Anniversaries 4 April

Birth

Nachman of Breslov18

Ukrainian rabbi 1772–1810

Bettina von Arnim1

German writer 1785–1859

Thaddeus Stevens19

American politician 1792–1868

Benjamin Peirce24

American mathematician 1809–1880

James Freeman Clarke15

American theologian and writer 1810–1888

Comte de Lautréamont8

French poet 1846–1870

Remy de Gourmont17

French writer 1858–1915

George Albert Smith (duchowny mormoński)1

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1870–1951

Pierre Monteux20

French conductor 1875–1964

Maurice de Vlaminck13

French painter 1876–1958

Isoroku Yamamoto7

Japanese Marshal Admiral 1884–1943

Sigurd F. Olson2

American conservationist 1899–1982

K. L. Saigal7

Indian actor 1904–1947

Marcello Marchesi1

Italian actor and director 1912–1978

Marguerite Duras42

French writer and film director 1914–1996

Noreen Nash1

American film and television actress 1924–2023

Maya Angelou247

American author and poet 1928–2014

Andrei Tarkovsky55

Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film th… 1932–1986

Frits Bolkestein3

Dutch politician 1933

François-Bernard Mâche2

French composer 1935

Frances Mayes9

American university professor and writer 1940

Rudi Vis1

British politician 1941–2010

Paulette Jiles1

Canadian writer 1943

Katherine Neville4

American novelist 1945

Dan Simmons104

American novelist 1948

Abdullah Öcalan25

Founder of the PKK 1949

Harvey Brown (philosopher)2

Philosopher of physics 1950

Charles Bernstein6

American writer 1950

Richard Templar1

selfhelp author 1950–2006

Sammy Wilson13

British politician 1953

Julie Carmen1

actress, dancer turned psychotherapist 1954

Aki Kaurismäki1

Finnish film director 1957

Liborius Ndumbukuti Nashenda1

Roman Catholic archbishop 1959

Hugo Weaving4

Nigerian born British-Australian actor 1960

Jonathan Agnew2

cricketer 1960

Martin Firrell66

British artist and activist 1963

David Cross27

American comedian, writer and actor 1964

Robert Downey Jr.10

American actor 1965

Alain Faubert1

Canadian religious servant and auxiliary bishop 1965

Claudette Mink1

Canadian actress 1971

Lisa Moorish3

British singer 1972

David Blaine2

American illusionist and endurance artist 1973

Marya Hornbacher37

American journalist 1974

Natasha Lyonne8

actress 1979

Heath Ledger28

Australian actor 1979–2008

Ned Vizzini81

American writer 1981–2013

Sarah Gadon2

Canadian actress 1987

Death

Ambrose10

bishop of Milan; one of the four original doctors of the Ch… 339–397

Isidore of Seville3

bishop, confessor and doctor of the Catholic Church 560–636

Ramban2

Spanish rabbi and scholar 1194–1270

Alfonso X of Castile3

King of Castile 1221–1284

John Napier46

Scottish mathematician 1550–1617

Szymon Starowolski1

Polish historian 1588–1656

Oliver Goldsmith134

Irish physician and writer 1728–1774

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon92

British Baron 1732–1802

William Henry Harrison12

American general and politician, 9th President of the Unite… 1773–1841

William Crookes46

British chemist and physicist 1832–1919

John Venn1

English logician and philosopher 1834–1923

Hermann Cohen10

German philosopher 1842–1918

W. W. Rouse Ball3

English mathematician 1850–1925

Gustave Geffroy2

French writer 1855–1926

George Albert Smith (duchowny mormoński)1

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1870–1951

Edgar A. Singer, Jr.10

American philosopher 1873–1954

Carl Ludwig Siegel3

German mathematician 1896–1981

Gloria Swanson1

American actress 1899–1983

Sadegh Hedayat10

Iranian writer 1903–1951

Eric A. Havelock5

1903-1988, British classical philologist 1903–1988

Karl William Kapp6

American economist 1910–1976

Max Frisch67

Swiss playwright and novelist 1911–1991

C. L. Moore19

American author 1911–1987

Muhammad Qutb3

Egyptian Islamist writer and scholar 1919–2014

Giovanni Sartori3

Italian journalist and political scientist 1924–2017

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto41

Fourth President and ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan 1928–1979

Martin Luther King, Jr.658

American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

Chögyam Trungpa20

Tibetan Buddhist lama and writer 1939–1987

Roger Ebert264

American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter 1942–2013