May 1

• May 1, 305
  Constantius Chlorus and Galerius become Western and Eastern emperors, after Diocletian leaves the imperial office due to illness becoming the only Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position
• May 1, 408
  Theodosius II succeeded to the throne of Constantinople
• May 1, 1486
  Christopher Columbus convinces Queen Isabella to fund expedition to the West Indies
• May 1, 1648
  The Ottomans begin the Siege of Candia in order to capture Crete from the Venetians
• May 1, 1707
  Act of Union merging the Scottish and the English Parliaments takes effect, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain
• May 1, 1711
  Arch duke Charles VI of Austria and Hungarian rebellion sign Treaty of Szatmár
• May 1, 1759
  France surrenders Guadeloupe to Great Britain
• May 1, 1776
  Adam Weishaupt, a German philosopher, founds the secret society of Illuminati to oppose superstition, religious influence over public life, abuses of state power, and to support gender equality
• May 1, 1786
  Opera "Marriage of Figaro", composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an Austrian influential composer of the Classical era, is premiered in Vienna
• May 1, 1840
  Britain issues the world's first postage stamp, "Penny Blacks", depicting a picture of Queen Victoria, as prepaid postage innovation
• May 1, 1851
  The Great Exhibition in London, the world's first international Expo, is opened in Crystal Palace, a cast-iron and plate-glass building erected in Hyde Park, as a showcase for industrial accomplishments of Great Britain and other countries
• May 1, 1853
  Argentina adopts its liberal and federal Constitution constitution
• May 1, 1857
  William Walker, conqueror of Nicaragua, surrenders to the US Navy under the pressure of the Central American armies
• May 1, 1862
  USA Army captain David Farragut recaptures New Orleans, Louisiana which stops cotton sales by the Confederacy a revenue shortage that led to printed money and hyperinflation
• May 1, 1869
  Folies Bergère, a cabaret music hall, opens in Paris
• May 1, 1873
  Emperor Franz Jozef opens 5th World's Fair in Vienna, Austria-Hungary
• May 1, 1876
  Queen of the United Kingdom Victoria takes title of Empress of India by Royal Titles Act
• May 1, 1877
  US President Rutherford B. Hayes orders the withdrawal all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction
• May 1, 1884
  Construction begins on the first steel-skeleton skyscraper, a 10-story structure in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney and built by the Home Insurance Co. of New York
• May 1, 1889
  Bayer, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company, introduces aspirin in powder form
• May 1, 1896
  Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, shah of Persia, is murdered by Mirza Reza Kermani, a follower of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, at age 65
• May 1, 1898
  The American Asiatic Squadron under George Dewey destroy the Spanish Pacific Squadro during the Battle of Manila Bay
• May 1, 1924
  Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis becomes the first President of Greece
• May 1, 1925
  Cyprus is declared a British Crown Colony
• May 1, 1930
  The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named
• May 1, 1931
  Empire State Building is officially opened, when United States President Herbert Hoover turns on the building's lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C
• May 1, 1932
  Paul Doumer, President of France, is assassinated by mentally unstable Russia's Paul Gargalov
• May 1, 1947
  The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is created
• May 1, 1956
  A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system," marking the official discovery of Minamata disease
• May 1, 1960
  Russia shoots down American pilot Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk
• May 1, 1964
  At Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, the BASIC programming language runs for the first time, developed by professors John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz for a General Electric 225 mainframe computer
• May 1, 1978
  Japan's Naomi Uemura, traveling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone
• May 1, 2006
  Bolivian president Evo Morales orders military to occupy oil and gas fields in country, placing them under state control
• May 1, 2011
  U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant group Al-Qaeda, has been killed during an American military operation in Pakistan

