- 753 BC Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date)
43 BC Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Consul Aulus Hirtius, who is killed in the fighting, forcing Antony to lift his siege. Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
- 953 Otto I the Great grants Utrecht fishing rights
- 1104 Dedication of the transept and choir of Abbey of Ste Madeleine Vezelay, France, a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture and an important place of pilgrimage
- 1211 The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral to St James is consecrated before King Alfonso IX of Leon (begun 1075) [1]
1486 Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe (Arbitration Sentence of Guadalupe) proclaimed by Spanish King Ferdinand II of Aragon, freeing Catalan remensa peasants
1536 King Henry VIII's chief minister Thomas Cromwell begins to plot Anne Boleyn's downfall while feigning illness
- 1572 France and England sign an anti-Spanish military agreement
1600 First date in James Clavell's novel Shogun
- 1649 Maryland Toleration Act passed in the American colony, allowing freedom of worship for Christians but sentencing to death anyone who rejected the divinity of Jesus
- 1703 Battle of Puลtusk: Swedish army defeats a Saxon-led force during the Great Northern War
- 1739 Spain and Naples-Austria sign a peace treaty
1785 Catherine II of Russia confers on the nobility the "Charter to the Nobility", increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs
1789 John Adams sworn in as 1st US Vice President (9 days before Washington)
1792 Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes is hanged, drawn, and quartered in Rio de Janeiro
1794 Josรฉphine de Beauharnais, future Empress of French and first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, is imprisoned during the Reign of Terror
- 1794 NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publicly owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
- 1818 Franz Grillparzer's "Sappho" premieres in Vienna
1820 Danish scientist Hans Christian รrsted is the first to identify electromagnetism, when he observes a compass needle
- 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins independence from Mexico
- 1855 1st train crosses Mississippi River's 1st bridge, from Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa
- 1857 Alexander Douglas patents the bustle
- 1862 Congress establishes US Mint in Denver, Colorodo
- 1862 Ellen Price Wood's "East Lynne" premieres in Boston
- 1863 Bahรก'u'llรกh, founder of the Bahรก'รญ Faith, enters the garden of Ridvรกn near Baghdad. He makes his declaration as a Messenger of God during the 12 days he spends there.
1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
- 1878 First Lady Lucy Hayes begins egg rolling contest on White House lawn
- 1878 New York installs its first fireman's pole
1894 George Bernard Shaw's play "Arms and the Man" premieres in London becoming his first public success
- 1898 Phillies pitcher Bill Duggleby hits a grand slam in his first at-bat
1898 SpanishโAmerican War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and Spain
- 1905 The elective assembly of Crete proclaims union with Greece
- 1908 American polar explorer Frederick Cook claims to have been the 1st person reach North Pole on this date (disputed)
- 1910 Cleveland Naps play 1st game at League Park, lose to Detroit Tigers 5-0
- 1913 German passenger ship Imperator runs aground
- 1914 US marines occupy Vera Cruz, a major Mexican port; they will stay for 6 months
- 1916 The Aud, carrying a cargo of 20,000 rifles to assist Irish republicans in staging what would become the 1916 Rising, is captured by the British Navy and forced to sail towards Cork Harbour
- 1916 Ulster Protestant and Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement lands at Tralee Bay, Ireland from a German submarine; discovered at McKenna's Fort and arrested by the Royal Irish Constabulary
1918 German World War I fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen aka "The Red Baron," is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur Somme in France. Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown is credited with the kill.
1925 No baseball games played in NL due to Charles Ebbets' funeral
1925 Noรซl Coward's controversial comedy play "Fallen Angels" premieres in London, after initially being refused a license due to the loose morals of the female characters
1928 "The Passion of Joan of Arc", directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Renรฉe Jeanne Falconetti and Eugรจne Silvain, is released in Denmark
1930 "All Quiet on the Western Front" based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres premieres in Los Angeles (Academy Awards Outstanding Production 1930)
- 1930 Fire at Ohio State Penitentiary kills 322
1933 German philosopher Martin Heidegger elected rector of University of Freiburg
- 1934 Senators catcher Moe Berg, plays AL record 117th consecutive errorless game
- 1935 King Boris of Bulgaria forbids all political parties
- 1940 1st $64 Question, "Take It or Leave It," on CBS Radio
- 1941 WWII: Greece surrenders to Nazi Germany
- 1944 NFL Chic Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers merge (dissolves on Dec 3)
- 1945 Ivor Novello's "Perchance to Dream" premieres in London
- 1945 WWII: Allied forces conquer Ie Shima, Okinawa in 5 days; 5,000 die
- 1945 WWII: Allied troops occupy German nuclear laboratory in Haigerloch
- 1945 WWII: Soviet army arrives at outskirts of Berlin, Germany
- 1945 WWII: US 7th Army reaches Nuremberg, Germany
- 1946 Socialistic Einheitspartei Germany forms in East Germany
- 1951 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 for a 4-1 series victory
- 1952 BOAC begins 1st passenger service with jets (London-Rome route)
1952 Future world champion Rocky Marciano knocks out Italian heavyweight boxer Gino Buonvino in the 2nd round at Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island, for his 40th straight win
- 1952 Secretaries Day is first celebrated, known today as Administrative Professionals Day
- 1954 USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
- 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers win, then record 10th straight game to begin a season
- 1955 Minas Gerais, Argentina, tunnel caves in; 30 die
1956 Elvis Presley's first hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel," reaches #1
- 1959 Alf Dean, using a rod and reel, hooks a 2,664 lb, 16' 10" great white shark off the coast of Ceduna, Australia
- 1960 Brasilia becomes capital of Brazil
- 1960 Founding of the Orthodox Bahรก'รญ Faith in Washington, D.C.
