Saturday, April 30, 2011

Historical Events on 1 May

Historical Events on 1 May

1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton - the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
1576 - Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become the co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1707 - The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1751 - The first cricket match is played in America.
1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
1776 - Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
1778 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
1785 - Kamehameha, the king of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
1786 - Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna, Austria.
1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
1840 - The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
1846 - The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicated the Nauvoo Temple.
1848 - The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
1851 - The Great Exhibition opens in London by Queen Victoria.
1852 - The Philippine peso is introduced into circulation.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
1869 - The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.
1875 - Alexandra Palace reopens after the 1873 fire burnt it down.
1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
1886 - The Haymarket riots in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois are the start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labour Day in most industrialized countri
1893 - The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago.
1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay - the United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
1900 - The Scofield mine disaster kills 200 in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
1901 - The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.
1915 - The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sen
1925 - The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.
1927 - The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.
1927 - The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.
1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
1941 - World War II: German forces launch Operation Mercury the largest airborne invasion to date in their bid to capture Crete.
1941 - World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
1945 - World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany".
1946 - Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
1946 - The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.
1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as president.
1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
1956 - A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
1960 - Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis - Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
1961 - The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
1965 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.
1970 - Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, following the announcement by U.S. President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.
1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
1977 - 36 people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.
1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
1982 - The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.
1982 - Operation Black Buck begins. The RAF attack on the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.
1983 - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
1987 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1989 - Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
1991 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics steals his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment is overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers, when he pitches his seventh career no-hitt
1992 - On the third day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, African-American activist, criminal, and victim of police beating Rodney King appears in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm and plead for peace, asking, "People, I just want to say, you
1995 - Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence.
1997 - Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality.
2000 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
2006 - The Puerto Rican government closes the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.
2007 - The Los Angeles May Day mêlée occurs, in which the Los Angeles Police Department's response to a May Day pro-immigration rally become a matter of controversy.
2008 - The London Agreement on translation of European patents, concluded in 2000, enters into force in 14 of the 34 Contracting States to the European Patent Convention.
305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Historical Events on 30 Apr

Historical Events on 30 Apr

1006 - Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.
1315 - Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the public gallows at Montfaucon.
1483 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503.
1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
1671 - Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
1794 - The Battle of Boulou is fought, in which French forces defeated the Spanish under General Union.
1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
1812 - The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
1856 - Battle of Rivas, Nicaragua, against North American mercenaries.
1863 - Mexican forces attacked the French Foreign Legion in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
1871 - The Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
1894 - Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.
1900 - Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
1900 - Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
1904 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
1907 - Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city.
1920 - Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1925 - Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million plus $50 million for charity.
1927 - Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1927 - The Federal Industrial Institute for Women, opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.
1937 - The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.
1938 - The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit.
1938 - The first televised FA Cup Final takes place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End.
1939 - The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to appear on television during the World Fair's opening ceremonies broadcast.
1939 - RCA owned NBC begins regularly scheduled television service from its New York station with the opening ceremonies of the 1939 New York World's Fair broadcast.
1943 - World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
1945 - World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the red flag over the Reichstag building.
1947 - In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam a second time.
1948 - In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
1973 - Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.
1975 - Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
1977 - English rock band Led Zeppelin play to 76,229 paying people at the Pontiac silverdome in Michigan USA. This broke the world attendance record for a single act performance.
1980 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
1993 - The World Wide Web is born at CERN.
1993 - Virgin Radio broadcasts for the first time in the United Kingdom.
1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first President to visit Northern Ireland.
1999 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.
2001 - The Mitchell Report on the Arab-Israeli conflict is published.
2002 - A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf for another five years.
2004 - U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
2008 - Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia were confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters.
313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule.
711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Historical Events on 29 Apr

