History of Today in India – 18 April

Explore the history of today 18 April in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 18 April 2026, 04:25 AM

📜 Important Events on 18 April in World History

18 Apr 2019: A redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the United States Congress and the public. Read more
18 Apr 2018: King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country's name will change to Eswatini. Read more
18 Apr 2018: Anti-government protests start in Nicaragua. Read more
18 Apr 1996: The Israeli military commits the Qana massacre in a deliberate shelling of a United Nations compound near the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter there and wounding over 100 more. Read more
18 Apr 1988: The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. Read more
18 Apr 1988: In Israel John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II, although the verdict is later overturned. Read more
18 Apr 1980: The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President. The Zimbabwean dollar replaces the Rhodesian dollar as the official currency. Read more
18 Apr 1980: The town of Elmore City, Oklahoma holds its first dance in the town's history. Read more
18 Apr 1972: East African Airways Flight 720 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 43. Read more
18 Apr 1955: Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference. Read more
18 Apr 1954: Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt. Read more
18 Apr 1949: The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Éire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with the Commonwealth of Nations. Read more
18 Apr 1947: The Operation Big Bang, the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion to that time, destroys bunkers and military installations on the North Sea island of Heligoland, Germany. Read more
18 Apr 1946: The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands. Read more
18 Apr 1946: Jackie Robinson makes his regular season debut for the Montreal Royals of the International League, to make them the first integrated modern professional baseball team. Read more
18 Apr 1945: World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany. Read more
18 Apr 1945: Italian resistance movement: In Turin, despite the harsh repressive measures adopted by Nazi-fascists, a great pre-insurrectional strike begins. Read more
18 Apr 1943: World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island. Read more
18 Apr 1942: World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed. Read more
18 Apr 1942: Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France. Read more
18 Apr 1939: Robert Menzies, who became Australia's longest-serving prime minister, is elected as leader of the United Australia Party after the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. Read more
18 Apr 1938: Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938). Read more
18 Apr 1930: A fire kills 118 people at a wooden church in the small Romanian town of Costești, most of them schoolchildren, after starting during Good Friday services. Read more
18 Apr 1916: World War I: During a mine warfare in high altitude on the Dolomites, the Italian troops conquer the Col di Lana held by the Austrian army. Read more
18 Apr 1915: World War I: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines. Read more
18 Apr 1912: The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City. Read more
18 Apr 1909: Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome. Read more
18 Apr 1906: The 7.9 Mw earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California, killing more than 3,000 people, making one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Read more
18 Apr 1902: The 7.5 Mw  Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000. Read more
18 Apr 1899: The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria. Read more
18 Apr 1897: The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Read more
18 Apr 1864: Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement. Read more
18 Apr 1857: "The Spirits Book" by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France. Read more
18 Apr 1847: American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico. Read more
18 Apr 1831: The University of Alabama is founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 18 April in World History

18 Apr 1996: Ski Mask the Slump God, American rapper Stokeley Clevon Goulbourne, known professionally as Ski Mask the Slump God, is an American rapper. He is best known for his association with XXXTentacion, with whom he formed the hip hop collective Members Only in 2014. He is notable for his nostalgic-themed musical production and public image, often clad with multi-colored durags. He signed with Victor Victor Worldwide, an imprint of Republic Records to release his debut commercial mixtape You Will Regret (2017), which entered the Billboard 200 and spawned the platinum-certified singles "BabyWipe", "Take a Step Back", and "Catch Me Outside". Read more
18 Apr 1995: Divock Origi, Belgian footballer Divock Okoth Origi is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker. Read more
18 Apr 1994: Aminé, American singer-songwriter Adam Aminé Daniel is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter, from Portland, Oregon. He first gained notability for his commercial debut single, "Caroline", which peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Aminé released his debut studio album Good for You, on July 28, 2017, and his second studio album, Limbo, on August 7, 2020. Read more
18 Apr 1993: Mika Zibanejad, Swedish ice hockey player Mika Zibanejad is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a centre and alternate captain for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Swedish national team. Zibanejad was selected sixth overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft by the Ottawa Senators. He made the Senators lineup out of training camp to start the 2011–12 season, but was returned to Djurgårdens IF in Sweden after scoring one point in nine NHL games with Ottawa. On 18 July 2016, after five seasons within the Senators organization, Zibanejad was traded to the Rangers. Read more
18 Apr 1992: Chloe Bennet, American actress Chloé Wang, known professionally as Chloe Bennet, is an American actress and singer. She starred as Daisy Johnson / Quake in the ABC superhero drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020) and voiced Yi in the animated film Abominable (2019) and the television series Abominable and the Invisible City (2022–2023). Read more
18 Apr 1990: Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer Wojciech Tomasz Szczęsny is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Barcelona. Read more
18 Apr 1989: Alia Shawkat, American actress Alia Martine Shawkat is an American actress. She is known for her performances as Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom Arrested Development, Dory Sief in the TBS and HBO Max dark comedy series Search Party (2016–2022), and Gertie Michaels in the 2015 horror-comedy film The Final Girls, as well as her roles in State of Grace (2001–2002) and The Old Man starring Jeff Bridges (2022–2024). She has also guest starred as historical figures Frances Cleveland, Virginia Hall, and Alexander Hamilton on Comedy Central's Drunk History (2014–2016). Read more
18 Apr 1988: Vanessa Kirby, English actress Vanessa Nuala Kirby is an English actress. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Princess Margaret in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2017), for which she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. For her performance in the film Pieces of a Woman (2020), she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Read more
18 Apr 1986: Tina Bru, Norwegian politician Tina Bru is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. From 2020 to 2021, she served as the Minister of Petroleum and Energy. She was a member of the Storting for Rogaland from 2013 to 2025 and was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. She was reelected to the Storting for the period 2017–2021, and continued as a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. Read more
