- 837 Best view of Halley's Comet in 2,000 years
- 989 Battle of Abydos: Byzantine Emperor Basil II defeats and kills rebel general Bardas Phokas, ending his rebellion
- 1012 Ransom of 48,000 pounds is paid to Vikings, led by Thorkell the Tall, for the liberation of Canterbury, after a raid on the city and the capture of Alphege [Aelfheah] Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1055 German Bishop Gebhard of Dollnstein-Hirschberg named Pope Victor II
- 1059 Papal bull "In nomine Domini" (In the Name of the Lord) issued by Pope Nicholas II establishing popes elected by Bishops and Cardinals not appointed by their predecessor
- 1180 Diet of Gelnhausen; Henry the Lion deprived of the Duchy of Saxony
- 1204 Crusaders occupy Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade
Seventh Crusade Defeated
1250 The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, and Louis IX of France is captured
- 1256 The Grand Union of the Augustinian order formed when Pope Alexander IV issues papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae
- 1346 Pope Clement VI declares German emperor Louis of Bavaria, envoy
- 1517 Ottoman army occupies Cairo
Raphael's Transfiguration
1520 Raphael's final influential masterpiece "The Transfiguration" is put on display a week after the artist's death
- 1556 Portuguese converted Christian Marranos who revert to Judaism burned by order of Pope
Execution of Girolamo Cardano's Son
1560 Giovanni, son of Italian mathematician Girolamo Cardano, is executed for poisoning his wife despite his father's efforts to save him
- 1598 Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots
- 1640 English Short Parliament forms (till May 5)
- 1741 Dutch people protest poor quality of bread
- 1741 Royal Military Academy forms at Woolwich, England
- 1759 France defeats a European alliance in the Battle of Bergen
Cook Arrives in Tahiti
1769 British ship Endeavour captained by James Cook, arrives in Matavia Bay, Tahiti, with botanist Joseph Banks on board
Battle of Millesimo
1796 Battle of Millesimo, Italy: Napoleon's forces defeat allied armies of Austria and of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont.
- 1796 First elephant arrives in US from India
- 1829 The Roman Catholic Relief Act passed by the British Parliament; it was the culmination of the process of Catholic Emancipation throughout the UK.
- 1834 HMS Beagle anchors at river mouth of Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia
- 1840 William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfects tap dance
- 1842 Lord Rosse successfully casts 72" (183-cm) mirror for a telescope
1860 First Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California
1861 After 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates (US Civil War)
- 1863 Battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana (Fort Bisland)
- 1863 Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled is incorporated in the State of New York
- 1865 Raleigh, North Carolina, captured by Union forces
1868 Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide
- 1870 Metropolitan Museum of Art forms in NYC, opening in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue
- 1873 Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish, Louisiana (60 Black people killed)
- 1882 Anti-Semitic League forms in Prussia
- 1883 US prospector Alfred Packer convicted of manslaughter though accused of cannibalism
- 1904 A squadron of the Russian fleet is decoyed out of Port Arthur by Japanese maneuvers, when they realize they are sailing into a trap; their battleship Petropavlovsk hits a mine and sinks, with a loss of 700 men
- 1904 Battle of Oviumbo (in modern Namibia): Herero tribesmen rise up against German colonists
Lewis and Clark Expo Gold Dollar
1904 US Congress authorizes Lewis and Clark Exposition $1 gold coin
- 1906 Mutiny on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos & Vasco da Gama
- 1908 Groundbreaking for Philadelphia's Shibe Park, home of MLB Athletics (AL), 1909-54, MLB Phillies (NL), 1938-70, and NFL Eagles, 1940-57
- 1909 In Constantinople the primarily Albanian First Army Corps seizes the parliament building and telegraphs offices, forcing the Ottoman statesman Hilmi Pasha to resign
1910 Australian General Election: the Commonwealth Liberal Party is defeated by the Australian Labor Party, headed by Andrew Fisher, who is able to form a majority government
- 1911 Polo Grounds grandstand & left field bleachers go up in flames in Manhattan, New York City
- 1911 The US House of Representatives votes to institute direct elections of senators to Congress, a step towards direct democracy
- 1912 Royal Flying Corps forms (later Royal Air Force)
- 1914 1st Federal League Game: Baltimore Terrapins beat Buffalo Blues 3-2
- 1918 Electrical fire kills 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital
- 1919 British troops open fire on demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing 350
- 1919 Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
- 1920 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed
- 1921 Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party.
