Battle of Megiddo
1457 BC Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account.
- 1178 BC A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War
- 73 Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt
- 556 Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1071 Bari falls to Robert Guiscard's Norman forces, ending Byzantine rule in Italy
- 1245 Franciscan envoys Giovanni da Pian del Carpine and Benedict to Pole depart Lyon on first Catholic mission to the Mongols. Carpine returns 1247 as first European with account of a Mongolian court
- 1346 The Serbian Empire is proclaimed in Skopje at an Easter assembly and Stephen Uroš IV Dušan crowned Emperor over much of the Balkans
- 1395 Azzo X d'Este is defeated at the Battle of Portomaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops
Historic Event
1521 Martin Luther arrives at the Diet of Worms assembly
- 1582 Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta in Argentina
Appointment of Interest
1632 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed supreme military commander of the Holy Roman Empire
Knighthood
1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge
Victory in Battle
1746 Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart
- 1780 The University of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded
Historic Event
1789 George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration
- 1797 Spithead Mutiny begins: British Royal Navy sailors protest over living and working conditions and pay near Portsmouth
- 1818 Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)
- 1853 1st passenger railway opens in India, from Bori Bunder (Bombay) to Thane (34 km)
- 1854 San Salvador destroyed by earthquake
- 1854 Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach, NY, 311 die
- 1858 The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up
Historic Event
1861 US President Abraham Lincoln outlaws business with Confederate States (US Civil War)
- 1862 American Confederate Congress approves conscription act for all white males (18-35 years)
- 1862 Slavery abolished in District of Columbia
- 1865 Battle of Columbus & West Point, Georgia (Ft Tyler), Union forces win one of the last battles of the US Civil War
- 1866 Nitroglycerine explodes at a Wells Fargo & Co office in San Francisco shattering glass for half a mile
- 1868 Louisiana voters approve new constitution
- 1869 Ebenezer Bassett, 1st African American diplomat, begins service as Minister to Haiti
- 1870 Vaudeville Theatre Strand opens in London
Historic Event
1874 Dr David Livingstone's body arrives in Southampton
- 1881 In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle
Historic Event
1883 Paul Kruger chosen as President of Transvaal
Historic Event
1912 Harriet Quimby becomes the 1st female pilot to fly across English Channel
- 1913 Bulgarians and the Turks agree to an armistice that will be accepted by the other nations involved
Historic Event
1917 Vladimir Lenin issues his radical "April Theses" calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution [OS Apr 4]
Historic Event
1922 Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row
- 1922 Treaty of Rapallo between the German Republic and Soviet Union a is signed in Italy, normalizing diplomatic relations with each side renouncing their territorial and financial claims against the other
- 1924 1st radio-transmission of wireless: Mattheus Passion
- 1924 Child labor laws strengthened in Holland
- 1925 During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 are killed and 500 wounded
- 1926 Book of the Month Club sends out its 1st selections "Lolly Willowes" & "Loving Huntsman" by Sylvia Townsend Warner
- 1935 1st radio broadcast of "Fibber McGee & Molly"
- 1938 Great Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia
Agreement of Interest
1939 The Soviet Union proposes an alliance with Britain and France to counter Nazi Germany; the Soviets would later sign a secret agreement with the Nazis
Scientific Discovery
1943 Swiss scientist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag
1945 Battle of Berlin: Red Army begins its attack on the capital of Nazi Germany
- 1945 Battle of Okinawa: US troops land and seize the Ie Shima Airfield on Ie Shima island near Okinawa [1]
- 1945 Colditz Castle, the high-security prisoner of war camp in Germany, is liberated by American troops
- 1945 German troops in Groningen surrender
- 1945 US troops enter Nuremberg, Germany
- 1945 World War II: Dutch town of Arnhem, site of failed Operation Market Garden, is freed by British and Canadian forces
- 1946 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket, White Sands, New Mexicao; reaches altitude of 8 km
- 1946 Dutch Special Court of Justice sentences Frederik Müller, Socialist mayor of Rotterdam, to 10 years in jail for his wartime support of Germany
- 1947 -17] Explosions & fire on French ship Grandcamp
- 1947 Fire aboard French-flagged cargo ship SS Grandchamp, docked at Port of Texas City, Texas and loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate causes massive explosion and spreads to nearby ships and oil facilities; deadliest industrial accident in US history kills 581, including all but one member of the city's fire departments
