The World Wide Web (WWW) goes public on April 30, 1993, as CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) makes the source code of the World Wide Web available on a royalty-free basis, making it free software. By late 1993 there were over 500 known web servers, and the WWW accounted for 1% of internet traffic, which seemed a lot in those days (the rest was remote access, e-mail and file transfer) More
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What Happened in April?
Sieges, raids, and monumental deaths. Discover key historical events from April that influenced the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The Rwandan Genocide erupts on April 6, 1994, following the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, leading to the mass slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Up to 1 million people were brutally slaughtered in just 100 days, leaving the once-beautiful country in ruins. Rwanda’s long journey of healing and reconciliation, is an inspiring testament to the unyielding spirit of its people. More
South Africa's first multi-racial general election with full enfranchisement was held on April 27, 1994. The African National Congress won a 63 percent share of the vote at the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated on May 10, 1994 as the country's first Black President, with the National Party's F.W. de Klerk as his first deputy and Thabo Mbeki as the second in the Government of National Unity. More
The Oklahoma City Bombing takes place on April, 19, 1995, when ex-Army soldier and security guard, Timothy McVeigh explodes a powerful bomb at precisely 9:02 am, killing 168 people. The bomb was inside a parked rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. More
Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous "Unabomber," is arrested at his Montana cabin on April 3, 1996. At the cabin they found, many bomb components; 40,000 handwritten journal pages that included bomb-making experiments and descriptions of Unabomber crimes; and one live bomb, ready for mailing. The FBI had spent nearly two decades hunting him down.
Kaczynski pleaded guilty in 1998 and he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms plus 30 years without the possibility of parole. He had killed 3 people and injured more than 20 with explosives sent through the U.S. postal system between 1978 and 1995. He died by suicide on June 10, 2023, at age 81. More
Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori orders an assault of the Japanese ambassador’s residence, on April 22, 1997, to rescue the 72 hostages remaining of the 490 taken during a party celebrating Emperor Akihito’s birthday, by armed terrorists from the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a Marxist-Leninist organization.
All the rebels, including their leader, were killed during the rescue operation. Only one hostage, Supreme Court Justice, Carlos Giusti, was killed in the attack. Two soldiers wounded during the rescue operation died later from their injuries. More
The Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement, is signed on April 10, 1998 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after three decades of conflict, known as "the Troubles". The agreement set up a power-sharing arrangement and also restored self-government to Northern Ireland. it was approved by voters on May 22, 1998, and came into force on December 2, 1999. The Agreement still survives today.
The Canadian Territory of Nunavut was officially established on April 1, 1999, in response to petitions, going back to the mid 1970's, by the Intuit people, who are indigenous to the land, for greater control over their affairs. The Territory was created by dividing the Northwest, marking the first major change to Canada's political map since 1949.
Nunavut, a self-governing Territory is approximately 2 million square kilometers, representing roughly one-fifth of Canada’s total area. "Nunavut" means "Our Land" in Inuktitut. The Nunavut Territory's Capital is Iqaluit, formerly known as Frobisher Bay. Today, the Inuit comprise roughly 86 percent of Nunavut's population.
The Columbine High School massacre occurs in Colorado, on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, resulting in the deaths of 15 individuals, including the two student perpetrators who were seniors at the school.
Elián González, a Cuban boy at the center of an international custody dispute, is seized by federal agents in Miami on April 22, 2000, and returned to Cuba with his father after a dramatic U.S. federal raid. Now in his 30s, he is a trained industrial engineer, father, and elected member of Cuba’s National Assembly.
The Netherlands, becomes the first country to legalize same-sex marriage on April 1, 2001. The legislation had been approved by the Dutch Parliament the prior year, allowing same-sex couples to marry on the same terms as heterosexual couples. The first, same-sex marriages were officiated by the mayor of Amsterdam on this historic date.
The Mars Odyssey robotic spacecraft was launched on April 7, 2001, from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket , reaching Mars orbit on October 24, 2001. As of April 2026, it is still collecting data, beyond its estimated end of 2025 propellant life.. It currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth.
The Netherlands passed a bill permitting euthanasia, on April 12, 2001 the first such national law in the world. It came into force on April 1, 2002.
Dennis Tito, becomes the first private individual to pay for his own trip into space. He was 61 at the time. Reportedly, Tito paid $20M to join the Soyuz TM-32 mission which launched on April 28, 2001. The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station. Tito and his fellow cosmonauts orbited the Earth 128 times, spending 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space and orbited the Earth 128 times.
U.S. forces capture Baghdad, on April 9, 2003, effectively toppling Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
Google launches Gmail on April 1, 2004, such a revolutionary concept at the time, that shortly after The Associated Press published a story about Gmail, readers began contacting the news agency telling them that it had to be a Google April Fools joke. Five years later more than a billion people were using Gmail.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I formally accepted, on April 14, 2004, Pope John Paul II’s apology, for the 1204 sacking of Constantinople by Crusader armies during the Fourth Crusade. Accepting the apology during a liturgy, Bartholomew noted that "the spirit of reconciliation is stronger than hatred".
The acceptance was seen as a major step toward Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation. The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) never reached the Holy Land and instead ended with Christians attacking other Christians. In addition to the apology, Pope John Paul II later returned sacred relics of two Constantinopolitan archbishops that had been held in Rome since the 1204 sack.
The United States announced the lifting of most economic sanctions against Libya on April 23, 2004, following Tripoli's December 2003 commitment to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, including nuclear, chemical, and long-range missile capabilities.
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Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, at age 84, leading to the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005.
The Virginia Tech shooting occurs on April 16, 2007, resulting in the deaths of 32 people in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at the time.