Historical Events on 29 Apr

1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.
1672 - Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1770 - James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
1832 - Évariste Galois released from prison.
1861 - American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.
1862 - American Civil War: New Orleans, Louisiana falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
1864 - The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
1882 - The "Elektromote" - forerunner of the trolleybus - is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.
1903 - A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
1916 - World War I: The British 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at Kut. One of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1945 - World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
1945 - World War II - Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun will commit suicide the next day.
1945 - The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
1946 - Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
1951 - A Tibetan delegation to the Chinese government is presented with a draft treaty regarding the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
1953 - The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
1965 - Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) successfully launches its seventh rocket in their Rehber series.
1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1968 - The controversial musical Hair opens on Broadway.
1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1974 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.
1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate US citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
1980 - Corazones Unidos Siempre Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority Inc. is founded.
1986 - Roger Clemens then of the Boston Red Sox sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.
1986 - A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
1991 - 1991 Bangladesh cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 mph, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless.
1992 - 1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, California, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories.
1999 - Avala TV Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
2002 - The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
2004 - Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
2004 - Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
2005 - Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation.
2005 - New Zealand's first civil union takes place.
2007 - Republic Protests in Turkey.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Historical Events on 28 Apr

Historical Events on 28 Apr

1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
1611 - Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world.
1788 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
1789 - Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
1792 - France invades Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.
1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
1902 - Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date.
1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
1930 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
1949 - Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.
1950 - Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.
1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.
1952 - Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends.
1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.
1967 - Expo 67 opens to the public in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
1969 - Terence O'Neill announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
1977 - The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.
1978 - President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
1981 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.
1986 - The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea, on station across the "Line of Death" i
1987 - American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
1994 - Former C.I.A. official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1996 - Whitewater controversy: Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
1996 - In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 37 more.
1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention goes into effect, with Russia, Iraq and North Korea notable nations who have not ratified the treaty.
2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
2005 - The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Historical Events on 27 Apr

Historical Events on 27 Apr

1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland.
1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
1773 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
1777 - The Battle of Ridgefield: An British invasion force engaged and defeated Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut during the American Revolutionary War.
1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1861 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland).
1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1967 - Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
1978 - Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.
1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Historical Events on 26 Apr

Historical Events on 26 Apr

1467 - The miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel appears in Genazzano, Italy.
1478 - The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
1607 - English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consoli
1805 - United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina.
1865 - Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in Virginia.
1925 - Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
1933 - The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1946 - Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims to be God, marries the much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.
1954 - The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
1956 - First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas
1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
1965 - A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
1966 - An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1982 - 57 people are killed by former Korean police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
1986 - In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
1991 - Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
1994 - A China Airlines Airbus A300-600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.
1994 - Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
2002 - Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt,Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 - Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that 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 - Major League Umpire Kerwin Danley is hit in the jaw by a 96 MPH fastball by Dodgers Pitcher, Brad Penny. Danley was knocked unconscious, and left the field in an ambulance. He was later reported to be in good condition.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Historical Events on 25 Apr

Historical Events on 25 Apr

1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
1707 - The Habsburg army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
1792 - La Marseillaise (French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1829 - Charles Fremantle arrives in the HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.
1846 - Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War.
1847 - The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1849 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1859 - British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1861 - American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington, D.C.
1862 - American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut capture the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Marks' Mills.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
1915 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins -- The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
1916 - Anzac Day commemorated for the first time, on the first anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove.
1916 - Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1938 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
1943 - The Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket is instituted.
1944 - The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
1945 - Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
1945 - The Nazi occupation army leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
1945 - Elbe Day: United States and Russian troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
1961 - Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
1966 - The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive - The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.
1974 - Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal restores democracy after more than forty years as a corporate fascist state.
1975 - As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
1981 - More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1982 - Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 - American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
1986 - Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II.
1988 - In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
1990 - The Hubble Telescope is deployed into orbit from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
2005 - The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.
2005 - Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.
2005 - 107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
2007 - Boris Yeltsin's funeral - the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Historical Events on 24 Apr