18 Apr 1985: Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer Łukasz Marek Fabiański is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United. Read more
18 Apr 1984: America Ferrera, American actress America Georgina Ferrera is an American actress, director and television producer. She has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2007 and 2024, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world and in 2023, she was named in BBC's 100 Women list. Read more
18 Apr 1983: Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player José Miguel Cabrera Torres, nicknamed Miggy, is a Venezuelan former professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and designated hitter who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers. Debuting in 2003, he was a two-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winner, a four-time AL batting champion, and a 12-time MLB All-Star. Although he primarily played in left and right field before 2006, he spent the majority of his major league career at first and third base. He claimed the 17th MLB Triple Crown in 2012, the first to do so in 45 seasons. Cabrera is one of three players in MLB history to have a career batting average above .300, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Cabrera is regarded as one of the greatest hitters of all time. Read more
18 Apr 1981: Audrey Tang, Taiwanese Minister of Digital Affairs and programmer Tang Feng, also known by her English name Audrey, is a Taiwanese politician and free software programmer who served as the first Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan from August 2022 to May 2024. She has been described as one of the "ten greatest Taiwanese computing personalities". In August 2016, Tang was invited to join Taiwan's Executive Yuan as a minister without portfolio, making her the first transgender person and the first non-binary gender official in the top executive cabinet. Tang has identified as "post-gender" and accepts "whatever pronoun people want to describe me with online." Tang is a leader of the Haskell and Perl programming language communities, and is the core member of g0v. Read more
18 Apr 1979: Matt Cooper, Australian rugby league player Matt Cooper is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australia international representative centre, he played his entire National Rugby League career for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, with whom he won the 2010 NRL grand final. Read more
18 Apr 1979: Kourtney Kardashian, American television personality Kourtney Kardashian Barker is an American media personality, socialite and businesswoman. In 2007, she and her family began starring in the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Its success led to the creation of spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take Miami and Kourtney and Kim Take New York. After she and her family made the decision to end their show after 20 seasons in 2021, they began appearing in an all new reality television series titled The Kardashians on Hulu in 2022. Read more
18 Apr 1976: Melissa Joan Hart, American actress Melissa Joan Hart is an American actress, director and producer. She had starring roles as the title characters in the sitcoms Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Melissa & Joey, and appeared as Liz in No Good Nick. She has also appeared in the films Drive Me Crazy (1999), Nine Dead (2009), and God's Not Dead 2 (2016). Read more
18 Apr 1974: Edgar Wright, English filmmaker Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive use of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He first made independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Read more
18 Apr 1973: Derrick Brooks, American football player Derrick Dewan Brooks is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brooks played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, earning consensus All-American honors twice. He was selected by the Buccaneers in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft. An 11-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time first-team All-Pro, Brooks was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 en route to winning the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016. Read more
18 Apr 1973: Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian former long-distance track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals and four World Championship titles over the 10,000 metres. Haile triumphed in the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. He also earned four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion. He is considered to be one of the greatest long distance runners of all time. Read more
18 Apr 1972: Rosa Clemente, American journalist and activist Rosa Alicia Clemente is an American community organizer, independent journalist, and hip-hop activist. She was the vice presidential running mate of Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Read more
18 Apr 1972: Eli Roth, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Eli Raphael Roth is an American filmmaker and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005). Read more
18 Apr 1971: David Tennant, Scottish actor David John Tennant is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the lead character in Doctor Who as the Tenth Doctor (2005–2010) and Fourteenth Doctor (2022-2023). His other notable screen roles include portraying Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), DI Alec Hardy in Broadchurch (2013–2017), Crowley in Good Omens (2019–present), and various fictionalised versions of himself in Staged (2020–2022). Read more
18 Apr 1970: Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabian-Lebanese businessman and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Lebanon Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri is a Lebanese businessman and politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. The son of Rafic Hariri, he founded and has been leading the Future Movement party since 2007. He is seen as "the strongest figurehead" of the March 14 Alliance. Read more
18 Apr 1970: Willie Roaf, American football player William Layton Roaf, nicknamed "Nasty", is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He played college football for Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, where he earned consensus All-American honors. He was a first-round pick in the 1993 NFL draft, and played professionally for the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. An 11-time Pro Bowl selection and nine-time All-Pro, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014. Read more
18 Apr 1969: Keith DeCandido, American author Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, martial artist, and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Andromeda, Farscape, Leverage, Spider-Man, X-Men, Sleepy Hollow, and Stargate SG-1. Read more
18 Apr 1964: Niall Ferguson, Scottish historian and academic Sir Niall Campbell Ferguson is a British and American historian who is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard University, the London School of Economics, New York University, a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities, and a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. He was a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics for the 2023/2024 academic year and at Tsinghua University in China from 2019 to 2020. Read more
18 Apr 1962: Jeff Dunham, American ventriloquist and comedian Jeffrey Douglas Dunham is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian and actor who has also appeared on numerous television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, The Tonight Show, and Sonny with a Chance. He has seven specials that run on Comedy Central as well as two Netflix specials among others. He also starred in The Jeff Dunham Show, a series that ran in 2009. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for "Most tickets sold for a stand-up comedy tour" for his Spark of Insanity tour. Read more
