Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2023 day arrangement | ||||||
April 1: April Fools' Day; Iranian Islamic Republic Day (1979)
Philip Sheridan
- 1833 – Mexican Texans met at San Felipe de Austin to begin the Convention of 1833.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Union Army under Major General Philip Sheridan (pictured) inflicted more than 2,900 casualties on the Confederates at the Battle of Five Forks.
- 1879 – The Inland Customs Line, established by the British for the collection of the salt tax in India, was abandoned.
- 1922 – Under the South Seas Mandate, Japan set up a government in Koror, precipitating large-scale Japanese settlement in Palau.
- 1990 – The longest prison riot in British penal history began at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, lasting for 25 days.
- Giuditta Pasta (d. 1865)
- Marvin Gaye (d. 1984)
- Jofra Archer (b. 1995)
April 2: World Autism Awareness Day; feast day of Saint Francis of Paola (Catholicism); Malvinas Day in Argentina (1982); Education and Sharing Day in the United States (2023)
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Stanley Kubrick
- 1513 – Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sighted land in North America, naming the area La Florida.
- 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the first national census of the country.
- 1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey, an epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick (pictured), premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.
- 2006 – More than 60 tornadoes touched down in the central United States, killing 27 people and causing about $1.1 billion in damage.
- 2015 – Gunmen attacked Garissa University College in Kenya, killing 148 people and wounding 79 others.
- Maria Sibylla Merian (b. 1647)
- Albert Pike (d. 1891)
- Sue Townsend (b. 1946)
Robert Walpole
- 1559 – Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain signed the second treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, ending the Italian War of 1551–1559.
- 1721 – Robert Walpole (pictured) took office as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, becoming the first de facto prime minister of Great Britain.
- 1933 – Lord Clydesdale and David McIntyre undertook the first successful flight over Mount Everest.
- 1948 – Division of Korea: A communist uprising began on Jeju Island, eventually leading to thousands of deaths and atrocities committed by both sides.
- 2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.
- Al-Adil ibn al-Sallar (d. 1154)
- Roza Shanina (b. 1924)
- Mary Cartwright (d. 1998)
William Henry Harrison
- 1268 – The Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice signed a five-year peace treaty.
- 1841 – William Henry Harrison (pictured) became the first U.S. president to die in office, sparking a brief constitutional crisis regarding questions of presidential succession that were unanswered by the U.S. Constitution.
- 1905 – An earthquake hit the Kangra Valley in India, killing at least 20,000 people and destroying 100,000 buildings.
- 1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
- 2013 – A building collapsed on tribal land in Mumbra, a suburb of Thane in Maharashtra, India, causing 74 deaths.
- Liu Yin (d. 911)
- Philippa Fawcett (b. 1868)
- Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
April 5: Feast day of Saint Vincent Ferrer (Catholicism); Hansik in Korea (2023); Qingming Festival in China (2023)
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
- 1847 – Birkenhead Park, generally acknowledged as the world's first publicly funded civic park, opened in Birkenhead, England.
- 1966 – During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese military prime minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempted to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down.
- 1998 – The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (pictured), then the world's longest suspension bridge, linking Awaji Island and Kobe in Japan, opened to traffic.
- 2018 – Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 Hispanic workers in one of the largest immigration raids in the history of the U.S.
- Al-Mu'tadid (d. 902)
- Soetran (b. 1921)
- Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
April 6: First day of Passover (Judaism, 2023); Tartan Day
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Jalal Talabani
- 1652 – Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck landed at Table Bay in Southern Africa, establishing a settlement that later became known as Cape Town.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: British forces captured the French frigate Niémen in the Bay of Biscay.
- 1945 – Second World War: The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville Island concluded with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade against the Imperial Japanese Army's 6th Division.
- 2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani (pictured) was elected by the National Assembly as the first non-Arab president of Iraq.
- 2009 – An earthquake measuring 6.3 Mw struck near L'Aquila in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, killing 308 people and leaving more than 66,000 homeless.
- Basil of Trebizond (d. 1340)
- Teigan Van Roosmalen (b. 1991)
- Tammy Wynette (d. 1998)
April 7: National Beer Day in the United States
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Pope Alexander VII
- 1655 – After a conclave lasting eighty days, the College of Cardinals elected Fabio Chigi as Pope Alexander VII (pictured).
- 1926 – Italian dictator Benito Mussolini survived an assassination attempt by Irishwoman Violet Gibson.
- 1945 – World War II: U.S. forces sank the Japanese battleship Yamato during Operation Ten-Go in the East China Sea.
- 1979 – Uganda–Tanzania War: Tanzanian forces defeated Ugandan troops and their Libyan allies at the Battle of Entebbe, opening the way for an advance on the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
- 2017 – A hijacker deliberately drove a truck into crowds along Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people.
- El Greco (d. 1614)
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas (b. 1890)
- Nuno Mendes (b. 1978)
Little Nemo
- 1271 – Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baibars.
- 1904 – France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.
- 1911 – American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.
- 1933 – The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.
- 1973 – The Norwegian Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo.
April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada (1917)
Marian Anderson performing at the Lincoln Memorial
- 193 – During the Year of the Five Emperors Septimius Severus was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops at Carnuntum in modern-day Austria.
- 1388 – Despite being vastly outnumbered, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Näfels.
- 1939 – After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African-American singer Marian Anderson gave an open-air concert (pictured) on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
- 1959 – NASA announced the selection of the Mercury Seven, the first astronauts in Project Mercury.
- al-Muqtafi (b. 1096)
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel (b. 1806)
- Mary Jackson (b. 1921)
April 10: Day of Valor in the Philippines (1942)
M87* imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition began with the Austrian invasion of Bavaria, then a client state of France.
- 1925 – The novel The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published by Scribner's.
- 1970 – In the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles.
- 1973 – In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board.
- 2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image of a black hole (depicted), located at the center of the galaxy M87.
- Gabrielle d'Estrées (d. 1599)
- Lew Wallace (b. 1827)
- Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (b. 1917)
Mary II (left) and William III
- 1689 – William III and Mary II (both pictured) were crowned joint sovereigns of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: A hastily assembled Royal Navy fleet launched an assault against the main strength of the French Atlantic Fleet; an incomplete victory led to political turmoil in Britain.
- 1951 – U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements about the Korean War that contradicted the administration's policies.
- 1973 – Future Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il's treatise On the Art of the Cinema, a justification for film propaganda in support of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, was published.
- 2001 – In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated American Samoa by a score of 31–0, the largest margin of victory ever in an international football match.
- Romanos III Argyros (d. 1034)
- Ewelina Hańska (d. 1882)
- Kurt Vonnegut (d. 2007)
April 12: Cosmonautics Day in Russia (1961); Yuri's Night
NATO F-15 fighter aircraft during Operation Deny Flight
- 1807 – The Froberg mutiny of Greek and Albanian troops in British service ended with the explosion of the gunpowder magazine at Fort Ricasoli, Malta.
- 1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge near Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step across it.
- 1993 – Bosnian War: NATO forces began Operation Deny Flight (aircraft pictured) to enforce a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered by the United Nations Security Council.
- 2012 – The Guinea-Bissau military seized control in a coup amid a presidential election, later handing power to a transitional administration under Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo.
- 2013 – Four Chadian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing by jihadist rebels in Kidal, Mali.
- Alexander Ostrovsky (b. 1823)
- Keiko Fukuda (b. 1913)
- Karim Fakhrawi (d. 2011)
April 13: Night of Decree (Shia Islam, 2023)
Jefferson Memorial
- 1742 – The first performance of Messiah, an oratorio by the British composer Handel, was held in Dublin.
- 1943 – The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial (pictured) in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1946 – Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison thousands of SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone.
- 1953 – Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published as the first work to feature his British spy character James Bond.
- 2017 – War in Afghanistan: In an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb ever used in combat.