April 30

• April 30, 311
  Emperor Galerius issues an edict of toleration during his last bout of illness which ends the Diocletianic Great Persecution in Roman Empire
• April 30, 313
  Licinius, the Augustus in the east, defeat superior army of co-emperor Maximinus, who dresses like a slave and fleds to Nicomedia, in the Battle of Tzirallum, unifing the whole of the eastern empire under his own rule
• April 30, 535
  Amalaswintha, a queen of the Ostrogoths, is murdered
• April 30, 711
  The Islamic troops approximately 1,700-strong led by Berber commander Tariq ibn Ziyad cross the Strait of Gibraltar, named after him, and invade Iberian Peninsula
• April 30, 1006
  The brightest recorded supernova, the SN 1006, is recorded by Chinese and Islamic astronomers
• April 30, 1562
  First French colonist Jean Ribault and group of Hugenots found the outpost States at Parris Island in modern southeastern United
• April 30, 1661
  General Zheng Chenggong of Ming China known as Koxinga begins siege of Dutch fort Zeelandia, Formosa defended by 2,000 Dutch soldiers
• April 30, 1725
  Emperor Charles VI and King Philip IV of Spain sign Treaty of Vienna, which guarantees the Pragmatic Sanction of the Habsburgs
• April 30, 1789
  George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of USA, taking oath of office on alter Bible of Saint John's Masonic Lodge in New York City
• April 30, 1803
  The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and doubles the size of the country by Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• April 30, 1828
  Shaka, one of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu Kingdom, is killed by three assassins
• April 30, 1838
  Nicaragua declares independence from Central American federation
• April 30, 1849
  Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian republican patriot and guerrilla leader, repulses a French attack on Rome
• April 30, 1888
  Hailstones kill about 250 in Moradabad district of Delhi, India
• April 30, 1897
  Physicist Joseph John Thomson, who identified electrons using cathode rays, describes it as a particle of negative charge whose motion constitutes electricity at a meeting of the Royal Institution in London
• April 30, 1933
  Luis Miguel Sanchez Cerro, President of Peru, is assassinated by Hurtado de Mendoza, a member of the suppressed centre-left Peruvian political party
• April 30, 1945
  Adolf Hitler shot himself in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin when Soviet troops were within a block of the Reich Chancellery; Karl Donitz is appointed leader of Germany
• April 30, 1967
  Ostankino Tower, the highest tower in the world, 537 meters, is finished, in Moscow, USSR
• April 30, 1975
  The last group of Americans are evacuated from Saigon, South Vietnam, during North Vietnamese invasion, ending Vietnam War after the decade of fighting and lost 58,000 American soldiers
• April 30, 1993
  CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone, with no fees due

April 29

• April 29, 1091
  Byzantium Emperor Alexios I Komnenos beats Pechenegs, a semi-nomadic Turkic people of the Central Asian steppes, at the Battle of Levounion
• April 29, 1289
  Al Mansur Qalawun, the seventh Mamluk sultan of Egypt, captures city of Tripoli ending the Crusader County of Tripoli
• April 29, 1429
  As a French sortie distracts the English troops on the west side of Orleans, Joan of Arc enters unopposed by its eastern gate, bringing greatly needed supplies and reinforcements and inspiring the French to a passionate resistance
• April 29, 1661
  Chinese Ming dynasty occupies Taiwan
• April 29, 1672
  King Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands beginning Franco-Dutch War
• April 29, 1707
  English-Scottish parliament accept Act of Union and form Great Britain
• April 29, 1859
  Austria starts Second Italian War of Independence with Sardinia after the King of Sardinia denies to complete demobilization of the Sardinian army, which draws France into the conflict
• April 29, 1882
  The Electromote, a forerunner of the trolleybus, is given its first trial run by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin, Germany
• April 29, 1942
  Jews forced to wear a Jewish Star in Netherlands and Vichy-France
• April 29, 1970
  50,000 US and South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia during escalation the Civil War
• April 29, 1982
  Iran begins offensive on several axes – Bostan, Susangerd, the west bank of the Karun River, and Ahvaz forcing the Iraqi forces to retreat during the Iran–Iraq War
• April 29, 2006
  The Global Night Commute, organized by the makers of the film Invisible Children, takes place in over 130 cities around the world to show support for Ugandan children who walk every night into city centers attempting to avoid capture by the Lord's Resistance Army
• April 29, 2011
  Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton wed at Westminster Abbey in London

April 28

• April 28, 357
  Roman Emperor Constantius II visits Rome for the first time and only time in his life
• April 28, 1202
  King Philip II of France throws out King of England John, which resulted in the collapse of most of the Angevin Empire and contributed to the subsequent growth in power of the Capetian dynasty during the 13th century
• April 28, 1253
  Nichiren, a Buddhist monk, establishes a new sect of Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism
• March 30, 1282
  Inhabitants in Palermo massacres French occupation forces in Sicily after a Frenchman harassed a woman, beginning the War of the Sicilian Vespers
• April 28, 1376
  Good Parliament, the longest Parliament up until that time, begin to work
• April 28, 1503
  Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola, which considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms (arquebus) and mark end of period of knighthood in Europe
• April 28, 1628
  King Kristian IV of Denmark signs a three year alliance with Sweden. Both powers agree to come to the defense of Stralsund if attacked
• April 28, 1738
  Pope Clement XII issues the Eminenti Apostolatus Specula prohibiting Catholics from becoming Freemasons, the first papal decree against the Freemasons
• April 28, 1760
  French forces besieging Quebec defeat the British in the Battle of Sainte-Foy
• April 28, 1789
  Fletcher Christian, master's mate on board HMS Bounty, leads a mutiny on the ship as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific
• April 28, 1818
  President Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on Great Lakes and Lake Champlain
• April 28, 1819
  In India a British hunting party discovers the painted caves at Ajanta
• April 28, 1914
  American engineer Willis Carrier patents air conditioner
• April 28, 1925
  Netherlands and Great Britain return to gold standard
• April 28, 1935
  Moscow Metro, the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union, opens
• April 28, 1945
  Benito Mussolini is executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans while attempt to escape north
• April 28, 1967
  Expo 67, the most attendees World Fair, opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• April 28, 1969
  Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization
• April 28, 1992
  The two remaining countries of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro - form a new state, named the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• April 28, 2004
  30 St Mary Axe, commercial skyscraper, also known as The Gherkin, opens in London and becomes one of the most recognised examples of contemporary architecture

