This Day in History
-------------------

2018 - YouTube headquarters shooting: A 38-year-old gunwoman opens fire at YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring three people before committing suicide.

2017 - A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people.

2016 - The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies.

2013 - More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2010 - Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.

2009 - Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding
four before committing suicide.

2008 - Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody.

2008 - ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations.

2007 - Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record of 574.8 km/h (159.6 m/s, 357.2 mph).

2004 - Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.

2000 - United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.

1997 - The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.

1996 - A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport
in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States.

1993 - The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time.

1989 - The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal
courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield.

1981 - The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

1980 - US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.

1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.

1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins.

1974 - The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.

1973 - Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call
to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.

1969 - Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day.

1961 - LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21
people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mourino.

1956 - Hudsonville-Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado.

1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.

1948 - In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins.

1948 - Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.

1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States
and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.

1936 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.

1933 - First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.

1922 - Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1920 - Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland.

1905 - Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina

1895 - The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

1888 - Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.

1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen.

1882 - American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James.

1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1860 - The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.

1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III.

1721 - Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title.

1589 - The janissaries revolt in response to the debasement of coins.

1559 - The second of two treaties making up the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis is signed, ending the Italian Wars.

1077 - The Patriarchate of Friul, the first Friulian state, is created.

1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.

686 - Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +15°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - The impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in response to his declaration of martial law is unanimously upheld by the country's Constitutional Court, ending his presidency.

2024 - The Battle of Chasiv Yar begins.

2023 - Finland becomes a member of NATO after Turkey accepts its membership request.

2020 - China holds a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.

2017 - Syria conducts an air strike on Khan Shaykhun using chemical weapons, killing 89 civilians.

2013 - 74 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.

2011 - Georgian Airways Flight 834 crashes at N'djili Airport in Kinshasa, killing 32.

2010 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits south of the Mexico-USA border,
killing at least two and damaging buildings across the two countries.

2009 - France announces its return to full participation of its military forces within NATO.

2002 - The MPLA government of Angola and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.

1997 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-83. However, the mission is later cut short due to a fuel cell problem.

1996 - Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

1994 - Three people are killed when KLM Cityhopper Flight 433 crashes at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

1991 - Forty-one people are taken hostage inside a Good Guys! Electronics store in Sacramento, California. Three of the hostage takers and three hostages are killed.

1991 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.

1990 - The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress.

1988 - Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.

1987 - Garuda Indonesia Flight 032 crashes at Medan Airport, killing 23.

1984 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1983 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden
voyage into space on STS-6.

1981 - Iran-Iraq War: The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft.

1979 - Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

1977 - Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes in New Hope, Paulding County, Georgia, killing 72.

1975 - Vietnam War: A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.

1975 - Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul
Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1973 - A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming.

1973 - The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated.

1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.

1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

1967 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church.

1964 - The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

1963 - Bye Bye Birdie, a musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney, was released.

1960 - France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.

1958 - The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London.

1949 - Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1946 - Greek judge and archeologist Panagiotis Poulitsas is appointed Prime Minister of Greece in the midst of the Greek Civil War.

1945 - World War II: Soviet Red Army troops liberate Hungary from German occupation.

1945 - World War II: United States Army troops capture Kassel.

1945 - World War II: United States Army troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.

1944 - World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3,000 civilians.

1933 - U.S. Navy airship USS Akron is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due
to severe weather.

1925 - The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.

1920 - The four-day Nebi Musa riots commence.

1913 - First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes.

1905 - In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.

1904 - Two Ms ~7.1 earthquakes, among the largest in Europe, strike
Bulgaria, killing over 200 people and causing destruction.

1894 - Foyot bombing by the Russian or French state during the Ere des attentats (1892-1894).

1887 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.

1866 - Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.

1865 - American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

1860 - The declaration on the introduction of the Finnish markka as an official currency is read in different parts of the Grand Duchy of Finland.

1841 - William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the
briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.

1818 - The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).

1814 - Napoleon abdicates (conditionally) for the first time and names his
son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French, followed by unconditional
abdication two days later.

1796 - Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.

1660 - Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain promises, among other things, a general pardon to all royalists and opponents of the monarchy for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

1609 - Moriscos are expelled from the Kingdom of Valencia.

1581 - Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.

1423 - Death of the Venetian Doge Tommaso Mocenigo, under whose rule
victories were achieved against the Kingdom of Hungary and against the
Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Gallipoli (1416).

1268 - A five-year Byzantine-Venetian peace treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.

801 - King Louis the Pious captures Barcelona from the Moors after a siege of several months.

619 - The Bijapur-Mumbai inscription is issued by Pulakeshin II, describing the Battle of Narmada.: 207

611 - Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.

190 - Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to
the ground.

503 BC - Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +2°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2018 - Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest workplace raids in the history of the United States.

2010 - Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-131 to resupply the International Space Station.

2010 - Twenty-nine coal miners are killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.

2010 - Up to 50 people are killed and another 100 injured in two militant suicide bombings and attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan: the first on an Awami National Party rally in Timergara; the second on the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar.

2009 - North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite.
The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate
reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.

2007 - The cruise ship MS Sea Diamond strikes a volcanic reef near Nea Kameni and sinks the next day. Two passengers were never recovered and are presumed dead.

1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.

1998 - In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.

1992 - Peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sucic are killed on the Vrbanja Bridge in Sarajevo, becoming the first casualties of the Bosnian War.

1992 - Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru, dissolves the Peruvian congress
by military force.

1991 - The Space shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-37 to deploy the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

1991 - An ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 aboard including Sen. John Tower and astronaut Sonny Carter.

1983 - The People's Armed Police is officially founded

1977 - The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip.

1976 - In China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident.

1974 - Carrie, the first novel by American author Stephen King, is published for the first time with a print run of 30,000 copies.

1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches a revolt against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

1966 - During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky personally attempts to lead the capture of the restive city of Da
Nang before backing down.

1958 - Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled
explosions of the time.

1956 - Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro declares himself at war with Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.

1951 - Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.

1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.

1946 - A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground.

1946 - Soviet troops end their year-long occupation of the Danish island of Bornholm.

1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".

1943 - World War II: United States Army Air Forces bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths, including 209 children, and 1,300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of Mortsel. Their target was the Erla factory 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the residential area hit.

1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy launches a carrier-based air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid. Port and civilian facilities are damaged and the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and
HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.

1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 41 summarizing Case Blue, including the German Sixth Army's planned assault on Stalingrad.

1938 - Spanish Civil War: Two days after the Nationalist army occupied the Catalan city of Lleida, dictator Francisco Franco decrees the abolition of
the Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia), the self-government granted by the Republic, and the official status of the Catalan language.

1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado kills 233 in
Tupelo, Mississippi.

1933 - Andorran Revolution: The Young Andorrans occupy the Casa de la Vall
and force the government to hold democratic elections with universal male suffrage.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens.

1932 - Dominion of Newfoundland: Ten thousand rioters seize the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government.

1922 - The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood,
is incorporated.

1910 - The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated.

1902 - A stand box collapses at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 500 supporters during an international association football match between
Scotland and England.

1879 - Bolivia declares war on Chile, and Chile declares war on Peru,
starting the War of the Pacific.

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins.

1818 - In the Battle of Maipu, Chile's independence movement, led by
Bernardo O'Higgins and Jose de San Martin, win a decisive victory over
Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.

1795 - Peace of Basel between France and Prussia is made.

1792 - United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.

1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.

1614 - The second English Parliament of king James I, the so-called Addled Parliament, opens.

1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1566 - Two hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces.

1536 - Charles V makes a Royal Entry into Rome, demolishing a swath of the city to re-enact a Roman triumph.

1242 - During the Battle on the Ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.

919 - The second Fatimid invasion of Egypt begins, when the Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, sets out from Raqqada at the head of
his army.

823 - Lothair I is crowned King of Italy by Pope Paschal I.

--- Binbrook, ON: Overcast +6°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2018 - A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior ice hockey team collides with a semi-truck in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others.

2017 - U.S. military launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an air base in Syria. Russia describes the strikes as an "aggression", adding they significantly damage US-Russia ties.

2012 - Azawad declares itself independent from the Republic of Mali.

2011 - In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas
were exhumed from several mass graves.

2010 - Maoist rebels kill 76 CRPF officers in Dantewada district, India.

2009 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing 307.

2008 - The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement and Egyptian activists.

2005 - Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.

2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.

1998 - Nuclear weapons testing: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.

1997 - In Greene County, Tennessee, the Lillelid murders occur.

1994 - The Rwandan genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.

1992 - The Bosnian War begins.

1985 - Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry is ousted from power in a coup
d'etat led by Field Marshal Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab.

1984 - Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.

1974 - The first California Jam festival takes place at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. Co-headlined by Deep Purple and Emerson,
Lake & Palmer. The festival set what were then records for the loudest amplification system ever installed, the highest paid attendance, and highest gross in history.

1974 - In Brighton, United Kingdom, ABBA wins the 1974 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo", the first of a joint-record seven Swedish wins.

1973 - The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.

1973 - Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.

1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive: American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.

1970 - Newhall massacre: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed
in a shootout.

1968 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins the Liberal Party leadership election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon afterward.

1968 - In the downtown district of Richmond, Indiana, a double explosion
kills 41 and injures 150.

1965 - Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

1958 - Capital Airlines Flight 67 crashes in Tittabawassee Township,
Michigan, near Freeland Tri-City Airport, killing 47.

1957 - The flag carrier airline of Greece for decades, Olympic Airways, is founded by Aristotle Onassis following the acquisition of "TAE - Greek National Airlines".

1948 - The Finno-Soviet Treaty is signed in Moscow.

1947 - The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.

1945 - World War II: The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end.

1945 - World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.

1941 - World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).

1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.

1930 - At the end of the Salt March, Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire."

1929 - Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.

1926 - Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).

1918 - Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere ends.

1917 - World War I: The United States declares war on Germany.

1911 - During the Battle of Deciq, Dede Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, leader of the Malesori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi,
Montenegro, for the first time after George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg).

1909 - Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.

1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is
celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.

1866 - The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.

1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Sailor's Creek: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia, during the Appomattox Campaign.

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins: In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.

1860 - The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.

1841 - U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become president upon William Henry Harrison's death.

1830 - Church of Christ, the original church of the Latter Day Saint
movement, is organized by Joseph Smith and others at either Fayette or Manchester, New York.

1814 - Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

1812 - British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.

1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America's first millionaire.

1800 - The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. (Under the Old Style calendar then still in use in the Ottoman Empire, the treaty
was signed on 21 March.)

1793 - During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.

1782 - King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) establishes the Chakri dynasty.

1776 - American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy fail in
their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.

1712 - The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.

1652 - At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.

1580 - One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.

1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople. The city falls on May 29 and is renamed Istanbul.

1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.

945 - Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII crowns his son Romanos II as co-emperor.

402 - Stilicho defeats the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.

46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) at the Battle of Thapsus.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy -2°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2022 - Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.

2021 - COVID-19 pandemic: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces that the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant has become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States.

2020 - COVID-19 pandemic: Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigns for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on USS Theodore Roosevelt and the dismissal of Brett Crozier.

2020 - COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan.

2018 - Syria launches the Douma chemical attack during the Eastern Ghouta offensive of the Syrian Civil War.

2018 - Former Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is arrested
for corruption by determination of Judge Sergio Moro, from the "Car-Wash Operation". Lula stayed imprisoned for 580 days, after being released by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

2017 - U.S. President Donald Trump orders the 2017 Shayrat missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.

2017 - A man deliberately drives a hijacked truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people and injuring fifteen others.

2011 - A gunman opens fire at an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing twelve children and injuring 22 others before committing suicide.

2011 - The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.

2009 - Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.

2009 - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.

2005 - First release of Git distributed version control system.

2003 - Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haiti Independence Debt.

2003 - Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later.

2001 - NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.

1999 - Turkish Airlines Flight 5904 crashes near Ceyhan in southern Turkey, killing six people.

1995 - First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.

1994 - Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705 in
order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy.

1994 - Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

1990 - John Poindexter is convicted for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1991 the convictions are reversed on appeal.

1990 - A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star, killing
159 people.

1989 - Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 sailors.

1988 - Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

1983 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

1982 - Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested.

1980 - During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations
with Iran.

1978 - Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.

1977 - German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.

1976 - Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from
the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death.

1972 - Vietnam War: Communist forces overrun the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh.

1971 - Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization.

1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.

1968 - Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim.

1965 - Representatives of the National Congress of American Indians testify before members of the US Senate in Washington, D.C., against the termination of the Colville tribe.

1964 - IBM announces the System/360.

1956 - Francoist Spain agrees to surrender its protectorate in Morocco.

1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.

1954 - United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.

1948 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

1946 - The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

1945 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.

1944 - In the Fragheto massacre, soldiers belonging to the German 356th Infantry Division kill 30 Italian civilians and 15 partisans near Casteldelci in central-northern Italy.

1943 - The National Football League makes helmets mandatory.

1943 - Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece
during the Axis Occupation.

1943 - The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.

1940 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

1939 - Benito Mussolini invades Albania.

1939 - Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile.

1933 - Nazi Germany issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts.

1933 - Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.)

1927 - AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

1926 - Violet Gibson attempts to assassinate Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.

1922 - Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leases federal petroleum reserves to private oil companies on
excessively generous terms.

1906 - The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.

1906 - Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

1868 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation, is assassinated by a Fenian activist.

1862 - American Civil War: The Union's Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi near Shiloh, Tennessee.

1831 - Pedro II becomes Emperor of Empire of Brazil.

1824 - The Mechanics' Institution is established in Manchester, England at
the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to three Universities in the city: the University of Manchester, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU).

1805 - German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.

1798 - The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and the Spanish Empire. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.

1795 - The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass.

1790 - Russo-Turkish war (1787-1792): Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis loses three of his ships in the Battle of Andros.

1788 - Settlers establish Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement created by U.S. citizens in the recently organized Northwest Territory.

1767 - End of Burmese-Siamese War (1765-1767).

1724 - Premiere performance of Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.

1541 - Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.

1449 - Felix V abdicates his claim to the papacy, ending the reign of the final Antipope.

1348 - Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV charters Prague University.

1141 - Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting
the title "Lady of the English".

529 - First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

451 - Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy -5°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024: A total solar eclipse takes place at the Moon's ascending node, visible across North America.

2020 - Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as
the Democratic Party's nominee.

2014 - Windows XP reaches its standard End Of Life and is no longer supported.

2010 - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START Treaty.

2005 - A solar eclipse occurs, visible over areas of the Pacific Ocean and Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

2002 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-110, carrying
the S0 truss to the International Space Station. Astronaut Jerry L. Ross also becomes the first person to fly on seven spaceflights.

1993 - The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56.

1990 - The conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis is elected in the Greek parliamentary election.

1975 - Voyageurs National Park is established by the U.S. Congress

1974 - Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in career home runs by hitting his 715th home run off of Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

1970 - Bahr El-Baqar primary school bombing: Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school. Forty-six children are killed.

1968 - BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after takeoff. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.

1960 - The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung.

1959 - The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank.

1959 - A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.

1954 - South African Airways Flight 201: A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1
crashes into the sea during night killing 21 people.

1954 - A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.

1940 - The Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party elects Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal as General Secretary, marking the beginning of
his 44-year-long tenure as de facto leader of Mongolia.

1904 - The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale.

1895 - In Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the
United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.

1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.

1866 - Austro-Prussian War: Italy and Prussia sign a secret alliance against the Austrian Empire.

1832 - Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans.

1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.

1812 - Czar Alexander I, the Russian Emperor and the Grand Duke of Finland, officially announces the transfer of the status of the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki.

1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, is dedicated.

1605 - The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.

1271 - In Syria, sultan Baibars conquers the Krak des Chevaliers.

1250 - Seventh Crusade: Ayyubids of Egypt capture King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fariskur.

1232 - Mongol-Jin War: The Mongols begin their siege on Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty.

1143 - Manuel I Komnenos succeeds his father John II Komnenos as Byzantine Emperor.

1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated by Innocent II for supporting Anacletus II as pope for seven years, even though Roger had already publicly recognized Innocent's claim to the papacy.

876 - The Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul saves Baghdad from the Saffarids.

217 - Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated and is succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy -6°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2021 - Burmese military and security forces commit the Bago massacre, during which at least 82 civilians are killed.

2017 - After refusing to give up his seat on an overbooked United Express flight, Dr. David Dao Duy Anh is forcibly dragged off the flight by aviation security officers, leading to major criticism of United Airlines.

2017 - The Palm Sunday church bombings at Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt, take place.

2014 - A student stabs 20 people at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.

2013 - At least 13 people are killed and another three injured after a man goes on a spree shooting in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanca.

2013 - A 6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes Iran killing 32 people and injuring over 850 people.

2011 - Six people and the perpetrator are killed and 17 injured in a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands.

2009 - In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protest against the
government of Mikheil Saakashvili.

2003 - Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces.

1994 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-59.

1992 - A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.

1991 - Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union.

1990 - An Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 over Gadsden, Alabama, killing both of the Cessna's occupants.

1990 - The Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement is signed for 180,000 square kilometres (69,000 mi2) in the Mackenzie Valley of the western Arctic.

1990 - An IRA bombing in County Down, Northern Ireland, kills three members
of the UDR.

1989 - Tbilisi massacre: An anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strike in Tbilisi, demanding restoration of Georgian independence, is dispersed by the Soviet Army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

1981 - The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it and killing two Japanese sailors.

1980 - The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture.

1969 - The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford with Brian Trubshaw as the test pilot.

1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.

1960 - Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer,
David Pratt in Johannesburg.

1959 - Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".

1957 - The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping following the Suez Crisis.

1952 - Japan Air Lines Flight 301 crashes into Mount Mihara, Izu Oshima, Japan, killing 37.

1952 - Hugo Ballivian's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines

1948 - Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist terror groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100 Palestinians.

1948 - Jorge Eliecer Gaitan's assassination provokes a violent riot in
Bogota (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia.

1947 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 22 relating to Corfu
Channel incident is adopted.

1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.

1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

1946 - About 500 postal workers in Tel Aviv and Jaffa went on strike.

1945 - The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.

1945 - World War II: The Battle of Konigsberg, in East Prussia, ends.

1945 - World War II: The German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer is sunk by the Royal Air Force.

1945 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, is executed by the Nazi regime.

1942 - World War II: An Indian Ocean raid by Japan's 1st Air Fleet sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and the Australian destroyer
HMAS Vampire.

1942 - World War II: The Battle of Bataan ends and the Bataan Death March begins.

1940 - Vidkun Quisling seizes power in Norway.

1940 - World War II: Operation Weserubung: Germany invades Denmark and
Norway.

1939 - African-American singer Marian Anderson gives a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

1937 - The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London. It is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.

1918 - World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.

1917 - World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle begins with Canadian
Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.

1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.

1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

1860 - On his phonautograph machine, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville
makes the first known recording of an audible human voice.

1784 - The Treaty of Paris, ratified by the United States Congress on January 14, 1784, is ratified by King George III of the Kingdom of Great Britain, ending the American Revolutionary War. Copies of the ratified documents are exchanged on May 12, 1784.

1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.

1609 - Philip III of Spain issues the decree of the "Expulsion of the Moriscos".

1609 - Eighty Years' War: Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce.

1511 - Resettled Shiite Muslims rise up in the Sahkulu rebellion under the leadership of Sahkulu against the Ottoman Empire.

1454 - The Treaty of Lodi is signed, establishing a balance of power among northern Italian city-states for almost 50 years.

1438 - The Council of Ferrara begins with its first session in presence of
the Patriarch of Constantinople, representatives of the Patriarchal Sees of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem and Pope Eugene IV presiding.

1388 - Despite being outnumbered 16:1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy
are victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Nafels.

1387 - The Byzantine city of Thessalonike surrenders to the Ottomans, though rule reverts back to the Byzantines after the battle of Ankara.

1288 - Mongol invasions of Vietnam: Yuan forces are defeated by Tran forces
in the Battle of Bach Dang in present-day northern Vietnam.

1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies.

537 - Siege of Rome: The Byzantine general Belisarius receives his promised reinforcements, 1,600 cavalry, mostly of Hunnic or Slavic origin and expert bowmen. Despite shortages, he starts raids against the Gothic camps and Vitiges but is forced into a stalemate.

475 - Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.

193 - The distinguished soldier Septimius Severus is proclaimed emperor by
the army in Illyricum.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +6°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - A mass shooting occurs at the Old National Bank in Louisville,
Kentucky that leaves five victims dead and eight wounded.

2016 - An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, impacting India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.

2016 - The Paravur temple accident in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu, kills more than one hundred
people out of the thousands gathered for seventh day of Bhadrakali worship.

2010 - Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

2009 - President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.

1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.

1991 - A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near
Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.

1991 - Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140.

1988 - The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.

1981 - Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected to Westminster
as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He died
twenty-six days later.

1979 - Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.

1973 - Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland, killing 108 people.

1972 - Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.

1972 - Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are discovered by construction workers in Shandong.

1970 - Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.

1968 - The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm - the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734
people on board, fifty-three died.

1963 - One hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine
USS Thresher sinks at sea.

1944 - Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.

1941 - World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia.

1925 - The Russian city of Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad to honor the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, who
had guided the defense of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War in 1920.

1919 - The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is
held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.

1919 - Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.

1912 - RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, UK, on her maiden and only voyage.

1900 - British suffer a sharp defeat by the Boers south of Brandfort. 600 British troops are killed and wounded and 800 taken prisoner.

1896 - 1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis.

1887 - On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America.

1872 - The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.

1868 - At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die.

1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

1865 - American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.

1864 - Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.

1858 - After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

1826 - The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi begin leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.

1821 - Greek War of Independence: the island of Psara joins the Greek
struggle for independence.

1821 - Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.

1816 - The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.

1815 - The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects
Earth's climate for the next two years.

1814 - Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington attack Toulouse held by Marshall Soult, driving out the French after fierce fighting.

1809 - Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria.

1796 - War of the First Coalition: A surprise Austrian attack at the Battle
of Voltri marks the beginning of the Italian Campaign of 1796-1797, the decisive campaign under Napoleon Bonaparte that will end the war a year later.

1741 - War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia gains control of Silesia at
the Battle of Mollwitz.

1724 - Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.

1717 - Robert Walpole resigns from the British government, commencing the
Whig Split which lasts until 1720.

1710 - The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.

1606 - The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by
James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

1545 - The settlement of Villa Imperial de Carlos V (now the city of Potosi) in Bolivia is founded after the discovery of huge silver deposits in the area.

1500 - Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.

1407 - Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma".

847 - Election of Pope Leo IV following the death of Pope Sergius II.

837 - Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).

428 - Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.

238 - During the year of Six Emperors, forces of Gordian I and Gordian II are defeated by those of Maximinus Thrax in the battle of Carthage.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light rain +4°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - During the Pazigyi massacre, an airstrike conducted by the Myanmar Air Force kills at least 100 villagers in Pazigyi, Sagaing Region.

2021 - Twenty year old Daunte Wright is shot and killed in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota by officer Kimberly Potter, sparking protests in the city, when the officer mistakes her pistol for her taser.

2018 - An Ilyushin Il-76 which was owned and operated by the Algerian Air Force crashes near Boufarik, Algeria, killing 257.

2017 - The tour bus of the German football team Borussia Dortmund was
attacked with roadside bombs in Dortmund, Germany. Three bombs exploded as
the bus ferried the team to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their quarter-final against Monaco.

2012 - A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake is VII (Very strong). Ten are killed, twelve are injured, and a non-destructive tsunami is observed on the island of Nias.

2011 - An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others.

2008 - Kata Air Transport Flight 007 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Chisinau International Airport, killing eight.

2007 - Algiers bombings: Two bombings in Algiers kill 33 people and wound a further 222 others.

2006 - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces Iran's claim to have successfully enriched uranium.

2002 - Over two hundred thousand people march in Caracas towards the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Hugo Chavez. Nineteen protesters are killed.

2002 - The Ghriba synagogue bombing by al-Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.

2001 - The Australia national men's soccer team sets a world record for the largest victory in an international association football match, winning the game 31-0 against American Samoa at the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for OFC. Australia's Archie Thompson also breaks the record for most goals scored by a player in an international match by scoring 13 goals.

2001 - The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, China after a collision with a J-8 fighter, is released.

1993 - Guillem Agullo, pro-Catalan independence and anti-fascist Valencian young activist is assassinated by a group of Spanish nationalists and neo-nazis in Montanejos.

1993 - Four hundred fifty prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.

1990 - Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, seize what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.

1987 - The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign
Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.

1986 - FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle in broad daylight in Dade County, Florida between two bank/armored car robbers and pursuing FBI agents. During the firefight, FBI agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan were killed, while five other agents were wounded. As a result, the popular .40 S&W cartridge was developed.

1982 - American-Israeli reservist Alan Harry Goodman carried out a mass shooting at the Dome of the Rock, killing two Palestinians and injured at least seven others.

1981 - A massive riot in Brixton, south London results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.

1979 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.

1977 - London Transport's Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched.

1976 - The Apple I is created.

1970 - Apollo Program: Apollo 13 is launched.

1968 - A failed assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement, leaves Dutschke suffering from brain damage.

1968 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1965 - The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-five tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states of the United States, killing 266 people.

1964 - Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco is elected president by the National Congress.

1963 - Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.

1961 - The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

1957 - United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.

1955 - The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.

1952 - Pan Am Flight 526A ditches near San Juan-Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after experiencing an engine failure, killing 52 people.

1952 - Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.

1951 - The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.

1951 - Korean War: President Truman relieves Douglas MacArthur of the command of American forces in Korea and Japan.

1945 - World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.

1935 - Stresa Front: opening of the conference between the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and
the French Minister for Foreign Affairs Pierre Laval to condemn the German violations of the Treaty of Versailles.

1921 - Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the
newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.

1909 - The city of Tel Aviv is founded.

1908 - SMS Blucher, the last armored cruiser to be built by the Imperial German Navy, is launched.

1885 - Luton Town F.C. is founded.

1881 - Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.

1876 - The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.

1868 - Former shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.

1856 - Second Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up.

1814 - The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition
against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for
the first time.

1809 - Battle of the Basque Roads: Admiral Lord Gambier fails to support Captain Lord Cochrane, leading to an incomplete British victory over the French fleet.

1727 - Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany).

1713 - France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Utrecht, bringing an end
to the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War). Britain accepts Philip V as King of Spain, while Philip renounces any claim to the French throne.

1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain on the same day that the Scottish Parliament concurs with the English decision of 12 February.

1544 - Italian War of 1542-46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, but fails to exploit its victory.

1512 - War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferrarese forces led by Gaston de Foix and Alfonso I d'Este win the Battle of Ravenna against the Papal-Spanish forces.

1241 - Batu Khan defeats Bela IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.

672 - Consecration of Pope Adeodatus II following the death of Pope Vitalian.

491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.

--- Binbrook, ON: Sunny -1°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2014 - The Great Fire of Valparaiso ravages the Chilean city of Valparaiso, killing 16 people, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying over 2,000 homes.

2013 - Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali.

2010 - Merano derailment: A rail accident in South Tyrol kills nine people
and injures a further 28.

2009 - Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency.

2007 - A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a
cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.

2002 - A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem's
Mahane Yehuda Market, killing seven people and wounding 104.

1999 - During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an American McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle shoots a passenger train, killing between 20 and 60 people.

1999 - United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court
for giving "intentionally false statements" in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.

1992 - The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park's name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Resort Paris.

1990 - Wideroe Flight 839 crashes after takeoff from Vaeroy Airport in
Norway, killing five people.

1990 - Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington,
D.C. He is the only sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition there.

1985 - Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-51D to deploy two communications satellites.

1983 - Harold Washington is elected as the first black mayor of Chicago.

1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.

1980 - Canadian runner and athlete, Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope Run in St. John's, NF

1980 - Transbrasil Flight 303, a Boeing 727, crashes on approach to Hercilio Luz International Airport in Florianopolis, Brazil. Fifty-five out of the 58 people on board are killed.

1980 - The Americo-Liberian government of Liberia is violently deposed.

1970 - Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the
Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.

1963 - The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.[citation needed]

1961 - Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first crewed orbital flight,
Vostok 1.

1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

1945 - World War II: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermunde--only 80 kilometres from Berlin.

1945 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President upon Roosevelt's death.

1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.

1934 - The U.S. Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.[citation needed]

1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph,
is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed.

1928 - The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.

1927 - Rocksprings, Texas is hit by an F5 tornado that destroys 235 of the
247 buildings in the town, kills 72 townspeople, and injures 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history.

1927 - Shanghai massacre of 1927: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Chinese
Communist Party members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.[citation needed]

1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.

1910 - SMS Zrinyi, one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, is launched.

1900 - One day after its enactment by the Congress, President William
McKinley signs the Foraker Act into law, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.

1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.

1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.

1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

1862 - American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw).

1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

1831 - Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.

1820 - Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.

1807 - The Froberg mutiny on Malta ends when the remaining mutineers blow up the magazine of Fort Ricasoli.

1796 - War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte wins his first victory as an army commander at the Battle of Montenotte, splitting the Austrian and Piedmontese armies away from each other, and marking the beginning of the Piedmontese surrender in the war.

1782 - American Revolution: A Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral George Rodney defeats a French fleet led by the Comte de Grasse at the Battle of the
Saintes off Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.

1776 - American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.

1606 - The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.

1204 - The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.

1159 - Having received the submission of the prince of Antioch, Raynald of Chatillon, Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos enters triumphantly the city
of Antioch.

1012 - Duke Oldrich of Bohemia deposes and blinds his brother Jaromir, who flees to Poland.[citation needed]

806 - Nikephoros I of Constantinople is consecrated as patriarch of Constantinople.

627 - King Edwin of Northumbria is converted to Christianity by Paulinus, Bishop of York.

467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

240 - Shapur I becomes co-emperor of the Sasanian Empire with his father Ardashir I.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +4°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2025 - Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament, becoming just the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam in golf.

2024 - Six people and the perpetrator are killed and twelve others injured in a mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney, Australia.

2023 - The house of Jack Teixeira is raided in an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents; he is arrested on the same day.

2014 - Three people are killed in a shooting in Overland Park, Kansas.

2013 - Salam Fayyad resigns as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority following an ongoing dispute with the President Mahmoud Abbas.

2009 - A fire destroys a homeless hostel and kills at least 22 people in Kamien Pomorski, Poland.

2006 - The United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the Chadian capital of N'Djamena is repelled by the Chadian army

1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

1996 - Two women and four children are killed after Israeli helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon.

1976 - Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history.

1976 - The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

1975 - An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.

1972 - Vietnam War: The Battle of An Loc begins.

1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.

1970 - At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed "Odyssey") while en route to the Moon.

1964 - At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

1960 - The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

1953 - CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.

1948 - In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.

1945 - World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.

1945 - World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and
military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.

1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1943 - World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyn Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.

1941 - A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.

1924 - A.E.K., a major Greek multi-sport club, is established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople.

