April

April 1, 2017, An Iraqi airstrike near Al Qaim, Anbar province, Iraq, kills Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be ISIL's second-in-command. (Al Jazeera)

April 1, 2017, Consequences of heavy rain from Cyclone Debbie kill at least three people and force 20,000 others to leave their homes in New South Wales and Queensland. (News Limited)

April 1, 2017, An explosion occurs at a carnival in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, injuring at least 18 people. (The Independent)

April 2, 2017, South Carolina defeats fellow Southeastern Conference team Mississippi State 67–55 for the Gamecocks' first national title. (AP via ESPN)

April 3, 2017, An attack on a Saint Petersburg Metro train at Sennaya Ploshchad station kills at least 11 people and injures more than 50 others. Authorities disarm another bomb, found at nearby Vosstaniya Square station. (The Independent)

April 3, 2017, Media reports indicate that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice improperly requested the unmasking of some American names, including those of Donald Trump's campaign staff, that had been incidentally collected during national security investigations. A National Security Adviser may request unmasking if specific criteria are met. A Rice associate denies that the unmasking was improper. (Fox News)

April 3, 2017, North Carolina defeats Gonzaga, 71-65, for the 2017 men's basketball national title. (ESPN)

April 3, 2017, An Egyptian excavation team discovers the remains of a pyramid dating back 3,700 years to the thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt at the Dahshur necropolis 40km south of Cairo. (Al Jazeera)

April 3, 2017, Russian authorities arrest more than 100 gay men in Chechnya, including television personalities and religious figures, for "nontraditional sexual orientation." The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that three of the arrested men have been killed, while others reportedly were released for family honor killing. Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov's spokesperson said this report contains “absolute lies and disinformation” since there are no homosexuals in Chechnya. (The Guardian)

April 3, 2017, The NHL announces that it will not release its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. (ESPN)

April 4, 2017, Season 5 Premiere of Prison Break

April 4, 2017, A toxic gas attack, allegedly by Syrian warplanes, kills at least 83 and injures many more in rebel-held Khan Shaykhun, Idlib. (The Globe and Mail)

April 4, 2017, A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hits Batangas, causing damage to buildings and are felts as far as Metro Manila and Bulacan. (The Philippine Star)

April 4, 2017, The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago rules (8-3) that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination. (AP)

April 4, 2017, Bertha, once the world's largest tunnel boring machine, completes its 9,270-foot-long (2,830 m) tunnel under Seattle, Washington, after four years of digging and a lengthy delay near the beginning of the project. (Wired)

April 4, 2017, English computer scientist Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee is awarded the 2016 A.M. Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the protocols and algorithms that allow the Web to scale. (Association for Computing Machinery)

April 5, 2017, Season 8 Premiere of Archer

April 5, 2017, A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Iran near the city of Mashhad, kills 1 person and at that least four were injured. (Reuters)

April 5, 2017, North Korea fires a medium-range ballistic missile about 60 kilometers (37 miles) into its eastern waters, in the direction of Japan according to United States and South Korean officials. (CNN)

April 5, 2017, Mexican Beltrán Leyva Cartel drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva is sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit $US529,200,000. (U.S. Department of Justice)

April 5, 2017, Two openly gay candidates are elected to the Anchorage Assembly, becoming the first openly LGBT elected officials in Alaska. Approximately 20 percent of the city's population voted, a notably low turnout. (LGBT Weekly)

April 6, 2017, The United States launches 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles aimed at the Ash Sha'irat air base in Homs Governorate in response to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons in its attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun. The Government of Syria claims the attack killed six soldiers and nine civilians, including four children. (NBC News)

April 6, 2017,

April 6, 2017,

April 6, 2017,

April 6, 2017, Seven & I Holdings Co., the parent company of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, agrees to acquire the retail operations of Sunoco for $3.3 billion. (Reuters)

April 7, 2017, Release of Smurfs: The Lost Village

April 7, 2017, Release of Going In Style

April 7, 2017, Release of Colossal

April 7, 2017, Release of Gifted

April 7, 2017, A vehicle is driven into a group of people on a street in Stockholm, Sweden, killing four people. (Reuters)

April 7, 2017, Electric Light Orchestra, Joan Baez, Journey, Pearl Jam, Tupac Shakur, and Yes are the six acts inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (New York Post)

April 7, 2017, Hyundai (Sonata and Santa Fe) and Kia (Optima, Sorento, and Sportage) are recalling 1.5 million cars, over 1.3 million in United States and 170,000 in South Korea, over an engine defect. (Reuters)

April 7, 2017, Neil Gorsuch is confirmed as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by a 54–45 vote in the United States Senate after invocation of the "nuclear option". (The New York Times)

April 7, 2017, Artifacts from Triquet Island, south-west of Hunter Island in British Columbia, are found to date back 14,000 years, marking the discovery of the oldest village in North America. (CTV News)

