April 291289 - Qala'un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli. 1429 - Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain. 1661 - The Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan. 1672 - King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands. 1813 - Rubber was patented by J.F. Hummel. 1852 - The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus was published. 1858 - Austrian troops invaded Piedmont. 1861 - The Maryland House of Delegates voted against seceding from Union. 1861 - New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. 1864 - Theta Xi was founded in Troy, New York. 1879 - In Cleveland, OH, electric arc lights were used for the first time. 1913 - Gideon Sundback patented an all-purpose zipper. 1916 - Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities in Dublin. 1918 - Germany's Western Front offensive ended in World War I. 1924 - An open revolt broke out in Santa Clara, Cuba. 1927 - Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis was completed for Lindbergh. 1941 - The Boston Bees agreed to change their name to the Braves. 1945 - The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. 1945 - In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor. 1945 - The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated. 1946 - Twenty-eight former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals. 1952 - IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr., informed his company's stockholders that IBM was building "the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world." The computer was unveiled April 7, 1953, as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine. 1954 - Ernest Borgnine made his network television debut in "Night Visitor" on NBC-TV. 1961 - ABC’s "Wide World of Sports" premiered. 1974 - Phil Donahue’s TV show, "Donahue" moved to Chicago, IL. 1974 - U.S. President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of secretly made White House tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal. 1975 - The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon. 1981 - Steve Carlton, of the Philadelphia Phillies, became the first left-handed pitcher in the major leagues to get 3,000 career strikeouts. 1984 - In California, the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor went online after a long delay due to protests. 1985 - Billy Martin was brought back, for the fourth time, to the position of manager for the New York Yankees. 1986 - Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox set a major-league baseball record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariner batters. 1988 - The Baltimore Orioles set a new major league baseball record by losing their first 21 games of the season. 1988 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised more religious freedom. 1990 - The destruction of the Berlin Wall began. 1992 - Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, NJ, home by Arthur Seale. Seale was a former Exxon security official. Reso died while in captivity. 1992 - Rioting began after a jury decision to acquit four Los Angeles policemen in the Rodney King beating trial. 54 people were killed in 3 days. 1994 - Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris which granted Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. 1996 - Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned after an apparent boating accident in Maryland. Colby's body was later recovered. 1997 - Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was dishonorably discharged. 1997 - Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk. 1998 - The U.S., Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade. 1998 - Brazil announced a plan to protect a large area of Amazon forest. The area was about the size of Colorado. 2002 - Kelsey Grammer and his production company, Grammnet Inc., were ordered to pay more than $2 million in unpaid commissions to his former talent agency. 2003 - Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) filed a lawsuit against Best Buy Co. Inc., that claimed the store did not have permission to use his likeness in a print ad. 2009 - NATO expelled two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia. Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized the expulsions. 2015 - The White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 at Camden Yards. The game was played without a crowd present due to the ongoing riots and protests in Baltimore. This was the first time a Major League Baseball game was played in front of an empty house. |