 1910)
• 2002 - Maria Felix, Mexican actress
• 2003 - Anita Borg, computer scientist

Holidays and observances

• Worldwide Roma Nation Day

April 7 - April 9 - March 8 - May 8 -- listing of all days