April 18, 1930. A BBC Radio newsreader announces “Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news.” It’s difficult to imagine what a day without news would be like. If nobody was born and nobody died and everybody stayed in bed for the whole day, then even the fact that happened would be news in itself, although there would be nobody to announce it. No news would be very good news.

Also on April 18: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down behind German lines and taken prisoner in WW1 (1915); Gamal Abdal Nasser takes power in Egypt (1954); Zimbabwe becomes an independent state (1980)

Born on April 18: James Woods (1947), Saad Hariri (1970), Haile Gabrselassie (1973)