1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer kill approximately 379-1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured.

1909 - The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

1873 - The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

1870 - The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.

1865 - American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces.

1861 - American Civil War: Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces.

1849 - Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.

1829 - The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.

1777 - American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.

1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

1699 - The Sikh religion is formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.

1613 - Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.

1612 - Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojiro in a duel at Funajima island.

1455 - Thirteen Years' War: the beginning of the Battle for Kneiphof.

1204 - Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.

1175 - Saladin routs his Muslim opponents, the Zengids, in the battle of the Horns of Hama, consolidating his control over Syria except for Aleppo.

1111 - Henry V, King of Germany, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light rain, mist +14°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Flooding in the Persian Gulf starts, killing 19 in Oman.

2023 - The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency.

2022 - 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Russian warship Moskva sinks.

2016 - The foreshock of a major earthquake occurs in Kumamoto, Japan.

2014 - Boko Haram abducts 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria.

2014 - Two bombs detonate at a bus station in Nyanya, Nigeria, killing at least 88 people and injuring hundreds. Boko Haram claims responsibility.

2006 - Twin blasts triggered by crude bombs during Asr prayer in the Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi injure 13 people.

2005 - The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to
same-sex couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.

2003 - U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner MS Achille Lauro
in 1985.

2003 - The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

2002 - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after
being ousted and arrested by the country's military.

1999 - A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

1999 - NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.

1997 - Pai Hsiao-yen, daughter of Taiwanese artiste Pai Bing-bing is
kidnapped on her way to school, preceding her murder.

1994 - In a friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two U.S. Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two U.S.
Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

1991 - The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President following its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

1988 - In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1988 - The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.

1986 - The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, each weighing 1 kilogram
(2.2 lb), fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

1981 - STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.

1979 - The Progressive Alliance of Liberia stages a protest, without a
permit, against an increase in rice prices proposed by the government, with clashes between protestors and the police resulting in over 70 deaths and
over 500 injuries.

1978 - Tbilisi demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

1967 - Gnassingbe Eyadema overthrows Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself
as the new President of Togo, a title he will hold for the next 38 years.

1958 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.

1945 - Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division
deliberately destroys the German town of Friesoythe on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.

1944 - Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued at 20 million pounds.

1941 - World War II: German and Italian forces attack Tobruk, Libya.

1940 - World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, preceding a larger force which will arrive two days later.

1935 - The Black Sunday dust storm, considered one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl, sweeps across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring areas.

1931 - The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed and King Alfonso XIII goes
to exile. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, Francesc Macia proclaims the Catalan Republic.

1929 - The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix takes place in the Principality of Monaco. William Grover-Williams wins driving a Bugatti Type 35.

1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins to sink.

1909 - Muslims in the Ottoman Empire begin a massacre of Armenians in Adana.

1908 - Hauser Dam, a steel dam on the Missouri River in Montana, fails, sending a surge of water 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m) high downstream.

1906 - The first meeting of the Azusa Street Revival, which will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement, is held in Los Angeles.

1900 - The world's fair Exposition Universelle opens in Paris.

1895 - The 1895 Ljubljana earthquake, both the most and last destructive earthquake in the area, occurs.

1894 - The first ever commercial motion picture house opens in New York City, United States. It uses ten Kinetoscopes, devices for peep-show viewing of films.

1890 - The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International
Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.

1881 - The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight occurs in El Paso, Texas.

1865 - William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, and his family are attacked at home by Lewis Powell.

1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John
Wilkes Booth; Lincoln dies the following day.

1858 - The 1858 Christiania fire severely destroys several city blocks near Stortorvet in Christiania, Norway, and about 1,000 people lose their homes.

1849 - Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.

1816 - Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion, for which he is remembered as the country's first national hero.

1793 - The French troops led by Leger-Felicite Sonthonax defeat the slaves settlers in the Siege of Port-au-Prince.

1775 - The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first abolition society in North America, is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

1639 - Thirty Years' War: Forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Electorate of Saxony are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz, ending the military effectiveness of the Saxon army for the rest of the war and allowing the Swedes to advance into Bohemia.

1561 - A celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle.

1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward resumes the throne.

1395 - Tokhtamysh-Timur war: At the Battle of the Terek River, Timur defeats the army of the Golden Horde, beginning the khanate's permanent military decline.

1205 - Combined Bulgarian and Cuman army under Kalojan ambushes and defeats forces of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in the Battle of Adrianople.

972 - Otto II, Co-Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, marries Byzantine
princess Theophanu. She is crowned empress by Pope John XIII in Rome the same day.

966 - Following his marriage to the Christian Doubravka of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event
considered to be the founding of the Polish state.

69 - Vitellius, commanding Rhine-based armies, defeats Roman emperor Otho in the First Battle of Bedriacum to take power over Rome.

43 BC - Legions loyal to the Roman Senate, commanded by Gaius Pansa, defeat the forces of Mark Antony in the Battle of Forum Gallorum.

--- Binbrook, ON: Overcast +14°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2021 - A mass shooting occurred at a Fedex Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, killing nine and injuring seven.

2019 - The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire.

2014 - In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, more than 400 civilians are gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well
as hospitals.

2013 - A wave of bombings across Iraq kills at least 75 people.

2013 - Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring over 500 others.

2002 - Air China Flight 129 crashes on approach to Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, killing 129 people.

1994 - Marrakesh Agreement relating to foundation of World Trade Organization is adopted.

1989 - Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin
in China.

1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the
deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.

1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

1970 - During the Cambodian Civil War, massacre of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong river into South Vietnam.

1969 - The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.

1960 - At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil
rights movement in the 1960s.

1955 - McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a
franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1952 - First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.

1947 - Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.

1945 - Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.

1942 - The George Cross is awarded "to the island fortress of Malta" by King George VI.

1941 - In the Belfast Blitz, 200 bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing some 1,000 people.

1936 - First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.

1923 - Racially motivated Nihon Shogakko fire lit by a serial arsonist
kills 10 children in Sacramento, California.

1923 - Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.

1922 - U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.

1920 - Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.

1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic
at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.

1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.

1896 - Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

1892 - The General Electric Company is formed.

1865 - President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening
by actor John Wilkes Booth. Three hours later, Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn in as president.

1861 - President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 militiamen to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.

1817 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc found the American School for the Deaf (then called the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons), the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.

1755 - Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.

1738 - Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, receives its premiere performance in London, England.

1736 - Foundation of the short-lived Kingdom of Corsica.

1715 - The Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

1642 - Irish Confederate Wars: A Confederate Irish militia is routed in the Battle of Kilrush when it attempts to halt the progress of a Royalist Army.

1632 - Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.

1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.

1071 - Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.

769 - The Lateran Council ends by condemning the Council of Hieria and anathematizing its iconoclastic rulings.

--- Binbrook, ON: Mist +10°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2024 - The historic Borsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, is severely damaged by a fire.

2018 - The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for
Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.

2016 - Ecuador's worst earthquake in nearly 40 years kills 676 and injures more than 230,000.

2014 - The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks near Jindo Island, killing 304 passengers and crew and leading to widespread criticism of the South Korean government, media, and shipping authorities.

2013 - The 2013 Baga massacre is started when Boko Haram militants engage government soldiers in Baga.

2013 - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Sistan and Balochistan province, Iran, killing at least 35 people and injuring 117 others.

2012 - The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, it was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.

2012 - The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo, Norway.

2008 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Baze v. Rees decision that execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

2007 - Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho murders 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.

2003 - The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the European Union.

2001 - India and Bangladesh begin a five-day border conflict, but are unable to resolve the disputes about their border.

1972 - Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1963 - U.S. civil rights campaigner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his
open letter from Birmingham Jail, sometimes known as "The Negro Is Your Brother", while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting against segregation.

1961 - In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.

1948 - The Organization of European Economic Co-operation is formed.

1947 - Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1947 - An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas, United States, to catch fire, killing almost 600 people.

1945 - More than 7,000 die when the German transport ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine.

1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

1945 - World War II: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.

1944 - World War II: Allied forces start bombing Belgrade, killing about
1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.

1943 - Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of
the research drug LSD. He intentionally takes the drug three days later on April 19.

1942 - King George VI awards the George Cross to the people of Malta in appreciation of their heroism.

1941 - World War II: The Nazi-affiliated Ustase is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis powers after Operation 25 is effected.

1941 - World War II: The Italian-German Tarigo convoy is attacked and destroyed by British ships.

1925 - During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.

1922 - The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed.

1919 - Polish-Lithuanian War: The Polish Army launches the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius in modern Lithuania.

1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops three days earlier.

1917 - Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland.

1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1910 - The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport
in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time.

1908 - Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.

1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

1878 - The Senate of the Grand Duchy of Finland issues a declaration establishing a city of Kotka on the southern part islands from the old Kymi parish.

1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg Campaign, gunboats commanded by acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter run downriver past Confederate artillery batteries at Vicksburg.

1862 - American Civil War: The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, becomes law.

1862 - American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.

1858 - The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is dissolved.

1853 - The Great Indian Peninsula Railway opens the first passenger rail in India, from Bori Bunder to Thane.

1847 - Shooting of a Maori by an English sailor results in the opening of
the Wanganui Campaign of the New Zealand Wars.

1838 - The French Army captures Veracruz in the Pastry War.

1818 - The United States Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot Treaty, limiting
naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

1799 - French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor: Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1780 - Franz Friedrich Wilhelm von Furstenberg founds the University of Munster.

1746 - The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported
Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland.

1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.

1520 - The Revolt of the Comuneros begins in Spain against the rule of
Charles V.

1346 - Stefan Dusan, "the Mighty", is crowned Emperor of the Serbs at
Skopje, his empire occupying much of the Balkans.

682 - Pope Leo II is elected head of the Catholic Church, although he will
not be consecrated until 17 August.

73 - Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the First Jewish-Roman War.

69 - Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Roman emperor Otho commits suicide.

1457 BC - Battle of Megido - the first battle to have been recorded in what
is accepted as relatively reliable detail.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +15°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2021 - The funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

2014 - NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

2013 - An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills
15 people and injures 160 others.

2006 - A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

2003 - Anneli Jaatteenmaki takes office as the first female prime minister
of Finland.

1998 - Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-90, the final Spacelab mission.

1992 - The Katina P is deliberately run aground off Maputo, Mozambique, and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.

1986 - An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist.

1982 - Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.

1978 - Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan.

1975 - The Cambodian Civil War ends and the Cambodian Genocide begins. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.

1971 - The Provisional Government of Bangladesh is formed.

1970 - Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

1969 - Communist Party of Czechoslovakia chairman Alexander Dubcek is
deposed.

1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

1964 - Jerrie Mock completes the first around-the-world airplane flight by a woman. Her solo flight in the Spirit of Columbus, which took 29 1/2 days,
took off and landed at the Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio.

1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1951 - The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.

1946 - The last French troops are withdrawn from Syria.

1945 - Historian Tran Trong Kim is appointed the Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam.

1945 - World War II: Montese, Italy, is liberated from Nazi forces.

1944 - Forces of the Communist-controlled Greek People's Liberation Army attack the smaller National and Social Liberation resistance group, which surrenders. Its leader Dimitrios Psarros is murdered.

1942 - French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Konigstein Fortress.

1941 - World War II: The Axis powers invasion of Yugoslavia is completed when it signs an armistice with Germany and Italy.

1931 - After negotiations between Catalan and Spanish provisional
governments, the Catalan Republic proclaimed in April 14 becomes the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous government of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic.

1925 - The Communist Party of Korea (CPK) was founded in Japanese-ruled Korea (Chosen) in Keijo (now Seoul) by Kim Yong-bom and Pak Hon-yong.

1912 - Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150.

1907 - The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1905 - The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1895 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This
marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtian province, Taiwan and the Penghu to Japan.

1876 - Catalpa rescue: The rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia.

1869 - Morelos is admitted as the 27th state of Mexico.

1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins: Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.

1863 - American Civil War: Grierson's Raid begins: Troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi.

1861 - The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States; Virginia later becomes the eighth state to join the
Confederate States of America.

1797 - Citizens of Verona begin an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces.

1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, in what would be one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in the Americas.

1783 - American Revolutionary War: Colbert's Raid: A Spanish garrison under Captain Jacobo du Breuil defeat British irregulars at Arkansas Post.

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.

1521 - Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly
of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.

1492 - Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

1362 - Kaunas Castle falls to the Teutonic Order after a month-long siege.

1349 - The rule of the Bavand dynasty in Mazandaran is brought to an end by the murder of Hasan II.

1080 - Harald III of Denmark dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized.

--- weather data source not available
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2019 - A redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the United States Congress and the public.

2018 - Anti-government protests start in Nicaragua.

2018 - King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country's name will change to Eswatini.

1996 - The Israeli military commits the Qana massacre in a deliberate
shelling of a United Nations compound near the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter there and wounding over 100 more.

1988 - In Israel John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes
committed in World War II, although the verdict is later overturned.

1988 - The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1980 - The town of Elmore City, Oklahoma holds its first dance in the town's history.

1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President. The Zimbabwean dollar
replaces the Rhodesian dollar as the official currency.

1972 - East African Airways Flight 720 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 43.

1955 - Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.

1954 - Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Eire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with the Commonwealth of Nations.

1947 - The Operation Big Bang, the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion to that time, destroys bunkers and military installations on the North Sea
island of Heligoland, Germany.

1946 - Jackie Robinson makes his regular season debut for the Montreal Royals of the International League, to make them the first integrated modern professional baseball team.

1946 - The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.

1945 - Italian resistance movement: In Turin, despite the harsh repressive measures adopted by Nazi-fascists, a great pre-insurrectional strike begins.

1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of
Heligoland, Germany.

1943 - World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed.

1939 - Robert Menzies, who became Australia's longest-serving prime minister, is elected as leader of the United Australia Party after the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.

1938 - Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938).

1930 - A fire kills 118 people at a wooden church in the small Romanian town of Costesti, most of them schoolchildren, after starting during Good Friday services.

1916 - World War I: During a mine warfare in high altitude on the Dolomites, the Italian troops conquer the Col di Lana held by the Austrian army.

1915 - World War I: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines.

1912 - The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the
RMS Titanic to New York City.

1909 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

1906 - The 7.9 Mw earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California, killing more than 3,000 people, making one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

1902 - The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000.

1899 - The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria.

1897 - The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

1864 - Battle of Dybbol: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement.

1857 - "The Spirits Book" by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France.

1847 - American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.

1831 - The University of Alabama is founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

1797 - War of the First Coalition: The Peace of Leoben is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Maximilian, Count of Merveldt, creating an armistice between France and Austria, setting the stage for the Treaty of Campo Formio and ending the War of the First Coalition.[citation needed]

1783 - Three-Fifths Compromise: The first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three-fifths of persons (for the purpose of taxation), in a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation. This was later adopted in the 1787 Constitution.

1775 - American Revolution: The British Army advances up the Charles River in Massachusetts to destroy supplies of American militias, while Paul Revere and other riders rapidly warn the countryside.

1738 - Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") is founded
in Madrid.

1689 - Bostonians rise up in rebellion against Sir Edmund Andros.

1521 - Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of
the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.

1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.

1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

1428 - Peace of Ferrara between Republic of Venice, Duchy of Milan, Republic of Florence and House of Gonzaga: ending of the second campaign of the Wars
in Lombardy fought until the Treaty of Lodi in 1454, which will then
guarantee the conditions for the development of the Italian Renaissance.

796 - King AEthelred I of Northumbria is murdered in Corbridge by a group led by his ealdormen, Ealdred and Wada. The patrician Osbald is crowned, but abdicates within 27 days.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy +12°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2021 - The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.

