- 467 Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire by Leo I
- 1065 Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reach Jerusalem
- 1204 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople
- 1229 Queen Blanche of Castile & Earl Raymond VII of Toulouse sign peace
Historic Publication
1709 Richard Steele's British literary and society journal "The Tatler" is first published establishing a new type of journalism featuring essays on contemporary manners
Battle of the Saintes
1782 Battle at Les Saintes: British fleet under Admiral George Rodney defeats the French fleet under Comte de Grasse off Dominica in the West Indies. Prevents a planned French and Spanish invasion of Jamaica.
- 1787 Philadelphia's Free African Society forms
- 1811 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington
- 1820 Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization founded in Odessa to overthrow Ottoman rule of Greece
- 1826 Weber's opera "Oberon" premieres in London
- 1844 Texan envoys sign Treaty of Annexation with the United States
- 1857 French novelist Gustave Flaubert's first novel and masterpiece "Madame Bovary" is published in book form
- 1858 1st US billiards championship, Michael J Phelan wins in Detroit
- 1859 Hibernia Savings & Loan Society of San Francisco incorporates
Battle of Fort Sumter
1861 Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning the American Civil War
Victory in Battle
1864 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, Tennessee
- 1869 North Carolina legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan Law
Event of Interest
1872 Jesse James' gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, 1 dead
- 1876 Canada's parliament passes the Indian Act to administer status and lands of First Nations People - primarily to assimilate them [1]
- 1877 British annex Transvaal, South Africa
- 1877 Catcher's mask 1st used in a baseball game
- 1883 French troops under lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes occupy Bamako Senegal
Event of Interest
1887 Henrik Ibsen's "Rosmersholm" premieres in Oslo
- 1892 George C Blickensderfer patents portable typewriter
- 1893 "Massacre of Hoornkrans": Curt von François, colonial Governor of German South West Africa (now Nambia), leads attack by 225 Schutztruppe soldiers on Nama leader Hendrik Witbooi's headquarters at Hoornkrans; shelling of the village causes tremendous civilian casualties. Witbooi escapes and wages several months of guerrilla warfare against the German forces.
- 1894 British & Belgian secret accord on dividing Central Africa
- 1896 Stamasia Portrisi is 1st woman to win a marathon (5:30 in Athens)
- 1898 US Army transfers Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay to Navy
- 1900 The US Congress passes the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory (effective 1 May)
- 1905 French Dufaux brothers test helicopter
- 1905 Hippodrome arena opens (NYC)
- 1907 Belgium government of Paul Smet de Naeyer resigns
- 1907 In Switzerland, parliament passes a new army bill reorganizing the nation's forces into a standing militia, with training required for all males
- 1908 Fire at the Boston Blacking Company (producer of leather dyes), spreads by high wind, kills 19 and makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts
- 1909 Philadelphia's Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), baseball's first steel and concrete stadium, opens; Athletics win 8-1 against Boston Red Sox
- 1911 1st non-stop London-Paris flight (Pierre Prier in 3h56m)
- 1916 Irish nationalist activist and poet Roger Casement boards submarine U-19 at Wilmshaven, Germany, bound for a rendezvous with the Aud at Tralee
- 1917 Bijou Theater opens at 222 W 45th St NYC (Demolished 1982)
- 1917 Domenico Scarlatti & Jeab Cocteaus ballet premieres in Rome
- 1919 British Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages
- 1924 WLS-AM in Chicago begins radio transmissions
The Pleasure Garden
1926 Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film as director "The Pleasure Garden", in England; the silent drama was made in Germany
- 1926 Dutch Catholic Radio Broadcast (KRO) forms
Event of Interest
1927 Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai
- 1930 4th Test Cricket WI v England ends in a draw after nine days
- 1930 Wilfred Rhodes ends Test Cricket career aged 52 years 165 days
Sports History
1931 Joe McCarthy debuts as New York Yankees manager
- 1931 Spanish voters reject the monarchy
Grand Hotel
1932 "Grand Hotel" directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore premieres in New York, includes the line "I want to be alone" (Best Picture/Production 1932)
- 1932 Emmanuel Chabriers & Balanchines ballet premieres in Monte Carlo
- 1933 US Navy commissions Air Station Sunnyvale (later renamed NAS Moffatt Field) in Santa Clara county, California (at the southern end of San Francisco Bay)
- 1934 Second highest ever wind speed of 372 km/h (231 mph) recorded on Mt Washington
- 1934 The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
- 1935 First flight of the Bristol Blenheim
- 1935 Germany prohibits publishing "not-Arian" writers
- 1935 Royal Proclamation sets design of Canada's new Jubilee Silver Dollar
- 1937 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.