18 Apr 1961: Jane Leeves, English actress and dancer Jane Elizabeth Leeves is an English actress, best known for her role as Daphne Moon on the NBC sitcom Frasier (1993–2004), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. She also played Joy Scroggs on TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland. Read more
18 Apr 1961: John Podhoretz, American journalist and author John Mordecai Podhoretz is an American journalist and conservative political commentator. The son of writers Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter, he has been the editor of the magazine Commentary since 2009, a post his father held for over 30 years. Before that, Podhoretz ran the editorial page of the New York Post, was a deputy editor of The Weekly Standard, and contributed to numerous other publications. He served as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, worked in the George H. W. Bush administration, and has authored several books on politics. Read more
18 Apr 1960: Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, Ukrainian runner Olena Zhupiieva-Viazova or Olena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova or Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, née Yelena Zhupiyeva, is a retired track and field athlete from Ukraine, who competed mainly in the 10,000 metres. Competing for the Soviet Union as Yelena Zhupiyeva, she won a silver medal in the 10,000 m at the 1987 World Championships in Rome and a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As Yelena Vyazova, she won the 1992 CIS Athletics Championships 10,000 m title, and competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Read more
18 Apr 1959: Susan Faludi, American journalist, author and feminist Susan Charlotte Faludi is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for In the Darkroom, which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Read more
18 Apr 1958: Gabi Delgado-López, Spanish-German singer, co-founder of D.A.F. (died 2020) Gabriel Delgado-López, commonly known as Gabi Delgado, was a Spanish-born German composer, lyricist and producer, best known as singer and co-founder, with Robert Görl, of the German electronic band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. Read more
18 Apr 1958: Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian cricketer and coach (died 1999) Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. He is often acknowledged as the greatest West Indian fast bowler of all time, and one of the most complete fast bowlers in the history of cricket. His Test bowling average of 20.94 is the second best of anyone who has taken 200 or more wickets. Read more
18 Apr 1954: Robert Greenberg, American pianist and composer Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Great Courses. Read more
18 Apr 1953: Rick Moranis, Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter Frederick Allan Moranis is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, producer, songwriter and writer. Read more
18 Apr 1953: Sk. Mujibur Rahman, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the MLA of Moyna Assembly constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Read more
18 Apr 1950: Grigory Sokolov, Russian pianist and composer Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov is a Russian born Russian and Spanish pianist. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, with his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe. Read more
18 Apr 1948: Régis Wargnier, French director, producer, and screenwriter Régis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter and film score composer. His 1986 film The Woman of My Life won the César Award for Best First Film at the 12th César Awards. His 1992 film Indochine won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards. His 1995 A French Woman was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival where he won the Silver St. George for the Direction. Read more
18 Apr 1947: Moses Blah, Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (died 2013) Moses Zeh Blah was a Liberian politician. He served as the 28th vice president of Liberia under President Charles Taylor and became the 23rd president of Liberia on 11 August 2003, following Taylor's resignation. He served as president for two months, until 14 October 2003, when a United Nations-backed transitional government, headed by Gyude Bryant, was established. Read more
18 Apr 1947: Jerzy Stuhr, Polish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2024) Jerzy Oskar Stuhr was a Polish film and theatre actor. Considered one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors and an icon of Polish cinema, he also worked as a screenwriter, film director, voice actor and drama professor. He served as the rector of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków for two terms: from 1990 to 1996 and again from 2002 to 2008. Read more
18 Apr 1947: James Woods, American actor and producer James Howard Woods is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969), followed by Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971) and Moonchildren (1972). Woods' early film roles include The Visitors (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and The Gambler (1974). He starred in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) opposite Meryl Streep. Read more
18 Apr 1946: Hayley Mills, English actress Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is an English actress and singer. A daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961. Read more
18 Apr 1945: Bernard Arcand, Canadian anthropologist and author (died 2009) Bernard Arcand was a French-Canadian anthropologist, author and communicator. He was for several decades a professor of the anthropology department of Laval University. Read more
18 Apr 1944: Kathy Acker, American author and poet (died 1997) Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with complex themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality, language, identity, and rebellion. Her writing incorporates pastiche and the cut-up technique, involving cutting-up and scrambling passages and sentences; she also defined her writing as existing in the post-nouveau roman European tradition. In her texts, she combines biographical elements, power, sex and violence. Read more
18 Apr 1944: Philip Jackson, Scottish sculptor and photographer

Philip Henry Christopher Jackson CVO DL is a Scottish sculptor, noted for his modern style and emphasis on form. Acting as Royal Sculptor to Queen Elizabeth II, his sculptures appear in numerous UK cities, as well as Argentina and Switzerland. Read more
18 Apr 1942: Michael Beloff, English lawyer and academic Michael Jacob Beloff, KC is an English barrister, arbitrator and writer. A member of Blackstone Chambers, he practises in a number of areas including human rights, administrative law and sports law. Read more
18 Apr 1942: Robert Christgau, American journalist and critic Robert Thomas Christgau is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. He was the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice for 37 years, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music; he was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world—when he talks, people listen." Read more
18 Apr 1942: Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racing driver (died 1970) Karl Jochen Rindt was a racing driver who competed under the Austrian flag in Formula One from 1964 to 1970. Rindt won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1970 with Lotus, and remains the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship posthumously, following his death at the Italian Grand Prix; he won six Grands Prix across seven seasons. In endurance racing, Rindt won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965 with NART. Read more
18 Apr 1941: Michael D. Higgins, Irish sociologist and politician, 9th President of Ireland Michael Daniel Higgins is an Irish politician, poet and broadcaster who served as the president of Ireland from November 2011 to November 2025. Entering national politics through the Labour Party, he served as a senator from 1973 to 1977 and a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1981 to 1982, returning to the Seanad from 1983 to 1987 and the Dáil from 1987 to 2011. He served as minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997 and as mayor of Galway from 1981 to 1982 and 1990 to 1991. Read more
