April 8

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

Events

Up to 1900

217 – Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 188)
622 – Prince Shotoku of Japan (b. 574)
632 – Charibert, Frankish king (b. 607)
956 – Gilbert, Duke of Burgundy
1143 – John II Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1087)
1364 – King John II of France (b. 1319)
1450 – Sejong the Great, King of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (b. 1397)
1461 – Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
1551 – Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (b. 1510)
1586 – Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer and theologian (b. 1522)
1612 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (b. 1575)
1691 – Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1611)
1704 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (b. 1641)
1735 – Francis II Rakoczi, Hungarian aristocrat (b. 1676)
1835 – Wilhelm von Humboldt, Prussian statesman (b. 1757)
1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
1861 – Elisha Otis, American inventor (b. 1811)
1870 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
1894 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian writer (b. 1838)

1901 – 2000

1906 – Auguste Deter, first–recorded victim of Alzheimer's disease (b. 1850)
1919 – Lorand Eotvos, Hungarian physicist (b. 1848)
1931 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (b. 1864)
1936 – Robert Bárány, Austrian doctor, won the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1876)
1950 – Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish–Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1890)
1958 – Ethel Turner, Australian writer (b. 1872)
1962 – Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1892)
1973 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1881)
1974 – Ferruccio Novo, Italian football manager (b. 1899)
1978 – Ford Frick, American baseball commissioner (b. 1894)
1981 – Omar Bradley, American general (b. 1893)
1983 – Isamu Kosuga, Japanese actor and director (b. 1904)
1984 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist (b. 1894)
1986 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese actress, singer and model (b. 1967)
1990 – Ryan White, American activist (b. 1971)
1992 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss pharmacologist (b. 1907)
1993 – Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
1994 – Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
1997 – Laura Nyro, American singer, pianist and composer (b. 1967)

From 2001

2002 – María Félix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
2009 – Piotr Morawski, Polish mountaineer (b. 1976)
2010 – Malcolm McLaren, British music manager (b. 1946)
2010 – Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1924)
2012 – Jack Tramiel, Polish–born American entrepreneur and computer pioneer (b. 1928)
2013 – Sara Montiel, Spanish actress and singer (b. 1928)
2013 – Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
2013 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (b. 1942)
2014 – Karlheinz Deschner, German writer and activist (b. 1924)
2014 – Emmanuel III Delly, Iraqi Patriarch (b. 1927)
2014 – The Ultimate Warrior, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)
2015 – Jayakanthan, Indian Tamil writer (b. 1934)
2015 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (b. 1936)
2016 – Mircea Albulescu, Romanian actor and writer (b. 1934)
2016 – Wei Chueh, Taiwanese Buddhist monk (b. 1928)
2016 – Dick Alban, American football player (b. 1929)
2017 – Fishman, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1951)
2017 – Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1931)
2017 – Brian Matthew, English radio and television presenter (b. 1928)
2017 – Donald Sarason, American mathematician (b. 1933)
2018 – Leila Abashidze, Georgian actress, film director and screenwriter (b. 1929)
2018 – Michael Goolaerts, Belgian racing cyclist (b. 1994)
2018 – Juraj Herz, Slovakian film director, actor and screenwriter (b. 1934)
2018 – Chuck McCann, American actor (b. 1934)
2018 – John Miles, British racing driver (b. 1943)
2019 – Josine Ianco-Starrels, Romanian–American art curator (b. 1926)
2019 – Vasily Likhachyov, Russian politician (b. 1952)
2019 – Nadja Regin, Serbian actress (b. 1931)
2020 – Rick May, Canadian–American actor and voice actor (b. 1940)

