APRIL 2 1872: George B. Brayton patents gasoline powered engine 1902: First movie theatre opens in Los Angeles 1935: Sir Watson-Watt patents radar 1956: Former Pakistani cricketer Farrukh Zaman is born 1963: USSR launches Luna 4; misses Moon by 8,500 km 1966: Soviet Union’s Luna 10 becomes first spacecraft to orbit Moon 1969 Indian film actor Ajay Devgan is born 1973: CBS radio begins news 24 hours a day 1987: IBM announces its new Personal System 1996: Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya blasts a century off 48 balls — a record at the time, against Pakistan in Singapore

APRIL 3 1753: Samuel Johnson begins work on the second volume of his Dictionary of the English language 1829: The coffee mill is patented by James Carrington 1888: Cricket’s greatest writer Sir Neville Cardus is born 1924: Hollywood actor Marlon Brando is born 1961: Hollywood comedian Eddie Murphy is born 1963: Pakistani cricketer Zakir Khan is born 1965: Pakistan’s first female pop star Nazia Hassan is born 1973: The first portable cellphone call is made in New York City 1986: IBM unveils their first laptop computer

APRIL 4 1850: City of Los Angeles is incorporated 1960: Ben-Hur wins 11 Academy Awards 1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee 1973: The ribbon is cut to open the World Trade Center in New York City 1975: Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen 1979: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is executed 1983: Sally Ride became the first US woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger

APRIL 5 1894: Start of Adventure of the Empty House short story in which Sherlock Holmes makes his return 1916: Hollywood actor Gregory Peck is born 1954: Elvis Presley records his debut single, That’s All Right 1979: Pioneer 11 launched towards Jupiter 1993: Indian actress Divya Bharti dies in an accident

APRIL 6 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates and agrees to go into exile on the island of Elba 1896: The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens 1956: Pakistani cricketer Mudassar Nazar is born 1956: Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar is born 1980: ‘Post it notes’ are introduced 1988: Pakistan wins first Test against the West Indies. Imran Khan takes 11 wickets, Javed Miandad scores a century 1992: Microsoft unveils Windows 3.1, the first of many Windows Operating Systems 1998: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India

APRIL 7 1348: Prague University, first university in central Europe, is formed by King Charles IV 1770: English romantic poet, William Wordsworth is born 1923: First brain tumour operation under local anaesthetic performed in New York1927: Using phone lines, television signal is sent from Washington DC to New York 1948: The World Health Organisation, a UN agency, is founded 1954: Hollywood actor Jackie Chan is born 1964: IBM introduces the IBM System/360 mainframe computer 1996: Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya hits fastest ODI fifty off 17 balls against Pakistan

APRIL 8 563 BC: Buddhists celebrate birth of Gautama Buddha 1879: Milk is sold in glass bottles for the first time in New York 1938: Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Farooq is born 1946: The League of Nations assembles for the last time 1950: India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact 1968: 40th Academy Awards are postponed for a week due to death of Martin Luther King Jr. 1973: Spanish artist and sculptor Pablo Picasso dies at the age of 91 1997: Microsoft Corp. releases Internet Explorer 4.0 2008: The construction of the world’s first building to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain

— O. A.