April 27

• April 27, 1296
  England's King Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar and deposes King John Balliol triggering Wars of Scottish Independence
• April 27, 1429
  Joan of Arc and a small army set out for Orleans, besieged by the English since October 1428
• April 27, 1521
  Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is hit by a poisoned arrow while fighting with natives in the Philippine islands, and dies
• April 27, 1522
  Charles V and Pope Adrianus VI beat France at Battle of Bicocca
• April 27, 1565
  Miguel Lopez de Legazpi establishes the city of Cebu, the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines, starting a period of Spanish colonization of East Indies, that would last over three hundred years
• April 27, 1650
  James Graham, a Scottish nobleman and soldier, is defeated during Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• April 27, 1682
  A rebellion by Streltsy, the units of Russian guardsmen, triggered by the death of Feodor III of Russia, makes Peter the Great second tsar after Ivan V being proclaimed as the first tsar with Sophia acting as a regent for them both
• April 27, 1865
  The steamer Sultana catches fire and burns after one of its boilers exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, killing more than 1,800 paroled Union prisoners on their way home
• April 27, 1870
  Heinrich Schliemann, a German archeologist, starts an archaeological excavator of Troy, an ancient city situated on the summit of the mound of Hissarlik in northwest Anatolia
• April 27, 1909
  Sultan Abdul Hamid II of Turkey is overthrown and is succeeded by his brother Mehmed V
• April 27, 1950
  South Africa passes Group Areas Act segregating races
• April 27, 1961
  Sierra Leone declares independence from United Kingdom
• April 27, 1963
  Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow for the first time
• April 27, 1978
  Afghanistan President Daoud Khan is killed and Nur Mohammed Taraki succeeds him during Saur Revolution, marking beginning of long Afghan Civil War
• April 27, 1989
  Major demonstration for democratic reforms occurs in Beijing's Tiananmen square, China
• April 27, 2005
  Facing international pressure after demonstrations in Lebanon, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29 year military domination of that country

April 26

• April 26, 1478
  Conspirators of a noble Tuscan family, Pazzi, attack Lorenzo de'Medici but kill Giuliano de'Medici, Medeheerser of Florence
• April 26, 1677
  Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
• April 26, 1717
  Pirate Black Samuel Bellamy dies along with 143 others when their ship, the Whydah, sank off of Wellfleet, Cape Cod
• April 26, 1721
  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Ottoman Constantinople, returns to England where she learned of a procedure to inoculate against smallpox and begins a campaign to have the procedure
• April 26, 1803
  A large shower of several thousand stony meteorites occurs near town of L'Aigle in Northern France, which convinces scientists that meteors are of extraterrestrial origin
• April 26, 1828
  Russia declares war on Turkey to support Greece's independence
• April 26, 1865
  John Wilkes Booth, an actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, is tracked to a Virginia farm near Bowling Green, and shot in the neck by federal troops when he tried to escape from a burning barn
• April 26, 1915
  Italy secretly signs Pact of London with Britain, France and Russia and gains the alliance against its former allies, including Germany
• April 26, 1937
  German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in Spain, which becomes one of the first aerial bombings by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe
• April 26, 1945
  Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, is arrested for treason
• April 26, 1954
  Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai is released
• April 26, 1964
  Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite to form Tanzania
• April 26, 1986
  In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes due to pressurized steam in the cooling system during a maintenance test, releasing into the air 9 tons of radioactive material
• April 26, 1989
  Daulatpur–Saturia tornado in the Manikganj District, Bangladesh, becomes the deadliest tornado in history