18 Apr 1940: Joseph L. Goldstein, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Leonard Goldstein ForMemRS is an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985, along with fellow University of Texas Southwestern researcher, Michael Brown, for their studies regarding cholesterol. They discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood and that when LDL receptors are not present in sufficient numbers, individuals develop hypercholesterolemia and become at risk for cholesterol related diseases, notably coronary heart disease. Their studies led to the development of statin drugs. Read more
18 Apr 1940: Mike Vickers, English guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter Michael Graham Vickers is an English musician who came to prominence as the guitarist, flautist, and saxophonist with the 1960s band Manfred Mann. Read more
18 Apr 1939: Glen Hardin, American pianist and arranger Glen Dee Hardin is an American piano player and arranger. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, and Ricky Nelson. Read more
18 Apr 1939: Thomas J. Moyer, American lawyer and judge (died 2010) Thomas Joseph Moyer was an American jurist and the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1987 to 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he formerly served as a justice of the 10th district of the Ohio District Courts of Appeals from 1979 to 1987. The Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center, headquarters of the Ohio Supreme Court, was named in his honor in 2011. Read more
18 Apr 1937: Keiko Abe, Japanese marimba player and composer Keiko Abe is a Japanese composer and marimba player. She has been a primary figure in the development of the marimba, in terms of expanding both technique and repertoire, and through her collaboration with the Yamaha Corporation, developed the modern five-octave concert marimba. Read more
18 Apr 1937: Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (died 2009) Jan Kaplický was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was best known for the neofuturistic Selfridges Building in Birmingham, England, and the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. Read more
18 Apr 1936: Roger Graef, American-English criminologist, director, and producer (died 2022) Roger Arthur Graef OBE was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings. Read more
18 Apr 1936: Vladimir Hütt, Estonian physicist and philosopher (died 1997) Vladimir Hütt was an Estonian philosopher. Read more
18 Apr 1935: Costas Ferris, Egyptian-Greek actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Costas Ferris is a Greek film director, writer, actor, and producer. He wrote the lyrics of Aphrodite's Child's album 666. His 1983 film Rembetiko won the Silver Bear at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival. Read more
18 Apr 1934: James Drury, American actor (died 2020) James Child Drury Jr. was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to 1971. Read more
18 Apr 1934: George Shirley, African-American tenor and educator George Irving Shirley is an American operatic tenor, and was the first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Read more
18 Apr 1931: Bill Miles, American director and producer (died 2013) William Miles was an American filmmaker. Born in Harlem, New York, he used his deep knowledge and experience of that iconic neighborhood to produce films that tell unique and often inspiring stories of Harlem's history. Based at Thirteen/WNET in New York City, William Miles produced many films dedicated to the African-American experience that have been broadcast nationwide. Read more
18 Apr 1930: Clive Revill, New Zealand actor and singer (died 2025) Clive Selsby Revill was a New Zealand actor and singer, best known for his performances in musical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often in character parts. He was a two-time Tony Award nominee, as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Irma La Douce and Best Actor in a Musical for Oliver!. Read more
18 Apr 1930: Jean Guillou, French organist (died 2019) Jean Victor Arthur Guillou was a French composer, organist, pianist, and pedagogue. Principal Organist at Saint Eustache in Paris, from 1963 to 2015, he was widely known as a composer of instrumental and vocal music focused on the organ, as an improviser, and as an adviser to organ builders. For several decades he held regular master classes in Zurich and in Paris. Read more
18 Apr 1929: Peter Hordern, English soldier and politician (died 2024) Sir Peter Maudslay Hordern, DL, PC was a British Conservative Party politician. Read more
18 Apr 1928: Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal and theologian (died 2015) Karl Josef Becker S.J. was a German Catholic theologian and consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 15 September 1977. He taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Read more
18 Apr 1928: Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (died 2014) Otto Piene was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Groton, Massachusetts. Read more
18 Apr 1927: Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist, author, and academic (died 2008) Samuel Phillips Huntington was an American political scientist, adviser, and academic. He was the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University, where he directed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Read more
18 Apr 1927: Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Poland (died 2013) Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, having held the post from 1989 to 1991. Read more
18 Apr 1926: Doug Insole, English cricketer (died 2017) Douglas John Insole was an English cricketer, who played for Cambridge University, Essex and in nine Test matches for England, five of them on the 1956–57 tour of South Africa, where he was vice-captain to Peter May. After retiring from playing, he was prominent in cricket administration, and served as chairman of the England selectors and as President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Read more
18 Apr 1925: Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer and author (died 2005) Marcus Schmuck was an Austrian mountaineer. In 1957, together with Hermann Buhl he organized the expedition, firstly envisaged and initiated by Buhl, to climb the world's 12th highest peak, the Broad Peak (8,047 metres) in the Karakoram in Pakistan. The other members of the expedition were: Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger. In his later years, he successfully organized and led 74 expeditions to the high mountains around the world. Read more
18 Apr 1924: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005) Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He was best-known as a blues performer, but his music was often eclectic and also touched on genres including country, jazz and rock and roll. Brown won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again! Read more
18 Apr 1922: Barbara Hale, American actress (died 2017) Barbara Hale was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television movies (1985–1995). Read more
18 Apr 1921: Jean Richard, French actor and singer (died 2001) Jean Richard was a French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur. He is best remembered for his role as Georges Simenon's Maigret in the eponymous French television series, which he played for more than twenty years, and for his circus activities. Read more
18 Apr 1920: John F. Wiley, American football player and coach (died 2013) John Franklin "Smiling Jack" Wiley was an American football player and coach. He played professionally a tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1950. Willey served as the head football coach at his alma mater, Waynesburg College—now known as Waynesburg University—in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, from 1951 to 1954, compiling a record of 22–9–1. Read more
18 Apr 1919: Virginia O'Brien, American actress and singer (died 2001) Virginia Lee O'Brien was an American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic singing roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of the 1940s. Read more
