On this day in History - Abr. 12

• 599 BC - Mahavira was born (d. 0527 BC). Founder of Jainism.
• 0065 - Lucius Annaeus Seneca dies (b. c.3 BC). Philosopher, dramatist, statesman.
• 0238 - Roman emperor Gordian I dies (suicide) .
• 0238 - Roman emperor Gordian II, heir to the Roman Empire, dies killed in battle.
• 0352 - St Julius I dies. Pope (0337-0352).
• 0467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
• 0812 - Muhammad at-Taqi was born (d. 0835). Shia Imam.
• 1167 - Karl Sverkersson dies. King of Sweden.
• 1204 - Alexius V, the last Greek emperor of a united Byzantium, fled Constantinople in the face of the Fourth Crusade. / A Quarta Cruzada saqueia Constantinopla.
• 1372 - Renovação do Tratado de comércio de Portugal com a Inglaterra.
• 1443 - Henry Chichele dies. Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1484 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger was born (d. 1546). Italian architect.
• 1500 - Joachim Camerarius was born (d. 1574). German classical scholar.
• 1526 - Muretus was born (d. 1585). French humanist.
• 1550 - Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford was born (d. 1604). English lyric poet who emerged in the 20th century as the strongest candidate proposed (other than William Shakespeare himself) as the author of Shakespeare's plays.
• 1557 - Cuenca is founded in Ecuador / Fundação da cidade de Santa Ana de los ríos de Cuenca - Equador.
• 1577 - Christian IV of Denmark was born (d. 1648).
• 1605 - Boris Godunov dies. Tsar of Russia (1598-1605).
• 1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
• 1609 - Los Países Bajos recobran la independencia de España.
• 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
• 1647 - Maria Sibylla Merian was born (d. 13 Jan. 1717). German painter, botanist and entomologist. She was born in Frankfurt and was taught painting and engraving by her stepfather, the painter and engraver Jacob Marrel [1613 – 11 Nov 1681 bur.], whose speciality was traditional Dutch flower pictures.
• 1671 - Canonizan al jesuita español San Francisco de Borja.
• 1695 - Jean-Baptiste Corneille dies (b. 02 Nov 1649). French painter and engraver.
• 1704 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet dies (b. 25 Sep 1627). French religious and writer.
• 1713 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal was born (d. 1796). French writer.
• 1722 - Pietro Nardini was born (d. 1793). Italian composer.
• 1724 - Lyman Hall was born (d. 1790). American signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• 1724 - Partiu de Lisboa uma embaixada com destino a China.
• 1726 - Charles Burney was born (d. 1814). English music historian.
• 1727 - Antoine Dieu dies (b. 1662). French painter, dealer, draftsman, and designer.
• 1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu was born in Lyon (d. 17 Sep 1836). French botanist who developed the principles that served as the foundation of a natural system of plant classification.
• 1748 - William Kent dies. English architect
• 1761 - Jacques de Lajoüe dies (b. 1686). French painter, draftsman, and designer.
• 1776 - North Carolina's Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves.
• 1777 - Leendert de Koningh was born (d. 05 Jun 1849). Dutch artist.
• 1777 - Henry Clay was born (d.1852). American statesman and orator.
• 1782 - Metastasio, pseudonym of Pietro Armando Dominico Trapassi, dies. Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698) .
• 1789 - Nascimento de Santo Antonio Maria Giannelli (canonizado em 21 Out 1951).
• 1794 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin was born (d. 1847). Belgian mathematician.
• 1799 - Henri Druey was born (d.1855). Member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1855).
• 1799 - The first US patent for a comb-cutting machine was issued to Phineas Pratt of Connecticut as a "machine for making combs."
• 1817 - Charles Messier dies. French astronomer.
• 1820 - Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organisation to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.
• 1823 - Alexandr Ostrovsky was born. Russian playwright.
