April 1916

Saturday, April 1, 1916

• Lieutenant General Hubert Gough took command of the British Reserve Army, which would see action at the Battle of the Somme.
• German Navy airships raided England for five more nights straight.
• Gabrielle Petit, a 23-year old Belgian citizen, was executed by firing squad after being arrested and charged for spying on occupying Germans for British intelligence. She became a national hero after the end of World War I.
• The Royal Flying Corps established the No. 38 and No. 42 Squadrons.
• The 42nd Indian Brigade was established to serve in the Mesopotamian campaign.
• The Royal Naval Air Service Training Establishment was founded at Cranwell, Lincolnshire, England. It later will become RAF Cranwell.
• United States Coast Guard Third Lieutenant Elmer Fowler Stone began flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, becoming the first U.S. Coast Guard aviator.
• Tohoku University established the Provisional Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Sendai, Japan. The research institute became the Institute for Materials Research, the leading international center on materials research.
• Died:
• * James Burrill Angell, 87, American academic, president of the University of Michigan from 1871 to 1909
• * Charles Aurelius Smith, 55, American politician, 91st Governor of South Carolina, holding the shortest term in that position for a period of only five days as interim until Richard Manning was inaugurated

  Sunday, April 2, 1916

• A munitions factory exploded at Uplees near Faversham, Kent, England, killing 108 workers.
• At the Hawk's Well, a play written by W. B. Yeats, was first performed privately in London.

  Monday, April 3, 1916

• Actions of St Eloi Craters - British forces captured some of the remaining craters created by detonating explosives in tunnels underneath the German front-line trenches as St Eloi, Belgium.
• Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition - Anglo-Egyptian scouting forces sent to the Sultanate of Darfur to quell a rebellion led by Sultan Ali Dinar began clearing local Sudanese warriors out of villages surrounding Jebel el Hella, where the main column was headquartered, to make it safer to build a road for supply trucks to use and replenish the column.
• Ross Sea party - British polar exploration ship Aurora was brought into harbor at Port Chalmers, New Zealand tugboat Dunedin.
• The ANZAC Provost Corps were established, the precursor to the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police.
• The Roman Catholic Diocese of Penedo was established in Penedo, Brazil.
• Born: Herb Caen, American journalist, recipient of the special Pulitzer Prize for his daily column with the San Francisco Chronicle; as Herbert Eugene Caen, in Sacramento, California, United States

  Tuesday, April 4, 1916

• Battle of Verdun - The French were able to add reserve troops and equipment to their front line against attacks by the German Fifth Army. Artillery barrages increased casualties on both sides and slowed German front-line attacks to local assault by mid-month.
• Actions of St Eloi Craters — Canadian forces relieved many of the units defending the craters created by Allied bombing in Belgium.
• Born: Mickey Owen, American baseball player, catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox from 1937 to 1954; as Arnold Malcolm Owen, in Nixa, Missouri, United States

  Wednesday, April 5, 1916

• Siege of Kut - A British relief force of 30,000 under General G. F. Gorringe captured Fallahiyeh in what is now western Iran suffered heavy losses and Ottoman reinforcements entered Mesopotamia.
• Actions of St Eloi Craters - The Germans launched a night attack on the craters at St. Eloi, Belgium and recovered all the ground lost to the British on March 27.
• Born:
• * Gregory Peck, American actor, renowned for starring roles in Gentleman's Agreement, Roman Holiday, The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear, recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for To Kill a Mockingbird; as Eldred Gregory Peck, in San Diego, United States
• * Morley Baer, American photographer, best known for his landscape and urban photography of San Francisco and the California coastline; in Toledo, Ohio, United States
• * Jean Trescases, a French Army Chief warrant officer who fought in various conflicts; in Palalda, France

  Thursday, April 6, 1916

• Actions of St Eloi Craters - Canadian forces began counterattacks to retake the craters the Germans had overwhelmed just a day before.
• Died: Andrew Ross, 36, Scottish rugby player, forward for the Scotland national rugby union team from 1905 to 1909, as well for Royal High Corstorphine; killed in action at St. Eloi, Belgium)

