On this day in History - Apr. 27

• 0399 BC - Socrates dies (poison via hemlock) (b. 470 bc). Philosopher.
• 0630 - Ardashir III dies. King of Persia (King the Sassanid dynasty).
• 1076 - Willem bishop of Utrecht (1054-76), murderer of earl Floris I, dies.
• 1124 - David becomes King of Scotland.
• 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
• 1386 - D. Leoner Teles dies (b. 1350). Queen of Portugal (1372 - 1383).
• 1404 - Philip the Bold dies (b. 1342). Duke of Burgundy.
• 1494 - Sûleyman, llamado el Magnífico, was born. Sultán otomano .
• 1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
• 1521 - Battle of Mactan: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães) is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
• 1530 - Jacopo Sannazaro dies (b. 1458). Italian poet.
• 1554 - Naufrágio do galeão português São Bento.
• 1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
• 1599 - Maeda Toshiie dies (b. 1538). Japanese general.
• 1605 - Pope Leo XI [Alessandro O de' Medici] dies (b. 1535). Italian Pope.
• 1613 - Robert Abercromby dies (b. 1532). Scottish jesuit.
• 1623 - Johann Adam Reinken was born (d. 1722). German organist.
• 1625 - Mori Terumoto dies (b. 1553). Japanese warrior.
• 1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
• 1656 - Jan van Goyen dies (b. 1596). Dutch painter.
• 1656 - Gerard van Honthorst, "Gherardo della Notte", dies (b. 04 Nov 1592). Dutch painter and draftsman addicted to night scenes
• 1667 - The blind, impoverished English poet John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1694 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony dies (b. 1668)
• 1695 - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz [Asbaje] dies at 44. Mexican poetress and nun.
• 1695 - John Trenchard dies (b. 1640). English statesman.
• 1701 - King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia was born (d. 1773).
• 1702 - Jean Bart dies (b. 1651). French admiral.
• 1718 - Thomas Lewis was born (d. 1790). Irish-born Virginia settler.
• 1733 - Josef Gottlieb Kölreuter was born (d. 12 Nov 1806). German botanist who was a pioneer in the study of plant hybrids. He was first to develop a scientific application of the discovery, made in 1694 by the German botanist Rudolph Jacob Camerarius, of sex in plants.
• 1737 - Edward Gibbon was born (d. 16 Jan 1794). English historian, author "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".
• 1744 - Morte de Bernardo Filipe Neri de Távora (2º conde de Alvor - Portugal)
• 1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
• 1755 - Marc-Antoine Parseval was born (d. 1836). French mathematician.
• 1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft was born (d. 1797). English author.
• 1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1782 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot dies (b. 1710). English politician.
• 1791 - Samuel F. B. Morse was born (d. 2 Apr 1872). Painter and Inventor. Morse was a well-known painter who gained a wide reputation as a portrait artist.was a founder of the National Academy of Design in 1826 and became professor of painting and sculpture at New York University in 1832-a position he held until his death in 1872. Morse invented the first practical recording telegraph in America and developed the Morse code, revolutionizing communication.
• 1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
• 1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
• 1812 - Friedrich von Flotow was born (d. 1883). German composer.
• 1812 - William W. Snow was born (d. 1886). American politician.
• 1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
• 1813 - Zebulon Pike dies (b. 1779). American frontiersman and explorer.
• 1820 - Herbert Spencer was born (d. 8 Dec 1903). English sociologist and philosopher who was an early adherent of evolutionary theory.
• 1822 - [Hiram] Ulysses S[impson] Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio (d. 1885). 18th President of the United States (1869-77, Republican) .
• 1827 - The Petrel, Australian Coal carrying ship sinks in stormy seas, off Hope Bay, Tasmania.
• 1828 - The London Zoo opened in Regent's Park.
• 1829 - Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier was born (d. 25 Apr 1898). Swiss painter.
• 1834 - Thomas Stothard dies (b. 17 Aug 1755). English Neoclassical painter, designer, and illustrator.
• 1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
• 1840 - Edward Whymper was born. English mountain climber, writer, and illustrator.
• 1840 - Niccolò Paganini dies. Violinist.
• 1842 - Emil Jakob Schindler was born (d. 09 Aug 1892). Austrian Impressionist painter specialized in landscapes.
• 1850 - Hans Hartwig von Beseler was born (d. 1921). German general.
• 1853 - Jules Lemaître was born (d. 1914). French critic and dramatist.
• 1856 - Richard Thomas Moynan was born (d. 10 Apr 1906). British artist.
• 1859 - "Pomona" sank in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard.
• 1861 - After Virginia secedes from the United States, West Virginia secedes from Virginia and forms its own state.
• 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
• 1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
• 1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
• 1865 -Vladimir Germanovich Bogoraz was born (d. 10 May 1936). Russian anthropologist whose study of the Chukchi people of northeastern Siberia ranks among the classic works of ethnography.
• 1873 - William Charles Macready dies (b. 1793). English actor.
• 1875 - Maurice de Broglie was born (d.1 4 Jul 1960). French physicist who made many contributions to the study of X rays .
• 1878 - Frank Alvin Gotch was born (d. 1917). American wrestler.
• 1878 - Charles Victor Thirion dies (b. 30 Mar 1833). French artist.
• 1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
• 1882 - Ralph Waldo Emerson dies (b. 1803). American essayist.
• 1882 - Ferdinand Reich was born. German chemist.
• 1886 - Louis-Eugène-Gabriel Isabey, French painter and printmaker, one of Louis-Philippe’s principal court painters; equally notable for his land- and seascapes, he represents a link between the artists of the Rococo revival and the birth of Romanticism ( La Tentation de Saint Antoine L'arrivée du duc d'Alba à Rotterdam en 1567).
• 1888 - Florence La Badie was born (d. 1917). Pioneer actress.
• 1891 - Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was born (d. 5 Mar 1953). Russian composer.
• 1893 - Dragoljub Mihailović was born (d. 1946). Commandant of the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland.
• 1893 - Allen Sothoron, was born (d. 1939). American baseball player.
• 1894 - Nicolas Slonimsky was born (d. 1995). Russian-born musicologist and composer.
• 1894 - George Petty was born (d. 1975). WWII Pin-Up Artist.
• 1895 - The popular periodical Harper's Weekly carried a story on the World Transportation Commission's visit to Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.
• 1896 - Wallace Hume Carothers was born (d. 29 Apr 1937). American chemist who developed nylon (1935), the first synthetic polymer fibre to be spun from a melt.
• 1896 - Rogers Hornsby was born (d. 1963). American baseball player and manager.
• 1896 - Henry Parkes dies (b. 1815). Known as the Father of Federation
• 1897 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.
• 1898 - Matanzas Mule Day, the day during the Spanish-American War (1898) that the U.S. bombarded Matanzas, Cuba, resulting in one lone casualty—a mule.
• 1900 - Walter Lantz was born (d. 1994). American cartoonist, who created the fun-loving slighly maniac bird Woody Woodpecker. Academy Award winning animator.
• 1900 - Martin Beheim-Schwarzenbach was born (d. 1985). Narrator, lyricist and essayist.
• 1900 - Walter Lantz was born (d. 1994). American cartoonist.
• 1903 - Horace Stoneham was born (d. 1990). American Major league baseball owner.
• 1903 - Hans Walter Kosterlitz was born (d. 26 Oct 1996). German-born British pharmacologist who had already retired from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, when he discovered (1975), with John Hughes, enkephalins, two potent naturally occurring opiates in the brain.
• 1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• 1904 - Cecil Day-Lewis was born (d. 1972). Irish poet and writer.
• 1906 - Yórgos Theotokás was born (d. 1966). Greek novelist.
• 1908 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
• 1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Murat V.
• 1910 - Ranieri Mazzilli (Paschoal Ranieri Mazzilli) was born in Caconde, São Paulo (d. 21 Apr 1975). 31th and 34th President of Brazil
• 1910 -Julien Mamet realiza o primeiro vôo de avião em Portugal
• 1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• 1911 - Nelson Werneck was born in Rio de Janeiro (d. 13 Jan 1999). Brazilian writer, historian and marxist politician
• 1913 - Philip Hauge Abelson was born (d. 1 Aug2004). American physicist, co-discoverer (with the U.S. physicist Edwin M. McMillan) of Neptunium. He proposed the gas diffusion process for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 which was essential to the development of the atomic bomb.
• 1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1915 - Alexander Scriabin dies (b. 1872). Russian composer.
• 1916 - Enos Slaughter was born (d. 2002). American baseball Hall of Famer .
• 1918 - Sten Rudholm was born. Swedish jurist, member of the Swedish Academy
• 1920 - Edwin Morgan was born. Scottish poet.
• 1920 - Mark Krasnosel'skii was born (d. 1997). Russian-Ukrainian mathematician.
• 1920 - Guido Cantelli was born (d. 1956). Italian conductor.
• 1921 - Arthur Mold dies (b. 1863). Controversial Lancashire fast bowler and alleged "chucker".
• 1922 - Jack Klugman was born. Emmy Award-winning actor: The Defenders: Blacklist [1963-1964], The Odd Couple [1970-1971, 1972-1973]; Quincy, M.E., Twelve Angry Men, Days of Wine and Roses, Goodbye Columbus.
• 1924 - Inauguración del estadio de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. Enfrenta a Estudiantil Porteño, a quien le gana 3 - 0.
• 1925 - Raymundo Faoro was born (d. 15 May 2003). Brazilian historian and writer.
• 1927 - Chile, fundación de Carabineros de Chile por el presidente Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.
• 1927 - Mauricio Borensztein, "Tato Bores" was born. Actor and comedian.
• 1927 - Coretta Scott King was born. American civil-rights leader (1927). Wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King.
• 1927 - Karl Alexander Müller was born. Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1927 - Sheila Scott was born (d. 1988). English aviatrix.
• 1928 - Manuel de Brito was born (d. 2005). Portuguese art collector and founder of Galery 111 in Lisbon.
• 1931 - Igor Oistrakh was born. Ukrainian violinist.
• 1932 - Anouk Aimée (Françoise Sorya Dreyfus) was born. Actress: La Dolce Vita, Lola, A Man and a Woman, Dr. Bethune, Ready to Wear
• 1932 - Casey Kasem was born. American disc jockey
• 1932 - Gian-Carlo Rota was born (d. 1999). Mathematician and philosopher.
• 1932 - Anouk Aimée was born. French actress.
• 1932 - Pik Botha was born. South African politician
• 1932 - Casey Kasem was born. American disc jockey
• 1932 - Gian-Carlo Rota was born (d. 1999). Italian-born mathematician and philosopher.
• 1932 - Hart Crane dies drowned after jumping from a steamer while en route to New York (suicide) (b. 1899). Writer.
• 1933 - Se firma el Pacto Roca-Runciman entre Argentina y Gran Bretaña, por el que este último país se compromete a comprar carne argentina a cambio de la protección a empresas británicas en el país americano .
• 1933 - Se estrena "Tango", de Luis Moglia Barth, primera película sonora del cine argentino.
• 1933 - Rafael Guillén was born. Spanish poet.
• 1935 - Brussel's World Expo opens.
• 1936 - The United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
• 1936 - Karl Pearson dies (b. 27 Mar 1857). English mathematician, one of the founders of modern statistics. From 1893 to 1912 he wrote a series of 18 papers entitled Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of Evolution, which contained much of his most valuable work, including the chi-square test of statistical significance.
• 1937 - In the United States, the first social security checks were distributed.
• 1937 - Bombing of Guernica During the Spanish Civil War, the Condor Legion of the German air force, supporting the Nationalists, bombed the Basque city of Guernica on this day in 1937, an event memorialized in Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica.
• 1937 - Antonio Gramsci dies (b. 22 Jan 1891). Italian philosopher, writer and theorist of Socialism, Communism and Anti-Fascism.
• 1937 - Sandy Dennis was born in Nebraska (d. 2 Mar 1992). Academy Award-winning actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff [1966]; The Execution, Splendor in the Grass;
• 1938 - Es creada la Asociación Uruguaya de Jugadores Profesionales con la supervisión of José Nasazzi, quien actuará como Presidente.
• 1938 - Geraldine Apponyi was the first American woman to become a Queen. She married King Zog of Albania.
• 1938 - Earl Anthony was born (d. 2001). American bowler.
• 1938 - Edmund Husserl dies (b. 08 Apr 1859). German writer and philosopher (See table of facts in Husserl's life)
• 1939 - Judy Carne was born. British actress and comedian
• 1939 - Stanislaw Dziwisz was born. Polish Cardinal.
• 1940 - Com a presença do Presidente do Brasil Getúlio Vargas, é inaugurado o Estádio Municipal de Pacaembú.
• 1940 - En Buenos Aires, es inaugurado el estadio de Argentinos Juniors .
• 1940 - Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp .
• 1941 - Lee Roy Jordan was born. American football player .
• 1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• 1941 - Lee Roy Jordan was born. American football player.
• 1941 - Penelope Delta dies (b. 1874). Greek author.
• 1942 - Tornado destroys Pryor, Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300
• 1942 - Bob Foster was born. International Boxing Hall of Famer: light heavyweight champion [1968-74]: won 56 of 65 professional fights.
• 1942 - Jim Keltner was born. American drummer.
• 1942 - Jonathan Ferber was born. American agricultural tycoon
• 1944 - Cuba Gooding, Sr. was born. American musician (The Main Ingredient)
• 1945 - The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
• 1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.
• 1945 - 2nd Republic of Austria forms.
• 1945 - Italian partisans captured Mussolini.
• 1945 - August Wilson was born (d. 2005). American playwright.
• 1947 - Ann Peebles was born. American singer.
• 1947 - Peter Ham was born (d. 1975). Welsh singer and songwriter (Badfinger).
• 1947 - Keith Magnuson was born (d. 2003). Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1948 - Kate Pierson was born. American singer (The B-52's)
• 1947 - Babe Ruth Day is celebrated at Yankee Stadium.
• 1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
• 1950 - The modern state of Israel was officially recognized by the British government.
• 1951 - Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia
• 1951 - Ace Frehley was born. American musician (Kiss)
• 1952 - George Gervin was born. American basketball player.
• 1952 - Ari Vatanen was born. Finnish rally driver.
• 1952 - Guido Castelnuovo dies (b. 1865). Italian mathematician.
• 1953 - 1st general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP.
• 1953 - Arielle Dombasle was born. French singer and actress.
• 1954 - The film White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, premieres.
• 1956 - Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion.
• 1956 - El gobierno de la Revolución Libertadora anula la Constitución de 1949 y reimplanta la de 1853, por decreto-ley del presidente Pedro E. Aramburu.
• 1957 - Eric Bristow was born. English darts player
• 1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves China.
• 1959 - Sheena Easton [Sheena Shirley Orr] was born. Scottish singer: Modern Girl, Morning Train, One Man Woman, When He Shines, For Your Eyes Only, We Got Tonight, Strut, Sugar Walls .
• 1959 - Liu Sjau-chi elected President of People's Rebublic of China.
• 1959 - Louis Lortie was born. French Canadian concert pianist
• 1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
• 1960 - 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched, the Tullibee.
• 1960 - South Korean President Syngman Rhee resigns.
• 1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
• 1961 - La NASA lanza el satélite Explorer 11.
• 1962 - El nadador Luis Alberto Nicolao - de solo 17 años - obtiene un resonante triunfo en Río de Janeiro: en 57¨ supera el récord mundial de los 1000 metros estilo mariposa.
• 1963 - Icograda, the world body for graphic design, was founded
• 1963 - Cali Timmins was born. Canadian actress.
• 1964 - "Love Me Do" by the Beatles was #1 for one week in the US.