- Arthur Matthew Weld Downing (b. 1850)
- Joe Hewitt (b. 1901)
- Evelyne Daitz (b. 1936)
April 14: Vaisakhi (Sikhism, 2023); Tamil New Year and other New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asia (2023); Day of the Georgian Language (1978)
"Houston, we've had a problem"
- 43 BC – War of Mutina: Despite initial success, troops loyal to Mark Antony were defeated near the Via Aemilia in northern Italy by legions loyal to the Roman Senate.
- 1944 – The freighter Fort Stikine, carrying cotton bales, gold and ammunition, exploded in the harbour of Bombay, India, sinking surrounding ships and killing about 800 people.
- 1970 – After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded, causing the spacecraft to lose most of its oxygen and electrical power, astronaut Jack Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem" (audio featured).
- 1983 – Let's Dance, David Bowie's best-selling album, was released.
- 1994 – Iraqi no-fly zones conflict: In a friendly-fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort, two U.S. Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26.
- Anne Sullivan (b. 1866)
- John Gielgud (b. 1904)
- Yakov Dzhugashvili (d. 1943)
April 15: Day of the Sun in North Korea; Jackie Robinson Day in the United States
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Notre-Dame de Paris, with its spire and roof aflame
- 1632 – Thirty Years' War: A Swedish–German army defeated the forces of the Catholic League at the Battle of Rain, mortally wounding their commander Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly.
- 1923 – Ten Japanese-American children were killed in a racially motivated arson attack on a school in Sacramento, California.
- 1936 – Two Jews were killed near Tulkarm in Mandatory Palestine, an act widely viewed as the beginning of violence within the Arab revolt.
- 1989 – The Hillsborough disaster, a human crush that caused 97 deaths in the worst disaster in British sporting history, occurred during an FA Cup match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Sheffield.
- 2019 – A fire (pictured) severely damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, destroying the cathedral's timber spire and much of the roof.
- Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452)
- Claudia Cardinale (b. 1938)
- Emma Watson (b. 1990)
MV Sewol
- 1520 – A revolt of citizens of Toledo in Castile, opposed to the rule of the foreign-born Charles I, began when the royal government attempted to unseat radical city councilors.
- 1862 – Slavery in Washington, D.C., ended when the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act became law.
- 1945 – Second World War: British and Canadian forces concluded the Liberation of Arnhem in the Netherlands from German occupation.
- 1948 – The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, headquartered in Paris, was founded.
- 2014 – The ferry MV Sewol (pictured) capsized and sank off Donggeochado, South Korea, killing 306 people, mainly students from Danwon High School.
- Frederick I, Duke of Austria (d. 1198)
- Molly Brant (d. 1796)
- Ponnambalam Ramanathan (b. 1851)
April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946), Patriots' Day in various U.S. states (1775)
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Modern reconstruction of Kaunas Castle
- 1362 – Lithuanian Crusade: After a month-long siege, forces of the Teutonic Order captured and destroyed Kaunas Castle (reconstruction pictured), which was defended by troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1783 – The Mechanical Turk, a fraudulent chess-playing "machine" by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controlled by a hidden human, began a tour of Europe.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: After a three-day chase, a British squadron under Alexander Cochrane captured the French ship-of-the-line D'Hautpoul off Puerto Rico.
- 1973 – George Lucas began writing a 13-page film treatment entitled The Star Wars.
- 1984 – Metropolitan Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed while on duty during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London's St James's Square, resulting in an 11-day police siege of the building and a breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
- Eliza Acton (b. 1799)
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike (b. 1916)
- Ralph Abernathy (d. 1990)
Robert Mugabe
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Colonists Paul Revere and William Dawes, later joined by Samuel Prescott, began a midnight ride to warn residents of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, about the impending arrival of British troops.
- 1938 – Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of DC Comics, made his debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
- 1946 – The final session of the League of Nations concluded in Geneva, with delegates agreeing to transfer much of its assets to the United Nations.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe (pictured) became the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, beginning a 37-year period in power.
- 2007 – A ladle spilled 30 tonnes (33 tons) of molten steel in a factory in Liaoning, China, killing 32 workers.