  Friday, April 7, 1916

• A fire during an amateur benefit concert for soldiers at the Garrick Theatre in London killed eight young girls when their costumes were ignited.
• The west coast stagecoach line officially closed with the completion of a railroad between Coos Bay and Reedsport, Oregon.
• Born:
• * Edward L. Loper Sr., American artist, member of the Impressionism movement and emerging art by African Americans; in Wilmington, Delaware, United States
• * Yoo Youngkuk, Korean artist, co-founder of the Neo Realism Group and Association of Modern Artists in Korea; in Uljin County, Korea, Empire of Japan

  Saturday, April 8, 1916

• Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition - Anglo-Egyptian forces occupied the Sudanese town of Abiad after encountering little resistance.
• Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition - Members of the expedition team struck the second emergency camp created after the sinking of the polar ship Endurance in November when the solid ice floe began to split apart.

  Sunday, April 9, 1916

• Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition - Members of the polar expedition team began open water travel using the three lifeboats salvaged during the sinking of the polar ship Endurance in November. The three lifeboats were named after the expedition's three chief financial sponsors: James Caird, Dudley Docker and Stancomb Wills.
• Born:
• * Elliot Handler, American inventor, co-founder of Mattel with wife Ruth Handler which produced popular toys as Barbie and Hot Wheels; as Isadore Elliot Handler, in Chicago, United States
• * Léonie Duquet, French nun, disappeared and murdered along with fellow sister Alice Domon by the military regime of Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla during the Dirty War; in Longemaison, France
• Died:
• * John Norton, 59, Australian journalist and politician, publisher of the newspaper The Truth, member of the Parliament of New South Wales from 1898 to 1910; died of kidney failure
• * Wilhelm Sauer, 85, German designer, builder of over 1,100 pipe organs including those at Bremen Cathedral, St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, and Berlin Cathedral

  Monday, April 10, 1916

• The Professional Golfers' Association of America was established with 35 charter members and Robert White as president.
• Died: Henry Marshall Furman, 65, American judge, first judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

  Tuesday, April 11, 1916

• The Egyptian Expeditionary Force began the Sinai and Palestine campaign by raiding Jifjafa and destroying water wells in the Sinai desert.
• Battle of Verdun - France counter-attacked German-held positions at Douaumont and Vaux, France.
• The Kia Kima Scout Reservation, a summer camp for the Boy Scouts of America, was established outside of Hardy, Arkansas.
• Born: Sam Chapman, American baseball player, center fielder for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1938 to 1951; as Samuel Blake Chapman, in Tiburon, California, United States
• Died: Richard Harding Davis, 51, American war journalist, known for coverage of the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I; died of a heart attack

  Wednesday, April 12, 1916

• Battle of Parral - The 13th Cavalry Regiment under command of Major Frank Tompkins fought soldiers loyal to Venustiano Carranza at Parral, Chihuahua. The U.S. Cavalry unit of 150 men was in the country on the hunt for Pancho Villa following his raid on Columbus, New Mexico, when it encountered the Mexican cavalry force of 550 men. The skirmish resulted in an estimated 45 Mexican deaths and five American deaths before reinforcement forced the Mexicans to retreat. The battle marked the furthest U.S. forces moved into Mexico.
• Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition - Expedition leader Ernest Shackleton chose the three lifeboats the party used to cross open water in the Weddell Sea to head for Hope Bay, located at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
• Born:
• * Beverly Cleary, American children's writer, author of Ramona and Her Mother and Dear Mr. Henshaw; as Beverly Atlee Bunn, in McMinnville, Oregon, United States
• * Benjamin Libet, American psychologist, leading researcher in the field of human consciousness; in Chicago, United States
• * John Verdun Newton, Australian politician and air force officer, member of the Royal Australian Air Force and elected member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for 55 days before being killed in action during World War II; in Dongara, Western Australia, Australia
• * Martin Becker, German bomber fighter pilot, member of the night fighter squadron for the Luftwaffe during World War II, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross; in Wiesbaden, German Empire

  Thursday, April 13, 1916

• Oris Paxton Van Sweringen and his younger brother Mantis purchased a 75% controlling interest in the Nickel Plate Road from William Kissam Vanderbilt for $8.5 million.
• Born: Phyllis Fraser, American publisher, co-founder of Beginner Books for children with The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss being their first publication; as Helen Brown Nichols, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States