Events467 -
Anthemius is elevated to
Emperor of the Western Roman Empire1606 - The
Union Flag is adopted as the flag of
Great Britain.
1633 - The formal inquest of
Galileo Galilei by the
Inquisition begins.
1776 -
North Carolina's
Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the
Second Continental Congress to vote for
independence by issuing the
Halifax Resolves.
1820 -
Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of
Filiki Eteria, a secret organisation to overthrow Ottoman rule over
Greece.
1861 -
American Civil War: The
war begins with
Confederate forces firing on
Fort Sumter, in the harbor of
Charleston, South Carolina.
1864 -
American Civil War:
Fort Pillow massacre --
Confederate forces under
General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the
African American soldiers who had surrendered at
Fort Pillow,
Tennessee.
1865 -
American Civil War:
Mobile, Alabama, falls to the
Union Army.
1877 - The
United Kingdom annexes the
Transvaal.
1917 -
World War I:
Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of
Vimy Ridge from the
Germans. It is also considered a major event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack.
1927 -
April 12 Incident:
Chiang Kai-shek orders the
CPC members executed in
Shanghai, ending the
First United Front (China).
1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world, 231 mph, was measured by the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory on the summit of
Mount Washington1934 - The
Auto-Lite Strike, which culminated in a five-day melee between
Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000
strikers and picketers, began.
1935 - First flight of the
Bristol Blenheim.
1937 -
Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first
jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the
British Thomson-Houston factory in
Rugby, England.
1945 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president
Harry S. Truman is sworn in as the 33rd
President of the United States.
1955 - The
polio vaccine, developed by
Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
1961 -
Human spaceflight:
Yuri Gagarin became the first
human to
travel into
space in
Vostok 3KA-2 (
Vostok 1).
1963 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine
K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. Although both vessels are severely damaged both can make it to port.
1968 -
Nerve gas accident at
Skull Valley,
Utah.
1980 -
Samuel Doe takes control of
Liberia in a
coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of
democratic presidential succession in that country.1980 -
Terry Fox begins his "
Marathon of Hope" by dipping his artificial leg into the
Atlantic at
St. John's, Newfoundland.
1981 -
Human spaceflight: The first launch of a
Space Shuttle:
Columbia launches on the
STS-1 mission.
1990 - opening of
Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition, the work of the only living
sculptor ever invited to present a
solo exhibition at the
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in
Washington, D.C.1994 -
Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass
Usenet spam.
1998 - An
earthquake in
Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the
Richter scale near the town of
Bovec.
1999 -
American President Bill Clinton was cited for
contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in the Paula Jones
sexual harassment civil
lawsuit.
2002 -
Pedro Carmona becomes interim
President of Venezuela during the
Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a
military coup against
Hugo Chávez.
2007 - The
Kremlin vetos an investigation into the death of
Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man in space.
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