- 1923 US Army wins 1st college three-weapon fencing championships
- 1924 Greek plebiscite for a republic
- 1925 Virginia Theater (ANTA, Guild) opens at 245 W 52nd St NYC
- 1926 Cyclists without bicycle-tax-stamp rounded up in Amsterdam
- 1927 Stanley Cup Final, Ottawa Auditorium, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Boston Bruins, 3-1 for a 2-0-2 series win
- 1928 1st trans atlantic flight Europe-US (Fitzmaurice-von Hunefeld-Köhl)
- 1933 First flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)
1933 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0 in OT for a 3-1 series win; first best-of-4 Finals series
- 1934 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
- 1934 US Congress passes Johnson Debt Default Act
- 1936 Ioannis Metaxas becomes Prime Minister of Greece
- 1938 Clifford Goldsmith's play "What a Life" premieres at The Biltmore Theater, NYC
- 1939 The Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.
- 1939 W Saroyan's "My Heart's in the Highlands" premieres in NYC
- 1940 American athlete Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, using a bamboo pole, becomes 1st man to pole vault 15 ft, at University of California, Berkeley
- 1940 Second battle of Narvik; 3 German destroyers and one U-boat sunk by the Royal Navy, 5 more German destroyers scuttled
- 1940 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario: New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 for 4-2 series victory; Rangers last Cup win for 54 years
- 1941 Heavy German assault on Tobruk
- 1941 Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
- 1943 Catholic University Nijegen closes
- 1943 Nazis discover mass grave of Polish officers near Katyn
- 1944 New Zealand and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations
- 1944 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
- 1944 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 in overtime for a 4-0 series sweep; Canadiens' first SC triumph since 1931
Transport No. 71
1944 Transport No. 71 departs Drancy (France) internment camp, taking 1,500 French Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi German occupied Poland; up to 1,260 killed upon arrival, an estimated 130 survived
- 1945 Canadian soldier Léo Major single-handedly liberates Dutch town of Zwolle by fooling Germans into thinking a raid had begun
- 1945 WWII: Canadian army liberates Teuge & Assen, Netherlands, from Nazis
- 1945 WWII: Russian Red Army occupies Vienna, Austria
- 1945 WWII: US Marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa, Japan
- 1946 Belgian Prime Minister Acker proclaims wage & price freeze ended
- 1946 Eddie Klepp, a white pitcher signed by defending Negro League champ Cleveland Buckeyes, is barred from field in Birmingham, Alabama
- 1948 Hadassah Convoy Massacre: Vehicles bringing Jewish staff and medical supplies to Hadassah Hospital and University on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem attacked by Arab forces; 79 killed by bombs, grenades, and sniper fire
- 1949 During a lecture at the Mayo Clinic, Philip S. Hench reveals positive results of clinical trials using cortisone to treat rheumatoid arthritis
- 1953 1st game of Milwaukee Braves, they beat Cincinnati Reds 2-0
- 1954 Baltimore Orioles 1st game, loses to Tigers in Detroit 3-0
- 1955 20.33" (51.64 cm) of rainfall, Axis, Alabama (then state record, eclipsed in 1997)
- 1956 KETA TV channel 13 in Oklahoma City, OK (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1957 11th Tony Awards: "Long Day's Journey into Night" (play) & "My Fair Lady" (musical) win
- 1957 Saturday postal delivery in US is temporarily halted due to lack of funds
- 1958 12th Tony Awards: "Sunrise at Campobello" (play) and "The Music Man" (musical) win
- 1958 American classical pianist Van Cliburn (23) wins the inaugural TInternational chaikovsky Competition in Moscow, USSR
- 1959 USAF launches Discoverer II into polar orbit
- 1959 Vanguard SLV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
- 1959 Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists
- 1960 The US Department of Defense places "Transit 1B," the first navigational satellite, in orbit around Earth
- 1961 UN General Assembly condemns South-Africa's apartheid
Baseball Record
1962 Stan Musial scores his 1,869th run, setting a new National League record
- 1962 US steel industry forced to give up price increases
Baseball History
1963 Cincinnati Reds Pete Rose triples for his 1st major league base hit
- 1963 Pirate's Bob Friend balks 4 times in a game
1964 36th Academy Awards: "Tom Jones" (Best Film), Patricia Neal (Hud), and Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field) win; Poitier is the first Black actor in a leading role to win a competitive Oscar
- 1964 Ian Smith becomes Prime Minister of Rhodesia
- 1964 New Zealander Colin Bosher shears a record 565 sheep in one workday
- 1965 1st US Senate black page, Lawrence W Bradford Jr, 16, appointed by New York Senator Jacob Javits
- 1965 7th Grammy Awards: "The Girl From Ipanema", The Beatles win
- 1965 The Beatles record their single "Help!"
