Events

• 1012 – Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich, London.

• 1529 – At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant Reformation.

• 1587 – Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor.

• 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria (not actually born until 1717).

• 1770 – Captain James Cook sights Australia.

• 1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy marriage.

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

• 1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.

• 1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria; part of a four day campaign which ended in a French victory.

• 1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.

• 1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.

• 1847 – New portico at British Museum opened

• 1855 – Visit of Napoleon III to Guildhall, London

• 1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

• 1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

• 1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.

• 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

• 1928 – The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.

• 1934 – Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer!.

• 1936 – First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine.

• 1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

• 1943 – World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

• 1943 – Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.

• 1945 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.

• 1950 – Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

• 1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.

• 1954 – Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decides Urdu and Bengali to be national languages of Pakistan.

• 1955 – The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.

• 1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.

• 1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

• 1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders.

• 1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

• 1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.

• 1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

• 1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.

• 1975 – India's first satellite Aryabhata is launched.

• 1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.

• 1985 – U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R.

Heavy smoke pours from USS Iowa’s #2 Turret following an internal explosion

• 1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show

• 1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

• 1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

• 1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashed in Iowa.

• 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murderer Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, is executed in Arkansas.

• 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

• 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.

• 2008 – Bowie Seamount on the coast of British Columbia, Canada becomes a Marine Protected Area.

Births

• 1603 – Michel le Tellier, French statesman (d. 1685)

• 1658 – Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (d. 1716)

• 1665 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (d. 1721)

• 1686 – Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman (d. 1750)

• 1721 – Roger Sherman, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)

• 1785 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French composer (d. 1858)

• 1787 – Deaf Smith, American frontiersman and revolutionary (d. 1837)

• 1793 – Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (d. 1875)

• 1814 – Louis Amédée Achard, French novelist (d. 1875)

• 1832 – José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)

• 1874 – Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (d. 1952)

• 1877 – Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American inventor (d. 1934)

• 1882 – Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (d. 1954)

• 1883 – Richard von Mises, Austrian-born mathematician (d. 1953)

• 1889 – Otto Georg Thierack, German jurist and politician (d. 1946)

• 1892 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (d. 1983)

• 1897 – Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese supercentenarian

• 1897 – Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1970)

• 1897 – Constance Talmadge, American actress (d. 1973)

• 1899 – George O'Brien, American actor (d. 1985)

• 1900 – Richard Hughes, English novelist (d. 1976)

• 1900 – Roland Michener, Governor General of Canada (d. 1991)

• 1903 – Eliot Ness, American lawman (d. 1957)

• 1912 – Glenn Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)

• 1921 – Anna Lee Aldred, American first licenced female jockey (d. 2006)

• 1922 – Erich Hartmann, German fighter pilot (d. 1993)

• 1925 – Hugh O'Brian, American actor

• 1928 – Alexis Korner, English musician (d. 1984)

• 1930 – Dick Sargent, American actor (d. 1994)

• 1931 – Garfield Morgan, English actor

• 1931 – Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist (d. 2004)

• 1932 – Fernando Botero, Colombian artist

• 1933 – Dickie Bird, English cricket umpire

• 1933 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)

• 1934 – Dickie Goodman, American producer of novelty songs (d. 1989)

• 1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian and composer (d. 2002)

• 1936 – Wilfried Martens, Prime Minister of Belgium

• 1937 – Elinor Donahue, American actress

• 1937 – Joseph Estrada, actor and 13^th President of the Philippines

• 1940 – Dougal Haston, Scottish mountaineer (d. 1977)

• 1940 – Genya Ravan, American vocalist (Goldie & the Gingerbreads, Ten Wheel Drive)

• 1941 – Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer

• 1941 – Bobby Russell, American songwriter (d. 1992)

• 1941 – Alan Price, English musician (The Animals, The Alan Price Set)

• 1942 – Bas Jan Ader, Dutch artist (disappeared 1975)

• 1942 – Jack Roush, American racing entrepreneur

• 1943 – Eve Graham, Scottish singer (The New Seekers)

• 1944 – James Heckman, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize

• 1944 – Bernie Worrell, American keyboardist (P Funk)

• 1944 – Keith Erickson, American basketball player

• 1946 – Tim Curry, British actor

• 1946 – Mary Jo Slater, American casting director

• 1947 – Murray Perahia, American pianist

• 1947 – Mark Volman, American musician (The Turtles, The Mothers Of Invention)

