Events

• 43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar’s assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.
• AD 69 – Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum to take power over Rome.
• 966 – After his marriage to the Christian Doubravka of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
• 1205 – Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.
• 1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
• 1561 – A celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle.
• 1639 – Imperial forces are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz.
  • The Swedish victory prolongs the Thirty Years’ War and allows them to advance into Bohemia.
• 1816 – Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion.
  • For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.
• 1849 – Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.
• 1909 – A massacre is organized by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population of Cilicia.
• 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).
• 1931 – The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.
• 1940 – World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
• 1941 – World War II: German general Erwin Rommel attacks Tobruk.
• 1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
• 1945 – Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroyed the German town of Friesoythe on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.
• 1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
• 1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
• 1991 – The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1994 – In a US friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
• 1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees.
  • Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.
• 2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.
• 2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
• 2003 – US troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
• 2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.
• Commemoration of Anfal Genocide Against the Kurds (Iraqi Kurdistan).

People (Births)

• 1669 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general and politician (d. 1741).
• 1769 – Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, French general (d. 1799).
• 1812 – George Grey, Portuguese-New Zealand soldier, explorer, and politician, 11th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1898).
• 1903 – Ruth Svedberg, Swedish discus thrower and triathlete (d. 2002).
• 1925 – Rod Steiger, American soldier and actor (d. 2002).
• 1931 – Geoffrey Dalton, English admiral (d. 2020).
• 1936 – Frank Serpico, American-Italian soldier, police officer and lecturer.
• 1962 – Guillaume Leblanc, Canadian athlete.
• 1975 – Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist and boxer.
• 1976 – Nadine Faustin-Parker, Hatian hurdler.
• 1987 – Wilson Kiprop, Kenyan runner.
• 1988 – Eliška Klučinová, Czech heptathlete.

People (Deaths)

• 1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere, English soldier and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1275).
• 1471 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English commander and politician (b. 1428).
• 1943 – Yakov Dzhugashvili, Georgian-Russian lieutenant (b. 1907).
• 2014 – Mick Staton, American soldier and politician (b. 1940).