What Happened in April 1896

Historical Events

First Olympic 1500m

Apr 7 Australian athlete Edwin Flack wins gold in the first Olympic 1500m final at inaugural modern Games in Athens; goes on to win 800m two days later

Apr 9 Australian athlete Edwin Flack claims the middle distance double at the Athens Olympics winning the 800m final in 2:11.0; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 1500m
Apr 9 Greek shooter Pantelis Karasevdas scores a perfect 40 hits to win the military rifle event at the Athens Olympics; Greek 1-2-3 with Pavlos Pavlidis and Nicolaos Trikupis taking out the minor placings
Apr 10 American athlete Thomas Burke claims the sprint double at the Athens Olympics winning the 100m final in 12.0s; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 400m
Apr 10 High jumper Ellery Clark leads an American sweep of the placings with a leap of 1.81m at the Athens Olympics; his 2nd victory of the Games after taking out the long jump

1st Olympic Marathon

Apr 10 Spyridon Louis of Greece wins inaugural Olympic marathon (2:58:50) in Athens; runs last lap accompanied by Constantine I

Apr 11 Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós beats Otto Herschmann of Austria by 0.6s to win the inaugural Olympic 100m freestyle final in 1:22.2 at the Athens Games; also takes out the 1,200m on the same day
Apr 11 Irish tennis player John Boland, representing Great Britain wins both the men's singles and doubles finals at the Athens Olympics; Dionysios Kasdaglis of Greece loses both matches
Apr 12 Stamasia Portrisi is 1st woman to win a marathon (5:30 in Athens)

El Capitan

Apr 13 John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan" premieres at the Tremont Theatre in Boston

Apr 14 US Patent Office issues Patent No. 558,393 to Dr John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan for "flaked cereal, and process of making same"
Apr 15 1st modern Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece; USA wins gold medal count, 11; Greece wins total medal count, 46; IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver & bronze medals to 3 best placed athletes in each event
Apr 20 John Philip Sousa's operetta "El Capitan" premieres on Broadway at Broadway Theatre, NYC
Apr 23 Vitascope system of movie projection 1st shown at Koster & Bial's Music Hall, New York City
Apr 25 Fight in Central Dance Hall starts fire at Cripple Creek, Colorado
Apr 25 Sidney Jones & Harry Greenbacks musical "The Geisha" premieres at Daly's Theatre, London; runs for 760 performances

Events in 1896

Famous Birthdays

Apr 2 Johnny Golden, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1922, 26, 27 3rd; Ryder Cup 1927, 29 [3-0-0 record]; 9 x PGA Tour titles), born in Tuxedo, New York (d. 1936)
Apr 3 Douwe Kalma, Dutch literary writer and leader (Young Frisian Movement), born in Boksum, Netherlands (d. 1953)
Apr 4 Robert Sherwood, American dramatist (Abe Lincoln in Illinois; Idiot's Delight), born in New Rochelle, New York (d. 1955)
Apr 4 Tristan Tzara [Samuel Rosenfeld] Romanian-French poet (Approximate Man), born in Moinești, Romania (d. 1963)
Apr 5 Norman Callaway, Australian cricket batsman (207 in only FC innings), born in Hay, Australia (d. 1917)
Apr 7 Benny Leonard, American boxer (world lightweight title 1917-25), born in New York City (d. 1947)
Apr 8 Karl Hermann Pillney, Austrian composer and painist, born in Graz, Austria-Hungary (d. 1980)
Apr 8 Yip Harburg [Isidore Hochberg], American lyricist ("Over The Rainbow"; "It's Only A Paper Moon"), born in New York City (d. 1981)
Apr 10 Edith Day, American actress (A Romance of the Air), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 1971)
Apr 11 Léo-Paul Desrosiers, Quebec novelist (Les Engagés du Grand Portage), born in Berthier, Canada (d. 1967)
Apr 15 Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)
Apr 17 Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (his hand acts as a puppet) and comedian, born in Peñaranda de Bracamonte, Salamanca, Spain (d. 1999)
Apr 18 Eugene Wegmann, Swiss geologist (Le Jura plisse), born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (d. 1982)
Apr 20 Wop May, Canadian aviator, flying ace in the WWI, born in Carberry, Manitoba (d. 1952)
Apr 21 Henry de Montherlant, French novelist and stage author (La Reine Morte), born in Paris (d. 1972)
Apr 23 Margaret Kennedy, English novelist (The Constant Nymph), born in Hyde Park Gate, London (d. 1967)

Apr 25 Fred Haney, American MLB baseball player, 1922-29 (Detroit Tigers and 3 other teams), manager, 1939-41 and 1953-59 (Milwaukee Braves and 2 other teams), and executive, 1961-68 (Los Angeles Angels), born in Albuquerque, New Mexico (d. 1977)
Apr 26 Ernst Udet, German WWI pilot and notable flying ace who helped develop the Luftwaffe under the Nazi Party, born in Frankfurt am Main, German Empire (d. 1941)

Rogers Hornsby (1896-1963)

Apr 27 American Baseball Hall of Fame 2nd baseman (NL MVP 1925, 29; 7 x NL batting champion; 3 x .400+ seasons; St. Louis Cardinals, Browns) and manager (Cardinals, Browns, Cubs), born in Winters, Texas

Apr 27 Wallace Hume Carothers, American chemist and inventor (nylon), born in Burlington, Iowa (d. 1937)
Apr 29 Jacques Wolfe, Romanian-American composer, born in Botoşani, Romania (d. 1973)
Apr 29 Walter Mehring, German writer (Die Gedichte, Lieder und Chansons des Walter Mehring), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1981)
Apr 30 "Reverend" Gary Davis, American blues and folk guitarist ("Samson And Delilah"; A Little More Faith), born in Laurens, South Carolina (d. 1972)
Apr 30 Anandamayi Ma [Nirmala Sundari], Indian spiritual leader, born in Kheora, Bengal Presidency, British India (d. 1982)
Apr 30 Hans List, Austrian scientist and inventor, born in Graz, Austria (d. 1996)

Born in 1896

Famous Weddings

Benjamin Harrison

Apr 6 23rd US President Benjamin Harrison (63) weds Mary Scott (37) at St Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City

Famous Deaths

Apr 5 John Rogers Thomas, Welsh-American baritone and composer of popular, classical, and sacred music, dies at 66
Apr 12 Alexander Ritter, German composer, dies at 62
Apr 22 Thomas Meik, Scottish civil engineer, dies at 84
Apr 27 Henry Parkes, Australian politician (longest non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales), dies at 80
Apr 28 Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and political writer, dies at 61
Apr 30 Antonio Cagnoni, Italian opera composer, dies at 68

On This Day