Tuesday 8th of April 0217

Roman Emperor Caracalla aka Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus is assassinated while urinating at a roadside by Julius Martialis, an officer of his personal bodyguard at the age of 29 in Carrhae, Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi, Turkey.

Sunday 8th of April 1364

King of France Jean le Bon dies of an unknown malady at the age of 45 in Savoy Palace, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Friday 8th of April 1672

Mass murderer Thomas Lancaster is executed by hanging in High Wray Farm, Hawkshead, Cumbria, United Kingdom.

Lancaster poisoned his wife, her father, her three sisters, her former fiancé, her aunt and a servant and to make it look like a local epidemic, went on to poison some of his neighbours. Lancaster was hung from his own front door at High Wray Farm and then taken by horse and cart to Poole Stang where his body was placed on a gibbet to rot away.

Thursday 8th of April 1875

King of Belgium Albert I is born as Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

Saturday 8th of April 1893

Actress Mary Pickford aka The Girl with the Curls is born as Gladys Marie Smith in 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Friday 8th of April 1898

Serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie aka The Strangler of 10 Rillington Place is born in Black Boy House, Turner Lane, Halifax, Claremount, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 8th of April 1902

47-year-old Bigamist and multiple murderer Johann Otto Hoch aka The Bluebeard Murderer marries Mrs Mary Becker of St Louis in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Saturday 8th of April 1911

128 die in Banner Mine of Pratt Consolidated Coal Company explosion in Littleton, Alabama, United States.

Saturday 8th of April 1911

Philosopher Emil Mihai Cioran is born in Rășinari, Sibiu, Romania.

Monday 8th of April 1929

Singer-songwriter Jacques Romain Georges Brel is born in Brussel, Schaerbeek, Brabant, Belgium.

Tuesday 8th of April 1930

Murderer Sidney Harry Fox is executed by hanging at the age of 31 in Maidstone Prison, Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom.

Fox strangled his 63-year-old mother Rosaline Fox in room 66 of the Metropole Hotel in Margate on 23 October 1929.

Friday 8th of April 1938

A lower leg of the unidentified 10th victim of the Unidentified serial killer Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run aka Cleveland Torso Murderer is found floating in the Cuyahoga River in The Flats, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

On 2 May a human thigh was discovered floating in the river to the east of the West 3rd Street bridge. A police search under the bridge found a burlap sack containing the victim's headless torso cut in to halves, another thigh and a left foot. The head and the rest of the body were never found.

Tuesday 8th of April 1941

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is born as Vivienne Isabel Swire in Tintwistle, Derbyshire, United Kingdom.

Saturday 8th of April 1944

Serial killer Bruno Lüdke dies during a medical experiment at the age of 36 in Kriminalmedizinisches Zentralinstitut der Sicherheitspolizei, Sensengasse 2, Wien, Wien, Austria.

Lüdke was experimented on by consuming pure alcohol, bone marrow punctures and more. He probably died in a low pressure experiment. Some experiments on Lüdke were recorded on vinyl by psychiatrist and physician Robert Ritter.

Friday 8th of April 1949

Murderer Jessie Carroll is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Georgia State Prison, Georgia Highway 147, Reidsville, Georgia, United States.

Saturday 8th of April 1950

Ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky dies of a kidney disease at the age of 61 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 8th of April 1953

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Stefan Werner Wisniewski is born in Klosterreichenbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 8th of April 1955

Triple murderer Robert Dale Rowell is born in Houston, Texas, United States.

Friday 8th of April 1955

31-year-old Serial killer Leslie 'Joe Goebbels' Irvin aka The Mad Dog Killer is arrested in F. B. Culley Generating Station, Yankeetown, Indiana, United States.

Irvin was captured because his car was spotted on a rural road in Western Vanderburgh County. It was seen by Edward, Gary, Alan and Russell Peerman, Pete Molinet and Larry Weber. The boys recognized a dent in the door of his car that had been reported in the paper. Irvin worked at the power plant as a steam-pipe insulator, earning $1.90 per hour.

Saturday 8th of April 1961

238 die in MV Dara passenger liner explosion in the Persian Gulf.

The explosion was probably caused by a deliberately placed explosive device planted by an Omani rebel group or individual insurgents.

Monday 8th of April 1963

Musician Julian John Charles Lennon is born in Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 8th of April 1964

26-year-old Irene Charlotte Lockwood aka Sandra Russell is found naked and choked to death by unidentified serial killer Jack the Stripper in Dukes Meadow, Chiswick, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Lockwood was pregnant at the time of her death. With the discovery of this third victim police realized that a serial murderer was at large.

Sunday 8th of April 1973

Artist Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso dies of natural causes at the age of 92 in Villa Notre Dame de la Vie, Avenue Orangeraie, Mougins, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

Wednesday 8th of April 1981

War leader Omar Nelson Bradley aka The G.I. '​s General dies of cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 88 in New York City, New York, United States.

Thursday 8th of April 1982

49-year-old Serial killer Joachim Georg Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale is sentenced to life imprisonment in Landgericht Saal 201, König-Heinrich-Platz 1, Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Kroll's trial lasted 151 days.

Friday 8th of April 1983

28-year-old Gustavo Herrera is beaten and stabbed to death by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States.

In the course of the fight Eyler’s hand is badly cut between the thumb and forefinger.

Tuesday 8th of April 1986

Pop idol Yukiko Okada aka Yukko commits suicide by jumping out of a 7th floor window of the Sun Music Agency building at the age of 19 in Tokyo, Yotsuya, Kantō, Japan.

Two hours before Okada was found with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled apartment crouching in a closet and crying. Okada's death resulted in many copycat suicides in Japan, soon christened with the neologism 'Yukiko Syndrome'.

Monday 8th of April 1991

23-year-old Silvia Zagler is strangled by serial killer Jack Unterweger aka Jack the Writer aka Der Häfenpoet aka The Pug Dumper in Wien, Wien, Austria.

Zagler's body was found on 4 July 1991.

Tuesday 8th of April 2003

Murderer Don Wilson Hawkins is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.

Hawkins' last meal request was for stuffed crust combo pizza with extra cheese and a Dr Pepper.

Saturday 8th of April 2006

Writer Gerard Reve dies of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 83 in Zulte, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Sunday 8th of April 2007

Conceptual artist Sol Solomon LeWitt dies of cancer at the age of 79 in New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 8th of April 2007

Solitary situation in Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Thursday 8th of April 2010

Impresario, clothes designer and boutique owner Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren dies of peritoneal mesothelioma at the age of 64 in Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland.

Monday 8th of April 2013

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Hilda Thatcher aka The Iron Lady dies of a stroke at the age of 88 in The Ritz Hotel, London, Picadilly, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 8th of April 2025

Murderer Michael Tanzi is executed by lethal injection in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States.

Tanzi's last meal request was for a pork chop, bacon, corn, ice cream and a candy bar.

Tuesday 8th of April 2025

113 die in Jet Set Club roof collapse in Jet Set Club, Ave. Independencia #2253, Atala, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Among those who died were Nelsy Cruz, the governor of Monte Cristi province; former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco; and merengue musician Rubby Pérez, who was performing when the roof collapsed.