1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.
1282 – Furious inhabitants of Palermo attack French occupation force
1422 – Ketsugan, Zen teacher, performs exorcisms to free aizoji temple
1492 – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign decree expelling Jews from Spain
1533 – Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
1644 – Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve defeats a large band of marauding Iroquois on the site of the Place d’Armes; aided by force of 30 settlers; they had massacred several habitant families.
1814 – The allied European nations against Napoleon marched into Paris.
1822 – Florida became a U.S. territory.
1842 – Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while his patient was anesthetized by ether.
1855 – About 5,000 “Border Ruffians” from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.
1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War – Russia lost the war to a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain, and Sardinia.
1858 – Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil with an eraser.
1867 – The United States buys Alaska from Russia – The territory at the north-western tip of North America cost only $7.2 million.
1870 – The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1870 – Texas was readmitted to the Union.
1903 – Revolutionary activity in the Dominican Republic brought U.S. troops to Santo Domingo to protect American interests.
1905 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was chosen to mediate in the Russo-Japanese peace talks.
1909 – The Queensboro bridge in New York opened linking Manhattan and Queens. It was the first double decker bridge.
1916 – Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1939 – The comic book “Detective Comics #27” appeared on newstands. This comic introduced Batman.
1940 – The Japanese set up a puppet government called Manchuko in Nanking, China.
1941 – The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel began its first offensive against British forces in Libya.
1944 – The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
1945 – The U.S.S.R. invaded Austria during World War II.
1946 – The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950 – U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1957 – Tunisia and Morocco signed a friendship treaty in Rabat.
1964 – “Jeopardy” debuted on NBC-TV.
1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1972 – The Eastertide Offensive began when North Vietnamese troops crossed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the northern portion of South Vietnam.
1975 – As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets in desperation.
1976 – Thousands of Palestinians protest against Israel’s massive land expropriation – In the event, which is annually commemorated on Land Day, 6 protesters were killed and scores injured by Israeli police.
1979 – Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.
1984 – The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.
1990 – Riot police in Quebec City break up demonstration by 2,000 marchers against university tuition fee increases
1993 – In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown hit his first home run.
1994 – Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to fight each other.
1999 – A jury in Portland, Oregon, orders Philip Morris to pay $US81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades.
2002 – Suspected Islamic militants set off several grenades at a temple in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Four civilians, four policemen and two attackers were killed and 20 people were injured.
2009 – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the new World Trade Center building would be officially known by its legal name of “One World Trade Center.”
2012 – Mastercard and Visa announce a massive breach in security with over ten million compromised credit card numbers
2013 – Kenya’s Supreme Court declares Uhuru Kenyatta the rightful winner of the Kenyan presidential election
2017 – North Carolina repeals its controversial bathroom law that restricted transgender use
2018 – Palestinians begin a “Great March of Return”, 6 weeks of protests on the Gaza Strip demanding Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to Israel. 19 Palestinians killed, 1,416 injured on the first day.
2020 – Three out of four Americans now ordered to stay home due to COVID-19 as states of Virginia, Maryland, Arizona and Florida issue lockdowns
2023 – Key figures in Artificial Intelligence including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak sign open letter warning the race to develop AI systems is out of control, asking for suspension for at least six months
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