• 1831 - Grenville Mellen Dodge was born (d. 03 Jan 1916). American civil engineer who was responsible for much of the railroad construction in the western and southwestern U.S. during the 19th century.
• 1832 - Hugo Adolph Steinheil, was born (d. 1893). Optician.
• 1833 - Louis Florent Polydore Roux, dies (b. 31 Jul 1792). French naturalist and painter.
• 1833 - The first U.S. patent for a fireproof safe was issued to Charles A. Gaylor of New York City, as a "fire-proof iron chest."
• 1833 - Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe in New York City.
• 1838 - John Shaw Billings was born (d. 11 Mar 1913). American surgeon and librarian whose organization of U.S. medical institutions played a central role in the modernization of hospital care and the maintenance of public health.
• 1839 - Nikolai Przhevalsky was born (d. 1888). Russian explorer.
• 1840 - Ferdinand Victor Léon Roybet was born (d. 10 Apr 1920). French painter.
• 1847 - Egor Ivanovitch Zolotarev was born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 19 Jul 1878). Russian mathematician.
• 1848 - José Gautier Benítez was born (d. 1880). Puerto Rican poet.
• 1849 - Albert Heim was born (d. 31 Aug 1937). Swiss geologist whose studies of the Swiss Alps greatly advanced knowledge of the dynamics of mountain building and of glacial effects on topography and geology.
• 1850 - Adoniram Judson, dies (b. 1788). Pioneer Baptist missionary to India and Burma.
• 1852 - (Carl Louis) Ferdinand von Lindemann was born (d. 6 March 1939). German mathematician who was the first to prove that the number is transcendental, that is, it does not satisfy any algebraic equation with rational coefficients.
• 1853 - Sir James Mackenzie was born (d. 26 Jan 1925). Scottish cardiologist, pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmias. He was first to make simultaneous records of the arterial and venous pulses to evaluate the condition of the heart, a procedure that laid the foundation for much future research.
• 1856 - William Martin Conway was born (d. 1937). English art critic and mountaineer.
• 1857 - Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" published.
• 1861 - Gyula Tornai was born (d.24 Nov 1928) . Hungarian Orientalist painter.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1862 - Nace en Buenos Aires el profesor, historiador y sociólogo Juan Agustín García, autor de "La ciudad indiana", "Chiche y su tiempo" y "Sombras que pasan", entre otras obras. Falleció en Buenos Aires el 23 de junio de 1923.
• 1863 - Raul Pompéia was born in Jacucanga, Angra dos Reis (d. 25 Dec 1895). Brazilian writer (O Ateneu).
• 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army .
• 1867 - Sindo Garay was born (d. 1968). Cuban singer and musician.
• 1867 - Davi Canabarro dies (b. 22 Aug 1796). Brazilian revolucionary militar.
• 1868 - Akiyama Saneyuki was born (d. 1918). Japanese naval commander.
• 1869 - Henri Désiré Landru was born (d. 1922). French serial killer.
• 1870 - John Stough Bobbs dies (b. 28 Dec 1809). American physician who performed the first U.S. gallstone operation in Indianapolis, Indiana, becoming known as "the father of cholecystotomy".
• 1871 - Ioannis Metaxas was born (d. 1941). Greek general and dictator.
• 1872 - Nikolaos Mantzaros dies (b. 1795). Greek composer.
• 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
• 1878 - Richard Benedict Goldschmidt was born (d. 24 Apr 1958). German-born U.S. zoologist and geneticist, formulator of the theory that chromosome molecules are the more decisive factors in inheritance (rather than the qualities of the individual genes).
• 1882 - José de Abreu Albano was born in Fortaleza (d. 11 Jul 1923). Brazilian poet.
• 1883 - Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell was born (d.1937). British artist.
• 1883 - Dally Messenger was born (d. 1959). Australian rugby league player.
• 1883 - Imogen Cunningham was born (d. 23 Jun 1976). American photographer.
• 1884 - Otto Meyerhof was born (d. 6 Oct 1951). German biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - 1922. for research on the chemical reactions of metabolism in muscle.