• 1965 - Edward R. Murrow dies (b. 1908). American journalist.
• 1967 - Expo '67 opens in Montreal, Quebec.
• 1967 - Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was born. Crown prince of Netherlands.
• 1967 - Jason Whitlock was born. American sportswriter
• 1968 - Muhammad Ali’s successor was finally decided after an eight-month runoff. Jimmy Ellis defeated Jerry Quarry of Atascadero, CA for the World Boxing Association’s heavyweight title.
• 1968 - Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands.
• 1968 - Jimmy Ellis defeated Jerry Quarry of Atascadero, CA for the World Boxing Association’s heavyweight title.
• 1969 - Darcey Bussell was born. UK ballerina.
• 1969 - Mica Paris was born. UK singer and presenter.
• 1969 - Cory Booker was born. Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
• 1969 - Darcey Bussell was born. British ballerina.
• 1969 - Mica Paris was born. British singer and presenter
• 1970 - The discovery of hahnium, element 105, was announced at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. The work was done by Albert Ghiorso at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, California.
• 1970 - Kylie Travis was born. English actress and model
• 1970 - Arthur Shields dies (b. 1896). Irish actor.
• 1971 - Tess Daly was born. British television presenter.
• 1971 - Eneida de Moraes dies. Brazilian writer.
• 1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
• 1972 - Apollo XVI splashs down on Pacific Ocean (launched on April 16)
• 1972 - Kwame Nkrumah dies (b. 1909). First post-independence leader of Ghana.
• 1973 - Sébastien Lareau was born. French Canadian professional tennis player
• 1974 - Portugal: na sequência da Revolução de 25 de Abril é apresentado o Programa do Movimento das Forças Armadas.
• 1974 - Pan Am 707 crashes into mountains of Bali, killing 107.
• 1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Nixon
• 1974 - Johnny Devine was born. Canadian professional wrestler.
• 1974 - Bear Grylls was born. British author and presenter
• 1975 - Chris Carpenter was born. American baseball player
• 1975 - Patrícia de Sabrit was born in São Paulo. Brazilian actress and model
• 1976 - Arabic Monetary Fund established in Abu Dhabi.
• 1976 - Isobel Campbell was born. Scottish singer and composer.
• 1976 - Walter Pandiani was born. Uruguayan footballer.
• 1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
• 1977 - Rafael Alberti regresa a España después de 38 años de exilio.
• 1977 - Portugal sign the European Convention on Social and Medical Assistance.
• 1977 - Khalid Zoubaa was born. French runner.
• 1977 - Stanley Adams dies (b. 1915). American actor.
• 1978 - Mohammed Daud, premier/president of Afghanistan, murdered.
• 1978 - Afghanistan revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup.
• 1979 - Will Boyd was born. American musician.
• 1980 - Christian Lara was born. Ecuadorian footballer.
• 1980 - Ananda Mikola was born. Indonesian racing driver.
• 1980 - Sybille Bammer was born. Austrian tennis player.
• 1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
• 1981 - Former Beatle Ringo Starr married Barbara Bach at the Marylebone Registry Office in London. Paul McCartney and wife Linda, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson were in attendance.
• 1981 - Fabrizio Faniello was born. Maltese singer.
• 1981 - Patrik Gerrbrand was born. Swedish footballer.
• 1983 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record—one that had held since 1927.
• 1983 - Ariel Geltman Graynor was born in Boston, Massachussetes, USA. Actress.
• 1984 - Sale de la cadena de montaje de Seat en Barcelona el primer Ibiza .
• 1984 - Patrick Stump was born. American musician (Fall Out Boy)
• 1986 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) hijacks HBO's satellite and transmits his own message to HBO viewers.
• 1987 - Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States. He was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews in World War II.
• 1986 - Elena Risteska was born. Macedonian singer.
• 1987 - William Moseley was born. British actor.
• 1987 - Elliott Shriane was born. Australian speed skater
• 1987 - Lucas Salatta was born in São Paulo. Brazilian swimmer.
• 1988 - David Scarboro dies (b. 1968). British actor.
• 1989 - Raúl Sendic dies. fundador y dirigente de los tupamaros uruguayos.
• 1989 - Konosuke Matsushita dies (b. 27 Nov 1894). Japanese industrialist who founded the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., the largest manufacturer of consumer electric appliances in the world.
• 1989 - Hurricane in Bangladesh, kills 500 .
• 1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its lone ally Montenegro.
• 1992 - Portuguese architect Siza Vieira is laureate with The Pritzker Architecture Prize. ("The architecture of Alvaro Siza is a joy to the senses and uplifts the spirit. Each line and curve is placed with skill and sureness..." (citation for the Prize).
• 1992 - Olivier Messiaen dies (b. 1908). Composer.
• 1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• 1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed, comprising of Serbia and Montenegro.
• 1992 - Olivier Messiaen dies (b. 1908). French composer.
• 1992 - Gerard K. O'Neill dies (b. 6 Feb 1927). American physicist who invented the colliding-beam storage ring and was a leading advocate of space colonization. He experimented with ways to increase the energy output of particle accelerators .
• 1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.
• 1994 - The funeral of former U.S. President Richard Nixon is held in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, California. Several foriegn dignitaries and all five living U.S. presidents attend.
• 1995 - Willem Frederik Hermans dies (b. 1921). Dutch writer.
• 1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
• 1996 - William Colby dies (b. 1920). American director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• 1997 - Andrew Cunanan murders Jeffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that will last until July and terminate with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
• 1998 - Carlos Castañeda dies in Los Angeles (b. 25 Dez 1925). Peruvian born /USA author.
• 1998 - John Bassett dies (b. 1915). Canadian publisher and media baron.
• 1998 - Dominique Aury dies (b. 1907). French novelist.
• 1999 - Al Hirt, "The King of the Trumpet," dies in New Orleans at age 76 (b. 1922). American musician.
• 1999 - Rolf William Landauer dies (b. 4 Feb 1927). German-born American physicist whose discovery of what came to be known as Landauer's principle (that the erasing of computer information causes a loss of energy) led to the development of more efficient computers.
• 1999 - Mark David Weiser dies (b.23 July 1952). American computer scientist and visionary who developed the pioneering idea for what he referred to as "ubiquitous computing," He coined that term in 1988 to describe a future in which PC's will be replaced with tiny computers embedded in everyday "smart" devices
• 2000 - In Uganda workers in Ggaba, a residential area south of Kampala, exhumed the bodies of 55 more people associated with the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments. Total deaths stood at 979.
• 2000 - Vicki Sue Robinson dies (b. 1954). American singer.
• 2002 - The last successful telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
• 2002 - O Sporting empata (2 x 2) com o Vitória de Setúbal e vence o título português de futebol 2001/2002 .
• 2002 - George Alec Effinger dies (b. 1947). American author.
• 2002 - Ruth Handler dies (b. 1916). American toy manufacturer, co-founder of Mattel and creator of the Barbie doll (1959).
• 2002 - Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza dies (b. 1921). Swiss industrialist and art collector.
• 2003 - In Argentina former President Carlos Menem (72) finished first in presidential elections but failed to win an outright victory in his comeback bid, setting up a runoff vote with Nestor Kirchner, governor of Patagonia.
• 2003 -In Beijing theaters, cafes and karaoke bars were closed as 126 new SARS cases were reported. Total confirmed cases in China rose to 2,914 with 131 deaths. 26 of China's 31 provinces were infected.
• 2004 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an accord extending the EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, which join May 1.
• 2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus 380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
• 2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
• 2006 - Julia Thorne dies (b. 1944). Ex-wife of John Kerry.
• Slovenia: Day of Uprising Against Occupation.
• South Africa: Freedom day .
• Independence Day: Togo, 1960;
• Catalonia: Montserrat's Day.
• Finland: Veterans' Day
• Sierra Leone: Republic Day.
• World Day of Design.
• Feast of Saint Zita in the Roman Catholic Church .