Sports History
Apr 1 A. Bartlett Giamatti replaces Peter Ueberroth as 7th commissioner of Major League Baseball; dies suddenly of a heart attack 5 months later
- Apr 2 8th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Tennessee beats Auburn, 76-60; Lady Vols forward Bridgette Gordon MOP
- Apr 2 Calgary Flames right wing Joe Mullen sets new NHL record for most points in a season by a American-born player, with a goal and 2 assists in a 4-2 win over Edmonton Oilers gives him 110 points
- Apr 2 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Juli Inkster leads wire-to-wire to win her second DS event, 5 strokes ahead of runners-up JoAnne Carner and Tammie Green
WrestleMania
Apr 2 WrestleMania V, Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, NJ: Hulk Hogan beats Randy "Macho Man" Savage for WWF Heavyweight title
- Apr 3 "Sunrise" a Gannett newspaper begins publishing for Bronx
- Apr 3 51st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Michigan beats Seton Hall, 80-79 (OT); Wolverines first title; small forward Glen Rice named tournament MOP
- Apr 3 Mets win 11th consecutive home opener 8-4 over St Louis at Shea Stad
Sports History
Apr 4 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's last NBA game in Seattle
Sports History
Apr 4 NY Yankee Tommy John ties record of playing 26 seasons, his 287th win puts him 19th overall as Yanks beat Twins on opening day 4-2
Sports History
Apr 5 Los Angeles Dodger Orel Hershiser's consecutive scoreless streak of 59 innings ends
1st TV Show in Dolby Stereo
Apr 5 NBC's "Late Night With David Letterman" becomes 1st network TV show broadcast in Dolby Stereo
- Apr 5 Poland grants legal status to trade union Solidarność (Solidarity)
- Apr 7 NY Supreme Court takes America's Cup away from SD Yacht Club for using a catamaran against NZ. Appeals court eventually overrules
- Apr 7 Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, with about a dozen deaths
- Apr 8 143rd Grand National: Irish 12-year-old Little Polveir, ridden by jockey Jimmy Frost wins by 7 lengths from West Tip
- Apr 8 California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott, born without his right hand, makes MLB debut, lasting only 4 2/3 innings
Event of Interest
Apr 8 Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo is arrested in Mexico and charged with kidnapping, murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, drug trafficking and other crimes
US Masters Golf
Apr 9 53rd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Englishman Nick Faldo wins the first of his 3 Masters titles after a final round 65 (−7) and a birdie on the 2nd hole of a sudden-death playoff with Scott Hoch
Sports History
Apr 9 Mike Tyson strikes a parking attendant when asked to move his car
Baseball Record
Apr 9 Rickey Henderson steals his 800th career base in NY's 4-3 loss to Clev
- Apr 9 Washington, D.C. march supporting 1973 Roe vs Wade decision (allow abortions)
Academy of Country Music Awards
Apr 10 24th Academy of Country Music Awards: Hank Williams Jr, George Strait, and K.T. Oslin win
Sports History
Apr 11 1st playoff goal scored by a goalie, Ron Hextall of visiting Philadelphia Flyers shoots into Washington Capitols empty net while his team is shorthanded in 8-5 win
- Apr 11 Flyers, scores short-handed into an empty net beating Caps 8-5
Soul Train Music Awards
Apr 12 3rd Soul Train Music Awards: Anita Baker, Bobby Brown win
- Apr 12 Peter Ueberroth deal to purchase Eastern Airlines falls through
- Apr 13 "Welcome to the Club" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 12 performances
- Apr 14 1,100,000,000th Chinese born
Event of Interest
Apr 14 In the Iran-Contra trial, Oliver North's case goes to the jury
- Apr 15 Hillsborough disaster, 96 are crushed to death and 766 injured at the Hillsborough Football Stadium in Sheffield, England, during a FA semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest
- Apr 15 Students in Beijing pro-democracy protests
- Apr 15 Sue Marchiano wins 3rd World Cup female marathon (2:30:48)
- Apr 15 Then largest lottery in North America ($69M) drawn in Illinois
Sports History
Apr 16 1st The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Don Bies wins his lone career Champions Tour major title by 1 stroke from Gary Player
- Apr 16 Berendrechtsluis opens in Antwerp, biggest flood lock in world
- Apr 16 Costa Rica beats US 1-0, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
- Apr 16 Zeleka Metaferia wins 3rd World Cup marathon (2:10:28)
Boston Marathon
Apr 17 93rd Boston Marathon: Abebe Mekonen of Ethiopia takes men's race in 2:09:06; Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway wins her 2nd women's title in 2:24:33
- Apr 17 Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $245 per week
- Apr 17 Polish labor union granted legal status
- Apr 17 Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros
- Apr 19 Central Park Five: Violent rape of jogger Trisha Meili in NYC's Central Park becomes one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s. Five teenagers are wrongfully convicted and spend between 6-12 years in prison.
- Apr 19 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors
- Apr 19 Kevin Elster (NY Mets), sets error-less shortstop mark at 73
- Apr 19 Republic Day in Sierra Leone
Sports History
Apr 21 George W. Bush and Edward W. Rose become joint CEOs of the Texas Rangers
- Apr 21 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing's Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom
Film Premiere
Apr 21 World premiere of sports fantasy film "Field of Dreams", in Dubuque, Iowa; based on W. P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", and starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster
Film & TV History
Apr 21 World premiere of sports fantasy film "Field of Dreams", in Dubuque, Iowa; based on W. P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", and starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster
- Apr 22 "Welcome to the Club" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 12 performances
- Apr 23 CBS' premiere of fact based "The Littlest Victims", based on Newark, N.J. physician James Oleske as the first doctor to discover AIDS in children
- Apr 23 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 10 points in his last game as a Laker in a 121-117 win over Seattle SuperSonics at the LA Forum
- Apr 23 NFL Draft: #1 pick UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman by Dallas Cowboys
Sports History
Apr 23 Nolan Ryan blows a no hitter in 9th inning
- Apr 23 Students in Beijing China announce class boycotts
Event of Interest
Apr 23 Wine merchant William Sokolin breaks a bottle of 1787 Château Margaux, possibly belonging to Thomas Jefferson, worth $500,000 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York
- Apr 24 10s of thousands of student strikes in Beijing, China
- Apr 24 Massachusetts declares today "New Kids on the Block Day"
- Apr 25 Penguin Mario Lemuix ties NHL playoff record of 4 goals in 1st period
- Apr 26 AT&T announces NJ's 201 area code will split into 908 & 201
- Apr 26 Mike Tyson gets a speeding ticket for drag racing his Lamborghini in Albany, New York
- Apr 27 Barry Keating's musical "Starmites" opens at Criterion Center Stage Right Theater, NYC; runs for 60 performances
- Apr 27 Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China
- Apr 27 Hurricane in Bangladesh kills 500
- Apr 27 Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy
- Apr 28 Argentina, hit by rocketing inflation, runs out of money
Event of Interest
Apr 28 Iran protests sale of "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie
Beatification
Apr 30 Pope John Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar
- Apr 30 US beats Costa Rica 1-0, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
World Wide Web
Apr 30 World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists