April 18 facts for kids

2025 Calendar

April 18 in recent years

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.

April 19th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history. From important battles and scientific discoveries to the birthdays of famous people and special holidays, this date has seen a lot happen around the world. Let's explore some of the most memorable moments that took place on April 19th.

Events
Births
Deaths
Holidays and observances
See also

Events

Historic Moments Before 1600

796 – King Æthelred I of Northumbria was killed in Corbridge. Another leader, Osbald, became king but only for a short time.
1428 – The Peace of Ferrara agreement ended a major conflict called the Wars in Lombardy in Italy. This peace helped the Italian Renaissance to grow.
1506 – The first stone was laid for the famous St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a very important church.
1518 – Bona Sforza was crowned as the queen of Poland.
1521 – The trial of Martin Luther continued at the Diet of Worms. He bravely refused to change his religious beliefs, even though it was risky.

Key Events from 1601 to 1900

1689 – People in Boston rebelled against their governor, Sir Edmund Andros, in what was known as the 1689 Boston revolt.
1738 – The Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Academy of History) was started in Madrid, Spain.
1775 – American Revolution: British soldiers began to move by sea. Paul Revere and other riders famously warned everyone about the troops coming, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
1783 – The Three-Fifths Compromise was first discussed. This was an agreement to count enslaved African Americans as three-fifths of a person for tax purposes in the United States. It was later included in the Constitution.
1831 – The University of Alabama was founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
1847 – American forces won the battle of Cerro Gordo, which opened the way for them to invade Mexico during the Mexican-American War.
1857 – "The Spirits Book" by Allan Kardec was published. This book helped start the Spiritualism movement in France.
1864 – Battle of Dybbøl: Armies from Prussia and Austria defeated Denmark. This gave them control of Schleswig, and Denmark had to give up the area.
1897 – The Greco-Turkish War officially began between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
1899 – The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association was given a special royal charter by Queen Victoria.

Modern History: 1901 to Today

1902 – A powerful earthquake in Guatemala caused a lot of damage and killed many people.
1906 – A huge earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco, California.
1909 – Joan of Arc, a French heroine, was honored in Rome.
1912 – The RMS Carpathia ship brought 705 people who survived the RMS Titanic disaster to New York City.
1915 – World War I: French pilot Roland Garros was shot down and landed on the German side of the lines.
1916 – World War I: Italian troops captured Col di Lana from the Austrian army in the Dolomites.
1930 – A fire at a wooden church in Costești, Romania, killed 118 people, mostly schoolchildren, during a Good Friday service.
1939 – Robert Menzies was chosen to lead the United Australia Party. He later became Australia's longest-serving prime minister.
1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid took place. American bombers attacked cities in Japan like Tokyo and Yokohama.
1943 – World War II: In Operation Vengeance, American fighters shot down the plane of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, killing him.
1945 – World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attacked the island of Heligoland, Germany.
1946 – The International Court of Justice held its first meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.
1946 – Jackie Robinson played his first regular season game for the Montreal Royals. This made them the first modern professional baseball team to have both white and black players.
1947 – Operation Big Bang, the largest non-nuclear explosion at the time, destroyed military buildings on Heligoland, Germany.
1949 – The Republic of Ireland officially became a republic, separating its ties with the Commonwealth of Nations.
1954 – Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of Egypt.
1955 – Twenty-nine nations met in Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) became an independent country. Canaan Banana was its first President.
1980 – The town of Elmore City, Oklahoma held its first dance ever!
1988 – The United States launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces. This was the biggest naval battle since World War II.
2018 – King Mswati III of Swaziland announced that his country's name would change to Eswatini.
2018 – Protests against the government began in Nicaragua.
2019 – A public version of the Mueller report was released to the United States Congress and the public.

Births

Famous People Born Before 1600

359 – Gratian, a Roman emperor.
588 – K'an II, a Mayan ruler.
812 – Al-Wathiq, an Abbasid caliph.
1446 – Ippolita Maria Sforza, an Italian noblewoman.
1480 – Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI.
1503 – Henry II of Navarre, a king.
1534 – William Harrison, an English clergyman.
1580 – Thomas Middleton, an English playwright and poet.
1590 – Ahmed I, an Ottoman Emperor.

Notable Births from 1601 to 1900

1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, an Italian priest and composer.
1666 – Jean-Féry Rebel, a French violinist and composer.
1740 – Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, an English banker and politician.
1759 – Jacques Widerkehr, a French cellist and composer.
1771 – Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, a general.
1772 – David Ricardo, a British economist and politician.
1794 – William Debenham, who founded the Debenhams department store.
1813 – James McCune Smith, an African-American doctor and abolitionist.
1819 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a Cuban lawyer and activist.
1819 – Franz von Suppé, an Austrian composer.
1838 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist.
1854 – Ludwig Levy, a German architect.
1857 – Clarence Darrow, a famous American lawyer.
1858 – Dhondo Keshav Karve, an Indian educator and activist.
1858 – Alexander Shirvanzade, an Armenian playwright.
1863 – Count Leopold Berchtold, an Austrian-Hungarian politician.
1863 – Linton Hope, an English sailor and architect.
1863 – Siegfried Bettmann, who founded the Triumph Motorcycle Company.
1864 – Richard Harding Davis, an American journalist.
1874 – Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, a Croatian author.
1877 – Vicente Sotto, a Filipino lawyer and politician.
1879 – Korneli Kekelidze, a Georgian scholar.
1880 – Sam Crawford, an American baseball player.
1882 – Isaac Babalola Akinyele, a Nigerian ruler.
1882 – Leopold Stokowski, an English conductor.
1883 – Aleksanteri Aava, a Finnish poet.
1884 – Jaan Anvelt, an Estonian politician.
1889 – Jessie Street, an Australian activist.
1892 – Eugene Houdry, a French-American inventor.
1897 – Ardito Desio, an Italian geologist.
1898 – Patrick Hennessy, an Irish businessman.
1900 – Bertha Isaacs, a Bahamian teacher and women's rights activist.

People Born from 1901 to Today

1901 – Al Lewis, an American songwriter.
1901 – László Németh, a Hungarian author.
1902 – Waldemar Hammenhög, a Swedish author.
1902 – Giuseppe Pella, an Italian Prime Minister.
1904 – Pigmeat Markham, an African-American comedian.
1905 – Sydney Halter, a Canadian lawyer.
1905 – George H. Hitchings, an American doctor and Nobel Prize winner.
1907 – Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian-American composer.
1911 – Maurice Goldhaber, a Ukrainian-American physicist.
1914 – Claire Martin, a Canadian author.
1915 – Joy Davidman, an American poet and author.
1916 – Carl Burgos, an American illustrator.
1918 – Gabriel Axel, a Danish-French actor and director.
1918 – André Bazin, a French film critic.
1918 – Shinobu Hashimoto, a Japanese director.
1918 – Clifton Hillegass, who founded CliffsNotes.
1918 – Tony Mottola, an American guitarist.
1919 – Virginia O'Brien, an American actress.
1919 – Esther Afua Ocloo, a Ghanaian entrepreneur.
1920 – John F. Wiley, an American football player and coach.
1921 – Jean Richard, a French actor.
1922 – Barbara Hale, an American actress.
1924 – Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, an American singer.
1925 – Marcus Schmuck, an Austrian mountaineer.
1926 – Doug Insole, an English cricketer.
1927 – Samuel P. Huntington, an American political scientist.
1927 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Polish Prime Minister.
1928 – Karl Josef Becker, a German cardinal.
1928 – Otto Piene, a German sculptor.
1929 – Peter Hordern, an English politician.
1930 – Clive Revill, a New Zealand actor.
1931 – Bill Miles, an American director.
1934 – James Drury, an American actor.
1934 – George Shirley, an African-American singer.
1935 – Costas Ferris, an Egyptian-Greek director.
1936 – Roger Graef, an American-English director.
1936 – Vladimir Hütt, an Estonian physicist.
1937 – Keiko Abe, a Japanese marimba player.
1937 – Jan Kaplický, a Czech architect.
1939 – Glen Hardin, an American pianist.
1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, an American judge.
1940 – Joseph L. Goldstein, an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.
1940 – Mike Vickers, an English musician.
1941 – Michael D. Higgins, the 9th President of Ireland.
1942 – Michael Beloff, an English lawyer.
1942 – Robert Christgau, an American journalist.
1942 – Jochen Rindt, a German-Austrian racing driver.
1944 – Kathy Acker, an American author.
1944 – Philip Jackson, a Scottish sculptor.
1945 – Bernard Arcand, a Canadian anthropologist.
1946 – Hayley Mills, an English actress.
1947 – Moses Blah, a Liberian general and politician.
1947 – Jerzy Stuhr, a Polish actor.
1947 – James Woods, an American actor.
1948 – Régis Wargnier, a French director.
1950 – Grigory Sokolov, a Russian pianist.
1953 – Rick Moranis, a Canadian-American actor and comedian.
1954 – Robert Greenberg, an American composer.
1956 – Eric Roberts, an American actor.
1958 – Gabi Delgado-López, a Spanish-German singer.
1958 – Malcolm Marshall, a Barbadian cricketer.
1959 – Susan Faludi, an American journalist and feminist.
1960 – Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, a Ukrainian runner.
1961 – Jane Leeves, an English actress.
1961 – John Podhoretz, an American journalist.
1962 – Jeff Dunham, an American ventriloquist.
1963 – Eric McCormack, a Canadian-American actor.
1963 – Conan O'Brien, an American television host.
1964 – Niall Ferguson, a Scottish historian.
1967 – Maria Bello, an American actress.
1969 – Keith DeCandido, an American author.
1970 – Saad Hariri, a Lebanese Prime Minister.
1970 – Willie Roaf, an American football player.
1971 – David Tennant, a Scottish actor.
1972 – Rosa Clemente, an American journalist.
1972 – Eli Roth, an American actor and director.
1973 – Derrick Brooks, an American football player.
1973 – Haile Gebrselassie, an Ethiopian runner.
1974 – Edgar Wright, an English filmmaker.
1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, an American actress.
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, an American television personality.
1981 – Audrey Tang, a Taiwanese computer scientist.
1983 – Miguel Cabrera, a Venezuelan baseball player.
1984 – America Ferrera, an American actress.
1985 – Łukasz Fabiański, a Polish footballer.
1986 – Tina Bru, a Norwegian politician.
1988 – Vanessa Kirby, an English actress.
1989 – Jessica Jung, a South Korean-American singer.
1989 – Alia Shawkat, an American actress.
1990 – Wojciech Szczęsny, a Polish footballer.
1992 – Chloe Bennet, an American actress.
1995 – Divock Origi, a Belgian footballer.

Deaths

Important Figures Who Died Before 1600

727 – Agallianos Kontoskeles, a Byzantine commander.
850 – Perfectus, a Spanish monk.
909 – Dionysius II, a Syriac Orthodox patriarch.
943 – Fujiwara no Atsutada, a Japanese nobleman and poet.
963 – Stephen Lekapenos, a co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1161 – Theobald of Bec, a French-English archbishop.
1176 – Galdino della Sala, an Italian archdeacon and saint.
1430 – John III, Count of Nassau-Siegen, a German count.
1552 – John Leland, an English poet and historian.
1555 – Polydore Vergil, an English historian.
1556 – Luigi Alamanni, an Italian poet.
1567 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, a German adventurer.
1587 – John Foxe, an English historian.

Deaths from 1601 to 1900

1636 – Julius Caesar, an English judge.
1650 – Simonds d'Ewes, an English lawyer.
1674 – John Graunt, an English statistician.
1689 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, a Welsh judge.
1732 – Louis Feuillée, a French astronomer.
1742 – Arvid Horn, a Swedish general.
1763 – Marie-Josephte Corriveau, a Canadian woman.
1794 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, an English judge.
1796 – Johan Wilcke, a Swedish physicist.
1802 – Erasmus Darwin, an English physician and botanist.
1832 – Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, a French painter.
1859 – Tatya Tope, an Indian general.
1864 – Juris Alunāns, a Latvian linguist.
1873 – Justus von Liebig, a German chemist.
1890 – Paweł Bryliński, a Polish sculptor.
1898 – Gustave Moreau, a French painter.

Deaths from 1901 to Today

1906 – Luis Martín, a Spanish religious leader.
1912 – Martha Ripley, an American physician.
1917 – Vladimir Serbsky, a Russian psychiatrist.
1923 – Savina Petrilli, an Italian religious leader.
1936 – Milton Brown, an American singer.
1936 – Ottorino Respighi, an Italian composer.
1938 – George Bryant, an American archer.
1942 – Aleksander Mitt, an Estonian speed skater.
1942 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, an American sculptor and art collector.
1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, a Japanese admiral.
1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, an English physicist who invented the vacuum tube.
1945 – Ernie Pyle, an American journalist.
1947 – Jozef Tiso, a Slovak priest and politician.
1951 – Óscar Carmona, a Portuguese field marshal and politician.
1955 – Albert Einstein, a famous German-American physicist.
1958 – Maurice Gamelin, a Belgian-French general.
1963 – Meyer Jacobstein, an American politician.
1964 – Ben Hecht, an American director and screenwriter.
1965 – Guillermo González Camarena, a Mexican engineer.
1974 – Marcel Pagnol, a French author and director.
1988 – Oktay Rıfat Horozcu, a Turkish poet.
1995 – Arturo Frondizi, an Argentinian politician.
2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer.
2004 – Kamisese Mara, a Fijian politician.
2008 – Germaine Tillion, a French ethnologist.
2012 – Dick Clark, an American television host.
2012 – René Lépine, a Canadian businessman.
2012 – Robert O. Ragland, an American musician.
2012 – K. D. Wentworth, an American author.
2013 – Goran Švob, a Croatian philosopher.
2013 – Anne Williams, an English activist.
2014 – Guru Dhanapal, an Indian director.
2014 – Sanford Jay Frank, an American screenwriter.
2014 – Brian Priestman, an English conductor.
2019 – Lyra McKee, an Irish journalist.
2022 – Harrison Birtwistle, a British composer.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:
- Apollonius the Apologist
- Corebus
- Cyril VI of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Eleutherius and Antia
- Galdino della Sala
- Molaise of Leighlin
- Perfectus
- April 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Army Day (Iran)
Coma Patients' Day (Poland)
Friend's Day (Brazil)
Independence Day (Zimbabwe)
International Day For Monuments and Sites
Invention Day (Japan)
Victory over the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice (Russia; Julian Calendar)
World Amateur Radio Day