1999 – 15 die in the Columbine High School massacre. A further 24 victims were injured when two teenagers opened fire on students and teachers in the high school south of Denver.
1139 – The Second Lateran Council opened in Rome.
1290 – Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king
1505 – Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
1534 – Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, set sail from St. Malo to explore the North American coastline.
1653 – With 40 musketeers, Oliver Cromwell routes the English Rump Parliament to house, after it failed to establish a caretaker government
1689 – The siege of Londonderry began. Supporters of James II attacked the city.
1736 – French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis begins Lapland expedition to measure latitude and shape of the earth, joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier
1769 – Ottawa Chief Pontiac was murdered by an Illinois Indian in Cahokia.
1775 – American troops began the siege of British-held Boston.
1792 – France declared war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia. It was the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
1809 – Napoleon defeated Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.
1828 – Frenchman René Caillié is the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, returns to win 10,000 franc prize from Société de Géographie
1832 – Hot Springs National Park was intially created by an act of the U.S. Congress. It was the first time a piece of land was set aside by the U.S. government to preserve the area for recreation. The area was made a national park on March 4, 1921.
1836 – The U.S. territory of Wisconsin was created by the U.S. Congress.
1861 – Robert E. Lee resigned from U.S. Army.
1879 – First mobile home (horse drawn) was used in a journey from London to Cyprus.
1894 – 136,000 mine workers strike in Ohio for pay increase
1902 – Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.
1914 – 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow, Colo
1915 – The Armenians rise and seize the Turkish town of Van, which they hold until Russians relieve them on 19 May; thousands of Armenians are killed
1916 – Sir Roger Casement landed in Ireland to incite rebellion against the British. Casement, a British diplomat, was captured within hours and was hanged for high treason on August 3.
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
1919 – The Polish Army captured Vilno, Lithuania from the Soviets.
1936 – Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1940 – The First electron microscope was demonstrated by RCA.
1942 – Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, establishes a policy of “true reconciliation with Germany.”
1945 – Soviet troops began their attack on Berlin.
1945 – During World War II, Allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
1953 – Operation Little Switch began in Korea. It was the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. Thirty Americans were freed.
1961 – FM stereo broadcasting was approved by the FCC.
1962 – The New Orleans Citizens’ Council offered a free one-way ride for black people to move to northern states.
1967 – U.S. planes bombed Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War.
1968 – British politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech
1969 – Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh
1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
1972 – The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
1973 – Mass murderer Ed Kemper attempts to dispose of his mother’s vocal chords in a domestic waste disposal unit
1978 – Soviet air defense shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902. The Boeing 707’s crew had miscalculated their route, taking them into Soviet airspace at the height of the Cold War. The jet made an emergency landing on a frozen lake. Two passengers were killed in the incident.
1979 – US President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit which swam up to his fishing boat in Plains, Georgia
1980 – Cuban President Fidel Castro announces he is opening the Mariel Port for Cubans to leave, about 125,00 leave in next 5-6 months
1982 – The Activision game Pitfall! was released for the Atari 2600 game system.
1983 – President Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security
1985 – ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas
1987 – In Argentina, President Raul Alfonsin quelled a military revolt.
1988 – The U.S. Air Forces’ Stealth (B-2 bomber) was officially unveiled.
1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet head of state to visit South Korea.
1992 – All-star benefit concert in memory of Freddie Mercury held at Wembley Stadium, London; performers include: Queen, Roger Daltry, Robert Plant, Zucchero, Paul Young, Seal, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Mick Ronson, George Michael, Elton John, Axl Rose, and Liza Minnelli
1993 – Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
1998 – German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
1999 – 15 die in the Columbine High School massacre. A further 24 victims were injured when two teenagers opened fire on students and teachers in the high school south of Denver.
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.
2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes. The explosion of the British Petroleum (BP) platform operated by Transocean killed 11 workers and led to the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
2016 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced a plan for Harriet Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson as the portrait on the $20 bill.
2018 – Mexican court bars sales of controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll
2020 – Price of US oil turns negative for the 1st time in history – West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls
2020 – Three US states, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina the 1st to announce end to some COVID-19 restrictions
2021 – President of Chad for three decades, Idriss Déby reported to have been killed on a battlefield fighting rebels near the capital of Ndjamena
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
