1912 – The ocean liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg the evening before. 1,517 people died and more than 700 people survived.
1250 – Pope Innocent IV refuses Jews of Cordova, Spain their request to build a synagogue
1385 – At war with Castile, John I of Portugal instructs his ambassadors to negotiate an alliance with Richard II of England and to raise loans to pay his troops
1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France
1528 – Pánfilo the Narváez, Spanish conquistador arrives in Florida with 350 men to a hostile reception from native indians
1581 – Portuguese assembly the Cortes of Tomar recognizes Philip II of Spain as King of Portugal after a succession crisis
1621 – Hugo Grotius arrives in France after escaping prison in a book chest
1632 – Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War.
1715 – Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1794 – “Courrier Francais” became the first French daily newspaper to be published in the U.S.
1800 – James Ross discovers North Magnetic pole
1813 – U.S. troops under James Wilkinson attacked the Spanish-held city of Mobile that would be in the future state of Alabama.
1817 – The American Asylum [now American School for the Deaf (ASD)], 1st permanent US school for deaf founded by Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, Dr. Mason Cogswell, and teacher Laurent Clercn (West Hartford, Connecticut,).
1858 – At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeated Spanish loyalists.
1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died from injuries inflicted by John Wilkes Booth.
1871 – “Wild Bill” Hickok became the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1892 – General Electric Company formed by merger of Thomas Edison’s General Electric Company with Thomson-Houston Electric Company, arranged by J. P. Morgan and incorporated in NY
1900 – An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hrs
1902 – Russian minister of interior and head of secret police, Sipyengin, is assassinated by the ‘Terror Brigade’ of the Socialist Revolutionaries
1912 – The ocean liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg the evening before. 1,517 people died and more than 700 people survived.
1917 – The British defeated the Germans at the battle of Arras.
1920 – Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
1921 – Black Friday in Britain: leaders of transport and rail unions announce a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners; despite widespread feeling decision a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners
1923 – Insulin became generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1934 – In the comic strip “Blondie,” Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead welcomed a baby boy, Alexander. The child would be nicknamed, Baby Dumpling.
1936 – Palestinian Arabs begin a general strike in protest to Jewish immigration. Within a month, 21 Jews are killed in Arab attacks
1940 – French and British troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
1943 – An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
1945 – During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
1947 – Jackie Robinson played his first major league baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Previously he had only appeared in exhibition games.
1948 – The Arabs were defeated in the first Jewish-Arab battle.
1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman signed the official Japanese peace treaty.
1953 – Charlie Chaplin surrendered his U.S. re-entry permit rather than face proceedings by the U.S. Justice Department. Chaplin was accused of sympathizing with Communist groups.
1955 – U.S. Supreme Court sets tax deadline to April 15th from the previous deadline of March 15th set in 1918
1959 – Cuban leader Fidel Castro began a U.S. goodwill tour.
1967 – Richard Speck was found guilty of murdering eight student nurses.
1969 – North Korean aircraft shoots down Navy EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan
1974 – Military coup in Niger
1983 – In Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, the Tokyo Disneyland themepark opened.
1984 – Ten members of a family were found murdered in their home in New York City. An infant was found crawling among the corpses.
1986 – U.S. F-111 warplanes attacked Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986.
1987 – In Northhampton, MA, Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman and 13 others were acquitted on civil disobedience charges related with a CIA protest.
1989 – In Sheffield, England, 96 people were killed and hundreds were injured at a soccer game at Hillsborough Stadium when a crowd surged into an overcrowded standing area. Ninety-four died on the day of the incident and two more later died from their injuries.
1994 – The World Trade Organization was established.
1999 – In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a panel of two Lahore High Court judges convicted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, of corruption.
2000 – 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit.
2008 – Speaking at the bank’s annual meeting Richard Fuld Leman chairman and CEO, tells investors that the worst of the credit crisis is behind Wall Street, but that the environment will remain challenging
2010 – In Prospect Harbor, ME, the Stinson Seafood plant stopped sardine processing after 135 years in operation.
2012 – 400 Islamist Militants escape from a Pakistan prison after an insurgent attack
2013 – 33 people are killed and 163 are injured in a wave of bombings across Iraq
2017 – Suicide car bomb targets buses carrying Syrian evacuees at Rashidin, 126 killed including 70 children
2019 – Measles cases jump 300% in first three months of 2019, according to World Health Organization, largest rise in Africa (700%) with 800 deaths in Madagascar
2020 – South Korea is 1st country to hold a general election under COVID-19, President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic party wins in a landslide
2021 – Court in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, sentences former warlord Amadé Ouérémi to a life sentence for massacres by his militia after the 2010 election
2023 – Indian Atiq Ahmed, former lawmaker and convicted criminal, assassinated live on TV along with his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, while under police guard
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