- 1961 Dirk Stikker chosen as secretary general of NATO
- 1961 French army revolts in Algeria
- 1961 USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 32,000 m
- 1962 Century 21 Exposition opens in Seattle, Washington
1963 Beatles meet the Rolling Stones for the first time
1966 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie visits Kingston, Jamaica
- 1967 Dodgers 1st rain out in Los Angeles (after 737 consecutive games)
- 1967 Evangelical Broadcasting begins in Netherlands
- 1967 Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Allilueva arrives in New York City after defecting to the US
- 1967 Regime of the Colonels: Military junta overthrows Greek government in a coup, and Konstantinos Kollias becomes premier
- 1968 22nd Tony Awards: "Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (play) & "Hallelujah, Baby!" (musical) win
- 1969 The Ministry of Defence in London announces that British troops would be used in Northern Ireland to guard key public installations following a series of bombings
- 1970 Reds clout 7 HRs by 6 batters, Braves counter with 3 HRs, 6 for one team & 9 different batters for two teams, all tie or set records
- 1970 The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) is formed; it attempts to appeal to Catholics and Protestant to unite in support of moderate policies
- 1970 The Principality of Hutt River (previously Hutt River Province) secedes from Australia - it remains unrecognised by Australia or other nations
- 1971 Original Codex Reguis (with Edda-liederen) returns to Iceland
- 1972 John Young & Charles Duke explore the moon as part of NASA mission Apollo 16
- 1972 Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 4 (Copernicus) launched
1974 "Julie and Dick In Covent Garden", music and comedy special starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, with Carl Reiner, premieres on ABC-TV
- 1974 28th Tony Awards: "The River Niger" (play) & "Raisin" (musical) win
1975 Last South Vietnam President Nguyแป n Vฤn Thiแปu resigns after 10 years in power
- 1976 Swine Flu vaccine, for non-epidemic, enters testing
- 1976 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1977 Billy Martin pulls Yankee line-up out of a hat, beats Blue Jays 8-6
1977 Ziaur Rahman appointed president of Bangladesh
- 1978 Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz of Poland is the first woman to sail single-handed around the world, arriving back in the Canary Islands after 401 days
- 1980 Howard Stern begins broadcasting on WWWW Detroit, Michigan
- 1980 Soviet submarine catches fire off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, killing at least nine
- 1981 US furnishes $1 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia
- 1982 Atlanta Braves win their 13th straight game
- 1982 Dutch Queen Beatrice addresses US Congress
- 1983 ยฃ1 coin introduced in the United Kingdom
- 1984 "Nightline" reverts from 1 hour to ยฝ hour format
1984 After 37 weeks Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" is knocked off as top album by movie soundtrack for "Footloose"
- 1984 Centers for Disease Cont says virus discovered in France causes AIDS
- 1984 Franz Weber of Austria skis downhill at a record 209.8 kph
- 1984 Montreal Expo David Palmer no-hits St Louis Cards, 4-0 in a perfect 5 inn game
- 1985 Bomb attacks in NATO/AEG-Telefunken building in Brussels
1985 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway wins London Marathon in race record 2:21:06
- 1986 Bob Hering sets Formula One power boat record (165.338 mph, Ariz)
1986 Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on live TV and finds nothing, except great ratings for his spectacle
- 1987 Dow Jones Industrial Average soars 664.7; 2nd biggest one-day gain in history
- 1987 MLB Milwaukee Brewers lose for the first time of the season, ending a 13-game winning streak start
- 1987 Tamil bomb attack in Colombo Sri Lanka, 115 killed
1989 George W. Bush and Edward W. Rose become joint CEOs of the Texas Rangers
- 1989 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing's Tiananmen Square, cheering for students demanding greater political freedom
1989 World premiere of sports fantasy film "Field of Dreams", in Dubuque, Iowa; based on W. P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", and starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster
- 1990 "Cartoon All Stars to Rescue" shown on all 4 TV networks
- 1990 MLB Cincinnati Reds win, running their record to 9-0, best start in club history
- 1990 National League umpire is arrested for stealing baseball cards
- 1991 French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio discovers the San Diego, Dutch galleon sunk in 1600 off Fortune Island in the Philippines
- 1991 Greatest extra-inning comeback, Pitts scores 6 in bottom of 11th erasing 5 run Cub lead, Pirates also trailed 7-2 in bottom of 9th
- 1991 Jakov Tolstikov wins 4th World Cup marathon (2:09:17)
- 1991 NFL Draft: University of Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland first pick by Dallas Cowboys