April 25

• April 25, 1185
  Minamoto Yoritomo, a Japanese general, annihilates the Taira clan at sea battle at Dan-no-ura and gains command of Japan beginning Kamakura period in Japan
• April 25, 1507
  German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller uses for the first time name America, in honour of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, on printed wall map of the world
• April 25, 1590
  Judar Pasha, a Moroccan military leader, launches his successful attack to capture Timbuktu, Mali
• April 25, 1626
  A Bohemian military leader Albrecht von Wallenstein beats Ernst von Mansfeldd at Battle of Dessau Bridge during Thirty Years' War
• April 25, 1644
  Last Ming emperor Chongzhen commits suicide by hanging himself as Beijing fell to the bandit and rebel leader Li Zicheng
• April 25, 1660
  London Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II starting the Restoration in kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland
• April 25, 1684
  A Dutch thimble manufacturer John Lofting establishes a thimble manufacture in London
• April 25, 1707
  At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeat Anglo-Portuguese
• April 25, 1719
  Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe, the novel based on the story of Alexander Selkirk, a man who was voluntarily put ashore on a desert island
• April 25, 1725
  Mir Mahmud Hotaki of Afghanistan is mysteriously killed after going mad, starting to lose Afghan control of Persia
• April 25, 1822
  Free American Blacks, settled Liberia in West Africa, found Monrovia, named in honor of President James Monroe
• April 25, 1846
  Mexican troops kill and wound American soldiers on patrol near Rio Grande beginning Mexican–American War, which leads to Mexico's cession of much of the modern-day Southwestern United States
• April 25, 1859
  The Suez Canal Company begins construction on the canal in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, at the northern end
• April 25, 1867
  Tokyo is opened for foreign trade, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology
• April 25, 1876
  The Chicago White Stockings beats Louisville 4-0 in the first game in National League, the world's oldest current professional team sports league
• April 25, 1915
  78,000 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops land at Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire
• April 25, 1925
  World War I general Paul von Hindenburg elected second president of the Weimar Republic in Germany
• April 25, 1928
  Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes first guide dog for the blind
• April 25, 1945
  By order of General Dwight Eisenhower, the US 9th Army halts at the Elbe, allowing Russian forces to capture Berlin after British and American troops meet Soviet forces at Torgau on the Elbe river
• April 25, 1974
  Marcello Caetano, the last prime minister of authoritarian regime known as the Estado Novo, is overthrown in Portugal and exiled to Madeira during Carnation Revolution, which begins transition to democracy in Portugal
• April 25, 1976
  Portugal adopts constitution, rewritten in order to accommodate socialist and communist principles
• April 25, 1983
  Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit

April 24

• April 24, 1547
  Emperor Charles V decisively dismantles the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the Battle of Muhlberg
• April 24, 1558
  Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland marries French crown prince Francis
• April 24, 1704
  The Boston News-Letter is established, the first successful newspaper in U.S
• April 24, 1854
  Emperor of Austria s Franz Joseph I marries Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as the Sisi
• April 24, 1888
  Eastman Kodak, a company produced the Kodak Camera, is formed by George Eastman
• April 24, 1915
  Massacre of Armenians by Turks begins as part of Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, during which over 1 million Armenian was deported and killed
• April 24, 1916
  In Dublin, Ireland, the Irish Republican Brotherhood launches the Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule
• April 24, 1926
  Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Berlin which states that if one country is attacked, the other is to remain neutral
• April 24, 1967
  Vladimir Komarov, a Soviet cosmonaut, becomes the first to die in space, aboard Soyuz 1 at age 40
• April 24, 1980
  Operation Eagle Claw, a US commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted and eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters
• April 24, 1990
  The Hubble Space Telescope, a space telescope to observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra, is launched
• April 24, 2007
  Gliese 581 c, a potentially habitable Earth-like extrasolar planet, is discovered in the constellation Libra by La Silla Observatory
• April 24, 2013
  An eight-storey commercial building collapses in Savar Upazila near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, leaving 1,129 dead and becoming the deadliest non-terrorist structural collapse in modern times

