Notable Deaths on April 4

137 people 397 – 2025

April 4 has seen 137 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 397 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.

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Roger Ebert

2013 — Roger Ebert

American journalist, critic, and screenwriter (born 1942)

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In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

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He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013

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Not only did he advise moviegoers about what to see, but also how to think about what they saw."

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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, essayist, screenwriter and author

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Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing style and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism


Ambrose
Roman archbishop and saint (born 338)
Ambrose of Milan, canonized as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397.
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397
Isidore of Seville
Spanish archbishop and saint (born 560)
Isidore of Seville was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montalembert, as "the last scholar of the…
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636
Plato of Sakkoudion
Byzantine monk and saint (born 735)
Plato the Studite, also Plato of Sakkoudion, was a Byzantine minor official who became a monk in 759. After refusing the metropolitan see of Nicomedia or the headship of a monastery in Constantinople, in 783 he founded…
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814
Formosus
pope of the Catholic Church (born 816)
Pope Formosus was the pope and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as Pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of…
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896
Liu Yin
Chinese warlord and governor (born 874)
911 (CMXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
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911
Chinese official and governor (born 884)
Kong Xun, known early in his life as Zhao Yinheng (趙殷衡), also having used surnames of Li (李) and Zhu (朱) early in life, was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period states Later Liang and Later…
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931
Abu Firas al-Hamdani
Arab prince and poet (born 932)
Al-Harith ibn Abi’l-ʿAlaʾ Saʿid ibn Hamdan al-Taghlibi (932–968), better known by his pen name Abu Firas al-Hamdani, was an Arab prince and poet. He was a cousin of Sayf al-Dawla and a member of the Hamdanid dynasty,…
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968
bishop of Eichstätt
Reginold of Eichstätt was Bishop of Eichstätt from 966 to 991, much 'admired as a poet, musician, scholar and orator' and indeed 'the leading musician of his age'.
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991
Alfonso X
king of Castile and León (born 1221)
Alfonso X was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1 June 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in…
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1284
Nicholas IV
pope of the Catholic Church (born 1227)
Pope Nicholas IV was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 22 February 1288 to his death, on 4 April 1292. He was the first Franciscan to be elected pope.
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1292
Robert III
king of Scotland (born 1337)
Robert III, born John Stewart, was King of Scots from 1390 to his death in 1406. He was also High Steward of Scotland from 1371 to 1390 and held the titles of Earl of Atholl (1367–1390) and Earl of Carrick (1368–1390)…
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1406
Henry Bourchier
1st Earl of Essex (born c. 1405)
Henry Bourchier, 5th Baron Bourchier, 2nd Count of Eu, 1st Viscount Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, was the eldest son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and Anne of Gloucester. On his mother's side, he was a…
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1483
Frederick I
Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (born 1460)
Frederick I of Ansbach and Bayreuth was born at Ansbach as the eldest son of Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg, and his second wife Anna, daughter of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony. His elder half-brother was Elector…
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1536
Elena Glinskaya
Grand Princess and regent of Russia
Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya was the grand princess consort of Moscow as the second wife of Vasili III of Russia, and de facto regent of Russia from 1533 until her death in 1538. She was the mother of the first crowned…
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1538
Frederick II
king of Denmark and Norway (born 1534)
Frederick II was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1559 until his death in 1588.
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1588
Benedict the Moor
Sicilian Franciscan friar and saint (born 1526) 1
Benedict the Moor, also known as Benedict of Palermo, Benedict the Black, or Benedict the African, was an Afro-Sicilian Franciscan friar. He was born to enslaved Africans in San Fratello, Sicily and freed at birth. He…
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1589
Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (born 1533)
Philip II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a member of the House of Welf, was the last ruler of the Principality of Grubenhagen from 1595 until his death. When he died in 1596, the Grubenhagen branch of the Welfs became…
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1596
Carolus Clusius
Flemish botanist, mycologist, and academic (born 1526)
Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius, seigneur de Watènes, was an Artois doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists.
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1609
John Napier
Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (born 1550)
John Napier of Merchiston, nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. Napier is best known as the discoverer of…
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1617
Simon Episcopius
Dutch theologian and academic (born 1583)
Simon Episcopius was a Dutch theologian and Remonstrant who played a significant role at the Synod of Dort in 1618. His name is the Latinized form of his Dutch name Simon Bisschop.
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1643
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April 4 in the Blog

MLK Assassination — April 4, 1968
MLK Assassination — April 4, 1968

1968, Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, sparks chaos, cementing his legacy as a civil rights champion

Read the full story
Notable deaths

Who died on April 4?

Roger Ebert — American film critic and author (1942–2013)

FeaturedRoger Ebert
Death year2013
Known forHe wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013
Deaths on this date137 (397 – 2025)

Explore April 4

Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.

Also on April 4 in History

2025
The impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in response to his declaration of martial law is unanimously upheld by the country's Constitutional Court, ending his presidency. Wikipedia →
2024
Russo-Ukrainian war: The Battle of Chasiv Yar begins. Wikipedia →
2023
Finland becomes a member of NATO after Turkey accepts its membership request. Wikipedia →
See all events on April 4
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