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- 0037 Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.
- 0193 Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
- 0364 Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
- 0845 Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
- 1738 English parliament declares war on Spain (War of Jenkin's Ear)
- 1774 Britain passes Coercive Act against Massachusetts
- 1776 Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
- 1791 Convicts Mary and William Bryant, their two children and seven other convicts escape from Port Jackson Australia in open boat to Timor but are recaptured there.
- 1794 Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.
- 1794 Louvre opens to the public (although officially opened since August)
- 1795 Nootka Sound BC, the Spanish evacuate trading post at Friendly Cove to British.
- 1795 Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
- 1796 Bethel African Methodist Church of Philadelphia is first US-African church
- 1797 Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine
- 1799 New York State abolished slavery
- 1802 Heinrich Wilhelm Matthus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
- 1804 Ohio passed law restricting movement of Blacks, 1804
- 1809 Peninsular War: In the Battle of Medelin France defeats Spain.
- 1834 Senate censure President Jackson for taking federal deposits from Bank of US
- 1845 Mexico drops diplomatic relations with US
- 1849 Dutch princess Marianne & Prince Albert of Prussia separate
- 1854 Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.
- 1854 During the Crimean War, Britain & France declare war on Russia
- 1860 First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
- 1862 Skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia
- 1866 The first ambulance goes into service
- 1868 Death of the Earl of Cardigan, British general who led the ill-conceived Charge of the Light Brigade against the Russians during the Crimean War.
- 1871 The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
- 1885 US Salvation Army officially organized
- 1902 27.9 cm precipitation at McMinnville TN (state record)
- 1905 Paramaribo-Dam railway opens in Suriname, never used
- 1910 Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
- 1910 The first seaplane, takes off from water at Martigues France (Henri Fabre)
- 1913 Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1918 Anti-conscription riots break out in Quebec City; four civilians killed in shooting match with soldiers over Easter weekend.
- 1920 Actor Douglas Fairbanks marries actress Mary Pickford
- 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.
- 1920 Thomas Masaryk elected President of Czechoslovakia
- 1922 The first microfilm device introduced - where is the CIA?
- 1929 Democratic constitution goes into effect in Ecuador
- 1930 Constantinople & Angora changes names to Istanbul & Ankara
- 1930 Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
- 1935 Goddard uses gyroscopes to control a rocket
- 1939 Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.
- 1940 The exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair starts being built.
- 1941 Sea battle at Cape Matapan: British fleet under Cunningham defeats Italy
- 1942 234 RAF bombers attack Lübeck
- 1942 British naval forces raid Nazi occupied French port of St Nazaire
- 1942 World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
- 1945 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London
- 1946 Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
- 1948 2nd Tony Awards: Mister Roberts win
- 1955 Country singer Reba McEntire born this day.
- 1955 New Zealand cricket all out for 26 vs England at Eden Park
- 1956 Visitor posting - Selloor Ganesan a writer of Tamil Nadu (India) born
- 1959 11 days after Tibet uprising, China dissolves Tibet's government & installs Panchen Lama
- 1960 Pope John raises the first Japanese, first African & first Filipino cardinal
- 1960 Scotch factory explodes burying 20 firefighters (Glasgow Scotland)
- 1962 Devastating 8 for 6 spell by Gibbs gives West Indies cricket victory over India
- 1964 In the Prince William Sound, Alaska a quake measuring 9.2 occurs one of the 10 Largest Earthquakes in the World,
- 1964 Near Merriman, Nebraska a 5.1 quake is one of the largest historical earthquakes in Nebraska .
- 1964 Visitor posting - naomi carter is born - USA
- 1965 Near the West Coast of Central Chile a 7.3 quake occurs about 400 persons were killed or missing, 350 were injured, and extensive property damage was reported
- 1967 UN Secretary General U Thant makes public proposals for peace in Vietnam
- 1968 Actress Lucy Lawless was born this day.
- 1969 Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
- 1969 In Turkey a 6.4 earthquake occurred in the Alasehir region of western Turkey.
- 1970 1,086 die when 7.3 earthquake destroys 254 villages (Gediz Turkey)
- 1970 In Gediz, Turkey a 7.3 earthquake resulted in over 1,000 killed, over 1,000 injured, more than 8,000 buildings destroyed and over 5,500 buildings damaged
- 1970 Number one hit on UK music charts - Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
- 1971 Visitor posting - Jimmy Gritt was born
- 1972 Wilt Chamberlain plays his last pro basketball game
- 1972 Visitor posting - Chris Kirkland is born in Gainesville, Florida - USA
- 1977 49th Academy Awards: "Rocky", Peter Finch & Faye Dunaway win
- 1977 Morarji Desai forms government in India
- 1977 Visitor posting - John Rex Spitzer II was born.
- 1978 US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
- 1979 In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.
- 1979 Major nuclear accident at 3 Mile Island, Middletown PA (no deaths but lots of stress)
- 1980 Visitor posting - Leandra Artman was born - South Africa
- 1981 Number one hit on UK music charts - Shakin' Stevens - This Ole House
- 1981 Viv Richards scores century in the first Test at his home Antigua
- 1982 JN Duartes christian-democrats win elections in El Salvador
- 1982 Near Coast of Peru a 6.1 earthquake killed 3 people and extensive damage (VI) at Lunahuana.
- 1985 International Cometary Explorer measures solar wind ahead of Halley's Comet
- 1985 Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues", premieres in New York NY
- 1985 STS 51-D vehicle moves to launch pad
- 1986 Extremist Sikhs kill 13 hindus in Ludhiana India
- 1986 Visitor posting - Pop star, Lady Gaga is born. My pet is a beautiful kitty-cat named Maggie. - USA
- 1986 John N McMahon, ends term as deputy director of CIA
- 1987 Number one hit on UK music charts - Mel & Kim - Respectable
- 1987 Stacking of Discovery's SRBs gets underway
- 1989 New Zealand wins America's Cup over Stars & Stripes, in a New York court
- 1990 President Bush awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal
- 1990 President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
- 1990 Three arrested in London in plot to smuggle US-made nuclear triggering devices to Iraq.
- 1991 Mike Tyson admits paternity to Kimberly Scarborough's son
- 1993 Conservatives win French parliamentary election
- 1993 Type II supernova detected in M81 (NGC 3031)
- 1994 Armed Zulus demonstrate in Johannesburg, over 53 killed
- 1994 Visitor posting - la chilanga was born ( CAROL REYES ) - USA
- 1994 In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.
- 1994 Visitor posting - J-Merv McGruff came into the world - USA
- 1994 Italy's right-wing alliance under Silvio Berlusconi wins election
- 1995 Julia Roberts & Lyle Lovett split-up
- 1995 Queensland beat South Australia to win first ever cricket Sheffield Shield
- 1995 World's largest bank-Japan's Mitsubishi Bank & Bank of Tokyo merge
- 1996 In Ecuador a 6.0 earthquake occurred at least 27 people killed, 100 injured, several thousand homeless
- 1996 Katie Beam, 17, of Oklahoma, crowned 35th Miss Teenage America
- 1999 In the Xizang-India Border Region a 5.5 earthquake occurred At least 61 people killed and 125 injured in the Chamoli district; 34 killed and 177 injured in the Rudraprayag district; 5 killed and 60 injured in the Tehri Garhwal district; 19 injured in the Bageshwar district; 13 injured in the Pauri Garhwal district, India
- 2000 A Murray County, Georgia, school bus gets hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die from this accident).
- 2003 In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attacked British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
- 2005 The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.
- 2006 At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
More historical events added daily - keep checking back