April 23

• April 23, 303
  Saint George, a soldier in the Roman, is executed by decapitation after some torture sessions near Nicomedia's city wall
• April 23, 871
  Alfred the Great becomes the King of Wessex after death of his brother ?thelred
• April 23, 1014
  The Battle of Clontarf ends Danish rule in Ireland but a Dane kill Irish King Brian Boru
• April 23, 1154
  Damascus surrenders to sultan Nur ad-Din van Aleppo
• April 23, 1348
  King Edward III of England establishes the Order of the Garter, the first English order of knighthood
• April 23, 1500
  Pedro Alvares Cabral, a Portuguese navigator and explorer, lands at Terra da Vera Cruz, on the northeast coast of what later became known as Brazil, and claims Brazil for Portugal
• April 23, 1516
  In Bavaria, Germany, the Reinheitsgebot is enacted, which requires that beer be made from malt, hops, yeast, water and nothing else
• April 23, 1635
  The first public school in America, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts
• April 23, 1660
  Sweden concludes peace with Poland at Oliva, near Danzig ending the Second Northern War. The Polish king renounces claims on the Swedish throne, and on Livonia, Brandenburg is accepted as sovereign in Ducal Prussia
• April 23, 1661
  King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westmister Abbey
• April 23, 1795
  In Britain the trial to impeach Warren Hastings, first Governor-General of Bengal, on 21 charges for high crimes and misdemeanors ends after 7 years acquitting Hastings on all charges
• April 23, 1798
  The first Dutch Constitution is accepted
• April 23, 1899
  Some 2000 people gather to watch torture and the lynching Sam Hose, a black man questionably accused of murdering a white planter and raping his wife
• April 23, 1920
  Turkish Grand National Assembly, the unicameral Turkish legislature, first meets in the midst of the war of Independence in Turkey<>, in Ankara
• April 23, 1938
  Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia demand self-government
• April 23, 1941
  Greece surrenders to the Italians and the Germans, who managed to ally due to the stalled Italian invasion known as the Greco-Italian War
• April 23, 1992
  McDonald's opens its first fast-food restaurant in China
• April 23, 1993
  The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
• April 23, 2003
  Beijing closes all of its schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus

April 22

• April 22, 1073
  Gregory VII, Hildebrand of Sovana, becomes Pope after death of Pope Alexander II
• April 22, 1370
  The first stone of the Bastille is laid by order of King Charles V in order to defend Paris from England forces during Hundred Year War
• April 22, 1453
  The Ottomans haul 76 warships out of the water and drag them on wood rails to bypass the Greek blockade of the Constantinople harbor
• April 22, 1509
  Henry VIII ascends to English throne after death of his father Henry VII to become the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty
• April 22, 1529
  Treaty of Zaragoza defines the antimeridian of Tordesillas attributing the Moluccas to Portugal and Philippines to Spain
• April 22, 1676
  Netherlands and Spain forces are defeated by France in the Battle of Augusta, a Dutch skilled admiral Michiel de Ruyter is fatally wounded
• April 22, 1724
  Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, is born in Konigsberg, modern-day Kaliningrad
• April 22, 1745
  Treaty of Fussen is signed between the Electorate of Bavaria and Habsburg Austria, restoring the status quo of Germany
• April 22, 1826
  Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, takes Missolonghi in West Greece after a long siege
• April 22, 1876
  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer, completes his "Swan Lake" ballet
• April 22, 1898
  The United States Navy begin blockading Cuban ports under orders from President McKinley, formally declaring war between the United States and Spain
• April 22, 1915
  Second Battle of Ypres, marked by the first mass use of poison gas, begins between German Empire and Allies
• April 22, 1930
  United States, Britain and Japan sign London Naval Treaty to reduce naval forces, which is strongly opposed by the Japanese military and inflames growing anti-foreign sentiment and militarism
• April 22, 1943
  British Royal Air Force shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea
• April 22, 1970
  First Earth Day held internationally to conserve natural resources
• April 22, 1977
  Simon Peres, a Polish-born Israeli statesman, becomes premier of Israel
• April 22, 1978
  The One Love Peace Concert is held at National Heroes Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, where Bob Marley unites two opposing political leaders at this concert, bringing peace to the civil war-ridden streets of the city
• April 22, 2010
  The Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast sinks into the Gulf of Mexico two days after an explosion tore through it, leaving the largest oil spill in United States history with 492,000 tonnes of oil