2020 - A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.

2013 - Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

2011 - Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

2008 - The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.

2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

2001 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.

2000 - Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.

1999 - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, US, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.

1993 - The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.

1989 - A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

1987 - The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with "Good Night".

1985 - Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the
Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

1984 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.

1976 - A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least 1,000 yards (910 m) by the tornado
and survived uninjured.

1975 - South Vietnamese forces withdraw from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.

1975 - India's first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.

1973 - The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Munstereifel.

1971 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

1960 - Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest
against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

1943 - Albert Hofmann deliberately doses himself with LSD for the first time, three days after having discovered its effects on April 16, an event commonly known and celebrated as Bicycle Day.

1943 - World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

1942 - World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

1936 - The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

1927 - Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

1925 - Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the Deportes Magallanes club.

1903 - The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

1861 - American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

1839 - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.

1818 - French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.

1810 - Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.

1809 - An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps
led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part
of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1782 - John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: The war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world".

1770 - Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.

1770 - Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

1713 - With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born until 1717.

1677 - The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.

1608 - In Ireland, O'Doherty's Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.

1539 - The Treaty of Frankfurt between Protestants and the Holy Roman Emperor is signed.

1529 - Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Furst) and independent cities protest the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.

1506 - The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which about two thousand Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity are slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.

531 - Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).

65 - The freedman Milichus betrays Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all of the conspirators are arrested.

--- Binbrook, ON: Overcast +4°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.

2021 - State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota.

2020 - For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect
of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war.

2015 - Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.

2013 - A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands.

2012 - One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near
Islamabad, Pakistan.

2010 - The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that lasted six months.

2008 - Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female
driver in history to win an Indy car race.

2007 - Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself
with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before
killing a male hostage and himself.

2004 - The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapsed, killing four workers.

1999 - Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High
School in Columbine, Colorado.

1998 - Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.

1985 - University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages
to the laboratory in advocation for Animal rights.

1972 - Apollo program: Apollo 16 Lunar Module, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.

1968 - South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia),
killing 123 people.

1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech.

1961 - Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban
exiles against Cuba.

1949 - Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks
HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.

1946 - The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power
to the United Nations.

1945 - Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

1945 - World War II: Fuhrerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes
his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

1945 - World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

1922 - The Soviet government creates South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within Georgian SSR.

1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

1914 - Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War.

1908 - Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

1898 - U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War.

1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry.

1876 - The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion,
and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1865 - Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

1862 - Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving
the theory of spontaneous generation.

1861 - Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons,
makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina.

1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

1828 - Rene Caillie becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu,
following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive.

1809 - Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1800 - The Septinsular Republic is established.

1792 - France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.

1789 - George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

1770 - The Georgian king, Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza.

1752 - Start of Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War, a new phase in the Burmese Civil
War (1740-57).

1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).

1657 - English Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet, under heavy fire from the shore, at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament.

1303 - The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.

1152 - After an eight-year conflict, Baldwin III of Jerusalem wins sole control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende.

--- Temp: -1°C | Humidity: 73% | Wind: 1 km/h (gust 3) | Pressure: 1015.24 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2021 - Indonesian Navy submarine KRI Nanggala (402) sinks in the Bali Sea during a military drill, killing all 53 on board.

2019 - Eight bombs explode at churches, hotels, and other locations in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing at least 269.

2014 - The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and at least 12 deaths from Legionnaires' disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five
of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

2012 - Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, killing one person and injuring 116 others.

2010 - The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.

2004 - Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.

1993 - The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.

1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

1987 - The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.

1985 - The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the
Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.

1982 - Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.

1977 - Annie opens on Broadway.

1975 - Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees
Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct
North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.

1972 - Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke fly Apollo 16's Apollo Lunar Module to the Moon's surface, the fifth NASA Apollo Program crewed lunar landing.

1967 - A tornado outbreak in Illinois, United States, kills over 50 and injures over 1000. Belvidere sustains over 500 casualties as a violent
tornado strikes the high school. Another tornado near Chicago causes another 500 casualties, devastating Oak Lawn.

1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'etat, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.

1966 - Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an
event now celebrated as Grounation Day.

1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.

1964 - A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in
its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.

1963 - The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Baha'i Faith.

1962 - The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the
first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.

1960 - Brasilia, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.

1958 - United Air Lines Flight 736 collides with a United States Air Force fighter jet near Arden, Nevada in what is now Enterprise, Nevada.

1952 - Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.

1950 - The Nainital wedding massacre occurs, killing 22 members of the
Harijan caste.

1948 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.

1946 - The U.S. Weather Bureau records that a tornado which struck Timber Lake, South Dakota was 4 miles (6.4 km), among the widest tornadoes on
record.

1945 - World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the
German High Command headquarters.

1934 - The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing
the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1994, it is
revealed to be a hoax).

1926 - Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four Shi'a Imams, is leveled to the ground by Wahhabis.

1918 - World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known
as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.

1914 - Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.

1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of
Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.

1894 - Norway formally adopts the Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action rifle as the
main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for
almost 50 years.

1856 - Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.

1836 - Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

1821 - Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier
of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.

1809 - Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the
main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmuhl.

1806 - Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.

1802 - Twelve thousand Wahhabis sack Karbala, killing over three thousand inhabitants.

1796 - War of the First Coalition: In the climax of the Montenotte Campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeats the army of Piedmont at the Battle of Mondovi, leading to Piedmont's surrender a week later and decisively turning the Italian campaign in France's favor.

1792 - Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.

1789 - George Washington's reception at Trenton is hosted by the Ladies of Trenton as he journeys to New York City for his first inauguration.

1789 - John Adams sworn in as first US Vice President (nine days before
George Washington).

1782 - The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.

1615 - The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.

1526 - The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and
killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.

1509 - Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.

1506 - The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.

1092 - The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan
archdiocese by Pope Urban II

900 - The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.

43 BC - Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.

753 BC - Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).

--- Temp: 2°C | Humidity: 78% | Wind: 5 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1014.56 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - At least 26 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a group of tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack.

2020 - Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.

2016 - The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming.

2005 - Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan's war record.

1993 - Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham.

1992 - A series of gas explosions rip through the streets in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing 206.

1977 - Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

1974 - Pan Am Flight 812 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, killing all 107 people on board.

1970 - Chicano residents in San Diego, California occupy a site under the Coronado Bridge, leading to the creation of Chicano Park.

1970 - The first Earth Day is celebrated.

1969 - The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is announced at a mass rally in Calcutta.

1969 - British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

1966 - American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D crashes on approach to Ardmore Municipal Airport in Ardmore, Oklahoma, killing 83.

1954 - Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings begins.

1951 - Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army begin assaulting positions defended by the Royal Australian Regiment and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at the Battle of Kapyong.

1948 - Arab-Israeli War: The port city of Haifa is captured by Jewish forces.

1945 - World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by
soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army.

1945 - World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape.

1944 - World War II: In Greenland, the Allied Sledge Patrol attack the German Bassgeiger weather station.

1944 - World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land
in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.

1944 - The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations
in the China Burma India Theater.

1930 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

1915 - World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.

1906 - The 1906 Intercalated Games open in Athens.

1898 - Spanish-American War: President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.

1889 - At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.

1876 - The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.

1864 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

1836 - Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna among the captives of the battle when some of his fellow soldiers mistakenly give away his identity.

1809 - The second day of the Battle of Eckmuhl: The Austrian army is
defeated by the First French Empire army led by Napoleon and driven over the Danube in Regensburg.

1529 - Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues (1,250 kilometres (780 mi)) east of the Moluccas.

1519 - Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.

1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery
of Brazil).

--- Temp: 8°C | Humidity: 71% | Wind: 1 km/h (gust 3) | Pressure: 1004.06 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - The 2024 Lumut mid-air collision in Malaysia kills 10 people while rehearsing for the 90th anniversary of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

2019 - The April 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse in Myanmar kills four miners and two rescuers, with at least 50 others missing and presumed dead.

2018 - A vehicle-ramming attack kills 11 people and injures 15 in Toronto. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested.

2013 - At least 111 people are killed and 233 injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq.

2005 - The first YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", was published by co-founder Jawed Karim.

1999 - NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia, as part of their aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1993 - Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province.

1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.

1990 - Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1985 - Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.

1979 - Blair Peach, a British activist, was fatally injured after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall, London.

1979 - SAETA Flight 011 crashes in Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board. The wreckage was not discovered until 1984.

1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York
City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

1967 - Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: ???? 1, Union 1) a crewed spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov is launched into orbit.

1966 - Aeroflot Flight 2723 crashes into the Caspian Sea off the Absheron Peninsula, killing 33 people.

1961 - Algiers putsch by French generals.

1951 - Cold War: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.

1949 - Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy.

1946 - Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Goring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of Nazi Germany. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Goring that the telegram is treasonous.

1942 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz: German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lubeck.

1941 - World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.

1940 - The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills
198 people.

1935 - The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.

1927 - Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.

1920 - The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara. The assembly denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution.

1919 - The Estonian Constituent Assembly is held in Estonia, which marks the birth of the Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu.

1918 - World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.

1909 - In Portugal, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Lisbon, killing
at least 60 people and injuring 75.

1891 - Chilean Civil War: The ironclad Blanco Encalada is sunk at Caldera Bay by torpedo boats.

1879 - Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, which prompts the construction of the third, and current, Main Building with its golden dome.

1815 - The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.

1724 - Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Du Hirte Israel, hore, BWV 104, illustrating the topic of the Good Shepherd in pastoral music.

1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1660 - Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland.

1655 - The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later.

1635 - The first public school in the United States, the Boston Latin School, is founded.

1521 - Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.

1516 - The Munich Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) takes effect in all of Bavaria.

1500 - Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral reaches new coastline (Brazil).

1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is
announced on St. George's Day.

1343 - St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia.

1016 - Edmund Ironside succeeds his father AEthelred the Unready as King of England.

1014 - Battle of Clontarf: High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.

711 - Dagobert III succeeds his father King Childebert III as King of the Franks.

599 - Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul attacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico, defeating queen Yohl Ik'nal and sacking the city.

215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.

--- Temp: 11°C | Humidity: 59% | Wind: 6 km/h (gust 9) | Pressure: 1007.45 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - A mass stabbing at a school in Nantes, France, leaves 1 person dead
and 3 others wounded.

2013 - Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

2013 - A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 others.

2011 - WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.

2006 - Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and
injure about 80.

2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

2004 - The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

1996 - In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act of 1996 is passed into law.

1994 - A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney
Airport. All 25 people on board survive.

1993 - An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.

1990 - Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.

1990 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

1980 - Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

1979 - Blair Peach, a New Zealand teacher, dies after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall, London.

1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.

1970 - China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.

1967 - Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily".

1967 - Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

1965 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamano overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'etat against Juan Bosch.

1963 - Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.

1957 - Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.

1955 - The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.

1953 - Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1944 - World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of
Santorini in Greece.

1933 - Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.

1932 - Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.

1926 - The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.

1924 - Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark (first term).

1922 - The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.

1918 - World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.

1916 - Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.

1916 - Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.

1915 - The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide.

1914 - The Franck-Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.

1913 - The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened.

1895 - Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop Spray.

1885 - American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

1877 - Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

1837 - The great fire in Surat city of India caused more than 500 deaths and destruction of more than 9,000 houses.

1800 - The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".

1793 - French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat is acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of charges brought by the Girondin in Paris.

1704 - The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.

1558 - Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, Francois, at Notre-Dame de Paris.

1547 - Battle of Muhlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces
of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League.

1183 BC - Traditional reckoning of the Fall of Troy marking the end of the legendary Trojan War, given by chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria Eratosthenes, among others.

1479 BC - Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty).

--- Temp: 8°C | Humidity: 65% | Wind: 4 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1003.39 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2015 - At least 8,962 are killed in Nepal after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal.

2014 - The Flint water crisis begins when officials at Flint, Michigan switch the city's water supply to the Flint River, leading to lead and bacteria contamination.

2007 - Boris Yeltsin's funeral: The first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander
III in 1894.

2005 - Bulgaria and Romania sign the Treaty of Accession 2005 to join the European Union.

2005 - A seven-car commuter train derails and crashes into an apartment building near Amagasaki Station in Japan, killing 107, including the driver.

2005 - The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.

2004 - The March for Women's Lives brings over one million protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. to protest the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on abortion.

2001 - President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

1990 - Violeta Chamorro takes office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position.

1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.

1983 - Cold War: American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which
she expressed fears about nuclear war.

1982 - Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

1981 - More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of at
the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

1980 - One hundred forty-six people are killed when Dan-Air Flight 1008 crashes near Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

1974 - Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal overthrows the authoritarian-conservative Estado Novo regime.

1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive: The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.

1961 - Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.

1960 - The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1959 - The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

1954 - The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1951 - Korean War: Assaulting Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong.

1945 - World War II: The last German troops retreat from Finnish soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military actions of the Second World War end in Finland.

1945 - United Nations Conference on International Organization: Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.

1945 - World War II: Liberation Day (Italy): The National Liberation
Committee for Northern Italy calls for a general uprising against the German occupation and the Italian Social Republic.

1945 - World War II: United States and Soviet reconnaissance troops meet in Torgau and Strehla along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi
Germany in two. This would be later known as Elbe Day.

1944 - The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

1938 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.

1933 - Nazi Germany issues the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limiting the number of Jewish students able to attend public schools and universities.

1920 - At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopt a resolution to determine the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.

1916 - Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove.

1915 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins: The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by British, French, Indian, Newfoundland, Australian and New Zealand troops, begins with landings at Anzac Cove and
Cape Helles.

1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.

1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States Congress declares that a state of war between the U.S. and Spain has existed since April 21, when an
American naval blockade of the Spanish colony of Cuba began.

1892 - Very bombing during the Ere des attentats (1892-1894)

1882 - French and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Riviere seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small force of marine infantry.

1864 - American Civil War: In the Battle of Marks' Mills, a force of 8,000 Confederate soldiers attacks 1,800 Union soldiers and a large number of wagon teamsters, killing or wounding 1,500 Union combatants.

1862 - American Civil War: Forces under U.S. Admiral David Farragut demand
the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

1859 - British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

1849 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.

1846 - Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War.

1829 - Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of
modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the British Empire.

1808 - Dano-Swedish War of 1808-1809: The Battle of Trangen took place at Trangen in Flisa, Hedemarkens Amt, between Swedish and Norwegian troops.

1792 - "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.

1707 - A coalition of Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal is defeated by a Franco-Spanish army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1644 - Transition from Ming to Qing: The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming China, commits suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.

1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.

1134 - The name Zagreb was mentioned for the first time in the Felician Charter relating to the establishment of the Zagreb Bishopric around 1094.

799 - After mistreatment and disfigurement by the citizens of Rome, Pope Leo III flees to the Frankish court of king Charlemagne at Paderborn for protection.

775 - The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against
the Abbasid Caliphate. Muslim control over the South Caucasus is solidified and its Islamization begins, while several major Armenian nakharar families lose power and their remnants flee to the Byzantine Empire.

404 BC - Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion.

--- Temp: 3°C | Humidity: 96% | Wind: 10 km/h (gust 13) | Pressure: 1000.00 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - A car ramming attack at a Lapu-Lapu Day festival kills 11 people and injures at least 30 in Vancouver, Canada.

2015 - Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.

2005 - Cedar Revolution: Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).

2002 - Robert Steinhauser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before committing suicide.

1999 - Outbreak of CIH computer virus.

1994 - South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.

1994 - China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.

1993 - The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.

1991 - Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before
the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.

1989 - People's Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.

1989 - The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing
upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1986 - The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

1981 - Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.

1970 - The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.

