10 April in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 10 April is the birth anniversary of Prafulla Chandra Sen, Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil, Kishori Ravindra Amonkar, Varsha Mahendra Adalja, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Prem Kumar Dhumal, and Sanjeev Kapoor.
10 April is also observed as the death anniversary of Birbal Sahni, Morarjibhai Desai, and Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
Birth Anniversary
10 April in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Prafulla Chandra Sen (10 April 1897 – 25 September 1990) was an Indian politician and freedom fighter. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1962 to 1967. He was born on 10 April 1897 in Bengal Presidency, British India.
Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil (10 April 1901 – 3 May 1971), also known as D. R. Gadgil, was an Indian economist. He was the founder Director of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. The Government of India recognised his services by issuing a commemorative postage stamp in his honour in 2008. Gadgil was born on 10 April 1901 in Nasik, British India.
Kishori Ravindra Amonkar (10 April 1932 – 3 April 2017) was a leading Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Jaipur gharana, or a community of musicians sharing a distinctive musical style. She was a performer of the classical genre khyal and the light classical genres thumri and bhajan. She was born on 10 April 1932 in Bombay Presidency, British India.
Varsha Mahendra Adalja is an Indian Gujarati language feminist novelist, playwright and negotiator. She won the 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award for the Gujarati language for her novel Ansar. She was born on 10 April 1940 in Bombay Presidency, British India.
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a civil servant diplomat and an Indian politician. He represented the Mayiladuthurai constituency of Tamil Nadu in the 10th Lok Sabha, 13th Lok Sabha, and 14th Lok Sabha. He was born on 10 April 1941 in Punjab, British India.
Prem Kumar Dhumal, an Indian politician was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2017 Himachal Assembly Election, in which he lost his seat. He previously served twice as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, from March 1998 to March 2003 and again from 1 January 2008 to 25 December 2012. He was born on 10 April 1944 in Hamirpur district, Punjab, British India.
Sanjeev Kapoor is a famous Indian celebrity chef, entrepreneur and television personality. Kapoor hosted the popular TV show Khana Khazana, the longest-running show of its kind in Asia which was broadcast in 120 countries and in 2010 had more than 500 million viewers. He is honoured with Padma Shri in 2017. Kapoor was born on 10 April 1964 in Ambala, India.
Read More: 9 April in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
10 April in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Birbal Sahni (14 November 1891 – 10 April 1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in 1946. His major contributions were in the study of the fossil plants of India and in plant evolution. He died on 10 April 1949 in Lucknow, India.
Morarjibhai Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist who served as 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 and 1979. He was affiliated with Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India. He is the oldest person to hold the office of the prime minister, at the age of 81, in the history of Indian politics. He was conferred with India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. He died on 10 April 1995, at the age of 99.
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (17 April 1912 – 10 April 1999), popularly known as Thakazhi after his place of birth, was an Indian novelist and short story writer of Malayalam literature. He wrote over 30 novels and novellas and over 600 short stories focusing on the lives of the oppressed classes. Pillai was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest Indian civilian award. He was also a recipient of the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary award, awarded in 1984 for the novel Kayar. He died 10 April 1999 in Alleppey, Kerala, India.
Read More: 8 April in Indian and World History
Notable events on 10 April in Indian and World History
10 April 1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded. It was dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals.
10 April 1875 – Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda Saraswati to propagate his goal of social reform.
10 April 1887 – Bernardo Alberto Houssay, an Argentine physiologist and co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize, was born.
10 April 1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.
10 April 1916 – Lee Jung-seob, a Korean artist, most known for his oil paintings, was born.
10 April 1917 – Robert Burns Woodward, an American organic chemist, and Nobel Prize Laureate was born.
10 April 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
10 April 1931 – Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese American artist, died.
10 April 1932 – Omar Sharif, an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country’s greatest male film stars, was born.
10 April 1937 – Bella Akhmadulina, a Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator, known for her apolitical writing stance, was born.
10 April 1941 – The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia.
10 April 1992 – Peter D. Mitchell, a British biochemist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
10 April 2013 – Robert Edwards, a British physiologist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
10 April 2013 – Doris Pilkington Garimara (Nugi Garimara) an award-winning Martu author, celebrated for her profound contributions to Indigenous literature, died.
10 April 2016 – A devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu in the Paravur temple (Kerala). It killed more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for the seventh day of Bhadrakali worship.
10 April 2016 – An earthquake, of 6.6 magnitudes, strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, shakes up India, Afghanistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.
Important Days
10 April is also observed as World Homeopathy Day. It is aimed to celebrate the birthday of the Founder of Homoeopathy, Dr Hahnemann and pay tribute to homoeopathy and its contribution to the world of medicine.
Indian Railways Week is celebrated from 10 – 16 April every year.