Aid Workers Killed
Apr 1 Seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen are killed in an Israeli attack in Deir al Balah, Gaza, prompting condemnation and an apology from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu [1]
Taylor Swift a Billionaire
Apr 2 There are 141 more billionaires in the world in 2024, 2,781 in total according to Forbes, including Taylor Swift for the first time [1]
Biden Warns Netanyahu
Apr 4 President Joe Biden warns Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that the US could shift its policy if Israel does not immediately address humanitarian concerns in Gaza and work towards a ceasefire [1]
- Apr 4 Rare 1938 copy of the comic (Action Comics No. 1) that first introduced Superman sells for a record US$6 million at action [1]
- Apr 5 Russian Orsk city dam bursts amid flooding on the Ural river prompting thousands to evacuate there, downstream and in border areas of Kazakhstan [1]
- Apr 7 British charity fundraiser Russ Cook the "Hardest Geezer" runs the length of Africa, arriving at Ras Angela, Tunisia, almost a year after setting off from Cape Agulhas, South Africa [1]
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Apr 7 Larry David's comedy TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" ends after 12 seasons
- Apr 7 New York region hit by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake, with multiple aftershocks. One of the largest earthquakes for a century in the area. [1]
Vatican Rejects Sex Change
Apr 8 New Vatican document rejects concept of changing a person's biological sex despite Pope Francis' recent overtures to the Trans community [1]
- Apr 8 Total solar eclipse stretches from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Newfoundland, plunging 44 million people into darkness [1]
- Apr 9 A group of older Swiss women win a landmark climate change case at the European Court of Human Rights, ruling the women's rights had been violated by not fully addressing climate change [1]
- Apr 9 Arizona Supreme Court upholds a 1864 law banning all abortions except to save a woman's life [1]
- Apr 9 James and Jennifer Crumbley, the first parents held criminally responsible for a US mass school shooting committed by their child, are sentenced to 10-15 years for manslaughter in Michigan [1]
- Apr 9 Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest taoiseach at 37 after the resignation of Leo Varadkar [1]
- Apr 10 Avi Wigderson announced as the winner of the 2023 Turing Prize for his work in clarifying the role of randomness in algorithms [1]
South Korean Election
Apr 10 South Korea's liberal opposition party wins landslide majority in the country's general election - a defeat for President Yoon Suk Yeol, amid claims he was brought down by a spring onion [1]
US and Japan Counter China
Apr 10 US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announce moves to counter Chinese aggression at a meeting at the White House [1]
- Apr 11 Bogotá begins water rationing for the first time, as water reservoirs run very low due to drought and El Niño [1]
- Apr 11 Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan sentenced to death for embezzlement, bribery and banking violations worth 304 trillion dong ($12.46 billion), the country's largest-ever fraud case [1]
- Apr 13 Iran launches a strike on Israel with 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for the bombing of its embassy in Damascus - almost all shot down [1]
- Apr 13 Six people are killed in a stabbing at a Bondi shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, by an attacker with mental health issues who is shot dead by police [1]
US Masters Golf
Apr 14 88th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: World #1 golfer Scottie Scheffler beats Sweden's Ludvig Åberg by 4 strokes for his second Masters win in 3 years
- Apr 14 British Columbia signs historic Gaayhllxid • Gíhlagalgang “Rising Tide” agreement recognizing Haida Gwaii's Aboriginal title over more than 200 islands off Canada’s west coast [1]
- Apr 15 AI systems now so advanced they nearly match or exceed humans in reading comprehension, image classification and competition-level mathematics, according to major new report [1]
Trump Stands Trial
Apr 15 Donald Trump becomes the first former US President to stand trial on criminal charges as his hush money case begins in New York [1]
- Apr 15 Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann loses his high profile defamation case against an Australian TV network, the court finds he did rape Brittany Higgins in 2019 at parliament [1]
- Apr 15 Sudan is on the edge of collapse warn aid agencies, on the one-year anniversary of a conflict that has displaced over 8.6 million people, including 2 million who fled to neighbouring countries [1]
- Apr 16 Denmark's historic stock exchange, the Børsen, dating from 1625 goes up in flames in Copenhagen while being renovated [1]
- Apr 16 United Arab Emirates records its largest rainfall in 75 years, flooding Dubai airport and killing at least 18 people in Oman [1]
- Apr 16 Volcano Mount Ruang erupts in Indonesia in North Sulawesi province, its first eruption since 2002 [1]
- Apr 17 Extreme weather moves on from the UAE to cause heavy rain and flooding in Pakistan and Afghanistan and at least 135 deaths [1]
- Apr 17 Three Russian missiles strike an apartment building in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing at least 17 people and injuring 61 [1]
- Apr 18 Fossil evidence of the largest known snake 11-15 meters long named Vasuki indicus, 66 million years old, published from a mine in Panandhro, western India [1]
- Apr 18 New report finds nearly half of China's cities are sinking due to development and extracting too much water [1]
- Apr 18 Police are sent in to remove students on campus at Columbia University protesting Israeli actions in Gaza - ignites protests across US campuses [1]
- Apr 18 United States vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution recognising Palestine as a state with the UK and Switzerland abstaining [1]
- Apr 19 Taylor Swift releases her 11th studio album "The Tortured Poets Department" setting a Spotify record for over 300 million streams in one day [1]
- Apr 19 World's largest-ever election begins in India with 968 million eligible voters, in the first of seven stages ending 1 June
- Apr 20 US House passes a bipartisan $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and a bill against TikTok [1]
- Apr 21 Chevron Championship Women's Golf, The Club at Carlton Woods: In beating Maja Stark by 2 strokes, Nelly Korda wins her second major title and equals LPGA record with 5 consecutive wins
- Apr 22 Britain's Parliament approves a controversial bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda [1]
- Apr 22 Widespread flooding across southern China forces the evacuation of 110,000 people with warning of a "once in a century" flood on the Bei River [1]
Albanese-Musk Feud
Apr 23 Australian PM Anthony Albanese hits back at Elon Musk saying it will "do what's necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he's above the law" as a court orders X take down terrorist attack footage [1]
- Apr 24 Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser", previously though lost, sells for a record Austrian auction price of 30 million euros [1]
- Apr 25 "Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe", highest-ever resolution map of the moon published after 10 years work by The Chinese Academy of Sciences [1]
- Apr 25 Popular song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive, according to a new study that analysed songs from 1970-2020 [1]
- Apr 26 106 tornadoes tear through Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Kansas and Missouri destroying hundreds of homes [1]
- Apr 27 Iraq's parliament criminalizes same-sex relationships, passing a law that allows for up to 15 years in prison [1]
- Apr 27 NASA engineers successfully repair and recode Voyager 1 from 15 billion miles away after five month gap in not receiving data [1]
- Apr 28 A worse than usual rainy season across East Africa due to El Nino kills at least 155 people in Tanzania and 60 in Kenya with hundreds of thousands displaced [1]
- Apr 28 At least 37 mostly nocturnal tornadoes cause widespread devastation and four deaths in Oklahoma [1]
- Apr 29 Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf resigns after his coalition government fails [1]
- Apr 30 NYPD arrest about 300 Gaza protesters at Columbia University and City College of NY after two weeks of protests, in New York City [1]
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists