Sunday, April 30, 2017

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

Saturday, April 29, 2017

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

Friday, April 28, 2017

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

Thursday, April 27, 2017

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

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

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

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

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

Monday, April 24, 2017

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

Sunday, April 23, 2017

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

Saturday, April 22, 2017

April 23

Friday, April 21, 2017

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

Thursday, April 20, 2017

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

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

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

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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

Monday, April 17, 2017

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

  • 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

Saturday, April 15, 2017

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

Friday, April 14, 2017

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

Thursday, April 13, 2017

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