Historical Events on 24 Apr

1184 BC - Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional).
1479 BC - Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
1558 - Mary Queen of Scots marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
1704 - The first regular newspaper in the United States, the Boston, Massachusetts New-Letter, is published.
1800 - The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
1862 - American Civil War: A flotilla commanded by Union Admiral David Farragut passes two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River on its way to capture New Orleans, Louisiana.
1877 - Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878: Russia declares war on Ottoman Empire.
1898 - The Spanish-American War: The United States declare war on Spain.
1907 - Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
1913 - The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City is opened.
1915 - The Armenian Genocide begins with a massacre of hundreds of prominent Armenians in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
1916 - Easter Rising begins: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett start a rebellion in Ireland.
1916 - Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for ice-trapped ship Endurance.
1918 - First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs.
1953 - Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
1955 - The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
1961 - The 17th century Swedish ship Vasa is salvaged.
1963 - Marriage of Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
1964 - Mexico becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1965 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that was in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
1967 - Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
1967 - Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1, when the parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
1968 - Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
1970 - The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.
1975 - The Baader-Meinhof Gang takes 13 hostages at theWest German embassy in Stockholm.
1980 - Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
1990 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Historical Events on 23 Apr

Historical Events on 23 Apr

1014 - Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
1229 - Ferdinand III of Castile conquers Cáceres.
1343 - St. George's Night Uprising.
1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day.
1521 - Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
1597 - William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
1635 - First public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
1660 - Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.
1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1827 - William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays.
1867 - William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.
1920 - The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
1920 - The Grand National Assembly of Turkey is founded in Ankara.
1923 - Inauguration ceremonies take place of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter.
1932 - The 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands burns down.
1935 - Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
1940 - The Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.
1941 - World War II: Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the attacking Wehrmacht.
1942 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz - German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Arab forces.
1955 - The Canadian Labour Congress is formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.
1961 - Algiers putsch by French generals.
1967 - A group of young radicals are expelled from the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN). This group goes on to found the Socialist Workers Party (POS).
1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. see main article Columbia University protests of 1968.
1979 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protester Blair Peach.
1982 - Conch Republic is established.
1982 - The ZX Spectrum is released.
1985 - Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. (The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than 3 months.)
1987 - 28 construction workers die when the L'Ambiance Plaza apartment building collapses while under construction in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1988 - Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon leaves the charts for its first time after spending a record of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200.
1990 - Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
1997 - Omaria massacre in Algeria: 42 villagers are killed.
2003 - Beijing closes all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus.
215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Historical Events on 22 Apr

Historical Events on 22 Apr

1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil.
1509 - Henry VIII accedes to the throne of England after the death of his father.
1529 - Treaty of Saragossa divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Moluccas.
1836 - Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1863 - American Civil War: Grierson's Raid begins - troops under Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi.
1864 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
1889 - At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
1912 - Pravda, the "voice" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.
1915 - The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.
1930 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
1944 - World War II: Operation Persecution initiated - Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
1945 - World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. 520 are killed and 80 escape.
1945 - World War II: Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
1954 - Red Scare: Army-McCarthy Hearings begin.
1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its first season.
1970 - First Earth Day celebrated.
1972 - Vietnam War: Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts antiwar protests in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
1983 - The German magazine, Der Stern claims that Adolf Hitler's diaries were found in wreckage in East Germany.
1992 - In an explosion in Guadalajara, Mexico, 206 people are killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 left homeless.
1993 - The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC is dedicated.
1993 - The web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.
1997 - The Japanese embassy hostage crisis ends in Lima, Peru.
1997 - Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria - 93 villagers killed.
1998 - Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
2000 - In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida.
2000 - The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom.
2004 - Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
2006 - 243 people are injured in pro-democracy protest in Nepal after Nepali security forces open fire on protesters against King Gyanendra.
2006 - Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Historical Events on 21 Apr