- 1966 Pan Am places $525,000,000 order for 25 Boeing 747s
- 1969 Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
- 1970 Apollo 13 announces, "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" after a Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to the Moon
- 1970 Greek composer and counter-revolutionary Mikis Theordorakis freed from Oropos concentration camp, and allowed to be exiled to France
- 1970 Oakland uses gold-colored bases during the club's home opener: Rules Committee subsequently bans this innovation
- 1972 1st baseball players' strike ends after 13 days
- 1975 Chad military coup by General Odingar
- 1975 Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war
- 1976 1st NBA playoff game for Cleveland Cavliers, they lose 100-95 to Washington
- 1976 US Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes
- 1978 Jackson slugs a 3-run HR in the 1st inning, & the field is showered
- 1979 Christian Turks occupy St Jansbasiliek
- 1979 Longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours
- 1979 Yusuf Lule becomes premier of Uganda
- 1980 US and its allies boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest against Russia's invasion of Afghanistan
- 1981 Pulitzer prize awarded to Beth Henley for "Crimes of the Heart"
- 1981 Washington Post journalist Janet Cooke wins Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing; she later admits story was a hoax and returns the prize
- 1983 Undefeated middleweight boxer Tony Ayala gets 35 years on sex assault
- 1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 11th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41C): Challenger 5 returns to Earth
- 1984 India beat Pak by 58 runs to win 1st Asia Cricket Cup in Sharjah
- 1984 Montreal Expos infielder Pete Rose becomes 1st NL to get 4,000 hits in a career
- 1985 "TASS" denounces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
- 1985 Katrin Dörre wins 1st female World Cup marathon (2:33:30)
Event of Interest
1985 Ramiz Alia succeeds Enver Hoxha as party leader of Albania
- 1985 Space Shuttle Atlantis ferried to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas
- 1986 Boston Celtics end season with a 40-1 home win record
Meeting of Interest
1986 Pope John Paul II meets Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff at Rome synagogue
- 1986 Spanish Grand Prix decided by 0.014 of a second
- 1987 1st 3 San Diego Padres hit HRs off SF starter Roger Mason
- 1987 Portugal signs agreement to return Macau to China (in 1999)
- 1988 Italian government of Ciriaco De Mita forms
- 1990 4th largest NBA crowd (45,458) see Orlando play at Minneapolis
Television Finale
1990 Final episode of Pat Sajak's late night TV show on CBS
- 1990 NY Rangers beat NY Islanders 6-5, Rangers win preliminary, 4-1
- 1991 BPAA US Open by Pete Weber
- 1992 American Airlines reduce its 1st-class fares 20%-50%
- 1992 Crystal Pepsi begins test marketing in Sacramento, Providence, Denver, Dallas, and Grand Rapids
- 1992 Great Chicago Flood - Chicago's underground tunnels flood
- 1992 Longest 2 undefeated baseball teams to meet (NY Yankees 5-0 vs Toronto Blue Jays 6-0); Yanks score 3 in top of 9th to win 5-2
- 1992 Lou Carnesecca retires as coach of St John's basketball team
- 1992 Magnitude 5.5 earthquake hits Netherlands
Arcadia
1993 Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia" premieres in London directed by Trevor Nunn, starring Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal and Bill Nighy
Film & TV History
1994 Asteroid 7373 Takei is discovered and named after Star Trek actor George Takei
Sports History
1994 Pedro Martínez takes a perfect game through 7+1⁄3 innings until hitting Reggie Sanders with a pitch, leading to a bench-clearing brawl
- 1994 Presidential guard at Kigali, Rwanda, chops 1,200 church members to death
- 1994 Target date for Israeli complete withdrawal, doesn't occur
- 1994 United Arab Emirates' 1st official ODI, losing to India
- 1995 Yankees beat the Mets 2-0
- 1996 En route to NHL record 62 victories Detroit Red Wings win #61
- 1996 Ottawa Senators eliminate Stanley Cup Champs NJ Devils from playoff
- 1997 48th time opposing pitchers hit HRs, Carlos Perez (Mon)/Darren Holmes
- 1997 Hartford Whalers last NHL game
- 1997 Rare double doubleheader played in the same city Giants vs Mets & Oakland A's vs Yankees in NY after rain previous day
