What Happened in April 1827

Historical Events

Apr 2 US inventor Joseph Dixon of Salem, Massachusetts, begins manufacturing lead pencils
Apr 7 English chemist John Walker sells the world's first friction matches, for 1s 2d (6 new pence) per 100 matches in a tin case with a piece of sandpaper [1]

Apr 10 George Canning becomes British Prime Minister upon the resignation of Robert Jenkinson, lives to serve only 119 days

Apr 23 Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of Systems of Rays

Apr 2 William Holman Hunt, English painter (Light of the World), born in Cheapside, London (d. 1910)

Apr 5 British surgeon (pioneer of antiseptic surgery), born in Upton House, West Ham, England

Apr 8 Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, medical doctor and diplomat, born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico (d. 1898)
Apr 10 Lewis "Lew" Wallace, American author (Ben-Hur) and Major General (Union Army), born in Brookville, Indiana (d. 1905)
Apr 12 Edward Mollenhauer, Prussian-American violinist and composer (Love Among the Breakers), born in Erfurt, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1914)
Apr 14 Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist, born in Bramham cum Oglethorpe, Wetherby, Yorkshire (d. 1900)
Apr 15 Julius Tausch, German composer, born in Dessau, Duchy of Anhalt (d. 1895)
Apr 16 Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet, born in Quebec City, Canada (d. 1879)
Apr 17 Frans Baeckelmans, Flemish architect (St Amanduskerk, Antwerp), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1896)
Apr 20 John Gibbon, American Major General (Union Army), born in Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1896)
Apr 22 William Hopkins Morris, American author, editor, inventor, and Major General (Union Army), born in (d. 1900)
Apr 23 Johann Friedrich von Schulte, German Catholic lawyer, born in Winterberg, Germany (d. 1914)
Apr 26 Charles Edward Hovey, American lobbyist and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Thetford, Vermont (d. 1897)

Apr 2 Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and naturalist (b. 1776)
Apr 3 Ernst Chladni, German physicist (Chladni's law - estimating the speed of sound), instrument inventor (euphon; clavicylinder), and musician, dies at 70
Apr 13 Hugh Clapperton, Scottish explorer of Africa, dies at Sokoto, at 38
Apr 22 Thomas Rowlandson, English artist and caricaturist, dies at 70
Apr 23 Johanna Cornelia Wattier-Ziesenis, Dutch actress (Phaedra, Lady Macbeth), dies at 65
Apr 24 Pierre-Joseph Candeille, French composer, dies at 82
Apr 26 Bernardo Ottani, Italian composer, dies at 90