- Apr 1 47th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Villanova beats Georgetown, 66-64; Wildcats lowest-seeded team (8th) to win tournament
NHL Record
Apr 2 Edmonton center Wayne Gretzky sets an NHL record with his 34th career hat trick as the Oilers beat the Kings 6-4 in Los Angeles
Sports History
Apr 2 Quebec's Czech center Peter Šťastný scores his 100th NHL point of the season for the 5th straight year, with an assist for the Nordiques in a 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins in Quebec City
- Apr 2 The NCAA Rules Committee adopts a 45-second shot clock for men’s basketball to begin in the 1986 season in an effort to eliminate stalling
- Apr 2 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Apr 3 French government adopts equal electoral system
- Apr 3 Players' Association agrees to expand LCS from 5 to 7 games
- Apr 3 Vic Elliot pockets 15,780 pool balls in 24 hours in London
- Apr 4 Tulane University cancels its basketball season amidst scandal
- Apr 6 Bombay beat Delhi by 90 runs to win the Ranji Trophy final
- Apr 6 Sudan suspends constitution after coup under general Swarreddahab
- Apr 6 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Apr 7 1st live telecast of Easter Parade in New York
- Apr 7 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Alice Miller shoots a final round 67 (−5) to win her only major title, 3 strokes ahead of Jan Stephenson of Australia
- Apr 7 New Jersey General Hershel Walker rushes for USFL record 233 yards
- Apr 8 "Leader of the Pack" opens at Ambassador Theater NYC for 120 performances
- Apr 8 Amdahl releases UTS/V, 1st mainframe Unix
- Apr 8 India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal disaster
Sports History
Apr 9 White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver starts a record 15th opening day game
- Apr 10 At 80 Leo Sites becomes oldest bowler to score a 300 game
- Apr 10 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 51-B mission
- Apr 12 16th Shuttle Mission (51D)-Discovery 4 launched-with Senator Jake Garn
- Apr 13 "TASS" denounces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
- Apr 13 Katrin Dörre wins 1st female World Cup marathon (2:33:30)
Event of Interest
Apr 13 Ramiz Alia succeeds Enver Hoxha as party leader of Albania
- Apr 13 Space Shuttle Atlantis ferried to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas
- Apr 14 "Take Me Along!" opens/closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
US Masters Golf
Apr 14 49th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Bernhard Langer wins by 2 strokes from Seve Ballesteros, Curtis Strange & Raymond Floyd; first German champion
- Apr 14 Ahmed Salah wins 1st World Cup marathon (2:08:09)
- Apr 14 Alan Garcia wins elections in Peru
- Apr 14 Bob Carpenter is unsuccessful on Washington Capitals 1st playoff penalty shot
- Apr 14 Jack C. Burcham is 5th to receive "Jarvik 7" permanent artificial heart
- Apr 15 89th Boston Marathon: Englishman Geoff Smith repeats as men's champion in 2:14:05; American Lisa Larsen Weidenbach takes women's title in 2:34:06
- Apr 15 Challenger moves to launch pad for 51-B missing
- Apr 16 "Grind" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 79 performances
- Apr 18 "Wham!" become the first western pop act to release an album in China
- Apr 19 16th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-D): Discovery 4 returns to Earth
- Apr 19 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Apr 20 ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas
- Apr 20 Carlos Lopes runs world record marathon (2:07:12)
- Apr 20 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Mark Williams
- Apr 20 Karyn Marshall of NYC lifted 303 lbs in a clean & jerk lift
- Apr 21 Bomb attacks in NATO/AEG-Telefunken building in Brussels
Sports History
Apr 21 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway wins London Marathon in race record 2:21:06
- Apr 23 Brooklyn College soccer team wins Nepal's invitational
- Apr 23 New Coke debuts; Coca-Cola announced it is changing its secret flavor formula
- Apr 24 Pulitzer prize awarded to Carolyn Lizer for "Yin"
- Apr 25 For 2nd time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 points in a Cup game (3 goals, 4 assists)
Big River
Apr 25 Roger Miller's musical "Big River", based on Mark Twain's 1884 novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater, NYC; runs for 1005 performances, wins 3 Tony Awards
- Apr 25 West German Parliament rules it is illegal to deny the Holocaust
Sports History
Apr 28 Billy Martin named NY Yankee manager for 4th time
Sports History
Apr 28 Fernando Valenzuela sets record of 41 scoreless inn to start season
- Apr 29 17th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-B): Challenger 7 launches
Sports History
Apr 29 New York Yankees fire manager Yogi Berra 16 games into season, despite assurance from owner George Steinbrenner that he would be kept for the whole season. Billy Martin named as replacement.
- Apr 29 Ranger Larry Parrish is 5th to hit 3 HRs in a game in both leagues
- Apr 29 Tony Tubbs beats defending champion Greg Page by unanimous decision in 15 rounds at Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo for WBA heavyweight boxing title
- Apr 30 "Shoah", French documentary about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann, starring Richard Glazar and Raul Hilberg, premieres in Paris
Sports History
Apr 30 Dale Murphy drives in record tying 28th & 29th runs of April
- Apr 30 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
- Apr 30 Last edition of Brink Daily Mail and Sunday Express in South Africa
- Apr 30 NFL Draft: Virginia Tech defensive end Bruce Smith first pick by Buffalo Bills
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists