Portal:Belgium/Anniversaries/April

These are the selected anniversaries for April that appear on the Belgium portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

April 1

1688: birth of Maurus Dantine, monk and chronologist
1905: birth of Gaston Eyskens, six times Prime Minister of Belgium between 1949 and 1950, between 1958 and 1961, and between 1968 and 1973, and father of later prime minister Mark Eyskens
1924: First revenue flight for Belgium's Sabena Airlines
1941: death of Hippolyte Delehaye, hagiographer, president of the Bollandists between 1912 and 1941
1983: start of Studio Brussel, the alternative radio station of the VRT
1994: death of Léon Degrelle, founder of Rex, Nazi, and Holocaust denier

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April 2

1527: birth of Abraham Ortelius, cartographer, creator of the first modern atlas

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April 3

1812: birth of Louise-Marie of France, first Queen of the Belgians, wife of Leopold I
1818: birth of Jean-François Portaels, orientalist painter
1863: birth of Henry van de Velde, architect and interior designer, pioneer of the Art Nouveau
1891: death of Constantine Bruno, Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, historian and minister in the Belgian federal government in 1870
1953: birth of Pieter Aspe, writer of detective stories
1979: Wilfried Martens becomes Prime Minister of Belgium
2005: cyclist Tom Boonen wins the 89th edition of the Tour of Flanders

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April 4

1609: death of Charles de l'Écluse, known as Clusius, early botanist
1826: birth of Zénobe Gramme, inventor of the Gramme machine, an improvement of earlier dynamos
1905: death of Constantin Meunier, sculptor
1942: birth of Michel Fourniret, serial killer
1990: King Baudouin of Belgium is declared "unable to reign" for one day when he refuses to give his Royal Assent to a law liberalising Belgium's abortion laws
2004: death of Briek Schotte, cyclist, twice World Champion and Tour of Flanders winner

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April 5

1252: death of Juliana of Liège, saint
1822: birth of Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye, economist
1831: death of Pierre Léonard Vander Linden, entomologist
1885: the first Socialist party in Belgium, the Belgian Labour Party (POB-BWP), is founded in Brussels
1923: birth of Ernest Mandel, Trotskyist, essayist, and survivor of the Holocaust
1929: birth of Hugo Claus, writer and poet
1943: American bombers attack the town of Mortsel killing near a thousand Belgian civilians.

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April 6

File:Ules bordet.jpg

1692: death of Emmanuel Schelstrate, theologian
1961: death of Jules Bordet, immunologist and microbiologist, received the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1969: birth of Joël Smets, motocross rider
1998: death of Rudy Dhaenens, cyclist, World Champion in 1990

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April 7

1841: birth of Alfred Cogniaux, botanist
1981: birth of Stijn Stijnen, footballer currently playing for Club Brugge

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April 8

1514: death of Anna of Nassau-Dillenburg, philanthropist
1605: birth of Philip IV of Spain, King of Spain and ruler over most of the current territory of Belgium
1816: death of Saint Julie Billiart, founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
1870: death of Charles de Bériot, violinist
1875: birth of Albert I of Belgium, third King of Belgium between 1909 and 1934
1898: birth of Achille Van Acker, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1945 and 1946, and between 1954 and 1958

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April 9

688: death of Waltrude, patron saint of Mons
1835: birth of Leopold II, King of the Belgians (pictured)
1895: birth of Clément Doucet, pianist
1918: start of the Battle of the Lys during World War I
1973: birth of Bart Goor, soccer player with 67 appearances for the Belgium national football team

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April 10

1008: death of Notker of Liège, first prince-bishop of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège
1952: birth of Hugo Broos, soccer player and coach, as coach three times winner of the First division
1961: birth of Rudy Dhaenens, cyclist, World Champion in 1990
1986: birth of Vincent Kompany, footballer, winner of the Belgian Golden Shoe in 2004 and of the Belgian Ebony Shoe in 2004 and 2005, currently plays for Hamburger SV

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April 11

1612: death of Emanuel van Meteren, historian
1953: birth of Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium since 1999 (pictured)
1974: birth of Natacha Régnier, actress

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April 12

1555: death of Joanna of Castile, mother of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
1794: birth of Germinal Pierre Dandelin, French-Dutch-Belgian mathematician and engineer
1831: birth of Constantin Meunier, sculptor
1893: a massive general strike breaks out in Belgium over the issue of restricted voting rights
2003: marriage of Prince Laurent of Belgium to Claire Coombs
2006: Joe Van Holsbeeck is murdered in broad daylight at the Central Station in Brussels for his iPod

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April 13

1830: birth of Eduard Lassen, composer
1860: birth of James Ensor, early expressionist and surrealist painter
1987: birth of Jonathan Legear, football midfielder currently playing for R.S.C. Anderlecht
2005: death of Philippe Volter, actor in Three Colors and Double Life of Veronique

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April 14

1578: birth of Philip III of Spain, ruler over most of the current territory of Belgium
1941: an anti-Jewish pogrom occurs in Antwerp, led by Belgian collaborators
1969: birth of Luc Van Lierde, triathlete, twice winner of the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii and World Champion in 1997

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April 15

1388: death of William I, Duke of Bavaria, Count of Hainaut
1889: death of Father Damien, priest, missionary who dedicated his life to the service of the lepers in Molokai
1916: death of Alfred Cogniaux, botanist
1943: an Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, leaving 936 dead civilians in its wake
1960: birth of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, oldest son of King Albert II of Belgium and heir apparent to the Belgian throne

