Events Pre-1600 989 – The death of Bardas Phokas the Younger in the battle of Abydos ends his second rebellion against Byzantine Emperor Basil II. 1055 – Election of Pope Victor II following the death of Pope Leo IX in the previous year. 1111 – Henry V, King of Germany, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by pope Paschal II. 1175 – Saladin routs his Muslim opponents, the Zengids, in the battle of the Horns of Hama, consolidating his control over Syria except for Aleppo. 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. 1455 – Thirteen Years' War: the beginning of the Battle for Kneiphof.
1601–1900 1612 – Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō in a duel at Funajima island. 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. 1699 – The Sikh religion is formalised as the Khalsa – the brotherhood of Warrior-Saintsby Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. 1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey. 1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament. 1849 – Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly. 1861 – American Civil War: Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. 1865 – American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces. 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded. 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.
1901–present 1909 – The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. 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. Approximately 1,500 are injured. 1924 – A.E.K., a major Greek multi-sport club, is established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople. 1941 – A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed. 1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility. 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth. 1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany. 1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna. 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. 1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra. 1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system. 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. 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. 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. 1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins. 1975 – Beirut bus massacre: A confrontation between Phalangist paramilitaries and PLO militia marks the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. 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. 1976 – Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history. 1996 – Two women and four children are killed after an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon. 1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. 2006 – The United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the Chadian capital of N'Djamena is repelled by the Chadian army 2009 – A fire destroys a homeless hostel and kills at least 22 people in Kamień Pomorski, Poland. 2013 – Salam Fayyad resigns as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority following an ongoing dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas. 2013 – Lion Air Flight 904 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Indonesia, injuring 40 people. 2014 – Three people are killed in a shooting in Overland Park, Kansas. 2023 – The house of Jack Teixeira is raided in an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents; he is arrested on the same day. 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. 2025 – Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament, becoming just the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam in golf.
Births Pre-1600 1229 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (died 1294) 1350 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (died 1405) 1506 – Peter Faber, French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (died 1546) 1519 – Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (died 1589) 1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, member of the Gunpowder Plot (probable; died 1606) 1573 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (died 1625) 1593 – Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1641)
1601–1900 1618 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (died 1693) 1636 – Hendrik van Rheede, Dutch botanist (died 1691) 1648 – Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (died 1717) 1713 – Pierre Jélyotte, French tenor (died 1797) 1729 – Thomas Percy, Irish bishop and poet (died 1811) 1732 – Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1792) 1735 – Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce (died 1791) 1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States (died 1826) 1747 – Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (died 1793) 1764 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French general and politician, French Minister of War (died 1830) 1769 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (died 1830) 1771 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish-English engineer and explorer (died 1833) 1780 – Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse (died 1868) 1784 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (died 1877) 1787 – John Robertson, American lawyer and politician (died 1873) 1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist and academic (died 1867) 1802 – Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist and herpetologist (died 1884) 1808 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-American engineer (died 1889) 1810 – Félicien David, French composer (died 1876) 1824 – William Alexander, Irish archbishop, poet, and theologian (died 1911) 1825 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (died 1868) 1828 – Josephine Butler, English feminist and social reformer (died 1906) 1828 – Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian (died 1889) 1832 – Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian author and diplomat (died 1889) 1841 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (died 1905) 1850 – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer (died 1917) 1851 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist (died 1928) 1851 – William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist (died 1896) 1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F. W. Woolworth Company (died 1919) 1854 – Lucy Craft Laney, American founder of the Haines Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Georgia (died 1933) 1856 – Urania Marquard Olsen, Danish-Norwegian actress and theatre director (died 1932) 1857 – Fanny Ingvoldstad, Norwegian painter (died 1935) 1860 – James Ensor, English-Belgian painter, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism (died 1949) 1865 – Lucie Lagerbielke, Swedish writer and painter (died 1931). 1866 – Butch Cassidy, American criminal (died 1908) 1872 – John Cameron, Scottish international footballer and manager (died 1935) 1872 – Alexander Roda Roda, Austrian-Croatian journalist and author (died 1945) 1873 – John W. Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th United States Solicitor General (died 1955) 1875 – Ray Lyman Wilbur, American physician, academic, and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1949) 1879 – Edward Bruce, American lawyer and painter (died 1943) 1879 – Oswald Bruce Cooper, American type designer, lettering artist, graphic designer, and educator (died 1940) 1880 – Charles Christie, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded the Christie Film Company (died 1955) 1885 – Vean Gregg, American baseball player (died 1964) 1885 – Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician, Head of State of Estonia (died 1942) 1885 – György Lukács, Hungarian philosopher and critic (died 1971) 1885 – Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, Dutch politician (died 1961) 1887 – Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician and golfer (died 1995) 1889 – Herbert Yardley, American cryptologist and author (died 1958) 1890 – Frank Murphy, American jurist and politician, 56th United States Attorney General (died 1949) 1890 – Dadasaheb Torne, Indian director and producer (died 1960) 1891 – Maurice Buckley, Australian sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1921) 1891 – Nella Larsen, Danish/African-American nurse, librarian, and author (died 1964) 1891 – Robert Scholl, German accountant and politician (died 1973) 1892 – Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, English air marshal, head of RAF Bomber Command during World War II (died 1984) 1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish engineer, invented Radar (died 1973) 1894 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1973) 1894 – May Brodney, Australian labour activist (died 1973) 1896 – Fred Barnett, English footballer (died 1982) 1897 – Werner Voss, German lieutenant and pilot (died 1917) 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and game designer, created Scrabble (died 1993) 1899 – Harold Osborn, American high jumper and decathlete (died 1975) 1900 – Sorcha Boru, American potter and ceramic sculptor (died 2006) 1900 – Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer (died 1976)
1901–present 1901 – Jacques Lacan, French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (died 1981) 1901 – Alan Watt, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian Ambassador to Japan (died 1988) 1902 – Philippe de Rothschild, French Grand Prix driver, playwright, and producer (died 1988) 1902 – Marguerite Henry, American author (died 1997) 1904 – David Robinson, English businessman and philanthropist (died 1987) 1905 – Rae Johnstone, Australian jockey (died 1964) 1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) 1906 – Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (died 1991) 1907 – Harold Stassen, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (died 2001) 1909 – Eudora Welty, American short story writer and novelist (died 2001)