of American Art (b. 1875) 1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (b. 1884) 1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (b. 1849) 1945 – Ernie Pyle, American journalist and soldier (b. 1900) 1947 – Jozef Tiso, Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (b. 1887) 1951 – Óscar Carmona, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 11th President of Portugal (b. 1869) 1955 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (b. 1879) 1958 – Maurice Gamelin, Belgian-French general (b. 1872) 1963 – Meyer Jacobstein, American academic and politician (b. 1880) 1964 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894) 1965 – Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican engineer (b. 1917) 1974 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright, and director (b. 1895) 1986 – Marcel Dassault, French businessman, founded Dassault Aviation (b. 1892) 1988 – Oktay Rıfat Horozcu, Turkish poet and playwright (b. 1914) 1995 – Arturo Frondizi, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Argentina (b. 1908) 2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnographer and explorer (b. 1914) 2004 – Kamisese Mara, Fijian politician, 2nd President of Fiji (b. 1920) 2008 – Germaine Tillion, French ethnologist and anthropologist (b. 1907) 2012 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer, founded Dick Clark Productions (b. 1929) 2012 – René Lépine, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1929) 2012 – Robert O. Ragland, American musician (b. 1931) 2012 – K. D. Wentworth, American author (b. 1951) 2013 – Goran Švob, Croatian philosopher and author (b. 1947) 2013 – Anne Williams, English activist (b. 1951) 2014 – Guru Dhanapal, Indian director and producer (b. 1959) 2014 – Sanford Jay Frank, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1954) 2014 – Brian Priestman, English conductor and academic (b. 1927) 2019 – Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (b. 1990) 2022 – Harrison Birtwistle, British composer (b. 1934) Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Apollonius the Apologist Corebus Cyril VI of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church) Eleutherius and Antia Galdino della Sala Molaise of Leighlin Perfectus April 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Army Day (Iran) Coma Patients' Day (Poland) Friend's Day (Brazil) Independence Day, (Zimbabwe) International Day For Monuments and Sites Invention Day (Japan) Victory over the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice (Russia; Julian Calendar) References External links BBC: On This Day Historical Events on April 18 Days of the year April