• 1948 – Rick Miller, American baseball player

• 1949 – Paloma Picasso daughter of artist Pablo Picasso

• 1949 – Larry Walters, American "lawn chair" pilot (d. 1993)

• 1951 – Barry Brown, American actor and writer (d. 1978)

• 1951 – Jóannes Eidesgaard, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands

• 1952 – Alexis Arguello, Nicaraguan boxer (d. 2009)

• 1953 – Rod Morgenstein, American musician (Winger)

• 1953 – Ruby Wax, British television personality

• 1954 – Trevor Francis, English footballer

• 1954 – Bob Rock, Canadian record producer & musician (The Payolas)

• 1957 – Mukesh Ambani, Indian businessman

• 1957 – Tony Martin, English musician

• 1959 – Donald Markwell, Australian educator, Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford

• 1960 – Roger Merrett, Australian footballer

• 1960 – John Schweitz, American basketball player and coach

• 1960 – Frank Viola, American baseball player

• 1961 – Spike Owen, American baseball player

• 1962 – Al Unser, Jr., American race car driver

• 1963 – Valerie Plame Wilson, American former C.I.A. agent

• 1965 – Natalie Dessay, French soprano

• 1965 – Suge Knight, American record producer

• 1966 – Véronique Gens, French soprano

• 1966 – Julia Neigel, German singer, songwriter, producer, author and entertainer

• 1966 – David La Haye, Canadian actor

• 1966 – Osamu Matsuda, Japanese professional wrestler

• 1967 – Steven H Silver, American science fiction editor

• 1967 – Dar Williams, American musician and songwriter

• 1968 – Ashley Judd, American actress

• 1968 – Craig McNeil, American writer, lawyer, and military officer

• 1968 – Mswati III, King of Swaziland

• 1968 – Pascal Kleiman, Spanish DJ, producer, musician

• 1968 – Arshad Warsi, Indian actor

• 1969 – Jesse James, American television personality and motorcycle builder

• 1969 – Susan Polgar, Hungarian-born American chess player

• 1969 – Andrew Carnie, Linguistics Professor at the University of Arizona

• 1970 – Kelly Holmes, English athlete

• 1970 – Luis Miguel, Mexican pop-singer

• 1972 – Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer

• 1972 – Jeff Wilkins, American football player

• 1974 – Akara Amarttayakul, Thai actor

• 1975 – Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer

• 1975 – Jussi Jääskeläinen, Finnish footballer

• 1976 – Ruud Jolie, Dutch guitarist (Within Temptation)

• 1976 – Scott Padgett, American basketball player

• 1977 – Joe Beimel, American baseball player

• 1977 – Lucien Mettomo, Cameroonian footballer

• 1977 – Dennys Reyes, Mexican baseball player

• 1978 – James Franco, American actor

• 1978 – Gabriel Heinze, Argentinian footballer

• 1978 – Amanda Sage, American born visionary artist

• 1979 – Kate Hudson, American actress

• 1980 – Alexis Thorpe, American actress

• 1981 – Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor

• 1981 – Martin Havlat, Czech hockey player

• 1981 – Troy Polamalu, American football player

• 1981 – Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress

• 1983 – Alberto Callaspo, Venezuelan baseball player

• 1983 – Zack Duke, American baseball player

• 1983 – Joe Mauer, American baseball player

• 1983 – Curtis Thigpen, American baseball player

• 1984 – Lee Da Hae, South Korean actress

• 1985 – Valon Behrami, Swiss Footballer

• 1986 – Candace Parker, American basketball player

• 1987 – Joe Hart, English Under-21 footballer

• 1987 – Maria Sharapova, Professional Tennis Player

• 1987 – Oksana Akinshina, Russian actress

• 1987 – Courtland Mead, American actor

• 1989 – Fiona MacGillivray, Canadian vocalist (The Cottars)

• 1990 – Kim Chiu, Filipino actress

Deaths

• 1012 – Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 954)

• 1054 – Pope Leo IX (b. 1002)

• 1390 – King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1316)

• 1560 – Philipp Melanchthon, German humanist and reformer (b. 1497)

• 1567 – Michael Stifel, German mathematician (b. 1487)

