1613 – The first English child born in Canada at Cuper’s Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.
1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
1836 – Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre – Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texas POWs at Goliad, Texas.
1854 – Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia.
1884 – A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacks members of a jury who had returned a verdict of manslaughter in a clear case of murder, and then over the next few days would riot and destroy the courthouse.
1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
1964 – The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
1977 – Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the worst aviation accident in history.
1986 – A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people.
1990 – The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí, an anti-Castro propaganda network, to Cuba.
1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
HAPPY RE-BIRTHDAYS TO:
1924 – Sarah L Vaughan, Newark NJ, jazz scat singer (Broken Hearted Melody)
1963 – Quentin Tarantino, director/screenwriter (Pulp Fiction)
RIP
2002 – Dudley Moore, British actor (b. 1935)
2002 – Billy Wilder, American director (b. 1906)
2006 – Stanisław Lem, Polish writer (b. 1921)