8 April in history
8 events that happened on 8 April, from 217 to 1973.
217 CE 1,809 years ago
Emperor Caracalla is murdered near Carrhae
Caracalla was stabbed to death by a soldier while travelling to a temple near Carrhae in Mesopotamia. His praetorian prefect Macrinus, who had arranged the killing, became the first emperor not of senatorial rank.
✦ Anniversary of the day
876 CE 1,150 years ago
The Abbasids defeat Ya'qub ibn al-Layth at Dayr al-Aqul
On the Tigris south-east of Baghdad, the Abbasid regent al-Muwaffaq defeated the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth, who was marching on Baghdad, after flooding the ground before his army. Ya'qub abandoned his attempt to take Iraq and withdrew to Khuzistan.
1093 CE 933 years ago
New Norman cathedral at Winchester is consecrated
Bishop Walkelin's Romanesque cathedral at Winchester was consecrated in the presence of bishops and abbots. Later extended, it is now the longest medieval cathedral in Europe.
1913 CE 113 years ago
Seventeenth Amendment introduces direct election of US senators
Connecticut's ratification completed the Seventeenth Amendment, transferring the choice of senators from state legislatures to voters. Secretary of State Bryan certified it at the end of May.
1953 CE 73 years ago
Jomo Kenyatta is convicted at the Kapenguria trial
A colonial court in Kenya sentenced Jomo Kenyatta and five others to seven years' hard labour for allegedly managing Mau Mau. The widely criticised verdict made him a national symbol; he became Kenya's first president.
1973 CE 53 years ago
Pablo Picasso dies at Mougins aged 91
Pablo Picasso died at his home in the south of France. Co-founder of Cubism and creator of Guernica, he had reshaped modern art over a career lasting more than seventy years.
Born on 8 April 3
Died on 8 April 9
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.