April
- April 7 – Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
- April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison for the alleged organization of the Mau Mau Rebellion.
- April 10 – Melbourne Knights is founded as Croatia SC in Melbourne.
- April 13
- Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom.
- The German football team SG Dynamo Dresden is founded.
- April 16
- President Eisenhower delivers his "Chance for Peace" speech to the National Association of Newspaper Editors.
- A four-story building in Chicago belonging to the Habar Corporation catches fire, killing 35 employees.
- April 17 – Mickey Mantle hits a 565 foot (172 m) home run at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C. Mantle's home run is believed to be the longest home run in baseball history by many historians.
- April 25 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", their description of the double helix structure of DNA.
Famous quotes containing the word april:
“Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparelled April on the heel
Of limping winter treads.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“Springs an expansive time: yet I dont trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro the sunless hours.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (18301894)