- 1992 Mobil Oil tug with 12,000 gallons of oil run aground in Arthur Kill (a tidal strait separating Staten Island, New York City from mainland New Jersey, USA)
- 1992 Robert Alton Harris is put to death in the California Gas Chamber for 3 murders
1993 Action TV series "Walker, Texas Ranger" starring Chuck Norris debuts on CBS
- 1993 Brazil votes against a monarchy
1994 Eddie Murray sets record for switch hit HRs in a games (11 times)
- 1994 Serbian army bombs distress clinic in Goradze Bosnia, 28 killed
- 1994 The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan
- 1995 "Kiss of Death", directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Nicholas Cage and David Caruso, premieres in America
- 1995 Boston Celtics final regular season game at Boston Garden, NY Knicks win 98-92
- 1995 British sitcom "Father Ted" written by Arthur Mathews & Graham Linehan, starring Dermot Morgan premieres on Channel 4
1995 FBI arrests Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case; He is indicted on 160 state offenses and 11 federal offenses, including the use of a weapon of mass destruction [1]
- 1996 "Delicate Balance" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC
- 1996 Chicago Bulls win NBA record 72 games (72-8)
- 1996 Matabeleland beat Mashonaland Country Dist to win Logan Cup
- 1996 Wayne James scores 99 & 99 & ct 11 stp 2 in Logan Cup Final
1997 Ashes of psychologist and author Timothy Leary and "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry launched into space orbit
- 1997 I. K. Gujral sworn in as Prime Minister of India
- 2001 NFL Draft: Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick first pick by Atlanta Falcons
2004 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, and Little Jimmy Scott
2005 Brandon Sanderson's debut novel "Elantris" is published (winner of Romantic Times award for best epic fantasy of 2005)
- 2008 The United States Air Force retires the F-117 Nighthawk stealth surface-attack aircraft
- 2012 Chicago White Sox pitcher, Philip Humber, pitches the 21st MLB perfect game against the Seattle Mariners
- 2012 Two trains in Sloterdijk, Netherlands, injure 117 people in a head on collision
- 2013 185 people are killed in a conflict between Islamic extremists and the Nigerian military
- 2013 Horacio Cartes is elected President of Paraguay
- 2013 Tsegaye Kebede and Priscah Jeptoo win the 2013 London Marathon
2016 US President Barack Obama begins a 4 day visit to the UK with Michelle Obama
2019 Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a Extinction Rebellion protest in London amid city-wide climate protests where Waterloo Bridge was occupied over four days
- 2019 Terror attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in three Sri Lankan cities, Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa kill at least 253 and injure hundreds
- 2020 At least 25,000 extra people across 11 countries have died during COVID-19 pandemic that were not previously counted according to new mortality figures
- 2020 Health Secretary Matt Hancock and UK government come under criticism for lack of personal protective equipment and testing for COVID-19 (despite pledge to test 100,000 a day only 19,000 done April 20th)
- 2020 Mexico says it is entering stage three of its COVID-19 outbreak, with rapid spread and hospitalizations from 8,772 infections and 712 deaths
2020 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announces $26 billion aid package and plans for gradual reopening of economy as cases reach 3,465 with 58 deaths
- 2021 Indonesian submarine RI Nanggala sinks off the coast of Bali with the loss of all 53 people on board
- 2021 Manhattan district attorney's office announces it will no longer prosecute prostitution, dismissing 914 open cases, part of growing movement to change approach to prostitution
2021 Russian President Vladimir Putin warns the West not to cross a "red line" in his state of the union address, amid massing of 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine border
- 2022 Ex-president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernรกndez extradited to the US to face drug trafficking and weapons charges [1]
- 2023 US Supreme Court rules abortion pill mifepristone can remain widely available, blocking ban by Texas U.S. District Judge [1]
- 2024 Chevron Championship Women's Golf, The Club at Carlton Woods: In beating Maja Stark by 2 strokes, Nelly Korda wins her second major title and equals LPGA record with 5 consecutive wins
2025 Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church since 2013, dies; succeeded by Pope Leo XIV
- ๐ Georges Bouton and Jules-Albert de Dion causing a stir and setting a record in 1887. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
World's First Motor Race
April 20, 1887 - ๐ King Henry VIII at the height of his reign
A Son, A Son โ My Wife For A Son!
April 21, 1509 - ๐ Richard Nixon on the presidential campaign trail
Richard Nixon, The Only US President to Resign
April 22, 1994 - ๐ Staff and students from Shakespeare's old school in a birthday parade through the town to put flowers on his grave
Who Wrote Shakespeare?
April 23, 1564
