April 1994

Monday 04:

Netscape Communications Corporation is founded (under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation") by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.

Wednesday 06:

The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by extremists.

Thursday 07:

Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.

Friday 08:

Body of Kurt Cobain discovered in his Washington home.

Tuesday 12:

Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.

Friday 15:

Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1 1995).

Monday 18:

Brian Lara scores 375 in one innings <!--sic--> of a test cricket match, beating Garfield Sobers's previous record of 365.

Thursday 21:

The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

Saturday 23:

Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.

Sunday 24:

The world's largest lollipop weighing 3,011 pounds (1,366 kg) is made in Denmark

Tuesday 26:

A China Airlines Airbus A-300-600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.

Wednesday 27:

South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.

Thursday 28:

Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

Saturday 30:

In Dublin, Ireland, Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan win the thirty-ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Rock'n'Roll Kids".