On April 20th...

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1314 Pope Clement V died.

1505 Jews were expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg.

1611 The first known performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth was given at the Globe Theatre in London, England.

1775 The British besieged Boston.

1777 New York adopted a new constitution as an independent state.

1792 France declared war on Austria and Prussia.

1808 Emperor Napoleon III of France was born.

1809 Napoleon I defeated Austria at the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.

1812 George Clinton, Vice-President of the United States, died.

1828 René-Auguste Caillié became the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu.

1836 The Territory of Wisconsin was organized.

1839 Karl Eitel Friedrich, Prince and first King of Romania (as Carol I), was born.

1850 Sculptor Daniel Chester French was born.

1851 Businessman Torakusu Yamaha was born.

1853 Harriet Tubman started the Underground Railroad.

1861 Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned from the Union Army.

1888 Hail killed a reported 246 persons in Moradabad, India.

1889 Adolf Hitler, founder and leader of the German Nazi Party, was born.

1890 Canadian politician Maurice Duplessis was born.

1893 Silent film actor Harold Lloyd was born.

1894 Mine workers in Ohio went on strike.

1898 The U.S. Assay Office in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, opened.

1900 Charles Richter, co-creator of the Richter Scale, was born.

1902 Marie and Pierre Curie isolated radium.

1904 The Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened in St. Louis, Missouri.

1908 Jazz musician Lionel Hampton was born.

1912 Fenway Park officially opened in Boston, Massachusetts; the Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11 innings.
1912 Tiger Stadium opened in Detroit, Michigan; the Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 6-5.
1912 Author Bram Stoker died.

1914 Soldiers killed 33 persons during a mine strike in Ludlow, Colorado.

1916 Weeghman Park (Wrigley Field) opened in Chicao, Illinoia; the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6.

1918 Manfred von Richtofen shot down his 79th and 80th victims.

1919 King Nicholas of Montenegro abdicated.

1920 The Balfour Declaration, making Palestine a British mandate, was recognized.
1920 Tornadoes killed 219 persons in Alabama and Mississippi.
1920U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was born.

1926 A check was sent across the Atlantic by radio facsimile for the first time.
1926 Actress Elena Verdugo was born.

1934 Heinrich Himmler became inspector of the Prussian Secret State Police.

1936 U.S. Senator Pat Roberts was born.

1937 Actor George Takei was born.

1939 Gro Harlem Brundtland, the first woman Prime Minister of Norway, was born.

1940 The first electron microscope was demonstrated by RCA in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1941 Actor Ryan O'Neal was born.

1944 The NFL legalized coaching from the bench.

1945 The U.S. 7th Army captured Nuremberg and Stuttgart, Germany.

1947 King Christian X of Denmark died.

1949 Jockey Bill Shoemaker won his first race, in Albany, California.
1949 Actress Jessica Lange was born.

1950 Memorial Stadium opened in Baltimore, Maryland.
1950 Actress Veronica Cartwright was born.

1951 Singer Luther Vandross was born.

1961 Harold Graham made the first ever rocket belt flight.
1961 Baseball player Don Mattingly was born.

1967 U.S. planes bombed Haiphong, North Vietnam.
1967 Russia and Japan marked the opening of commercial air service between their capitals with a live television broadcast from Moscow to Japan.

1968 A South African Boeing 707 crashed nearWindhoek, South Africa, killing 122 persons.
1968 Pierre Elliott Trudeau succeeded the retiring Lester B. Pearson as Prime Minister of Canada.

1970 Bruno Kreisky became the first Socialist Chancellor of Austria.
1970 Actor Shemar Moore was born.

1971 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation of public schools.

1972 Two giant pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, received their first visitors at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
1972 Model Carmen Electra was born.

1974 Paul McCartney and Wings released "Band on the Run."

1976 Actor Joey Lawrence was born.

1977 The film Annie Hall was released.

1982 The Atlanta Braves became the first Major League team to win the first 12 games of the season.

1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a $165 billion bail-out for Social Security.

1986 Michael Jordan set an NBA playoff record with 63 points in a game.

1988 The Baltimore Orioles set the worst record to start a season by losing their 14th straight game.

1991 Mark Lenzi became the first diver to score 100 points (101.85) on a dive.
1991 Guitarist Steve Marriott died.

1992 Expo '92 opened in Seville, Spain.

1993 Uranus "passed" Neptune.

1994 The Serbian Army bombed a hospital in Goradze, Bosnia, killing 47 persons.

1996 The Chicago Bulls won a record 72 games in a season.

1998 A Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashed into Cerro El Cable mountain after taking off from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53 persons.

1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 persons and injured 24 others before committing suicie at Columbine (Colorado) High School.
1999 Ventriloquist Señor Wences died.

2004 Insurgents fired 12 mortars on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.

2007 A man with a handgun barricaded himself inside NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.

2008 Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Racing League event, the Japan 300.

2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and causing a massive oil discharge.

2012 A plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, killed 127 persons.
2012 A tractor trailer collided with a bus in Alamo, Mexico, killing 40 persons and injuring 27.

2013 A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Lushan, China, killing 193 persons and injuring 11,826.
2013 An avalanche killed 5 snowboarders in Loveland Pass, Colorado.

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This page was last updated on January 08, 2018.