18 Apr 1919: Esther Afua Ocloo, Ghanaian entrepreneur and pioneer of microlending (died 2002) Esther Afua Ocloo was a Ghanaian businesswoman and pioneer of microlending, a programme of making small loans in order to stimulate businesses. Read more
18 Apr 1918: Gabriel Axel, Danish-French actor, director, and producer (died 2014) Axel Gabriel Erik Mørch better known as Gabriel Axel was a Danish film director, actor, writer and producer, best known for Babette's Feast (1987), which he wrote and directed. Read more
18 Apr 1918: André Bazin, French critic and theorist (died 1958) André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. He started to write about movies in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951 alongside Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. Read more
18 Apr 1918: Shinobu Hashimoto, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2018) Shinobu Hashimoto was a Japanese screenwriter, director and producer. A frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa, he wrote the scripts for critically acclaimed films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai, as well as the Samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Hitokiri (1969). Read more
18 Apr 1918: Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, founded CliffsNotes (died 2001) Clifton K. Hillegass was the creator and publisher of CliffsNotes. Read more
18 Apr 1918: Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (died 2004) Anthony C. "Tony" Mottola was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. He was born in Kearny, New Jersey, and died in Denville. Read more
18 Apr 1916: Carl Burgos, American illustrator (died 1984) Carl Burgos was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1, during the period historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books. Read more
18 Apr 1915: Joy Davidman, Polish-Ukrainian American poet and author (died 1960) Helen Joy Davidman was an American poet and writer. Often referred to as a child prodigy, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University in English literature at age twenty in 1935. For her book of poems, Letter to a Comrade, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1938 and the Russell Loines Award for Poetry in 1939. She was the author of several books, including two novels. Read more
18 Apr 1914: Claire Martin, Canadian author (died 2014) Claire Martin, was the pseudonym of the Canadian writer Claire Montreuil. She wrote mainly in French. Her novels often have themes of women's liberation and erotic relationships. Martin frequently revealed her devotions toward the "Frenchness" and Quebec nationalism as saying "I prefer to be of Quebec." or "I feel closer to love as a French-Canadian." In her works, Quebec and French-Canadian are portrayed as well-educated and living well. Martin focused her writing style on risks and illnesses of love, and wrote with prejudice and social conventions. Her works are characterized by purity and crafty use of language. Read more
18 Apr 1911: Maurice Goldhaber, Ukrainian-American physicist and academic (died 2011) Maurice Goldhaber was an American physicist. Read more
18 Apr 1907: Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-American composer and conductor (died 1995) Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953 onward. Best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life". Read more
18 Apr 1905: Sydney Halter, Canadian lawyer and businessman (died 1990) Gerald Sydney Halter, was a Canadian sports executive and lawyer. He served as the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1958 to 1966, and was president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada from 1938 to 1946. Read more
18 Apr 1905: George H. Hitchings, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) George Herbert Hitchings was an American medical doctor who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black and Gertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment", Hitchings specifically for his work on chemotherapy. Read more
18 Apr 1904: Pigmeat Markham, African-American comedian, singer, and dancer (died 1981) Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor. His nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be "Sweet Poppa Pigmeat". He was sometimes credited in films as Pigmeat "Alamo" Markham. Read more
18 Apr 1902: Waldemar Hammenhög, Swedish author (died 1972) Per Waldemar Hammenhög was a Swedish writer and novelist. The trivial, petty bourgeois urban environment forms the basis of many of his early realistic novels, whereas his later works turned towards religious and moral issues. Writing more than 40 novels, Hammenhög is probably best known for Pettersson & Bendel (1931), a humorous novel adapted twice to screen. Read more
18 Apr 1902: Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1981) Giuseppe Pella was an Italian Christian Democratic politician and statesman who served as the 31st prime minister of Italy from 1953 to 1954. He was also Minister of Treasury, Budget and of Foreign Affairs during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pella served as President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of Alcide De Gasperi. Read more
18 Apr 1901: Al Lewis, American songwriter (died 1967) Al Lewis was an American lyricist, songwriter and music publisher. He is thought of mostly as a Tin Pan Alley era lyricist; however, he did write music on occasion as well. Professionally he was most active during the 1920s working into the 1950s. During this time, he most often collaborated with songwriters such as Al Sherman and Abner Silver. Among his most famous songs are "Blueberry Hill" and "You Gotta Be a Football Hero". Read more
18 Apr 1901: László Németh, Hungarian dentist, author, and playwright (died 1975) László Németh was a Hungarian writer, dramatist and essayist. Read more
18 Apr 1900: Bertha Isaacs, Bahamian teacher, tennis player, politician and women's rights activist (died 1997) Dame Albertha Magdelina Isaacs DBE was a Bahamian teacher, tennis player, women's rights activist and politician. After a career as an elementary school teacher, she played on the international tennis circuit, winning both singles and doubles titles in the 1930s. Read more
18 Apr 1898: Patrick Hennessy, Irish soldier and businessman (died 1981) Sir Patrick Hennessy was an Irish-born British industrialist, originally from County Cork. During the First World War he served in the British Army, between 1914 and 1918, with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Read more
18 Apr 1897: Ardito Desio, Italian geologist and cartographer (died 2001)
Count Ardito Desio was an Italian explorer, mountain climber, geologist, and cartographer. Read more
18 Apr 1892: Eugene Houdry, French-American mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1962) Eugène Jules Houdry was a mechanical engineer who graduated from École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers in 1911. Read more
18 Apr 1889: Jessie Street, Australian activist (died 1970) Jessie Mary Grey Street was an Australian diplomat, suffragette, and a campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights. She was referred to as "Red Jessie" by the Australian media, due to her support for the Soviet Union through World War II and the Cold War, as she organised the "Sheepskins for Russia" campaign during World War II, and she was notably one of two Australians to attend Stalin's funeral. Read more
18 Apr 1884: Jaan Anvelt, Estonian educator and politician (died 1937) Jaan Anvelt, was an Estonian Bolshevik revolutionary and writer. He served the Russian SFSR, was a leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, the first premier of the Soviet Executive Committee of Estonia, and the chairman of the Council of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, he died from the injuries sustained during a beating by Aleksandr Langfang while in NKVD custody. Read more
18 Apr 1883: Aleksanteri Aava, Finnish poet (died 1956) Aleksanteri Aava, born Aleksanteri (Santeri) Kuparinen, was a Finnish poet and smallholder. Read more
