April 8
Today is
International Romani Day, bringing awareness to the issues facing the Romani people.
Japan celebrates
Buddha's Birthday on this date.
Events
632 King
Charibert II is assassinated at Blaye (Gironde), along with his infant son
Chilperic.
1093 The new
Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by
Walkelin.
1665 English colonial patents are granted for the establishment of the
Monmouth Tract, for what would eventually become
Monmouth County in northeastern New Jersey.
1730
Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
1740 War of Jenkins' Ear: Three British ships
capture the Spanish third-rate Princesa, taken into service as
HMS Princess.
1820 The
Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of
Milos.
1904 British mystic
Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of
The Book of the Law.
1904
Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, was renamed
Times Square (pictured) after
The New York Times building.
1906
Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease, dies.
1908
Harvard University votes to establish the
Harvard Business School.
1913 The
17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.
1935 The
Works Progress Administration is formed when the
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
1942 World War II: The
Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines.
1945 World War II: After an air raid accidentally destroys a train carrying about 4,000 Nazi concentration camp internees in Prussian Hanover,
the survivors are massacred by Nazis.
1953
Mau Mau leader
Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by British Kenya's rulers.
1959 A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by
Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called
COBOL.
1968
BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after take off. As a result of her actions in the accident,
Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous
George Cross, the only one awarded to a woman in peacetime.
1974 At AtlantaFulton County Stadium,
Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run to surpass Babe Ruth's 39-year-old record.
1992 Retired tennis great
Arthur Ashe announces that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
1994 - Electrician Gary Smith who was working at
Kurt Cobain's house in Seattle discovered Cobain's body lying on the floor in the greenhouse. Local radio station
KXRX broke the news at 9.40am that the
Nirvana singer and guitarist was dead. A shotgun was found next to Cobain's body. A suicide note was found that said, "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now". A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were also found in Cobain's body.
1994 - The
Recording Industry Association of America announced that
Pink Floyd's 1973 album
The Dark Side of The Moon had become the fourth biggest-selling album in US history and had passed the 13 million mark in sales. The album has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
2006
Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Shedden, Elgin County, Ontario. The murders are soon linked to the
Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
2008 The construction of the
world's first building to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain. Some handsome Dwellar posted
this one year ago.
2012 - It was reported that organizers for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremonies had recently asked the manager of
The Who if legendary drummer
Keith Moon would be able to perform at the forthcoming
London Olympics Games. Who manager Bill Curbishley, told The Times how he responded to the request. "I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to The Who's anthemic line 'I hope I die before I get old,'" he said. "If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him."
2013 Two Sunni Muslim Islamic extremist groups, the
Islamic State of Iraq and the
Al-Nusra Front, merged to become the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS.
Births
1842 Elizabeth Bacon Custer (wife of George Armstrong Custer), 1892 Mary Pickford, 1912 Sonja Henie,
1914 Marνa Fιlix
, 1918 Betty Ford (40th FLOTUS, co-founder
Betty Ford Center), 1938 Kofi Annan, 1941 J. J. Jackson♪ ♫, 1946 Catfish Hunter, 1947 Tom DeLay, 1947 Steve Howe

(Yes), 1949 K. C. Kamalasabayson (Kamalasabayson is Sri Lankan for "& The Sunshine Band"), 1951 Mel Schacher

(Grand Funk Railroad), 1955 Barbara Kingsolver, 1960 John Schneider (
Dukes of Hazzard), 1961 Richard Hatch (big, gay Survivor), 1962 Izzy Stradlin♪ ♫, 1963 Julian Lennon♪ ♫, 1966 Robin Wright, 1968 Patricia Arquette, 1971 Darren Jessee♪ ♫(Ben Folds Five), 1972 Paul Gray

(Slipknot), 1978 Rachel Roberts (
Simone), 1980 Katee Sackhoff ('Starbuck' on
Battlestar Galactica (2003), 1984 Taran Noah Smith (
Home Improvement)
Deaths
1861 Elisha Otis (elevator dude), 1941 Marcel Prιvost, 1973 Pablo Picasso

, 1981 Omar Bradley (commanded forty-three divisions and 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under a single U.S. field commander; America's last five star general), 1990
Ryan White, 1996 Ben Johnson, 2000 Claire Trevor,
2002 Marνa Fιlix
, 2010 Malcolm McLaren, 2013 Annette Funicello

, 2013 Margaret 'The Iron Lady' Thatcher