Historical Events on 21 Apr

1509 - Henry VIII ascends the throne of England (unofficially) at the death of his father, Henry VII.
1792 - Tiradentes, a revolutionary who was leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
1836 - Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto - Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1863 - Bahá'u'lláh, considered the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declares his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest".
1894 - Norway formally adopts the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and Spain as of this date.
1918 - World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France.
1922 - The first Aggie Muster is held as a remembrance for fellow Aggies who had died in the previous year.
1942 - World War II: The most famous (and first international) Aggie Muster is held on the Philippine island of Corregidor, by Brigadier General George F. Moore (with 25 fellow Aggies who were under his command), while 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the is
1944 - Women in France receive the right to vote.
1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
1952 - Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.
1960 - Founding of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith in Washington, D.C.
1960 - Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 9:30 am the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
1962 - The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
1963 - The Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith is elected for the first time.
1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
1966 - Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
1970 - The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia.
1975 - Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
1982 - Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
1987 - The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that explodes in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, killing 106 people.
1989 - Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
1992 - Robert Alton Harris is put to death in the California Gas Chamber for 3 murders.
1994 - The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.
2008 - The United States Air Force retires the F-117 Nighthawk.
43 BC - Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Although Antony fails to capture Mutina, Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly afterwards.
753 BC - Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date).

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Historical Events on 20 Apr

Historical Events on 20 Apr

1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
1657 - Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: the siege of Boston begins, which followed the first battles at Lexington and Concord.
1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
1810 - The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain.
1828 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou.
1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
1871 - Civil Rights Act of 1871
1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.
1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
1914 - Forty-five men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1916 - Chicago Cubs played their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
1945 - World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 - World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba.
1964 - BBC Two launches with the power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.
1967 - A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126.
1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa, killing 122.
1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
1978 - Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.
1980 - Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested.
1985 - ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
1986 - Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years.
1986 - Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in an NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics.
1998 - TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
1998 - German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
1999 - Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.
2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
2008 - Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Historical Events on 19 Apr

Historical Events on 19 Apr

1012 - Martyrdom of St. Alphege in Greenwich, London.
1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant movement.
1587 - Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor.
1713 - With no living male heirs, Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717).
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord which began the American Revolutionary War.
1782 - John Adams secured the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government and the house that he purchased in The Hague, Netherlands became the first American embassy.
1809 - The army of Austria attacks and is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition.
1810 - Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.
1839 - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
1861 - American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1892 - Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1904 - Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is destroyed by fire.
1909 - Joan of Arc receives beatification.
1919 - Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1928 - The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1934 - Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer.
1936 - First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine.
1942 - World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1943 - World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943 - Bicycle Day - Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
1945 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.
1950 - Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1951 - General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1954 - Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decides Urdu and Bengali to be national languages of Pakistan.
1955 - The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.
1960 - Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders.
1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.
1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station.
1971 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
1975 - India's first satellite Aryabhata is launched.
1976 - Executive Order 9066 is rescinded.
1985 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1985 - U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Historical Events on 18 Apr

Historical Events on 18 Apr

1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
1738 - Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") founded in Madrid.
1775 - American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begin; riders warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
1783 - Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
1797 - The Battle of Neuwied - French victory against the Austrians.
1848 - American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.
1880 - An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.
1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
1899 - The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.
1902 - Quetzaltenango, second largest city of Guatemala, destroyed by Earthquake.
1906 - The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys much of San Francisco, California.
1906 - The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
1909 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
1912 - The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
1915 - French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
1924 - Simon & Schuster publishes the first Crossword Puzzle book.
1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
1943 - World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
1945 - Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.
1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.
1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
1949 - The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the United States is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1955 - Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandurg, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
1958 - A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
1974 - The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.
1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
1988 - The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses the Cabinet.
1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces accidentally shell the UN compound at Quana.
2007 - The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Historical Events on 17 Apr