18 Apr 1882: Isaac Babalola Akinyele, Nigerian ruler (died 1964) Oba Sir Isaac Babalola Akinyele, KBE was the first educated Olubadan of Ibadan, and the second Christian to ascend the throne. Read more
18 Apr 1882: Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (died 1977) Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristic sound from the orchestras he directed. Read more
18 Apr 1880: Sam Crawford, American baseball player, coach, and umpire (died 1968) Samuel Earl Crawford, nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a short minor league baseball career before rapidly rising to the majors with the Cincinnati Reds in 1899. He played for the Reds until 1902. Read more
18 Apr 1879: Korneli Kekelidze, Georgian philologist and scholar (died 1962) Korneli Kekelidze was a Soviet and Georgian philologist, scholar of Georgian literature, and one of the founding fathers of the Tbilisi State University where he chaired the Department of the History of Old Georgian Literature from 1918 until his death. Read more
18 Apr 1877: Vicente Sotto, Filipino lawyer and politician (died 1950) Vicente Yap Sotto, Sr. was a Filipino playwright, journalist, and politician who served as a senator from 1946 to 1950. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1922 to 1925, representing Cebu's 2nd district. He was the main author of the Press Freedom Law. Read more
18 Apr 1874: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Croatian author and poet (died 1938) Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, also spelled Ivana Berlic-Mazuranic in English, was a Croatian writer. She has been praised as the best Croatian writer for children. Read more
18 Apr 1864: Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (died 1916) Richard Harding Davis was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I. His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. He also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion, and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century. Read more
18 Apr 1863: Count Leopold Berchtold, Austrian-Hungarian politician and diplomat, Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (died 1942) Leopold Anton Johann Sigismund Josef Korsinus Ferdinand Graf Berchtold von und zu Ungarschitz, Frättling und Püllütz was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman who served as Imperial Foreign Minister at the outbreak of World War I. Read more
18 Apr 1863: Linton Hope, English sailor and architect (died 1920) Linton Chorley Hope FRAes was a sailor from Great Britain, who represented his country at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Meulan, France. With Lorne Currie as helmsman and fellow crewmembers John Gretton and Algernon Maudslay, Hope took first places in both the race of the .5 to 1 ton class and the Open class. Read more
18 Apr 1863: Siegfried Bettmann, founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company and Mayor of Coventry (died 1955) Siegfried Bettmann was a bicycle, motorcycle and car manufacturer and founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company. In 1914 he established the Annie Bettmann Foundation to help young people start businesses. Triumph became one of the most famous motorcycle trade-names in the world. Bettmann was also Mayor of Coventry from 1913 to 1914. Read more
18 Apr 1858: Dhondo Keshav Karve, Indian educator and activist, Bharat Ratna Awardee (died 1962) Dhondo Keshav Karve, popularly known as Maharshi Karve, was a social reformer in India in the field of women's welfare. He advocated widow remarriage, and he himself remarried a widow as a widower. Karve was a pioneer in promoting widows' education. He founded the first women's university in India, the SNDT Women's University in 1916. The Government of India awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1958, the year of his 100th birthday. He organized a conference against the practice of devdasi. He started 'Anath balikashram' an orphanage for girls. His intention was to give education to all women and make them stand on their own feet. Through his efforts, the first women university was set up in 20th century. In addition to his work in women's education, he actively campaigned against the caste system and played a key role in founding societies aimed at advancing primary education in rural areas. Read more
18 Apr 1858: Alexander Shirvanzade, Armenian playwright and author (died 1935) Alexander Minasi Movsisian, better known by his pen name Alexander Shirvanzade was an Armenian playwright and novelist. He was one of the main representatives of the realist movement in Armenian literature. Read more
18 Apr 1857: Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (died 1938) Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and politician who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the Leopold and Loeb murder trial, the Scopes "monkey" trial, and the Ossian Sweet defense. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform. Darrow was also a well-known public speaker, debater, and writer. Read more
18 Apr 1854: Ludwig Levy, German architect (died 1907) Ludwig Levy was a German Jewish architect of the Historicist school. He designed a number of synagogues, amongst which was the huge Neue Synagoge in Strasbourg, as well as official buildings such as the ministries of Alsace-Lorraine on the Kaiserplatz in that same town. Read more
18 Apr 1838: Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French chemist and academic (died 1912) Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, also called François Lecoq de Boisbaudran, was a self-taught French chemist known for his discoveries of the chemical elements gallium, samarium and dysprosium. He developed methods for separation and purification of the rare earth elements and was one of the pioneers of the science of spectroscopy. Read more
18 Apr 1819: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban lawyer and activist (died 1874) Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Céspedes, who was a plantation owner in Cuba, freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). This was the first of three wars of independence, the third of which, the Cuban War of Independence led to the end of Spanish rule in 1898 and Cuba's independence in 1902. Read more
18 Apr 1819: Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1895) Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas, including the first operetta to a German libretto. Some of them remain in the repertory, particularly in German-speaking countries, and he composed a substantial quantity of church music, but he is now chiefly known for his overtures, which remain popular in the concert hall and on record. Among the best-known are Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and Pique Dame. Read more
18 Apr 1813: James McCune Smith, African-American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author (died 1865) James McCune Smith was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist and author. He was the first African American to earn a medical degree. His M.D. was awarded by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland, where a building has been dedicated to him. After his return to the United States, he also became the first African American to run a pharmacy in the nation. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 18 April in World History

18 Apr 2024: Dickey Betts, American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer (born 1943) Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts was an American rock guitarist and vocalist, best known as a longtime member of the Allman Brothers Band. A co-founder of the band when it formed in 1969, he was central to the group's greatest commercial success in the mid-1970s, and was the writer and vocalist on the Allmans' hit single "Ramblin' Man". The Allman Brothers Band broke up and re-formed twice, always with Betts in the lineup, until he left the group in 2000. Read more
18 Apr 2024: Mandisa, American gospel singer (born 1976) Mandisa Lynn Hundley, known mononymously as Mandisa, was an American gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist. She began her solo career as a contestant in the fifth season of American Idol finishing in ninth place. Her album Overcomer won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album; she was the fifth American Idol contestant to win a Grammy. Read more