April 21

• April 21, 753 BC
  Rome is founded on the Palatine Hill by representatives of Latins, an Italic tribe inhabiting central Italy, according with the Roman annalists
• April 21, 1477
  Maximilian of Habsburg marries Maria of Burgundy, heiress of all the Netherlands
• April 21, 1526
  King of Kabul Babur with an Islamic forces annihilates Indian Army of sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi at the Battle of Panipat, starting the Mughal dynasty at Delhi
• April 21, 1649
  The Maryland Toleration Act, which provides for freedom of worship for all Christians, is passed by the Maryland assembly
• April 21, 1792
  Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier also known as Tiradentes, is drawn and quartered by the Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro and pieces of his body are exposed in the cities between Vila Rica and Rio, in an attempt to scare the people who have listened to his independence ideas
• April 21, 1836
  Texian Army defeat and capture Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the 18 minutes-long Battle of San Jacinto, which leads to end of the Texas Revolution and independence of Republic of Texas from Mexico
• April 21, 1863
  Baha'u'llah declares his station as "He whom God shall make manifest" in Iran, marking the foundation of the Bahai faith, which reflectes the attitudes of the Shiah sect with an emphasis on tolerance
• April 21, 1864
  Max Weber, German sociologist and political economist, who drew strong connection between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism, is born
• April 21, 1914
  United States marines occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico and stay six months in an effort to try to preserve trade
• April 21, 1918
  Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot considered the top ace of the World War I, also known as Red Baron, is shot down and killed near Amiens
• April 21, 1945
  About 320,000 German troops in Army Group B surrender to Allies in the Ruhr
• April 21, 1952
  British Overseas Airways Corporation begins First scheduled flight by commercial jet, London-Rome route
• April 21, 1960
  Brasilia becomes the capital of Brazil
• April 21, 1967
  Konstantinos Kollias becomes premier after military coup in Greece
• April 21, 1992
  The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia results in a succession dispute between Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia and Vladimir's daughter Maria for the leadership of the Imperial Family of Russia
• April 21, 1994
  The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda
• April 21, 2009
  UNESCO launches The World Digital Library, an international digital library

April 20

• April 20, 121
  Marcus Aurelius, 16th Roman emperor, is born
• April 20, 1139
  Second Lateran Council, the tenth ecumenical council, opened in Rome to declare clerical marriages invalid, regulate clerical dress, and punish attacks on clerics by excommunication
• April 20, 1632
  Nicolas Antoine, a French Christian Protestant theologian converted to Judiasm, is burned at the stake
• April 20, 1653
  Oliver Cromwell dissolved the English parliament
• April 20, 1657
  English Admiral Robert Blake fights his last battle when he destroyed the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Bay
• April 20, 1769
  Ottawa Chief Pontiac is murdered by an Indian in Cahokia
• April 20, 1770
  Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales, Australia starting his exploration and mapping of Australia
• April 20, 1777
  New York adopts new constitution, written by Gouverneur Morris, as an independent state
• April 20, 1804
  Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian rebel leader, commands 1804 Haiti Massacre of the French at town of Cape Francois, during which the white Haitians were practically eradicated
• April 20, 1809
  Napoleon defeat Austria in the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
• April 20, 1832
  US Congress passes legislation making thermal springs at Hot Springs, Arkansas, the first nationally protected area in the USA
• April 20, 1871
  The Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, allows the President to suspend writ of habeas corpus
• April 20, 1902
  Marie and Pierre Curie isolate from a ton of pitchblende one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride
• April 20, 1919
  Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania during Polish-Soviet War
• April 20, 1992
  Seville's six-month Universal Exhibition opens, called Seville Expo 1992, in the city of Seville, Spain
• April 20, 1999
  Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their Columbine High School teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves
• April 20, 2006
  Iran announces a uranium enrichment deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de-facto termination of the deal
• April 20, 2009
  Oracle announces it will acquire Sun Microsystems for more than US$7 billion

April 19

• April 19, 1215
  English barons assemble an army of some 2,000 men near London and demand that King John address their call for tax relief
• April 19, 1763
  Teedyuscung, a Lenape Indian leader, is burned to death while sleeping in his cabin in the Wyoming Valley
• April 19, 1775
  At Concord bridge near Boston British troops, who want to seize colonial's weapons and gunpowder, are repulsed by Massachusetts militia with heavy losses to the British which marks beginning of the American Revolution
• April 19, 1783
  Catherine II, the Empress of Russia, annexes the Crimean Khanate to the Russian empire as Taurida Governorate after series of Russo-Turkish wars
• April 19, 1794
  Tadeusz Kosciusko force Russians out of Warsaw
• April 19, 1810
  Simon Bolivar, a military and political leader, is sent by Venezuelan junta with a delegation to the United Kingdom to seek British aid and recognition
• April 19, 1824
  Lord Byron, an English poet, dies of malaria in Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for Greek independence
• April 19, 1839
  Treaty of London constitutes Belgium as an independent kingdom and confirms the independence of the German-speaking part of Luxembourg
• April 19, 1892
  The prototype of the first commercially successful American automobile is completed in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Charles Duryea and his brother Frank
• April 19, 1897
  The first Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon, is run from Ashland, Massachusetts, to Boston
• April 19, 1903
  49 Jews are murdered, 700 houses destroyed, and 600 stores pillaged during pogrom in Kishinev triggered by blood libel against Jews and tolerated by the state
• April 19, 1948
  Chiang Kai-shek is elected President of Nationalist China
• April 19, 1951
  21-year-old Kiki Hakansson, Miss Sweden, wins the first Miss World beauty pageant held in London, England, as part of the Festival of Britain
• April 19, 1971
  Salyut 1, the first manned lab in orbit, is launched by USSR
• April 19, 1995
  Timothy McVeigh bombs the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, and wounding 450
• April 19, 2005
  Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, succeeds Pope John Paul II, becoming the 265th pope, Pope Benedict XVI