- 1938 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (New York)
- 1938 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Chicago Black Hawks beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 for a 3-1 series win; only team to win Cup with losing regular season record
- 1940 Italy annexes Albania
- 1940 NFL cuts clipping penalty from 25 yards to 15 yards
- 1941 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Boston Bruins defeat Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 for a 4-0 series sweep
Event of Interest
1941 Vichy-France's head of government Admiral François Darlan consults with Adolf Hitler
Event of Interest
1944 Lillian Hellman's "Searching Wind" premieres in NYC
- 1945 Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands
Music History
1945 Richard Strauss completes his "Metamorphosen"
Death of FDR
1945 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President
- 1945 WWII: British Royal Navy captures German U-boat U-1024 in the Irish; it sinks while being towed the next day
Golf Tournament
1946 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her first major title by 2 strokes from Eileen Stulb
US Masters Golf
1953 17th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Ben Hogan shatters the Masters scoring record by 5 strokes with a 274 (−14) to finish 5 strokes ahead of runner-up Ed Oliver; Hogan's second Masters
- 1953 Keizo Yamada runs fastest marathon to date, at Boston
- 1953 KFDX TV channel 3 in Wichita Falls, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
British Expedition to Mount Everest
1953 Leading icefall party of the British expedition to climb Mount Everest reaches Base Camp at 17,900 ft (5455 m)
Music History
1954 Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around Clock"
- 1954 Joe Turner releases "Shake, Rattle & Roll"
- 1955 1st game in KC, KC A's beat Detroit Tigers, 6-2
Polio
1955 Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be 'safe and effective' and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
- 1956 S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's government takes office in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
- 1957 Jim Spalding set a 2,088 pin nine-game bowling record
- 1957 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
- 1958 12th NBA Championship: St Louis Hawks beat Bost Celtics, 4 games to 2
- 1958 Flemish Open air museum opens in Bokrijk
- 1959 13th Tony Awards: "J.B." (play) & "Redhead" (musical) win
- 1959 France Observator reports torture practice by French army in Algeria
Sports History
1960 MLB Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck debuts "Exploding Scoreboard" at Chicago's Comiskey Park
Grammy Awards
1961 3rd Grammy Awards: Theme From a Summer Place, Ray Charles wins 4
Sports History
1961 Douglas MacArthur declines offer to become baseball commissioner
Launch of Vostok 1
1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into space and orbit Earth, aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft
- 1962 San Mateo County withdraws from BART (San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit) district
- 1963 Beatles third single, "From Me To You" is released in UK
- 1963 Police in Birmingham, Alabama, use dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators
- 1964 28th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Arnold Palmer wins by 6 shots from Dave Marr and Jack Nicklaus to become the first 4-time winner of the Masters; his 7th and final major victory
- 1965 1st regular season MLB game at Houston Astrodome; visiting Philadelphia Phillies beat Astros 2-0
- 1966 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
- 1966 Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium opens; Pirates beat Braves 3-2
- 1966 Rocker Jan Berry crashes his Corvette into a parked truck, an accident which leaves him with long-lasting health issues
- 1969 Simon & Garfunkel releases "Boxer"
- 1969 Wales beats England, 30-9 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch their 16th Five Nations Rugby Championship and 11th Triple Crown
Sports History
1970 Yankees dedicate plaques to Mickey Mantle & Joe DiMaggio
- 1976 India set 403 to win by WI They get them, 6 wkts 7 overs spare
Academy of Country Music Awards
1978 13th Academy of Country Music Awards: Kenny Rogers and Crystal Gayle win
- 1978 Gyorgy Ligeti's opera "Le Grand Macabre" premieres in Stockholm
Film Release
1979 Australian film "Mad Max" starring Mel Gibson, directed by George Miller is released
- 1979 Soyuz 33 returns to Earth
- 1980 BCMA, Black Consciousness Movement of Azania, forms
- 1980 Milwaukee beats Boston Red Sox, 18-1 (Cooper & Money hit grand slams)
- 1980 Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, killing President William Talbert and 27 others, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession
- 1980 US Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of the Moscow Olympic games
- 1981 45th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Tom Watson wins his second green jacket and 5th major title by 2 strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller
- 1981 Maiden voyage Space Transit System-space shuttle Columbia launched
- 1982 3 CBS employees shot to death in NYC parking lot
Music History
1982 American composer Roger Sessions receives Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his "Concerto for Orchestra"
Election of Interest
1983 Harold Washington elected Chicago's 1st black mayor
- 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1985 16th Shuttle Mission (51D)-Discovery 4 launched-with Senator Jake Garn
- 1986 20,000 mine workers protest closing of Hasselt Belgium mines
- 1987 51st US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Larry Mize chips-in from 140 feet for an improbable birdie 3 on the 2nd playoff hole to beat Greg Norman for his only major title
- 1987 Ahmed Salah wins 2nd World Cup marathon (2:10:55)
