1065 – Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reach Jerusalem
1096 – Peter the Hermit gathered his army in Cologne.
1204 – The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
1606 – England adopts the Union Flag, replaced in 1801 by current Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack 
1770 – British parliament repeals the Townshend Revenue Acts, which had fueled opposition to British rule in colonial America
1782 – Battle at Les Saintes: British fleet under Admiral George Rodney defeats the French fleet under Comte de Grasse off Dominica in the West Indies. Prevents a planned French and Spanish invasion of Jamaica.
1811 – The first colonists arrived at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1844 – Texan envoys sign Treaty of Annexation with the United States
1861 – The American Civil War begins – The bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina marked the beginning of hostilities. The conflict was sparked by deepening economic, social, and political differences between the southern and northern states, which were most palpably embodied by the dispute about the legitimacy of slavery. The southern (pro-slavery) states, surrendered in 1865, ending the war.
1862 – James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive “The General,” inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie.
1864 – Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and slaughters the black Union troops there.
1869 – North Carolina legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan Law
1892 – Voters in Lockport, New York, became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.
1893 – “Massacre of Hoornkrans”: Curt von François, colonial Governor of German South West Africa (now Nambia), leads attack by 225 Schutztruppe soldiers on Nama leader Hendrik Witbooi’s headquarters at Hoornkrans; shelling of the village causes tremendous civilian casualties. Witbooi escapes and wages several months of guerrilla warfare against the German forces.
1900 – The US Congress passes the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory (effective 1 May)
1934 – The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Spring, GA. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Harry S Truman became president.
1945 – Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands
1955 – The University of Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center announced that the polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was “safe, effective and potent.”
1961 – Soviet Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin became first man to orbit the Earth.
1963 – Police used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, AL.
1975 – Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
1980 – Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’etat, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession.
1981 – The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, on its first test flight.
1984 – Israeli troops stormed a bus that had been hijacked the previous evening by four Arab terrorists. All the passengers were rescued and 2 of the hijackers were killed.
1985 – U.S. Senator Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL.
1985 – Federal inspectors declared that four animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns. They were goats with horns that had been surgically implanted.
1991 – US announces closing of 31 major US military bases
1999 – US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2000 – Robert Cleaves, 71, was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Cleaves had repeatedly run over Arnold Guerreiro on September 30, 1998 with his car after the two had an argument.
2000 – Israel’s High Court ordered the release of eight Lebanese detainees that had been held for years without a trial.
2009 – U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth
2020 – OPEC and other major oil companies agree to the largest-ever drop in production to stabilize world prices
2020 – Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina killing 32 people across six states
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
