1775 – The American Revolutionary War begins, The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of the armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and 13 colonies of British North America. The war resulted in U.S. independence.
0531 – Battle of Callinicum: Roman general Belisarius defeated by Sasanian army led by Azarethes, though heavy losses on both sides result in a stalemate in northern Syria
1012 – Aelfheah was murdered by Danes who had been ravaging the south of England. Aelfhear became the 29th Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005.
1539 – Emperor Charles V reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
1587 – English admiral Sir Francis Drake entered Cadiz harbor and sank the Spanish fleet.
1689 – Residents of Boston ousted their governor, Edmond Andros.
1713 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which gave women the rights of succession to Hapsburg possessions.
1764 – The English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.
1770 – Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.
1775 – The American Revolutionary War begins, The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of the armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and 13 colonies of British North America. The war resulted in U.S. independence.
1782 – John Adams secures Dutch Republic’s recognition of the United States as an independent government, a house he purchased in The Hague becomes America’s first embassy
1794 – Tadeusz Kosciuszko forced the Russians out of Warsaw.
1802 – The Spanish reopened the New Orleans port to American merchants.
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 Kingdom of Belgium was recognized by all the states of Europe when the Treaty of London was signed.
1861 – The Baltimore riots resulted in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed.
1861 – U.S. President Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports.
1892 – The Duryea gasoline buggy was introduced in the U.S. by Charles and Frank Duryea.
1897 – The first annual Boston Marathon was held. It was the first of its type in the U.S.
1901 – In the Philippines, recently captured insurgent leader Emilio Aguinaldo issues a proclamation advising his countrymen to end their rebellion and use of peaceful means to work with the US toward independence.
1909 – Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church
1916 – Alderman Kelly reads the ‘Castle Order’ to a meeting of Dublin Corporation; this forged document supposedly from Dublin Castle, indicated that there was to be mass arrests of Irish Volunteers to prevent “trouble”
1927 – Actress Mae West found guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” in a New York stage play entitled “Sex”. She is sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $500, the resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career.
1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that removed the U.S. from the gold standard.
1936 – First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine, anti-Jewish riots break out
1938 – General Francisco Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War.
1939 – Connecticut approved the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution after 148 years.
1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule began. The Jews were able to fight off the Germans for 28 days.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur gave his “Old Soldiers” speech before the U.S. Congress after being relieved by U.S. President Truman. In the address General MacArthur said that “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
1951 – Shigeki Tanaka won the Boston Marathon. Tanaka had survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
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
1960 – Baseball uniforms began displaying player’s names on their backs.
1965 – At a cost of $20,000, the outer Astrodome ceiling is painted because of sun’s glare, this causes the grass to die
1967 – Surveyor 3 landed on the moon and began sending photos back to the U.S.
1971 – Russia launched the Salyut into orbit around Earth. It was the first space station.
1972 – British Prime Minister Edward Heath confirms that a plan to conduct an arrest operation, in the event of a riot during the march on 30 January 1972, was known to British government Ministers in advance
1975 – India launched its first satellite with aid from the USSR.
1977 – Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book “Roots.”
1981 – In Davao, Philippines, thirteen people were killed when members of the New People’s Army threw hand grenades into the Roman Catholic cathedral during Easter services.
1982 – NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.
1982 – NASA named Guion S. Bluford Jr. as the first African-American astronaut.
1982 – The U.S. announced a ban on U.S. tourist and business traval to Cuba. The U.S. charged the Cuban government with subversion in Central America.
1987 – The first installment of The Simpsons is aired, The hugely popular animated sitcom debuted on the Tracey Ullman Show in the form of one-minute shorts.
1987 – The last California condor known to be in the wild was captured and placed in a breeding program at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
1989 – A gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa. 47 sailors were killed.
1989 – In El Salvador, Attorney General Alvadora was killed by a car bomb.
1993 – The Branch-Davidian’s compound in Waco, TX, burned to the ground. It was the end of a 51-day standoff between the cult and U.S. federal agents. 86 people were killed including 17 children. Nine of the Branch Davidians escaped the fire.
1994 – A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to Rodney King for violation of his civil rights.
1995 – The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, was destroyed by a bomb. It was the worst bombing on U.S. territory. 168 people were killed including 19 children, and 500 were injured. Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the bombing on June 2, 1997.
1998 – Wang Dan, a leader of 1989 Tienanmen Square pro democracy protests, was freed by the Chinese government.
2000 – The Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma that killed 168 people.
2002 – The USS Cole was relaunched. In Yemen, 17 sailors were killed when the ship was attacked by terrorists on October 12, 2000. The attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
2013 – Boston bombing suspects killed and captured in Boston after 4 days
2018 – Miguel Diaz-Canel is elected Cuba’s new president, after former president Raúl Castro steps down
2020 – UK COVID-19 death toll reaches 16,060 (hospitals only), as “The Sunday Times” criticizes Boris Johnson’s government’s response, saying they “sleepwalked into disaster”
2021 – NASA successfully flies its drone helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, first powered aircraft to fly on another world
2021 – New Zealand and Australia open a travel bubble between the two countries after more than a year of border closures
2022 – US Biden administration restores climate impacts and community say to the National Environmental Policy Act, previously removed by Donald Trump
2022 – US inflation hits 8.5%, the highest since 1981, driven by a rise in gas prices, rent and food
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