April 7, 2017, In basketball, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder ensures that he will average a triple-double for the 2016–17 NBA season in the Thunder's game against the Phoenix Suns. He becomes only the second NBA player to average a triple-double over a season, after Oscar Robertson with the Cincinnati Royals (now known as the Sacramento Kings) in 1961–62. (ESPN)

April 8, 2017, Series Premiere of The Son

April 8, 2017, Two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.6 and 6.0 and related to the April 4 magnitude 5.5 earthquake, hits Batangas, and are felt as far as Metro Manila. (Rappler)

April 9, 2017, At least 45 people have been killed and 50 injured in explosions near two Coptic Christian churches packed with worshippers on Palm Sunday in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria. (Al Jazeera)

April 9, 2017, The United States Pacific Command deploys warships, including the USS Carl Vinson, to move towards the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent tests with weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the Sharyat missile strike. North Korea is also reclassified as a state sponsor of terrorism. (BBC News)

April 9, 2017, A United Airlines passenger is dragged off a flight at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The airline company is under fire because of the mistreatment of the passenger. (ABC)

April 9, 2017, In golf, Sergio García of Spain wins the 2017 U.S. Masters defeating Justin Rose of England in a sudden-death playoff. It is García's first major victory. (The Guardian)

April 9, 2017, In basketball, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder sets a new record for most triple-doubles in an NBA season, collecting his 42nd of the 2016–17 season in the Thunder's 106–105 win over the Denver Nuggets. Westbrook surpassed Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, who had 41 in the 1961–62 season. (AP via ESPN)

April 10, 2017, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resigns as the Alabama House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings against him over a relationship with a former aide. In addition, Bentley pleads guilty to two "failure to disclose" misdemeanors. Kay Ivey is sworn in as Alabama Governor. Under terms of the plea bargain, Bentley is forbidden from ever running for elected office in Alabama again. (NBC News)

April 10, 2017, An elementary school teacher and an 8-year-old student were shot and killed by the teacher's estranged husband, who then killed himself, at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California. Another student, a 9-year-old boy who was also behind the teacher, was wounded. (CNN)

April 10, 2017, A federal district court for southern Texas rules that the state's voter ID law was passed in 2011 with the intent to discriminate against minority voters. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals previously found that the law had the effect of discriminating against minority voters, and remanded the case to the district court for further action. (Reuters)

April 10, 2017, President Donald Trump's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is sworn in at the White House. (Reuters)

April 10, 2017, Starting this spring, the state of New York will offer free four-year public college tuition for residents whose families make less than $100,000, the first state in the country to do so. (NBC News)

April 11, 2017, A US-led airstrike intended to kill ISIS soldiers mistakenly kills 18 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces. (The New York Times)

April 11, 2017, Three explosions occur near the Borussia Dortmund football team bus as it slowed down to turn a corner. Spanish player Marc Bartra was injured and has been taken to hospital. Dortmund's UEFA Champions League fixture against AS Monaco FC is subsequently postponed. (The Daily Telegraph)

April 11, 2017, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz issues an apology for the removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight on April 9, which has since gone viral. United Airlines stock drops more than 4%, a loss of £800 million to the company's value. (BBC)

April 11, 2017, North Korea announces its readiness to declare war on the United States after the country previously stated that they felt threatened as U.S. military forces approach the Korean Peninsula. (News.com.au)

April 12, 2017, In an interview, U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. dollar is "getting too strong" and wants to keep interest rates low, causing the U.S. Dollar Index to fall. (Reuters)

April 12, 2017, Sheila Abdus-Salaam, an incumbent associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals and the first African-American woman to serve on the Court of Appeals is found dead in the Hudson River. (NY1 News)

April 13, 2017, The United States Air Force drops the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, reportedly on an ISIL complex of tunnels and caves. This is the first use of the weapon on the battlefield. (Business Insider)

April 13, 2017, U.S.-based monitoring group 38 North says satellite imagery of North Korea's Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that preparation for a sixth nuclear weapons test is underway. (The Guardian)

April 13, 2017, The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia had failed to protect students and teachers during the 2004 Beslan school siege, which left 334 people dead, and orders the Russian Government to pay 2,955,000 euros to 409 relatives of the victims. The ruling was quickly denounced by Russia as "unacceptable". (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

April 13, 2017, NASA announces Saturn's moon Enceladus has the conditions in its global subsurface ocean to support life. (The Guardian)

April 14, 2017, Release of The Fate of the Furious

April 14, 2017, Release of Spark

April 14, 2017, Release of The Lost City of Z

April 14, 2017, Release of My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea

April 14, 2017, Release of The Outcasts

April 14, 2017,

April 14, 2017, The Afghan Ministry of Defense reports as many as 36 suspected ISIL militants were killed while no civilians were harmed in yesterday's bombing in Nangarhar Province using the so-called "mother of all bombs" (GBU-43). The ministry spokesman added these deaths have not been independently verified. (Reuters)

April 14, 2017, A British student is stabbed and killed during an attack on a light-rail train in Jerusalem, Israel. Two other passengers are injured. A Palestinian man with a history of mental problems and other issues is taken into custody by Israeli authorities. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon linked the attack to terrorism. (Haaretz)

April 14, 2017, The United States is to deploy troops to Somalia for the first time since 1994 to help train the Somali Armed Forces in their conflict with al-Shabaab insurgents. (BBC)

April 14, 2017, Air China suspends all flights to North Korea's capital Pyongyang amid rising tensions between North Korea and the United States. (CNN)

April 15, 2017, Emma Morano, the last person living who was born before 1900, dies at the age of 117. (Reuters)

April 15, 2017, Tens of thousands of people march in dozens of U.S. cities and at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to demand that Trump release his tax returns and to show the public cares about the issue. There were clashes between Trump supporters and protesters at some locations, with 11 people injured and 21 arrested at a riot in Berkeley, California. (The New York Times)

April 16, 2017, Series Premiere of Guerrilla

April 16, 2017, Series Premiere of The White Princess

April 16, 2017, Season 3 Premiere of The Leftovers

April 16, 2017, Season 6 Premiere of Veep

April 16, 2017, The U.S. Pacific Command and South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff report that a North Korean missile, tested near the city of Sinpo on the country's east coast, blew up almost immediately after the launch, just hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in South Korea for talks about the North's arms program. (ABC News)

April 16, 2017, Cleveland police search for a suspect identified in a Facebook video showing one man shooting an elderly man. (NPR)

April 17, 2017, A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. No immediate report of damages or injuries; no tsunami warning has been issued. (The New Daily)

April 17, 2017, A BP Alaskan North Slope oil well near Deadhorse Airport, that was leaking oil and natural gas since it was discovered on Friday, is successfully plugged, according to private and government reports. (AP via ABC News)

April 17, 2017, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol threatens to test missiles on a "weekly" basis, as United States Vice President Mike Pence warns the DPRK that the United States' "era of strategic patience" with the country was over. (BBC)

April 17, 2017, The search for the suspect in the killing of an elderly man in Cleveland, whose murder was posted to Facebook, expands beyond Ohio, with the FBI urging residents in Indiana, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania to be on alert for the suspect. (Fox News)

April 17, 2017, The bid for California independence ends. (Business Insider)

April 18, 2017, The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announces the discovery of eight mummies, 10 colorful sarcophagi, and numerous figurines in a 3,500-year-old tomb in the near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. (CNN)

April 18, 2017, American consumer goods company Post Holdings agrees to acquire British cereal maker Weetabix Limited from China's Bright Food for $1.8 billion. (Reuters)

April 18, 2017, Steve Stephens, the suspected "Facebook killer" accused of killing 74-year-old Robert Godwin, kills himself after a brief pursuit with the Pennsylvania State Police. (CNN)

April 18, 2017, French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl announces that police have foiled an "imminent and violent" attack in Marseille, arresting two suspects and confiscating weapons and bomb material. (The Guardian)

April 18, 2017, Three people die in a shooting spree in downtown Fresno, California. The suspected gunman, who was already wanted for another murder four days earlier, and who expressed hatred of whites and the government, is arrested. (Los Angeles Times)

April 18, 2017, British Prime Minster Theresa May proposes that a snap election for the House of Commons will be held on the 8th of June. A two-thirds majority of the House of Commons is needed to approve this, eventually tomorrow. The Labour and Liberal Democrats party leaders have expressed their support. (BBC)

April 18, 2017, As expected, during a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring U.S. federal agencies to take measures aimed at protecting U.S. workers, boost protections for some U.S. products, and examine the H-1B visa program which affords foreign workers opportunities for employment in U.S. specialty fields. (CNN)

April 18, 2017, Scientists announce, through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, that live specimens of the rare Kuphus polythalamia (giant shipworm) have been discovered for the first time in the Philippines. (BBC)

April 19, 2017, Season 3 Premiere of Fargo

April 19, 2017, 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, announces the firing of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. (CNN)

April 19, 2017, Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, acquitted last week of a 2012 double murder but serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, is found hanged in his prison cell, and is pronounced dead an hour later. (Fox News)

April 19, 2017, 

April 19, 2017, Citing a drop in demand, the Dubai-based, United Arab Emirates-owned airline Emirates Air announces a cut in flights to five of its 12 U.S. destinations. The airline’s Dubai hub, third-busiest in the world, is a major stop for travelers in countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and is also one of several Middle East airports affected by a U.S. ban on tablets, laptops, and similar devices in the passenger cabin. (Los Angeles Times)