Historical Events on 17 Apr

1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts.
1492 - Spain and Christopher Columbus sign a contract for him to sail to Asia to get spices.
1521 - Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings.
1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.
1555 - After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions to Spanish territories in America.
1861 - American Civil War: Virginia secedes from the United States.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Plymouth begins - Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
1895 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and
1905 - The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which held that the "right to free contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
1907 - The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than any other day.
1924 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.
1941 - World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
1949 - At midnight 26 counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.
1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA finances and trains Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair.
1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
1964 - Shea Stadium opens.
1969 - Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1971 - The People's Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.
1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
1973 - German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 founded.
1975 - The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
1982 - Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
1984 - Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
1986 - The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.
1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever gaining 17.58 to 3,004.46.
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.
69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Historical Events on 16 Apr

Historical Events on 16 Apr

1071 - Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.
1178 BC - A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War.
1346 - The Serbian Empire is proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the Balkans.
1395 - Azzo X d'Este is defeated at the Battle of Portomaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops.
1521 - Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.
1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
1746 - The Battle of Culloden takes place.
1780 - The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
1799 - Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor - Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.
1853 - The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
1858 - The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up.
1862 - American Civil War: The Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.
1862 - American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia becomes law.
1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg - ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile in Finland.
1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre.
1922 - The Treaty of Rapallo, in which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations between Berlin and Moscow, is signed.
1925 - During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.
1941 - Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.
1941 - World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.
1943 - Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
1945 - The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz Castle).
1945 - More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
1946 - Syria gains independence.
1947 - Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
1947 - Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1953 - Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal Yacht Britannia.
1955 - The Burma-Japanese peace treaty signed in Rangoon on November 5, 1954 comes into force, formally ending the state of war.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
1964 - Great Train Robbery - 12 men are sentenced to a total of 307 years.
1972 - Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive - prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
1987 - British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with gross indecency.
1988 - In Forlì, Italy, Red Brigades kill Italian Senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor to Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita.
1990 - The "Doctor of Death", Jack Kevorkian, goes through with his first assisted suicide.
1992 - The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
2003 - The 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 Trans-Atlantic 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, shoots 32 people to death and injures 23 others before committing suicide.
2008 - Start of Papal Journey of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States
73 - Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Historical Events on 15 Apr

Historical Events on 15 Apr

1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
1632 - Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
1715 - Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1738 - Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
1755 - Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
1783 - Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
1802 - William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson is then sworn in as the 17th President of the United States.
1892 - The General Electric Company is formed.
1906 - The Armenian organization AGBU is established.
1912 - The British passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sinks in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg two and a half hours earlier, the previous day.
1920 - Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
1923 - Insulin becomes generally available for use by diabetics.
1924 - Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1940 - The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.
1941 - In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attack Belfast, Northern Ireland killing one thousand people.
1942 - George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta - its people and defenders" by King George VI.
1943 - An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
1945 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 - Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
1952 - The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress
1955 - Ray Kroc opens his first franchise of McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1957 - White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.
1967 - Scotland defeats rival England 3-2 at Wembley Stadium, causing the Scots fans to jokingly claim their side as "Unofficial world Champions", creating the phenomenon of the Unofficial Football World Championships.
1979 - A disastrous earthquake (of M 7.1) on Montenegro coast.
1984 - British comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a massive heart attack while live on TV.
1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya.
1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of football club Sheffield Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool FC fans.
1989 - Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
1992 - The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1994 - Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Historical Events on 14 Apr

Historical Events on 14 Apr

1028 - Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected king of the Germans.
1205 - Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.
1341 - Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo.
1434 - The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.
1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
1699 - Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
1775 - The first abolition society in North America is established. The "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage" is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1828 - Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
1831 - Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse.
1846 - The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
1849 - Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader.
1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
1864 - Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement.
1865 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.
1881 - The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
1890 - The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.
1894 - Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies.
1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,503 lives.
1915 - The Turks invade Armenia.
1927 - The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1931 - Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the 2nd Spanish Republic.
1935 - "Black Sunday", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.
1940 - World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
1941 - World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the Axis Operation 25 invasion. In addition, Rommel attacks Tobruk.
1944 - Bombay Explosion (1944): A massive explosion in the Bombay harbor kills 300 causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
1945 - Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascist occupation.
1956 - In Chicago, Illinois (U.S.), videotape is first demonstrated.
1958 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin is greeted by mass crowds and Khrushchev in Red Square following his historic first space flight on 12th April
1962 - Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France.
1968 - At the U.S. Academy Awards, a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress is achieved by Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.
1978 - 1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
1981 - STS-1 - The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completes its first test flight.
1986 - 1 kg (2.2 pound) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
1986 - In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
1988 - In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
1988 - The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
1994 - In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
1999 - NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.
1999 - A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
2000 - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich files a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads the movement against file-sharing programs.
2002 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
2003 - U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985.
2003 - The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
2005 - The U.S. Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
2007 - At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan.
43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed.
69 - Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Historical Events on 13 Apr

Historical Events on 13 Apr

1111 - Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.
1250 - The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured.
1256 - The Grand Union of the Augustinian order formed when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
1598 - Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (Edict repealed in 1685.)
1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
1796 - The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.
1849 - Hungary becomes a republic.
1861 - American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1868 - Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala.
1870 - Metropolitan Museum of Art founded.
1873 - The Colfax Massacre takes place.
1902 - James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1919 - The Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India. At least 1200 wounded.
1921 - Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party.
1939 - In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.
1941 - Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
1943 - James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton take part in an Alcatraz escape attempt.
1943 - World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government in exile in London, from the Soviet Union.
1944 - The diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
1945 - German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen Germany.
1948 - Seventy-seven doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital are ambushed and massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.
1953 - CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
1958 - Van Cliburn is the first American to win the Chaikovsky Compettion in Moscow.
1969 - Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
1970 - An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.
1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
1974 - Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the U.S.'s first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
1975 - Bus Massacre in Lebanon : Attack by Phalangist militia gunmen kill 27 Palestinian civilians and marks the start of the 15-year Lebanese civil war.
1979 - Tanzania and Zambia recognize Yusufu Lule as President of Uganda.
1983 - Harold Washington is elected as the first African-American mayor in Chicago's history.
1984 - India moves into Siachen Glacier thus annexes more territory from the Line of Control. The challenger Shuttle lands after retrieving, repairing and redeploying a satellite.
1985 - Enver Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia as the leader of Albania.
1987 - Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
1992 - Neil Kinnock resigns as British Labour leader following the party's defeat by the Conservatives in the general election four days earlier.
1992 - The Great Chicago Flood happened on this day.
1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win golf's Masters Tournament.
2002 - Pedro Carmona, interim president of Venezuela, resigns one day after taking office.
2006 - Powerful tornadoes rip through Iowa City, Iowa.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Historical Events on 12 Apr

Historical Events on 12 Apr

1557 - Cuenca is founded in Ecuador.
1606 - The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain.
1633 - The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins.
1776 - American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.
1820 - Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.
1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1864 - American Civil War: The Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill most African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
1927 - April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the CPC members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.
1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, US.
1934 - The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
1935 - First flight of the Bristol Blenheim.
1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.
1945 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.
1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
1963 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.
1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
1980 - Terry Fox begins his "Marathon of Hope" at St. John's, Newfoundland.
1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession.
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
1990 - Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
1992 - Disneyland Resort Paris opens in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France.
1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
1998 - An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near the town of Bovec.
1999 - US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chávez.
2002 - Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Historical Events on 11 Apr