• 1885 - Robert-Victor-Félix Delaunay was born (d.25 Oct 1941). French Cubist painter. Husband of Sonia Delaunay [14 Nov 1885 – 05 Dec 1979].
• 1887 - Harold Lockwood was born (d. 1918). American silent film actor.
• 1888 - A French newspaper mistakenly published an obituary for Albert Nobel, inventor of dynamite, calling him "a merchant of death." The mistake was that it was actually Albert's brother, Ludwig Nobel, who had just died (at age 56, due to heart trouble). However, shocked by the newspaper's report, Albert Nobel began to seek a change in public opinion, which led to his decision to establish the Nobel Prizes.
• 1888 - Cecil Kimber was born in south London (d. 1945). Founder of MG.
• 1888 - Heinrich Neuhaus was born (d. 1964). Soviet pianist.
• 1891 - Se juegan los dos primeros partidos oficiales de la historia del fútbol argentino: Buenos Ayres F.C. vs. Saint Andrew's, y Old Caledonians vs. Belgrano F.C.
• 1892 - The first U.S. patent for a portable typewriter, the Blickensderfer, by George lickensderfer of Stamford, Connecticut (No. 472,692).
• 1892 - Johnny Dodds was born (d.1940). American jazz clarinetist.
• 1893 - Robert Harron was born (d. 1920). American actor.
• 1893 - Jules Jacques Veyrassat dies (b. 02 Jul 1828). French artist.
• 1894 - Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes was born. Portuguese general and 13th President (1951-58).
• 1896 - Karl Humann dies (b. 4 Jan 1839). German engineer and archaeologist, whose excavation of the ancient Greek city of Pergamum (now Bergama, Tur.) brought to light some of the choicest examples of Hellenistic sculpture and revealed much about Hellenistic city planning
• 1897 - Edward Drinker Cope dies (b. 28 July 1840). American paleontologist and prolific taxonomist of vertebrate paleontology. He was also active in ichthyology and herpetology.
• 1898 - Lily Pons was born (d. 1976). French-born American soprano.
• 1901 - Lowell Stockman was born. American representative.
• 1902 - Louis Beel was born (d.1977). Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
• 1903 - Sally Rand was born (d.1979). Fan dancer .
• 1903 - Jan Tinbergen was born (d. 14 Jun 1994). Dutch economist and U.N. advisor, Nobel Prize 1969 for his work with econometric models.
• 1904 - Paul (Victor Ernest) Dahlke was born in Streitz († 24 Nov 1984). Actor.
• 1907 - Felix de Weldon was born (d. 2003). Austrian-born sculptor.
• 1907 - Hardie Gramatky was born (d. 1979). American author and animator.
• 1908 - Robert Lee Scott, Jr. was born (d. 2006). American Air Force pilot.
• 1908 - Lionel Hampton was born (d. 2002). Musician.
• 1908 - Carlos Lleras Restrepo was born (d. 1990). Politician and lawyer. President of Colombia (1966-1970).
• 1909 - Bartolomeo Giuliano dies in Milan, Italy (b. 1825). Italian artist, painter.
• 1911 - Foi concretizado o primeiro voo sem paragens entre Paris e Londres, pelo piloto francês Pierre Prier.
• 1912 - Walt Gorney was born (d. 2004). American actor.
• 1912 - Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was born (d. 1988). Second Vice President of Indonesia.
• 1912 - Clara Barton dies (b. 25 Dec 1821).American nursing pioneer and Red Cross advocate.
• 1914 - Armen Alchian was born. American economist.
• 1916 - Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon. American writer.
• 1916 - Benjamin Libet was born. American scientist
• 1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully take Vimy Ridge from the Germans. It is also considered a major event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack.
• 1917 - Helen Forrest was born (d. 1999). American singer.
• 1919 - Billy Vaughn was born (d. 1991). American musician and bandleader.
• 1921 - Henri Adolphe Laissement dies (b. 1854). French artist.
• 1922 - Tiny Tim was born (d. 1996). English musician.
• 1923 - American scientists studying Einstein's Theory of Relativity found further evidence in support of its correctness.
• 1923 - José Eligio Ayala becomes President of Paraguay.
• 1923 - Ann Miller was born (d. 2004). American actress and dancer.
• 1924 -Peter Safar was born (d. 3 Aug 2003). Austrian-American physician whose pioneering "Kiss of Life" procedure of mouth-to-mouth resuscitations is credited with saving countless lives. In the 1960s the technique was combined with new chest compressions, producing what's known today as CPR, or cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
• 1924 - Raymond Barre was born. French polotician and economist who was Prime-Minister of France(1976-1981).
• 1924 - Enrico Ferri dies (b. 1856). Italian writer and politician.
• 1925 - Fundación del Club Bolívar de La Paz, Bolivia.
• 1926 - By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
• 1927 - April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orderd the CPC members to be killed in Shanghai and then First United Front (China) was finished.
• 1928 - El rey de Italia, Víctor Manuel III, sale ileso de un atentado en la inauguración de la Feria de Muestras de Milán.
• 1928 - Hardy Krüger was born. German actor.
• 1928 - Jean-François Paillard was born. French conductor.
• 1930 - Michał Życzkowski was born (d. 2006). Polish technician.
• 1931 - The strongest wind in the world measured at 231 mph was recorded on the summit of Mount Washington.
  
• 1931 - Chico Anysio [Francisco Anysio de Oliveira Paula] was born in Maranguape - CE. Brazilian actor, comedian, diretor, composer, writer and comentarist.
• 1932 - Tratado comercial entre Lituânia e Portugal.
• 1932 - Dennis Banks was born. American activist.
• 1932 - Lakshman Kadirgamar was born (d. 2005). Sri Lankan politician.
• 1932 - Tiny Tim was born (d. 1996). American musician.
• 1933 - Montserrat Caballé was born in Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain. Catalan soprano.
• 1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, Newe Hampshire US.
• 1934 - The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
• 1934 - Heinz Schneiter was born. Swiss footballer.
• 1935 - First flight of the Bristol Blenheim.
• 1936 - Francisco Fernando da Costa Andrade was born in Lepi, Huambo. Angolan poet.
  
• 1936 - Glen Campbell was born. American musician.
• 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England .
• 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin dies (b. 1873). Operatic bass.
• 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn was born in Hampstead. British playwright and director.
• 1940 - Herbie Hancock was born. American musician: Jazz pianist and composer.
• 1940 - Italy annexes Albania.
• 1941 - Bobby Moore was born (d. 1993). English national football team captain.
• 1942 - Carlos Alberto Reutemann was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. Winner of 12 Formula 1 races. South Africa, Austria and America 1974, Germany 1975, Brazil 1977, Brazil, USA West, Great Britain and USA East 1978, Monaco 1980, Brazil and Belgium 1981. Won 1981 South African Grand Prix put race did not count for championship points. Runner up in 1981 world championship by 1 point. Moved into politics after retiring from F1 in 1982. Is now Governor of Sante Fe province in Argentina.
• 1942 - 9th Golf Masters Championship: Byron Nelson wins, shooting a 280.
• 1944 - John Kay was born. German-born musician ( Steppenwolf).
• 1945 - Lee Jong-wook was born (d. 2006). Korean Director-General of the WHO.
• 1945 - US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, recently elected to a record fourth term in office, dies in Warm Springs, Georgia, of a cerebral hemorrhage. 32nd President of the United States. Vice President Harry S. Truman is sworn as the 33rd President of the United States.
• 1946 - Syria gains independence from France.
• 1946 - Ed O'Neill was born. American actor.
• 1947 - Tom Clancy was born. American author.
• 1947 - David Letterman was born. American television entertainer and talk show host.
