4 Ordibehesht 1372

Events

• 1915 (111 years ago) The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide.
• 1918 (108 years ago) World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
• 1924 (102 years ago) Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark (first term).
• 1926 (100 years ago) The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
• 1944 (82 years ago) World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.
• 1965 (61 years ago) Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
• 1970 (56 years ago) The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
• 2013 (13 years ago) Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

Births

• 1533 (493 years ago) William I of Orange, founding father of the Netherlands (died 1584)
• 1845 (181 years ago) Carl Spitteler, Swiss poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1924)
• 1856 (170 years ago) Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (died 1951)
• 1934 (92 years ago) Shirley MacLaine, American actress, singer, and dancer
• 1942 (84 years ago) Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, activist, and producer
• 1968 (58 years ago) Hashim Thaçi, Kosovan soldier and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Kosovo
• 1973 (53 years ago) Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
• 1982 (44 years ago) Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, talk show host

Deaths

• 1731 (295 years ago) Daniel Defoe, English journalist, novelist, and spy (born 1660)
• 1852 (174 years ago) Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and translator (born 1783)
• 1891 (135 years ago) Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (born 1800)
• 1960 (66 years ago) Max von Laue, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1879)
• 1964 (62 years ago) Gerhard Domagk, German pathologist and bacteriologist (born 1895)
• 1980 (46 years ago) Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban musicologist and author (born 1904)
• 1986 (40 years ago) Wallis Simpson, American socialite, Duchess of Windsor, wife of the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Duke of Windsor (born 1896)
• 2011 (15 years ago) Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philanthropist (born 1926)

All 334 events, births and deaths of April 24