1957 – The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax – The 3-minute film shown on the current affairs program, Panorama, portrayed a Swiss family apparently harvesting spaghetti from a tree. A number of viewers later contacted the BBC to inquire where to find and how to grow such a plant. The hoax is regarded as one of the best April Fools jokes ever pulled.
0527 – Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne
1340 – Niels Ebbesen kills Gerhard III of Holstein in his bedroom, ending the 1332-1340 interregnum in Denmark.
1515 – Portuguese fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque captures the Persian fortress of Hormuz, renaming it the Fort of Our Lady of the Conception
1572 – The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck landed in Holland and captured the small town of Briel.
1621 – The Plymouth, MA, colonists created the first treaty with Native Americans.
1693 – Cotton Mather’s four-day-old son dies, and witchcraft is blamed
1748 – Ruins of Pompeii rediscovered by Spaniard Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre
1778 – Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, created the “$” symbol.
1789 – The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House Speaker.
1793 – In Japan, the volcano Unsen erupted killing about 53,000.
1853 – Cincinnati became the first U.S. city to pay fire fighters a regular salary.
1863 – The first wartime conscription law went into effect in the U.S.
1865 – At the Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, VA, Gen. Robert E. Lee began his final offensive.
1866 – US Congress rejects presidential veto giving all equal rights in US
1867 – Black people voted in the municipal election in Tuscumbia, AL.
1881 – Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
1891 – The William Wrigley Jr. Company was founded in Chicago, IL. The company is most known for its Juicy Fruit gum.
1905 – The British East African Protectorate became the colony of Kenya.
1924 – Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for high treason in relation to the “Beer Hall Putsch.”
1928 – China’s Chiang Kai-shek began attacking communists.
1929 – Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo.
1933 – Nazi Germany began the persecution of Jews by boycotting Jewish businesses.
1934 – Clyde Barrow kills two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at the intersection of Route 114 near Grapevine, Texas. Bonnie Parker’s role in the murders helps turn public perception against the gang for good
1937 – Aden became a British colony.
1938 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, NY.
1939 – The U.S. recognized the Franco government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war.
1941 – Pro-German Rashid Ali al-Ghailani grabs power in Iraq
1943 – Jan Dieters, Dutch politician, resistance fighter, and a leading member of Communist Party of the Netherlands, is arrested by the Nazis
1945 – U.S. forces invaded Okinawa during World War II. It was the last campaign of World War II.
1946 – 400,000 US mine workers strike
1954 – The U.S. Air Force Academy was formed in Colorado.
1957 – The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax – The 3-minute film shown on the current affairs program, Panorama, portrayed a Swiss family apparently harvesting spaghetti from a tree. A number of viewers later contacted the BBC to inquire where to find and how to grow such a plant. The hoax is regarded as one of the best April Fools jokes ever pulled.
1960 – Census determines the resident population of the United States to be 179,245,000
1963 – Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962.
1970 – U.S. President Nixon signed the bill, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, that banned cigarette advertisements to be effective on January 1, 1971.
1971 – The United Kingdom lifted all restrictions on gold ownership.
1976 – Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’ parents house in Cupertino, California
1979 – Iran was proclaimed to be an Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the fall of the Shah.
1980 – A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz occurred.
1982 – The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.
1985 – World oil prices dropped below $10 a barrel.
1987 – U.S. President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, “We’ve declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1.”
1991 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors could not be barred from serving due to their race.
1992 – NHL players begin first strike in 75-year history; 10 day action earns large playoff bonus increase, more control over licensing of their likenesses and changes to free agency system
1997 – Shell Oil confirms it will declare force majeure at its Nigerian Bonny terminal due to local protests which disrupted 210 million barrels per day of the company’s oil production
1998 – A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell “far short” of being worthy of a trial.
1999 – In Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Anatoliy Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men, women and children. 43 of the killings occurred in a 6-month period.
2001 – China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.
2001 – Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour standoff with the police at his Belgrade villa.
2004 – U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill made it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.
2010 – The U.S. Congress cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians by 21%.
2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turned violent, a mob attacked a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan and killed thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.
2014 – NATO suspends all practical civilian and military cooperation with Russia
2019 – China announces new laws against fentanyl-related substances to come into effect 1 May
2020 – US President Donald Trump says the US Strategic National Stockpile is almost depleted amid widespread shortages of medical equipment to fight COVID-19
2022 – Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declares a nationwide public emergency after violent protests amid the country’s worst economic crisis since independence
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
