- 1199 – King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France,[1] leading to his death on April 6.
- 1387 – English victory over a Franco–Castilian–Flemish fleet in the Battle of Margate off the coast of Margate.[2]
- 1401 – Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.
- 1603 – James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.[3]
- 1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.
- 1663 – The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.
- 1720 – Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February
- 1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046–1051.
- 1731 – Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.
- 1765 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
- 1794 – In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.
- 1829 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament.
- 1832 – In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith.
- 1854 – President José Gregorio Monagas abolishes slavery in Venezuela.
- 1860 – Sakuradamon Incident: Assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairō) Ii Naosuke.
- 1869 – The last of Titokowaru‘s forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
- 1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.
- 1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.
- 1885 – Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Bang Bo on the Tonkin–Guangxi border.
- 1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground “Rapid Transit Railroad” that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
- 1907 – The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.
- 1921 – The 1921 Women’s Olympiad begins in Monte Carlo, first international women’s sports event.
- 1927 – Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.
- 1934 – United States Congress passes the Tydings–McDuffie Act, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.
- 1944 – Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
- 1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.
- 1946 – A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.
- 1958 – Rock ‘n’ roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army.
- 1961 – Quebec Board of the French Language is established.
- 1965 – Images from the Ranger 9 lunar probe are broadcast live on network television.
- 1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles.
- 1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process.
- 1977 – Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, the first Prime Minister not to belong to Indian National Congress.
- 1980 – El Salvadorian Archbishop Óscar Romero is assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
- 1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
- 1989 – In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground.
- 1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.
- 1998 – Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.
- 1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.
- 1998 – First computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation, performed at the University of Regensburg, Germany
- 1999 – Kosovo war: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
- 1999 – A lorry carrying margarine and flour catches fire inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The resulting inferno kills 38 people.
- 2003 – The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
- 2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.
- 2015 – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
-Source: wikipedia