- Theobald of Bec (d. 1161)
- Clara Elsene Peck (b. 1883)
- Universo 2000 (b. 1963)
April 19: Feast day of Saint Alphege of Canterbury (Catholicism, Anglicanism), Primrose Day in London
Mae West
- 1773 – The Polish Partition Sejm met to discuss the First Partition of Poland, carried out the previous year by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: French general Louis-Nicolas Davout defeated an Austrian force in Lower Bavaria, allowing him to rejoin the main French army.
- 1927 – American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her play Sex.
- 1989 – A gun turret on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa exploded, killing 47 sailors.
- Uesugi Kenshin (d. 1578)
- Elizabeth Dilling (b. 1894)
- Denis O'Brien (b. 1958)
April 20: 420 (cannabis culture)
Vädersolstavlan
- 1535 – Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the painting Vädersolstavlan (depicted), the oldest coloured depiction of the city.
- 1818 – Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
- 1942 – World War II: German and Italian forces began a large-scale counter-insurgency operation in occupied Yugoslavia.
- 1968 – South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
- Peter Bartholomew (d. 1099)
- Allegra Byron (d. 1822)
- Toller Cranston (b. 1949)
April 21: First day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2023)
Wignacourt Aqueduct
- 900 – A debt was pardoned by the chief of Tondo on the island of Luzon and recorded on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known calendar-dated document found in the Philippines.
- 1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct (pictured) in Malta was inaugurated and was used to carry water to Valletta for about 300 years.
- 1836 – Forces of the Republic of Texas led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexican troops of General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive and final battle of the Texas Revolution.
- 1975 – South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on hearing of the fall of Xuân Lộc, the last battle of the Vietnam War.
- 2021 – The Indonesian Navy submarine Nanggala sank with the loss of all 53 people on board.
- Pope Alexander II (d. 1073)
- Antonín Kammel (b. 1730)
- Cheryl Gillan (b. 1952)
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Pedro Álvares Cabral
- 1500 – A fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral (pictured) anchored off present-day Brazil; he later claimed the land for the Portuguese Empire.
- 1885 – The first meeting of the Colonial Defence Committee, a standing committee of the British Colonial Office, was held to discuss the defence of Barbados.
- 1918 – The short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was established on territory formerly part of the Russian Empire.
- 1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
- 2016 – The Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, opened for signature and was signed by 175 parties.
- Philip of Poitou (d. 1208)
- Robert Ludwig Kahn (b. 1923)
- Regine Velasquez (b. 1970)
April 23: National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey (1920)
Liberation of Flossenbürg
- 1467 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Albanian leader Skanderbeg defeated an Ottoman army under Ballaban Badera to raise the siege of Krujë.
- 1945 – World War II: The US Army's 90th Infantry Division liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp (pictured) in Germany, freeing 1,500 prisoners.
- 1976 – The Ramones released their eponymous debut album, which became highly influential on the emerging punk rock movement.
- 1979 – Blair Peach, a British activist, was fatally injured after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall, London, against a National Front election meeting.
- 2018 – A man intentionally struck pedestrians with a van on Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada, leading to 11 deaths.
- Joan of France (b. 1464)
- Pandita Ramabai (b. 1858)
- Satyajit Ray (d. 1992)
April 24: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (1915)
Hubble Space Telescope
- 1837 – A fire broke out in Surat, India, which went on to destroy about three-fourths of the city.
- 1916 – Irish republicans led by Patrick Pearse began the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland, and proclaimed the Irish Republic an independent state.
- 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope (pictured) was launched aboard STS-31 by Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1993 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in London's financial district in Bishopsgate, killing one person, injuring forty-four others, and causing damage that cost £350 million to repair.
- Mellitus (d. 624)
- Kumar Dharmasena (b. 1971)
- Estée Lauder (d. 2004)
April 25: Liberation Day in Italy (1945); Yom HaZikaron in Israel (2023)
USS Triton
- 1643 – First English Civil War: Despite being vastly outnumbered, a Parliamentarian force under James Chudleigh defeated a Royalist army near Okehampton, Devon.
