On this day: April 10

Events on April 10

• 238 During the year of Six Emperors, forces of Gordian I and Gordian II are defeated by those of Maximinus Thrax in the battle of Carthage. Wikipedia
• 428 Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople. Wikipedia
• 837 Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). Wikipedia
• 847 Pope Leo IV was consecrated without imperial consent following the Saracen sack of Rome. Wikipedia
• 1500 Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French. Wikipedia
• 1724 Bach led the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig. Wikipedia
• 1741 War of the Austrian Succession: Prussian forces defeated Austrian troops at the Battle of Mollwitz in present-day Małujowice, Poland, cementing Frederick II's authority over the newly conquered territory of Silesia. Wikipedia
• 1809 Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition began with the Austrian invasion of Bavaria, then a client state of France. Wikipedia
• 1815 Mount Tambora in Indonesia began the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history, killing at least 71,000 people and affecting temperatures worldwide. Wikipedia
• 1858 Big Ben, the bell in the Palace of Westminster's clock tower in London, was cast after the original bell cracked during testing. Wikipedia
• 1866 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in New York City by Henry Bergh. Wikipedia
• 1912 RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, UK, on her maiden and only voyage. Wikipedia
• 1919 Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was shot to death near Ciudad Ayala, Morelos. Wikipedia
• 1925 The Great Gatsby, a novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published by Scribner's. Wikipedia
• 1925 The Russian city of Tsaritsyn is renamed Stalingrad to honor the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, who had guided the defense of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War in 1920. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia. Wikipedia
• 1944 The Holocaust: Slovak Jewish prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz, later publishing a report that became one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of the camp's mass killings. Wikipedia
• 1963 The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank with all hands lost during deep-diving tests in the North Atlantic Ocean. Wikipedia
• 1970 In the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles. Wikipedia
• 1972 Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1973 In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board. Wikipedia
• 1992 First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Dozens of Armenian civilians were massacred in the village of Maraga by Azerbaijani forces. Wikipedia
• 1998 The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 2009 Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced that he had suspended the constitution and assumed all governance in the country after it was ruled that the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was illegal. Wikipedia
• 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries. Wikipedia
• 2019 Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image of the black hole at the center of the galaxy M87. Wikipedia

Born on April 10

• 401 Theodosius II, Roman emperor (died 450) Wikipedia
• 1512 James V, king of Scotland (died 1542) Wikipedia
• 1583 Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and jurist (died 1645) Wikipedia
• 1755 Samuel Hahnemann, German-French medical doctor and academic (died 1843) Wikipedia
• 1778 William Hazlitt, English essayist and critic (died 1830) Wikipedia
• 1847 Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American journalist, publisher, and politician, founded Pulitzer, Inc. (died 1911) Wikipedia
• 1887 Bernardo Houssay, Argentinian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1971) Wikipedia
• 1917 Robert Burns Woodward, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1927 Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1929 Max von Sydow, Swedish-French actor (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1932 Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor and screenwriter (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1937 Bella Akhmadulina, Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1952 Steven Seagal, American actor, producer, and martial artist Wikipedia
• 1963 Doris Leuthard, Swiss lawyer and politician, 162nd President of the Swiss Confederation Wikipedia
• 1973 Roberto Carlos, Brazilian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1980 Charlie Hunnam, English actor Wikipedia
• 1984 Mandy Moore, American singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia
• 1986 Vincent Kompany, Belgian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1986 Fernando Gago, Argentine footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1988 Haley Joel Osment, American actor Wikipedia
• 1992 Daisy Ridley, English actress Wikipedia
• 1996 Andreas Christensen, Danish footballer Wikipedia

Died on April 10

• 879 Louis the Stammerer, king of West Francia (born 846) Wikipedia
• 1585 Gregory XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1502) Wikipedia
• 1813 Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian mathematician and astronomer (born 1736) Wikipedia
• 1909 Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1919 Emiliano Zapata, Mexican general (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1931 Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet, painter, and philosopher (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1954 Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1955 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French priest, theologian, and philosopher (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1966 Evelyn Waugh, English soldier, novelist, journalist and critic (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1995 Morarji Desai, Indian politician, 4th Prime Minister of India (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 2010 Casualties in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash included: Wikipedia
• 2010 Dixie Carter, American actress and singer (born 1939) Wikipedia
• 2013 Robert Edwards, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2024 O. J. Simpson, American football player, actor, and broadcaster (born 1947) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Blessed Anthony Neyrot Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fulbert of Chartres Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: James, Azadanus and Abdicius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Magdalene of Canossa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mikael Agricola (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William of Ockham (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William Law (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: April 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of the Builder (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia
• Feast of the Third Day of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema) Wikipedia
• Siblings Day (International observance) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “April 10” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/April 10” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “April 10” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for April 10 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.