18 Apr 2022: Harrison Birtwistle, British composer (born 1934) Sir Harrison Birtwistle was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees. Read more
18 Apr 2019: Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (born 1990) Lyra Catherine McKee was a journalist from Northern Ireland who wrote for several publications about the consequences of the Troubles. She also served as an editor for Mediagazer, a news aggregator website. On 18 April 2019, McKee was fatally shot while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry. Read more
18 Apr 2014: Guru Dhanapal, Indian director and producer (born 1959) Guru Dhanapal was an Indian film director, who worked in Tamil cinema, mostly with actor Sathyaraj and Karthik (actor). Read more
18 Apr 2014: Sanford Jay Frank, American screenwriter and producer (born 1954) Sanford Jay "Sandy" Frank, also known as Sandy Frank, was a television writer who was known as a writer for Late Night with David Letterman. He wrote for Letterman's NBC show for four years, during which the show won four Emmy Awards for comedy-variety writing. Frank had a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a law degree from Harvard and had written for The Harvard Lampoon. Read more
18 Apr 2014: Brian Priestman, English conductor and academic (born 1927) Brian Priestman was a British conductor and music educator. Read more
18 Apr 2013: Goran Švob, Croatian philosopher and author (born 1947) Goran Švob was a Croatian philosopher, logician, and author. He was an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb where he taught logic and the philosophy of language, being employed there since 1975. Read more
18 Apr 2013: Anne Williams, English activist (born 1951)
Anne Elizabeth Williams was a campaigner for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool football fans, including her son Kevin Williams, died at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. Read more
18 Apr 2012: Dick Clark, American television host and producer, founded Dick Clark Productions (born 1929) Richard Wagstaff Clark was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted American Bandstand from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid game show from 1973 to 1988 and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, which broadcast New Year's Eve celebrations in New York City's Times Square. Read more
18 Apr 2012: René Lépine, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (born 1929) René G. Lépine was a Canadian real estate developer and philanthropist. Lépine was the chairman of Groupe Lépine, a real estate development and investment firm he founded in 1953. He is widely considered one of the most influential French Canadian real estate developers of his time. His companies developed over $5 billion of real estate in Canada and the United States since the 1960s. He also owned a portfolio of multifamily and retail properties in Montreal and Ottawa. Lépine developed many buildings considered landmarks in Montreal, including the Olympic Village and Le Sanctuaire du Mont-Royal. Lépine is also credited with having developed the first condominiums in Montreal in 1981. Read more
18 Apr 2012: Robert O. Ragland, American musician (born 1931) Robert Oliver Ragland was an American film score composer, best known for his soundtracks to numerous genre films ranging from blaxploitation (Abby), to horror, to monster movies, to thrillers and action films. Throughout his career, he worked with cult filmmakers including William Girdler, Menahem Golan, Larry Cohen, and J. Lee Thompson. Read more
18 Apr 2012: K. D. Wentworth, American author (born 1951) Kathy Diane Wentworth, known as K. D. Wentworth, was an American science fiction author. A University of Tulsa graduate, she got her start winning the Writers of the Future Contest in 1988, and then later won Field Publications' "Teachers as Writers" Award in 1991. Wentworth served two terms as secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in the early 2000s. She served as the editor for the Writers of the Future Contest from 2009 until her death. One of her novelettes, "Kaleidoscope" (2008), and three of her short stories, "Burning Bright" (1997). "Tall One" (1998), and "Born Again" (2005) have been Nebula Award finalists. Wentworth died on April 18, 2012, from complications with pneumonia and cervical cancer. Read more
18 Apr 2008: Germaine Tillion, French ethnologist and anthropologist (born 1907) Germaine Tillion was a French ethnologist, known for her work in Algeria in the 1950s on behalf of the Government of France. A member of the French Resistance in World War II, she spent time in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Read more
18 Apr 2004: Kamisese Mara, Fijian politician, 2nd President of Fiji (born 1920) Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was a Fijian politician who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, as the first Prime Minister from 1970 to 1992. He subsequently served as president from 1993 to 2000. Read more
18 Apr 2002: Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnographer and explorer (born 1914) Thor Heyerdahl KStJ was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in biology with specialization in zoology, botany and geography. Read more
18 Apr 1995: Arturo Frondizi, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Argentina (born 1908) Arturo Frondizi Ércoli was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher, statesman, and politician. He was elected president of Argentina and governed from May 1, 1958, to March 29, 1962, when he was overthrown in a military coup. His government was characterized by its strong developmentalist policies, that was less promoted by the State and more oriented to the development of heavy industry as a consequence of the entry of multinational companies. Read more
18 Apr 1988: Oktay Rıfat Horozcu, Turkish poet and playwright (born 1914) Ali Oktay Rifat, better known as Oktay Rifat, was a Turkish writer and playwright, and one of the forefront poets of modern Turkish poetry since the late 1930s. He was the founder of the Garip movement, together with Orhan Veli and Melih Cevdet. Read more
18 Apr 1974: Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright, and director (born 1895) Marcel Paul Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for his prominence in multiple eminent mediums—memoir, novel, theatre and film. Read more
18 Apr 1965: Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican engineer (born 1917) Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican electrical engineer who invented an early field-sequential version of color television. Read more
18 Apr 1964: Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1894) Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films, including six Academy Award nominations and two wins. Read more
18 Apr 1963: Meyer Jacobstein, American academic and politician (born 1880) Meyer Jacobstein was an American educator and politician who served three terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1923 to 1929. Read more
18 Apr 1958: Maurice Gamelin, Belgian-French general (born 1872) Maurice Gustave Gamelin was a French general who served as head of the French Army from 1935 and as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France from the outbreak of the Second World War to his dismissal during the Battle of France in May 1940. The strategic choices Gamelin made ultimately left France vulnerable to a lightning offensive through the Ardennes and have been extensively criticised by historians. Read more
18 Apr 1955: Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (born 1879) Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". Read more
18 Apr 1951: Óscar Carmona, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 11th President of Portugal (born 1869) António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona a Portuguese army officer and politician who served as president of Portugal from 1926 until his death in 1951. Before his presidency, he served as prime minister of Portugal from 1926 to 1928, he previously served as minister of war in late 1923 and in 1926, and as minister of foreign affairs in 1926. Read more