• 1947 - Woody Johnson was born. Owner of the New York Jets.
• 1948 - Jeremy Beadle was born. British television presenter.
• 1948 - Joschka Fischer was born. Foreign minister of Germany.
• 1948 - Sandra "Lois" Reeves was born. American singer, member of Martha & the Vandellas.
• 1949 - Scott Turow was born. American writer.
• 1950 - David Cassidy was born. American singer and actor.
• 1950 - Kari Palaste was born. Finnish architect.
• 1952 - Ralph Wiley was born (d. 2004). American sports journalist.
• 1953 - 17th Golf Masters Championship: Ben Hogan wins, shooting a 274.
• 1954 - 18th Golf Masters Championship: Sam Snead wins, shooting a 289.
• 1954 - Bill Haley and His Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock for Decca Records.
• 1954 - Pat Travers was born. Canadian musician.
• 1955 - The Salk vaccine against polio was announced to work, and be "safe, effective and potent," after a year-long field trial. Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. made the statement at a press conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the tenth annniversary of the death of Franklin Roosevelt (1945), the U.S. president who was a victim of the disease. Dr. Francis was a former professor of Jonas Salk.
• 1956 - Andy Garcia was born in Cuba. Actor ( Stand and Deliver, 8 Million Ways to Die).
• 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer was born. German singer, pianist and actor.
• 1956 - Walter Salles was born. Brasilian film director.
• 1957 - Vince Gill was born. American musician.
• 1957 - Bonn: Leading German physicists drop all work connected with nuclear weapons.
• 1958 - Will Sergeant was born. English musician (Echo & the Bunnymen).
• 1960 - Ron MacLean was born. Canadian sportscaster
• 1961 - Lisa Gerrard was born. Ausrtralian singer.
• 1961 - Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, is the first man to travel to space; he makes one orbit of the earth during his 108-minute flight.
• 1961 - Human spaceflight: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
• 1961 - 3rd Grammy Awards: Theme From a Summer Place, Ray Charles wins 4.
• 1962 - Las Cortes Españolas aprueban la nacionalización del Banco de España.
• 1962 - Carlos Sainz was born. Spanish race car driver.
• 1962 - Art Alexakis was born. American musician (Everclear).
• 1962 - Takada Nobuhiko was born. Japanese wrestler.
• 1962 - Antoine Pevsner [Natan Borisovich Pevzner] dies (b. 18 Jan 1884). Belorussian French painter and sculptor.
• 1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya dies at 101. Indian politician and engineer.
• 1963 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. Although both vessels are severely damaged both can make it to port.
• 1963 - Alfred Métraux dies (b. 5 Nov 1902). Swiss anthropologist noted for his pioneering contributions to South American ethnohistory and the examination of African culture in Haiti. While director of the ethnological institute at the University of Tucumán, Argentina, (1928-34) he wrote two classic works on the ethnohistory of the extinct Tupinambá Indians of Brazil.
• 1963 - Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz dies (b. 12 Dec 1890). Polish logician and semanticist who was the chief contributor to the Warsaw school of philosophy and logic.
• 1964 - Philadelphia singer Chubby Checker married former Miss World, the Dutch-born beauty Catharina Lodders.
• 1964 - 28th Golf Masters Championship: Arnold Palmer wins, shooting a 276.
• 1964 - Arnold Palmer won his fourth Masters title and became the first golfer to make career earnings of $506,496.84.
• 1964 - Amy Ray was born. American musician (Indigo Girls).
• 1965 - Silvye Vartin / Johnny Halliday wed.
• 1966 - Sumokil, president of Republic South Moluccas, executed.
• 1968 - Alicia Coppola was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York. American actress.
• 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
• 1969 - Simon & Garfunkel releases "The Boxer".
• 1969 - Lucas Radebe was born. South African footballer.
  
• 1970 - Nick Hexum was born. American musician (311).
• 1971 - Nicholas Brendon was born. American actor.
• 1971 - Shannen Doherty was born. American actress.
• 1971 - Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm dies (b. 8 July 1895). Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physics with Pavel A. Cherenkov and Ilya M. Frank for his efforts in explaining Cherenkov radiation.
• 1971 - Fernando Meligeni was born. Argentine tennis player.
• 1972 - Paul Lo Duca was born. American baseball player.
• 1972 - Dimitrios Kokotis was born. Greek high jumper.
• 1973 - France recognizes North Vietnam.
• 1973 - Sudan adopts constitution.
• 1973 - Swaziland suspends constitution.
• 1973 - Comienza a funcionar la Universidad Nacional de La Pampa.
• 1973 - Roberto Ayala was born. Argentine football player.
• 1973 - Christian Panucci was born. Italian football player.
• 1973 - J. Scott Campbell was born. American comic book artist.
• 1973 - Antonio Osuna was born. Mexican baseball player.
• 1973 - Claudia Jordan was born. American model.
• 1974 - Marley Shelton was born. American actress.
• 1974 - Sylvinho was born. Brazilian footballer.
• 1975 - Camila Morgado (Camila Ribeiro da Silva) was born in Petroppolis, Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
• 1975 - Josephine Baker dies (b. 1906). American dancer.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: The United States embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is evacuated as Khmer Rouge troops encircle the city.
• 1976 - Brad Miller was born. American basketball player.
• 1976 - Henrik Dam dies. Danish biochemist and physician, Nobel Prize 1943.
• 1977 - Giovanny Espinoza was born. Ecuadorian footballer.
• 1977 - Sarah Jane Morris was born. American actress.
• 1978 - Guy Berryman was born. British musician (Coldplay).
• 1978 - Riley Smith was born. American actor.
• 1979 - Claire Danes was born in New York, New York, USA. Actress (Angela-My So Called Life, Romeo and Juliet, How to Make an American Quilt, Home for the Holidays, Little Women, Law & Order, The Mod Squad).
• 1979 - Elena Grosheva was born. Olympic Gymnast.
• 1979 - Mateja Kežman was born. Serbian footballer.
• 1979 - Jennifer Morrison was born. American actress and model.
• 1979 - Paul Nicholls was born. English actor.
• 1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country.
• 1980 - Terry Fox begins his "Marathon of Hope" by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic at St. John's, Newfoundland.
• 1980 - Clark McConachy dies (b.1895). New Zealand billiards and snooker player.
• 1980 - William R. Tolbert, Jr. dies (b. 1913). President of Liberia.
• 1981 - Human spaceflight: The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
• 1981 - Joe Louis dies in Las Vegas, Nevada (b. 1914). American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949.
• 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
• 1981 - 45th Golf Masters Championship: Tom Watson wins, shooting a 280.
• 1981 - the shuttle Columbia was launched into space, to become the first of a series of reusable spacecraft.
• 1981 - Nicolás Burdisso was born. Argentine footballer.
• 1982 - Chyler Leigh was born. American actress.
• 1982 - Deen was born. Bosnian singer.
• 1983 - La película española "Volver a empezar", de José Luis Garci, consigue por primera vez para España el "Oscar" a la mejor película en lengua no inglesa.
• 1985 - Un atentado atribuído a la "Yihad Islámica" en el restaurante El Descanso de Madrid, provoca 18 muertos y 82 heridos.
• 1985 - U.S. Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of Moscow games.
• 1985 - Hitomi Yoshizawa was born. Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
• 1985 - Jeisa Chiminazzo was born. Brazilian supermodel (see ).
• 1985 – Olga Seryabkina was born. Russian singer.
• 1985 – Paul Murphy was born. Irish footballer.
• 1985 – Ted Ginn was born. American football player.
• 1986 - Blerim Džemaili was born. Swiss footballer.
• 1986 - Valentin Kataev dies (b. 1897). Russian writer.
• 1987 - 51st Golf Masters Championship: Larry Mize wins, shooting a 285.