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April 16

1838: birth of Ernest Solvay, chemist and businessman, creator of the Solvay Conferences and the Solvay Business School
1922: birth of Leo Tindemans, former Prime Minister of Belgium
1923: death of Isidore Jacques Eggermont, photographer and writer

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April 17

1427: death of John IV, Duke of Brabant, founder of the Catholic University of Leuven
1833: birth of Jean-Baptiste Accolay, composer
1923: birth of Jacques Sternberg, science fiction writer
1958: opening of the Expo '58, the first World's Fair after World War II, attracting more than 42 million visitors
1964: birth of Bart van den Bossche, singer and TV presenter

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April 18

1915: birth of Edmond Leburton, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1973 and 1974
1947: birth of Guy Goffette, poet, awarded with the Prix Mallarmé and the Grand Prix de l'Académie française

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April 19

1044: death of Gothelo I, Duke of Lorraine and margrave of Antwerp
1839: the Treaty of London recognises the independence and neutrality of Belgium and defines its borders
1936: birth of Wilfried Martens, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium for nine times between 1979 and 1992, chairman of the European People's Party since 1992
1943: The Belgian Resistance manages to rescue over 200 Jews from a train during the Holocaust

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April 20

1920: opening ceremony of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp
1932: death of Edgard Colle, chess player, known for the Colle System opening
1976: birth of Big Ben, world champion show jumping horse, inducted in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame
2006: the law allowing adoption by same-sex couples, which had already been passed by the Chamber of Representatives, is passed by the Senate with 34 votes in favour, 33 votes against and two abstentions

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April 21

1951: birth of Jean-Pierre Dardenne, film director, twice winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival
1958: birth of Michael Lafosse, self-proclaimed heir to the Scottish throne

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April 22

1854: birth of Henri La Fontaine, lawyer, president of the International Peace Bureau, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913, between 1907 and 1943
1915: the first use of poison gas in a war happened during World War I when the Germans released chlorine in Langemark
1930: birth of Georges Schoeters, one of the founders and a leader of the Front de libération du Québec terrorist group
1950: birth of Thierry Zéno, controversial film director, known from Vase de Noces
1972: birth of Sabine Appelmans, tennis player, winner of 7 tournaments in the WTA Tour
1977: death of Edward Van Dijck, cyclist, winner of the 1947 Vuelta a España

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April 23

711: death of Childebert III, King of the Franks
1918: the Zeebrugge Raid is a partly successful operation by the troops of the United Kingdom to block the port of Zeebrugge, occupied by the Germans
2003: birth of Princess Laetitia Maria of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este and Princess Astrid of Belgium

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April 24

1736: death of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
1971: birth of Mauro Pawlowski, musician with dEUS and Evil Superstars

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April 25

1690: death of David Teniers the Younger, Baroque painter
1802: birth of Victor Scheppers, founder of the Congregation of the Brothers of Scheppers
1928: death of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Lieutenant General of the White movement in Russia, in his house in Brussels
1961: birth of Frank De Winne, second Belgian man in space

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April 26

1444: death of Robert Campin, considered the first great master of Flemish painting
1922: birth of Pol Bury, sculptor
1930: birth of Roger Moens, athlete, 800 meter runner, broke the world record and won the silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
1947: birth of Marc Otte, special representative of the European Union to the Middle East peace process
1956: birth of François Schuiten, comics author of Les Cités Obscures
1962: birth of Erik Van Looy, TV show presenter and film director of The Alzheimer Case

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April 27

1404: death of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, the first to join Flanders to the Duchy of Burgundy by his marriage to Margaret III, Countess of Flanders
1846: birth of Charles Joseph Van Depoele, inventor and electrical engineer

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April 28

1829: birth of Charles Bourseul, sometimes credited as the inventor of the telephone
1907: birth of Raymond Braine, soccer player, the first Belgian professional player from 1930 on, when he played for Sparta Prague; he played 54 times for the Belgium national football team
1908: death of Jean-Baptiste Moens, the so-called "Father of Philately"
1944: birth of Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, politician, Minister-President of the Walloon Region between 2000 and 2005

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April 29

1899: Camille Jenatzy sets the land speed record at 105.88 km/h in his third and final record race of the year, and is the first to break the 100 km/h barrier
1918: end of the Battle of the Lys during World War I
1922: birth of Toots Thielemans, called the greatest jazz harmonica player of the century
1928: birth of Jan Pieter Schotte, Roman Catholic cardinal and official of the Roman Curia
1930: birth of Rik Coppens, siccer player with 47 appearances for the Belgium national football team
1933: birth of Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981 and son of former prime minister Gaston Eyskens
1937: birth of Wannes Van de Velde, singer
1942: birth of François-Xavier de Donnéa, politician, Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region between 2000 and 2003
1942: birth of Jean-Baptiste Baronian, writer
1970: birth of Piet Goddaer, musician known as Ozark Henry

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April 30

1632: death of Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, one of the two chief commanders of the Holy Roman Empire's forces in the Thirty Years' War
1847: death of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, last Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
1874: birth of Cyriel Verschaeve, clergyman and writer who was condemned for collaboration during World War II.
1961: birth of Franky Van Der Elst, soccer player, is the second most capped player of the Belgium national football team with 86 appearances, and was selected as one of the 125 greatest living footballers by Pelé
1964: birth of Lorenzo Staelens, soccer player with 70 appearances for the Belgium national football team

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