What are the important events that happened on April 8? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
April 8: Facts & Myths About This Day
April 8 is the 99th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 267 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is March 26, 2024 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 475,704 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘enneacontaenneagon’ day.
Aries is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 296 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,126 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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April 8 Historical Events
- 217 –Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
- 1139 –Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated.
- 1893 –The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
- 1904 –Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
- 1911 –Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
- 1946 –Électricité de France, the world’s largest utility company, is formed as a result of the nationalisation of a number of electricity producers, transporters and distributors.
- 1950 –India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact.
- 1953 –Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya’s British rulers.
- 1985 –Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
- 1993 –The Republic of Macedonia joins the United Nations.
Who were born on April 8?
- 1871 –Clarence Hudson White American photographer (d. 1925)
- 1908 –Hugo Fregonese, Argentine film director (d. 1987)
- 1929 –Jacques Brel, Belgian singer/composer (d. 1978)
- 1940 –John Havlicek, American basketball player
- 1951 –Geir Haarde, former Icelandic prime minister
- 1962 –Izzy Stradlin, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
- 1963 –Terry Porter, American basketball player and coach
- 1975 –Francesco Flachi, Italian footballer
- 1981 –Brian Burres, American baseball player
- 1984 –Taran Noah Smith, American actor
Who died on April 8?
- 217 –Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 188)
- 1461 –Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
- 1587 –John Foxe, English writer (b. 1516)
- 1931 –Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1864)
- 1978 –Ford Frick, American baseball commissioner (b. 1894)
- 1985 –J. Fred Coots, American songwriter (b. 1897)
- 1990 –Ryan White, American AIDS activist (b. 1971)
- 1996 –León Klimovsky, Argentine film director (b. 1906)
- 2006 –Gerard Reve, Dutch writer (b. 1923)
- 2008 –John Button, Australian politician (b. 1933)
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