- 642 Chindasuinth becomes the Visigothic King of Hispania after deposing King Tulga in a coup and tonsuring him (making him a monk)
- 858 Benedict III's reign as Catholic Pope ends with his death
- 1387 The fictional characters in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars)
Columbus' Contract with Spain
1492 Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I to find the "Indies" with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found and the governorship of any lands encountered.
- 1524 Florentine navigator Giovanni Verrazano on a voyage for France is the first European to discover New York harbour
- 1555 Siena surrenders to Spanish troops
- 1596 Albert VII Archduke of Austria occupies Calais
Hudson Departs London
1610 English explorer Henry Hudson departs London, England aboard Discovery on his fourth, final and fatal voyage to discover a Northwest Passage to the Pacific
Francis Bacon Charged with Bribery
1621 Lord Chancellor of England Francis Bacon is charged with 23 counts of bribery and corruption by a parliamentary committee on the administration of the law
- 1684 Dutch East India Company signs treaty with Sultan Hadji of Banten (Java) to aid him in a civil war with his father in exchange for sole right to trade in the Sultanate [1]
Charles VI
1711 Charles VI becomes Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his brother Joseph I
- 1747 French troops occupy Zeeuws-Flanders in the Netherlands
- 1758 Poems by Jamaican Black intellectual and writer Francis Williams are published
- 1774 First Unitarianism church service in England held by Theophilus Lindsey at the Essex Street Capel in London
- 1797 Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the largest invasions of Spanish territories in America
Bayonne Decree
1808 Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders the seizure of US ships
- 1824 Russia abandons all claims in North America south of 54°40′N
- 1839 Guatemala forms a republic
- 1851 Clipper Marco Polo launched at St Johns, New Brunswick - then the fastest ship in the world [1]
- 1853 Johan Rudolf Thorbecke's government in the Netherlands resigns
- 1853 US Marine Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco forms
1860 Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight to a brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw that ends only when police stop the bout near Farnborough, England, in what is widely acknowledged as the first world title fight
- 1861 Indianola TX - "Star of West" taken by Confederacy
- 1861 Virginia secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- 1863 Grierson's raid begins as Colonel Grierson and 1700 horse troopers set off from La Grange, Tennessee
- 1864 Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina
- 1864 Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia
- 1864 Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges
Mary Surratt Arrested
1865 Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's assassination
- 1875 Modern snooker is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India
- 1892 First Sunday National League baseball game: Reds defeat Cardinals 5-1
- 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)
- 1900 High chiefs of American Samoa sign the Instrument of Cession of Tutuila and swear allegiance to the United States [1]
- 1905 US Supreme Court judges maximum work day unconstitutional in Lochner v. New York by declaring the "right to free contract" implicit in the due process clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution
- 1907 Ellis Island, New York records 11,745 immigrants
1st Unofficial Gold Record
1912 1st unofficial gold record (Al Jolson's "Ragging The Baby To Sleep")
April Theses
1917 Vladimir Lenin issues his radical "April Theses" calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution [OS Apr 4]
- 1923 Longest NL opening game, Phillies & Dodgers tie 5-5 in 14
- 1924 Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)
Event of Interest
1925 Paul Painlevé succeeds Edouard Herriot as French premier
- 1927 Japan's Wakarsoeki government falls, Baron Tanaka becomes premier
- 1930 Abkhazian ASSR forms in Georgian SSR
- 1930 DuPont scientist Elmer K. Bolton invents neoprene using Julius Nieuwland's divinyl acetylene
- 1933 Chicago Bears win their 1st NFL Game beating NY Giants 23-21
- 1934 Fenway Park in Boston re-opens after a major renovation including a hand-operated electronic scoreboard, though it didn't help the Red Sox who lost to the Washington Senators 6-5
- 1935 First commercial flight from mainland to Hawaii when Pan Am's Pioneer Clipper flew from San Francisco to Honolulu
- 1935 Provincial-National elections (Musserts NSB achieves 7.9%, 44 chairs)
Joe Louis KOs Jack Rope
1939 In his 6th title defense, world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis KOs Jack Roper in 1 at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles, California
- 1939 SN Behrman's "No Time for Comedy" premieres in NYC
- 1941 British troop land in Iraq
- 1941 Egyptian steamer SS Zamzam attacked and later scuttled by German cruiser Atlantis (all on board rescued)
- 1941 US Office of Price Administration forms (handled rationing)
- 1941 World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
- 1942 12 Lancasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg
- 1942 Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp
- 1942 POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein
Yamamoto Flies to Rabaul
1943 Japanese Navy Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul, tracked by US fighter aircraft after intelligence intercepts his itinerary [1]
- 1943 SS General Jürgen Stroop arrives in Warsaw
- 1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
- 1945 German occupiers flood Wieringermeer, Netherlands
- 1945 US troops land in central Mindanao, Philippines during Battle of Mindanao
- 1946 Syria declares independence from French administration
Elpidio Quirino President
1948 Elpidio Quirino assumes the Presidency of the Philippines, taking his oath of office two days after the death of President Manuel Roxas
Sports History
1951 Mickey Mantle makess his MLB debut, with the New York Yankees; he goes 1 for 4
- 1953 Mickey Mantle hits a 565' (172 m) HR in Washington, D.C.'s Griffith Stadium
- 1956 Bulgaria premier Valko Chervenkov resigns
- 1956 Premium Savings Bonds introduced in Great Britain
- 1956 USSR's Cominform (Parliament) dissolves
- 1956 Willie Mosconi sinks 150 consecutive balls in a billiard tournament
Event of Interest
1958 Brussels World Fair opens in Belgium, with a model by chemist Rosalind Franklin who had died of cancer the day before
- 1960 American Samoa sets up a constitutional government
Baseball Trade
1960 MLB Cleveland Indians trade reigning home run champion Rocky Colavito to Detroit Tigers for reigning AL batting champion Harvey Kuenn; fans are unhappy
Event of Interest
1961 1,400 Cuban exiles land in the Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro
- 1961 Construction begins on the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington; 5,850 tons of concreter delivered by 467 trucks over 12 hours for the foundation
- 1963 NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspends Green Bay Packers halfback Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras indefinitely for betting on football games
- 1964 1st game at Shea Stadium, NY Mets lose to Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3
- 1964 American pilot Jerrie Mock (38) becomes 1st woman to fly solo around the world, returning to Columbus, Ohio after 29-1/2 days in 'The Spirit of Columbus', a single engine Cessna 180
- 1964 Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2,368 base)
- 1966 100th international soccer match between Netherlands and Belgium (3-1)
Sports History
1967 Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti beats American Emile Griffith in a 15 round points decision to win world middleweight crown at Madison Square Garden; start of famous trilogy of fights between the pair
- 1967 Shortwave Radio NY Worldwide goes back on the air after a week off
- 1967 Surveyor 3 launched; soft lands on Moon, April 20
- 1968 A's 1st game in Oakland-Alameda Stadium, lose 4-1 to Baltimore Orioles
Event of Interest
1969 Alexander Dubček forced to resign as first secretary of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party
- 1969 Mont Expos Bill Stoneman no-hits Phillies, 7-0
- 1969 People's Democracy activist Bernadette Devlin becomes the youngest woman Member of Parliament ever elected to Westminster at 21 years old
- 1969 The Band (formerly The Hawks), perform their 1st concert, at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California
- 1970 Apollo 13 limps back safely, Beech-built oxygen tank no help
- 1971 Egypt, Libya & Syria form federation (FAR)
- 1972 Kiteman attempting to throw out 1st ball in Phillie Vet crashes into centerfield seats
- 1972 Revised Dutch constitution proclaimed
- 1973 German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 founded
- 1974 Bundy victim Susan Rancourt disappears from CWU, Ellensburg, Washington
- 1974 Muslim fundamentalists assault military academy in Heliopolis, Egypt
- 1975 The Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh, Cambodia marking the end of the Cambodian Civil war (Kampuchea National Day)
Baseball Record
1976 Trailing 12-1, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field; Mike Schmidt hits four consecutive home runs in the greatest comeback in NL history
- 1977 Christian-democrats win Belgium parliamentary election
- 1978 63,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)
Pulitzer Prize
1978 Pulitzer prize awarded to Carl Sagan for "Dragons of Eden"
- 1979 Four Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army van bomb in Bessbrook, County Armagh; the bomb is believed to be the largest PIRA bomb used up to that point
- 1981 New York Islander Dennis Potvin's 3 playoff power-play goals vs Edmonton Oilers tie NHL record
- 1981 Ranger's Anders Hedberg is 2nd to score on a Stanley Cup penalty shot
Proclamation of the Constitution Act
1982 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II sign the "Proclamation of the Constitution Act", establishing the "Charter of Rights and Freedoms" as part of the country’s new Constitution
Music History
1982 Country music legend Johnny Cash hosts Saturday Night Live, participates in skits, performs medley of hits; Elton John is additional musical guest
- 1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1983 1st National Coin Week begins
- 1983 Grete Waltz runs female world record marathon (2:25:29)
- 1983 In Warsaw, police route 1,000 Solidarity supporters
- 1983 India entered space age launching SLV-3 rocket
- 1983 NY Islanders tie NHL record with 3 shorthanded playoff goals vs NY Rangers
- 1984 Braves pitcher Pascual Perez suspended due to cocaine usage
