Florence Cathedral
1478 Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de'Medici and kill Giuliano de'Medici in Florence
Historic Event
1514 Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
Historic Event
1564 William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
- 1607 Jamestown expedition makes first landing in America at a place named Cape Henry, in what would become Virginia, but they quickly depart for a better site
- 1654 Jews are expelled from Brazil
- 1655 Dutch West Indies Co denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam
- 1677 Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
- 1755 1st Russian university opens in Moscow
- 1777 Sybil Ludington aged 16, rides 40 miles in New York to warn her father's militia of the approach of the British
- 1803 Meteorites fall in L'Aigle, France
Historic Event
1814 King Louis XVIII lands at Calais from England
Music History
1835 Frederic Chopin's "Grand Polonaise Brillante" premieres in Paris
- 1841 "Bombay Gazette" begins publishing on silk
Historic Expedition
1848 Alfred Russel Wallace departs the U.K. for South America, beginning four years of travel, collecting, and research in the region
- 1853 Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
Music History
1855 Composer Gioachino Rossini leaves Italy
- 1859 Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity - 1st time this defense used successfully in the US
- 1865 Confederate General J E Johnston surrenders remaining forces to Union General William Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, ending the US Civil War
- 1887 Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
Historic Event
1890 Henry Morton Stanley inaugurated in London
- 1893 1st Cleveland Board of Park Commissioners forms
- 1900 Newly renamed American League opener in Cleveland draws 6,500 (still as a minor league, was Western League)
- 1901 Jimmy Collins, having left the Boston Beaneaters (NL), captains and manages his first game for the Boston Americans (loses 10-6 at Baltimore Orioles)
- 1904 Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
- 1904 General Kuroko leads the Japanese Army against the large Russian force at the Yalu river during the Russo-Japanese War
- 1905 Cubs Jack McCarthy becomes only major league player to throw out 3 runners at plate in 1 game, all were ends of a double play
- 1906 Motion pictures begin regular showings at the Orpheum Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii
- 1907 Jamestown, Virginia Tercentenary Exposition opens
- 1912 1st homerun hit at Fenway Park (Hugh Bradley, Red Sox)
Historic Event
1913 Sun Yet San calls for revolt against President Yuan Shikai in China
- 1915 Italy secretly signs the "Treaty of London" with Britain, France and Russia, bringing Italy into World War I on the Allied side
- 1920 Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold "great debate" on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
- 1920 Husband and wife team Ludowika & Walter Jakobsson representing Finland, win the pairs skating gold medal at the Antwerp Olympics; Ludowika is the only German-born athlete at the Games
- 1920 Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring 7 goals in Canada's 12-1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match
- 1925 Pulitzer prize awarded to Edna Ferber for "So big"
Historic Event
1925 Artist Diego Rivera resigns from the Mexican Communist Party
Historic Event
1928 Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition reopens in London after a fire
- 1929 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
Baseball Record
1931 Lou Gehrig hits a HR but is called out for passing a runner, mistake costs him AL home run crown; he & Babe Ruth tie for season
Historic Event
1932 Jean Anouilh's "L'Ermine" premieres in Paris
Music History
1936 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 4th Symphony
- 1937 German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in Spain
- 1938 Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks
- 1941 A tradition begins, 1st organ at a baseball stadium (Chicago Cubs)
- 1941 Potatoes rationed in Holland
- 1942 Coal mine explosion kills 1,549 at Honkeiko, Manchuria
- 1944 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter shot down
- 1944 Papandreou government in Greece forms
Historic Event
1945 Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for treason
- 1945 World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht
- 1947 "Bless the Bride" musical opens in London
- 1949 Transjordan is officially renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
- 1950 Last horse race at Havre de Grace Track in Md, is run
- 1950 U of Miami ends William & Mary straight tennis match victories at 82
