Cricket Debut
Apr 2 West Indies cricket fast bowling great Curtly Ambrose makes his debut in 9 wicket 1st Test defeat to Pakistan in Georgetown, Guyana; low key debut with 2-108
- Apr 3 7th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Louisiana Tech beats Auburn, 56-54; Lady Techsters Erica Westbrooks MOP
Sports History
Apr 3 Mario Lemieux wins NHL scoring title, stopping Gretzky's 7 year streak
Golf Major
Apr 3 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Amy Alcott wins the 2nd of her 3 DS events, 2 strokes ahead of runner-up Colleen Walker
- Apr 3 NJ Devils beat Blackhawks, 4-3 in OT to join playoffs for 1st time
- Apr 3 Somalia & Ethiopia sign accord about Ogaden desert
- Apr 3 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Apr 4 50th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kansas beats Oklahoma, 83-79; Jayhawks power forward Danny Manning named tournament Most Outstanding Player
- Apr 4 Eddie Hill becomes the world's first driver to cover the quarter mile in under 5 seconds
- Apr 4 Largest crowd (55,438) at an MLB Opening Day game at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium; Reds win over St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 in 12 innings
- Apr 4 Last broadcast of British soap opera "Crossroads" on ITV
- Apr 4 MLB New York Mets set Opening Day record with 6 HRs, in a 10-6 win over Expos at Montreal
- Apr 6 African American polar explorer Matthew Henson buried next to Robert Peary in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia
- Apr 6 NJ Devils' 1st playoff game; lose to NY Islanders 4-3 (OT) in 1st round
- Apr 7 Murderer of Gerrit Jan Heijns, Ferdi Elsas, arrested in the Netherlands
- Apr 7 Russia announces it will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan
- Apr 7 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Apr 9 142nd Grand National: Irish jockey Brendan Powell wins aboard 10/1 shot Rhyme 'n' Reason by 4 lengths from Durham Edition
- Apr 9 NHL New Jersey Devils win 3-0 over New York Islanders; Devils lead 2-1 in playoff 1st round
- Apr 9 US imposes economic sanctions on Panama
- Apr 10 52nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Scotsman Sandy Lyle claims his second major title with a birdie on the 72nd hole to win by 1 stroke over Mark Calcavecchia
- Apr 10 8th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Leonard Part 6" wins
- Apr 10 Herschel Walker performs Fort Worth Ballet
- Apr 10 Islanders beat Devils 5-4 (OT) 1st round tied at 2-2
Academy Awards
Apr 11 60th Academy Awards: "The Last Emperor", Michael Douglas & Cher win
- Apr 11 Royal Concert building in Amsterdam reopens
- Apr 12 Devils 4-2 over Islanders-Devils lead 3-2 in 1st round
Election of Interest
Apr 12 Entertainer and restaurateur Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California
Sports History
Apr 12 Frank Robinson replaces Cal Ripkin as manager of Baltimore Orioles
- Apr 12 Harvard University patents a genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
- Apr 13 Italian government of Ciriaco De Mita forms
- Apr 14 Michael Rupert and Jerry Colker's musical "Mail" opens at Music Box Theater, NYC; runs for 37 performances
- Apr 14 NHL playoffs: New Jersey Devils win 6-5 over NY Islanders to take 1st round 4-2
- Apr 14 USSR, US, Pakistan & Afghanistan sign Afghanistan treaty
- Apr 15 Meteorite explode above Indonesia
Heidi Chronicles
Apr 15 Wendy Wasserstein's play "Heidi Chronicles" premieres in NYC
- Apr 17 Ethiopian Belayneh Densimo runs world record marathon (2:06:50)
Boston Marathon
Apr 18 92nd Boston Marathon: Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya wins men's race in 2:08:43; Rosa Mota of Portugal repeats as women's champion in 2:24:30
Warm All Over
Apr 18 Barbra Streisand records "Warm All Over"
- Apr 20 Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
- Apr 20 NJ Devils 1st playoff hat trick-Eric Broten
- Apr 20 US accuses Renamo of killing 100,000 Mozambiquians
- Apr 20 Yanks HR 9,999 (D Winfield) 10,000 (C Washington) 10,001 (J Clarke)
- Apr 21 1st four-day games in County Cricket Championship commence
- Apr 21 Barbra Streisand records "You'll Never Know"
- Apr 22 NJ Devil Patrik Sundstrom sets NHL playoff record of 8 pts in a playoff game (hat trick & 5 assists) in 10-4 rout over the Capitals
- Apr 22 Women are allowed to compete in Little 500 bicycle race (Indiana)
- Apr 23 A Greek pedals self-powered aircraft, 74 miles
- Apr 23 Federal smoking ban during domestic airline flights of 2 hrs or less
- Apr 23 Karolina Szabo runs female world record 25k (1:29:30)/30k (1:47;06)
- Apr 24 NFL Draft: Auburn tight end Aundray Bruce first pick by Atlanta Falcons
- Apr 25 American news program "Nightline" goes on location to Jerusalem Israel
- Apr 25 John Demjanjuk (Ivan the Terrible), Nazi concentration camp guard, sentenced to death in Jerusalem
- Apr 25 NASA launches space vehicle S-211
TNN Viewers Choice Awards
Apr 26 1st TNN Viewers choice awards: Randy Travis wins in 5 categories
- Apr 26 NBA approves addition of 3rd referee in 1988-89 season
- Apr 28 Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 roof tears off in flight; kills stewardess
- Apr 28 Baltimore Orioles lose AL record 21 games in a row
Chess
Apr 28 Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice's musical "Chess" opens at Imperial Theater, NYC; runs for 68 performances
- Apr 28 NJ Devils set all time playoff mark for penalty minutes
- Apr 29 Baltimore Orioles end their record 21-game losing streak by beating the White Sox 9-0
- Apr 29 Orioles beat White Sox 9-0 for 1st 1988 win after 21 loses
Celine Dion Wins Eurovision
Apr 30 33rd Eurovision Song Contest: Celine Dion for Switzerland wins singing "Ne partez pas sans moi" in Dublin
- Apr 30 NJ Devils beat Caps 3-2 taking 7th game of Patrick Division final
- Apr 30 NY Knights 1st arena football game beats Cobras 60-52 (10,157 in LA)
Sports History
Apr 30 NY Yank Dave Winfield gets his 29th RBI of April-Sets AL & ties ML Rec
- Apr 30 The then largest banana split ever, at 4.5 miles long, is made along Market Street in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
- Apr 30 World Exposition, Expo 88 opens in Brisbane Australia
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists