• 402 - Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.
• 1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
• 1327 - The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
• 1385 - John, Master of the Order of Aviz, is made king John I of Portugal.
• 1652 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which eventually becomes Cape Town.
• 1667 - An earthquake devastates Dubrovnik, then an independent city-state.
• 1782 - Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Thailand, who is overthrown in a coup d'état.
• 1793 - During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic, and the period known as the Reign of Terror begins.
• 1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.
• 1814 - Napoleon abdicates and is then exiled to Elba.
• 1830 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith, Jr. and others at Fayette, New York.
• 1832 - Indian Wars: The Black Hawk War begins - the Sauk warrior Black Hawk enters into war with the United States.
• 1860 - Joseph Smith III, creates the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr.
• 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.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Sayler's Creek - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
• 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.
• 1869 - Celluloid is patented.
• 1893 - Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
• 1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested (in the Cadogan Hotel, London) after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.
• 1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games 1,500 years after the original games were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
• 1903 - The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world.
• 1909 - Robert Peary and Matthew Henson allegedly reach the North Pole.
• 1911 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).
• 1917 - World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see ).
• 1919 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi orders a General Strike.
• 1923 - The first Prefects Board in Southeast Asia is formed in Victoria Institution, Malaysia.
• 1926 - Walter Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).
• 1930 - Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I'm shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Thus he starts the Salt Satyagraha.
• 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.
• 1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins. Germany invades the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece.
• 1947 - The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievements.
• 1957 - Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines.
• 1965 - Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
• 1968 - In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.
• 1970 - Newhall Incident: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive - American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
• 1973 - Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
• 1973 - The American League of Major League Baseball begin using the Designated Hitter
• 1984 - Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
• 1992 - A general strike is declared by communist groups in Nepal.
• 1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
• 1998 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
• 2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.
• 2005 - Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes the Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.

Births