- 1951 Queen Juliana opens Brielsche Mausoleum
- 1952 Patty Berg scores 64, best competitive round of golf by a woman
- 1952 US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp, kills 176
- 1954 Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
Polio
1954 Mass trials of Jonas Salk's anti-polio vaccine begin; the first shot is delivered in Fairfax County, Virginia; more than 443,000 children receive shots over three months
Film Release
1954 "Seven Samurai", Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, is released
Baseball Record
1961 Roger Maris hits 1st of 61 homers in 1961
Golf Tournament
1964 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Marilynn Smith retains title; beats Mickey Wright by 1 stroke
- 1964 Tanganyika & Zanzibar form The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar
- 1965 Charles Ives' 4th Symphony premieres at Carnegie Hall, New York, 11 years after the composer's death
Sports History
1966 Red Auerbach retires as Boston Celtic's coach
- 1966 An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- 1966 International Olympic Committee votes to award German city of Munich the right to host the 1972 Summer Olympic Games
- 1967 "Hallelujah, Baby!" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 293 performances
- 1967 KSPS TV channel 7 in Spokane, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1967 San Marco 2 Launch (1st Equatorial Launch)
- 1968 Students seize administration building at Ohio State
- 1968 US underground nuclear test, "Boxcar," 1 megaton device
- 1969 "Celebration" closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after 110 performances
- 1969 "George M!" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 435 performances
- 1969 Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won by Jim Godman
Music Premiere
1970 Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company", directed by Hal Prince, opens at Alvin Theater NYC; runs for 705 performances, wins 6 Tony Awards
- 1971 Heaviest rains ever in Bahia district of Brazil, 15" in 24 hrs
- 1971 San Francisco lightship replaced by automatic buoy
- 1971 Turkey state of siege proclaimed
- 1973 "2 Gentlemen of Verona" musical opens in London
- 1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1974 Landslide in Huancavelica Province Peru creates a natural dam
- 1974 Malta adopts constitution
- 1974 Yankees trade Peterson, Beene, Kline & Buskey to Indians for Chambliss, Tidrow & Upshaw
Baseball Record
1975 Phillies Mike Schmidt's 2 HRs ties NL record of 11 HRs in April
- 1976 Pan Am begins non-stop flights NYC-Tokyo
- 1977 Opening of Studio 54 in New York, N.Y.
- 1978 France sends troops to Chad
- 1978 NASA launches space vehicle S-201
- 1980 Gerard Nijboer runs Dutch record marathon (2:09:01)
- 1980 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1980 Iran begins scattering US hostages from US Embassy
- 1980 Longest jump by a jet boat is set at 120 feet
Sports History
1980 Phillies' Steve Carlton pitches his 6th 1-hitter (beats Cards)
- 1981 "Copperfield" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 13 performances
Argentine Soldiers Surrender in the Falklands
1982 Argentina surrenders to Great Britain on South Georgia Island, near the Falkland Islands
- 1982 Gene Michael becomes NY Yankee manager for 2nd time
Music History
1982 Rod Stewart is mugged, gunman steals his $50,000 Porsche on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Sports History
1983 NFL Draft: Stanford quarterback John Elway first pick by Baltimore Colts
- 1984 Liverpool's Cavern Club reopens
Historic Event
1984 President Reagan visits China
Pripyat: Nuclear Wasteland
1986 World's worst nuclear disaster: 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in USSR explodes, 31 die, radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe
- 1987 "Barbara Cook: A Concert" closes at Ambassador NYC after 13 performances
Film and TV Awards
1988 1st TNN Viewers choice awards-Randy Travis wins in 5 categories
Sports History
1989 Mike Tyson gets a speeding ticket for drag racing his Lamborghini in Albany, New York
- 1989 AT&T announces NJ's 201 area code will split into 908 & 201
- 1990 "Accomplice" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC for 52 performances
- 1990 126 die in a (6.9) earthquake in China
- 1990 Danny Wood of New Kids, steps on a stuffed animal & twists his ankle
- 1990 NY court of appeals ends 2½ year legal battle over 1988 America's Cup by refusing jurisdiction of case
Sports History
1990 Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12 1-hitters
Sports History
1991 Soccer star Diego Maradona, suspended for using cocaine, arrested in Argentina for possession & distribution of illegal narcotics