- 1947 Lens to provide zoom effects demonstrated (NYC)
- 1948 Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris
- 1951 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75
Historic Event
1953 British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II
- 1956 1st solar powered radios go on sale
- 1957 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan
- 1958 French government of Gaillard falls due to Tunisia crisis
- 1959 Datu Abdul Rozak inaugurated as premier of Malaysia federation
- 1961 15th Tony Awards: Becket & Bye Bye Birdie win
- 1962 Brazil nationalizes US businesses
- 1964 9 men sentenced 25-30 years for Britain's 1963 "Great Train Robbery"
- 1965 Test flight of heavy Saturn S-1C-rocket
- 1966 Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith breaks diplomatic relations with Britain
- 1970 70 die in a snow crush (France)
Historic Event
1970 Protestant Unionist Ian Paisley wins seat formerly held by Terence O'Neill in the Stormont (North Ireland Parliament)
- 1972 Apollo 16 launched; 5th manned lunar landing (Decartes Highlands)
- 1972 Two British soldiers are shot dead by the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) in separate incidents in Derry
- 1972 Two giant pandas arrive in US from China
- 1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1975 Cambodian Red Khmer occupy Phnom Penh
Historic Event
1977 Alex Haley finds his Roots in Juffure, Gambia
- 1979 Failed Palestinian attack on Zaventem Airport, Belgium
- 1979 Pulitzer prize awarded to Sam Shepard for "Buried child"
- 1980 Delhi beat Bombay by 240 runs to win Ranji Trophy final
- 1980 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1982 Queen Elizabeth proclaims Canada's new constitution
- 1984 Pulitzer prize awarded to Mary Oliver for "American Primitive"
TV Show Appearance
1986 To dispel rumors he's dead, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on TV
- 1986 West Indies complete 5-0 demolition of England
Historic Event
1987 August Wilson's "Fences" wins 1987 Pulitzer Prize for drama
- 1987 British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with gross indecency
- 1987 FCC imposes a broader definition of indecency over airwaves
- 1987 Howard Stern & Infinity Broadcasting are warned by FCC
- 1987 Peter Taylor's "Summons to Memphis" wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction
- 1989 Berendrechtsluis opens in Antwerp, biggest flood lock in world
- 1990 Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $260 per week
- 1990 Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977
- 1992 1st concrete is poured at new ballpark at Gateway (Jacobs Field)
- 1992 Afghan president Najibullah resigns
- 1992 The Katina P runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
Rodney King Riots
1993 Jury reaches guilty verdict in federal case against police officers (two convicted, two acquitted) who beat Rodney King, but the verdict is not read until April 17th
- 1994 Circus performers Marissa Young (24) & Matt Richardson (21) wed
- 1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Minneapolis/St Paul on WRQC 100.3 FM
- 2003 Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union
- 2004 The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first Transatlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.
- 2007 Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 people and injures 23 others before committing suicide.
Historic Event
2008 Start of Papal Journey of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States
- 2012 At least 55 people are killed in the Syrian uprising despite UN presence to oversee ceasefire
- 2012 For the first time since 1977 no Pulitzer Prize is awarded for fiction
- 2013 16 people are killed after a gold mine collapses in Kyekyewere, Ghana
- 2013 37 people are killed by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Khash country, Iran
- 2014 Real Madrid defeat Barcelona to win its 19th Copa del Rey trophy
- 2014 South Korean ferry MV Sewol sinks on route Incheon to Jeju, 304 drown, mostly students. National controversy erupts over rescue efforts and actions of crew and owner.
Historic Event
2015 Elizabeth Holmes, American entrepreneur, inventor, and founder and CEO of Theranos, is named one of TIME's "100 Most Influential People" of 2015
Important Vote
2017 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wins referendum on 18-article constitutional reform package
- 2020 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in 4 weeks (5.2 million in the last week), wiping out 9 1/2 years of job gains
- 2020 Nationwide State of Emergency declared in Japan till 6 May due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak
- 2020 New study claims a multi-decade megadrought is already under way in the western US, published in journal "Science"
Historic Event
2021 Raúl Castro confirms he is resigning as Cuban Communist Party leader, ending his family's six decade leadership of Cuba