April 19, 2017, 2014 JO25, a near-Earth asteroid discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in May 2014, passes within 1.8 million kilometers of the planet, the largest such asteroid to transit close to Earth since 2004. (BBC)

April 19, 2017, A spokeswoman for tennis star Serena Williams confirms rumors that Williams is pregnant. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was apparently pregnant when she won this year's Australian Open, is expected to give birth in September, and will not play again until 2018. (ESPN)

April 20, 2017, One policeman has been killed and another injured in a shooting on the Champs-Élysées in central Paris. The gunman has been shot dead. (BBC)

 

 

 

 

April 20, 2017, General Motors halts production in Venezuela after the government seizes its plants. (CNN)

April 20, 2017, Tesla Motors has announced the recall of 50,000 Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X cars for a "brake issue". (Reuters)

April 20, 2017, Australia adds stricter requirements to its citizenship application process, including harder tests on English language skills and the requirement that a migrant be able to demonstrate "Australian values". (BBC)

April 20, 2017, The Supreme Court of Russia labels Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremists", effectively banning the organisation. (The Independent)

April 20, 2017, The U.S. Justice Department announces that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant supporter, Terrence J. McNeil, of Akron, Ohio, pleads guilty to five counts of soliciting to commit criminal violence and communicating interstate threats in calls to kill U.S. military personnel. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August and faces up to 20 years in prison.(The Washington Post)

April 20, 2017, China launches its first cargo spacecraft, the Tianzhou 1, carried by a Long March 7 rocket. (Xinhuanet)

April 21, 2017, Release of Born In China

April 21, 2017, Release of Unforgettable

April 21, 2017, Release of FreeFire

April 21, 2017, Release of The Promise



April 21, 2017, Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 91st birthday. (BBC)
April 21, 2017, The White House dismisses U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in its continuing transition from the prior presidential administration. The current Deputy Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, will serve as the acting SG. (USA Today via MSN)
April 21, 2017, A second parchment manuscript of the United States Declaration of Independence is discovered by Harvard University researchers, in a record office in Chichester, United Kingdom. (The Boston Globe)

April 22, 2017, 

April 22, 2017, American Airlines announces it is investigating a viral video of an incident on a San Francisco to Dallas flight which shows a male flight attendant upsetting a female passenger, who he had allegedly forcefully taken a baby buggy from, and threatening to fight a male passenger. The American Airlines employee has been suspended. (The Washington Post)

April 22, 2017, People around the world gather during Earth Day to bring awareness to science. (The Guardian)

April 24, 2017, Arkansas becomes the first U.S. state since Texas in 2000 to hold two executions on the same day as executes convicted murderers Jack Jones, Jr. and Marcel Williams. (BBC)

April 24, 2017, Peggy Whitson, commander of the International Space Station (ISS), breaks the record for most total days spent in space by any NASA astronaut, at more than 534 days. (Mirror)

April 25, 2017, Series Premiere of Great News

April 25, 2017, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces plans for a crowdfunded news website, Wikitribune, that will publish stories by journalists, with contributions, including fact checking, by volunteers to, among other goals, counter the recent spread of so-called "fake news". (NBC News)

April 25, 2017, The United States announced it will end a six-year Central-African hunt for Joseph Kony the following day. (AFP via Pulse.ng)

April 26, 2017, David Hittner, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Texas, rules ExxonMobil Corporation should pay a $19.95 million penalty for pollution from its Baytown, Texas, refining and chemical plant complex for 16,386 days of violations and 10 million pounds (4.5 Gg) of pollutants that were released in violation of operating permits between 2005 and 2013. (Reuters)

April 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, softening earlier claims that he would terminate the trade bloc. (Reuters)

April 27, 2017, Kenneth Williams is executed at the Cummins Unit, Arkansas, by injection of midazolam, marking the state's fourth execution within eight days before the drug passes its expiration date. (NBC News)

April 27, 2017, In American football, the Cleveland Browns select Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett first in the 2017 NFL Draft. (ESPN)

April 28, 2017, Release of The Circle

April 28, 2017, How To Be a Latin Lover

April 28, 2017, Sleight

April 29, 2017, The U.S. Pacific Command and South Korean defense officials report that a North Korean missile was fired in the early morning, but quickly failed and did not travel beyond North Korea, echoing a similar failed attempt by North Korea thirteen days ago. (The Washington Post)

April 29, 2017, The 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner is held while Donald Trump decides not to attend, becoming the first incumbent president to do so since Ronald Reagan, who did not attend the dinner while recovering from a 1981 assassination attempt. (The Washington Post)

April 30, 2017, One person is killed and seven are injured in a shooting at a pool party in San Diego, California. The suspect is killed by police. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)