Events
of the day
World
Entrepreneurship Day
1457
BC – Likely date of the Battle of Megiddo between
Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition
under the King of Kadesh, the first battle to
have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively
reliable detail.
1178 BC – The calculated date of the Greek king
Odysseus' return home from the Trojan War.
73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the
Romans after several months of siege, ending
the Jewish Revolt.
1346 – Dušan the Mighty is proclaimed Emperor,
with the Serbian Empire occupying much of the
Balkans.
1520 – The Revolt of the Comuneros begins in
Spain against the rule of Charles V.
1521 – Martin Luther's first appearance before
the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates
of the empire.
1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma
founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought between
the French-supported Jacobites and the British
Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus,
Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. After the battle
many highland traditions were banned and the
Highlands of Scotland were cleared of inhabitants.
1780 – The University of Münster in Münster,
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
1799 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount
Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across
the River Jordan near Acre.
1818 – The United States Senate ratifies the
Rush-Bagot Treaty, establishing the border with
Canada.
1847 – The accidental shooting of a Māori by
an English sailor results in the opening of
the Wanganui Campaign of the New Zealand land
wars.
1853 – The first passenger rail opens in India,
from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
1858 – The Wernerian Natural History Society,
a former Scottish learned society, is wound
up.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle at Lee's
Mills in Virginia.
1862 – American Civil War: The District of Columbia
Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending
slavery in the District of Columbia, becomes
law.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg
– ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter
move through heavy Confederate artillery fire
on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson
fights his last gun battle.
1908 – Natural Bridges National Monument is
established in Utah.
1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman
to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1917 – Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile
in Switzerland.
1919 – Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer
and fasting" in response to the killing
of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre
by the British.
1919 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army launches
the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius in modern
Lithuania.
1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which
Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic
relations, is signed.
1925 – During the Communist St Nedelya Church
assault in Sofia, 150 are killed and 500 are
wounded.
1941 – World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg,
directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed
by British ships.
1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws
the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history
of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago
White Sox 1-0.
1944 – Allied forces started bombing of Belgrade,
killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell
on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
1945 – The Red Army begins the final assault
on German forces around Berlin, with nearly
one million troops fighting in the Battle of
the Seelow Heights.
1945 – The United States Army liberates Nazi
Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war
camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).
1945 – More than 7,000 die when the German refugee
ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
1947 – Texas City Disaster: An explosion on
board a freighter in port causes the city of
Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost
600.
1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold
War" to describe the relationship between
the United States and the Soviet Union.
1953 – Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal
Yacht HMY Britannia.
1962 – Walter Cronkite takes over as the lead
news anchor of the CBS Evening News, during
which time he would become "the most trusted
man in America".
1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his
Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated
in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against
segregation.
1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo
16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1990 – The "Doctor of Death", Jack
Kevorkian, participates in his first assisted
suicide.
1992 – The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo,
Mozambique and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill
into the ocean.
2001 – India and Bangladesh begin a five-day
border conflict, but are unable to resolve the
disputes about their border.
2003 – The Treaty of Accession is signed in
Athens admitting 10 new member states to the
European Union.
2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest
spree shooting in modern American history. Seung-Hui
Cho, kills 32 and injures 23 before committing
suicide.
Holidays
and observances
Birthday
of Queen Margrethe II (Denmark)
Christian Feast Day:
Benedict Joseph Labre
Bernadette Soubirous
Drogo
Fructuosus of Braga
Martyrs of Zaragoza
Turibius of Astorga
April 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Emancipation Day (Washington, D.C.)
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