1502 – Muslims in Granada forced to convert to Catholicism
1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
1554 – Lord Guildford Dudley, English husband of Lady Jane Grey (b. 1536) died.
1554 – Queen of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is executed for treason.
1689 – The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1700 – The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony and Russia and the Swedish Empire.
1733 – Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
1789 – Ethan Allen, American patriot, dies at 51
1793 – 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882) was born.
1804 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (Zum ewigen Frieden), dies at 79
1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865) was born.
1825 – Creek Indian treaty signed. Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826
1839 – Aroostock War: Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick
1850 – Original Washington’s Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300
1865 – Henry Highland Garnet is 1st black to speak in US House of Reps
1870 – Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada
1873 – Congress abolishes bimetallism & authorizes $1 & $3 gold coins
1874 – King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Is Hawaii, is 1st king to visit US
1876 – 13th Dalai Lama (d. 1933) was born.
1877 – US railroad builders strike against wage reduction
1894 – Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris’s Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
1912 – China adopts Gregorian calendar
1914 – Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (Glenn Miller Orchestra) (d. 2000) was born.
1914 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player, Brother of Joe , Boston Red Sox (d. 2009) was born.
1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Florence Italy, director (Romeo & Juliet) Born
1924 – Calvin Coolidge became the first U.S. president to deliver an address by radio. This was the first day that radio programming had included commercials. The National Carbon Company had aired an advertisement during the broadcast of The Everyday Hour. This first sponsored program was heard in New York, Washington, Province, and surrounding areas. This show featured celebrity appearances, music, and stories.
1926 – One of the largest bank mergers of to this date in history has taken place. This merger involved at least a billion dollars in resources. The bank merge which would take place on this day includes Chase National, Metal National, and Mechanics Merger. This new bank would bear the name Chase National Bank, and was second only to National City Bank as the largest institution in the United States.
1934 – France hit by a general strike against fascists & royalists
1934 – Bill Russell, Monroe La, NBAer (Boston Celtics, Oly-gold-56) Born
1935 – USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.
1938 – The first ‘Kindertransport’ carrying Jewish refugee children from Nazi Germany arrives in Britain.
1939 – Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (X) (The Doors, Rick & the Ravens, Manzarek–Krieger, and Nite City) (d. 2013) was born.
1942 – Ehud Barak, Israeli politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel was birthed
1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the Civil Rights Movement and partially inspires Orson Welles’ film Touch of Evil.
1947 – Christian Dior unveils a “New Look”, helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.
1948 – Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and author, Born
1949 – Unidentified aircraft bomb Jerusalem
1950 – Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
1950 – Sen Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees
1950 – Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Genesis, Quiet World, and GTR) was born.
1951 – Gil “The Bird” Moore, rocker (Triumph) Born
1953 – USSR breaks relations with Israel
1955 – President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam
1955 – Arsenio Hall, comedian (Alan Thicke, Arsenio, Coming to America) Born
1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter (Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, and Wild Horses) was born.
1964 – Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)
1964 – Fighting breaks out between Turks and Greeks over dispute islands in Cyprus and 16 are killed; the UN responds the following month by sending a peacekeeping force
1966 – Paul Crook, American guitarist (Anthrax) was born.
1967 – Keith Richards, Mick Jagger & Marianne Faithful busted for drugs
1967 – Pirate Radio Free Harlem (NYC) begins transmitting
1970 – Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player (Barenaked Ladies and the Brothers Creeggan) was born.
1971 – James Cash Penney, American businessman, founded J. C. Penney (b. 1875) died.
1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
1974 – Heads of state of Algeria, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia discuss oil strategy in view of the progress in Arab-Israeli disengagement
1976 – Sal Mineo, actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed at 37
1979 – Bakhtiar resigns as prime minister of Iran after losing support of the military
1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress was born.
1983 – One hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s proposed Law of Evidence. The women were tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up. The women were successful in repealing the law.
1984 – Cale Yarborough, becomes 1st Daytona 500 qualifier, above 200 MPH
1989 – 5 Pakistani Moslem rioters killed protesting “Satanic Verses” novel
1989 – Loyalist paramilitary group kill Pat Finucane, a Belfast lawyer who represented republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, while he is having dinner with family
1991 – North & South Korea form a joint team for table tennis competition
1993 – Two 10-year-old boys lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall in Liverpool, England, then beat him to death
1994 – Four men break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch’s iconic painting The Scream.
1994 – Model Anna Nicole Smith hospitalized for drug overdose
1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (Iron Butterfly) (b. 1952) died.
1997 – Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O J Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgment
1998 – Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740
1998 – US district judge T Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional
1999 – A group of 20 independent international scientists has reinforced warnings that genetically modified food may be damaging to health after looking at a report about the effects of biologically altered potatoes on laboratory rats produced by Arpad Pusztai who was forced to retire over his revelations .
1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (b. 1922) died.
2000 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929) Dies
2000 – Tom Landry, American football coach (Dallas Cowboys), dies at 75
2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2002 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion.
2002 – US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States’ nuclear waste repository.
2004 – The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
2007 – A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City, killing 5 people in the Trolley Square shooting.
2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.
2014 – Isaac Sidney “Sid” Caesar, American comic actor and writer (“Your Show of Shows”) dies aged 91
2014 – Intel entrepreneur and cofounder of the X-PRIZE Foundation, Peter Diamandis, claims that 50% of US jobs are under threat of being mechanized within 10 years