1966 - A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

1966 - The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15-200 are killed.

1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.

1962 - The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.

1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

1960 - Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.

1958 - Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1956 - SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.

1954 - The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.

1954 - The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.

1945 - World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment,
Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army liberate Baguio as they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.

1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1944 - Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.

1944 - Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile
based in Egypt.

1943 - The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.

1942 - Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1,549 Chinese miners dead.

1937 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria.

1933 - The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Goring.

1925 - Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.

1923 - The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

1920 - Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring seven goals in Canada's 12-1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match.

1916 - Easter Rising: Battle of Mount Street Bridge.

1915 - World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to
join the Allied Powers.

1903 - Atletico Madrid Association football club is founded.

1900 - Fires destroy Canadian cities Ottawa and Hull, reducing them to ashes in 12 hours. Twelve thousand people are left without a home.

1865 - Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.

1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.

1803 - Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.

1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious emigres of the French Revolution to return
to France.

1794 - Battle of Beaumont during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the
First Coalition.

1777 - Sybil Ludington, aged 16, allegedly rode 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces to the approach of British regular forces

1721 - A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.

1607 - The Virginia Company colonists make landfall at Cape Henry.

1564 - Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of birth is unknown).

1478 - The Pazzi family attack on Lorenzo de' Medici in order to displace the ruling Medici family kills his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.

1336 - Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.

--- Temp: 5°C | Humidity: 98% | Wind: 6 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1011.18 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2018 - The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.

2012 - At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.

2011 - The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and
Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.

2007 - Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.

2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World
Trade Center) in New York City.

2005 - Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight.

1994 - South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.

1993 - Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.

1992 - The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

1989 - The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

1987 - The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

1986 - The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster.

1978 - Willow Island disaster: In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling
tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.

1978 - The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following
morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

1978 - John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

1976 - Thirty-seven people are killed when American Airlines Flight 625 crashes at Cyril E. King Airport in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

1974 - 109 people are killed in a plane crash near Pulkovo Airport.

1967 - Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.

1953 - Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defects with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was
to receive $100,000.

1945 - World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

1945 - World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end
and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.

1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.

1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.

1911 - The Second Canton Uprising took place in Guangzhou, Qing China but was suppressed.

1909 - Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is
succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

1906 - The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.

1861 - American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1813 - War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper
Canada, in the Battle of York.

1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn).

1667 - Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for GBP10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register.

1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.

1595 - The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vracar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world

1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

1539 - Official founding of the city of Bogota, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastian de Belalcazar.

1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu.

1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.

1296 - First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.

711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad
land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).

395 - Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish
general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses
of Late Antiquity.

247 - Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi saeculares.

--- Temp: 10°C | Humidity: 67% | Wind: 3 km/h (gust 5) | Pressure: 1013.88 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2004 - CBS News releases evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over
Iraqi detainees.

1996 - Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.

1996 - Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width: 1px}1/2 hour videotaped testimony for the defense.

1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1991 - Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of Defense.

1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.

1986 - High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden, leading Soviet
authorities to publicly announce the accident.

1983 - The West German news magazine Stern begins publishing excerpts from
the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.

1978 - The President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.

1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.

1975 - General Cao Van Vien, chief of the South Vietnamese military,
departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closes in on victory.

1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded in Abbey Road
Studios goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run.

1970 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to take part in the Cambodian campaign.

1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.

1967 - Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license.

1965 - United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate US Army troops.

1952 - The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.

1952 - The Treaty of San Francisco comes into effect, restoring Japanese sovereignty and ending its state of war with most of the Allies of World War II.

1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in order to campaign in the 1952 United States presidential election.

1949 - The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.

1948 - Igor Stravinsky conducts the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center.

1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki
to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

1945 - The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communist leaders in Mauthausen concentration camp.

1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by
Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement.

1944 - World War II: Nine German E-boats attack US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.

1941 - The Ustase massacre nearly 200 Serbs in the village of Gudovac, the first massacre of their genocidal campaign against Serbs of the Independent State of Croatia.

1937 - South African medical researcher Max Theiler develops the yellow fever vaccine at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City.

1930 - The Independence Producers host the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas.

1923 - Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium.

1920 - The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic is founded.

1910 - Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in the United Kingdom.

1887 - A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebele is released on order of William I, German Emperor, defusing a possible war.

1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.

1869 - Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First transcontinental railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.

1859 - The sailing clipper ship Pomona wrecked on the coast of Ireland with the loss of 424 of the 448 passengers and crew aboard.

1858 - The Bawani Imli massacre, where 52 Indian freedom fighters were hanged to death on a tamarind tree by British colonial forces.

1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.

1794 - Sardinians, headed by Giovanni Maria Angioy, start a revolution
against the Savoy domination, expelling Viceroy Balbiano and his officials from Cagliari, the capital and largest city of the island.

1792 - France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium and Luxembourg), beginning the French Revolutionary Wars.

1789 - Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift, and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly before setting sail for Pitcairn Island.

1788 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1758 - The Marathas defeat the Afghans in the Battle of Attock and capture
the city.

1625 - A combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet of 52 ships commences the recapture of Bahia from the Dutch during the Dutch-Portuguese War.

1611 - Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, the Catholic University of the Philippines and the largest Catholic
university in the world.

1503 - The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.

1294 - Temur, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols with the reigning title Oljeitu.

1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.

1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem,
in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.

357 - Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius.

224 - The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V, effectively ending the Parthian Empire.

--- Temp: 13°C | Humidity: 75% | Wind: 8 km/h (gust 9) | Pressure: 1000.68 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2015 - A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White
Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero
fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.

2013 - National Airlines Flight 102, a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft, crashes during takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, killing all seven people on board.

2013 - A powerful explosion occurs in an office building in Prague, believed to have been caused by natural gas, and injures 43 people.

2011 - The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.

2004 - The final Oldsmobile is built in Lansing, Michigan, ending 107 years
of vehicle production.

1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories.

1992 - Riots in Los Angeles begin, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 63 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.

1991 - The 7.0 Mw Racha earthquake affects Georgia with a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), killing 270 people.

1991 - A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as ten million homeless.

1986 - An assembly of Sikhs, known as a Sarbat Khalsa, officially declared independence for a state of Khalistan.

1986 - The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.

1986 - A fire at the Central library of the Los Angeles Public Library
damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.

1985 - Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on STS-51-B.

1975 - Vietnam War: The North Vietnamese Army completes its capture of all parts of South Vietnam-held Truong Sa Islands.

1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end. This happens after the Bombing of Tan Son Nhut Air Base.

1974 - Watergate scandal: United States President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the scandal.

1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail in an attempt to cut off supplies to the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.

1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the previous day, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.

1953 - The first U.S. experimental 3D television broadcast shows an episode
of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

1952 - Pan Am Flight 202 crashes into the Amazon basin near Carolina, Maranhao, Brazil, killing 50 people.

1946 - The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.

1945 - Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Donitz as his successor.

1945 - World War II: Airdrops of food begin over German-occupied regions of the Netherlands.

1945 - World War II: The Surrender of Caserta is signed by the commander of German forces in Italy.

1916 - Easter Rising: After six days of fighting, Irish rebel leaders surrender to British forces in Dublin, bringing the Easter Rising to an end.

1916 - World War I: The UK's 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.

1911 - Tsinghua University, one of mainland China's leading universities, is founded.

1910 - The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People's Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.

1903 - A landslide kills 70 people in Frank, in the District of Alberta, Canada.

1864 - Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
the only fraternity to be founded during the American Civil War.

1862 - American Civil War: The Siege of Corinth begins as Union forces under General Henry Halleck moves to engage Confederate forces led by General P. G. T. Beauregard.

1862 - American Civil War: The Capture of New Orleans by Union forces under David Farragut.

1861 - Maryland in the American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates
votes not to secede from the Union.

1826 - The galaxy Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is discovered by James Dunlop.

1781 - American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.

1770 - James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names.

1760 - French forces commence the siege of Quebec which is held by the British.

1521 - Swedish War of Liberation: Swedish troops defeat a Danish force in the Battle of Vasteras.

1492 - The Crown's decision to expel the Jews is announced in Zaragoza, Aragon, to the kingdom's procurators.

1483 - Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands, is conquered by the Kingdom of Castile.

1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.

1091 - Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

801 - An earthquake in the Central Apennines hits Rome and Spoleto, damaging the basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura.

--- Temp: 9°C | Humidity: 79% | Wind: 8 km/h (gust 11) | Pressure: 1003.05 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2021 - Forty-five men and boys are killed in the Meron stampede in Israel.

2014 - A bomb blast in Urumqi, China kills three people and injures 79
others.

2013 - Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix.

2012 - An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 108 people. At least 150 more are missing and presumed dead.

2009 - Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix.

2009 - Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2008 - Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.

2004 - U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

2000 - Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people
and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.

1999 - Neo-Nazi David Copeland carries out the last of his three nail
bombings in London at the Admiral Duncan gay pub, killing three people and injuring 79 others.

1994 - Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy.

1993 - CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.

1989 - The Monkseaton shootings occur in Tyne and Wear, England. One killed, 16 injured.

1982 - The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India.

1980 - The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London.

1980 - Beatrix is inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands following the abdication of Juliana.

1979 - Eruption of Mount Marapi: Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, erupted. Between 80 and 100 people were killed.

1975 - Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.

1973 - Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon fires White House Counsel John Dean; other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resign.

1963 - The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing
national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.

1961 - K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.

1957 - Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery entered into force.

1956 - Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.

1948 - In Bogota, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.

1947 - In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam.

1945 - World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany
is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9,000 American and British airmen.

1945 - World War II: Fuhrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.

1943 - World War II: The British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva
to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans.

1939 - NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair
opening day ceremonial address.

1939 - The 1939-40 New York World's Fair opens.

1937 - The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90%
would vote in the affirmative.

1927 - The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.

1925 - Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for
US$146 million plus $50 million for charity.

1905 - Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.

1900 - Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.

1897 - J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.

1885 - Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use.

1871 - The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.

1864 - American Civil War: Confederate forces led by General E. Kirby Smith attack federal troops retreating across the Saline at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas.

1863 - A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of
nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camaron, Mexico.

1859 - Charles Dickens publishes the first edition of his literary magazine, All the Year Round, containing the first installment of his best-selling classic, A Tale of Two Cities.

1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.

1812 - The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.

1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana
Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.

1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States.

1636 - Eighty Years' War: Dutch Republic forces recapture a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege.

1598 - Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.

1598 - Juan de Onate begins the conquest of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico.

1513 - Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is
executed on the orders of Henry VIII.

1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers.

1315 - Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count
of Valois.

311 - The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.

--- Temp: 6°C | Humidity: 84% | Wind: 2 km/h (gust 4) | Pressure: 1001.69 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - The 2024 Loblaw boycott, a Canadian boycott against retail corporation and grocer Loblaw Companies, begins.

2019 - Naruhito ascends to the throne of Japan succeeding his father Akihito, beginning the Reiwa period.

2019 - Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district of India: Sixteen army
soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.

2018 - Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumes the Deir ez-Zor campaign in order to clear the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq-Syria border.

2011 - Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

2010 - Faisal Shahzad attempts to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, but
the bomb fails to go off.

2009 - Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.

2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.

2003 - Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".

1999 - The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.

1997 - Labour Party wins the 1997 General Election and Tony Blair is elected as Prime Minister

1994 - Three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix.

1993 - Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa is assassinated in Colombo
in a suicide bombing carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

1991 - Angolan Civil War: The MPLA and UNITA agree to the Bicesse Accords, which are formally signed on May 31 in Lisbon.

1982 - Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.

1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.

1975 - The Sarkanniemi Amusement Park opens in Tampere, Finland.

1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.

1970 - Vietnam War: Protests erupt in response to U.S. and South Vietnamese forces attacking Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign.

1961 - The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.

1960 - Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

1957 - A Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes while attempting to return to Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, killing 34.

1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.

1947 - Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in
Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11
persons are killed and 33 wounded.

1946 - Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.

1945 - World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.

1945 - World War II: German radio broadcasts news of Adolf Hitler's death, falsely stating that he has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.

1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.

1930 - "Pluto" is officially proposed for the name of the newly discovered dwarf planet by Vesto Slipher in the Lowell Observatory Observation Circular. The name quickly catches on.

1929 - The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran-Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.

1925 - The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.

1921 - The Jaffa riots commence.

1919 - German troops enter Munich to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic.

1915 - RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.

1900 - The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in
what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.

1898 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of
the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy
after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381
Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.

1896 - Naser al-Din, Shah of Iran, is assassinated in Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine by Mirza Reza Kermani, a follower of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani.

1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.

1886 - Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries.

1885 - The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business.

1866 - The Memphis Race Riots begin. Over three days, 46 blacks and two
whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1865 - The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.

1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant win the Battle of Port Gibson and establish a firm presence on the east side of the Mississippi River.

1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker begins.

1851 - Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London.

1846 - The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple.

1844 - Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established.

1840 - The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.

1820 - Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators, who plotted to kill the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool.

1807 - The Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect, abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire.

1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start
date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

1707 - The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.

1669 - Henry Morgan's raid on Lake Maracaibo, the Spanish Armada de
Barlovento is defeated by an English Privateer fleet led by Captain Henry Morgan.

1492 - The Edict of Expulsion is officially proclaimed in Castile, requiring all Jewish residents to leave within three months.

1486 - Christopher Columbus presents his plans discovering a western route to the Indies to the Spanish Queen Isabella I of Castile.

1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, England recognises Scotland as an independent state.

1169 - Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland.

880 - The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model
for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.

305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor.

--- Temp: 4°C | Humidity: 85% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 0) | Pressure: 1004.06 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2014 - Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.

2012 - A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world
record for a work of art at auction.

2011 - An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill.

2011 - Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

2008 - Chaiten Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

2008 - Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.

2004 - The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa, Nigeria. In response, about 630
Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2.

2000 - President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

1999 - Panamanian general election: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.

1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define
and execute the European Union's monetary policy.

1995 - During the Croatian War of Independence, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina fires cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians.

1989 - Cold War: Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect.

1986 - Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster.

1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.

1972 - In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.

1970 - ALM Flight 980 ditches in the Caribbean Sea near Saint Croix, killing 23.

1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.

1964 - First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.

1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USNS
Card while it is docked at Saigon. Two Viet Cong combat swimmers had placed explosives on the ship's hull. She is raised and returned to service less
than seven months later.

1963 - Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.

1952 - A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg.

1945 - World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.

1945 - World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wobbelin concentration camp finding 1,000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.

1945 - World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting.

1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin.

1941 - World War II: Following the coup d'etat against Iraq Crown Prince
'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power.

1933 - Germany's independent labor unions are replaced by the German Labour Front.

1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.

1906 - Closing ceremony of the Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece.

1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea.

1885 - Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.

1867 - Albert Gunther publishes the first study to recognise that the New Zealand tuatara is not a lizard.

1876 - The April Uprising breaks out in Ottoman Bulgaria.

1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.

1863 - American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire
while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.

1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.

1812 - The Siege of Cuautla during the Mexican War of Independence ends with both sides claiming victory.

1808 - Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes
this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.

1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.

1625 - Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Latin Patriarch of Ethiopia, arrives at Beilul from Goa.

1611 - The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.

1568 - Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Lochleven Castle.

1559 - John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges
of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.

1230 - William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.

1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first royal charter.

--- Temp: 4°C | Humidity: 74% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 0) | Pressure: 1006.43 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - Ethnic violence breaks out between the Meitei and the Kuki Zo people
in the state of Manipur.

2023 - Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia.

2021 - Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses.

2016 - Eighty-eight thousand people are evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire rips through the community,
destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.

