April 18 is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 257 days remain until the end of the year.
- 1902 – The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000.
- 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.
- 1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
- 1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
- 1915 – World War I: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines.
- 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.[5]
- 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.[6]
- 1938 – Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938).[7]
- 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.[8]
- 1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed.
- 1942 – Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
- 1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
- 1945 – World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
- 1945 – Italian resistance movement: In Turin, despite the harsh repressive measures adopted by Nazi-fascists, a great pre-insurrectional strike begins.[9]
- 1946 – The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.
- 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.[10]
- 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.[11]
- 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.[12]
- 1954 – Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
- 1955 – Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
- 1972 – East African Airways Flight 720 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 43.[13]
- 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.
- 1980 – The town of Elmore City, Oklahoma holds its first dance in the town's history.[14]
- 1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
- 1988 – In Israel John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II, although the verdict is later overturned.[15]
- 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.[16]
- 2018 – King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country's name will change to Eswatini.[17]
- 2018 – Anti-government protests start in Nicaragua.[18]
- 2019 – A redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the United States Congress and the public.[19]
- 1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian priest and composer (died 1674)
- 1666 – Jean-Féry Rebel, French violinist and composer (died 1747)
- 1740 – Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, English banker and politician (died 1810)
- 1759 – Jacques Widerkehr, French cellist and composer (died 1823)
- 1771 – Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (died 1820)
- 1772 – David Ricardo, British economist and politician (died 1823)
- 1794 – William Debenham, English founder of Debenhams (died 1863)
- 1813 – James McCune Smith, African-American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author (died 1865)
- 1819 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban lawyer and activist (died 1874)
- 1819 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1895)
- 1838 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French chemist and academic (died 1912)
- 1854 – Ludwig Levy, German architect (died 1907)
- 1857 – Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (died 1938)
- 1858 – Dhondo Keshav Karve, Indian educator and activist, Bharat Ratna Awardee (died 1962)
- 1858 – Alexander Shirvanzade, Armenian playwright and author (died 1935)
- 1863 – Count Leopold Berchtold, Austrian-Hungarian politician and diplomat, Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (died 1942)
- 1863 – Linton Hope, English sailor and architect (died 1920)
- 1863 – Siegfried Bettmann, founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company and Mayor of Coventry (died 1955)
- 1864 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (died 1916)
- 1874 – Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Croatian author and poet (died 1938)
- 1877 – Vicente Sotto, Filipino lawyer and politician (died 1950)
- 1879 – Korneli Kekelidze, Georgian philologist and scholar (died 1962)
- 1880 – Sam Crawford, American baseball player, coach, and umpire (died 1968)
- 1882 – Isaac Babalola Akinyele, Nigerian ruler (died 1964)
- 1882 – Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (died 1977)
- 1883 – Aleksanteri Aava, Finnish poet (died 1956)[21]
- 1884 – Jaan Anvelt, Estonian educator and politician (died 1937)
- 1889 – Jessie Street, Australian activist (died 1970)[22]
- 1892 – Eugene Houdry, French-American mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1962)
- 1897 – Ardito Desio, Italian geologist and cartographer (died 2001)
- 1898 – Patrick Hennessy, Irish soldier and businessman (died 1981)
- 1900 – Bertha Isaacs, Bahamian teacher, tennis player, politician and women's rights activist (died 1997)[23]
- 1901 – Al Lewis, American songwriter (died 1967)
- 1901 – László Németh, Hungarian dentist, author, and playwright (died 1975)
- 1902 – Waldemar Hammenhög, Swedish author (died 1972)
- 1902 – Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1981)
- 1904 – Pigmeat Markham, African-American comedian, singer, and dancer (died 1981)
- 1905 – Sydney Halter, Canadian lawyer and businessman (died 1990)
- 1905 – George H. Hitchings, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998)
- 1907 – Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-American composer and conductor (died 1995)
- 1911 – Maurice Goldhaber, Ukrainian-American physicist and academic (died 2011)
- 1914 – Claire Martin, Canadian author (died 2014)
- 1915 – Joy Davidman, Polish-Ukrainian American poet and author (died 1960)
- 1916 – Carl Burgos, American illustrator (died 1984)
- 1918 – Gabriel Axel, Danish-French actor, director, and producer (died 2014)
- 1918 – André Bazin, French critic and theorist (died 1958)
- 1918 – Shinobu Hashimoto, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2018)
- 1918 – Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, founded CliffsNotes (died 2001)
- 1918 – Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (died 2004)
- 1919 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress and singer (died 2001)
- 1919 – Esther Afua Ocloo, Ghanaian entrepreneur and pioneer of microlending (died 2002)
- 1920 – John F. Wiley, American football player and coach (died 2013)
- 1921 – Jean Richard, French actor and singer (died 2001)
- 1922 – Barbara Hale, American actress (died 2017)
- 1924 – Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005)
- 1925 – Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer and author (died 2005)
- 1926 – Doug Insole, English cricketer (died 2017)
- 1927 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist, author, and academic (died 2008)
- 1927 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Poland (died 2013)
- 1928 – Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal and theologian (died 2015)
- 1928 – Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (died 2014)
- 1929 – Peter Hordern, English soldier and politician (died 2024)
- 1930 – Clive Revill, New Zealand actor and singer (died 2025)[24]
- 1930 – Jean Guillou, French organist (died 2019)[25]
- 1931 – Bill Miles, American director and producer (died 2013)
- 1934 – James Drury, American actor (died 2020)
- 1934 – George Shirley, African-American tenor and educator
- 1935 – Costas Ferris, Egyptian-Greek actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1936 – Roger Graef, American-English criminologist, director, and producer (died 2022)
- 1936 – Vladimir Hütt, Estonian physicist and philosopher (died 1997)
- 1937 – Keiko Abe, Japanese marimba player and composer[26]
- 1937 – Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (died 2009)
- 1939 – Glen Hardin, American pianist and arranger
- 1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, American lawyer and judge (died 2010)
- 1940 – Joseph L. Goldstein, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1940 – Mike Vickers, English guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter
- 1941 – Michael D. Higgins, Irish sociologist and politician, 9th President of Ireland[27]
- 1942 – Michael Beloff, English lawyer and academic
- 1942 – Robert Christgau, American journalist and critic
- 1942 – Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racing driver (died 1970)
- 1944 – Kathy Acker, American author and poet (died 1997)
- 1944 – Philip Jackson, Scottish sculptor and photographer
- 1945 – Bernard Arcand, Canadian anthropologist and author (died 2009)
- 1946 – Hayley Mills, English actress[28]
- 1947 – Moses Blah, Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (died 2013)
- 1947 – Jerzy Stuhr, Polish actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1947 – James Woods, American actor and producer
- 1948 – Régis Wargnier, French director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1950 – Grigory Sokolov, Russian pianist and composer
- 1953 – Rick Moranis, Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter
- 1953 – Sk. Mujibur Rahman, Bengali politician[29]
- 1954 – Robert Greenberg, American pianist and composer
- 1958 – Gabi Delgado-López, Spanish-German singer, co-founder of D.A.F. (died 2020)
- 1958 – Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian cricketer and coach (died 1999)
- 1959 – Susan Faludi, American journalist, author and feminist[30]
- 1960 – Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, Ukrainian runner
- 1961 – Jane Leeves, English actress and dancer
- 1961 – John Podhoretz, American journalist and author
- 1962 – Jeff Dunham, American ventriloquist and comedian[31]
- 1964 – Niall Ferguson, Scottish historian and academic
- 1969 – Keith DeCandido, American author
- 1970 – Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabian-Lebanese businessman and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Lebanon
- 1970 – Willie Roaf, American football player[32]
- 1971 – David Tennant, Scottish actor
- 1972 – Rosa Clemente, American journalist and activist
- 1972 – Eli Roth, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Derrick Brooks, American football player[33]
- 1973 – Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner
- 1974 – Edgar Wright, English filmmaker[34]
- 1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, American actress[35]
- 1979 – Matt Cooper, Australian rugby league player[36]
- 1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American television personality[37]
- 1981 – Audrey Tang, Taiwanese Minister of Digital Affairs and programmer
- 1983 – Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player[38]
- 1984 – America Ferrera, American actress[39]
- 1985 – Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer[40]
- 1986 – Tina Bru, Norwegian politician[41]
- 1988 – Vanessa Kirby, English actress[42]
