Event-a-Day

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451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.

1141 – Empress Matilda became the first female ruler of England, adopting the title 'Lady of the English'.

1348 – Charles University is founded in Prague.

1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.

1776 – Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.

1788 – American pioneers to the Northwest Territory establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory.

1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.

1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.

1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

1927 – The first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

1933 – Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.

1939 – World War II: Italy invades Albania.

1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

1945 – World War II: The Yamato, one of the two largest battleships ever constructed, is sunk by American aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.

1946 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.

1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

1949 – The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific opened on Broadway; it would run for 1,925 performances and win ten Tony Awards.

1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.

1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.

1964 – IBM announces the System/360.

2001 – Mars Odyssey is launched.

2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.

1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.

1866 – Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.

1886 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.

1895 – In Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.

1904 – The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale. Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.

1913 – The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.

1918 – World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.

1964 – The Gemini 1 test flight is conducted.

1974 – At Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run to surpass Babe Ruth's 39-year-old record.

1975 – Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.

1413 – Henry V is crowned King of England.

1585 – The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departs England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony.

1865 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act.

1914 – Mexican Revolution: One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes takes place off the coast of western Mexico.

1940 – World War II: Operation Weserübung: Germany invades Denmark and Norway and Vidkun Quisling seizes power.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.

1945 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.

1961 – The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.

1965 – Astrodome opens. First indoor baseball game is played.

1991 – Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union

1992 – A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.

2003 – Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces; Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces.

2005 – Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall.

837 – Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).

1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria.

1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.

1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

1872 – The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.

1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.

1916 – The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.

1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.

1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.

1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain.

1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.

1951 – Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.

1957 – United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.

1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1970 – Apollo 13 is launched.

1976 – The Apple I is created.

1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.

1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.

1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.

1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

1928 – The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.

1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry Truman, becomes President upon Roosevelt's death.

1961 – The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, Vostok 1.

1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.

1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park's name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.

1930-Australian miler John Landy was born on this day. Today is his 87th birthday.

1849 – Hungary becomes a republic.

1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.

1865 – American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union Forces.

1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.

1941 – A Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.

1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility. The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1944 – Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.

1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.

1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked at home by Lewis Powell.

1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).

1931 – The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

1940 – World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.

1941 – World War II: German general Erwin Rommel attacks Tobruk.

1942 – Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag.

1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.

1981 – STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.

1986 – The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

1999 – A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

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.

1817 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.

1861 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson, becomes President upon Lincoln's death.

1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.

1896 – Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.

1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.

1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.

1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. The battle result in final defeat for the Jacobites Uprising.

1799 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor: Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1818 – The United States Senate ratifies the Rush–Bagot Treaty, establishing the border with Canada.

1853 – The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.

1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

1910 – The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time.

1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.

1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

2007 – Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho guns down 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.

2012 – The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, it was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.

1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

1861 – The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States, becoming the 8th state to join the Confederate States of America.

1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1942 – French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Königstein Fortress.

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

2014 – NASA's Kepler confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.

1847 – American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.

1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1923 – Yankee Stadium: "The House that Ruth Built" opens.

1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed. Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.

1539 – Charles V and Protestants signs Treaty of Frankfurt.

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 (not actually born until 1717).

1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia. Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles 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.

1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.

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

1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp. The following year, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

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

1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station. Meanwhile, Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.

2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

1534 – Jacques Cartier begins his first voyage to what is today the east coast of Canada, the island of Newfoundland and Labrador.

1535 – The sun dog phenomenon observed over Stockholm and depicted in the famous painting Vädersolstavlan.

1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.

1657 – Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

1689 – Deposed monarch James II of England lays siege to Derry.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Siege of Boston begins, following the battles at Lexington and Concord.

1789 – George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration

1792 – France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.

1809 – Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1836 – U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

1861 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

1871 – The Civil Rights Act of 1871 becomes law.

1876 – The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1898 – President William McKinley signed a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War.

1902 – Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

1908 – Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

1912 – Opening day for baseball's Tiger Stadium in Detroit, and Fenway Park in Boston.

1916 – The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings.

1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

1946 – The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

1972 – Apollo 16, commanded by John Young, lands on the moon.

2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

753 BC – Romulus founds Rome. (The traditional date, anyway)

1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.

1809 – Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.

1856 – Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.

1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.

1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.

1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.

1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.