2015 - Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

2007 - The three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia
da Luz, Portugal, starting "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".

2006 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people.

2001 - The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

2000 - The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.

1999 - Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side results in the
Kargil War.

1999 - The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.
This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 484 +- 32 kilometres per hour (301 +- 20 mph). In meteorology, the term
"May 3" is synonymous with the F5 tornado.

1987 - A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.

1986 - Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election. The following day, she becomes the first female British Prime Minister.

1978 - The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

1971 - Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989.

1968 - Eighty-five people are killed when Braniff International Airways
Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas.

1963 - The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of
the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement.

1957 - Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

1953 - Two men are rescued from a semitrailer that crashed over the side of the Pit River Bridge before it fell into the Sacramento River. Amateur photographer Virginia Schau photographs "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", the first and only winning submission for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography to have been taken by a woman.

1952 - The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.

1952 - Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.

1951 - The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.

1951 - London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain.

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are
legally unenforceable.

1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

1945 - World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lubeck Bay.

1942 - World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the
Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.

1939 - The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

1928 - The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and
the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.

1921 - West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.

1921 - Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

1920 - A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

1913 - Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.

1901 - The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.

1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.

1849 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848-49.

1848 - The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.

1837 - The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.

1830 - The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.

1815 - Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples, is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.

1808 - Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Principe Pio hill.

1808 - Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.

1802 - Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes
the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government. The "City of Washington" is given a mayor-council form of government.

1791 - The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1715 - A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy.

1616 - Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war.

1568 - Angered by the brutal onslaught of Spanish troops at Fort Caroline, a French force burns the San Mateo fort and massacres hundreds of Spaniards.

1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of Joao I.

1481 - The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.

752 - Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne.

--- Temp: 8°C | Humidity: 63% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 1) | Pressure: 1004.06 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - Nine people are killed and thirteen injured in a spree shooting in Mladenovac and Smederevo, Serbia. It is the second mass shooting in the country in two days.

2019 - The inaugural all-female motorsport series, W Series, takes place at Hockenheimring. The race was won by Jamie Chadwick, who would go on to become the inaugural season's champion.

2014 - Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.

2007 - Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by the 2007 Greensburg tornado, a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever
tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.

2002 - One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane
crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria.

2000 - Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London).

1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1990 - Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.

1989 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe.

1989 - Iran-Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are
later overturned on appeal.

1988 - The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.

1982 - Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer
HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom.

1978 - The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.

1973 - The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet
(442 m) as the world's tallest building.

1972 - The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental
organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".

1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others.
The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.

1961 - Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for
manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km).

1961 - American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.

1959 - The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.

1953 - Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

1949 - The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Toma, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.

1946 - In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot.

1945 - World War II: The German surrender at Luneburg Heath is signed,
coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany.

1945 - World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.

1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.

1932 - Having been incarcerated at the Cook County Jail since his sentencing on October 24, 1931, mobster Al Capone is transferred to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta after the U.S. Supreme Court denies his appeal for conviction of tax evasion.

1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.

1926 - The United Kingdom general strike begins.

1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

1912 - Italy occupies the Ottoman island of Rhodes.

1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.

1904 - The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.

1886 - Haymarket affair: In Chicago, United States, a homemade bomb is thrown at police officers trying to break up a labor rally, killing one officer. Ensuing gunfire leads to the deaths of a further seven officers and four civilians.

1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league,
opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1869 - The four-day Naval Battle of Hakodate begins. The newly formed
Imperial Japanese Navy defeats the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate navy in the Sea of Japan off the city of Hakodate, leading to the surrender of the
Ezo Republic on May 17.

1859 - The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking
Devon and Cornwall in England.

1836 - Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians.

1814 - King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.

1814 - Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to
begin his exile.

1799 - Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.

1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

1738 - The Imperial Theatrical School, the first ballet school in Russia, is founded.

1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.

1493 - In the papal bull Inter caetera, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.

1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.

1436 - Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (27 April O.S.).

1415 - Religious reformer John Wycliffe is condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance.

1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.

--- Temp: 13°C | Humidity: 65% | Wind: 2 km/h (gust 3) | Pressure: 996.95 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19
pandemic as a global health emergency.

2010 - Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures
imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis.

2007 - Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon.

2006 - The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

1994 - American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.

1994 - The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

1991 - A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C.
after police shoot a Salvadoran man.

1987 - Iran-Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States.

1985 - Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech.

1981 - Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.

1980 - Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

1973 - Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an as-yet-unbeaten record.

1972 - Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.

1964 - The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.

1961 - Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel
into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.

1955 - The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.

1946 - The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

1945 - World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively.

1945 - World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon.

1945 - World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.

1941 - Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country
commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.

1940 - World War II: Norwegian campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.

1936 - Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1930 - The 1930 Bago earthquake, the former of two major earthquakes in southern Burma kills as many as 7,000 in Yangon and Bago.

1920 - Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

1912 - The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was published.

1905 - The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.

1904 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in
the modern era of baseball.

1891 - The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

1887 - The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded.

1886 - Workers marching for the Eight-hour day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what became known as the Bay View Massacre.

1877 - American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into
Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

1866 - Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.

1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate government was declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia.

1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in
Spotsylvania County.

1862 - Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion
in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.

1835 - The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.

1821 - The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published.

1821 - Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1809 - Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

1789 - In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.

1762 - Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

1654 - Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.

1640 - King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

1609 - Daimyo (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyushu, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryukyu Kingdom in Okinawa.

1494 - On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.

1260 - Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

1215 - Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England --
part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.

553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins.

--- Temp: 16°C | Humidity: 75% | Wind: 3 km/h (gust 5) | Pressure: 991.87 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - Eight people are killed and seven injured in a mass shooting in Allen, Texas. The perpetrator is killed by a police officer.

2023 - The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster
Abbey, London.

2013 - Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

2010 - In just 36 minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 1,000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash.

2004 - The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.

2002 - Founding of SpaceX.

2002 - Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum.

2001 - During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.

1999 - The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held.

1998 - Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac.

1998 - Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league
record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.

1997 - The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.

1996 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.

1994 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President Francois Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

1988 - All thirty-six passengers and crew were killed when Wideroe Flight
710 crashed into Mt. Torghatten in Bronnoy.

1984 - One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul
II in Seoul.

1983 - The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts.

1976 - The 6.5 Mw Friuli earthquake affected Northern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 900-978 dead and 1,700-2,400 injured.

1975 - During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian genocide.

1972 - Deniz Gezmis, Yusuf Aslan and Huseyin Inan are executed in Ankara
after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.

1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.

1960 - More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

1949 - EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.

1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.

1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.

1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

1941 - The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

1941 - At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.

1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

1937 - Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and
is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.

1935 - New Deal: Under the authority of the newly-enacted Federal Emergency Relief Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration.

1933 - The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut
fur Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.

1916 - Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tan is captured while calling upon the people
to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Reunion island.

1916 - Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.

1915 - Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: The SY Aurora broke loose from
its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.

1915 - Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.

1910 - George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII.

1906 - The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23 by the Julian calendar).

1901 - The first issue of Gorkhapatra, the oldest still running state-owned Nepali newspaper was published.

1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1882 - The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1882 - Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death
by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with a major defeat of the Union's Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee.

1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.

1857 - The East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British
in the lead up to the War of Indian Independence.

1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.

1801 - Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.

1782 - Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.

1757 - English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.

1757 - The end of Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740-1757).

1757 - Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.

1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.

1659 - English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.

1594 - The Dutch city of Coevorden held by the Spanish, falls to a Dutch and English force.

1542 - Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.

1541 - King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose.

1536 - The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.

1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.

--- Temp: 8°C | Humidity: 96% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 0) | Pressure: 998.98 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force conduct surgical strikes code-named Operation SINDOOR on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam Attack that killed 26 people.

2023 - 2023 Tanur boat disaster, At least 22 people are killed when a boat carrying tourists capsizes in Tanur, Malappuram, Kerala, India.

2004 - American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamist militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.

2002 - A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.

2002 - An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 crashes on approach to Tunis-Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people.

2000 - Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.

1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President Joao Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.

1999 - Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.

1999 - Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.

1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms
DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.

1994 - Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.

1992 - Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.

1992 - Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49.

1992 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.

1991 - A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26.

1986 - Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.

1964 - Pacific Airlines Flight 773 is hijacked by Francisco Gonzales and crashes in Contra Costa County, California, killing 44.

1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.

1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory (the battle began on March 13).

1952 - The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.

1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.

1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded.

1945 - World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland.

1942 - World War II: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shoho; the battle marks the first time in naval history
that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

1940 - World War II: The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons
begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.

1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.

1931 - The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City.

1930 - The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and
southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed.

1920 - Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.

1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Kyiv offensive: Polish troops led by Jozef
Pilsudski and Edward Rydz-Smigly and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian
force capture Kyiv only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.

1915 - The Republic of China accedes to 13 of the 21 Demands, extending the Empire of Japan's control over Manchuria and the Chinese economy.

1915 - World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,199 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.

1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector--a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.

1864 - The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for
transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.

1864 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.

1846 - The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.

1832 - Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London.

1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.

1798 - French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Iles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses.

1794 - French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme
Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French
First Republic.

1765 - HMS Victory is launched at Chatham Dockyard, Kent. She is not commissioned until 1778.

1763 - Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British.

1718 - The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.

1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.

1685 - Battle of Vrtijeljka between rebels and Ottoman forces.

1664 - Inaugural celebrations begin at Louis XIV's new Palace of Versailles.

1625 - State funeral of James VI and I (1566-1625) is held at Westminster Abbey.

1544 - The Burning of Edinburgh by an English army is the first action of the Rough Wooing.

1487 - The Siege of Malaga commences during the Spanish Reconquista.

1342 - In Avignon, France, Cardinal Pierre Roger is elected Pope and takes
the name Clement VI.

1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens; it ratified a decree to regulate the election of the Pope.

558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.

351 - The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch.

--- Temp: 7°C | Humidity: 72% | Wind: 6 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1002.71 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.

2021 - A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.

2019 - British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.

1997 - China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.

1988 - A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".

1987 - The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

1984 - The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.

1984 - The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.

1984 - Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. Rene Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms
of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.

1980 - The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

1978 - The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

1976 - The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

1973 - A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

1972 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place naval mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.

1970 - The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.

1967 - The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.

1963 - South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.

1957 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.

1950 - The Tollund Man was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.

1946 - Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jogi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.

1945 - The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1945 - Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Setif massacre.

1945 - End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in
the Czech Republic.

1945 - World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect.

1942 - World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny
is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.

1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with
Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

1942 - World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula.

1941 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.

1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.

1927 - Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.

1924 - The Klaipeda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipeda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania.

1921 - The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.

1919 - Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

1902 - In Martinique, Mount Pelee erupts, destroying the town of
Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1899 - The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play.

1898 - The first games of the Italian football league system are played.

1886 - Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

1877 - At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

1846 - Mexican-American War: American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.

1842 - A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.

1821 - Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle
of Gravia Inn.

1794 - Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme generale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.

1788 - King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Etienne Charles de Lomenie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.

1721 - In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.

1639 - William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.

1608 - A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.

1541 - Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as Rio de Espiritu Santo,
the name given to it by Alonso Alvarez de Pineda in 1519).

1516 - A group of imperial guards, led by Trinh Duy San, murdered Emperor
Le Tuong Duc and fled, leaving the capital Thang Long undefended.

1450 - Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.

1429 - Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orleans, turning the tide of the
Hundred Years' War.

1373 - Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.

1360 - Treaty of Bretigny drafted between King Edward III of England and
King John II of France (the Good).

589 - Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.

413 - Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.

453 BC - Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of
Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.

--- Temp: 6°C | Humidity: 89% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 0) | Pressure: 1002.71 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2023 - The May 9 riots following the arrest of Imran Khan in Pakistan.

2022 - Russo-Ukrainian War: United States President Joe Biden signs the 2022 Lend-Lease Act into law, a rebooted World War II-era policy expediting American equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

2020 - The COVID-19 recession causes the U.S. unemployment rate to hit 14.9 percent, its worst rate since the Great Depression.

2018 - Barisan Nasional, the coalition that had governed Malaysia since the country's independence in 1957, suffer an historic defeat in the 2018 Malaysian general election.

2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.

2001 - In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.

1992 - Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada.

1992 - Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

1988 - New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.

1987 - LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kosciuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board.

1980 - In Norco, California, United States, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.

1980 - In Florida, United States, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 430-meter (1,400 ft) section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in
six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 46 metres (150 ft) into the water and die.

1979 - Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.

1974 - Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.

1969 - Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in Sao Paulo, by robbing two banks.

1960 - The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.

1950 - Robert Schuman presents the "Schuman Declaration", considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.

1948 - Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.

1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by
Umberto II.

1945 - World War II: the Channel Islands are liberated from Nazi occupation.

1942 - The Holocaust in Ukraine: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast. The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported.

1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal
Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.

1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa
on May 5.

1927 - The Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, officially opens.

1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.)

1920 - Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Smigly celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk.

1918 - World War I: Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.

1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.

1901 - Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne.

1877 - Mihail Kogalniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the
Declaration of Independence of Romania. The date will become recognised as
the Independence Day of Romania.

1873 - Der Krach: The Vienna stock exchange crash begins the Panic of 1873
and heralds the Long Depression.

1865 - American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.

1865 - American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama.

1864 - Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and
Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.

1761 - Exhibition of 1761, the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain opens at Spring Gardens in London.

1726 - Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.

1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

1662 - The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.

1540 - Hernando de Alarcon sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.

1450 - Timurid monarch 'Abd al-Latif is assassinated.

1386 - England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing
of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force.

1009 - Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.

328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria.

--- Temp: 10°C | Humidity: 94% | Wind: 2 km/h (gust 3) | Pressure: 996.95 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Start of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of Geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.

2022 - Queen Elizabeth II misses the State Opening of Parliament for the
first time in 59 years. It was the first time that a new session of
Parliament was opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge acting as Counsellors of State.

2017 - Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last footholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Al-Tabqah, bringing the Battle of Tabqa to an end.

2013 - One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

2012 - The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people.

2005 - A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 20 m from
U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.

2002 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia for
$1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

1997 - The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province killing 1,567 people.

1996 - A blizzard strikes Mount Everest, killing eight climbers by the next day.

1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

1993 - In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills over 200 workers.

1975 - Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.

1969 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.

1967 - The Northrop M2-F2 crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for
the novel Cyborg and TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

1962 - Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.

1961 - Air France Flight 406 is destroyed by a bomb over the Sahara, killing 78.

1946 - First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

1942 - World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.

1941 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.

1941 - World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.

1940 - World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.

1940 - World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.

1933 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972.

1922 - The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.

1916 - Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at
South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.

1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.

1904 - The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.

1899 - Finnish farmworker Karl Emil Malmelin kills seven people with an axe
at the Simola croft in the village of Klaukkala.

1881 - Carol I is crowned the King of the Romanian Kingdom.

1876 - The Centennial Exposition is opened in Philadelphia.

1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.

1869 - The First transcontinental railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory with the golden spike.

1865 - American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.

1857 - Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.

1849 - Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120.

1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks suspend the payment of specie, triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression whose
severity was not surpassed until the Great Depression.

1833 - A revolt broke out in southern Vietnam against Emperor Minh Mang, who had desecrated the deceased mandarin Le Van Duyet.

1824 - The National Gallery in London opens to the public.

1801 - First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.

1796 - War of the First Coalition: Napoleon wins a victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Second Continental Congress takes
place in Philadelphia.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan
Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.

1774 - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.

1773 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.

1768 - Rioting occurs in London after John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing
an article for The North Briton severely criticising King George III.