Film & TV History
2000 "When Louis Met..." documentary by Louis Theroux premieres on BBC2 in the UK featuring Jimmy Saville
Rock for the Rainforest
2000 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Ricky Martin, Billy Joel, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge, Tom Jones, Martha Reeves, Macy Gray, Sam Moore, and The Impressions
- 2002 Pedro Carmona, interim president of Venezuela, resigns one day after taking office
Rock for the Rainforest
2002 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Nina Simone, Smokey Robinson, Lulu, Patti Labelle, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, Wynonna Judd, and Rebecca Del Rio
Baseball Record
2004 Barry Bonds hits his 661st career home run, passing his godfather Willie Mays on the MLB all-time list
- 2006 Powerful tornadoes rip through Iowa City, Iowa.
Phil Spector Found Guilty
2009 US record producer Phil Spector is found guilty of second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003
Love Is a Four Letter Word
2012 Jason Mraz's fourth studio album, "Love Is a Four Letter Word", is released
- 2012 North Korean long range rocket testing ends in failure after the rocket broke up after launch
- 2013 20 civilians are killed by the government bombing of Saraqib, Idlib
- 2013 8 people are killed after a bomb explodes on a bus in Peshawar, Pakistan
- 2014 Kenyan Wilson Kipsang wins the London Marathon
Boxing Title Fight
2014 Manny Pacquiao defeats Timothy Bradley to regain his WBO welterweight boxing title
- 2015 Migrant ship carrying around 550 sinks off the Libyan coast, about 400 drown
- 2019 Australian super-horse Winx ends extraordinary career with a 3rd Queen Elizabeth Stakes win in Sydney; 33 consecutive race wins, a world record 25 Group One victories and $26.4 million prize money
- 2019 Body of 38-year-old Filipino woman discovered in abandoned mine starts the hunt for Cyprus's first serial killer, at least 5 other bodies later discovered
Music History
2019 BTS is the first K-pop band to perform on US TV show "Saturday Night Live"
- 2019 Gregg Popovich surpasses Lenny Wilkens to became the all-time winningest coach in NBA history with his 1,413th win as San Antonio Spurs beat Denver Nuggets, 101-96 in Western Conference Playoffs
- 2019 World's largest plane by wingspan at 117m (385 ft), the Stratolaunch, built as a flying launch pad for satellites, takes its first flight from Mojave, California
Music Concert
2020 Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sings a special Easter concert in the deserted Milan cathedral, accompanied by an organist
2020 NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says “I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” about the COVID-19 pandemic in New York as death toll passes 10,000
- 2021 US, South Africa and the EU authorities temporarily stop administrating Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines after six women developed blood clots (out of 6.8 million)
- 2022 At least 448 people killed after heavy rains and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, "one of the worst weather storms in the history of our country" according to authorities [1]
- 2023 American F.B.I. arrests 21-year-old member of Massachusetts Air National Guard for leaking classified documents, including national security secrets, on an online gaming chat group [1]
- 2023 Tropical Cyclone Ilsa makes landfall in remote western Australia, between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse, as a category five storm, setting a new sustained wind speed record of 218 kph (135 mph) [1]
- 2024 Iran launches a strike on Israel with 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for the bombing of its embassy in Damascus - almost all shot down [1]
- 2024 Six people are killed in a stabbing at a Bondi shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, by an attacker with mental health issues who is shot dead by police [1]
- 2025 Russian missile strike hits Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 100 in the worst attack on civilians in 2025 so far [1]
- 2025 The MacLean brothers, Ewan (32), Jamie (31), and Lachlan (27) of Scotland depart in a rowboat from Lima, Peru to cross the Pacifiic Ocean, headed for Australia; they hope to raise funds for clean water access in Madagascar through donations [1]