- 1915 – First World War: The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles to begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.
- 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine Triton (pictured) completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
- 1983 – The first issue of The Jakarta Post was published in Indonesia.
- 2015 – Nepal was struck by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, killing more than 8,000 people, including 22 from avalanches on Mount Everest.
- Naresuan (d. 1605)
- Georg Sverdrup (b. 1770)
- Emmeline B. Wells (d. 1921)
April 26: Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2022), Independence Day in Israel (2023)
Lorenzo de' Medici
- 1478 – In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici (pictured) and killed his brother Giuliano at Florence Cathedral.
- 1915 – First World War: Britain, France and Russia signed a secret treaty promising territory to Italy if it joined the war on their side.
- 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established.
- 1989 – A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh and killed an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado in history.
- 1994 – Just before landing at Nagoya Airport, Japan, the copilot of China Airlines Flight 140 inadvertently triggered the takeoff/go-around switch, causing the aircraft to crash and killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
- Marcus Aurelius (b. 121)
- Alice Ayres (d. 1885)
- S. J. V. Chelvanayakam (d. 1977)
April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands
Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn
- 630 – Shahrbaraz usurped the throne of the Sasanian Empire from Ardashir III, but was himself killed six weeks later.
- 1650 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Covenanter forces defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Carbisdale near the village of Culrain, Scotland.
- 1945 – World War II: The photograph Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn (pictured) was taken after German troops withdrew to Norway at the end of the Lapland War.
- 1965 – Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation: British forces repelled a surprise Indonesian attack on a base at Plaman Mapu in Sarawak.
- 2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight from Toulouse, France.
- Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822)
- Sheila Scott (b. 1922)
- Olivier Messiaen (d. 1992)
April 28: Workers' Memorial Day
Mounted police maintaining order at the 1923 FA Cup final
- 1253 – The Japanese monk Nichiren declared the mantra Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, now a central part of Nichiren Buddhism.
- 1789 – Fletcher Christian, the acting lieutenant on board the Royal Navy ship Bounty, led a mutiny against the commander William Bligh in the South Pacific.
- 1923 – The 1923 FA Cup final (crowd and police pictured) between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was held on the opening day of the Empire Stadium in London.
- 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini, the deposed fascist dictator of Italy, was executed by partisans in Giulino.
- 1983 – The West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.
- Bajirao I (d. 1740)
- Jane Cobden (b. 1851)
- Regina Martínez Pérez (d. 2012)
HMS Endeavour
- 1770 – On his first voyage, British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour (pictured) landed at Botany Bay, making the first recorded European landfall on the eastern coast of Australia.
- 1863 – Confederate forts at Grand Gulf survived a bombardment by Union gunboats, preventing Ulysses S. Grant's troops from crossing the Mississippi River at that point.
- 1903 – A rockslide buried part of the Canadian mining town of Frank under 110 million tonnes of rock, killing around 70 people.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: North Vietnam concluded its East Sea Campaign by capturing all of the Spratly Islands held by South Vietnam.
- 2006 – Cyclone Mala made landfall near Thandwe, Myanmar, causing 37 deaths.
- George Farquhar (d. 1707)
- Marietta Blau (b. 1894)
- Giacomo dalla Torre (d. 2020)
Evacuees on the USS Midway
- 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians officially ended in the eastern Roman Empire.
- 1943 – Second World War: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph began Operation Mincemeat to deceive Germany about the upcoming invasion of Sicily.
- 1963 – A refusal by the Bristol Omnibus Company and the Transport and General Workers' Union to permit the employment of black bus crews led to a bus boycott in Bristol, England.
- 1975 – American forces completed a helicopter evacuation (aircraft and evacuees pictured) of U.S. citizens, South Vietnamese civilians and others from Saigon, just before North Vietnamese troops captured the city, ending the Vietnam War.
- 2021 – A crowd crush killed 45 people during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Israel.
- Marie of the Incarnation (d. 1672)
- Emily Stowe (d. 1903)
- Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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