1713 - Great Northern War: The Russian Navy led by Admiral Fyodor Apraksin land both at Katajanokka and Hietalahti during the Battle of Helsinki.

1688 - King Narai nominates Phetracha as regent, leading to the revolution of 1688 in which Phetracha becomes king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

1534 - Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.

1503 - Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.

1497 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cadiz for his first voyage to the
New World.

1294 - Temur, Khagan of the Mongols, is enthroned as Emperor of the Yuan dynasty.

1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king.

28 BC - A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.

--- Temp: 10°C | Humidity: 58% | Wind: 1 km/h (gust 1) | Pressure: 1021.67 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - The 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Malmo, Sweden. Nemo from Switzerland wins with their song "The Code", making them
the contest's first non-binary winner.

2024 - Start/Middle of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of Geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.

2022 - Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed while covering a raid in Jenin. Israel eventually admitted and apologized for the murder, after initial denials.

2022 - The Burmese military executes at least 37 villagers during the Mon Taing Pin massacre in Sagaing, Myanmar.

2016 - One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.

2014 - Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.

2013 - Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanli, Turkey.

2011 - The Istanbul Convention is signed in Istanbul, Turkey.

2011 - An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.

2010 - David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War.

2009 - Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

2009 - An American soldier in Iraq opens fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, killing five other US soldiers and wounding three.

2000 - Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

1998 - India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.

1997 - Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in
the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

1996 - After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by
improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.

1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1985 - Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.

1973 - Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist
Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard.

1973 - Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.

1970 - The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.

1919 - Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1894 - Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.

1889 - An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft
of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.

1880 - Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.

1878 - Hodel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hodel targeting the
German Kaiser, Wilhelm I.

1857 - Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.

1813 - William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a
route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.

1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.

1713 - Great Northern War: After losing the Battle of Helsinki to the Russians, the Swedish and Finnish troops burn the entire city, so that it would not remain intact in the hands of the Russians.

1258 - Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, renouncing claims of feudal overlordship in one another's territories and separating the House of Barcelona from the politics of France.

1068 - Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen
of England.

973 - In the first coronation ceremony ever held for an English monarch,
Edgar the Peaceful is crowned King of England, having ruled since 959 AD. His wife, AElfthryth, is crowned queen, the first recorded coronation for a Queen of England.

868 - A copy of the Diamond Sutra is published, the earliest dated and
printed book known.

330 - Constantine the Great dedicates the much-expanded and rebuilt city of Byzantium, changing its name to New Rome and declaring it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

--- Temp: 8°C | Humidity: 63% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 1) | Pressure: 1029.46 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Middle/End of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of Geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.

2018 - Paris knife attack: A man is fatally shot by police in Paris after killing one and injuring several others.

2017 - The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefonica computers.

2015 - Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3,500.

2015 - A train derailment in Philadelphia, United States, kills eight people and injures more than 200.

2010 - Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes on final approach to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 out of the 104 people on board.

2008 - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever
raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

2008 - An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.

2006 - Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.

2006 - Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in Sao Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.

2003 - The Riyadh compound bombings in Saudi Arabia, carried out by al-Qaeda, kill 39 people.

2002 - Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution.

1989 - The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people, only to be followed a week later by an underground gasoline pipeline explosion, which kills two more people.

1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Maria Fernandez y Krohn before he
can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.

1978 - In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga); the local government asks the US, France and Belgium to restore order.

1975 - Indochina Wars: Democratic Kampuchea naval forces capture the SS Mayaguez.

1968 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral.

1965 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.

1949 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.

1942 - World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.

1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the
Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.

1941 - Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.

1937 - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom are crowned
in Westminster Abbey.

1933 - President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

1933 - The Agricultural Adjustment Act, which restricts agricultural production through government purchase of livestock for slaughter and paying subsidies to farmers when they remove land from planting, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1932 - Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, is found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.

1926 - The 1926 United Kingdom general strike ends.

1926 - The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

1885 - North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Metis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.

1881 - In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.

1870 - The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for
Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.

1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Palmito Ranch: The first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.

1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Union troops assault a Confederate salient known as the "Mule Shoe", with some of the fiercest fighting of the war, much of it hand-to-hand combat, occurring
at "the Bloody Angle" on the northwest.

1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: Two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.

1862 - American Civil War: Union Army troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1846 - The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.

1821 - The first major battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks is fought in Valtetsi.

1808 - Finnish War: Swedish-Finnish troops, led by Captain Karl Wilhelm
Malmi, conquer the city of Kuopio from Russians after the Battle of Kuopio.

1797 - War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Venice.

1780 - American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.

1778 - Heinrich XI, count of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, is elevated to Prince by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

1743 - Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.

1593 - London playwright Thomas Kyd is arrested and tortured by the Privy Council for libel.

1588 - French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry
I, Duke of Guise, enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.

1551 - National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.

1510 - The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the
powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.

1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.

1364 - Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded
in Krakow.

1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.

1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus; she is crowned Queen consort of England the same day.

907 - Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang dynasty
after nearly three hundred years of rule.

254 - Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd pope of the Catholic Church, and immediately takes a stand against Novatianism.

--- Temp: 7°C | Humidity: 62% | Wind: 4 km/h (gust 5) | Pressure: 1031.16 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2014 - An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.

2013 - American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.

2012 - Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.

2011 - Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.

2006 - Sao Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil.

2005 - Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.

2000 - A fireworks storage depot explodes in a residential neighborhood in Enschede, Netherlands, killing 23 people and injuring 950 others.

1999 - Kosovo War: NATO bombs the village of Korisa, killing at least 87 people.

1998 - India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.

1998 - Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.

1996 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.

1995 - Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to ascend Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

1992 - Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.

1990 - The Dinamo-Red Star riot took place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije
(fans of Red Star Belgrade).

1989 - Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.

1985 - Police bombed MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia, killing six adults
and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.

1981 - Mehmet Ali Agca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.

1980 - An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.

1972 - The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.

1972 - A fire occurs in the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan.
Blocked exits and non-functional elevators result in 118 fatalities (many victims leaping to their deaths).

1969 - In the aftermath of the 1969 Malaysian general election, Sino-Malay sectarian violence erupted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

1967 - Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.

1960 - Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on
Un-American Activities.

1958 - Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres
(11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a
ten-year journey.

1958 - May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.

1958 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, the US Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.

1954 - The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.

1952 - The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.

1951 - The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of
San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.

1950 - The inaugural Formula One World Championship race takes place at Silverstone Circuit. The race was won by Giuseppe Farina, who would go on to become the inaugural champion that year.

1949 - Aeroflot Flight 17 crashes on approach to Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, killing 25.

1948 - Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre occurs, a day prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

1945 - World War II: Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is published in Ogonyok magazine.

1943 - World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia.

1940 - World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins, as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and
sweat" speech to the House of Commons.

1917 - Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal.

1912 - The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.

1909 - The first edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, began in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the
eventual winner.

1888 - With the passage of the Lei Aurea ("Golden Law"), the Empire of
Brazil abolishes slavery.

1862 - Southern slave Robert Smalls steals the steamboat Planter, spirits it through Confederate lines and hands it to the United States Navy, who quickly commission it as the gunboat USS Planter and appoint Smalls as captain, thus making him the first black man to command a United States ship.

1861 - Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.

1861 - The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.

1861 - American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights.

1846 - Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on the Federal Republic of Mexico following a dispute over the American annexation of the Republic of Texas and a Mexican military incursion.

1830 - Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.

1804 - Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.

1780 - The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice.

1779 - War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).

1654 - A Venetian fleet under Admiral Cort Adeler breaks through a line of galleys and defeats the Turkish navy.

1619 - Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague
after being convicted of treason.

1612 - Sword duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on the shores of Ganryu Island. Kojiro dies at the end.

1568 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is defeated at the Battle of Langside, part of the civil war between Queen Mary and the supporters of her son, James VI.

1501 - Amerigo Vespucci, this time under Portuguese flag, set sail for
western lands.

1373 - Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted
in her book Revelations of Divine Love.

1344 - A Latin Christian fleet defeats a Turkish fleet in the battle of Pallene during the Smyrniote crusades.

--- Temp: 12°C | Humidity: 94% | Wind: 8 km/h (gust 11) | Pressure: 1012.53 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2022 - Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

2021 - China successfully lands Zhurong, the country's first Mars rover.

2012 - Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.

2010 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component -- Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.

2008 - Battle of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre between Zenit supporters and Rangers supporters and the Greater Manchester Police, 39 policemen injured, one police-dog injured and 39 arrested.

2004 - Rico Linhas Aereas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people.

2004 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral.

2004 - The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.

1988 - Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying
a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.

1987 - Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'etat led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka.

1980 - Salvadoran Civil War: the Sumpul River massacre occurs in
Chalatenango, El Salvador.

1977 - A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.

1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

1970 - Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction.

1961 - Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.

1955 - Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

1953 - Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike.

1951 - Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.

1948 - Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

1943 - World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.

1940 - World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands is bombed by the Luftwaffe of
Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center.

1939 - Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history
at the age of five.

1935 - The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote.

1931 - Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Adalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.

1925 - Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, was published.

1918 - Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the Two-minute silence.

1915 - The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.

1913 - Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.

1900 - Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.

1879 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.

1878 - The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science,
accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.

1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.

1868 - Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.

1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson.

1857 - Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma.

1842 - The first edition of The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine, was published.

1836 - The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.

1832 - The Battle of Stillman's Run, the first battle of the Black Hawk War, was fought.

1811 - Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor.

1804 - William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's historic journey up the Missouri River.

1800 - The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the Federal government of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington,
D.C., begins the following day.

1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.

1747 - War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre.

1610 - Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot Francois Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne.

1608 - The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states.

1607 - English colonists establish "James Fort", which would become
Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas.

1509 - Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice.

1465 - During the 1465 Moroccan revolution which overthrows the Marinid dynasty, the Jewish mellah is attacked by the population of Fez, though the extent of the massacre is debated.

1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England.

1097 - The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade.

1027 - Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks.

--- Temp: 6°C | Humidity: 89% | Wind: 1 km/h (gust 1) | Pressure: 1017.27 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and critically injured while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlova.

2023 - The UN commemorates the Palestinian Nakba Day for the first time.

2013 - An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

2010 - Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

2008 - California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004
to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.

2004 - Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles".

2001 - A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels
south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it was brought to a halt near Kenton. The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.

1997 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

1997 - The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.

1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister.

1988 - Soviet-Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

1976 - Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes near Viktorivka, Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, killing 52.

1974 - Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.

1972 - The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

1970 - President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals.

1963 - Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission,
Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

1957 - At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first
hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

1948 - Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

1945 - World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

1942 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

1941 - First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft.

1940 - Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant.

1940 - World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands: After fierce fighting,
the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking
the beginning of five years of occupation.

1940 - USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus.

1934 - A self coup by prime minister Karlis Ulmanis succeeded in Latvia, suspending its constitution and dissolving its Saeima.

1933 - All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its
Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe.

1932 - In an attempted coup d'etat, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated.

1929 - A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.

1919 - Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army
kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades.

1919 - The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

1918 - The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops.

1916 - A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is infamously lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder.

1911 - More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreon massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreon from the Federales.

1911 - In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under
the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.

1905 - The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada, United States.

1891 - Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1851 - The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier.

1850 - The Arana-Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina.

1849 - The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.

1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.

1817 - Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

1791 - French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

1725 - Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter
Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

1648 - The Peace of Munster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty.

1618 - Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the
third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

1602 - Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.

1525 - Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Muntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.

1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which
authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.

1194 - Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center
of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century.

756 - Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.

589 - King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke
Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility.

392 - Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul
against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence
at Vienne.

221 - Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

--- Temp: 15°C | Humidity: 47% | Wind: 3 km/h (gust 5) | Pressure: 1023.37 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.

2014 - Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.

2011 - STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

2003 - In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

1997 - Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.

1991 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

1988 - A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1975 - Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1974 - Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.

1972 - An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.

1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.

1966 - The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

1961 - Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'etat to overthrow the Second Republic
of South Korea.

1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

1959 - The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.

1954 - Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.

1951 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

1945 - Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria.
The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.

1943 - Operation Chastise is undertaken by RAF Bomber Command with specially equipped Avro Lancasters to destroy the Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley.

1943 - The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

1929 - In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

1925 - The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.

1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.

1919 - A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will
be repealed less than two years later.

1916 - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

1891 - The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of
high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

1888 - Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

1877 - The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution
of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.

1874 - A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.

1868 - The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

1866 - The United States Congress establishes the nickel.

1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, the decisive Union victory by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Champion Hill drives the Confederate army under John C. Pemberton back towards Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1842 - The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.

1834 - The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

1832 - Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chanarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.

1822 - Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

1812 - Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the
Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.

1811 - Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom fight an inconclusive battle against the French at the Albuera. It is, in proportion
to the numbers involved, the bloodiest battle of the war.

1777 - Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh fatally wounds Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in a
duel in Savannah, Georgia.

1771 - The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle
between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs
in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

1770 - The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, Dauphin de France, who later becomes king of France.

1739 - The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.

1584 - Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.

1568 - Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.

1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.

1426 - Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes King of Ava.

1364 - Hundred Years' War: Bertrand du Guesclin and a French army defeat the Anglo-Navarrese army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel.

1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

946 - Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami
who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.

--- Temp: 15°C | Humidity: 67% | Wind: 4 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1022.35 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2014 - A military plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.

2010 - Pamir Airways Flight 112 crashes in Afghanistan's Shakardara District, killing 44.

2007 - Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a
test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

2006 - The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.

2004 - The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

2000 - Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen

1997 - Troops of Laurent-Desire Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1995 - Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National
Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.

1994 - Malawi holds its first multi-party elections.

1992 - Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime
Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds
of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests.

1990 - The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

1987 - Iran-Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1984 - Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and
the course of modern architecture.

1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

1983 - The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds [1.9 kt]), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.

1980 - On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

1980 - General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

1977 - Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California.

1974 - Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1974 - The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.

1973 - Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

1969 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

1967 - Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

1954 - The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation
in public schools.

1953 - Delta Air Lines Flight 318 crashes near Marshall, Texas, killing 19.

1943 - World War II: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF.

1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.

1939 - The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.

1937 - Spanish Civil War: The Largo Caballero government resigns in the wake of the Barcelona May Days, leading Juan Negrin to form a government, without the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, in its stead.

1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling -- the national-socialist party of Norway.

1915 - The last British Liberal Party government (led by H. H. Asquith) falls.

1914 - The Protocol of Corfu is signed, recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.

1902 - Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera
mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

1900 - The children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given to the author's sister.

1875 - Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with the jockey Oliver Lewis (2:37.75).

1865 - The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris.

1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeat a Confederate rearguard and capture around 1,700
men at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge.

1863 - Rosalia de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language.

1859 - Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified the first rules of Australian rules football.

1814 - The Constitution of Norway is signed and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.

1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.

1809 - Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

1805 - Muhammad Ali becomes Wali of Egypt.

1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.

1760 - French forces besieging Quebec retreat after the Royal Navy arrives to relieve the British garrison.

1756 - Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France.

1673 - Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

1648 - An allied French and Swedish army defeats Imperial and Bavarian forces in the Battle of Zusmarshausen.

1642 - Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montreal.

1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

1536 - Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's marriage is annulled.

1536 - George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason.

1527 - Panfilo de Narvaez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men -
by 1536 only four survive.

1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

1395 - Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.

--- Temp: 18°C | Humidity: 97% | Wind: 0 km/h (gust 0) | Pressure: 1023.37 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2019 - United States presidential election: Joe Biden launches his presidential campaign.

2018 - Cubana de Aviacion Flight 972 crashes in Santiago de las Vegas after takeoff from Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, killing 112
of the 113 people on board.

2018 - A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills ten people.