Historical Events on 11 Apr

1079 - Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland.
1241 - Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.
1512 - War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix win the Battle of Ravenna.
1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.
1713 - War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War): Treaty of Utrecht.
1775 - The last execution for witchcraft in Germany takes place.
1828 - Foundation of Bahia Blanca.
1856 - In Rivas, Nicaragua, Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up.
1865 - President Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.
1868 - The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1876 - The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.
1888 - The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated.
1899 - Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States.
1905 - Albert Einstein reveals his Theory of Relativity (special relativity).
1919 - The International Labour Organization is founded.
1921 - Iowa becomes the first U.S. state to impose a cigarette tax.
1921 - First sports broadcast on the radio takes place.
1921 - The Emirate of Transjordan is created.
1945 - World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
1951 - The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.
1951 - Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
1952 - The Battle of Nanri island takes place.
1955 - The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
1957 - Britain agrees to Singaporean self-rule.
1961 - The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
1965 - The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.
1968 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
1968 - German student leader Rudi Dutschke is shot in Berlin.
1970 - Apollo 13 is launched.
1976 - The Apple I is created.
1979 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
1981 - A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.
1981 - President Ronald Reagan returns to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.
1987 - The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.
1990 - Customs officers in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
2000 - AT&T Park in San Francisco, Minute Maid Park in Houston, and Comerica Park in Detroit open.
2001 - The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People's Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter is released.
2002 - The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.
2002 - An attempted coup d'état in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez takes place.
2006 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.
2007 - 2007 Algiers bombings: Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others.
491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Historical Events on 10 Apr

Historical Events on 10 Apr

1407 - the lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing. He is awarded with the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma.
1500 - Ludovico Sforza is captured by the Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.
1606 - The Charter of the Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
1710 - The first law regulating copyright is issued in Great Britain.
1741 - War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia defeats Austria in the Battle of Mollwitz.
1815 - The Mount Tambora volcano begins its peak eruption period that lasts until July 15.
1816 - The United States Government approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.
1821 - Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Turks from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.
1826 - The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town Messolonghi start leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.
1856 - The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
1857 - The Sepoy Mutiny popularly known as the "Revolt of 1857" broke out in Meerut, India as part of the Indian independence movement.
1858 - The original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Tower of London is cast in Stockton-on-Tees by Warner's of Cripplegate. This however cracked during testing and was recasted into the 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and is still in use to date.
1864 - Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is elected emperor of Mexico.
1865 - American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
1868 - At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Theodore. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two die from the British/Indian troops.
1869 - José Martí founds the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
1874 - The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.
1912 - The RMS Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England for her first and only voyage.
1916 - The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.
1919 - Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.
1925 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
1933 - New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps is created.
1941 - World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustase fascist insurgents in power.
1944 - Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from the Birkenau death camp.
1957 - The Suez Canal is reopened for all shipping after being closed for three months.
1959 - Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko.
1963 - 129 people die when the submarine USS Thresher sinks at at sea.
1968 - Shipwreck of the New Zealand inter-island ferry TEV Wahine outside Wellington harbour.
1971 - Ping Pong Diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a weeklong visit.
1972 - 20 days after he was kidnapped in Buenos Aires, Oberdan Sallustro is executed by communist guerrillas.
1972 - Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
1973 - A British Vanguard turboprop crashes during a snowstorm at Basel, Switzerland killing 104.
1979 - Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.
1991 - Italian ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy killing 140.
1991 - A rare tropical storm develops in the Southern Hemisphere near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.
1998 - The Belfast Agreement is signed.
2006 - Hundreds of thousands protest H.R. 4437 (aka the "Sensenbrenner Bill") in the United States.
879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Historical Events on 9 Apr

Historical Events on 9 Apr

1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies.
1413 - Henry V is crowned King of England.
1440 - Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark.
1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
1867 - Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
1916 - World War I: The Battle of Verdun - German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
1917 - World War I: The Battle of Arras - the battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
1937 - The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London - it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
1939 - Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
1940 - World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
1942 - World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy D
1945 - World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
1945 - World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
1945 - The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.
1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in
1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia (La violencia).
1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.
1952 - Hugo Ballivian's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines
1953 - Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax.
1957 - The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping.
1959 - Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.
1969 - The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.
1969 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
1975 - The first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world.
1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 - A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
1992 - John Major's Conservative Party wins an unprecedented fourth general election victory in the United Kingdom.
1999 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, President of Niger, is assassinated.
2002 - The funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother at Westminster Abbey.
2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: Baghdad falls to American forces.
2005 - His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles.
475 - Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.