Events Pre-1600 285 – Roman emperor Diocletian names Maximian his co-emperor ("Augustus"). 527 – Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne. 1081 – Alexios I Komnenos overthrows the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates,; and, after his troops spend three days extensively looting Constantinople, is formally crowned on April 4. 1572 – In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Seventeen Provinces, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1601–1900 1725 – J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday. 1789 – In New York City, the United States House of Representatives achieves its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker. 1833 – The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin. 1865 – American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line during the Siege of Petersburg. 1867 – Singapore becomes a British crown colony. 1873 – The White Star steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547 in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.; 1900 – Prince George becomes absolute monarch of the Cretan State.|
1901–present 1908 – The Territorial Force (renamed Territorial Army in 1920) is formed as a volunteer reserve component of the British Army. 1918 – The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. 1922 – In newly formed Northern Ireland, six Catholics are murdered in the Arnon Street killings, one week after six others were killed in the McMahon killings. 1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years fortress confinement for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" but spends only nine months in jail. 1924 – The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed. 1933 – The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts. 1935 – India's central banking institution, the Reserve Bank of India, is formed. 1937 – Aden becomes a British crown colony. 1937 – The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service. 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender. 1941 – Fântâna Albă massacre: Between two hundred and two thousand Romanian civilians are killed by Soviet Border Troops. 1941 – A military coup in Iraq overthrows the regime of 'Abd al-Ilah and installs Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister. 1944 – World War II: Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. 1945 – World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa. 1946 – The 8.6 Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands resulting in dozens of deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii. 1946 – The Malayan Union is established. Protests from locals led to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya two years later. 1947 – The only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy begins. 1948 – Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin. 1948 – Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark. 1949 – The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years. 1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 1955 – The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece. 1960 – The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space. 1964 – The British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry are replaced by a unified Defence Council of the United Kingdom. 1969 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force. 1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law. 1970 – A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61. 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh. 1973 – Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India. 1974 – The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect. 1976 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc. 1979 – Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah. 1984 – Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California. 1986 – Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion. 1989 – Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), is introduced in Scotland. 1993 – NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee. 1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion. 1999 – Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories. 2001 – An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained. 2001 – Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges. 2001 – Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it. 2004 – Google launches its Email service Gmail. 2006 – Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013. 2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers. 2016 – The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact. 2026 – The Artemis II lunar flyby mission launches, marking the first crewed flight above low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Births Pre-1600 1220 – Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (died 1272) 1282 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1347) 1328 – Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans (died 1382) 1543 – François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières (died 1626) 1578 – William Harvey, English physician and academic (died 1657)
1601–1900 1610 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier and critic (died 1703) 1629 – Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, French organist and composer (died 1691) 1640 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician and academic (died 1697) 1647 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet and courtier (died 1680) 1697 – Antoine François Prévost, French novelist and translator (died 1763) 1721 – Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer (died 1799) 1741 – George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor (died 1825) 1753 – Joseph de Maistre, French philosopher, lawyer, and diplomat (died 1821) 1765 – Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver and etcher (died 1810) 1776 – Sophie Germain, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (died 1831) 1786 – William Mulready, Irish genre painter (died 1863) 1815 – Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (died 1898) 1815 – Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (died 1880) 1823 – Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Kentucky (died 1891) 1824 – Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, Canadian bishop (died 1901) 1834 – James Fisk, American businessman (died 1872) 1852 – Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter and illustrator (died 1911) 1858 – Columba Marmion, Irish Benedictine abbot (died 1923)* 1865 – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1929) 1866 – William Blomfield, New Zealand cartoonist and politician (died 1938) 1866 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1924) 1866 – Ève Lavallière, French actress (died 1929) 1868 – Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright (died 1918) 1868 – Walter Mead, English cricketer (died 1954) 1871 – F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor (died 1955) 1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1943) 1874 – Ernest Barnes, English mathematician and theologian (died 1953) 1874 – Prince Karl of Bavaria (died 1927) 1875 – Edgar Wallace, English journalist, author, and playwright (died 1932) 1878 – C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist (died 1958) 1879 – Stanislaus Zbyszko, Polish wrestler and strongman (died 1967) 1881 – Octavian Goga, Romanian Prime Minister (died 1938) 1883 – Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1930) 1883 – Edvard Drabløs, Norwegian actor and director (died 1976) 1883 – Laurette Taylor, Irish-American actress (died 1946) 1885 – Wallace Beery, American actor (died 1949) 1885 – Clementine Churchill, English wife of Winston Churchill (died 1977) 1889 – K. B. Hedgewar, Indian physician and activist (died 1940) 1893 – Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-English actress (died 1980) 1895 – Alberta Hunter, African-American singer-songwriter and nurse (died 1984) 1898 – William James Sidis, Ukrainian-Russian Jewish American mathematician, anthropologist, and historian (died 1944) 1899 – Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian academic and politician (died 1968) 1900 – Stefanie Clausen, Danish Olympic diver (died 1981)
1901–present 1901 – Whittaker Chambers, American journalist and spy (died 1961) 1902 – Maria Polydouri, Greek poet (died 1930) 1905 – Gaston Eyskens, Belgian economist and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1988) 1905 – Paul Hasluck, Australian historian, poet, and politician, 17th Governor-General of Australia (died 1993) 1906 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer, founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau (died 1989) 1907 – Shivakumara Swami, Indian religious leader and philanthropist (died 2019) 1908 – Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic (died 1970) 1908 – Harlow Rothert, American shot putter, lawyer, and academic (died 1997) 1909 – Abner Biberman, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1977) 1909 – Eddy Duchin, American pianist and bandleader (died 1951) 1910 – Harry Carney, American saxophonist and clarinet player (died 1974) 1910 – Bob Van Osdel, American high jumper and soldier (died 1987) 1911 – Augusta Braxton Baker, African American librarian (died 1998) 1913 – Memos Makris, Greek sculptor (died 1993) 1915 – O. W. Fischer, Austrian-Swiss actor and director (died 2004) 1916 – Sheila May Edmonds, British mathematician (died 2002) 1917 – Sydney Newman, Canadian screenwriter and producer, co-created Doctor Who (died 1997) 1917 – Melville Shavelson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2007) 1919 – Joseph Murray, American surgeon and soldier, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) 1920 – Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (died 1997) 1921 – William Bergsma, American composer and educator (died 1994)