Events Pre-1600 686 – Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul. 956 – Polyeuctus of Constantinople is elected as patriarch of Constantinople. 1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. 1077 – The Patriarchate of Friûl, the first Friulian state, is created. 1559 – The second of two treaties making up the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars. 1589 – The janissaries revolt in response to the debasement of coins.
1601–1900 1721 – Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title. 1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III.; 1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins. 1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. 1882 – American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James. 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen.; 1888 – Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs. 1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1901–present 1905 – Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1920 – Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland.Mikko Porvali : Murhayritys joka jäi tekemättä (in Finnish)Mannerheimin murhayrityksen jälkinäytös käytiin Vallilassa (in Finnish) 1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1933 – First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston. 1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh. 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. 1946 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March. 1948 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. 1948 – In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins. 1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges. 1956 – Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado. 1961 – LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño. 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day. 1969 – Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort. 1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. 1974 – The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured. 1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins.Martin, Allison, The Legacy of Operation Babylift, Adoption Today journal, Volume 2, Number 4 March 2000. "On April 3rd, a combination of private and military transport planes began to fly more children out of Vietnam as part of the operation. Numbers vary, but it appears that at least 2,000 children were flown to the United States and approximately 1,300 children were flown to Canada, Europe and Australia." 1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. 1980 – US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah. 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. 1989 – The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield. 1993 – The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time. 1996 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States. 1996 – A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. 1997 – The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. 2000 – United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. 2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves. 2007 – Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record of 574.8 km/h (159.6 m/s, 357.2 mph). 2008 – ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations. 2008 – Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody. 2009 – Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide. 2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer. 2013 – More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2016 – The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies. 2017 – A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people. 2018 – YouTube headquarters shooting: A 38-year-old gunwoman opens fire at YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring three people before committing suicide.
Births
Pre-1600 1016 – Xing Zong, Chinese emperor (died 1055) 1151 – Igor Svyatoslavich, Kievan Rus' prince (died 1202) 1395 – George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher, scholar and humanist (died 1486) 1438 – John III of Egmont, Dutch nobleman (died 1516) 1529 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1581) 1540 – Maria de' Medici, Italian noblewoman, the eldest daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo. (died 1557) 1593 – George Herbert, English poet (died 1633)
1601–1900 1643 – Charles V, duke of Lorraine (died 1690) 1682 – Valentin Rathgeber, German organist and composer (died 1750) 1693 – George Edwards, English ornithologist and entomologist (died 1773) 1715 – William Watson, English physician, physicist, and botanist (died 1787) 1764 – John Abernethy, English surgeon and anatomist (died 1831) 1769 – Christian Günther von Bernstorff, Danish-Prussian politician and diplomat (died 1835) 1770 – Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (died 1843) 1778 – Pierre Bretonneau, French doctor who performed the first successful tracheotomy (died 1862) 1781 – Swaminarayan, Indian religious leader (died 1830) 1782 – Alexander Macomb, American general (died 1841) 1783 – Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian (died 1859) 1791 – Anne Lister, English diarist, mountaineer, and traveller (died 1840) 1798 – Charles Wilkes, American admiral, geographer, and explorer (died 1877) 1807 – Mary Carpenter, English educational and social reformer (died 1877) 1814 – Lorenzo Snow, American religious leader, 5th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1901) 1822 – Edward Everett Hale, American minister, historian, and author (died 1909) 1823 – George Derby, American lieutenant and journalist (died 1861) 1823 – William M. Tweed, American politician (died 1878) 1826 – Cyrus K. Holliday, American businessman (died 1900) 1837 – John Burroughs, American botanist and author (died 1921) 1842 – Ulric Dahlgren, American colonel (died 1864) 1848 – Arturo Prat, Chilean lawyer and captain (died 1879) 1852 – Talbot Baines Reed, English author (died 1893) 1858 – Jacob Gaudaur, Canadian rower (died 1937) 1860 – Frederik van Eeden, Dutch psychiatrist and author (died 1932) 1864 – Emil Kellenberger, Swiss target shooter (died 1943) 1875 – Mistinguett, French actress and singer (died 1956) 1876 – Margaret Anglin, Canadian actress, director, and producer (died 1958) 1876 – Tomáš Baťa, Czech businessman, founded Bata Shoes (died 1932) 1880 – Otto Weininger, Jewish-Austrian philosopher and author (died 1903) 1881 – Alcide De Gasperi, Italian journalist and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1954) 1882 – Philippe Desranleau, Canadian archbishop (died 1952) 1883 – Ikki Kita, Japanese philosopher and author (died 1937) 1885 – Allan Dwan, Canadian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1981) 1885 – Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (died 1954) 1885 – Marie-Victorin Kirouac, Canadian botanist and academic (died 1944) 1885 – St John Philby, English colonial and explorer (died 1960) 1886 – Dooley Wilson, American actor and singer (died 1953) 1887 – Ōtori Tanigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 24th Yokozuna (died 1956) 1887 – Nishizō Tsukahara, Japanese admiral (died 1966) 1888 – Thomas C. Kinkaid, American admiral (died 1972) 1889 – Grigoraș Dinicu, Romanian violinist and composer (died 1949) 1893 – Leslie Howard, English actor (died 1943) 1895 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer and educator (died 1968) 1895 – Zez Confrey, American pianist and composer (died 1971) 1897 – Joe Kirkwood Sr., Australian golfer (died 1970) 1897 – Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek general (died 1989) 1898 – David Jack, English footballer and manager (died 1958) 1898 – George Jessel, American actor, singer, and producer (died 1981) 1898 – Henry Luce, American publisher, co-founded Time magazine (died 1967) 1900 – Camille Chamoun, Lebanese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Lebanon (died 1987) 1900 – Albert Walsh, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (died 1958)
1901–present 1903 – Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Indian social reformer and freedom fighter (died 1988) 1904 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor and stuntman (died 1999) 1904 – Sally Rand, American dancer (died 1979) 1904 – Russel Wright, American furniture designer (died 1976) 1905 – Robert Sink, American general (died 1965) 1910 – Ted Hook, Australian public servant (died 1990) 1911 – Nanette Bordeaux, Canadian-American actress (died 1956) 1911 – Michael Woodruff, English-Scottish surgeon and academic (died 2001) 1911 – Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish-American runner (died 1980) 1912 – Dorothy Eden, New Zealand-English author (died 1982) 1912 – Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (died 1963) 1913 – Per Borten, Norwegian politician, 18th Prime Minister of Norway (died 2005) 1914 – Ray Getliffe, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2008) 1914 – Sam Manekshaw, Indian field marshal (died 2008)