- 1987 CBS' premiere of fact-based World War II drama "Escape from Sobibor"
- 1987 Texaco files for bankruptcy
- 1988 Devils 4-2 over Islanders-Devils lead 3-2 in 1st round
Election of Interest
1988 Entertainer and restaurateur Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California
Sports History
1988 Frank Robinson replaces Cal Ripkin as manager of Baltimore Orioles
- 1988 Harvard University patents a genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
Soul Train Music Awards
1989 3rd Soul Train Music Awards: Anita Baker, Bobby Brown win
Event of Interest
1989 Peter Ueberroth deal to purchase Eastern Airlines falls through
- 1990 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for the Holocaust and asks for forgiveness
TV Show Appearance
1990 Anime TV series "Moomin", based on Moomin children's books by Tove Jansson 1st appears on Tokyo TV
- 1990 Greyhound Bus hires new drivers to replace strikers
- 1990 H. J. Heinz, Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee Seafood say they wouldn't buy tuna caught in nets that trap dolphins
Music History
1990 James Brown moves to a work-release center after serving 15 months of 6 year sentence for weapon and drug related convictions
- 1991 2,500th episode of Entertainment Tonight airs
- 1991 Nepalese Congress party wins general elections
- 1991 US announces closing of 31 major US military bases
- 1992 2nd lowest NBA scoring game - Detroit Pistons 72, NY Knicks 61
- 1992 56th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Fred Couples wins his only major title, 2 strokes ahead of 1976 champion Raymond Floyd
- 1992 Earthquake rocks Germany
- 1992 Euro Disney (Disneyland Paris) opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France
- 1992 Lynn Gunther of California threatens to blow herself up in front of UN
- 1992 MLB Boston Red Sox pitcher Matt Young no-hits Cleveland Indians, but loses 2-1
- 1992 NY Mets lose 1st 3 home games for 1st time since 1962
Theater Premiere
1992 Revival of Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire", starring Alec Baldwin & Jessica Lange, opens at Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC; runs for 137 performances
Music Concert
1995 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jessye Norman, and Geoffrey Oryema
Music Concert
1996 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Don Henley, Diana Ross, Robin Williams, Branford Marsalis, and Kenny Kirkland
- 1998 62nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Mark O'Meara claims his first major title with a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by 1 stroke from David Duval and Fred Couples
- 1998 An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near the town of Bovec.
Event of Interest
1999 US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
- 2002 Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
Coup d'état
2002 Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chávez.
Cricket History
2004 West Indian cricket batsman Brian Lara smashes highest individual score in a Test innings with 400 not out (773 mins; 582 balls; 43x4, 4x6) in drawn 4th Test against England at Antigua
- 2009 73rd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Ángel Cabrera wins his 2nd major title in a playoff with Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry; Cabrera, first Masters champion from Argentina and South America
Abbas Calls Netanyahu
2009 President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority makes a courtesy phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, restarting the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue
- 2009 U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth
- 2010 A train derailed near Merano, Italy, after running into a landslide, causing nine deaths and injuring 28 people.
- 2012 A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect
- 2012 Bodleian, Oxford University and Vatican libraries announce over 1.5 million pages of ancient texts will be made available across the internet
- 2012 Civilian rule in Mali is returned after Dioncounda Traore is sworn in as interim president
- 2013 11 people are killed and 30 are injured in mosque attacks across Iraq
- 2013 A man-made 32-foot and 60 tonne monument that is dates around 2000 BC is discovered in the Sea of Galilee
- 2014 The new drug, ABT-450, with a 90-95% success rate for treating Hepatitis C, is announced
- 2015 79th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jordan Spieth leads wire-to-wire to win his 1st major title by 4 strokes from Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose
Event of Interest
2015 Hillary Clinton announces she will run for the Democratic nominee for US President for the 2nd time
Event of Interest
2016 Breakthrough Starshot: Scientists and internet entrepreneurs, including Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg, announce interstellar project to send robot spacecraft to Alpha Centauri
- 2019 Melbourne captain Cameron Smith becomes highest point scorer in Australian Rugby League history; 49th minute penalty in Storm's 18-12 win over North Queensland in Townsville takes him to 2,420; Hazem El Masri, 2,418
- 2020 Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina killing 32 people across six states
- 2020 OPEC and other major oil companies agree to the largest-ever drop in production to stabilize world prices
Easter Message
2020 Pope Francis calls for the world to be united in the face of COVID-19 as he delivers his Easter message from an empty St Peter's Cathedral in Rome
- 2021 Great Britain loosens its COVID-19 restrictions, opening pubs and shops after 175 days, the world's longest period of restrictions
- 2021 Worst frost conditions in half a century will affect 80% of French vineyards according to industry officials [1]
- 2022 Global COVID-19 known cases pass 500 million, with 5.1 billion (66%) having received at least one vaccine shot [1]