2015 - At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.

2009 - The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

2006 - The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill
curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.

2005 - A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.

1994 - Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern.

1993 - Riots in Norrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators.

1991 - Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland.

1990 - In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph).

1980 - Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

1980 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57
people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1977 - Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

1974 - Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1973 - Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker's bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.

1972 - During approach to Kharkiv International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 1491 crashes near Ruska Lozova, killing all 112 aboard.

1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.

1965 - Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria.

1955 - Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.

1953 - Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

1948 - The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially
convenes in Nanking.

1944 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union.

1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

1933 - New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

1927 - After being founded for 20 years, the Nationalist government approves Tongji University to be among the its first national universities.

1927 - The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Bath Township, Michigan.

1926 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California.

1922 - Seamus Woods leads an Irish Republican Army attack on the headquarters of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Belfast.

1917 - World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

1912 - The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.

1900 - The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.

1896 - Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.

1896 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.

1863 - American Civil War: Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant begin the
Siege of Vicksburg during the Vicksburg campaign in order to take full
control of the Mississippi River.

1860 - United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

1848 - Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.

1843 - The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland.

1812 - John Bellingham is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.

1811 - Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Rio de la Plata in Uruguay led by Jose Artigas.

1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.

1803 - Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.

1794 - Battle of Tourcoing during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.

1783 - First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John, New Brunswick), Canada, after leaving the United States.

1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.

1695 - The 1695 Linfen earthquake in Shannxi, Qing dynasty causes extreme damage and kills at least 52,000 people.

1652 - Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, although the law is not rigorously enforced.

1631 - In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.

1593 - Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest
warrant for Christopher Marlowe.

1565 - The Great Siege of Malta begins, in which Ottoman forces attempt and fail to conquer Malta.

1499 - Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cadiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela.

1388 - During the Battle of Buyur Lake, General Lan Yu leads a Ming army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Togus Temur, the Khan of Northern
Yuan.

1302 - Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia.

1291 - Fall of Acre, the end of Crusader presence in the Holy Land.

1268 - The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Siege of Antioch.

1152 - The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. He would become king two years later, after the death of his cousin once removed King Stephen of England.

1096 - First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany.

872 - Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in 844, during the reign of his father Lothair I.

332 - Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.

--- Temp: 24°C | Humidity: 68% | Wind: 3 km/h (gust 4) | Pressure: 1024.38 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - A helicopter crash in Iran leaves 8 people dead, including the country's president Ebrahim Raisi & foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

2018 - The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion.

2016 - EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board.

2015 - The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels)
of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast.

2012 - A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people.

2012 - Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in
the Italian city of Brindisi, killing one person and injuring five others.

2010 - The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.

2007 - President of Romania Traian Basescu survives an impeachment
referendum and returns to office from suspension.

2000 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-101 to resupply the International Space Station.

1997 - The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts.

1996 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-77.

1993 - SAM Colombia Flight 501 crashes on approach to Jose Maria Cordova International Airport in Medellin, Colombia, killing 132.

1991 - Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.

1986 - The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.

1963 - The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".

1961 - At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement.

1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a
month earlier and did not send back any data).

1959 - The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail.

1950 - Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce.

1950 - A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city.

1945 - Syrian demonstrators in Damascus are fired upon by French troops injuring twelve, leading to the Levant Crisis.

1943 - Winston Churchill's second wartime address to the U.S. Congress

1942 - World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

1934 - Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'etat and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

1933 - Finnish cavalry general C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed the field marshal.

1922 - The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union is established.

1921 - The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.

1919 - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea
coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.

1917 - The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded.

1911 - Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.

1900 - Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.

1900 - Great Britain annexes Tonga Island.

1883 - Buffalo Bill's first Buffalo Bill's Wild West opens in Omaha, Nebraska.

1848 - Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.

1845 - Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.

1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, sparking outrage in the South and leading to the Nullification crisis.

1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour.

1780 - New England's Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada.

1776 - American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars.

1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.

1743 - Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.

1655 - The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.

1649 - An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.

1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.

1542 - The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Myanmar.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.

1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to
North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage).

1499 - Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.

1445 - John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.

1051 - Henry I of France marries the Rus' princess, Anne of Kiev.

934 - The Byzantine Empire reconquers Melitene under the leadership of John Kourkouas.

715 - Pope Gregory II is elected.

639 - Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace.

--- Temp: 22°C | Humidity: 82% | Wind: 2 km/h (gust 4) | Pressure: 1011.85 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2022 - Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.

2019 - The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.

2016 - The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.

2013 - An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.

2012 - At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.

2011 - Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.

2009 - An Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules crashes in Magetan Regency, killing 99.

2002 - The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

1996 - Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

1990 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

1989 - The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.

1985 - Radio Marti, part of the Voice of America service, begins
broadcasting to Cuba.

1983 - Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by UMkhonto we Sizwe
explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others.

1983 - First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.

1980 - In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.

1971 - In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.

1969 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

1967 - The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1965 - One hundred twenty-one people are killed when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashes at Cairo International Airport.

1964 - Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.

1958 - Capital Airlines Flight 300 collides in mid-air with a United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 over Brunswick, Maryland, killing 12.

1956 - In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb
is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1949 - In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the
predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

1948 - Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.

1943 - The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928-3651 BC), was discovered near Luttra, Sweden.

1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.

1940 - The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.

1927 - Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width: 1px}33+1/2 hours later.

1927 - Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of
King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomas Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.

1891 - History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.

1883 - Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.

1882 - The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.

1875 - Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.

1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.

1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening eighty-four million acres (340,000 km2) of public land to settlers.

1861 - American Civil War: The State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.

1861 - American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.

1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.

1802 - By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in
the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.

1775 - The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1741 - The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses.

1714 - Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.

1645 - Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of the residents of the city
of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.

1631 - The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.

1609 - Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps
illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the
first modern atlas.

1521 - Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.

1520 - Hernan Cortes defeats Panfilo de Narvaez, sent by Spain to punish
him for insubordination.

1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India
when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.

1497 - John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew
looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).

1449 - The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal.

1426 - King Mohnyin Thado formally ascends to the throne of Ava.

1293 - King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcala de Henares.

1217 - The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England,
resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st
Earl of Pembroke.

794 - While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess AElfthryth, King AEthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.

685 - The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.

491 - Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.

325 - The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.

--- Temp: 11°C | Humidity: 71% | Wind: 5 km/h (gust 7) | Pressure: 1018.96 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - A stabbing spree on the Green line of the Taichung MRT injures four people, including the perpetrator.

2024 - The Greenfield tornado kills 5 and injures 35 across rural Iowa,
United States. Wind speeds in excess of 480 kilometres per hour (300 mph)
are estimated from measurements for the third time in history.

2017 - Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show
at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

2014 - Random killings occurred on the Bannan Line of the Taipei MRT, killing four and injuring 24.

2012 - A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sanaa, Yemen.

2012 - A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.

2011 - Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.

2010 - JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.

2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.

2005 - The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.

2003 - The 6.8 Mw Boumerdes earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a
maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.

2001 - French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

2000 - Nineteen people are killed in a plane crash in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

1998 - President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.

1998 - In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.

1996 - The seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine that were abducted on March 27 are killed under uncertain circumstances.

1996 - The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria,
killing nearly 1,000.

1994 - The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede
from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.

1992 - After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.

1991 - Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.

1991 - Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

1982 - Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

1981 - Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the
1980 film Heaven's Gate.

1981 - The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian
crimes and mysteries.

1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1976 - Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.

1972 - Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.

1969 - Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

1966 - The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army
in Northern Ireland.

1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm
Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race
riots break out.

1951 - The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th
Street Art Exhibition: A gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.

1946 - Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1939 - The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

1937 - A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.

1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days
with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.

1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States
to fingerprint all of its citizens.

1932 - Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927 - Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris,
completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1925 - The opera Doktor Faust, unfinished when composer Ferruccio Busoni
died, is premiered in Dresden.

1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".

1917 - The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).

1917 - The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal
charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire's military forces.

1911 - President of Mexico Porfirio Diaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juarez to put an end to the fighting
between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.

1904 - The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is
founded in Paris.

1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened
by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.

1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Dansville,
New York.

1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.

1871 - Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.

1871 - French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.

1864 - The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.

1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.

1864 - Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many
Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day
of Mourning.

1863 - American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.

1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1851 - Slavery in Colombia is abolished.

1809 - The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian
army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.

1799 - The end of the Siege of Acre (1799): Napoleon Bonaparte abandons his siege of the Ottoman city of Acre after two months. This was the turning
point of Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign and one of the first major defeats he suffered in his military career.

1792 - A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyushu, creating a deadly tsunami that killed nearly
15,000 people.

1758 - Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape
during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.

1725 - The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

1703 - Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.

1674 - The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

1660 - The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.

1659 - In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.

1554 - Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.

1403 - Henry III of Castile sends Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.

1349 - Dusan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dusan the Mighty.

996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

879 - Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.

878 - Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a
nine-month siege.

293 - Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.

--- Temp: 10°C | Humidity: 69% | Wind: 13 km/h (gust 15) | Pressure: 1026.75 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2021 - Hypothermia kills 21 runners in the 100 km (60-mile) Gansu ultramarathon disaster in China.

2020 - Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashes in Model Colony near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 98 people.

2017 - United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall.

2017 - Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

2015 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to utilise a public referendum to legalise gay marriage.

2014 - An explosion occurs in Urumqi, capital of China's far-western
Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries.

2014 - General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d'etat, following six months of political turmoil.

2013 - Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered by 2 Islamic extremists in Woolwich, Southeast London

2012 - SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.

2012 - Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the
world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).

2011 - An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.

2010 - Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win
the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League).

2010 - Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610.

2002 - Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in
the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

2000 - In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.

1996 - The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.

1994 - A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.

1990 - North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.

1987 - First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.

1987 - Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.

1972 - Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Fein following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave.

1972 - Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka.

1969 - Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of
the Moon's surface.

1968 - The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 nautical miles (740 km) southwest of the Azores.

1967 - L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire
in Belgian history.

1967 - Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his Great Society program.

1963 - Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is clubbed over the
head, causing his death five days later.

1962 - Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45.

1960 - The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

1958 - The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths are estimated at 300, mostly Tamils.

1957 - South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities.

1948 - Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi releases Yrjo Leino from his duties as interior minister after the Finnish parliament adopted a motion of censure of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen people to
the Soviet Union in 1945.

1947 - Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece.

1943 - Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern.

1942 - Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies.

1941 - During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah.

1939 - World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

1927 - Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes.

1926 - Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.[vague]

1915 - Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.

1915 - Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.

1906 - The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".

1905 - The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II establishes the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day, although most do so on May 23 instead, which is when this event was publicly announced.

1874 - Verdi's Requiem was first performed at San Marco in Milan on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death.

1872 - Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1866 - Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms.

1864 - American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure.

1863 - American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history.

1856 - Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery.

1849 - Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.

1848 - Slavery is abolished in Martinique.

1846 - The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.

1840 - The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.

1826 - HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.

1819 - SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1816 - A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day.

1809 - On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is defeated in a major battle for the first time in his career, and repelled by an enemy army for the first time in a decade.

1807 - A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.

1766 - A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul
and the Marmara region.

1762 - Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.

1762 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.

1629 - Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lubeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.

1520 - The massacre at the festival of Toxcatl takes place during the Fall
of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.

1455 - Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.

1377 - Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.

1370 - Brussels massacre: An estimated 13 Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, in an anti-Semitic attack, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host.

1254 - Serbian King Stefan Uros I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.

1246 - Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV.

1200 - King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of
Le Goulet.

1176 - The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo.

853 - A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.

760 - Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

192 - Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lu Bu.

--- Temp: 9°C | Humidity: 70% | Wind: 7 km/h (gust 9) | Pressure: 1028.11 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2022 - Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party is sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia after winning the 2022 Australian federal election, ending 9 years of conservative rule.

2021 - Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.

2021 - A cable car falls from a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern
Italy, killing 14 people.

2017 - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declares martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute's attack in Marawi.

2016 - Eight bombings are carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eighty-four people are killed and at least 200 people injured.

2016 - Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria, kill at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.

2015 - At least 30 people are killed as a result of floods and tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.

2014 - Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.

2013 - A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.

2008 - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.

2006 - Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.

2002 - The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.

1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.

1995 - The first version of the Java programming language is released.

1992 - Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be
assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.

1991 - Aeroflot Flight 8556 crashes at Pulkovo Airport, killing 13.

1978 - A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near the Russian town of Yegoryevsk, killing two.

1971 - The Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest opens, becoming the second-tallest building in the city.

1971 - Seventy-eight people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia (then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

1960 - A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.

1951 - Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.

1949 - Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.

1948 - Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.

1946 - The start of a two-day tornado outbreak across the Central United States that spawned at least 15 significant tornadoes.

1945 - World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Donitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.

1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

1941 - World War II: German paratroopers start a series of mass executions of Greek civilians in Missiria for their participation in the ongoing Battle of Crete.

1939 - The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two
civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.

1934 - The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melee between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

1934 - American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

1932 - In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getulio Vargas, which resulted in the
outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.

1919 - Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, a Kurdish sheikh and at-the-time governor of the Slemani Province of British Iraq, initiates the first Mahmud Barzanji revolt.

1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.

1911 - The New York Public Library is dedicated.

1907 - The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.

1905 - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, publicly announces the creation of the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire, which had been established one day earlier. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is usually celebrated on May 23, although some do so on May 22 instead.

1900 - American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the
Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.

1873 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1863 - The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.

1846 - Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.

1844 - Bab: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Baha'i
Faith.

1829 - Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.

1793 - Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.

1788 - South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1706 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Francois de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.

1618 - The Third Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.

1609 - Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.

1568 - Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau defeat Jean de Ligne and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.

1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared
null and void.

1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.

1430 - Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiegne by troops from the Burgundian faction.

--- Temp: 11°C | Humidity: 88% | Wind: 7 km/h (gust 8) | Pressure: 1022.69 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2022 - A mass shooting occurs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children.

2019 - Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7.

2019 - Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India).

2014 - At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.

2014 - A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people.

2002 - Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

1999 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milosevic and four others for war
crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

1995 - While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Dunkeswick, North Yorkshire,
killing all 12 people on board.

1994 - Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York
in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1993 - Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and five other
people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico.

1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.

1992 - The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.

1992 - The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.

1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1988 - Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.

1982 - Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq War.

1981 - Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldos Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from
Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.

1976 - The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.

1967 - Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Bunuel, is released.

1967 - Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.

1962 - Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in
Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from
their bus.

1960 - Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordon Caulle begins to erupt.

1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1956 - The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.

1948 - Arab-Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.

1944 - Congress of Permet occurs which establishes a provisional government
in Albania in areas under partisan control, the first independent Albanian government since 1939. In honor of this the national emblem of Albania inscribed this date from 1946 until 1992.

1944 - Borse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid
during World War II.

1941 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: In the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the pride of the Royal Navy,
HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.

1940 - Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacan, Mexico.

1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1935 - The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.

1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.

1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

1873 - Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States.

1861 - American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia, with Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth becoming the first Union officer to be killed during the war.

1856 - John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

1844 - Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

1832 - The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.

1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio Jose de Sucre secures the independence
of the Presidency of Quito.

1813 - South American independence leader Simon Bolivar enters Merida,
leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").

1798 - The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.

1738 - John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist
movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and
a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.

1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics.

1683 - The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.

1667 - The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.

1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.

1621 - The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.

1607 - Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is founded.

1595 - Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.

1567 - Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles.

1487 - The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.

1276 - Magnus Ladulas is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.

1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.

919 - The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.

--- Temp: 11°C | Humidity: 98% | Wind: 2 km/h (gust 4) | Pressure: 1018.96 mb
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)