- 4004 BC – James Ussher’s proposed creation date of the world according to the Bible.
- 42 BC – Liberators’ civil war: Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat Brutus’s army. Brutus commits suicide.
- 425 – Valentinian III is elevated as Roman emperor at the age of six.
- 501 – The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theoderic, absolves Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
- 1086 – Spanish Reconquista: At the Battle of Sagrajas, the Almoravids defeats the Castilians, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.
- 1157 – The Battle of Grathe Heath ends a civil war in Denmark.
- 1295 – The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.
- 1641 – Irish Catholic gentry from Ulster attempt to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, so as to force concessions.
- 1642 – The Battle of Edgehill is the first major battle of the English Civil War.
- 1707 – The First Parliament of Great Britain convenes.
- 1739 – The War of Jenkins’ Ear begins when Prime Minister Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain.
- 1812 – A French general begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon, claiming that the Emperor died in Russia.
- 1850 – The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River.
- 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe.
- 1911 – The Italo-Turkish War sees the first use of an airplane in combat when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight.
- 1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
- 1942 – World War II: Allied forces commence the Second Battle of El Alamein, which proves to be the key turning point in the North African campaign.
- 1942 – All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a USAAF bomber near Palm Springs, California.
- 1942 – World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins on Guadalcanal.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.
- 1955 – Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.
- 1955 – The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with Germany instead of France.
- 1956 – Secret police shoot several anti-communist protesters, igniting the Hungarian Revolution.
- 1958 – Canada’s Springhill mining disaster kills seventy-five miners, while ninety-nine others are rescued.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launches an operation seeking to destroy Communist forces during the siege of Plei Me.
- 1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
- 1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months.
- 1973 – Watergate scandal: President Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.
- 1982 – A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.
- 1983 – Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
- 1989 – The Hungarian Republic officially replaces the communist Hungarian People’s Republic.
- 1989 – Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine; the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries up until then.
- 1991 – Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
- 1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.
- 1995 – Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena.
- 1998 – Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum.
- 2002 – Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
- 2004 – A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
- 2007 – A storm causes the Mexican Kab 101 oil platform to collide with a wellhead, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the platform.
- 2011 – A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.
- 2011 – The Libyan National Transition Council deems the Libyan Civil War over.
- 2015 – The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.
-Source: wikipedia
