814 – Charlemagne, German emperor/Roman Emperor, Bloodline for “House of Orange” ala Queen Beatrix (800-814), dies at 71
1099 – 1st Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria
1393 – King Charles VI of France is nearly killed when several dancers’ costumes catch fire during a masquerade ball.
1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
1573 – Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.
1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.
1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1754 – Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.
1760 – Pownal, Vermont is created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.
1813 – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
1818 – George S. Boutwell, American politician, 28th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1905) was born.
1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway, runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
1871 – Paris surrenders to Prussians
1885 – Commission for Auguste Rodin’s sculpture ‘The Burghers of Calais’ signed by the Municipal Council of Calais.
1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined 1 shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).
1902 – The Carnegie Institution of Washington is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew
Carnegie.
1908 – Members of the Portuguese Republican Party fail in their attempted coup d’état against the administrative dictatorship of Prime Minister João Franco.
1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish–American War.
1910 – John Banner, Austrian actor (Sgt Schultz) (d. 1973) was born. John Banner had been held in a (pre-war) concentration camp and his family was killed during the war. Banner attempted to sum up the paradox of his role by saying, “Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?”. Banner defended his character, telling TV Guide in 1967, “Schultz is not a Nazi. I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in any generation.”
1915 – An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
1915 – US Pres Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates
1917 – Municipally-owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco.
1918 – Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
1922 – American Pro Football Association renamed “National Football League”
1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.’s biggest snowfall, causes the city’s greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapses.
1927 – Ronnie Scott, jazz musician/club-owner – Born
1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
1934 – The first ski tow in the United States begins operation in Vermont.
1935 – Iceland becomes 1st western country to legalize abortion
1936 – Alan Alda, [Alphonso D’Abruzzo], actor (Hawkeye Pierce-M*A*S*H), born in NYC, New York
1939 – William Butler Yeats, Irish poet (Nobel), dies in France at 73
1942 – German troops occupy Benghazi Libya
1943 – Dick Taylor, English bass player, songwriter, and producer (The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things, and The Mekons) was born.
1945 – World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1948 – Charles Taylor, Liberian politician, 22nd President of Liberia was birthed.
1950 – Barbi Benton, [Klein], California, Playboy model (Hee Haw, Sugar Time!) Born
1953 – 19-year old Derek Bentley is hanged in Wandsworth Prison, London, controversially convicted of the murder of a police officer. He was pardoned on 30th July 1998.
1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy, Paris, President of France (2007-) Birthed
1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first US television appearance
1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
1958 – Construction began on 1st private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor
1958 – The last episode of the British radio comedy programme The Goon Show is broadcast.
1958 – Dodger catcher Roy Campanella is paralyzed in an automobile wreck
1959 – Randi Rhodes, Nova M Radio personality (Air America) Born
1960 – 1st photograph bounced off Moon, Washington DC
1962 – Johanne Relleke gets stung by bees 2,443 times in Rhodesia & survives
1963 – Dan Spitz, American guitarist (Anthrax and Overkill) was born.
1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.
1968 – Sarah McLachlan, folk singer (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy) Born
1968 – Radiation alert following B-52 crash in Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland
1970 – Donald Tardy, US, death metal drummer (Obituary, Cause of Death) Born
1972 – The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association place “special emphasis on the necessity for a peaceful incident-free day” at the next march on 30 January in an effort to avoid violence
1973 – John Banner, Austrian actor (Sgt Schultz) (b. 1910) died.
1978 – First Episode of Fantasy Island Aired on Television.
1980 – Jesse James Hollywood, American drug dealer and fugitive – Birthed
1981 – Elijah Wood, Cedar Rapids Iowa, actor (Radio Flyer, Good Son) Born
1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.
1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
1985 – Athina Onassis, daughter of Christina, Born
1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board. — On January 28, 1986 despite the warnings of engineers not to launch in freezing temperatures, NASA management chose to launch Space Shuttle Challenger. The result was the loss of 7 astronauts in a horrific explosion 73 seconds later when flames from a solid rocket booster leak from a cracked o-ring and burned through the main fuel tank. The solid rocket boosters remained intact after the explosion and continued on out of control before mission control sent a self destruct signal to them so they could not cause destruction on the ground.
1987 – US Foreign minister George Shultz meets ANC-leader Oliver Tambo
1991 – Harold “Red” Grange, football’s galloping ghost, dies of Parkinson’s disease at 87
1996 – Jerry Siegel, American author and illustrator, co-created Superman (b. 1914) died.
1998 – Michelangelo’s “Christ & the Woman of Samaria” sold for $7.4 million
2009 – Billy Powell, American keyboard player and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1952) died.
2011 – Hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the Egyptian’s streets against the Mubarak regime in demonstrations referred to as the “Friday of Anger”
2013 – Iran’s Pishgam rocket successfully completes a return trip of sending a monkey into space
2013 – John Kerry is voted to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the United States Secretary of State
2013 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has decided to abdicate in order for her son Prince Willem-Alexander to take over the crown. She had recorded a televised address to declare her intentions and announced that she would formally step down on April 30th.