• 1578 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1530)

• 1588 – Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (b. 1528)

• 1608 – Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English statesman and poet (b. 1536)

• 1618 – Thomas Bastard, clergyman and epigrammatist

• 1627 – John Beaumont, English poet (b. 1583)

• 1629 – Sigismondo d'India, Italian composer

• 1684 – Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (b. 1603)

• 1686 – Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra, Spanish writer (b. 1610)

• 1689 – Queen Christina of Sweden (b. 1626)

• 1733 – Elizabeth Villiers, mistress of William III of England

• 1739 – Nicholas Saunderson, English mathematician (b. 1682)

• 1751 – Peter Lacy, Irish-born Russian Field marshal (b. 1678)

• 1768 – Canaletto, Italian artist (b. 1697)

• 1791 – Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (b. 1723)

• 1813 – Benjamin Rush, physician, activist (b. 1745)

• 1824 – George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, English poet (b. 1788)

• 1831 – Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger, German mathematician (b. 1765)

• 1840 – Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Roman Catholic bishop of Montreal (b. 1777)

• 1854 – Robert Jameson, Scottish naturalist (b. 1774)

• 1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)

• 1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist (b. 1809)

• 1892 – Fr. Thomas Dale SSC, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (b. 1821)

• 1901 – Alfred Horatio Belo, American newswriter and businessman (b. 1839)

• 1906 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

• 1906 – Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (b. 1850)

• 1914 – Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher and mathematician (b. 1839)

• 1916 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor (b. 1839)

• 1926 – Alexander Alexandrovich Chuprov, Russian statistician (b. 1874)

• 1930 – Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian senator (b. 1827)

• 1937 – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)

• 1941 – Johanna Müller-Hermann, Austrian composer and pedagogue (b. 1878)

• 1949 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)

• 1950 – Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)

• 1966 – Javier Solis, Mexican singer (b. 1931)

• 1967 – Konrad Adenauer, German statesman (b. 1876)

• 1988 – Kwon Ki-ok, first Korean female pilot (b. 1901)

• 1989 – Daphne du Maurier, British novelist (b. 1907)

• 1991 – Stanley Hawes, British-born Australian film producer, director and administrator (b. 1905)

• 1992 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian (b. 1917)

• 1992 – Benny Hill, English comic actor (b. 1924)

• 1993 – David Koresh, leader of Branch Davidians (b. 1959)

• 1993 – George S. Mickelson, American politician (b. 1941)

• 1997 – El Duce, American singer and drummer (The Mentors) (b. 1958)

• 1998 – Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)

• 1999 – David Sanes, US Navy employee (b. 1954)

• 1999 – Hermine Braunsteiner, Nazi war criminal (b. 1919)

• 2000 – Louis Applebaum, Canadian conductor and composer (b. 1918)

• 2002 – Layne Staley, American musician, Alice in Chains (b. 1967)

• 2004 – Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (b. 1925)

• 2004 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist (b. 1920)

• 2005 – Ruth Hussey, American actress (b. 1911)

• 2005 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish jazz bassist (b. 1946)

• 2005 – George Pan Cosmatos, Greek film director (b. 1941)

• 2005 – Clement Meadmore, Australian sculptor (b. 1929)

• 2006 – Scott Crossfield, American pilot, first man to fly at Mach 2 (b. 1921)

• 2006 – Zola Levitt, Messianic Jewish preacher (b. 1938)

• 2007 – Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (b. 1932)

• 2007 – Helen Walton, wife of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton (b. 1919)

• 2008 – John Marzano, American baseball player (b. 1963)

• 2008 – Germaine Tillion, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance (b. 1907)

• 2008 – Alfonso López Trujillo, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1935)

• 2009 – J.G. Ballard, British novelist (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances

• Bicycle Day.

• Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela).

• Dutch-American Friendship Day

• Easter Sunday 1908, 1981, 1987, 1992.

• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:

• *Saint Emma

• *George of Antioch

• *Expeditus

• *Alphege

• Feast of the Divine Mercy in the Roman Catholic Church 2009

• King Mswati III's birthday (Swaziland).

• Landing of the 33 (Uruguay).

• Patriots' Day (Traditional) (Massachusetts, Maine, and Wisconsin, USA).

• The Roman holiday of Cerealia ends. (Roman Empire)