18 Apr 1947: Jozef Tiso, Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (born 1887) Jozef Gašpar Tiso was a Slovak politician, dictator and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. After the war, in 1947, he was convicted of treason and executed in Bratislava. Read more
18 Apr 1945: John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (born 1849) Sir John Ambrose Fleming was a British electrical engineer and physicist. He is known for inventing the vacuum tube radio transmitter—with which the first transatlantic radio transmission was made—and establishing the right-hand rule used in physics. Read more
18 Apr 1945: Ernie Pyle, American journalist and soldier (born 1900) Ernest Taylor Pyle was an American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the columns he wrote as a roving human-interest reporter from 1935 through 1941 for the Scripps-Howard newspaper syndicate that earned him wide acclaim for his simple accounts of ordinary people across North America. When the United States entered World War II, he lent the same distinctive, folksy style of his human-interest stories to his wartime reports from the European theater (1942–44) and Pacific theater (1945). Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his newspaper accounts of "dogface" infantry soldiers from a first-person perspective. He was killed by enemy fire on Iejima during the Battle of Okinawa. Read more
18 Apr 1943: Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (born 1884) Isoroku Yamamoto was an admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He commanded the fleet from 1939 until his death in 1943, overseeing the start of the Pacific War in 1941 and Japan's initial successes and defeats before his plane was shot down by U.S. fighter aircraft over New Guinea. Read more
18 Apr 1942: Aleksander Mitt, Estonian speed skater (born 1903) Aleksander Mitt was an Estonian speed skater who competed at the 1928 and 1936 Winter Olympics. Read more
18 Apr 1942: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American heiress, sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art (born 1875) Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, who was born into the wealthy Vanderbilt family and married into the Whitney family. Read more
18 Apr 1938: George Bryant, American archer (born 1878) George Philip "Phil" Bryant was an American archer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He later became President of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games for the 1932 Summer Olympics. He won two gold medals in Archery at the 1904 Summer Olympics in the double York and American rounds. In the team competition he won the bronze medal as part of the Boston Archery Club team. Bryant had not won any major titles before the Olympics, but later won national championships in 1905, 1909, 1911, and 1912. Read more
18 Apr 1936: Milton Brown, American singer and bandleader (born 1903) Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing". The birthplace of Brown's upbeat "hot-jazz hillbilly" string band sound was developed at the Crystal Springs Dance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, from 1931 to 1936. Read more
18 Apr 1936: Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer and conductor (born 1879) Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928). Read more
18 Apr 1923: Savina Petrilli, Italian religious leader (born 1851) Savina Petrilli was an Italian Catholic professed religious who founded the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena upon receiving the encouragement of Pope Pius IX. Read more
18 Apr 1917: Vladimir Serbsky, Russian psychiatrist and academic (born 1858) Vladimir Petrovich Serbsky was a Russian psychiatrist and one of the founders of forensic psychiatry in Russia. The author of The Forensic Psychopathology, Serbsky thought delinquency to have no congenital basis, considering it to be caused by social reasons. Read more
18 Apr 1912: Martha Ripley, American physician (born 1843) Martha George Rogers Ripley was an American physician, suffragist, and professor of medicine. Founder of the Maternity Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ripley was one of the most outspoken activists for disadvantaged female rights. A prominent leader in the American Woman Suffrage Association, Ripley also served six years as president of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. Read more
18 Apr 1906: Luis Martín, Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (born 1846) Luis Martín García was a Spanish Jesuit, elected the twenty-fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Read more
18 Apr 1898: Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (born 1826) Gustave Moreau was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence". He was an influential forerunner of symbolism in the visual arts in the 1860s, and at the height of the symbolist movement in the 1890s, he was among the most significant painters. Art historian Robert Delevoy wrote that Moreau "brought symbolist polyvalence to its highest point in Jupiter and Semele." He was a prolific artist who produced over 15,000 paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Moreau painted allegories and traditional biblical and mythological subjects favored by the fine art academies. J. K. Huysmans wrote, "Gustave Moreau has given new freshness to dreary old subjects by a talent both subtle and ample: he has taken myths worn out by the repetitions of centuries and expressed them in a language that is persuasive and lofty, mysterious and new." The female characters from the Bible and mythology that he so frequently depicted came to be regarded by many as the archetypical symbolist woman. His art fell from favor and received little attention in the early 20th century but, beginning in the 1960s and 70s, he has come to be considered among the most paramount of symbolist painters. Read more
18 Apr 1890: Paweł Bryliński, Polish sculptor (born 1814) Paweł Bryliński was a Polish folk-sculptor. He is perhaps best known for a series of works concerning Holy Week. Read more
18 Apr 1873: Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (born 1803) Justus Freiherr von Liebig was a German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biological chemistry; he is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the most outstanding chemistry teachers of all time. He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which states that plant growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available. He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts, and with his consent a company, called Liebig Extract of Meat Company, was founded to exploit the concept; it later introduced the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube. He popularized an earlier invention for condensing vapors, which came to be known as the Liebig condenser. Read more
18 Apr 1864: Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and linguist (born 1832) Juris Alunāns was a Latvian writer and philologist in the Russian Empire. He was one of the first contributors of the Latvian language. He was one of the members of the Young Latvia movement. Read more
18 Apr 1859: Tatya Tope, Indian general (born 1814) Tantia Tope was an Indian general in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British East India Company. Read more
18 Apr 1832: Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, French painter (born 1761) Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet was a French painter and the wife of the sculptor Antoine Denis Chaudet, who had also been her teacher. Read more
18 Apr 1802: Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (born 1731) Erasmus Robert Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, freemason, and poet. Read more

Why is 18 April Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 18 April, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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On 18 April, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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