- 1989 – Alia Shawkat, American actress[43]
- 1990 – Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer[44]
- 1992 – Chloe Bennet, American actress[45]
- 1993 – Mika Zibanejad, Swedish ice hockey player[46]
- 1994 – Aminé, American singer-songwriter[47]
- 1995 – Divock Origi, Belgian footballer[48]
- 1996 – Ski Mask the Slump God, American rapper[49]
- 727 – Agallianos Kontoskeles, Byzantine commander and rebel leader
- 850 – Perfectus, Spanish monk and martyr[50]
- 909 – Dionysius II, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch
- 943 – Fujiwara no Atsutada, Japanese nobleman and poet (born 906)
- 963 – Stephen Lekapenos, co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire[51]
- 1161 – Theobald of Bec, French-English archbishop (born 1090)
- 1176 – Galdino della Sala, Italian archdeacon and saint
- 1430 – John III, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count[52]
- 1552 – John Leland, English poet and historian (born 1502)[53]
- 1555 – Polydore Vergil, English historian (born 1470)[54]
- 1556 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet and politician (born 1495)
- 1567 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (born 1503)
- 1587 – John Foxe, English historian and author (born 1516)[55]
- 1636 – Julius Caesar, English judge and politician (born 1557)
- 1650 – Simonds d'Ewes, English lawyer and politician (born 1602)
- 1674 – John Graunt, English demographer and statistician (born 1620)
- 1689 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, Welsh judge and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1648)
- 1732 – Louis Feuillée, French astronomer, geographer, and botanist (born 1660)
- 1742 – Arvid Horn, Swedish general and politician (born 1664)[56]
- 1763 – Marie-Josephte Corriveau, Canadian murderer (born 1733)
- 1794 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1714)
- 1796 – Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist and academic (born 1732)
- 1802 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (born 1731)
- 1832 – Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, French painter (born 1761)
- 1859 – Tatya Tope, Indian general (born 1814)
- 1864 – Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and linguist (born 1832)
- 1873 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (born 1803)
- 1890 – Paweł Bryliński, Polish sculptor (born 1814)[57]
- 1898 – Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (born 1826)
- 1906 – Luis Martín, Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (born 1846)
- 1912 – Martha Ripley, American physician (born 1843)[58]
- 1917 – Vladimir Serbsky, Russian psychiatrist and academic (born 1858)
- 1923 – Savina Petrilli, Italian religious leader (born 1851)[59][60][61]
- 1936 – Milton Brown, American singer and bandleader (born 1903)
- 1936 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer and conductor (born 1879)
- 1938 – George Bryant, American archer (born 1878)
- 1942 – Aleksander Mitt, Estonian speed skater (born 1903)
- 1942 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American heiress, sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art (born 1875)
- 1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (born 1884)
- 1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (born 1849)
- 1945 – Ernie Pyle, American journalist and soldier (born 1900)
- 1947 – Jozef Tiso, Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (born 1887)
- 1951 – Óscar Carmona, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 11th President of Portugal (born 1869)
- 1955 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (born 1879)
- 1958 – Maurice Gamelin, Belgian-French general (born 1872)
- 1963 – Meyer Jacobstein, American academic and politician (born 1880)
- 1964 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1894)
- 1965 – Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican engineer (born 1917)
- 1974 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright, and director (born 1895)
- 1988 – Oktay Rıfat Horozcu, Turkish poet and playwright (born 1914)
- 1995 – Arturo Frondizi, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Argentina (born 1908)
- 2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnographer and explorer (born 1914)[62]
- 2004 – Kamisese Mara, Fijian politician, 2nd President of Fiji (born 1920)
- 2008 – Germaine Tillion, French ethnologist and anthropologist (born 1907)
- 2012 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer, founded Dick Clark Productions (born 1929)
- 2012 – René Lépine, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (born 1929)
- 2012 – Robert O. Ragland, American musician (born 1931)[63]
- 2012 – K. D. Wentworth, American author (born 1951)
- 2013 – Goran Švob, Croatian philosopher and author (born 1947)
- 2013 – Anne Williams, English activist (born 1951)
- 2014 – Guru Dhanapal, Indian director and producer (born 1959)
- 2014 – Sanford Jay Frank, American screenwriter and producer (born 1954)
- 2014 – Brian Priestman, English conductor and academic (born 1927)
- 2019 – Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (born 1990)[64]
- 2022 – Harrison Birtwistle, British composer (born 1934)[65]
- 2024 – Dickey Betts, American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer (born 1943)[66]
- 2024 – Mandisa, American gospel singer (born 1976)[67]
Holidays and observances
[edit]
