This Day in History on 8th April
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 8th April. The students can refer to them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
- Buddha’s Birthday (Japan only, other countries follow different calendars)
- International Romani Day
Important Events
1674: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj honoured Hansaji Mohite with the degree of ‘Hambirrao’ and appointed him as Chief General of his Army.
1759: British troops chase French out of Masulipatam, India.
1774: Narayan Rao’s posthumous son Madhav Rao was seen as a challenge to Raghunath Rao only when he was 10 days old.
1831: Famous social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy arrived in England.
1835: Raja Ram Mohan Roy reached England.
1838: The Great Western steam-powered ship sailed from Bristol, England, and arrived in New York a fortnight later. This is the first fireboat to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
1950: India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Agreement.
1857: Mangal Pandey, the first revolutionary of Indian mutiny and freedom fighter, was hanged till death at Barrackpore. He struck the first bullet during the time of mutiny against the British Empire.
1894: Lifetime of Swami Chandrashekarendra(1894-1994), venerated Shankaracharya saint of Kanchi monastery in South India.
1911: Dutch physicist Hike Onnes discovered superconductivity.
1919: Gandhiji arrested on way to Delhi for refusal to comply with order not to enter Punjab; escorted back to Bombay; outbreaks of violence in several towns.
1929: Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt bombed the Central Assembly in Delhi.
1921: Acharya Vinoba Bhave established Paunar Ashram at Wardha.
1923: Plague in India killed 1,000 in past week.
1929: Indian independence movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.
1946: HMS Vengeance, sailed with 22 aircraft of No. 4 Sqn, halted at Singapore for re-fueling and set course for Iwakuni, a port of Kyushu island.
1950: Nehru and Ali Khan sign the Indo-Pakistani Pact.
1973: India takes control over Sikkim after anti-government riots.
1985: India files suit against Union Carbide in New York for Bhopal gas disaster.
1991: Prafulla Kumar Mahanta,Assam CM, steps down as party chief.
1993: Dasarath Deb, veteran tribal leader, elected leader of the Left and Democratic Front legislature party in Tripura.
1993: The Republic of Macedonia joined the United Nations.
1997: Delhi High Court quashes charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against L.K. Advani (BJP President), and former Union Minister V.C. Shukla in the Jain hawala case.
1997: India creates history by entering the semi-finals of the 12th Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Cup international football series for the first time after holding Ghana 2-2 at Kochi.
1998: India enters into a historical partnership with France with the formal launch of a joint programme for restoring and protecting the Taj Mahal.
1998: Prem Singh Lalpura, who defied the Akali Dal leadership, not taking oath as a Lok Sabha member on denial of a ministerial berth, is expelled by the party.
1999: Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.
2005: An estimated 4 million people attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Birthday / Anniversary
1887: Ramnarayan Vishwanath Pathak, famous Gujrati litterateur critic, poet and story writer, was born.
1924: Kumar Gandharva, an Indian classical singer.
1925:Kumar Gandharva (Shivputra Siddharamaiya Komkali), famous music director and singer, was born.
1928: Ranjit Desai, a popular Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India.
1937: R. Gundurao, former Chief Minister of Karnataka and senior leader of Indira Congress, was born.
1938: Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations.
1950: Bijay Mohanty, an Indian film actor of Odia Cinema.
1954: G.V. Loganathan, Indian-American engineer and academic (d. 2007)
1979: Amit Trivedi, an Indian music director, singer, and lyricist.
1983: Allu Arjun, an Indian film actor.
1988: Nithya Menen, an Indian actress, and singer.
Death / Death Anniversary
1894: Bankimchandra Chatterjee, an Indian novelist, poet, and journalist.
1897: Henrich Von Stephan, famous General Postal Union and freedom fighter, passed away.
1953: Walchand Hirachand Doshi, an Indian industrialist.
1973: Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer.
2013: Margaret Thatcher, a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
2015: D. Jayakanthan, as an Indian writer, journalist, orator, film-maker, critic, and activist.