April 18

• April 18, 1506
  The cornerstone of new St. Peter's Basilica is laid by order of Pope Julius II after demolition of the ancient basilica
• April 18, 1521
  Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refuses to retract his views which led to his excommunication
• April 18, 1663
  Osman declares war on Austria beginning Austro-Turkish War
• April 18, 1688
  Jacobite army begins siege of Derry in Ireland
• April 18, 1888
  The Imperial British East Africa Company, the administrator of British East Africa, is incorporated in London, England
• April 18, 1906
  At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 kilometers long, killing estimated 3,000 people from the quake and fires and destroying over 80% of the city
• April 18, 1924
  First crossword puzzle book is published in USA by Simon and Schuster
• April 18, 1949
  Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth
• April 18, 1951
  France, West Germany and Benelux form European Steel and Coal Community by Treaty of Paris, making one more step to the founding of the European Union
• April 18, 1974
  Red Brigade, a paramilitary organization, kidnaps Italian Attorney General Mario Sossi
• April 18, 1980
  Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, declares independence from United Kingdom and Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister

April 17

• April 17, 69
  Roman emperor Marcus Salvius Otho commits suicide after being defeated by Vitellius' troops in battle of Bedriacum in North-Italy
• April 17, 1421
  Dikes at Dort Holland breaks after a heavy storm near the North Sea coast which results in 10,000 drown
• April 17, 1492
  A contract is signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to find the Indies
• April 17, 1524
  Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator in the service of the King Francis I of France, discovers New York Bay in America
• April 17, 1534
  Sir Thomas More, an English lawyer and social philosopher, is jailed in the Tower of London by order of Henry VIII
• April 17, 1732
  The second Kamchatka Expedition with Vitus Bering as captain commander is announced in the Russian Senate to include astronomical and scientific observations, and explore the seas between Siberia and Japan
• April 17, 1758
  Francis Williams, the first African-American to graduate for a college in the western hemisphere, publishes a collection of Latin poems
• April 17, 1817
  The first American School for the deaf is founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hartford, Connecticut
• April 17, 1824
  The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 recognized exclusive Russian rights to the fur trade above Latitude 54°, 40' North, with the American rights and claims restricted to below that line
• April 17, 1875
  The game of "snooker" is invented by Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, a British Army officer
• April 17, 1895
  China and Japan sign the peace treaty of Shimonoseki, followed a war over control of the Korean peninsula, by which China recognizes independence and autonomy of Korea and cedes to Japan the Taiwan
• April 17, 1956
  Cominform, the first official forum of the international communist movement, is dissolves
• April 17, 1961
  1,400 Cuban exiles, funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency, land in Bay of Pigs and attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro
• April 17, 1964
  The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair, US$2368 base price
• April 17, 1969
  Czechoslovakia's Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek deposed
• April 17, 1975
  Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, falls to Communist insurgents of Khmer Rouge, ending Cambodia's five-year Civil War and starting cruel Pol Pot regime
• April 17, 2004
  Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi

April 16

• April 16, 1457 BC
  Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III defeats a large rebellious coalition of Canaanite vassal states led by the king of Kadesh at the Battle of Megiddo
• April 16, 1071
  The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy
• April 16, 1705
  Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College
• April 16, 1746
  The Battle of Culloden becomes a crushing defeat for Jacobites and ends an attempt of Charles Edward Stuart, known as The Young Pretender, to regain the British throne during Second Jacobite Rebellion
• April 16, 1760
  In England Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, is hanged as a felon in the Tower of London for the murder of his steward
• April 16, 1853
  The first steam locomotive in Asia begin running from Bombay to Tanna, India, pulling 14 cars and 400 people
• April 16, 1856
  Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law, ratified by 55 states, including the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire, abolishes privateering
• April 16, 1859
  Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian, dies in Cannes
• April 16, 1866
  Dmitry Karakozov, a Russian revolutionary, makes the first attempt to assassinate Alexander II of Russia
• April 16, 1867
  Constitution of North German Confederation, written by Otto von Bismarck for a federation of 22 independent states of northern Germany, is accepted by Norddeutscher Reichstag
• April 16, 1945
  Battle of Berlin, the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II, is begun by the Soviet Union
• April 16, 1948
  Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OECD) forms in Paris, France, to help administer the Marshall Plan and stimulate economic progress
• April 16, 1964
  Nine men sentenced 25-30 years for Britain's 1963 "Great Train Robbery"
• April 16, 1977
  At the West Coast Computer Faire in SanFrancisco, California, Commodore International demonstrates the PET 2001 computer, and Apple Computer introduces the Apple II, marking start of era of mass-produced personal computers
• April 16, 1991
  The Skoda company, an automobile manufacturer based in Czech Republic, is acquired by Volkswagen
• April 16, 2003
  The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, Greece, allowing ten new members into the European Union
• April 16, 2006
  Prince Albert II of Monaco reaches the North Pole, becoming the first reigning monarch ever to do so
• April 16, 2009
  Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service, announces that they "cancelled the decree imposing an anti-terror operation on the territory of, effective from midnight", which ends the Second Chechen War

April 15

• April 15, 1205
  Bulgaria under Emperor Kaloyan beats and captures the Latin Emperor Baldwin I at the Battle of Adrianople
• April 15, 1450
  French defeat English at Battle of Formigny in Hundred Years War
• April 15, 1452
  Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary, is born in Vinci near Florence
• April 15, 1469
  Guru Nanak, the founder of the religion of Sikhism, is born
• April 15, 1472
  Leon Battista Alberti, Italian humanist, architect, writes his classic architectural treatise De Re Aedificatoria
• April 15, 1738
  The first bottle opener is invented by unknown person
• April 15, 1874
  The Societe Anonyme Cooperative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, and Graveurs, better known today as the Impressionists organize and present their first public group exhibition at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar
• April 15, 1892
  General Electric is formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Co. and other firms in New York State
• April 15, 1896
  The first modern Olympic Games are closed in Athens
• April 15, 1931
  The Castellammarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti i capi and undisputed ruler of the American Mafia
• April 15, 1936
  Assailants shot two Jewish drivers during an attack on a convoy of trucks on the Nablus to Tulkarm road, starting Arab Revolt against the British in purpose to oppose Jewish immigration in Palestine
• April 15, 1947
  Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era
• April 15, 1989
  The death of Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China, sparks the beginning of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, China
• April 15, 1996
  The treasure of Primos found by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873 in Troy and taken from Berlin in 1945 by Russians is exhibited in Moscow for the first time
• April 15, 2013
  Two Chechen Islamist brothers explode two bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 and injuring 264 others

April 14

• April 14, 1792
  After declaration issued by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and Frederick William II of Prussia against the French Revolution, France declares war on Austria, starting French Revolutionary Wars which lead into the Napoleonic Wars
• April 14, 1841
  American author Edgar Allan Poe publishes his short story "The Murders on the Rue Morgue", considered the first detective
• April 14, 1847
  Persia and Ottoman Empire sign second Treaty of Erzurum, settling boundary disputes between countries
• April 14, 1853
  Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist, begins her Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes to help slaves to escape
• April 14, 1859
  Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is published
• April 14, 1860
  First Pony Express rider arrive in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri
• April 14, 1865
  John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shoots US President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.; Andrew Johnson becomes 17th President of the United States
• April 14, 1894
  Thomas Edison makes his first public showing of the kinetoscope in New York City showing moving pictures through a magnifying lens
• April 14, 1900
  French President Emile Loubet opens International Fairs in Paris, France
• April 14, 1912
  RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner, sinks in the North Atlantic after hitting with an iceberg during her maiden voyage which causes the deaths of 1,502 people
• April 14, 1927
  In Sweden, Volvo produces its first production line car, Volvo OV 4, in Gothenburg, which has a 28-hp 4-cylinder engine, and costs 4800 kronor
• April 14, 1931
  The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed in Madrid, Spain after King Alfonso XIII left the country following municipal elections
• April 14, 1935
  The great dust storm in the United States hits eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma the hardest, which greatly damages the ecology and agriculture and forces tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms
• April 14, 1978
  Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against an attempt by Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language
• April 14, 2003
  The Human Genome Project, an international scientific research project, is successfully completed, with 99 percent of the human genome sequenced to 99.99 percent accuracy
• April 14, 2010
  In Iceland, a volcano buried under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupts, sending up a massive ash cloud that prompts the closure of airports in parts of Europe