837 – Halley’s Comet and Earth experienced their closest approach to one another when their separating distance equalled 0.0342 AU (3.2 million miles).
1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
1796 – James Bowie, American pioneer and soldier (d. 1836) Born
1816 – The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.
1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Palace of Westminster had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the third and final chapter of The Book of the Law.
1912 – The Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England for her only voyage.
1919 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican leader, murdered at 39
1921 – Chuck Connors, Brooklyn New York, American actor (Rifleman, Branded, Cowboy in Africa) Born
1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
1931 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
1941 – World War II: The Axis powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić’s Ustaše fascist insurgents in power.
1953 – Warner Bros. premieres the first 3-D film from a major American studio, entitled House of Wax.
1958 – Chuck Willis, rocker, dies at 30
1959 – Brian Setzer, Massapequa Park NY, rock guitarist/vocalist (Stray Cats) Born
1962 – Stuart Sutcliffe, Scottish bass player (The Beatles) (b. 1940) died.
1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
1970 – Matt Barlow, American musician ( Jon Schaffer’s brother-in-law. ) Iced Earth – BORN
1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People’s Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.
1972 – Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong.
1972 – Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
1972 – Seventy-four nations sign the Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of biological weapons.
1979 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (d. 2003) Born
1992 – Sam Kinison, loud mouth comedian, dies in a car crash at 38
1998 – Northern Ireland peace deal reached (Good Friday Agreement).
2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of other senior officials