Events Pre-1600 1309 – Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized Ferrara, a papal fiefdom. 1329 – Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical. 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.
1601–1900 1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France. 1638 – The first of four destructive Calabrian earthquakes strikes southern Italy. Measuring magnitude 6.8 and assigned a Mercalli intensity of XI, it kills 10,000–30,000 people. 1782 – The Second Rockingham ministry assumes office in Great Britain and begins negotiations to end the American War of Independence. 1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates. 1809 – Peninsular War: A combined Franco-Polish force defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Ciudad Real. 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: On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican Army massacres 342 Texian Army POWs at Goliad, Texas. 1866 – President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9. 1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place. 1884 – A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and burn down the courthouse. 1886 – Geronimo, Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars. 1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo leads Filipino forces for the only time during the Philippine–American War at the Battle of Marilao River.
1901–present 1901 – Philippine–American War: Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by the Americans. 1912 – First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the origin of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. 1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life. 1918 – The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania. 1933 – Japanese invasion of Manchuria: Japan leaves the League of Nations after it approves the Lytton Report that ruled in favour of China. 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Taierzhuang begins, resulting several weeks later in the war's first major Chinese victory over Japan. 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav Air Force officers topple the pro-Axis government in a bloodless coup. 1942 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany and Vichy France begin the deportation of 65,000 Jews from Drancy internment camp to German extermination camps. 1943 – World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska. 1945 – World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. Argentina declares war on the Axis Powers. 1958 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. 1964 – The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage. 1975 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins. 1976 – The first section of the Washington Metro opens to the public. 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 deadliest aviation accident in history. 1980 – The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212. 1981 – The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours. 1986 – A car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, Australia, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people. 1990 – The United States begins broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba on TV Martí. 1993 – Jiang Zemin is appointed President of China. 1993 – Italian former minister and Christian Democracy leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of mafia allegiance by the tribunal of Palermo. 1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States. 1999 – Kosovo War: An American Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is shot down by a Yugoslav Army SAM, the first and only Nighthawk to be lost in combat. 2000 – A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills one person and injures 71 others. 2002 – Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover seder in Netanya, Israel. 2002 – Nanterre massacre: In Nanterre, France, a gunman opens fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors; 19 other people are injured. 2004 – , a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe. 2009 – The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people. 2014 – Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict. 2015 – Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead. 2016 – A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter. 2020 – North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO. 2023 – Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. 2023 – Forty people are killed in a fire at a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Births
Pre-1600 1401 – Albert III, duke of Bavaria (died 1460) 1416 – Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded Order of the Minims (died 1507) 1509 – Wolrad II, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg, German nobleman (died 1578) 1546 – Johannes Piscator, German theologian (died 1625)
1601–1900 1627 – Stephen Fox, English politician (died 1716) 1676 – Francis II Rákóczi, Hungarian prince (died 1735) 1679 – Domenico Lalli, Italian poet and librettist (died 1741) 1681 – Joaquín Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish-Italian cardinal (died 1760) 1702 – Johann Ernst Eberlin, German organist and composer (died 1762) 1710 – Joseph Abaco, Belgian cellist and composer (died 1805) 1712 – Claude Bourgelat, French surgeon and author (died 1779) 1714 – Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian historian and theologian (died 1795) 1724 – Jane Colden, American botanist and author (died 1766) 1746 – Michael Bruce, Scottish poet and composer (died 1767) 1746 – Carlo Buonaparte, Corsican-French lawyer and politician (died 1785) 1765 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (died 1841) 1781 – Alexander Vostokov, Estonian-Russian philologist and academic (died 1864) 1784 – Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, Hungarian philologist, orientalist, and author (died 1842) 1785 – Louis XVII of France (died 1795) 1797 – Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (died 1863) 1801 – Alexander Barrow, American lawyer and politician (died 1846) 1802 – Charles-Mathias Simons, German-Luxembourger jurist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg (died 1874) 1809 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann, French engineer, urban planner, and politician (died 1891) 1811 – Edward William Cooke, English painter and illustrator (died 1880) 1812 – William Robinson (Canadian architect), Canadian architect and land surveyor (died 1894) 1814 – Charles Mackay, Scottish journalist, anthologist, and author (died 1889) 1820 – Edward Augustus Inglefield, English admiral and explorer (died 1894) 1822 – Henri Murger, French novelist and poet (died 1861) 1824 – Virginia Minor, American women's suffrage activist (died 1894) 1839 – John Ballance, Irish-New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1893) 1843 – George Frederick Leycester Marshall, English colonel and entomologist (died 1934) 1844 – Adolphus Greely, American general and explorer, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1935) 1845 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1923) 1845 – Jakob Sverdrup, Norwegian bishop and politician, Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs (died 1899) 1847 – Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931) 1851 – Ruperto Chapí, Spanish composer, co-founded Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (died 1909) 1851 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer and educator (died 1931) 1852 – Jan van Beers, Belgian painter and illustrator (died 1927) 1854 – Giovanni Battista Grassi, Italian physician, zoologist, and entomologist (died 1925) 1855 – William Libbey, American target shooter, colonel, mountaineer, geographer, geologist, and archaeologist (died 1927) 1857 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician, eugenicist, and academic (died 1936) 1859 – George Giffen, Australian cricketer and footballer (died 1927) 1860 – Frank Frost Abbott, American-Swiss scholar and academic (died 1924) 1862 – Jelena Dimitrijević, Serbian short story writer, novelist, poet, traveller, social worker, feminist and polyglot (died 1945) 1862 – Arturo Berutti, Argentinian composer (died 1938) 1863 – Henry Royce, English engineer and businessman, founded Rolls-Royce Limited (died 1933) 1866 – John Allan, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Victoria (died 1936) 1868 – Patty Hill, American songwriter and educator (died 1946) 1869 – James McNeill, Irish politician, 2nd Governor-General of the Irish Free State (died 1938) 1869 – J. R. Clynes, English trade unionist and politician, Home Secretary (died 1949) 1871 – Heinrich Mann, German author and poet (died 1950) 1871 – Joseph G. Morrison, American captain and Nazarene minister (died 1939) 1871 – Piet Aalberse, Dutch politician, Minister of Labour (died 1948) 1875 – Albert Marquet, French painter (died 1947) 1877 – Oscar Grégoire, Belgian water polo player and swimmer (died 1947) 1878 – Kathleen Scott, British sculptor (died 1947) 1879 – Sándor Garbai, Hungarian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Hungary (died 1947) 1879 – Miller Huggins, American baseball player and manager (died 1929) 1879 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourger-American painter and photographer (died 1973) 1881 – Arkady Averchenko, Russian playwright and satirist (died 1925) 1882 – Thomas Graham Brown, Scottish mountaineer and physiologist (died 1965) 1883 – Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (died 1980) 1884 – Gordon Thomson, English rower and lieutenant (died 1953) 1885 – Julio Lozano Díaz, Honduran accountant and politician, 40th President of Honduras (died 1957) 1885 – Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster, English navy officer and politician, Secretary of State for Transport (died 1961) 1886 – Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (died 1934) 1886 – Wladimir Burliuk, Ukrainian painter and illustrator (died 1917)