Event-a-Day

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1199 – Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6.

1306 – Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots.

1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.

1655 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

1802 – The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.

1807 – The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.

1821 – Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821 (Julian calendar).

1941 – The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.

1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

1979 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

1995 – WikiWikiWeb, the world's first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.

1484 – William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables.

1915 – Ice hockey: The Vancouver Millionaires sweep the Ottawa Senators three-games-to-none to win the 1915 Stanley Cup Finals, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association.

1942 – World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.

1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3. The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.

1967 – Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City.

1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

1975 – The Biological Weapons Convention comes into force.

1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.

1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.

1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.

1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

1836 – Texas Revolution: On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican army massacres 342 Texas POWs at Goliad, Texas.

1866 – President Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.

1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

1884 – A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and eventually destroy the courthouse.

1886 – Geronimo, Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

1958 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.

1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered.

1842 – First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by Otto Nicolai.

1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege. (He's still dead, by the way )

1946 – Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

1969 – Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.

1978 – The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

1990 – United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

1461 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.

1500 – Cesare Borgia is given the title of Captain General and Gonfalonier by his father Rodrigo Borgia after returning from his conquests in the Romagna.

1549 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.

1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.

1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.

1809 – King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.

1817 – King Louis XVIII of France plays boules against the British Prince Regent to celebrate the new alliance between the two nations following the Napoleonic Wars.

1936 – In Germany, Adolf Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal remilitarization and reoccupation of the Rhineland, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters.

1941 – The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time.

1942 – The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.

1945 – World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England. The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.

1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.

1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.

2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members.

2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.

1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.

1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.

1815 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation which would later inspire Italian unification.

1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States.

1841 – The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens.

1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.

1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2-cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.

1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.

1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.

1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.

1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.

1945 – World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.

1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

1980 – The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets because of bankruptcy and debts owed to creditors.

1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

1991 – Georgian independence referendum, 1991: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

April 1:

1789 – In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker.

1826 – Samuel Morey received a patent for a compressionless "Gas or Vapor Engine."

1833 – The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin

1854 – Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times begins serialisation in his magazine Household Words.

1865 – American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line.

1893 – The rank of Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy is established.

1895 – The Indian Army is established.

1918 – The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years imprisonment for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" but spends only nine months in jail. The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.

1960 – The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.

1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertising on television and radio in the United States, effective 1 January 1971.

1976 – Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in Cupertino, California, USA.

2001 – Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.

2004 – Google announces Gmail to the public.

April 2:

1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.

1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.

1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.

1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.

1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.

1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.

1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.

1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.

1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.

1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.

1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1882 – American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.

1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.

1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1933 – First flight over Mount Everest, a British expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale, and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.

1948 – United States President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.

1969 – Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.

1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.

1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.

1581 – Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.

1660 – Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain.

1721 – Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first British prime minister.

1768 – In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

1796 – Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.

1812 – United States President James Madison enacts a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.

1814 – Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French.

1818 – The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).

1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration.

1850 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city.

1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.

1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.

1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded in Germany.

1945 – World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany and capture Kassel. Soviet troops liberate Hungary from German occupation and occupy the country itself.

1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church.

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.

1973 – The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.

1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1983 – Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.

1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

1836 – Samuel Colt patents the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.

1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions. Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.

1936 – First flight of Supermarine Spitfire advanced monoplane fighter aircraft in the United Kingdom.

1946 – Winston Churchill coins the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

1963 – American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world.

1982 – Soviet probe Venera 14 landed on Venus.

1199 – King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.

1793 – During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.

1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America's first millionaire.

1812 – British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the
turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.

1814 – Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

1841 – U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison's death.

1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Sailor's Creek: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign.

1866 – The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.

1869 – Celluloid is patented.

1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.

1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.

1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Germany.

1929 – Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.

1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire," beginning the Salt Satyagraha.

1947 – The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.

1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

1973 – Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft. The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.

1974 – The Swedish pop band ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo", launching their international career.

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.