- 1992 "Grand Hotel" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 1,018 performances
- 1992 "Growing Pains" final episode on ABC TV
- 1992 "Jelly's Last Jam" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 569 performances
- 1992 "Master Builder" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 45 performances
- 1992 "Metro" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 13 performances
- 1992 "Who's The Boss" final episode after 8 years on ABC TV
Historic Event
1992 Alex Haley (Roots) wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
Baseball Record
1992 Ozzie Smith steals his 500th base
Film & TV History
1993 NBC announces Conan O'Brien to replace David Letterman
- 1993 STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
- 1994 26.9°C in Prestebakke Norway (Norwegian April high temperature record)
- 1994 Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, 262 killed
- 1994 1st day of voting in first ever multi-racial elections in South Africa, Dr Nomaza Paintin in NZ is 1st black South African to vote
- 1994 Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
Television Premiere
1994 TV series "Due South" about Canadian Mounties starring Paul Gross premieres in Canada
- 1995 Baseball season begins after lengthy strike
- 1995 Coors Field, opens in Denver, Rockies beat Mets 11-9 in 14 innings
- 1996 Shaun Pollock takes 4 wkts in 4 balls for Warwickshire in B&H
- 1996 Sotherby ends 4 day auction of Jackie O stuff-take in $34.5 million
- 1997 "Life" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC
- 2002 Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
- 2003 NFL Draft: USC quarterback Carson Palmer first pick by Cincinnati Bengals
- 2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
Album Release
2005 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen's 13th studio album "Devils and Dust"
- 2007 Queen's Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong Government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, in order to facilitate land reclamation in Hong Kong's Central district
- 2008 NFL Draft: University of Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long first pick by Miami Dolphins
- 2009 55th British Academy Television Awards: "Harry and Paul" Best Comedy, "Wallander" Best Drama
Film Premiere
2010 "Iron Man 2", directed by Jon Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, premieres in Los Angeles
- 2012 70 people are killed by rocket attacks by the Syrian Army on the city of Hama
- 2012 Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California
- 2012 NFL Draft: Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck first pick by Indianapolis Colts
- 2013 30 people are killed after a bus crashes following a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan
Music History
2013 Cory Monteith is reported to have completed treatment at a drug rehabilitation facility
- 2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote
Sports History
2015 35th London Marathon: Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge & Ethiopian Tigist Tufa win
Sports History
2015 FC Bayern Munich wins the 2014–15 Bundesliga for a 25th time
Television Debut
2017 "The Handmaid's Tale" debuts on Hulu starring Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski, based on the book by Margaret Atwood
- 2018 Serial killer "Golden State Killer" identified after 40 years as a former police officer, responsible for 12 killings, 50 rapes in California
Film & TV History
2018 Comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault in Pennsylvania
- 2018 NFL Draft: Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield first pick by Cleveland Browns; 4 QBs taken in top 10 selections for first time in history
- 2019 Six suspected militants connected to Sri Lankan terror attacks killed along with ten others in a shootout with police in Sainthamaruthu
- 2019 "No religion" tops survey of American religious identity for the first time at 23.1% edging out Catholics 23.0% and evangelicals 22.5%, in long-running General Social Survey
- 2019 Waorani people of Pastaza win landmark environmental case against the Ecuadorian government to protect half a million acres of their territory in the Amazon rainforest
COVID-19 Pandemic
2021 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces Turkey will go into full lockdown till May 17 to a curb COVID-19 surge and world's 4th highest caseload [1]
- 2021 The US, the EU and other countries announce they are sending pandemic aid to India as it's COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen
Music History
2021 Kanye West's Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototype trainers sell for a record $1.8 million in a private sale at Sotheby's
