41st year - Nº 95 Sunday, 5 April 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nº 95 Sunday, 5 April 2026

5 April / Today's 25 Events:

---

(+) 126 years ago Thursday 5th of April 1900 Actor Spencer Bonaventure Tracy is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

---

(+) 118 years ago Sunday 5th of April 1908 Conductor Herbert Ritter von Karajan is born in Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

---

(+) 118 years ago Sunday 5th of April 1908 Actress Bette Ruth Elizabeth Davis is born in 55 Cedar Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, United States.

---

(+) 110 years ago Wednesday 5th of April 1916 Actor Gregory Eldred Peck is born in San Diego, California, United States.

---

(+) 109 years ago Thursday 5th of April 1917 Writer Robert Albert Bloch known for his novel Psycho is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

---

(-) 108 years ago Friday 5th of April 1918 Anne-Marie Pascal is murdered by serial killer Henri Désiré Landru aka Le Barbe-Bleue de Gambais in l'Ermitage, Allée des Tilleuls et la Roserale, Gambais, Île-de-France, France. In his black notebook, Landru marked "17h 15'."  On 4 June 1918 Landru sold Pascal's only set of false teeth for 15,- Francs.

---

(+) 106 years ago Monday 5th of April 1920 Writer Arthur Frederick Hailey is born in Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 100 years ago Monday 5th of April 1926 Film director Roger William Corman aka The Pope of Pop Cinema is born in Detroit, Michigan, United States.

---

(-) 81 years ago Thursday 5th of April 1945 SS Standartenführer Karl-Otto Koch known for becoming the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen is executed by the firing squad at the age of 48 in KZ Buchenwald, Weimar, Thüringen, Germany. Koch was sentenced to death for disgracing both himself and the SS. He was the husband of Ilse Koch.

---

(-) 76 years ago Wednesday 5th of April 1950 Karolina Olsson aka The Sleeper of Oknö known for remaining in hibernation for 32 years dies of intracranial hemorrhage at the age of 89 in Oknö, Småland, Sweden.

---

(+) 64 years ago Thursday 5th of April 1962 Actress and fashion model Lana Jean Clarkson is born in Long Beach, California, United States. In February 2003 Clarkson was fatally shot by songwriter and producer Phil Spector in the lobby of his mansion.

---

(-) 62 years ago Sunday 5th of April 1964 Chief of Staff of the United States Army Douglas MacArthur dies of biliary cirrhosis at the age of 84 in Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, United States.

---

(-) 56 years ago Sunday 5th of April 1970 West German Ambassador to Guatemala Karl Borromäus Maria Heinrich Graf von Spreti is killed by Marxist–Leninist FAR guerillas at the age of 63 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. von Spreti had been kidnapped six days before.

---

(+) 51 years ago Saturday 5th of April 1975 Double murderer Derrick Sean O'Brien is born in Houston, Texas, United States.

---

(-) 51 years ago Saturday 5th of April 1975 Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek dies of renal failure aggravated with advanced cardiac malfunction at the age of 89 in Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan.

---

(-) 50 years ago Monday 5th of April 1976 Business magnate, aviator, aerospace engineer, film director and eccentric Howard Robard Hughes dies of kidney failure at the age of 71 in Methodist Hospital, 6565 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas, United States. Hughes died on board an aircraft owned by Robert Graf and piloted by Jeff Abrams en route from his penthouse at the Acapulco Fairmont Princess Hotel in Mexico to the Methodist Hospital. Hughes was in extremely poor physical condition at the time of his death in as much that the FBI had to resort to fingerprints to identify the body.

---

(x) 43 years ago Tuesday 5th of April 1983 27-year-old Mass murderer Cevdet Yılmaz shoots six people to death for mocking his Dutch naturalisation in 't Koetsiertje, Delft, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. The dead were Ton Smits, Wim van Baarle, Jan van Drongelen, Wim Janssen, Tonie Sneekes and 12-year-old Carmen Sneekes. Four other people were injured.

---

(-) 42 years ago He Wanted Ricky to Sit on His Lap Thursday 5th of April 1984 Child molester and killer Arthur Frederick Goode is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 30 in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States. During an interview on the eve of his execution Goode was asked if he had any last request. With a smile he answered "Yes, I want [child actor] Ricky Schroder to sit on my lap when I am strapped into the electric chair." Goode's last meal request was for steak, corn, broccoli and cookies. He also reportedly requested to have intercourse with a little boy for the last time.

---

(-) 37 years ago Wednesday 5th of April 1989 Joris Viville is raped, strangled and mutilated by serial killer Francis Heaulme aka The Emmaus Murderer aka Le Routard du Crime in Port-Grimaud, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

---

(-) 32 years ago Tuesday 5th of April 1994 Musician Kurt Donald Cobain aka The Pope of Grunge commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 27 in 171 Lake Washington Boulevard, Seattle, Washington, United States. Cobain was discovered in the living quarters above his garage on 8 April 1994 by Veca Electric employee Gary Smith, who arrived at the house in the morning to install security lighting.

---

(-) 29 years ago His Corpse Was Kicked to a Pulp Saturday 5th of April 1997 Mass murderer Mohammad Ahman al-Nazari is executed by the firing squad at the age of 48 in Tala'i Private School, Sanaʽa, Amanat Al-Asemah, Yemen. On 30 March al-Nazari shot and killed four students and two teachers with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. After his execution, the initial sentence for al-Nazari's corpse to be crucified in a public area for three days was repealed, instead the corpse was kicked to a pulp by angry citizens and burned in the streets of Sanaʽa.

---

(-) 29 years ago Saturday 5th of April 1997 Beat poet Allen Irwin Ginsberg dies of liver cancer at the age of 71 in 404 East 14th Street, New York City, New York, United States.

---

(-) 21 years ago Tuesday 5th of April 2005 Writer Saul Bellow dies of unknown causes at the age of 90 in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States.

---

(-) 14 years ago Thursday 5th of April 2012 Guitar amplification pioneer Jim James Charles Marshall aka The Father of Loud dies of cancer at the age of 89 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

---

11 years ago The Eyes had it Sunday 5th of April 2015 The view from the mountain where supposedly the ashes of Surrealist film director Luis Buñuel were scattered in Monte Tolocha, Calanda, Teruel, Spain.

---