41st year - Nº 113 Thursday, 23 April 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 113 Thursday, 23 April 2026

23 April / Today's 32 Events:

---

(-) 1010 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1016 King of the English Æthelred the Unready dies of unknown causes at the age of 48 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 462 years ago He Was Bound to Be the Bard Thursday 23rd of April 1564 Poet and playwright William Shakespeare is born in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom.

---

(-) 410 years ago He Drank Himself a Fever Saturday 23rd of April 1616 Poet and playwright William Shakespeare dies of fever at the age of 52 in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. Shakespeare had a merry birthday meeting with Drayton and Ben Jonson and drank too hard. Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.

---

(+) 251 years ago Sunday 23rd of April 1775 Romantic landscape painter William Joseph Mallord Turner is born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, Greater London, United Kingdom. It is generally believed Turner was born between late April and early May. Turner himself claimed he was born on 23 April but there is no proof.

---

(+) 235 years ago Saturday 23rd of April 1791 15th President of the United States James Buchanan is born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, United States.

---

(-) 176 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1850 Romantic poet William Wordsworth dies of an aggravated case of pleurisy at the age of 80 in Rydal Mount, Rydal, Cumbria, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 168 years ago Friday 23rd of April 1858 Theoretical physicist Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck known for originating quantum theory is born in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

---

(x) 141 years ago Thursday 23rd of April 1885 Start of the trial against 46-year-old Serial poisoner Maria Catherina Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Swanenburg was charged with the poisoning of over 100 people, killing at least 30.

---

(+) 131 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1895 Crime writer Ngaio Edith Marsh is born in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

---

(-) 119 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1907 Notorious cannibal Alferd Griner Packer dies of a stroke at the age of 65 in Deer Creek, Colorado, United States. Packer is widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death.

---

(+) 119 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1907 Photographer Lee Elizabeth Miller aka Lady Penrose is born in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States.

---

(+) 98 years ago Monday 23rd of April 1928 Actress Shirley Temple is born in Santa Monica, California, United States.

---

(+) 90 years ago He Had it Thursday 23rd of April 1936 Singer-songwriter Roy Kelton Orbison aka Big O is born in Vernon, Texas, United States.

---

(x) 86 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1940 209 die in Rhythm Club dance hall fire in Rhythm Club, Natchez, Mississippi, United States.

---

(x) 65 years ago Sunday 23rd of April 1961 36-year-old Satan worshipper and serial rapist Edward John Louis Paisnel aka The Beast of Jersey abducts and rapes an unidentified 11-year-old girl in Saint Martin, Jersey, United Kingdom.

---

(-) 64 years ago Monday 23rd of April 1962 Petra Giese is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Joachim Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Stollbach, Dinslaken, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

---

(x) 59 years ago Sunday 23rd of April 1967 39-year-old Assassin James Earl Ray aka The Man Who Shot Martin Luther King escapes in Missouri State Penitentiary aka The Walls, 115 Lafayette Street, Jefferson City, Missouri, United States. Ray was captured a few days later.

---

(+) 58 years ago He Was a Wanderer Tuesday 23rd of April 1968 Terrorist Timothy James 'Tim' McVeigh aka The Oklahoma City Bomber is born in Lockport, New York, United States.

---

(-) 57 years ago Wednesday 23rd of April 1969 Linda Salee is raped and strangled by foot fetishist and serial killer Jerry Brudos aka The Lust Killer in Salem, Oregon, United States. Brudos decided to not cut her breasts off because they were "too pink" and instead drove an electrical current through the body in an attempt to make it "jump", which failed.

---

(x) 52 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1974 Start of the trial against 23-year-old Serial killer Gustaaf Van Eyken aka De Vampier van Muizen in Assisenhof, Britselei 55-57, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---

(x) 52 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1974 28-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden performs 'Trans-fixed' in Venice, California, United States.

---

(-) 49 years ago He Had a Hammer from the Clayton Hardware Shop Saturday 23rd of April 1977 Patricia Tina Atkinson is hammered and stabbed to death by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Flat 3, 9 Oak Avenue, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. "She told me she lived alone. I parked up outside her flat and she got out and went in. I picked up a hammer as I got out of the car. I remember this was a claw hammer that I had bought at the Clayton hardware shop."

---

(x) 46 years ago Wednesday 23rd of April 1980 21-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Installation - 3' at the Symposium d'Art Performance in Maison des Avocats, 60 Rue Saint-Jean, Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France. After the audience had entered the cellar, I closed the door and fastened a rope to my neck and the door, then I tied my feet and hands. The audience could watch my actions on a closed TV-circuit on the other side of the door. Then someone had to open the door -and pull me over- in order to get out.

---

(-) 40 years ago Wednesday 23rd of April 1986 Film director Otto Ludwig Preminger dies of lung cancer and Alzheimer's disease at the age of 81 in Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.

---

(-) 35 years ago Tuesday 23rd of April 1991 Musician Johnny Thunders, originally John Anthony Genzale known from The New York Dolls dies of drug-related causes at the age of 39 in Room 37, St. Peter House, 1005 St Peter, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Thunders' death may also been the result of a robbery or foul drug deal.

---

(-) 34 years ago Thursday 23rd of April 1992 Murderer Billy Wayne White is executed by lethal injection at the age of 35 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States. White had been a habitual heroin user throughout his life, causing his veins to deteriorate. Only after 47 minutes of trying officials found a suitable vein in his hand.

---

(x) 33 years ago Friday 23rd of April 1993 34-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'The Murder of Petra Giese' in Jockel Headquarters, Lothringer Straße 36, Gerthe, Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. On exactly the same day that, 21 years earlier, 13-year-old Petra Giese was killed by Joachim ‘Jockel’ Kroll, the Ruhr Hunter, I sat on a chair and cut off all the clothes off my body. To my left hand a rope was tied, leading to an electric winch at the other end of the room, slowly dragging my body over the concrete floor.

---

(-) 28 years ago Thursday 23rd of April 1998 Assassin James Earl Ray aka The Man Who Shot Martin Luther King dies of complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C at the age of 70 in Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital, 3443 Dickerson Pike Ste 430, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

---

(x) 28 years ago Thursday 23rd of April 1998 42-year-old Kidnapper, serial killer and child molester Marc Paul Alain Dutroux escapes from the courthouse, where he was consulting the records for his defence, by knocking down a state trooper and running out of the building in Neufchateau, Luxembourg, Belgium. Dutroux was found by forest watcher Stéphane Michaux about three hours later in a wood, where his stolen car got stuck in the mud.

---

(-) 27 years ago Friday 23rd of April 1999 Mass murderer David J. Lawrie is executed by lethal injection at the age of 38 in Delaware Correctional Center, 1181 Paddock Road, Smyrna, Delaware, United States. On 6 August 1992 Larwie stabbed his 25-year-old estranged wife Michelle in the chest, set the house on fire, killing his children 4-year-old Fawn and 2-year-old Tabitha and 3-year-old neighbour child Charles Humbertson. Lawrie's last meal request was for two bacon cheeseburgers, french fries, and a chocolate milkshake.

---

(-) 19 years ago Monday 23rd of April 2007 First President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin dies of at the age of 76 in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

---

(-) 1 years ago Wednesday 23rd of April 2025 Musician David Lynn Thomas known from the Post-Punk group Pere Ubu dies of severe ilnesses at the age of 72 in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, United Kingdom.

---