- 1984 During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, British police officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead
- 1986 Netherlands & Scilly Islands sign peace treaty (war of 1651)
- 1986 Pulitzer Prize is awarded to Larry McMurtry for "Lonesome Dove"
Sports History
1987 Julius Erving becomes 3rd NBA (and ABA) player to score 30,000 points
- 1987 Richard Wilbur appointed as American poet laureate
- 1987 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1988 Ethiopian Belayneh Densimo runs world record marathon (2:06:50)
- 1989 Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $245 per week
- 1989 Polish labor union granted legal status
- 1989 Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros
- 1990 Gas explosion on passenger train in Kumrahar India, 80 die
- 1991 Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for 1st time (3,004.46)
- 1991 Railroad workers go on strike in US
- 1993 STS-56 (Discovery) lands
1993 Two Los Angeles police officers convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King's civil rights and sentenced to prison, while two others are acquitted,
- 1994 Aruba government of Oduber falls
- 1997 John Bell aged 115 receives a new pacemaker
- 1999 NFL Draft: University of Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch first pick by Cleveland Browns
Event of Interest
2001 A letter between Gale Norton and Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction 6 million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico
- 2002 Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War
- 2006 George H. Ryan, the former governor of Illinois, is convicted on 22 counts of fraud, racketeering and lying to the FBI [1]
Helen Clark Appointed to Head UNDP
2009 Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark becomes the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the first woman to lead the organization
2012 The 8th century St. Cuthbert Gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, is purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds
- 2013 15 people are killed and 100 are injured after a fertilizer plant explodes in West, Texas
- 2013 5 people are killed in Wana, Pakistan, by a United States drone attack
- 2013 North Korea blocks a South Korean supply delegation from the Kaesong joint industrial zone
- 2013 Same-sex marriage is legalized in New Zealand
- 2015 After 108 years, a "message in a bottle" placed in the sea by the UK Marine Biological Association is found on a beach on the island of Amrum, Germany
Pulitzer Prize
2015 American jazz composer and saxophonist John Coltrane is awarded a posthumous Special Citation by the Pulitzer Prize board
- 2015 James Anderson becomes the highest wicket-taking bowler in England's test cricket history
- 2015 Marianne Winkler finds "message in a bottle" on the shore of the German island of Amrum; it had been dropped in the North Sea by British marine scientist George Parker Bidder on November 30th, 1906, making its length of time spent adrift 108 years, 138 days
- 2017 1st living giant shipworm at 3 ft found in the Philippines, really a type of clam
Film & TV History
2017 Gary Sinise receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the television industry, located at 6664 Hollywood Boulevard
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
2018 Former F.B.I. director James Comey publishes his political autobiography “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership”
- 2018 Protests across India at the rape and murder of an 8-year old Muslim girl in Kathua, Bengalu
- 2019 10 babies with "bubble boy disease" cured using a gene therapy made from HIV at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, according to new study
Homecoming
2019 Beyoncé releases a live album of her 2018 Coachella performance on the same day as her Netflix documentary "Homecoming"
- 2019 Research showing pigs brains partially brought back to life at Yale University, published in "Nature"
- 2019 Terror alert closes schools in Denver, Colorado, due to 18-year-old woman obsessed with Columbine massacre, who is then found dead
- 2020 WHO warns Africa could be next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 300,000 deaths, pushing 30 million into poverty as it records nearly 1000 deaths and 19,000 cases to date
- 2021 Canada registers more new daily COVID-19 cases than the US for the first time as infections surge in Ontario [1]
- 2021 Global COVID-19 death toll passes three million (Johns Hopkins University figures)
- 2021 San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau ties Gordie Howe's NHL record for most regular season games played at 1,767
Film & TV History
2022 Alex Jones' companies including website Infowars, file for bankruptcy in the US after losing defamation suits filed by families of the Sandy Hook Massacre (which he called a hoax)
- 2023 New Research shows the Great Pacific Garbage Patch now has coast creatures living and breeding in it, including jellyfish, sponges and worms raising concerns about the spread of invasive species [1]
- 2024 Extreme weather moves on from the UAE to cause heavy rain and flooding in Pakistan and Afghanistan and at least 135 deaths [1]
- 2024 Three Russian missiles strike an apartment building in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing at least 17 people and injuring 61 [1]
- 2025 A US citizen hijacks Tropic Air Flight 711 at knifepoint and injures three passengers before being killed by police in Belize [1]
