1931 – The “Star Spangled Banner,” written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as “Defense of Fort McHenry.”
0473 – Glycerius appointed a puppet Emperor of the Western Empire by Burgundian king and patrician Gundobad (deposed 474)
1409 – Austrian civil war ends
1443 – Ferrante (later Ferdinand I), illegitimate son of Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Naples, made Duke of Calabria and heir to the kingdom
1575 – Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi
1634 – The first tavern in Boston opens
1776 – US commodore Esek Hopkins occupies Nassau Bahamas
1791 – First Internal Revenue Act (taxing distilled spirits & carriages)
1803 – The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.
1812 – The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.
1817 – Mississippi Territory is divided into Alabama Territory & Mississippi
1845 – Florida became the 27th U.S. state.
1845 – The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.
1849 – The U.S. Department of the Interior was established.
1857 – Britain and France declared war on China.
1878 – Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and the autonomy of Bulgaria.
1885 – US Congress passes Indian Appropriations Act (Indians wards of federal government)
1889 – US President Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22
1900 – Striking miners in Germany returned to work.
1903 – In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.
1903 – The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.
1904 – Wilhelm II of Germany made the first recording of a political document with Thomas Edison’s cylinder.
1908 – The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.
1910 – In New York, Robert Forest founded the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions.
1918 – The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia’s participation in World War I.
1923 – The first issue of Time magazine was published.
1924 – The 1400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of President Kemal Atatrk.
1931 – The “Star Spangled Banner,” written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as “Defense of Fort McHenry.”
1933 – Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.
1934 – John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol
1939 – In Bombay, Ghandi began a fast to protest the state’s autocratic rule.
1941 – Moscow denounced the Axis rule in Bulgaria.
1943 – World War II: In London, England, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
1945 – Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1952 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York’s Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.
1956 – Morocco gained its independence.
1958 – Nuri as-Said becomes the prime minister of Iraq for the 14th time.
1961 – King Hassan II’s ascends to throne of Morocco
1967 – Eric Burdon and the Animals refuse to do a show in Ottawa unless they are paid in advance; audience of 3,000 go on a rampage, doing $5,000 in damages.
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1971 – Beginning of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and India’s official entry to the Bangladesh Liberation War in support of Mukti Bahini
1972 – NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecrafte was launched.
1973 – Japan disclosed its first defense plan since World War II.
1974 – Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials reach an agreement for eventual reconciliation into one communion, marking the first agreement between the two churches since the Reformation
1980 – The submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.
1985 – Women Against Pornography awarded its ‘Pig Award’ to Huggies Diapers. The activists claimed that the TV ads for diapers had “crossed the line between eye-catching and porn.”
1987 – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a package of $30 million in non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan Contras.
1991 – Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.
1992 – US President George H. W. Bush apologizes for raising taxes after pledging not to
1994 – The Mexican government reached a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels.
1995 – A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.
2002 – Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favour of their country becoming a member of the United Nations
2005 – Mayerthorpe Incident: James Roszko murders four Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables during a drug bust at his property in Rochfort Bridge, Alberta, then commits suicide. It is the deadliest peace-time incident for the RCMP since 1885 and the North-West Rebellion.
2013 – 45 people are killed by a bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan
2017 – Mass grave of 800 children and infants confirmed at a former Catholic care home in Tuam, Ireland
2019 – An unmanned demonstration flight of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the Internation Space Station.
2020 – Iran releases 54,000 people from prison to avoid spread of COVID-19 as country reports 77 deaths and 2,300 cases including two dozen MPs
2021 – Sarah Everard is kidnapped, raped and murdered by a UK policeman after being arrested under false pretenses in London
2022 – Russian forces seize the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