Births

1901 – 1950

1902 – Andrew Irvine, British mountaineer (d. 1924)
1904 – Ron Hicks, British economist (d. 1989)
1904 – Yves Congar, French cardinal (d. 1995)
1905 – Helen Joseph, South African anti–apartheid activist (d. 1992)
1908 – Hugo Fregonese, Argentine director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1910 – George Musso, American football player (d. 2000)
1911 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
1911 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist, 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1997)
1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian Olympic and World Champion figure skater (d. 1969)
1912 – Julian Berrendero, Spanish cyclist (d. 1995)
1912 – Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi (date of death unknown, possibly 2001, 2009 or 2010)
1913 – Sourou-Migan Apithy, President of Benin (d. 1989)
1914 – María Félix, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
1915 – Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, philosopher and activist (d. 2007)
1917 – Hubertus Ernst, Dutch bishop (d. 2017)
1917 – Grigori Kuzmin, Russian–Estonian astronomer (d. 1988)
1918 – Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)
1919 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007)
1919 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 – Carmen McRae, American singer, composer, pianist and actress (d. 1994)
1921 – Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (d. 1997)
1923 – George Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
1926 – Jürgen Moltmann, German theologian
1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian
1926 – Henry N. Cobb, American architect
1926 – Jean-Jacques Pauvert, French publisher and writer (d. 2014)
1928 – Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin (d. 2000)
1929 – Walter Berry, Austrian bass–baritone (d. 2000)
1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer and composer (d. 1978)
1929 – Renzo De Felice, Italian historian (d. 1996)
1930 – Carlos-Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2010)
1930 – Miller Williams, American poet (d. 2015)
1931 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat (d. 2018)
1932 – Iskandar of Johor, 8th Yang di–Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia (d. 2010)
1932 – József Antall, Hungarian politician (d. 1993)
1933 – Fred Ebb, composer (d. 2004)
1934 – Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (d. 2007)
1938 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, former United Nations Secretary–General (d. 2018)
1938 – John Hamm, Canadian physician and politician, 25th Premier of Nova Scotia
1939 – Edwin Frederick O'Brien, American cardinal
1939 – Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (d. 1989)
1940 – John Havlicek, American basketball player (d. 2019)
1941 – Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
1942 – Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer and special effects artist
1943 – Miller Farr, American football player
1943 – Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, theater director (d. 1987)
1943 – Tony Banks, British politician (d. 2006)
1943 – James Herbert, British writer (d. 2013)
1944 – Tariana Turia, New Zealand politician
1944 – Hywel Bennett, Welsh actor (d. 2017)
1946 – Catfish Hunter, American baseball pitcher (d. 1999)
1946 – Tim Thomerson, American actor
1947 – Tom DeLay, American politician
1947 – Steve Howe, English rock guitarist
1947 – Robert Kiyosaki, American writer
1947 – Pascal Lamy, French politician
1947 – Larry Norman, American musician (d. 2008)
1948 – Danuta Hübner, Polish politician
1949 – John Madden, director
1949 – Joe Royle, English footballer and manager
1950 – Grzegorz Lato, Polish footballer

1951 – 1975

1951 – Geir Haarde, former Prime Minister of Iceland
1951 – Joan Sebastian, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2015)
1954 – Gary Carter, American baseball catcher
1955 – Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
1955 – Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
1955 – Jim Fleeting, Scottish footballer
1955 – Kane Hodder, American stuntman and actor
1957 – Andrea Ypsilanti, German politician
1960 – John Schneider, actor
1960 – Gordon Chisholm, Scottish footballer and manager
1961 – Brian McDermott, English footballer and manager
1962 – Izzy Stradlin, American musician
1963 – Julian Lennon, English musician and singer
1963 – Alec Stewart, English cricketer
1964 – Dordi Nordby, Norwegian curler
1966 – Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand–Australian television personality (d. 2014)
1966 – Robin Wright, American actress
1966 – Mazinho, Brazilian footballer
1966 – Iveta Bartosova, Czech singer and actress (d. 2014)
1968 – Patricia Arquette, American actress
1968 – Susana Harp, Mexican musician
1970 – Care Santos, Catalan writer
1972 – Lisa Cameron, Scottish politician
1972 – Paul Gray, American musician (Slipknot) (d. 2010)
1972 – Sergei Magnitsky, Russian lawyer (d. 2009)
1973 – Khaled Badra, Tunisian footballer
1973 – Emma Caulfield, American actress
1974 – Holger Hott, Norwegian orienteering competitor
1974 – Nnedi Okorafor, Nigerian–American writer
1975 – Anouk, Dutch singer

From 1976

1977 – Mark Spencer, computer programmer
1980 – Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
1980 – Katee Sackhoff, American actress
1981 – Nikolay Kruglov, Jr., Russian biathlete
1981 – Taylor Kitsch, Canadian actor and model
1981 – Kelly Schafer, Scottish curler
1982 – Gennady Golovkin, Kazakhstani boxer
1983 – Allu Arjun, Indian actor
1983 – Edson Braafheid, Dutch footballer
1984 – Taran Noah Smith, American actor
1986 – Erika Sawajiri, Japanese actress and model
1986 – Bridget Kelly, American singer and songwriter
1986 – Igor Akinfeev, Russian footballer
1987 – Royston Drenthe, Dutch footballer
1987 – Dario Vidosic, Australian footballer
1987 – Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Belgian–Moroccan terrorist (d. 2015)
1988 – Jenni Asserholt, Swedish ice hockey player
1989 – Hitomi Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
1989 – Gabriella Wilde, English actress and model
1990 – Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor (d. 2017)
1990 – Karim Bellarabi, German footballer
1991 – Minami Takahashi, Japanese actress and singer
1993 – Trent Sullivan, Australian actor
1994 – Sonya Singha, Thai actress
1999 – Ty Panitz, American actor
2002 – Skai Jackson, American actress

Deaths

Observances

Buddha's Birthday (Japan)
International Day of the Roma