Events

• 1111 - Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.
• 1250 - The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured.
• 1256 - The Grand Union of the Augustinian order formed when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
• 1598 - Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (Edict repealed in 1685.)
• 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
• 1796 - The first elephant ever seen in the USA arrives from India.
• 1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.
• 1849 - Hungary becomes a republic.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
• 1868 - Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala.
• 1870 - Metropolitan Museum of Art founded.
• 1873 - The Colfax Massacre takes place.
• 1902 - James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
• 1919 - The Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
• 1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India. At least 1200 wounded.
• 1921 - Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party.
• 1939 - In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.
• 1941 - Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
• 1943 - World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government in exile in London, from the Soviet Union.
• 1943 - James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton take part in an Alcatraz escape attempt.
• 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
• 1944 - The diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
• 1945 - German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen Germany.
• 1948 - Seventy-seven doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital are ambushed and massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.
• 1953 - CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
• 1958 - Van Cliburn is the first American to win the Chaikovsky Compettion in Moscow.
• 1969 - Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
• 1970 - An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft 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.
• 1974 - Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the U.S.'s first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
• 1975 - Bus Massacre in Lebanon : Attack by Phalangist militia gunmen kill 27 Palestinian civilians and marks the start of the 15-year Lebanese civil war.
• 1979 - Tanzania and Zambia recognize Yusufu Lule as President of Uganda.
• 1983 - Harold Washington is elected as the first African-American mayor in Chicago's history.
• 1984 - India moves into Siachen Glacier thus annexes more territory from the Line of Control. The challenger Shuttle lands after retrieving, repairing and redeploying a satellite.
• 1985 - Enver Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia as the leader of Albania.
• 1987 - Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
• 1992 - Neil Kinnock resigns as British Labour leader following the party's defeat by the Conservatives in the general election four days earlier.
• 1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win golf's Masters Tournament.
• 2002 - Pedro Carmona, interim president of Venezuela, resigns one day after taking office.
• 2006 - Powerful tornadoes rip through Iowa City, Iowa.

Births