Pazzi Conspiracy
1478 Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill Giuliano de' Medici in Florence
Copernicus Observes Saturn
1514 Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
Shakespeare Baptized
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 Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam colony
- 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
Louis XVIII Lands at Calais
1814 King Louis XVIII lands at Calais from England
Grand Polonaise Brillante
1835 Frédéric Chopin's "Grand Polonaise Brillante" premieres in Paris
- 1841 "Bombay Gazette" begins publishing on silk
Alfred Wallace for South America
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
Rossini Leaves Italy
1855 Composer Gioachino Rossini leaves Italy for the final time, returning to Paris, France
- 1859 US Congressman Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted in the murder Philip Barton Key, on grounds of "temporary insanity" - 1st time this defense used successfully in the US [1]
- 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
- 1879 National Park (later renamed Royal National Park) established south of Sydney, Australia. World's second-oldest national park.
- 1887 Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
- 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
A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia
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)
Sun Yet San Calls for Revolt
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 the "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
Diego Rivera Leaves Communist Party
1925 Artist Diego Rivera resigns from the Mexican Communist Party
- 1925 Pulitzer prize awarded to Edna Ferber for "So big"
- 1926 Germany & Russia sign neutrality peace treaty
- 1926 Karachai Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1943)
Madame Tussauds Reopens
1928 Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition reopens in London after a fire
- 1929 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
Lou Gehrig's Big Mistake
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
The Ermine
1932 Jean Anouilh's play "L'Hermine (The Ermine)" premieres in Paris
Shostakovich's 4th Symphony
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
Pétain Arrested for Treason
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 Vivian Ellis and A. P. Herbert' musical "Bless the Bride" opena at the Adelphia Theatre in London; runs for 886 performances
- 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
Brielsche Mausoleum
1951 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands opens Brielsche Mausoleum
Golf History
1952 Patty Berg scores 64, best competitive round of golf by a woman
- 1952 US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp, kills 176
Seven Samurai
1954 "Seven Samurai", Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, is released
- 1954 Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
Anti-Polio Vaccine Trial Begins
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
Baseball History
1961 Roger Maris hits 1st of 61 homers in 1961
- 1962 1st Lockheed A-12 flies
- 1962 Ariel 1 Launch (1st UK Satellite)
- 1962 Ranger 4 crash lands on (backside of) Moon
- 1962 US and UK launch Ariel; 1st international payload
LPGA Titleholders Championship
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
Music Premiere
1965 Charles Ives' 4th Symphony premieres at Carnegie Hall, New York, 11 years after the composer's death
- 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
Red Auerbach Retires
1966 Red Auerbach retires as Boston Celtic's coach
- 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 Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won by Jim Godman
- 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 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 MLB Philadelphia Phillies slugger Mike Schmidt's 2 home runs in 7-3 win over Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh 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
Baseball Record
1980 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton pitches his 6th 1-hitter, in 7-0 win over St. Louis Cardinals, at Veterans Stadium; 1st National League to record 6 1-hitters
Argentina Surrenders South Georgia Island
1982 Argentina surrenders to British forces 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
- 1983 Dow Jones Industrial Avg breaks 1,200 for 1st time
NFL Draft
1983 NFL Draft: Stanford quarterback John Elway first pick by Baltimore Colts
- 1983 San Antonio spurs beat Denver Nuggets, 152-133 in NBA playoff game
- 1984 Liverpool's Cavern Club reopens
Chinese History
1984 US President Ronald Reagan visits China
- 1986 Experimental aircraft Piasecki PA-97 Helistat - a combination of 4 helicopters and a blimp - crashes during first test flight, killing one pilot, at US Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey
- 1986 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Marshall Holman
- 1986 France performs nuclear test
- 1986 Game between Angels & Twins delayed for 9 minutes by strong winds
Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Explodes
1986 World's worst nuclear disaster: The fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union explodes, 31 die and radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe.
TNN Viewers Choice Awards
1988 1st TNN Viewers choice awards: Randy Travis wins in 5 categories
- 1988 NBA approves addition of 3rd referee in 1988-89 season
- 1989 AT&T announces NJ's 201 area code will split into 908 & 201
Mike Tyson' Speeding Ticket
1989 Mike Tyson gets a speeding ticket for drag racing his Lamborghini in Albany, New York
- 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
Baseball Record
1990 Texas Rangers Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12 one-hitters in 1-0 win over Chicago White Sox at Arlington Stadium
- 1991 "Dinosaurs" premieres on ABC-TV
- 1991 23 killed in Kansas & Oklahoma by tornadoes
Maradona Suspended
1991 Soccer star Diego Maradona, suspended for using cocaine, arrested in Argentina for possession & distribution of illegal narcotics
- 1992 "Growing Pains" final episode on ABC TV
- 1992 "Who's The Boss" final episode after 8 years on ABC TV
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
1992 Alex Haley (Roots) wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
- 1992 NFL Draft: University of Washington defensive end Steve Emtman from first pick by Indianapolis Colts
Baseball Record
1992 Ozzie Smith steals his 500th base
- 1993 Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, kills 56
O'Brien Replaces Letterman
1993 NBC announces Conan O'Brien to replace David Letterman on "Late Night"
- 1993 STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
- 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 26.9°C in Prestebakke Norway (Norwegian April high temperature record)
- 1994 Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
- 1994 Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, 262 killed
Due South Premieres
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 Cy Coleman and Ira Gasman' musical "The Life" opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, NYC; runs for 466 performances and wins 2 Tony Awards
- 1999 BBC presenter Jill Dando shot and killed outside her London home - launches Metropolitan Police's largest murder enquiry, crime remains unsolved [1]
- 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
Devils and Dust Released
2005 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen's 13th studio album "Devils and Dust"
- 2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of the country
- 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
Iron Man 2 Premieres
2010 "Iron Man 2", directed by Jon Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, premieres in Los Angeles
- 2011 US TV singing competition "The Voice" premieres with judges Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green
- 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
London Marathon
2015 35th London Marathon: Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge & Ethiopian Tigist Tufa win
FC Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga
2015 FC Bayern Munich wins the 2014–15 Bundesliga for a 25th time
Election of Interest
2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote
- 2016 CEO of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, announces that he will be giving his employees 10% of the shares in Chobani
The Handmaid's Tale Debuts
2017 "The Handmaid's Tale" debuts on Hulu starring Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski, based on the book by Margaret Atwood
- 2017 Gift Ngoepe becomes 1st black African to play in Major League Baseball, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
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
- 2018 Serial killer "Golden State Killer" identified after 40 years as a former police officer, responsible for 12 killings, 50 rapes in California
- 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 Six suspected militants connected to Sri Lankan terror attacks killed along with ten others in a shootout with police in Sainthamaruthu
- 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
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
- 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
- 2021 US Census results shows its population growth second slowest in recorded history, population at 331,449,281 with only 7.4% increase on 2010 [1]
- 2022 Russia says it will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria, after the countries refused to pay in rubles, escalating the energy supply standoff between Russia and Europe [1]
US Leaves Pandemic Phase
2022 US infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the country is out of the "Pandemic Phase" - for the moment [1]
- 2022 World Bank warns the war in Ukraine will cause the "largest commodity shock" since the 1970s, with large economic and humanitarian effects [1]
E. Jean Carroll Trial
2023 Writer E. Jean Carroll testifies in a NY court that Donald Trump raped her in a department store in the 1990s [1]