• 1987 - Larry Mize, 28, hit a miracle shot - a 140-foot chip - to win the Masters golf title in Augusta, GA. Mize defeated Greg Norman and Severiano Ballesteros in a playoff.
• 1987 - Ahmed Salah wins 2nd World Cup marathon (2:10:55).
• 1987 - Brendon Urie was born. American singer (Panic! at the Disco).
• 1987 - Mike Von Erich dies. American wrestler.
• 1988 - the first U.S. patent was issued on an animal life form to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.
• 1988 - Alan Paton dies (b. 1903). South-African novelist.
• 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson dies (b. 1921). American boxer who was multiple time world champion.
• 1989 - Abbie Hoffman dies (b. 1936). American radical leader.
• 1989 - Gerald Flood dies (b. 1927). British actor.
• 1990 - Opening of Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition, the work of the only living sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
• 1990 - Christian Bernard F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC.
• 1990 - Mariah Rocha was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1992 - EuroDisney opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.
• 1992 -56th Golf Masters Championship: Fred Couples wins, shooting a 275.
• 1994 - Israel y la OLP concluyen en El Cairo el acuerdo sobre la policía palestina que se desplegará en Gaza y Jericó y que contará con 9.000 hombres.
• 1994 - the first Internet spamming program was used by an attorney in Arizona. Laurence Canter created the software program, a simple Perl script, that flooded Usenet message board readers.
• 1994 - Airi Suzuki was born. Japanese singer (°C-ute).
• 1994 - Saoirse Ronan was born. Irish actress.
• 1996 - Yahoo! has its initial public offering, selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
• 1997 - George Wald dies (b. 18 Nov 1906). American biochemist who received (with Haldan K. Hartline of the U.S. and Ragnar Granit of Sweden) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1967 for his work on the chemistry of vision.
• 1998 - 62nd Golf Masters Championship Mark O’Meara wins.
• 1998 - An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale near the town of Bovec.
• 1999 - A U.S. District Court judge cites President Bill Clinton in contempt of court for lying under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
• 1999 - Boxcar Willie dies (b. 1931). American singer.
• 2001 - Harvey Ball dies (b. 10 Jul 1921). American inventor of the Smiley.
• 2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a military coup against Hugo Chávez.
• 2002 – Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
• 2003 - Hungria: referendum para adesão à UE; a participação é de 45% da população com direito de voto e 84% dos votantes votam a favor do ingresso na União Europeia.
• 2003 - Malta e Hungria votam sua adesão ao Tratado de Maastricht (União Européia).
• 2003 - Cecil H. Green dies (b. 1900). Texas Instruments Founder.
• 2004 - Ucrânia ratifica o Protocolo de Kyoto.
• 2005 - Andrus Ansip is confirmed by the Riigikogu, the Estonian Parliament, as the country's next Prime Minister, following the 24 March resignation of former Prime Minister Juhan Parts.
• 2006 - Dr. Rajkumar dies (b. 1929). Kannada language film actor/singer.
• 2006 - Puggy Pearson dies (b. 1929). American professional poker player.
• 2007 - The Kremlin vetos an investigation into the death of Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man in space.
• 2007 - João Osório de Castro dies (b. 1926). Portuguese writer and impresario.
• 2007 - Kevin Crease dies (b. 1936). Australian TV anchor.
• 2008 – Cecilia Colledge dies (b. 1920). British ice skater and Olympian.
  
• 2008 – Jerry Zucker dies (b. 1949). Israeli-born American businessman.
• 2008 - Paddy Hillery dies (b. 1923). 6th President of Ireland, EEC Commissioner and Irish Minister.
• 2009 - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declares a state of emergency in Bangkok and the surrounding areas, due to a heightened escalation of tension between the government and anti-government protesters.
• The Roman holiday of Cerealia begins.
• Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin; in Russia (and formerly in USSR), the Cosmonautics Day.
• Halifax Day in North Carolina.